The goals I listed privately but I will make some reports publically, although this one will be a silent post and will not be mentioned elsewhere.
Health: Not much to speak of here. The new attempt on no sugar will commence upon return from Canberra.
Tutoring: There's so many jobs for the holidays I'm not sure I'll finish them. But I am 2-0 in terms of productive days and this is a good start.
Family Time: Good, read stories and played games with Cassie today. Spent some time with Kristy also once she returned from work.
Blog: Well, this is a post :)
Maths: Tutoring is currently outfighting it but that can't be allowed to continue indefinitely.
Reading: I've been reading Star Wars: force Awakens so far on my tablet. Other than that, not a lot of reading. Not a good start actually.
Saturday, 2 January 2016
Friday, 16 October 2015
Triumph of Justice by Daniel Petrocelli, a book review.
Triumph of Justice is a surprisingly readable account of O J Simpson's civil trial. Written by the lead counsel Daniel Petrocelli, the book details the development and prosecution of the civil case against Simpson.
The evidence against Simpson was overwhelming and Petrocelli details how civil proceeedings work, how Simpson's depositions were used in order to impeach him in court and thus lead to his losing the civil case.
Enjoyable, easy to read, and left no doubt in this particular mind regarding Simpson's guilt. It's not like there ever was much doubt in the first place!
** I sometimes make reviews of books on goodreads, the reviews will invariably be pithy and offer little detail or rigorous analysis. I am re-posting them here so I have my own records of what I have reviewed and I may add some commentary here that doesn't fit the review.
The evidence against Simpson was overwhelming and Petrocelli details how civil proceeedings work, how Simpson's depositions were used in order to impeach him in court and thus lead to his losing the civil case.
Enjoyable, easy to read, and left no doubt in this particular mind regarding Simpson's guilt. It's not like there ever was much doubt in the first place!
** I sometimes make reviews of books on goodreads, the reviews will invariably be pithy and offer little detail or rigorous analysis. I am re-posting them here so I have my own records of what I have reviewed and I may add some commentary here that doesn't fit the review.
Sunday, 26 July 2015
My most memorable sporting experiences
Watching sport has played a huge role in my life. I was introduced to it as a boy, and it became one of my passions as a man. Over that period I've been lucky enough to have shared in many a great sporting experience and I enjoy reminiscing about them. I propose to write articles about my most memorable experiences and post them here. My sports viewing has been mainstream and most of my standout experiences are even more so. That's because, in the main, they were shared experiences. My family and my friends will consistently have a high place in these remembrances.
I want to write down these memories to help keep them fresh as they recede further into the past. I'd like my daughter Cassie to be able to read them one day and to get a sense of the some of the passions that animated her father's leisure time. I hope they will cast some light for her about my family and friends as well, so that she knows them better.
Some ground rules: The events had to stand out in some way in my memory, I have seen so many sporting events that I could write about hundreds of individual events. The primary focus is my experience of the event, how I followed the event, the people I followed it with, how it impacted me. There's no pretense at objectivity here. These are subjective experiences. While there are more wins than losses here, in many cases the losses stood out more and are thus recognised. I will conduct some research for the individual pieces. This may involve little more than a brief Google search, or it may involve finding video clips or newspaper articles and talking to some of the people that I experienced the event with. That will vary from time to time.
The experiences are organised chronologically in general, but in some cases multiple events spanning many years will be included in one or 2 pieces. It seems foolish to write a series of vignettes about every memory of Greg Norman losing a golf major. With some exceptions, they will be dealt with together. Ricky Ponting and David Boon will receive similar treatment.
As articles are written, I will add links to them here so that this introductory post will retain a summary of the whole. Having lacked the audience size to motivate me to keep blogging, it's with some trepidation that I have written this particular post, knowing that I may not choose to write all the posts that I have titles for. Still, there's always the delete button in that instance!
1. An obsession begins - the 1979 NSWRL grand final St George v Canterbury Bankstown
An obsession begins: St George v Canterbury Bankstown - the 1979 NSWRL grand final.
The Lead-up
I was 8 years old during the 1979 football season, not turning 9 until October. This was the first season where I truly went hard core with my rugby league following. I was already keen before then, make no mistake, but in 1979 I became *obsessed*. Rugby league was beyond a doubt my favourite sport and was to remain in this exalted position until the Super League war hit, although the obsession had faded a little by then.
There were a number of reasons that rugby league was so strong for me that year. Firstly, having been near the bottom of the grade in Year 1 academically and still below average starting Year 2, by the start of Year 3 I had this reading thing licked and was now reading well above average for my age. A big part of the drive to read that I experienced was the absolute need I had to be able to read the Daily Telegraph, the Daily Mirror, the Sun, The Sunday Telegraph, the Sun-Herald, Big League magazine and the Daddy of them all... Rugby League Week! These were brought home on a regular basis by my brothers David and Peter and I was rather impatient waiting around for my turn to read them. Of course I read them sports section first! I did make some complaints about not getting the Sydney Morning Herald to read as well but my brothers were not terribly enamoured of its mammoth broadsheet pages. They assured me that its sports coverage was 'shit' and thus largely assuaged me. Now that I was a good reader, I could read all the stories about rugby league as well as dive into some books of Rugby league history that someone had thoughtfully purchased for me! The love for learning facts all on my own that I honed on rugby league soon spread, and I have been a reading addict ever since.
Secondly, and possibly even more important, this was the year my brother David started taking my brother Geoffrey and I to the football on a regular basis. David, whose name is going to crop up on a regular basis through my adventures in watching sport, was all of 17 at the time, but he seemed so much *older*. He had a job, he was big, he had money (as my mother was a single parent, he was my primary source of spending money), he went out at nights. I looked up to him as it was, but this year I began to idolise him. We'd gone to games before 1979 I guess, but I recall none of them. I do remember David being upset when North Sydney ended our failed premiership defence in 1978, a long way out from the semi finals!
I also remember the first game of 1979! Kogarah Jubilee Oval, St George v defending premiers Manly Warringah, our new signings Brian Johnson, Graeme Wynn and Steve Morris all debuting for the club. A full house. I recall we were sitting on what became our traditional area on the hill opposite the grandstand, although many of our 1979 games were spent on the hill on the grandstand side. Being 17, David was a little influenced by the moronic element of St George supporters who congregated there. From 1980 onwards we were ensconced on the other side of the ground.
There was a great air of anticipation amongst the home crowd as we awaited our new team, under the watchful eyes of our coach, the Old Fox, Harry Bath, who was no doubt lighting up another cigarette as he contemplated the upcoming game. Would the defending premiers show us up early in the season? Or would the talk that this could be a premiership year be vindicated by a sterling display against the might of Manly, who had captured 4 premierships in the previous 7 seasons? Would it ever?!!
