It's disappointing to read that research by Professor Kevin Dunn and the Anti-Racism Research Project of the University of Western Sydney indicates that 1 in 10 Australians outwardly 'racist'. The study shows that racism in Australia has declined over the years, and that Australians are generally more tolerant than most people, but that the figures remain much too high. "It's an indicator of a narrow view of what constitutes Australianism," Profesor Dunn says.

Forty per cent of Australians believe some ethnic groups do not belong in the country. NSW apparently is the most racist state, possibly because Sydney is the focus of international migration to Australia; 46 per cent of NSW survey respondents said some ethnic groups should not be in the country.

I'm glad that the ACT, essentially Australia's national capital city of Canberra, emerges as the most tolerant state or territory. But even Canberra's response, with 28 per cent of Canberra people saying that some ethnic groups should not be in the country, is way too high.

Prof Dunn and his team have completed a number of studies of the 'geography' of racism in Australia, e.g. Forrest, J. & Dunn KM. Racism and intolerance in Eastern Australia: a geographical perspective. Australian Geographer, 37(2), 2006, 167-186.

The Hawthorn Hawks (18.7.115) defeated the minor premiers the Geelong Cats (11.23.89) in a remarkable and unexpected premiership triumph before a crowd of 100,012 at the MCG to secure a 10th VFL/AFL premiership after a long drought. Hawthorn vice-captain Luke Hodge took the Norm Smith Medal. Cyril Rioli (pictured) was outstanding in this grand final culmination of his first year as an AFL player.

In Australia, it's almost compulsory to have an allegiance to a football team. My birthplace is very close to Hawthorn, so that settled it for me. Good friends who are one-eyed Cats supporters invited James and me to lunch and to watch the match today. It was hard to be completely tactful as Geelong made untypical mistakes in the face of steady Hawthorn pressure. The Cats had won 42 of their past 44 matches and were favoured to successfully defend their 2007 title.

Andrei Lankov, columnist for the Korea Times, says that all the theories and speculations about Kim Jong-Il and future leadership of North Korea leadership are "based on the thinnest of thin evidence."

What do we know for sure? Not much. About two weeks ago some South Korean newspapers (obviously with good connections within the government agencies) reported that Kim Jong-il was sick. Soon new reports stated that he had suffered a stroke, but is in stable conditions.

However, this wave of speculating reminded us of two things. First, Kim is mortal, and he will die sooner or later. This appears a very banal statement, but it often seems that decision makers, especially in Seoul, tend to forget this truism. Second, it is still useful to realize that our knowledge of North Korea's high politics remains limited to the extreme. The recent reports which provided the audience with details of Kim's treatment or his recovery can be safely dismissed as fantasies.

. . . The lay observers, however, do not know much. Our knowledge of North Korean life has increased remarkably in recent years, but the palaces of the ruling elite still remain enigmatic.

Take, for example, the talks about succession, the endless speculations on who of the three or four possible candidates will succeed Kim. . . In recent weeks, we have heard a lot of speculations like this, but we should not forget that we know almost nothing about any of those candidates. . . . In Korea all names of the top bosses are empty symbols without any known content. This does not mean that those people do not have their own political view (at all probability they do), but this means that we do not know enough to surmise what those views are. . . . Even less is known about rows of the medal-clad generals or mysterious bureaucrats who appear at major functions and then disappear in obscurity.

Lankov says that we can be sure that only a fraction of the rumours are true and that in our current situation it is not normally possible to sort out the "tiny grains of truthful information."

The best thing I have read about all this is a recent short essay by B.R. Meyers in The Atlantic (23 Sep 08). Myers says "We should be thinking less about the transition of North Korean power, and more about the worldview that Kim and his potential successors have in common."

