Courage, Equality and Shame
February 23rd 2007 20:37
NEWS: Britain’’s Prince Harry to be Deployed to Iraq:
Britain defense ministry confirmed Thursday that Prince Harry, son of Prince Charles and Princess Diana, and third in line to the British throne, will be sent to Iraq in May or June of this year.
Harry will serve as a troop commander in charge of several light tank reconnaissance vehicles. While there has been speculation that he would be placed in a position of relative safety, Harry has stated that he does not want special treatment, and he therefore will carry out a ““normal troop commander’’s role”” according to Clarence House, who speaks on behalf of the prince and the Ministry of Defense.
VIEWS:
Good luck and Godspeed, Harry. May the force be with you and all the troops serving in Iraq.
NEWS:
Men and women tennis players will receive equal prize money at Wimbledon this year for the first time in the history of what some consider the most prestigious tennis tournament in the world. This move follows the U.S. Open and the Australian Open moves in paying equal prize money across all events.
John McEnroe, the former bad boy of tennis, has long campaigned for this change. Former six-time singles champion Billie Jean King, a pioneer for women's sports agreed: ““This news has been a long time coming," she said. "Wimbledon is one of the most respected events in all of sports and now with women and men paid on an equal scale, it demonstrates to the rest of the world that this is the right thing to do for the sport, the tournament and the world.””
At 4pm on October 14, 2005, Garry Chaston the top Immigration Department official on duty on Thursday Island, Queensland, Australia began taking distress calls from the Immigration vessel Malu Sara, which was carrying four adults and a child on the 74km trip between Saibai Island and Badu Island through Queensland’’s treacherous Torres Straits.
The skipper Wildred Baira, told Mr Chaston he was ““lost in fog.”” Aside from Captain Baira the vessel carried three other adults and one child.
At 6pm Mr Chaston handed the matter over to a inexperienced junior officer, Jerry Stephen, so he could keep an appointment to take his wife to dinner at the Thursday Island Bowls Club.
At 2.15am the next day, Mr Chaston was told by Water Police, who had taken over the situation, the boat was "sinking fast", but Chaston, the most senior Immigration officer on Thursday Island did not return to take control until 9.15am. But by then, the Malu Sara had sunk, and all aboard were presumed dead.
Asked about the incident, Mr Chaston, who was moved to Immigration Department offices in Cairns because Torres Strait Islanders were threatening him, said: “I have been advised by the department not to say anything, so you will have to direct your questions to them.”
Torres Strait Islanders are claiming that the government agency let the boat sink because the passengers were black. Badu Island chairman Jack Ahmat said: ““If the boat had police or Customs people in it, they would have been rescued immediately, but because they are black people, they don't worry about them.””
VIEWS:
Seems like a great dereliction of duty to this writer and if Gary Chaston is not relieved of duty completely and fired, a further dereliction of duty will seem to have occurred.
CLICHE OF THE DAY: (not really a ““cliche,”” but interesting nonetheless):
The word golf came from olde Scotland where the game was invented. It was called: ““Gentlemen Only- Ladies Forbidden - ““GOLF””
JOKE OF THE DAY:A king gathered his serfs all together and told them that he wanted two moats around his castle. Now, the kingdom had not had a war for the last three hundred years, and the serfs felt that digging two moats around the king’’s castle was useless and foolhardy; they refused to dig the moats.
The king assembled all his army and threatened the serfs with death if they did not dig the moats. The serfs conferred among themselves, and the spokesman said to the king “O, your majesty, we dig you the moats”
Thanks for reading, please vote and please look at sponsor ads if you see something interesting
| 39 |
| Vote |
