Too Much Milo
Look around, I think we should be giving our leaders a rap.
Many would argue that places like North Korea and the US are at opposite ends of the see-saw. But one view sees them both sitting next to each other at one end. With no internet and total control of what their residents see and hear, the NK government spins things to keep the public ‘informed’ about just how great their nation is. A friend of mine recently visited the DMZ between North and South Korea, and he had to get ‘dressed-up’, so to speak. The reason was that everyone from the free world who visits this place must assume they’re being filmed. Evidently if you’re unshaven and dressed in trakkies, t-shirt, thongs when you visit the DMZ, there’s a chance you’ll appear on the North Korean version of ‘Sunrise’, as an example of just how much the world outside has gone to pot. Ultimate control. It was the first time my friend had run a comb through his hair in years!
Not much different really in the US. The spin that has occurred over the past few months to fool the average Joe into believing ‘everything is OK’ and to shine a positive light on their handling of the virus (let alone the recent race riots) would make Kim Jong Un extremely jealous. Damage control via saturation of social media, television and radio by those in government seems to have been the primary objective, as opposed to actually doing what they were elected to do… taking control. From half a world away, it seems the primary objective is not getting offside with any voters as the obsession of getting re-elected far outweighed the tasks of solving the problems and taking responsibility. Just like NK, those in power position in the US have spent a lot of time telling everyone that others in the world are to blame.
Here in Oz, whilst we had a small minority of ‘my poop doesn’t stink’ people, on the whole we’d probably be on the medal dais when it comes to handling things. Our pollies and their advisors made strong decisions, and when pushback came from naysayers, they stood (and are standing) firm - what we expect from those we elected, no matter which party we favour. The federal and state governments will get re-elected (or not) on what they did during these times, not what they didn’t do. If one of the biggest issues ends up being that we over-estimated how much money we needed to get us through the tough times, then we should be happy with that. That’s kind-of like whinging because your mum put too much milo on your ice-cream.
For the maths lovers - the population of the US is about 13 times greater than ours. Tragically, we’ve had 103 Australians pass from the virus. We will be able to mourn every one of them by name. All things being equal, statistically that means about 1300 people should have lost their lives in the US. They’ve just passed the 105 000 people mark. No maths degree needed there. Now, despite their problems being a THOUSAND times worse than ours, the virus isn’t even on the front page of their tabloids this week, as they’ve moved on to their next tragedy. All the while many citizens walk around town with a gun strapped to their side.
Hearts go out to those who have lost a loved one, had their job taken away or seen their business devastated by current world events. We’ll be back drinking schooners, getting tatts and camping without restrictions pretty soon, but staying tight for a little bit longer seems the right thing to do. Who’d want to live in the world where the only way things look good is when the spin makes them that way? I’ll take complaining about too much Milo any day.