Plenty of misperceptions are bouncing around America's newsrooms and think-tanks: that North Korea is a hard-line communist state, a Confucian patriarchy, a "rational actor" frightened by a bullying America, a theocracy devoted to a weird cult of self-reliance, and so on. While each of these fallacies contradicts the rest, all of them keep us from grasping the implacability of North Korea's hostility to the outside world. In fact, the country's true ideology is a race-based, paranoid nationalism. To put its myths in a nutshell: The Korean people are too pure-blooded, and therefore too virtuous, to survive in this evil world without a parental leader. Note that oddly androgynous word "parental." Because the Korean race is born good, it has no need for an educating father figure like Stalin or Mao; instead, Kim Jong Il appears in the personality cult as more of a maternal figure. The function of this "great mother," as the official news agency acclaimed him in 2003, is not to teach, but simply to nurture and protect. The so-called Mother Party sees its own function in much the same terms.

Far from being a Confucian or Stalinist patriarchy, in other words, North Korea is that very rare thing, a dictatorship without a father principle. Erich Fromm once wrote that such states can have no conscience--an assertion that Japan's exploits under another "parent leader" would seem to confirm. Though not nearly as destructive, North Korea has often behaved on the world stage in a comparably irrational and unpredictable manner. Rashness is celebrated on the home front, too. The masses are daily reminded that because they are uniquely good--Kim: "There is no people as good as ours in the world"--they should remain true to their instincts. Not surprisingly, then, social and domestic life is marked by a far higher degree of violence than was the case in the old Soviet bloc. Foreigners tend to miss all this. A recent British documentary about life there, which pitched the popular fallacy of North Korea as an old-school communist state, bore the title A State of Mind. When the film was screened in Pyongyang, officials renamed it A Country of Feelings. It was their way of making clear that, as Nietzsche might have put it, theirs is more a Dionysian than an Apollonian society.

Read it all. It's fascinating.

Myers says that, a proper understanding of the background will aid us in our preparations for Kim's death. As well as not assuming that the transition of power "will follow staid Soviet precedents", we should not assume "that another hereditary succession is inevitable." On the other hand "This does not mean that the masses would prefer a collective leadership. One of the official culture's most sacred tenets is that the race needs a strong single leader . . ." The propaganda apparatus must "play on the masses' xenophobia in order to rally them around the new leader." ... "[W]e can expect plenty of provocations even if Kim Jong Il stays alive; a 'military first' leader who is no longer fit to visit army bases or review parades has to find other, more dangerous ways of conveying strength and toughness."

Picture: Detail from The Discovery of Ariadne (1981) by Elsie Russell (1956- ); Dionysus and his retinue find the sleeping Ariadne whom Theseus has just abandoned on the island of Naxos

Yes, a little of what you fancy does you good. Research shows that about 7 grams (not more) of dark chocolate (not milk chocolate) has a protective effect against inflammation and subsequent cardiovascular disease. This new finding is part of the Moli-sani population study by the Catholic University in Campobasso and the National Cancer Institute of Milan and has been published in Journal of Nutrition [1]

A chronic inflammatory state represents a risk factor for the development of cardiovascular disease. A C reactive protein, detectable by a simple blood test, is an indicator of this problem. The Italian team related the levels of this protein in the blood of examined people with their usual chocolate intake. The stud found that people having moderate amounts of dark chocolate regularly have significantly lower levels of C-reactive protein in their blood. In other words, their inflammatory state is considerably reduced. The 17% average reduction observed may appear quite small, but it is enough to decrease the risk of cardio-vascular disease for one third in women and one fourth in men. (acknowledgement: http://www.physorg.com/news141396216.html

But the amount of chocolate is critical. Over about 7 grams per day (one decent piece every 3 days) a day, the benefit disappears. Sad.