The defending premiers were swept away under a spectacular wave of ferocious red and white attack in a stunning 34-9 defeat! In a 3 point try era, this was quite the thrashing. Wynn, Johnson and Morris played major roles in sparking an attack that had seemed a little short of the mark in 1978. Combined with the strength up front of Captain Courageous Craig ' Fat Albert' Young and fellow International Rod 'Rocket' Reddy and the solidity of the experienced backs Tony Trudgett, Graham Quinn and Robert Finch, it was totally evident to this 8 year old that *no one* was going to stop the Mighty St George juggernaut on their path to this year's premiership, a fact which he proceeded to inform his somewhat less enthusiastic schoolmates of in no uncertain terms three or four hundred times that year.
Unfortunately for the know it all's classmates, he was in fact right on this occasion. St George did not lose a single game to a team that made the top 5 that year and the 5 losses they experienced seemed to be more due to a lack of focus and drive against lesser opponents than it was to being outplayed by a genuine rival.
So I entered the semi-finals with a high degree of confidence. Under the final 5 system, the minor premiers took a week off while the other 4 teams played. We met Parramatta, perennial bridesmaids of the era, in the major semi final. My trusty brother David took us to the SCG of course. This turned out to be a real dogfight. My major memory of the game is the tension as we were submitted to our toughest test of the season. Only some Steve Morris brilliance and stout defence enabled us to turn back the charging Eels, and by 15 points to 11 we advanced straight to the grand final.
Meanwhile, Canterbury Bankstown, perennial losers and September wannabes, who had been waiting a rather embarrassing 37 years since their last premiership with most of that time having been spent devoted to providing fodder for good teams like St George and Souths to pad their for and against records, were steadily waking up. After ending St George's immortal, unprecedented, unparalleled and unmatched 11 consecutive premiership winning year run in 1967, they'd made another grand final in 1974 and had followed up with some additional semi final appearances under the increasingly shrewd managerial guidance of Peter 'Bullfrog' Moore.
Coached by my future high school principal Ted Glossop and unhappy at the general belief that their appearance in the semi finals was simply to provide some entertainment for the fans before getting out of the way of the big teams, Canterbury Bankstown's time was coming.
George Peponis, the Mortimer and Hughes families and a handful of other associated players including Peter Cassilles, whose mother was a beloved helper at my primary school, proceeded to cut up Wests, Cronulla and Parramatta in some style, becoming the first team to make the grand final from 4th or 5th place since the final five was introduced whilst earning the moniker of 'The Entertainers for the adventurous nature of their play.
It turned out that we were to have more than our share of adventures getting to watch the grand final ourselves. Everything started fine. Sensing a premiership in the offing, David queued up for 2 nights in Phillip Street in order to guarantee that he would get good tickets for us. I was amazed by his sacrifice and effort at the time. After doing so myself later in life I realised a) it's not that hard to do nothing for a couple of days and b) it's even less hard should you be keeping yourself warm and entertained by copious consumption of various alcoholic beverages! Having somehow managed to keep his drinking money separate from his tickets money, David purchased the tickets, brought them home and we all awaited the outcome of the major semi-final. With that aforementioned piece of Slippery Morris magic, all was well and it was time to anticipate the game ahead!
Being a single parent with a fulltime job, a chronic illness and interests that stretched beyond the lives of her five children, my mother had no truck for the idea that her role in life was to be a handmaiden for her sons. We were all put to work around the house. One of my jobs, along with my recently turned 11 year old brother Geoffrey, was to put the paper goods into the incinerator and burn them. Burning things was one of the better jobs available around the house and we rarely suffered a shortage of enthusiasm for the task. We collected the piles of papers, old envelopes, cardboard boxes and dutifully burnt them and watched the smoke drift away into the atmosphere. We were good boys. We burnt everything, we didn't let the messy papers lie all over the house, unlike our lazy older brothers.
Some days later my brother David was fiddling around in the loungeroom.
"What are you looking for?" I asked helpfully.
"A white envelope with clear plastic on the front. Have you seen it?"
"No, sorry."
He looked around some more. He went in the kitchen. He looked on the benches. He went downstairs. I heard some noises. He came back upstairs. He looked in the loungeroom again.
"Shit!" said David
"What?" I asked.
"They're fucking gone."
"What's fucking gone?" I replied.
The Went brothers were not big on social niceties.
"The fucking tickets." said David.
"What fucking tickets?" I answered.
"The fucking grand final tickets!"
I was shocked into silence. David, who'd had a little longer to process this impending nightmare, was jumping all too quickly to the proper conclusions.
"Have you seen the white envelope with the clear plastic on the front? It's important Lin!"
"No, I haven't seen it for days."
More shocked silence.
"OH FUUUUUCK!" yelled David. "You stupid fucks put them in the fucking incinerator!
Desperate dash to incinerator. Futile pulling on burnt boxes, hoping to see a flash of virgin white and the golden yellow of the tickets.
"Great work Lin. You've fucked us now. Well done." Sympathy in a crisis wasn't a big family trait.
Once the tears were dried I found myself horrified at the situation. Having told everyone at school that I would be going to the grand final, I now faced the prospect of having to tell them that I wasn't going! And I was going to miss us winning a premiership. Given it would be 31 years and the club as I knew it would be gone before we won another one, this may well have been an even bigger disaster than I envisaged at the time!
David contacted the New South Wales Rugby League (NSWRL) in the hope that they might replace the tickets for us. I sense my mother's counsel here as her ability to wheedle things out of bureaucrats was most impressive. Be that as it may, a reply came to our tale of woe. It didn't replace the tickets but it did authorise us to attend so long as we produced the letter! We were going to the grand final! Thank you Kevin Humphreys!
September 22, 1979. St George v Canterbury Bankstown, Sydney Cricket Ground.
My first grand final! The letter was safely in David's possession as we made our way into the SCG via train and bus. We had to re-tell the story several times during the day as the attendants were not used to being shown a letter instead of tickets! Our seats were in the Sheridan Stand (subsequently replaced by the Churchill stand) but we were there early as St George's Under 23 team had also made the grand final to play Parramatta. It was a feature of the era that the performance of one's lower grades received a measure of attention. In this case, given that Parramatta swept both lower grade grand finals, a measure of attention is all they're going to get!
As befitted our status as raging hot favourites, we burst out of the gates and put Canterbury to the sword. The teams were even enough early but once St George got into gear, Canterbury had no answers. Sparkling tries to that wonderful attacker Brian Johnson, the solid winger Mitch Brennan and the redoubtable Rod 'Rocket' Reddy followed, all converted by the ever trustworthy goal kicking boot of second rower George Grant. By halftime it was 17-2! 3 converted tries! We were home! David certainly thought so as he headed off to the bar underneath the Sheridan stand to celebrate, leaving Geoffrey and I to talk to a nice old lady who was sitting near us. In David's defence, it was a different world then and leaving an 11 year old and an 8 year old to watch by themselves wasn't seen as outrageous behaviour. Certainly Geoffrey and I weren't bothered!
