Beans in my ears

 In 1964 I recall listening to a song that commenced with the lines:

My mother said not to put beans in my ears.

Pity Tony wasn’t around to learn the lesson as a youngster.

It was originally written to satarise the fact that adults did not listen to children. Its cover in 1996 by Pete Seeger urged LBJ not to put beans in his ears in regard to the Vietnam war and the rising anger of the people. 

I have been left over the past near six months wondering where all the dried beans have gone from the  supermarket and my growing conclusion is that they are bought up by all the politicians who fly in here for parliament.

Increasingly the direct dialogue between the elected and the electorate has closed down as if we had woken from a nightmare into some despotic dystopia.

The current government has decided:

•   there are things they will talk about and things they will not (sic: treatment of refugees seeking      asylum; defence related spending) 
• they can bend and twist the rules to the edge of legality regardless of ethics (When is special access to parliamentarians tied to party membership fees - Oh, isn’t that a political donation?);   
•  their guffaws, misdeeds and corruptions will be glossed over by the mainstream  press;  (Take Christopher Pine’s asides in the house whether words or gestures)
• public servants will be directed not speak in criticism of the policies of the government;
•  that they can they treat the general populous with disdain as though we are just too ignorant to really understand what is going on and have redefined so many words in the lexicon that I am losing count.(When is a levy a tax? What does it mean when Tony says it’s not what he said that is the problem, but what we heard?) I’m sorry Tony but if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck then there is no point telling us it is a giraffe. Beware of growing noses and pimples on your tongue.

Through all the angst this is causing me, and just about everyone else I talk to, I have been puzzling about just what is the purpose of government. It seems to me that this mob think it is about money and balancing budgets only. They have forgotten that they have an absolute responsibility to ensure that all people in our society can access a good life in this prosperous country - and that means making policy that ensures fiscal responsibility AND cares for the people. They have forgotten the latter with their mean and despicable imposts on those who can least afford to pay.

The cigar toting, $50 000 Washington dinner for 60 treasurer needs to get his head out of his dark nether regions and walk in the shoes of  some of the people who live so close to the bone from week to week that a $7 co-payment for a trip to the doctor is a choice between eating today or not. This is just cruel policy. And as for suggesting that $7 is no more than two middies of beer or a quarter a pack of cigarettes- that’s just arrogant elitism that suggests all people who are in lesser circumstances than him are there by their own choice and just need a good kick up the bum. 

I note the inclusion of funds for school chaplains in the budget. I have to say, if being schooled in a religious faith delivers the bunch of arrogant, hubristic, oligarchs that are currently in charge, that’s reason enough to eliminate it from the curriculum.

Do I sound angry? You bet I am!

The song I quoted to start this post has an additional line that says: 

You can’t hear the teacher with beans in your ears.

I’m the teacher Tony. Get some cotton buds!

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No ART WORK this week - just too depressed and flaberghasted by government machinations!