On Sun, Sep 17, 2000 at 02:31:39PM +1100, Howard Lowndes ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote:
> David, as the father of an Olympic athelete, and one who is very aware of
> the sacrifices that my son has made to get where he is, I find your remark
> to be most offensive.
>
> --
> Howard.
Dear Howard,
I understand how you feel.
At the (tender) age of 36 I was allowed to swim at the Commonwealth Games
Time trials and did rather well. So I *KNOW* what training means and
in Masters swimming I am at a level where people need to beat me to win
(and I havent been beaten for a while).
However, I understand how David (and some other sluggers) feels, too.
It it sad to see, how much importance Sport is given in Australia.
It is sad to see, how important the Olympics has become but yet,
the Australian Dollar is on its lowest terms ever and nobody in the
world want to buy Australian products, or?
Just open the age and proceed to the car section. What so you see?
"The newly imported XXXXXX"
"Fresh from Europe, a MUST BUY!"
"...."
and it continues in ANY OTHER adveritsing section you ever see:
its valid for anything: TV, radio, computer, kitchenstuff and
the list goes on and on and on.
What does this do to the worker in Australia?
Everytime <s>he goes to work <s>he knows that the product which is
produced by her/his hand will be crap (in the minds of people).
......... and it the vicious circle? It will be a bad product cause
nobody believes in it, and hence the worker will not believe in it, too!
And with respect to our "brainy" people? Why dont they want to stay here?
Of course, there is no infrastructure to support them! So they go.
A "service" industry like Australia (as it tends to become) wont succeed/survive.
Another thing I noticed and please dont misunderstand me, a lot of
my friends are "ethnic" (whatever that REALLY means):
On the night of the soccer match (AUS vs ITA) people were interviewed, and
there were a lot of people of italian background. There were there to back
the Italian team, not the Australian team, although they were born in Oz!
What is the problem with this picture (This is valid for a lot of cultures).
IMHO this leads to the problem that a lot of times people tend to stick
in their culture background, buying products from their country of origin.
I just bought myself a new cart. I could have (as many people do) bought
European based carts (tony, dino eg) but I did not. I bought an Arrows
which is built in Melbourne. And you know what? Its as quick as anything
out there, and if you crash -> spare parts are just around the corner!
And then Howard goes along and cuts the funding to Universities.
And then Howard goes along cuts the funding for small businesses.
How can you start up something when you are not supported?
And the software industry? Sucks. They have to fight one of the
most un-ethical companies (big ones) in the world to get up and
going...... and still billions of dollars go overseas each year
for some pathetic upgrades of software which has sooooo many bugs
that if a car would be build in that manner it would get the name
of a "lemon" the next day it would be on the market.
And then I have to wonder when people say at the games (for
whatever reason):
"The best thing I have ever done!"
Seeing my son being born two years ago makes a lot of things completely
meaningless. When his head emerged I was overwhelmed by emotions,
this two or three seconds became infinity.
And it really sucks when the reporter said when Ian Thorpe beat Gary Hall jr:
This must be the best swim of a swimmer I have eveer seen!
Mind you he was ahead when they both dived into the pool by 1 meter and
when they touched he was ahead by the width of a hand.
What about Klim breaking the world record in the same event?
What about Chris Fydler (by the way he is in his early 30th's) breaking
his own best time by 0.5 of a second in the same event. This all seemed
to become meaningless if they is a person who seemed to be the star.
What about team spirirt?
mmmhhh.
jobst
PS: I am sitting between to chairs, I tend to like the Olympics and dislike it.
Two people I admire are Kieren Perkins and Alexander Popov.
BUT: I admire Sue, my partner.
--
Dick Smith is right. Read whats on his jam, peanut butter etc.
| __, Jobst Schmalenbach, [EMAIL PROTECTED], Technical Director|
| _ _.--'-n_/ Barrett Consulting Group P/L & The Meditation Room P/L |
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