To be honest, I found the 2nd half to be rather boring, I wasn't concerned that we'd lose but we weren't thrashing them as I had expected. Meanwhile Canterbury chipped away at our lead with 2 unconverted tries to get back to 17-8.
David's reappearance to watch the last rites was greeted by Canterbury's 3rd try. Steve Gearin did convert this one and with just a handful of minutes to go, it was 17-13 and this game was on the line! Several rather nervy minutes followed. Canterbury didn't create any chances but I was still worrying when suddenly David grabbed me and started screaming "We've won, we've won, we've won!" I hadn't heard the siren.
Canterbury fans got to hear plenty from me though, as David, Geoffrey and I joined a large group of jubilant St George fans in exchanging pleasantries from the Sheridan stand with the Canterbury fans leaving via the Hill below. The Bulldogs raucous claims about needing 5 more minutes were treated with contempt then and ever since. None of us could see then that the next quarter century was going to see quite the reversal in the fortunes of the 2 clubs. But that pain was for the future. My initiation into the world of sports barracking had just received its first maximum payout. And I would most certainly be back for more of these apples!
There's a short highlights video of the major semi final and the grand final here
Plus a more detailed highlights package from the grand final here
I was 8 years old during the 1979 football season, not turning 9 until October. This was the first season where I truly went hard core with my rugby league following. I was already keen before then, make no mistake, but in 1979 I became *obsessed*. Rugby league was beyond a doubt my favourite sport and was to remain in this exalted position until the Super League war hit, although the obsession had faded a little by then.
There were a number of reasons that rugby league was so strong for me that year. Firstly, having been near the bottom of the grade in Year 1 academically and still below average starting Year 2, by the start of Year 3 I had this reading thing licked and was now reading well above average for my age. A big part of the drive to read that I experienced was the absolute need I had to be able to read the Daily Telegraph, the Daily Mirror, the Sun, The Sunday Telegraph, the Sun-Herald, Big League magazine and the Daddy of them all... Rugby League Week! These were brought home on a regular basis by my brothers David and Peter and I was rather impatient waiting around for my turn to read them. Of course I read them sports section first! I did make some complaints about not getting the Sydney Morning Herald to read as well but my brothers were not terribly enamoured of its mammoth broadsheet pages. They assured me that its sports coverage was 'shit' and thus largely assuaged me. Now that I was a good reader, I could read all the stories about rugby league as well as dive into some books of Rugby league history that someone had thoughtfully purchased for me! The love for learning facts all on my own that I honed on rugby league soon spread, and I have been a reading addict ever since.
Secondly, and possibly even more important, this was the year my brother David started taking my brother Geoffrey and I to the football on a regular basis. David, whose name is going to crop up on a regular basis through my adventures in watching sport, was all of 17 at the time, but he seemed so much *older*. He had a job, he was big, he had money (as my mother was a single parent, he was my primary source of spending money), he went out at nights. I looked up to him as it was, but this year I began to idolise him. We'd gone to games before 1979 I guess, but I recall none of them. I do remember David being upset when North Sydney ended our failed premiership defence in 1978, a long way out from the semi finals!
I also remember the first game of 1979! Kogarah Jubilee Oval, St George v defending premiers Manly Warringah, our new signings Brian Johnson, Graeme Wynn and Steve Morris all debuting for the club. A full house. I recall we were sitting on what became our traditional area on the hill opposite the grandstand, although many of our 1979 games were spent on the hill on the grandstand side. Being 17, David was a little influenced by the moronic element of St George supporters who congregated there. From 1980 onwards we were ensconced on the other side of the ground.
There was a great air of anticipation amongst the home crowd as we awaited our new team, under the watchful eyes of our coach, the Old Fox, Harry Bath, who was no doubt lighting up another cigarette as he contemplated the upcoming game. Would the defending premiers show us up early in the season? Or would the talk that this could be a premiership year be vindicated by a sterling display against the might of Manly, who had captured 4 premierships in the previous 7 seasons? Would it ever?!!
The defending premiers were swept away under a spectacular wave of ferocious red and white attack in a stunning 34-9 defeat! In a 3 point try era, this was quite the thrashing. Wynn, Johnson and Morris played major roles in sparking an attack that had seemed a little short of the mark in 1978. Combined with the strength up front of Captain Courageous Craig ' Fat Albert' Young and fellow International Rod 'Rocket' Reddy and the solidity of the experienced backs Tony Trudgett, Graham Quinn and Robert Finch, it was totally evident to this 8 year old that *no one* was going to stop the Mighty St George juggernaut on their path to this year's premiership, a fact which he proceeded to inform his somewhat less enthusiastic schoolmates of in no uncertain terms three or four hundred times that year.
Unfortunately for the know it all's classmates, he was in fact right on this occasion. St George did not lose a single game to a team that made the top 5 that year and the 5 losses they experienced seemed to be more due to a lack of focus and drive against lesser opponents than it was to being outplayed by a genuine rival.
So I entered the semi-finals with a high degree of confidence. Under the final 5 system, the minor premiers took a week off while the other 4 teams played. We met Parramatta, perennial bridesmaids of the era, in the major semi final. My trusty brother David took us to the SCG of course. This turned out to be a real dogfight. My major memory of the game is the tension as we were submitted to our toughest test of the season. Only some Steve Morris brilliance and stout defence enabled us to turn back the charging Eels, and by 15 points to 11 we advanced straight to the grand final.
Meanwhile, Canterbury Bankstown, perennial losers and September wannabes, who had been waiting a rather embarrassing 37 years since their last premiership with most of that time having been spent devoted to providing fodder for good teams like St George and Souths to pad their for and against records, were steadily waking up. After ending St George's immortal, unprecedented, unparalleled and unmatched 11 consecutive premiership winning year run in 1967, they'd made another grand final in 1974 and had followed up with some additional semi final appearances under the increasingly shrewd managerial guidance of Peter 'Bullfrog' Moore.
Coached by my future high school principal Ted Glossop and unhappy at the general belief that their appearance in the semi finals was simply to provide some entertainment for the fans before getting out of the way of the big teams, Canterbury Bankstown's time was coming.
George Peponis, the Mortimer and Hughes families and a handful of other associated players including Peter Cassilles, whose mother was a beloved helper at my primary school, proceeded to cut up Wests, Cronulla and Parramatta in some style, becoming the first team to make the grand final from 4th or 5th place since the final five was introduced whilst earning the moniker of 'The Entertainers for the adventurous nature of their play.
