G'Day From Downunder

Time for a cup'pa tea again so get the kettle on and let's get cracking.

It's hard not to comment on soccer at the moment having seen so much of the World Cup on TV in recent times.

The Germans shamed the Australians 4-0, embarrassed the English 4-1 and murdered the Argentines 4-0. Who said soccer was a boring game with very few goals scored? Twelve goals in three games for Germany doesn't look few or skimpy to me.

And gee, didn't the Brazilian Flamingos slip out the back door with a shameful loss to the Dutch?

Then it was time for the semi-finals and the chance of a lifetime for some unfancied team to step up to the mark.

The Dutch disposed of the last of the South Americans, Uruguay, and surprise, surprise the Spanish knocked off the highly-fancied Germans who, as mentioned, scored twelve goals in their previous three games but just couldn't sneak one past the highly-charged Spanish team when it mattered.

However, the Germans got their rhythm back and scored another three goals against Uruguay to snatch the third place. By now everybody will know that the Dutch are drowning their sorrows with Bols Gin or Heineken from their sad loss while the Spaniards consume gallons of sangria with jubilation now that they have won their first "World Cup", the holy grail of soccer.

So that's that over for another four years and we can get back to our normal sleeping hours down here in Oz and maybe South Africa can focus on its real problems.

It seems to me that the country is virtually a powder keg waiting to explode. The subject is too broad and involved to address in detail here.

To the world enthusiasts who have been watching the soccer it all looks wonderful but to the keen observer it is like an extravagant mausoleum, beautiful on the outside and rotten on the inside; I sure hope Nelson Mandela lives on for many more years for as soon as his day arrives I fear so will South Africa's.

I know it's good PR to have had the World Cup in South Africa but with so many internal problems and such great poverty the money would have been better spent on more humanitarian projects making a real difference to peoples' lives.

Last week I watched an interview with John Bon Jovi who put the entertainment industry (and that includes soccer) into perspective. "This is not real life it's only fun, the real life is when I go home". A sentiment I have emphasized many times in my own writing.

So now that the fun is over in South Africa is it going to be 'Ka-boom' or down to the serious building of a stable and better nation for all? I hope for the latter but something tells me its only wishful thinking.

The Irish Australian Chamber of Commerce recently elected a new President Brian Shanahan. Brian is also a Councillor on the Melbourne City Council. He is also a past President of the Celtic Club which is the oldest Celtic Club in Australia.

I had the good fortune to work with Brian for about four years on the board of the Celtic Club some years back. He is highly respected in the Melbourne community and it is a very good appointment for the Chamber. He will certainly serve them very well during his tenure in this office.

Dubliner Jim Stynes, president of the Melbourne Football Club and popular Melburnian has been back to hospital to have some more tumours removed from his brain.

He is recovering well and is out and about trying to get back to normal life. Jim has a history of being as tough as nails and no doubt nothing changes here for the iconic Dubliner of Aussie Rules Football.

I don't give a stuff if Angelina and Brad are in Africa holding up another new acquisition to the Pitt family just to keep their faces in the media. So what if Jennifer Addison has been cheated on by John Mayer?

What is it with some journalist these days? Can't they write about sensible meaningful things? Things that are relevant or are they all worried about political correctness?

I read today in my local Australian paper a two-page spread about Vampires. Boy oh boy isn't that an important subject today? Something we should all know about and spend lots of time studying. The subject would have been better had it addressed the blood sucking vampires that roam the finance industry. [Too true, the newspapers should be reporting on the real threat to humanity... Zombies! - Ed.]

Then there was a quarter page write up and a picture of a $A75 dollar cocktail now available in a Melbourne Night Club and, if that wasn't enough to make you throw up last night's dinner, there was a half page story and pictures of Fosters UK representative Danie Hopkirk holding a limited edition bottle of Crown Lager (beer) that the brewery sent to Queen Elizabeth valued at $A89.99.

Can't you just see the Queen sitting back in her rocking chair with a cigarette hanging out of her mouth and sucking down a bottle of Australian beer while watching her favourite soap show on TV?

Do we really give a stuff about all that gobbledygook? Surely not!

I'm really sorry that toilet paper was invented because before it was we used to wipe our 'you know whats' with chopped up newspaper and I'm afraid that that is about all most papers should now be used for.

The name "newspaper" suggests that they should contain news. For God's sake let's get back to some serious news and humour in the media and leave the world of gossip to gossip magazines.

There are too many serious matters to write about and read about beyond whether George Clooney and Hugh Grant are gay or not... who gives a rat's?

As much as I like to poke fun sometimes, I do have a very serious side to me and I do give a lot of credence to the Charley Brady's of this world; at least they write with heart and soul.

You don't have to agree but at least the message is delivered with passion and void of political correctness and that's how journalism should be.

In saying that credit must also fall on the shoulders of our editor Grahame Curtis and publisher Paddy McCarthy for giving us writers the freedom to call a spade a spade and a shovel a shovel.

On that note I'll shovel off now... until I talk to you again soon, be good to those who love you and Slainte from Downunder!

You can get me on mike@globefins.com.au