1. Romina di Giuseppe et al. Regular consumption of dark chocolate is associated with low serum concentrations of C-reactive protein in a healthy Italian population. J. Nutr. 2008 138: 1939-1945.
Abstract:

Dark chocolate contains high concentrations of flavonoids and may have antiinflammatory properties. We evaluated the association of dark chocolate intake with serum C-reactive protein (CRP). The Moli-sani Project is an ongoing cohort study of men and women aged 35 y or older, randomly recruited from the general population. By July 2007, 10,994 subjects had been enrolled. Of 4849 subjects apparently free of any chronic disease, 1317 subjects who declared having eaten any chocolate during the past year (mean age 53 ± 12 y; 51% men) and 824 subjects who ate chocolate regularly in the form of dark chocolate only (50 ± 10 y; 55% men) were selected. High sensitivity-CRP was measured by an immunoturbidimetric method. The European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition FFQ was used to evaluate nutritional intake. After adjustment for age, sex, social status, physical activity, systolic blood pressure, BMI, waist:hip ratio, food groups, and total energy intake, dark chocolate consumption was inversely associated with CRP (P = 0.038). When adjusted for nutrient intake, analyses showed similar results (P = 0.016). Serum CRP concentrations [geometric mean (95% CI)] univariate concentrations were 1.32 (1.26–1.39 mg/L) in nonconsumers and 1.10 (1.03–1.17 mg/L) in consumers (P < 0.0001). A J-shaped relationship between dark chocolate consumption and serum CRP was observed; consumers of up to 1 serving (20 g) of dark chocolate every 3 d had serum CRP concentrations that were significantly lower than nonconsumers or higher consumers. Our findings suggest that regular consumption of small doses of dark chocolate may reduce inflammation.

The life of a dear friend of mine is in danger from colon cancer. My family has a history of long life, but it is internal cancer that has been the main cause of death for those who have had shorter lives. So I'm acutely aware of the need for examinations and check ups! Yes, preparation for colonoscopy is unpleasant, but it may save your life.

In Australia, close to 90% of people diagnosed with colorectal cancer at the earliest stage are alive five years later (if other causes of death are excluded). It is the most commonly occurring cancer in Australia (excluding non-melanomic skin cancer for which data are not available), and the second most common cancer-related cause of death. Colorectal cancer has features which set it apart from most other cancers. Most cases are thought to originate in benign lesions (adenomas), which can be detected and removed. Once a cancer develops it remains localised for a relatively long period, with a high proportion of people surviving five years after diagnosis if their cancer is detected and treated at this early stage. However, most cases are detected at a later stage and so, overall, close to 60% of people diagnosed with the disease survive five years (if other causes of death are excluded). This from IHT 22 Sep 2008.

No more excuses for putting off a colonoscopy

If you've shied away from getting a colonoscopy to screen for colorectal cancer, two new studies may make you less reluctant. One study found that if a first colonoscopy is normal, patients can safely put off having another test for at least five years--and many experts would say at least 10 years. The other study found that so-called virtual colonoscopies, which use CT scans, are roughly as accurate as more intrusive colonoscopies at detecting dangerous growths.

Put those two findings together with colonoscopies' proven ability to detect cancers and pre-cancerous growths, and there's no excuse for procrastinating. In a standard colonoscopy, the doctor sedates a patient and then inserts a long flexible tube with a tiny camera at its tip into the rectum to view the interior lining of the colon. In a virtual colonoscopy, the doctor uses a CT scanner to produce detailed images of the colon's interior. No sedation is required. In both cases, the patient has to take a laxative the day before to cleanse the colon for proper examination.

A large multicenter trial of 2,600 patients in the United States sponsored by the National Cancer Institute has just reported in The New England Journal of Medicine [1] that virtual colonoscopies detected 90 percent of the cancers and precancerous polyps that had been detected by standard colonoscopy. The Cancer Institute deemed this "comparable accuracy."

A second study, also supported by the government and reported in The New England Journal, [2] looked at patients who had returned for a follow-up colonoscopy five years after getting a clean bill of health. Not a single cancer was found among 1,256 patients at the follow-up exam, and only a minuscule number of advanced polyps, whose likelihood of becoming cancer is not known.

This study did not assess the effect of waiting 10 years between standard colonoscopy screenings--the interval recommended by the American Cancer Society and some professional guidelines--but the failure to find a single cancer after five years suggests that the 10-year interval may be reasonable.

Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer in the United States, with an estimated 154,000 new cases last year, and the second most lethal cancer, causing 52,000 deaths last year. Yet a majority of Americans aged 50 or older fail to get screened. The chief importance of the two new studies may be their potential to entice more people to undergo screening that could save their lives.