It turned out that we were to have more than our share of adventures getting to watch the grand final ourselves. Everything started fine. Sensing a premiership in the offing, David queued up for 2 nights in Phillip Street in order to guarantee that he would get good tickets for us. I was amazed by his sacrifice and effort at the time. After doing so myself later in life I realised a) it's not that hard to do nothing for a couple of days and b) it's even less hard should you be keeping yourself warm and entertained by copious consumption of various alcoholic beverages! Having somehow managed to keep his drinking money separate from his tickets money, David purchased the tickets, brought them home and we all awaited the outcome of the major semi-final. With that aforementioned piece of Slippery Morris magic, all was well and it was time to anticipate the game ahead!
Being a single parent with a fulltime job, a chronic illness and interests that stretched beyond the lives of her five children, my mother had no truck for the idea that her role in life was to be a handmaiden for her sons. We were all put to work around the house. One of my jobs, along with my recently turned 11 year old brother Geoffrey, was to put the paper goods into the incinerator and burn them. Burning things was one of the better jobs available around the house and we rarely suffered a shortage of enthusiasm for the task. We collected the piles of papers, old envelopes, cardboard boxes and dutifully burnt them and watched the smoke drift away into the atmosphere. We were good boys. We burnt everything, we didn't let the messy papers lie all over the house, unlike our lazy older brothers.
Some days later my brother David was fiddling around in the loungeroom.
"What are you looking for?" I asked helpfully.
"A white envelope with clear plastic on the front. Have you seen it?"
"No, sorry."
He looked around some more. He went in the kitchen. He looked on the benches. He went downstairs. I heard some noises. He came back upstairs. He looked in the loungeroom again.
"Shit!" said David
"What?" I asked.
"They're fucking gone."
"What's fucking gone?" I replied.
The Went brothers were not big on social niceties.
"The fucking tickets." said David.
"What fucking tickets?" I answered.
"The fucking grand final tickets!"
I was shocked into silence. David, who'd had a little longer to process this impending nightmare, was jumping all too quickly to the proper conclusions.
"Have you seen the white envelope with the clear plastic on the front? It's important Lin!"
"No, I haven't seen it for days."
More shocked silence.
"OH FUUUUUCK!" yelled David. "You stupid fucks put them in the fucking incinerator!
Desperate dash to incinerator. Futile pulling on burnt boxes, hoping to see a flash of virgin white and the golden yellow of the tickets.
"Great work Lin. You've fucked us now. Well done." Sympathy in a crisis wasn't a big family trait.
Once the tears were dried I found myself horrified at the situation. Having told everyone at school that I would be going to the grand final, I now faced the prospect of having to tell them that I wasn't going! And I was going to miss us winning a premiership. Given it would be 31 years and the club as I knew it would be gone before we won another one, this may well have been an even bigger disaster than I envisaged at the time!
David contacted the New South Wales Rugby League (NSWRL) in the hope that they might replace the tickets for us. I sense my mother's counsel here as her ability to wheedle things out of bureaucrats was most impressive. Be that as it may, a reply came to our tale of woe. It didn't replace the tickets but it did authorise us to attend so long as we produced the letter! We were going to the grand final! Thank you Kevin Humphreys!
September 22, 1979. St George v Canterbury Bankstown, Sydney Cricket Ground.
My first grand final! The letter was safely in David's possession as we made our way into the SCG via train and bus. We had to re-tell the story several times during the day as the attendants were not used to being shown a letter instead of tickets! Our seats were in the Sheridan Stand (subsequently replaced by the Churchill stand) but we were there early as St George's Under 23 team had also made the grand final to play Parramatta. It was a feature of the era that the performance of one's lower grades received a measure of attention. In this case, given that Parramatta swept both lower grade grand finals, a measure of attention is all they're going to get!
As befitted our status as raging hot favourites, we burst out of the gates and put Canterbury to the sword. The teams were even enough early but once St George got into gear, Canterbury had no answers. Sparkling tries to that wonderful attacker Brian Johnson, the solid winger Mitch Brennan and the redoubtable Rod 'Rocket' Reddy followed, all converted by the ever trustworthy goal kicking boot of second rower George Grant. By halftime it was 17-2! 3 converted tries! We were home! David certainly thought so as he headed off to the bar underneath the Sheridan stand to celebrate, leaving Geoffrey and I to talk to a nice old lady who was sitting near us. In David's defence, it was a different world then and leaving an 11 year old and an 8 year old to watch by themselves wasn't seen as outrageous behaviour. Certainly Geoffrey and I weren't bothered!
To be honest, I found the 2nd half to be rather boring, I wasn't concerned that we'd lose but we weren't thrashing them as I had expected. Meanwhile Canterbury chipped away at our lead with 2 unconverted tries to get back to 17-8.
David's reappearance to watch the last rites was greeted by Canterbury's 3rd try. Steve Gearin did convert this one and with just a handful of minutes to go, it was 17-13 and this game was on the line! Several rather nervy minutes followed. Canterbury didn't create any chances but I was still worrying when suddenly David grabbed me and started screaming "We've won, we've won, we've won!" I hadn't heard the siren.
Canterbury fans got to hear plenty from me though, as David, Geoffrey and I joined a large group of jubilant St George fans in exchanging pleasantries from the Sheridan stand with the Canterbury fans leaving via the Hill below. The Bulldogs raucous claims about needing 5 more minutes were treated with contempt then and ever since. None of us could see then that the next quarter century was going to see quite the reversal in the fortunes of the 2 clubs. But that pain was for the future. My initiation into the world of sports barracking had just received its first maximum payout. And I would most certainly be back for more of these apples!
There's a short highlights video of the major semi final and the grand final here
Plus a more detailed highlights package from the grand final here
Saturday, 3 January 2015
On Warne by Gideon Haigh - a book review
Being a cricket tragic and a book tragic means that one ends up reading a lot of cricket books. Gideon Haigh has been writing for 20 years now and the quality of his writing has steadily improved over that period. His initial books were well researched with functional but rarely memorable prose. Over time he developed a reputation as one of Australia's finest cricket writers. With On Warne, Gideon Haigh has produced a little masterpiece including some of the finest passages of cricket writing ever committed to page.
Shane Warne, the modern master of the most difficult art in cricket, leg spin, is a fascinating character. Rather than write a conventional biography of him, Haigh has chosen to write a series of reflections on his bowling and his life, aiming to give the reader a greater sense of the cricketer and the man. He succeeds brilliantly. The paperback edition is covered with laudatory quotes about the book so for someone who's read quite a bit of Haigh's work, the expectations were high. He exceeded them. Easily. He gave a great sense of how Warne worked as a bowler and how it felt to be facing him. His analysis of the crises of Warne's career was enlightening and he demonstrated empathy for Warne without allowing that to interfere with critical judgements when he felt they were needed.
