The Reality of Living in Australia and Covid

[GILow]

Originally Posted by Seaworthy Lass

...

In Australia it seems to me that COVID-19 has mutated into COVID-1984.



SWL

SWL, although I understand the sentiment of your statement I don’t think it is reading the mood correctly. At the end of the day we are a democracy and some state governments are going to be rolled as a result of measures they put in place.

But their political life span is probably defined more by luck than the decisions they made. Where the state government responses have succeeded in containing Covid 19 they’ll be a shoe-in for the next election, whereas those in the other states will be dusting off the CV and looking at Seek.com.

This is despite the fact that, subtleties aside, all have responded in much the same way.

The 1984 reference would only apply if there were not the free and fair state elections that take place no matter what. The political landscape in Australia will look very different in a few years. Sure sign of a healthy democracy.

[Seaworthy Lass]

Originally Posted by El Pinguino

I think all Murdoch 'print media' is behind a paywall if you are in Australia.

Yep, I just tried using an Aussie VPN and I was blocked from accessing The Australian.
No issues from Europe.

[El Pinguino]

Originally Posted by Seaworthy Lass

Despite the notion that Aussies are free spirited individuals, we tend to be law abiding citizens and do not chafe at the bit too much. Regulations have gradually been getting more restrictive though. I notice this each time I return home. Italy, Greece, the Netherlands and UK have all seemed dramatically more relaxed to me.

I have been surprised though just how much support there has been for the lockdowns and closed borders, both internal and external. I think GILow is correct in stating that “the vast majority of Australians are stoically putting up with the restrictions”.

The reports of people informing on those breaking covid restrictions, even minor ones has disturbed me as have images of armed police and even the military roaming streets. This is like nothing I have ever experienced before in Australia.

Around half of Australia’s population is under stay-at-home lockdown with some outdoor activities relaxing this past week and curfews only just being lifted (Melbourne has now had 230+ days in total of these restrictions). This segment is being threatened that if unvaccinated, not only will they will not be able to visit restaurants or entertainment venues, etc, but they will not be able to participate in society at all including socialising privately with family and friends. Vaccination has even been mandated for numerous jobs, eg construction workers.

In Australia it seems to me that COVID-19 has mutated into COVID-1984.

SWL

Oh, dear I can assure that ' armed police and even the military ( are ) roaming streets.' is alarmist nonsense.

'Around half of Australia’s population is under stay-at-home lockdown with some outdoor activities '

Sydney is not under a lockdown - it is under a 'mockdown' or did you miss the photos of Bondi a few weeks ago.

There have been a few bad things happen, like when the old lady who was walking her dog was set upon by police, beaten and then shot. They dumped her body in the Yarra and took her dog home and put it on the barbie.
True story, Raymond told me - he saw it on Sky.

[Simi 60]

Originally Posted by El Pinguino

I think all Murdoch 'print media' is behind a paywall if you are in Australia.
.

Ain't it wonderful

Amazes me that people would pay money for that crap and believe it
Murdoch rag is not even good enough for wrapping actual crap up in.

[Simi 60]

Originally Posted by Van Der Beek

This pretty much reminds me of the current situation.

If politicians and media didn't remind us 24/7 none of us would be aware of a pandemic in the first place.

MSM told me - I heard it on the news, so therefore it is true

True or False: You decide.

I have family members in England with it.
I know people who have died from it
I'm sure others here know of and have lost friends and family from it.

True enough for you?

[RaymondR]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

???

Could you explain this pithy statement, please? It sounds kinda unfriendly... but perhaps it just is outside my understanding.

Jim

He, or she, is quiet obviously talking about leafy Tasmania, which appears to have adopted you Jim. As far as I, am I'm sure just about all sensible Australians, am concerned you are welcome for as long as you want to stay mate.

[RaymondR]

The union riot was only the CMFEU and the police did not arrive in force until the members turned on the leadership and they were obliged to take shelter inside the headquarters whereupon the members started smashing their way in.

The union leadership has accepted responsibility in declaring that it was "neo fascists" elements who were responsible although I am quiet surprised that they have finally confessed that they are themselves the most neo fascistic elements in Australian society.

[Cadence]

Originally Posted by Simi 60

Here you go

Thanks, I had never heard the term. Sounds like a reference to the black plague. I thought that was fleas from rats only thought to be airborne?
For what it is worth I agree.
I'm not sure that answers my question. Is all of the political discourse in Australia on this only, COVID related or does it run deeper?

[SV DINGO]

Originally Posted by RaymondR

The union riot was only the CMFEU and the police did not arrive in force until the members turned on the leadership and they were obliged to take shelter inside the headquarters whereupon the members started smashing their way in.

The union leadership has accepted responsibility in declaring that it was "neo fascists" elements who were responsible although I am quiet surprised that they have finally confessed that they are themselves the most neo fascistic elements in Australian society.

When in doubt blame a neo fascist group.

The CFMEU is the financier of the Labour Party so the Dictator had to send his Black riot muppets in so the media could take some good pics but all show biz.

Did you see a construction worker knocked down???

DD would run out of cash if he would do that.

[SV DINGO]

Interesting news from Victoria. Non obedience will shut down your industry.

Got a question , in that case , will the Tax payer pay support money to Construction workers as they have temp lost their job? Will the Gov. ONLY pay workers with a Vax passport??

If we the Taxpayers pay all workers , i trust other industries would also like a paid bit of time off.

How far will this Dictator go before other people will stand up???

[Wotname]

The Murdoch hard copy makes for good fire lighters but not much else as Simi 60 correctly observes. Fortunately online it is pay walled in Oz so that helps to keep it's exposure down a bit.

GILow sums up the Australian Covid experience pretty well.

