EARLIER this past week, jet setting celebrity Paris Hilton and her entourage dropped into Melbourne and among other things, splurged about $5000 in just under one hour at a trendy Chapel Street boutique.
Her spending ways drew sharp criticism from the likes of youth worker Les Twentyman and World Vision CEO Tim Costello, who told the media that Ms Hilton’s carefree spending would have supported a Third World village for a considerable amount of time.
“In World Vision terms, $5000 would ensure that a village of 2000 people in Africa or Asia would have clean water for the rest of their lives,” Mr Costello, who reportedly earns as much in a week as Ms Hilton spent in under an hour, said.
Mr Twentyman went so far as to call it a “disgrace”.
But I would have thought that it was also a tremendous show of confidence and support for a leading Australian fashion house.
I would have also thought Paris Hilton had done nothing more than heed the words of our own Prime Minister, who had encouraged Australians to spend up in order to stimulate the economy.
I also wonder what would these same people have said if somebody such as Nicole Kidman, Kylie Minogue or Cate Blanchett spent $5560 in an upmarket fashion boutique?
Far be it for me to be a supporter of Paris Hilton, but in this case the famous (or should that be infamous?) heir apparent has done nothing wrong to deserve the media’s condemnation.
Since her release from prison after a drink-driving incident a couple of years ago, Hilton has pledged to do more charity work and a quick Google search shows some of what she has been doing aside from the sensationalist headlines on this time.
I am equally sure, if Paris Hilton ever wanted to come to Bendigo and shop, our traders would fall over themselves in the rush for her American dollars.
fu517AS everybody is well aware by now, our Australian cricket team lost out big time to a superior South Africa last week, the first Aussie team to lose a home series since about 1992-93.
The South Africans have played this series like the Australia of old. They have been brave, arrogant, unrelenting, focused and determined. They have barely missed a trick.
Ricky Ponting’s side on the other hand has been undecided, timid, reactive and at times confused.
I have been a long-time supporter of Matty Hayden ever since my time living in Brisbane 20 years ago, but the line of thinking that his time has come and gone has considerable more merit now than it did perhaps 18 months ago when suggestions about his departure first arose.
To say he needs a good score in order to prolong his test career would be the understatement of the year, but even with a 150 or so to his name in the Sydney test, you have to wonder what benefit there is in sticking by him.
Perhaps the selectors have stuffed it up so badly that they genuinely believe they need his experience in the next Ashes series.
Perhaps the selectors also need to be looked at.
One of the great ironies of the cricket this summer has been the television advertisements featuring among others Matt Hayden, Andrew Symonds, Brett Lee and Mike Hussey. This quartet of stars is presently either so out of form, injured, or both, that they are the main focus of public bar conversation as to who needs to go or stay in the test team.
Perhaps these players need to spend less time in front of the camera and more time in the nets, or more pointedly, more time in the middle!
And when was the last time any of the Australian cricket team actually ate KFC anyway?fu517THE New Year brings us even closer to the inauguration of Barack Obama, the man who promises more change for the world than any other leader in recent history and the man who so many will look to as an inspiration, a revelation and as a genuine leader.
This year is the Year of the Ox according to the Chinese calendar, and the significance of Obama being born in 1961 (another year of the ox) is not lost on writers looking for hope among the mire of negativity and challenges.
According to those who claim to know:”
Metal Ox people, of which Obama is one, work harder and more scrupulously than most people, including other Oxen.
“They always show a boldness and drive and will stop at nothing to achieve their goals.
“Like all Oxen, they are completely trustworthy and dependable, but they are not ones to display their emotions freely or openly. These Oxen have the strength of steel, with a will to match.
“Often, this strength and ruthless will make it difficult for them to identify with the feelings of others around them.
“However, an Ox is always willing to defend what he knows to be true and won’t give up until he has proven what he knows to be true.”
Scary stuff.
So scary that we hope it’s true.
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