In its editorial, the New England Journal observes:

Screening for colorectal cancer has lagged behind other cancer screening, but it is now in a dynamic phase. New screening tests are available, and there is stronger evidence of their effectiveness. Screening rates in the United States have increased and are approaching the rates for long-established screening programs for breast and cervical cancer. The objective of screening has shifted from the early detection of cancers to prevention by means of detection and removal of adenomas, the precursors of most colorectal cancers. [3]

1. Accuracy of CT colonography for detection of large adenomas and cancers. Johnson CD et al. N Engl J Med 359:1207, 18 Sep 08
2. Five-year risk of colorectal neoplasia after negative screening colonoscopy. Imperiale TF, et al. N Engl J Med 359:1218, 18 Sep 08
3. Colorectal cancer screening on stronger footing. [Editorial] Fletcher RH. N Engl J Med 359:1285, 18 Sep 08.

About this time of year Canberra's people begin to think nervously about what the summer will bring in the way of water supply. At 50.2%, the city's water storages are more than half full for the first time in over two years. Storage levels this year have been as low as 45.7% cent, well below the 87% of October 2001.

Rainfall thus far this year has been less than half the annual average. Some rain has been beneficial, but much of it soaks into the ground. Rain varies greatly from year to year. In 2005 there was 79mm in October, but in 2006 only 4mm fell and last year 23mm. Similarly there was 94mm in November 2000, 116mm in November 2000, but only 10mm in November 2006.

Lord, I'm tired of being ill all the time, sick of minor but exhausting ailments and sick of feeling weak after every effort to accomplish something.
I am tired of hearing people say: 'There is always something wrong with . . .'
True, there is always something wrong with me. Nothing serious, nothing which makes others look at me and sadly think: 'It could happen to me. . .'
Not even that. What happens to me is of no great consequence. Minor little illnesses which don't scare anyone: a headache here and a cold there; then something wrong with my stomach, and then something else again. Little nothings.
But there is no end to it. And my patience is running out.
I'm beginning to dream about another life, a life without illness. A strong and healthy life where I get up fresh and rested every morning, ready to meet everything with a smile. A beautiful life: the product of my imagination.
And then I begin to envy people. The healthy ones. I think it's unjust: their relaxed expression, their fresh complexion, their meals without fears and worries, [. . .] Teach me, Lord, to understand that they don't understand.
When I don't feel like doing a thing, give me strength. Strength not to give in, as they say. Strength to try at any rate. Lord, help me to bear my endless little miseries with some flair.
-- Paul Geres. Prayers for impossible days. Ausberg Fortress, 1976.

More than once, I've remarked on the common sense of the leaders of the Anglican Communion's Celtic members, the Church of Ireland, the Episcopal Church of Scotland and the Church in wales. I mentioned recently the views of the Most Revd Idris Jones, Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church, reporting on the Lambeth Conference. In his report to the Governing Body of the Church in Wales, the Most Revd Dr Barry Morgan, Archbishop of Wales, said that sexuality should not be a "Communion-breaking" issue, nor should churches be required to sign-up to a new set of binding beliefs. (Wales Online, 18 Sep 08) he said: "[One] of the glories of Anglicanism has been about being held together by our beliefs as contained in historic creeds and formulas but not by agreement to particular statements about that faith in each generation. That is the difference between belonging to a Communion rather than a confession."

He said that "GAFCON members do not believe in engaging in dialogue with people with whom they disagree on human sexuality because it means being open to the possibility that the position of one's opponent might be true when the plain sense reading of Scripture shows in their view that it is not."

Calling for the freedom for Churches to make their own interpretations of the Bible's teaching on this issue, he said: "Why is it that, as far as Anglicanism is concerned, we do not interpret the Scriptures literally when it comes to issues such as usury or marriage and divorce to name but two, but insist on a literal interpretation of texts that allegedly deal with homosexuality?

