Sunday Sanity Break, 16 October 2016 - roasting the elites

There are increasing signs of a backlash against globalisation, free trade and the dominance of so-called ‘elites’. Self-confessed member of the global elite, Niall Fergusson, this weekend provides a wonderful ‘roast’.

‘Welcome to the new class war, Brexit edition.

‘On one side are the citizens of the world …. We have at least two passports. We speak at least three languages. And we have at least four homes, not one of them in the town where we were born.

‘On the other side — seething with resentment against us — are you citizens of the nation-state. You have one passport, if that. You hate the few words of French you learned at school. And you live within driving distance of your parents or your children’.

…

Post-Brexit UK Prime minister, Theresa May recently produced a ‘sustained barrage against the “privileged few … the rich, the successful and the powerful … the powerful and the privileged … the rich and the powerful”.’

As I understand Niall Fergusson, this is meant to represent the new post-global, post-several passports and post-multiple houses for members of global elites approach of modern politicians. Donald Trump, for example. Malcolm Turnbull, who is trying to balance his budget by taxing the superannuation accumulated by Australia’s wealthy and ‘merely well off’, elderly pensioners.

Read Fergusson’s (presumably) partly satiric roast for yourself, dear readers.

Kulture

Well, what a pleasant surprise – Bob Dylan gets the Nobel Prize for Literature. A nice change, and Henry as a lifetime fan of Dylan thinks the Nobel Committee have finally picked a poet he can understand, even when the message is not totally understandable. Like many aspects of modern life.

The Sporting Life

What a disaster the inquest into Philip Hughes’ sad accident turned into. What seems not to have been understood is that cricket, like any sport played hard at any level, is an inherently dangerous activity. Occasionally intervention is desirable. Henry’s son Bert used to play twilight games as a young shaver. Henry was standing as square leg umpire when a tall, strong boy, who looked at least a year older than Bert and his fellow batsman, came on to bowl.

Henry could not see the balls he was throwing down, and asked to talk with the opposition coach. There was practically a punchup, but said coach eventually conceded that it was getting a bit dark and took his demon bowler off.

Could the Kangaroos beat the All Blacks at Rugby? How revealing such a match might be. Anyway, a fine effort in Perth by the Kangaroos over the NZ Rugby League team was a wonderful few hours’ entertainment.

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