ranky Lizard speaks…
Pandemic April 2020.
WHAT WILL IT LOOK LIKE WHEN IT IS OVER…?
[ Cranky Lizard has referred to a number of sources for this piece…The Australian and Wikipedia being the principals. When commonsense and good manner requires it – direct quotations are noted and acknowledged.]
It will be different.
Not much will be the same. Many established boundaries have shifted. National strategic thinking has changed, personal priorities have changed, employment paradigms have shattered as if they were subject to a wild earthquake and what was once accepted as the norm may now be challenged: or least it should be.
Have you noticed how the national conversation has changed – except that is for the ABC, which is running its own agenda, has a preferred position on community lock down and virtually attacks the Government on each step it takes to deal with this terrible event. Cranky Lizard wonders whether the Board of the ABC and the CEO, Ita Buttrose understand the original charter of the tax payer funded body. Perhaps they should start reading it again – because although it is not stated, Cranky Lizard reckons that there will be a square up in the future.
And so there should be – the ABC has not helped this Nation in a time of crisis – they have run their own left wing agenda contrary to sensible medical and economic advice from those men and women who are experienced and qualified to do so!
The ABC have reduced themselves, in the eyes of many Australians to an hysterical babbling rabble. And that is a shame because they had so much to give in terms of radio coverage in rural regions and in calm measured objective coverage of events. Which is what their charter requires them to do. How they have reached the situation that they have is a matter for broad community discussion ; the ABC has a legion of similar thinking supporters, but they are on the wrong side of community thinking on this – and, quite frankly, Australians deserve better from their national radio and television network.
Certain members of the print media have added to the stress and anxiety, writing articles about the imminent collapse of various important institutions in our Nation : the banks, the ICU’s in hospitals, the transport network and on and on…it is called catastrophic journalism and the way in which many of them have carried on it is easy to see why there is press censorship during wartime.
Cranky Lizard predicts that our media organisations will come under some heavy public scrutiny in the future. Their role as leaders of debate and opinion will be and should be, questioned.
Cranky Lizard suggests that this event will leave a lasting impression for a generation of Australians. Demand will shift away from luxuries and glitter and focus on distribution, networks of supply. And that won’t be all that bad. Fifty years ago Australia was pretty much self-sufficient; we could feed ourselves, we could manufacture most of the household goods we needed, we refined our own fuel, we made motor vehicles and we were beholden to no country for essential supplies.
That is the direction many Australians will want to go – it won’t be simple, nor will it be easy, but there will be significant pressure to do this.
And. Whether we like it or not, we shall have to face a vast, almost wartime, debt load on the Nation’s finances.
That dent will need to be paid; it cannot be left to the next two generations to carry that burden. Government expenditure will be carefully scrutinized, for example, the combined billions spent by State, Territory and Federal Governments on consultants is just wasteful when there is a large public sector to do that work – and they should do that work. That is why they are there!
The annual ‘free for all ‘ and the façade of independent bodies fixing politicians, senior public servants and judges wages will be questioned, as it should be !
When it comes to who the community actually needs to be doing work it is as obvious as a dunny in the desert that café and retail staff, pilots, taxi drivers, first responders, nurses , doctors, tradies, hair dressers are the ones that do the heavy lifting. White collar workers by the tens of thousands, sitting in huge buildings plonking away on computers terminals and going to pointless meetings may begin to wonder what is the point of what they do…Cranky Lizard does !
Perhaps all this energy and intelligence can be re-directed, over time, and will take time, into a more efficient and relevant manufacturing sector. We can begin to make things again.
In rebuilding our economy, it will be as it always has been, the wealth creators will be the drivers. Mining, Farming and Manufacturing and Transport, air, land and sea, are the fundamental tenets of modern economies – all the rest just value add, which is fine but without the essential elements, there is nothing to which value can be added.
The vague, egocentric ramblings of celebrities have been shown up for they really are – of no consequence! The National conversation has drifted away from climate alarmism, gender balance and vegan activist nonsense.
Did anyone notice the hoarding of ‘ ersatz ‘ beef burgers made from cotton waste and beetroot juice? No? When the last card was laid on the table humans wanted protein from real animals. The spangled moss concoctions in the dairy fridges remained untouched…humans wanted proper dairy products, real milk from cows not milk from almonds and other nuts and trees.
As we dwell in our houses in quarantine, we are forced to contemplate our neighbours, we find out things about them we did not know, our immediate suburban surroundings become more interesting and our local parks contain a surprising variety of birds and native animals.
Cranky Lizard suggests that we shall need to urgently assess our capacity to produce energy : windmills and mirrors just won’t cut it.
As a nation we simply cannot allow ourselves to be living on three to four weeks supply of basic oil reserves. Globalism, as it has been conducted, is over. We can't rely upon oil drifting across oceans in ships for our nation’s energy generating capacity.
Cranky Lizard points out that we have enormous reserves of uranium and that now is a particularly good time to consider the option of nuclear energy seriously. The technology has changed remarkably since the days of Chernobyl, it is cheap, it is essentially pollution-free, and it is readily available. Logic demands that we give this option our attention.
Australia is a wealthy, lucky country surrounded by huge oceans. We are able to control our borders and it is imperative that we continue to do so in the manner in which we have.
It seems to Cranky Lizard that we shall become a calmer more considerate community than we were before this pandemic attacked us. Our National conversation had become absurd ; hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent in law courts trying to develop industries that were being challenged by green lawfare, we were attacking our own means of production of food and wealth in the name of some esoteric global aim.
A benefit of this pandemic may well be that we have been forced to re-focus our National priorities ; and that will be a matter of some benefit to all of us.
We have a government which is working for all of us. A National Cabinet which is responsible to the electorate, and, accepts that responsibility. We have a magnificent health system, and we are a vigorous, intelligent, compassionate and innovative people.
We have plenty going for us.
Cranky Lizard wishes you all a safe and trouble-free future and, in doing so, expresses the undiluted desire to never, ever have to write about a pandemic again.
Enjoy your days.