There's only 200 pages so it's a pretty quick read and a book that I honestly didn't want to end, such was the quality of the writing. Highly recommended for cricket fans and Gideon Haigh fans.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16309930-on-warne
Shane Warne, the modern master of the most difficult art in cricket, leg spin, is a fascinating character. Rather than write a conventional biography of him, Haigh has chosen to write a series of reflections on his bowling and his life, aiming to give the reader a greater sense of the cricketer and the man. He succeeds brilliantly. The paperback edition is covered with laudatory quotes about the book so for someone who's read quite a bit of Haigh's work, the expectations were high. He exceeded them. Easily. He gave a great sense of how Warne worked as a bowler and how it felt to be facing him. His analysis of the crises of Warne's career was enlightening and he demonstrated empathy for Warne without allowing that to interfere with critical judgements when he felt they were needed.
There's only 200 pages so it's a pretty quick read and a book that I honestly didn't want to end, such was the quality of the writing. Highly recommended for cricket fans and Gideon Haigh fans.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16309930-on-warne
Wednesday, 17 December 2014
Dear Kristy: This is what the people in your life think of you.
I initially wrote this as part of a speech to read out to Kristy on her 40th birthday, but the opportunity to have speeches didn't present itself at that wonderful evening! I felt that I wanted to surprise her with this post, so I've just kept it quietly here, waiting for the chance to spring it upon her. Well, she's collapsed on the bed asleep after another long day at work, so I think that this qualifies as a time when she will be surprised to see a post extolling her many virtues appear. Also, there's been too many horrible events lately and we need an antidote to all that pain and anguish.
Looking at the outpourings of compliments that have accompanied Gough Whitlam into his grave, it occurs to me that too often we wait until someone who is dear to us has gone before we express how we feel about them.
I don't want Kristy to have that experience, so I took the opportunity to contact many of her friends , family and colleagues and asked them to to share some of their thoughts about what makes Kristy special and what they appreciate about her.
The response was wonderful! Thanks to all who sent something! It's been a privilege and a pleasure to read these little missives, and to discover that other people see in Kristy the wonderful things that Cassie and I see in her.
I'm not going to identify the people that I am quoting although I think they will recognise themselves and I expect Kristy will usually know who has said what :)
I have edited people's comments lightly, one advantage of writing a blog post instead of giving a speech was that I could quote extensively whereas for the speech I had simply selected some representative quotes.
Kristy, here are some of the thoughts of the people in your life:
"When I first met dear Kristy, I thought she had no sense of humour and was unable to get on with the general public, but having seen beyond the facade I have seen Kristy the compassionate, the loyalist, the team player who never bad mouths others or lies and actually possesses a very warped sense of humour. Seeing these qualities helps me forget my anger as she hangs up on me routinely! I salute you Kristy with your charms *and* your shortcomings."
"Kristy has a lovely heart, a little tough on the outside but soft on the inside, a true friend."
" Kristy, you have a big personality in a quiet way, I love your no bull approach. You're interesting, smart, great to talk to and all round great company!"
" I like the love you put into the food you cook."
"Kristy, you are a kind and generous person with a big heart. You are a loyal and caring person to family and friends alike."
" You're there to help without even needing to be asked."
"Kristy's a great friend and I value her very much, she's always been fun to be around - being a fellow geek girl we've headed off for adventures, sci-fi conventions and yum-cha. She shows her care and love for others and how she values her friends and family through all the organising of things that she does, whether it's craft days, parties or Games Nights. I think she throws herself into everything she does - hardworking wife, mother, Mum, Aunty, friend and gardener."
"You put so much love and generosity into the food that you cook for people. I love and appreciate your cooking"
"Kristy makes an awesome meatloaf."
"She's just a very thoughtful, caring, person."
"She's caring, creative, friendly and well, I just love it when she takes care of me and takes me to yum cha!"
"She's a very loving person who takes me to fun places!"
"Kristy is a beautiful soul, she is extremely kind and often puts others ahead of herself, she's hardworking and does everything she can to support her family. A loving and supportive sister, she's always been there to help without being asked, she shows her generosity with her yummy 'care packages' that the whole family have loved!"
"Kristy's kind and a great mother, I am proud of the way she works hard to help with the life of her family. She has a good sense of humour and she's loyal, always was. She's very forgiving when things go wrong and I love her to bits!"
"You are hard working and very determined, when you get an idea you won't give up until you achieve your goal. She always gives 100 percent to commitment, I couldn't be any prouder of her and I love her with all my heart. She deserves the best."
It wasn't all bouquets my love, your occasional willingness to call a spade a bloody shovel was noted, but your willingness to stand up for yourself and the true softness that lies beneath was noted too.
On the other hand, one of my friends felt that he missed a real opportunity when he didn't go after you! He never had a chance anyway, I'd have done anything to win your love!
These are the words of those who know you best and love you for who you are, because who you are is so much. It is, indeed, more than enough.
Kristy, the day you sent me that RSVP kiss was the dividing day in my life, separating my life into BK (Before Kristy) and AK (After Kristy). AK has been the most wonderful time of my life.
The moment I saw your profile, I knew that if you were who you said you were, then there was real potential there. I didn't know then, but do now, that you are remarkably free from artifice or pretense. What you see is what you get. Which is fairly true of me too, but even more so of you. I'd looked at thousands of profiles over the years on RSVP and dated many women from it. Yours was the first profile I ever sent to my closest friends, telling them this one looked really good. Sometimes you can just tell. 6 months later we were engaged and Cassie, unbeknown to us, was on the way.
I feel privileged that I get to spend part of every day with you, I feel joy to know that of all the people in the world, it's my bed that you choose to share. I know that someone there loves me for who I am and loves me unconditionally.
Kristy, I love how you make me laugh, I am thankful for how tolerant you are of my many foibles and flaws, I love seeing you express your love for Cassie and watching how excited she is when she's spending time with Mummy.
I appreciate you for keeping an ear open when I go into one of my rambling raves and just have to have an ear to bash! I bore you often, yet I find out later that you have invariably listened to my rants and thought about them too. I'm thankful for how you support me and believe in me, that can make all the difference.
You've got the most wonderful hands, very soft, smooth, warm and I love them. We hold hands when we walk together and I feel a little thrill when I hear you at the door after your day's work.
I like it when you're in your creative moods and making things, I think you're at your best when you're doing things. You like to keep busy and you have certainly succeeded at that. Cassie loves spending time with you, and so do I! I love how we like to be close to each other even when we're both doing our own thing. My computer will always be in the loungeroom because I want to be close to you, not hiding away from you.
I respect you for your willingness to discuss issues and to work on our relationship every day. Making our relationship work every day has been a big priority for both of us and is, I think, a big part of the reason why we are happy together. Living with you continues to be an experience that makes my life better and more enjoyable than it was before, you give me space to be myself and to relax and you rarely try to control or change me.