Reading some of the online stuff one could get the idea that 50% of the population is locked in their homes with police snipers picking off escapees - which of course is ridiculous.

From what I read the UK experience has been way more traumatic and family reports there sort of confirms this.

However the state premiers are very very worried about their respective health departments - they have been chronically underfunded for years and most were near breaking point pre-covid. The voters will be unforgiving if they collapse.

[Wotname]

Originally Posted by Cadence

..........
I'm not sure that answers my question. Is all of the political discourse in Australia on this only, COVID related or does it run deeper?

While I am not exactly sure of your question, I think it fair to say that Aussies mostly think all politicians of any party are about trust worthy as used car salesmen. We rarely vote an opposing party in, we mostly vote a sitting party out when their lying becomes untenable.

Covid hasn't changed this.

[GILow]

Originally Posted by Cadence

...
I'm not sure that answers my question. Is all of the political discourse in Australia on this only, COVID related or does it run deeper?

I think it’s business as usual, Aussies are normally a pretty relaxed bunch and we do give a damn about our neighbours. A few idiots acting like self entitled jerks does not define a country.

[Alan Mighty]

Originally Posted by Cadence

Thanks, I had never heard the term. Sounds like a reference to the black plague. I thought that was fleas from rats only thought to be airborne?

The Black Death aka Plague, thought to be due to infection by the bacterium Yersina pestis, can be transmitted in any of several ways.

One way was by an insect vector such as a flea, moving between infected animals (whether rodents or humans - but the rat was easily blamed) and transferring the bacteria when it bit the animals. When the Yersina infection developed, buboes (swollen lymph nodes) formed on the infected person, leading to the name 'bubonic plaque'.

Another of the several means of transfer of Yersina pestis is by droplet or aerosol. And that led to the name 'pneumonic plague'. That airborne infection route is recorded in so-called nursery songs with lines such as 'Ring around a rosie, a pocketful of posies, atishoo atishoo we all fall down' to show the link between lack of physical distancing, sneezing, and death.

In the USA, deaths from Yersina pestis are few, 1 - 4 a year (the new case number averages 7 a year, usually in the range of 1 - 17 new cases each year). Mostly the bubonic form and not pneumonic plague (it takes a human to sneeze within close proximity to get successful transfer of the pneumonic plague; a lot of the human cases in the US are males working outdoors in more-or-less solitary fashion).

Plague in the US is understood to have been introduced to North America by rats travelling by ship across the Atlantic from Europe. Those rats then spread Yersina from urban areas to rodents in rural areas and it's in those rural areas of New Mexico, Arizona, and Colorado that Yersina seems to have remained within wild rodent species for at least one century now. In good years for rodents, Yersina cases sometimes occur in the human population in California and even Nevada.

As for political discourse in Australia: I'd discount anyone who comments on the nature of political discourse in any polity without a broad-ranging opinion survey for supporting data.

As in the US, the bulk of the Australian population is urban and is split by race, religion, class, caste, gender, and more. The big difference between the US and Aus is that most Aus hail from one of the tiny number of big cities; a very much larger proportion of USAns hail from any of the large number of small cities, towns, and whatever.

Most all the Aus CF members are urban whites. 21% of Australians are non-white non-indigenes. So the CF population (with one or two rare exceptions, one of whom I've not seen active for several months) are from that other 79%. In Australia, theoretically almost all citizens over 18 years age have registered to vote and are legally required to attend a polling place at election time (or make a gesture at lodging a vote by other means). The proportion of the population that is disengaged from the voting process and politics has risen dramatically in recent decades.

So when you're reading what CF members write, try to think who they are and from where they come. The blow-ins from the US, Jim and Ann, rarely make comment on Aus politics. Look at the others and try to work out the state or big city from which they hail. Melbourne and Sydney are dominant - one is the 19th century city of modernity; the other is the 18-19th century city of the English colonial officer and gentry class. Look for CF members from Queensland, the northeastern state. It's the most decentralised, with a string of small cities and large towns along its coast. And note the few from Perth and its state of Western Australia.

You'll note big differences in opinion from the Melbourne (Bleak City) & Sydney (the Big Smoke) on the one hand and the QLDers on the other. The Perth/West Aus people are another oddity.

The old narrative about white settlers in Aus went like this: the ship from Europe made first port at a small town near Perth (West Aus), and only the most adventurous disembarked; then the ship went to the city of modernity, Melbourne, with goldfields and private entrepreneurs galore, so the like-minded liberal and entrepreneurial thinkers disembarked; the establishment and wealthy continued to the next port, Sydney, in hope that it would prove better than Melbourne (and be more British and upper class), so the majority of what was left disembarked; the past port of call was Brisbane (or sometimes Maryborough), when the crew had to pry the fingers of the unwilling from the mast and toss them ashore.

A few other ports and states - Tasmania, Adelaide in S Aus - do not fit in that narrative. Nor does Darwin (in N Territory) or the federal capital.

To be like an Aussie (at least a white urban one), you'd now set yourself a drinking game. You'd get a sheet of paper and draw up a table of the prolific CF posters from Aus, with your best guess about their home state and hailing port/city. Then you'd have columns of the political spectrum. And you'd put check marks to mark your guesses about the ideational content of their posts. You'd have a set of rules: you'd perhaps down a shot each time a CF user with a cap-R in their name made a individualistic/right-wing comment ... and so on.

Australia has had Yersina cases in the past. Unlike the US, wild or native animals do not sustain a population of the bacterium.

[El Pinguino]

A lot of Ten Pound Poms got off the boat in Freo cos they thought they would get a cupla quid discount for disembarking early.
In more recent times a lot of South Africans settled there cos they thought it would be just like home.

An interesting piece in 'WAtoday' today.
https://www.watoday.com.au/national/...jobid=29334073