"It is difficult to believe that we have boxed ourselves into this particular corner. Allegorical, symbolical and mythical interpretations are allowed and have been allowed from the time of the Fathers to the present day for every part of the Bible, except for those that deal with sexuality and one is also left wondering why there cannot be diversity on this issue as on so many other moral issues."

A highlight of Lambeth for Dr Morgan was a march on London by the bishops to call on the world's governments to honour the UN Millennium Goals for the eradication of extreme poverty. Although he acknowledged the severity of the crisis begun in 2003 when the Gene Robinson was elected bishop of New Hampshire, he said "I am left wondering that had we spent our energy on promoting these [Millenium] goals, rather than on debating sexuality over the last 10 years, how different things might be now."

Quite so.

The New South Wales state government is beyond doubt the least competent in the country. Municipal elections last weekend sent the Labor a stern message, with solid swings against the Labor in its former inner-Sydney heartland of inner-city heartland.

But the Liberals gained little, as voters moving to the left to favour the Greens and independents. The Green vote rose sharply, with 78 Green councillors confirmed, up from 58 and the possibility of more to come as counting continued.

The Greens representation on councils increased 25 per cent, including 10 councils which have a Greens presence for the first time. In Byron Bay, the popularly elected mayor Jan Barham won more than 50 per cent of the vote and the Greens achieved 46 per cent of the primary vote. In Leichhardt, the Greens won 46.4% of the vote, nearly as much as Labor and Liberal combined (ALP 24.9%, Liberal 22.3%). In Marrickville, the Greens won 40.2% of the vote, outpolling all other groups. The Greens also look likely to have their first councillors in Canterbury, Burwood, Wyong, Yass and Armidale.

At least three by-elections will follow resignations from state Parliament after the recent ministerial shakeout, with more gloom possible for Labor.

One of my roles is to help church people to be aware of how to ensure safe ministry to children. Thus I have long been concerned at the increasingly inappropriate sexualisation of young people. Of course children are sexual, but they need to express their sexuality in naturally child-like ways. I was disturbed this picture, published in the latest edition of Time in a piece on teen-sex, as an illustration of how our perceptions of the same eleven year old child can be so easily manipulated. Time says,

Most important, say therapists and academics, adults need to look to themselves. "There's a whole other piece that we don't talk about," says [psychologist Deborah] Tolman, "which is holding the people who are reacting to these young girls accountable." When tweens see a picture of [Miley] Cyrus with her back bare and her hair tousled, they don't see her as postcoital. That's an adult interpretation. Cyrus has made it abundantly clear that she hopes to remain a virgin until she's married. "It's this very odd attitude," says [author Gigi] Durham, "where at once we want to eroticize [girls like Britney Spears and Cyrus], and then we turn around and condemn them immediately."

Maybe we believe so readily in notions like a plague of teen sex because they titillate us, the grownups. The volume of child-pornography arrests has skyrocketed in the past decade. It's not teens who are using it. And it's mostly not teens who indulge in the voyeuristic obsession with starlets or who use young people to sell products or win votes. It's all of us. Fifty years ago last month, Lolita was published in the US. Her name is often invoked to describe today's teens. But what people forget is that in Nabokov's book, Lolita was the victim.

Labor Attorney-General Robert McClelland today introduced to Parliament the second stage of legislation removing same-sex discrimination from a range of Commonwealth laws. The amendments will remove discrimination in areas including social security, taxation, Medicare, veteran's affairs, workers' compensation, and educational assistance.

The changes will provide for equality of treatment under a wide range of Commonwealth laws between same-sex and opposite-sex de facto couples. Importantly, the reforms will ensure children are not discriminated against because of the structure of their family. In areas such as social security and taxation, the reforms will be phased in to allow time for couples to adjust their finances and for administrative arrangements to be implemented. All changes are expected to be implemented by mid-2009.