Nevertheless, you have changed me, I think I am more sensitive and understanding than I was when we started. I am certainly more content in myself and confident in myself. That's what having the love of a good woman has done for me. You are, and always will be, my good woman and I love you very much.
Happy Birthday Kristy!
Your loving husband,
Lindsay
Looking at the outpourings of compliments that have accompanied Gough Whitlam into his grave, it occurs to me that too often we wait until someone who is dear to us has gone before we express how we feel about them.
I don't want Kristy to have that experience, so I took the opportunity to contact many of her friends , family and colleagues and asked them to to share some of their thoughts about what makes Kristy special and what they appreciate about her.
The response was wonderful! Thanks to all who sent something! It's been a privilege and a pleasure to read these little missives, and to discover that other people see in Kristy the wonderful things that Cassie and I see in her.
I'm not going to identify the people that I am quoting although I think they will recognise themselves and I expect Kristy will usually know who has said what :)
I have edited people's comments lightly, one advantage of writing a blog post instead of giving a speech was that I could quote extensively whereas for the speech I had simply selected some representative quotes.
Kristy, here are some of the thoughts of the people in your life:
"When I first met dear Kristy, I thought she had no sense of humour and was unable to get on with the general public, but having seen beyond the facade I have seen Kristy the compassionate, the loyalist, the team player who never bad mouths others or lies and actually possesses a very warped sense of humour. Seeing these qualities helps me forget my anger as she hangs up on me routinely! I salute you Kristy with your charms *and* your shortcomings."
"Kristy has a lovely heart, a little tough on the outside but soft on the inside, a true friend."
" Kristy, you have a big personality in a quiet way, I love your no bull approach. You're interesting, smart, great to talk to and all round great company!"
" I like the love you put into the food you cook."
"Kristy, you are a kind and generous person with a big heart. You are a loyal and caring person to family and friends alike."
" You're there to help without even needing to be asked."
"Kristy's a great friend and I value her very much, she's always been fun to be around - being a fellow geek girl we've headed off for adventures, sci-fi conventions and yum-cha. She shows her care and love for others and how she values her friends and family through all the organising of things that she does, whether it's craft days, parties or Games Nights. I think she throws herself into everything she does - hardworking wife, mother, Mum, Aunty, friend and gardener."
"You put so much love and generosity into the food that you cook for people. I love and appreciate your cooking"
"Kristy makes an awesome meatloaf."
"She's just a very thoughtful, caring, person."
"She's caring, creative, friendly and well, I just love it when she takes care of me and takes me to yum cha!"
"She's a very loving person who takes me to fun places!"
"Kristy is a beautiful soul, she is extremely kind and often puts others ahead of herself, she's hardworking and does everything she can to support her family. A loving and supportive sister, she's always been there to help without being asked, she shows her generosity with her yummy 'care packages' that the whole family have loved!"
"Kristy's kind and a great mother, I am proud of the way she works hard to help with the life of her family. She has a good sense of humour and she's loyal, always was. She's very forgiving when things go wrong and I love her to bits!"
"You are hard working and very determined, when you get an idea you won't give up until you achieve your goal. She always gives 100 percent to commitment, I couldn't be any prouder of her and I love her with all my heart. She deserves the best."
It wasn't all bouquets my love, your occasional willingness to call a spade a bloody shovel was noted, but your willingness to stand up for yourself and the true softness that lies beneath was noted too.
On the other hand, one of my friends felt that he missed a real opportunity when he didn't go after you! He never had a chance anyway, I'd have done anything to win your love!
These are the words of those who know you best and love you for who you are, because who you are is so much. It is, indeed, more than enough.
Kristy, the day you sent me that RSVP kiss was the dividing day in my life, separating my life into BK (Before Kristy) and AK (After Kristy). AK has been the most wonderful time of my life.
The moment I saw your profile, I knew that if you were who you said you were, then there was real potential there. I didn't know then, but do now, that you are remarkably free from artifice or pretense. What you see is what you get. Which is fairly true of me too, but even more so of you. I'd looked at thousands of profiles over the years on RSVP and dated many women from it. Yours was the first profile I ever sent to my closest friends, telling them this one looked really good. Sometimes you can just tell. 6 months later we were engaged and Cassie, unbeknown to us, was on the way.
I feel privileged that I get to spend part of every day with you, I feel joy to know that of all the people in the world, it's my bed that you choose to share. I know that someone there loves me for who I am and loves me unconditionally.
Kristy, I love how you make me laugh, I am thankful for how tolerant you are of my many foibles and flaws, I love seeing you express your love for Cassie and watching how excited she is when she's spending time with Mummy.
I appreciate you for keeping an ear open when I go into one of my rambling raves and just have to have an ear to bash! I bore you often, yet I find out later that you have invariably listened to my rants and thought about them too. I'm thankful for how you support me and believe in me, that can make all the difference.
You've got the most wonderful hands, very soft, smooth, warm and I love them. We hold hands when we walk together and I feel a little thrill when I hear you at the door after your day's work.
I like it when you're in your creative moods and making things, I think you're at your best when you're doing things. You like to keep busy and you have certainly succeeded at that. Cassie loves spending time with you, and so do I! I love how we like to be close to each other even when we're both doing our own thing. My computer will always be in the loungeroom because I want to be close to you, not hiding away from you.
I respect you for your willingness to discuss issues and to work on our relationship every day. Making our relationship work every day has been a big priority for both of us and is, I think, a big part of the reason why we are happy together. Living with you continues to be an experience that makes my life better and more enjoyable than it was before, you give me space to be myself and to relax and you rarely try to control or change me.
Nevertheless, you have changed me, I think I am more sensitive and understanding than I was when we started. I am certainly more content in myself and confident in myself. That's what having the love of a good woman has done for me. You are, and always will be, my good woman and I love you very much.
Happy Birthday Kristy!
Your loving husband,
Lindsay
Wednesday, 10 December 2014
Obesity and personal responsibility
This is a post in response to a Facebook discussion, a view was expressed that parents were completely responsible if their kids become obese and someone asked for the other side of that debate, so I'm providing it :). Whilst I have read on the issue, I haven't done any additional research for this, it's just a lengthy Facebook post :).
A century ago, obesity was extremely rare in Australia, as were the obesity related conditions. Obviously that's not the case now. It could be that the modern parent isn't concerned about their child's health or safety but given the incredibly close levels of supervision applied to the modern child as compared to a century ago, my view is that claiming parental negligence is the primary cause of the obesity epidemic isn't backed up by the overall ways in which parents raise their children. I think modern parents are generally more concerned over their kids, if anything, rather than less concerned, compared to a century ago.
