Newcastle-born Connor Metcalfe scored an amazing goal for the Socceroos in Vancouver in their first game of the World Cup.
Instantly the watch parties in public squares celebrate joyously across Australia ('Newcastle's World Cup hero stars', Newcastle Herald 15/6) but not in Newcastle. Nope.
There was no community event organised here in Wheeler Place by Newcastle council.
Let's hope it wasn't because they didn't want to see social cohesion in action, with the best of multiculturalism on display in the make-up of the team, refugees and all.
The lord mayor needs to do better.
Carl Stevenson always amuses me with his unsolicited life advice. On Thursday he suggested we all vote one for Pauline as PM ("One Nation as ready as anyone", Letters, 11/6) and on Saturday he wants us all to watch Sky News ("Scrutiny is the purpose of the news", Letters, 13/6). "It takes all kinds", as they say.
Sounds like an easy policy to sell to the voters, Glen Wilson ("Capital gains change fixes tax rort", Letters, 13/6), the vast majority of whom I believe are fair minded. So why did Labor mislead us at the last election? Albo is the reason One Nation is soaring in the polls, and he has the gall to question the legitimacy of their fundraising figures.
Is anyone else tired of hearing how 'emotional' people are in news stories? Have journalists forgotten how to use their thesauruses? What happened to sad, upset, distressed, confused, happy, delighted, enthusiastic, pleased, tearful, weepy, surprised, frightened, scared, content, sympathetic, angry, frustrated and so on? Please use more expressive words to tell us how the person really feels. That would add real meaning to the story.
Bob Gilbert ("Questions on Fort Scratchley's fire", Letters, 12/6), raises the possibility of the guns at Fort Nepean in Melbourne being the first guns in Australia to fire on an enemy vessel in anger - the SS Pfalz, on August 5 1914. The guides at Fort Scratchley are well aware of the event.
The captain was trying to avoid his ship being seized. However, the Pfalz was a merchant ship without the ability to fire back. After ignoring the order or signal to stop, the shot across the bow is the international signal to stop (heave to). The Pfalz's captain, knowing that a second shot would be closer and any subsequent shots would be into his vessel, chose to surrender his vessel and save his crew. Control of the ship went to the Royal Australian Navy. It was re-named the HMAT Boorara and used as a troop transport.
Visitors to Fort Scratchley are told that our guns are the only large, land-based guns to fire on an enemy naval vessel. While that is a heavily qualified sentence, we believe it is entirely accurate. Thanks to Greg for his interest. There's a lot of history in our area too.
I have sent emails to Chris Minns, Penny Sharpe, A Current Affair and Animals Australia regarding the culling of brumbies in the Snowy Mountains National Park. I have been ignored, or at least they haven't bothered to contact me.
I object to this inhumane and cruel event. It's never a given that you can shoot and kill an animal outright from a moving helicopter. Animals in panic mode do a lot of evasive maneuvers, so a clean kill is one in a million. To my knowledge the shooters never go and check to see if they have killed the animal, they just go onto the next one. I fear the horses are left with horrendous wounds, taking days or weeks to die in agony. In 2000 the same happened in the Guy Fawkes National Park. Horses were shot from helicopters and, according to witnesses, were left to die. Mares and foals unable to feed died an awful and prolonged death, stumbling around the bush for days.
There needs to be a more humane way of doing this. Perhaps castrating stallions and colts and then either breaking them in or releasing them back into the park to live out their lives, which aren't very long anyway because of the harsh conditions they live in.
These brumbies are part of our heritage and the Australian Bush folklore. There are stories written about them and movies made, and here we are doing this to them. Shame.
The human population are the perpetrators, not the sharks. World populations have increased, and therefore much more food is required and requested. Some marine life has been fished nearly to extinction, bringing predators closer to coastal areas.
Culling sharks is not the answer. It has been proven in America that it doesn't work. Humans venture into these ocean areas, the domain of predators for millions of years. We should educate people if we are serious.
Keep the baitfish further away from the beaches and install heavy wire cable nets fully across the beach areas, then into the shore. I mean nets similar to the World War II submarine nets. The nets they presently set up do not cover the entire beach front, and sharks just avoid them and swim around the ends. Heavy stainless mesh nets would also prevent whales and turtles being entrapped. Build it and they won't come.
The second option is to cull world populations. If we continue at this rate, sharks will be the least of our worries. There simply won't be enough food to sustain billions of humans, all wildlife will cease to exist, oceans will be voids, weather patterns will become more severe and unpredictable, and earth movements will dramatically increase.
Enjoy your time in the ocean while you can, but should you go there warned they will come along. Shark bait traps are like a food beacon for predators and act like neon signs saying "food this way" when currents carry towards beaches.
John Cooper comments that "if support for One Nation shifts the political focus back to our nation's future and its people, we'd all be better off" ("'Protest party' can remind us what matters", Letters, 15/6). That's a big if, Mr Cooper, and maybe you should have finished your comment with a question mark.
Pauline Hanson will be appearing at the National Press Club on Wednesday and I daresay will be facing a lot of long-worded questions to trip her up. At least she knows the meaning of xenophobic. Will she be taking any questions from the ABC? Will she have Barnaby Joyce standing behind her? It will make for very interesting viewing.