Earlier this year, the Rudd Government introduced legislation to end same-sex discrimination in Acts governing Commonwealth superannuation schemes; that legislation is still languishing in the Opposition-controlled Senate. The challenge for newly-elected Opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull is to make good his stated support for these long-overdue reforms, by allowing them to pass the Senate. Speaking in Parliament on 5 June 2008 on legislation to remove discrimination against same-sex couples in access to superannuation for government employees, Mr Turnbull said

I strongly support the object of this legislation, the Same-Sex Relationships (Equal Treatment in Commonwealth Laws--Superannuation) Bill 2008. Discriminating against people on the basis of their sexual orientation is as abhorrent as discriminating against them on the basis of their religion or their race. That is why I was very proud, as a member of the Howard cabinet, in November last year--having never backed away from my commitment to equal treatment of and justice for people of the same sex who are living together-- to be able to announce as part of our election commitment going into the election that the Howard government would recognise interdependency relationships for the purpose of eligibility for death benefits under the Australian government's defined benefit superannuation schemes. That is essentially the object of the legislation in front of us today.

Mr Turbull went on to give reasons for the legislation being delayed by a Senate inquiry and challenged the Government to back date the legislation to November 2007, to cover any delay.

So let us stop the slur that suggests that the Liberal Party are homophobic or are trying to frustrate the object of this legislation. The Liberal Party are committed to this. We were committed to this at the time of the election; we are committed to it now.

On the ABC's 7.30 Report last night, Mr Turnbull re-iterated his opposition to discrimination.

Kerry O'Brien: I know that you're reluctant to get into policy detail at the moment, and you're not yet backing away from established Coalition policy. But during the last election, when you were struggling to hold your seat of Wentworth against the tide, and when the gay vote was very important to you, you promised to be a crusader for gay rights, delivering equality for same sex couples. You spoke in favour of the Government's bill on this issue in a speech in June and you had vowed to persuade Shadow Cabinet to support you. As leader, will you undertake to take - will you take shadow cabinet along with you? Will you tell them this is not negotiable for you? You'll tell your party that?.
Malcolm Turnbull: Well, Kerry, the Coalition, you know, the shadow cabinet, the party room is opposed to -- or supports ending -- discrimination against same sex couples.
Kerry O'Brien: Do you feel that you have the full support of your party on this?
Malcolm Turnbull: Absolutely.
Kerry O'Brien: OK.
Malcolm Turnbull: And that issue of ending that sort of legal or financial discrimination is, you know, that is our policy. Now, there are issues about drafting and language, but the principle of ending discrimination is a given. Having said that, it is our policy, as indeed it is the Labor Party's policy that marriage is a permanent union between a man and a woman. But having said that, that does not mean -- and it most certainly does not mean -- that we should discriminate against relationships between people of the same sex.

So now the ball is in firmly in Mr Turnbull's court, to show that he can overcome the conservative nay-sayers in his own party.

The list of laws to be changed indicates the thorough nature of the reforms as well as the extensiveness of the discrimination existing in federal laws.

A New Tax System (Family Assistance) (Administration) Act 1999 A New Tax System (Family Assistance) Act 1999 A New Tax System (Medicare Levy Surcharge--Fringe Benefits) Act 1999 Aboriginal Land Grant (Jervis Bay Territory) Act 1986 Acts Interpretation Act 1901 Administrative Decisions (Judicial Review) Act 1977 Age Discrimination Act 2004 Aged Care Act 1997 Airports Act 1996 Australian Citizenship Act 2007 Australian Federal Police Act 1979 Australian Meat and Livestock Industry Act 1997 Australian Passports Act 2005 Australian Postal Corporation Act 1989 Bankruptcy Act 1966 Broadcasting Services Act 1992 Civil Aviation (Carriers' Liability) Act 1959 Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 Corporations (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) Act 2006 Corporations Act 2001 Crimes (Superannuation Benefits) Act 1989 Crimes Act 1914 Customs Act 1901 Defence (Parliamentary Candidates) Act 1969 Defence Force (Home Loans Assistance) Act 1990 Defence Service Homes Act 1918 Education Services for Overseas Students Act 2000 Export Market Development Grants Act 1997 Farm Household Support Act 1992 Financial Sector (Shareholdings) Act 1998 Foreign Acquisitions and Takeovers Act 1975 Fringe Benefits Tax Assessment Act 1986 Health Insurance Act 1973 High Court Justices (Long Leave Payments) Act 1979