What's changed from a century ago? The onslaught of sugar, fat and highly processed foods. A century ago it was common for people to grow quite a bit of their own food and the food they ate was lightly processed. Food was generally cooked domestically, from the raw materials that had been grown or purchased by the adult, usually a woman, who worked domestically and not outside the home. They ate some fat but not a lot of sugar. The current diet is one hundred and eighty degrees away from that. People were also far less sedentary and that's surely played a role in the obesity epidemic. Interestingly, the diseases we associate with obesity are also associated with thin people who consume lots of sugar, so the point might be a little moot.
This modern diet is awash in sugar, which is being consumed in quantities unprecedented in human history and is the biggest dietary change from a century ago. High fat diets have been followed previously that didn't have as many negative outcomes as high sugar (not saying that a high fat diet is a brilliant idea - just that it's not an unprecedented part of a human diet).
Not only is the diet awash in sugar but it's incredibly cheap PLUS it's sold to us using the full force of the modern advertising industry. Sugar and highly processed foods are the dominant food culture in this country. So parents trying to get their kids to eat lots of whole foods are pushing against that culture on every level.There are no protections against sugar consumption, either on a price level or on an advertising level. It's as damaging as tobacco but completely free to peddle its wares.
The breakfast cereals that most people consume are incredibly bad for us yet have a very wholesome image, that's the power of that advertising. The amount of sugar in those products has consistently gone up over the decades, and the range of products that sugar is added to has also considerably expanded. When you're buying processed foods, it's very hard to dodge it.
Juices, which contain just as much sugar as Coke, even more, also have a wholesome reputation. Our bodies treat the sugar in juice the same way they treat the sugar in Coke so it's not there on health grounds! The idea that eating vitamins in pills is all useful as opposed to eating them in whole foods isn't particularly supported by the evidence either, but look at how many of us do it! I mention these things to make the point that pushing back against the dominant eating culture of the country is damned hard. Of course it's not impossible, but you need a lot going in your favour.
A whole foods diet is expensive in terms of money and time. Low income parents or time poor parents are going to struggle on both grounds, and they do. Highly processed foods such as confectionery, soft drinks, potato chips, ice creams are the most heavily and regularly discounted items in a supermarket and are constantly in your face. Worse, they're also superbly located at levels that your little children can reach. Fast foods are also quite cheap and they are fairly fast, as the name says. The combination is enticing. They are also advertised heavily in children's television programs.
A factor that I think is important is that the kids themselves push very hard to be given these bad foods and it's a constant struggle, I know Cassie's had her victories that she's won through her bloody minded persistence on the matter. Cassie's a pretty and charming child, the combination means that she gets offered more than her fair share of treats by shopkeepers and other strangers - due to that dominant culture, these treats are, without exception, high sugar and often high fat to boot! Combine that with the advertising and you have a little girl who thinks that sugar is a really good thing and a lot of fun!
The strength of the dominant culture leads to some scary compromises, McDonalds in schools with their vouchers, the menus in our school canteens despite years of claims that we are changing the rules to make them healthy, the National Heart Foundation giving the tick to numerous high sugar foods. I'm sure the people responsible for those decisions weren't thrilled with them, but they're getting pushed very hard.
The argument that we can just blame the individual for their decisions is one that has many corollaries, and I'm going to use one from my field, education. I have worked in many disadvantaged schools, I have taught children who've come from very poor homes, and from broken homes where there was a lot of violence and not a lot of educational opportunity being offered. Nevertheless, some of those children did fine at school, some of them have overcome all of those difficulties and earnt university degrees and other qualifications. Since some kids can overcome those problems, does that mean that we do not need to give more money and resources to poorer schools? That it's just up to the individual kid and there's no need for any systemic approach to educational disadvantage? It's the same argument, and I think that argument is just as empty in education as it is in public health.
The identical argument was made with regard to anti smoking measures, was consistently made every time a new measure was raised, and continues to be made throughout the 3rd World where the smoking epidemic has reached new heights. But individual choice wasn't enough to dent smoking rates significantly, it took a systemic approach from all levels of government to do it. Advertising bans, hefty price increases, age based restrictions and restrictions of when and where smoking is permitted have all combined to push smoking rates down. Obesity rates can't be pushed down by relying on individual parents to restrict the intake of their kids, a systemic approach has to be taken.
I'm going to close with some personal anecdotes. This is a subject close to my heart. I am morbidly obese. My parents weren't although my father was certainly overweight. My grandparents weren't obese nor were my great grandparents. My three older brothers are all morbidly obese. My older sister isn't, she had a fat period in her youth and has fought a very determined war to eat whole foods consistently ever since. I use the term war because that's the sort of intensity she's had to strive with to maintain her slim appearance. It's not surprising that she has not been able to quit smoking in that period, a war on two fronts becomes too much to fight.
Like Cassie, I learnt young that sugar was a great thing, and I found it to be strongly addictive. As a growing boy I avoided putting on weight but once I hit my 20's that changed. The sugary foods have done most of the damage. Three years ago, I managed to go 11 months consuming almost no sugar in processed foods. I lost weight easily for the first time, without feeling hungry. Previous diets had taken weight off for a while, but ended in an orgy of bingeing.
The problem was when I left the house. I could keep sugar out of the house, but once you leave it's fucking everywhere. Shopping at Woolworths? chocolate, ice cream, biscuits, sauces, breads, et bloody cetera. Birthday dinner in the family? Here, have some cake! Morning tea at school? Here, have some biscuits, have some cake. Go to the pub for trivia? Here, have a soft drink (I don't drink alcohol). It's just a constant fight to keep buying the right foods whilst surrounded by the pressures to buy the fucking poison.
I finally cracked on the day of Cassie's 2nd birthday party - there was just too much sugary crap in the house and I ate some. Being addicted to the bloody shit, that was the end of that. Subsequent efforts haven't lasted long and I've put all the weight back on and then some. My latest blood test says I'm currently diabetes free but I can't keep avoiding the major consequences forever. Indeed, the arthritic pain in the knee and the back pain are surely related to the block of flats those areas are keeping up. I'm not unaware of the facts here. But knowing the number of the train bearing down on you and getting out of its way are two different things.
I don't think it's impossible to lose weight or avoid the heavily processed shit, my sister's done it, as have many other people. But it is very hard. And it's very hard because we, as a society, are awash with sugar and highly processed foods which are continually presented as good things. I think that to blame the parents for their kids being obese and, by inference, to blame the obese for being obese, is to ignore the reality of the food consuming system that we live in. It's cheap and easy easy to eat sugar and highly processed foods in our society, expensive and difficult not to do so. I don't think we should be surprised that most of us choose the quick and easy path, even when we know it leads to the Dark Side.
A century ago, obesity was extremely rare in Australia, as were the obesity related conditions. Obviously that's not the case now. It could be that the modern parent isn't concerned about their child's health or safety but given the incredibly close levels of supervision applied to the modern child as compared to a century ago, my view is that claiming parental negligence is the primary cause of the obesity epidemic isn't backed up by the overall ways in which parents raise their children. I think modern parents are generally more concerned over their kids, if anything, rather than less concerned, compared to a century ago.
What's changed from a century ago? The onslaught of sugar, fat and highly processed foods. A century ago it was common for people to grow quite a bit of their own food and the food they ate was lightly processed. Food was generally cooked domestically, from the raw materials that had been grown or purchased by the adult, usually a woman, who worked domestically and not outside the home. They ate some fat but not a lot of sugar. The current diet is one hundred and eighty degrees away from that. People were also far less sedentary and that's surely played a role in the obesity epidemic. Interestingly, the diseases we associate with obesity are also associated with thin people who consume lots of sugar, so the point might be a little moot.
This modern diet is awash in sugar, which is being consumed in quantities unprecedented in human history and is the biggest dietary change from a century ago. High fat diets have been followed previously that didn't have as many negative outcomes as high sugar (not saying that a high fat diet is a brilliant idea - just that it's not an unprecedented part of a human diet).
Not only is the diet awash in sugar but it's incredibly cheap PLUS it's sold to us using the full force of the modern advertising industry. Sugar and highly processed foods are the dominant food culture in this country. So parents trying to get their kids to eat lots of whole foods are pushing against that culture on every level.There are no protections against sugar consumption, either on a price level or on an advertising level. It's as damaging as tobacco but completely free to peddle its wares.
The breakfast cereals that most people consume are incredibly bad for us yet have a very wholesome image, that's the power of that advertising. The amount of sugar in those products has consistently gone up over the decades, and the range of products that sugar is added to has also considerably expanded. When you're buying processed foods, it's very hard to dodge it.
Juices, which contain just as much sugar as Coke, even more, also have a wholesome reputation. Our bodies treat the sugar in juice the same way they treat the sugar in Coke so it's not there on health grounds! The idea that eating vitamins in pills is all useful as opposed to eating them in whole foods isn't particularly supported by the evidence either, but look at how many of us do it! I mention these things to make the point that pushing back against the dominant eating culture of the country is damned hard. Of course it's not impossible, but you need a lot going in your favour.
A whole foods diet is expensive in terms of money and time. Low income parents or time poor parents are going to struggle on both grounds, and they do. Highly processed foods such as confectionery, soft drinks, potato chips, ice creams are the most heavily and regularly discounted items in a supermarket and are constantly in your face. Worse, they're also superbly located at levels that your little children can reach. Fast foods are also quite cheap and they are fairly fast, as the name says. The combination is enticing. They are also advertised heavily in children's television programs.
A factor that I think is important is that the kids themselves push very hard to be given these bad foods and it's a constant struggle, I know Cassie's had her victories that she's won through her bloody minded persistence on the matter. Cassie's a pretty and charming child, the combination means that she gets offered more than her fair share of treats by shopkeepers and other strangers - due to that dominant culture, these treats are, without exception, high sugar and often high fat to boot! Combine that with the advertising and you have a little girl who thinks that sugar is a really good thing and a lot of fun!
The strength of the dominant culture leads to some scary compromises, McDonalds in schools with their vouchers, the menus in our school canteens despite years of claims that we are changing the rules to make them healthy, the National Heart Foundation giving the tick to numerous high sugar foods. I'm sure the people responsible for those decisions weren't thrilled with them, but they're getting pushed very hard.
The argument that we can just blame the individual for their decisions is one that has many corollaries, and I'm going to use one from my field, education. I have worked in many disadvantaged schools, I have taught children who've come from very poor homes, and from broken homes where there was a lot of violence and not a lot of educational opportunity being offered. Nevertheless, some of those children did fine at school, some of them have overcome all of those difficulties and earnt university degrees and other qualifications. Since some kids can overcome those problems, does that mean that we do not need to give more money and resources to poorer schools? That it's just up to the individual kid and there's no need for any systemic approach to educational disadvantage? It's the same argument, and I think that argument is just as empty in education as it is in public health.
The identical argument was made with regard to anti smoking measures, was consistently made every time a new measure was raised, and continues to be made throughout the 3rd World where the smoking epidemic has reached new heights. But individual choice wasn't enough to dent smoking rates significantly, it took a systemic approach from all levels of government to do it. Advertising bans, hefty price increases, age based restrictions and restrictions of when and where smoking is permitted have all combined to push smoking rates down. Obesity rates can't be pushed down by relying on individual parents to restrict the intake of their kids, a systemic approach has to be taken.
I'm going to close with some personal anecdotes. This is a subject close to my heart. I am morbidly obese. My parents weren't although my father was certainly overweight. My grandparents weren't obese nor were my great grandparents. My three older brothers are all morbidly obese. My older sister isn't, she had a fat period in her youth and has fought a very determined war to eat whole foods consistently ever since. I use the term war because that's the sort of intensity she's had to strive with to maintain her slim appearance. It's not surprising that she has not been able to quit smoking in that period, a war on two fronts becomes too much to fight.
Like Cassie, I learnt young that sugar was a great thing, and I found it to be strongly addictive. As a growing boy I avoided putting on weight but once I hit my 20's that changed. The sugary foods have done most of the damage. Three years ago, I managed to go 11 months consuming almost no sugar in processed foods. I lost weight easily for the first time, without feeling hungry. Previous diets had taken weight off for a while, but ended in an orgy of bingeing.
The problem was when I left the house. I could keep sugar out of the house, but once you leave it's fucking everywhere. Shopping at Woolworths? chocolate, ice cream, biscuits, sauces, breads, et bloody cetera. Birthday dinner in the family? Here, have some cake! Morning tea at school? Here, have some biscuits, have some cake. Go to the pub for trivia? Here, have a soft drink (I don't drink alcohol). It's just a constant fight to keep buying the right foods whilst surrounded by the pressures to buy the fucking poison.
I finally cracked on the day of Cassie's 2nd birthday party - there was just too much sugary crap in the house and I ate some. Being addicted to the bloody shit, that was the end of that. Subsequent efforts haven't lasted long and I've put all the weight back on and then some. My latest blood test says I'm currently diabetes free but I can't keep avoiding the major consequences forever. Indeed, the arthritic pain in the knee and the back pain are surely related to the block of flats those areas are keeping up. I'm not unaware of the facts here. But knowing the number of the train bearing down on you and getting out of its way are two different things.
I don't think it's impossible to lose weight or avoid the heavily processed shit, my sister's done it, as have many other people. But it is very hard. And it's very hard because we, as a society, are awash with sugar and highly processed foods which are continually presented as good things. I think that to blame the parents for their kids being obese and, by inference, to blame the obese for being obese, is to ignore the reality of the food consuming system that we live in. It's cheap and easy easy to eat sugar and highly processed foods in our society, expensive and difficult not to do so. I don't think we should be surprised that most of us choose the quick and easy path, even when we know it leads to the Dark Side.
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