Higher Education Support Act 2003 Immigration (Education) Act 1971 Immigration (Guardianship of Children) Act 1946 Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 Insurance Acquisitions and Takeovers Act 1991 Judges (Long Leave Payments) Act 1979 Judicial and Statutory Officers (Remuneration and Allowances) Act 1984 Life Insurance Act 1995 Medibank Private Sale Act 2006 Members of Parliament (Life Gold Pass) Act 2002 Migration Act 1958 Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2004 National Health Act 1953 Navigation Act 1912 Parliamentary Entitlements Act 1990 Passenger Movement Charge Collection Act 1978 Pooled Development Funds Act 1992 Privacy Act 1988 Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 Prohibition of Human Cloning for Reproduction Act 2002 Research Involving Human Embryos Act 2002 Royal Australian Air Force Veterans' Residences Act 1953 Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988 Seafarers Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1992 Service and Execution of Process Act 1992 Sex Discrimination Act 1984 Social Security Act 1991 Student Assistance Act 1973 Superannuation Act 1976 Telstra Corporation Act 1991 Trade Representatives Act 1933 Veterans' Entitlements Act 1986 Witness Protection Act 1994

Ian Duhig The Lammas Hireling After the fair, I'd still a light heart and a heavy purse, he struck so cheap. And cattle doted on him: in his time mine only dropped heifers, fat as cream. Yields doubled. I grew fond of company that knew when to shut up. Then one night, disturbed from dreams of my dear late wife, I hunted down her torn voice to his pale form. Stock-still in the light from the dark lantern, stark-naked but for one bloody boot of fox-trap, I knew him a warlock, a cow with leather horns. To go into the hare gets you muckle sorrow, the wisdom runs, muckle care. I levelled and blew the small hour through his heart. The moon came out. By its yellow witness I saw him fur over like a stone mossing. His lovely head thinned. His top lip gathered. His eyes rose like bread. I carried him in a sack that grew lighter at every step and dropped him from a bridge. There was no splash. Now my herd's elf-shot. I don't dream but spend my nights casting ball from half-crowns and my days here. Bless me Father for I have sinned. It has been an hour since my last confession.

I like good poetry. One of my pet peeves is impenetrable poetry that refuses to yield up meaning even to the so-called intelligent reader. Duhig's "The Lammas Hireling" may well have won prestigious prizes, but it made no sense to me until Wikipedia informed me that, in some English-speaking countries in the Northern Hemisphere, 1 August is Lammas Day (loaf-mass day), the festival of the first wheat harvest of the year. On this day it was customary to bring to church a loaf made from the new crop. In many parts of England, tenants were bound to present freshly harvested wheat to their landlords on or before the first day of August. In the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, it is called "the feast of first fruits". In England and Scotland, Lammas was one of the Medieval quarter days, the four days dividing the legal year, when rent and interest on loans, and ministers' stipends were due, contracts and leases would begin or end and when servants were hired and paid. Hence, The Lammas Hireling.

The Canberra Times has published a piece by its religion reporter, Graham Downie, purporting to give the names of the candidates for the upcoming election of the 10th Bishop of Canberra and Goulburn, to begin on 31 October.

In the run up to the election, it has been made clear to the electors (members of the diocesan synod) that the names of the candidates would and should be kept confidential. The names are yet to be advised to the electors (of which I am one among over 300).

The Vicar-General (Acting Bishop) even said to the Synod, only half in jest, that he hoped that we could ensure that the Synod would know about the candidates before Mr Downie did. Either Mr Downie is guessing, or there has been a lamentable breach of confidentiality. It is unfortunate that the Canberra Times would want to publish a story based on such a breach.

Eternal God, shepherd and guide, in your mercy give your Church in this diocese a shepherd after your own heart who will walk in your ways, and with loving care watch over your people. Grant us a leader of vision and a teacher of your truth. So your Church may be built up and your name glorified; through Jesus Christ our Lord. [From A Prayer Book for Australia, p212]