• Why censor the pictures, Ro? Don't call them "young men" either. They are "vicious animals" as their act so clearly evidences. They are not human at all. Are you saying it is "justifiable" for ethnic Nigerians, who have never been to either Afghanistan or Iraq but grew up on the teat of the British Welfare State, to run down and then Halal butcher a complete stranger walking along the street and minding his own business? How can you possibly draw any connection between what happened in London and the alleged mistreatment of Aborigines in Australia? What a fine example of the "straw man" argument! Do you think NATO and other allies were "unjustified" in invading Afghanistan and liberating it from the Taliban? That same Taliban that banned girls going to school; regularly indulge in female genital mutilation and the sodomising of "dancing boys"; blew up ancient Buddhist monuments; regularly carried out executions by stoning and beheading as half-time entertainment at football matches in Kabul and Kandahar; undertook ethnic cleansing against Hazara muslims; banned music and dancing on pain of death; and provided a base for the racist extremists of Al Qaeda to operate completely unfettered? Do you think it was wrong to overthrow Saddam Hussein who had used poisonous gas on the Kurds of Iraq? Whose two mongrel sons crawled the streets of Baghdad looking for women to rape; who executed his own son-in-law after promising "forgiveness' if he returned from exile; who gained power in a coup and then personally executed scores of his own "party"? The problems in Iraq today have nothing to do with Saddam's overthrow and everything to do with the seething sectarian and ethnic hatreds that have plagued Mesopotamia since the Babylonian Empire. Why didn't those two vicious animals condemn the latest round of sunni-shia bombings and murders in Iraq? If muslim women are subjected to the regular sight of dismembered bodies, those bodies were provided by other muslims. Why is it that only this week we saw Syrian women asking Bob Carr why it is that the USA and the non-Islamic world is not interfering in their current civil war? The war is yet another essentially religious/sectarian conflict between a Sunni majority and an Alawi-Shia minority. Why should any young Americans, Britons or Australians risk their lives for these benighted, backward bastards who regularly tell us how much they hate us? Have you forgotten the spontaneous eruption of glee and happiness that occurred in Iraq, Syria, Iran, Afghanistan and elsewhere in the "Islamic world" when the 9/11 attack was carried out? It seems to me that you, like so many others, have forgotten the lessons of the period from 1919-1939. Appeasement never works. Trying to trivialise this disgraceful crime; saying that ...well, maybe, it was Britain's fault and maybe if Britain hadn't been and Imperial power 200 years ago and ... really, when you look at that and what happened to the Aborigines here, maybe they were justified in running over a total stranger, who'd done nothing to them or any of their family or relatives, and then hacking off his head with a meat cleaver. The white-washing, the diminution, the trivialising, the justifying has already started in media and the blogosphere. The appeasers and the white-hating racists are already talking this whole thing around so that in a few weeks they'll be wanting to give these two mongrels a medal and have them treated as Prisoners of War. I am so glad the British cops didn't shoot them dead. I want them to suffer in HM Prison System for the rest of their lives. But, knowing the way the British EHRC led by that treacherous hater, Trevor Phillips, operate, they'll probably be named and shamed and given 20 hours community service. - Jack Richards
  • Anyway. So long Latin. I know there will be people close to Hazel who will be feeling sad and confused today. Sad for who she was and confused because she is perhaps better off dead now. And then there is everyone else who were touched by Hazel's contribution to our lives. Thank you Hazel and her supporters. - ro.watson
  • Perhaps I am projecting, but there really is something very special about the relationship between a regular cartoonist's work and their readers. A sort of mutual getting to know you abandon. - ro.watson
  • Ordinary folk, extraordinary soul. You'll be remembered Hazel Hawke, for the wonderfully decent, down to earth, inclusive woman you were. You connected with your heart and were justly admired. RIP - gogirl
  • What is that expression? Make hay while the sun is shining? Anyway, many Australian stories which belong to the lives of people and animals have remained submerged for many years until journalists within programs like Four Corners bring them to light. Some of us have been privileged enough (eg through our professions) to carry around these stories for several years and done our best to bring such stories to mainstream attention when it is clear there is some emblematic or systematic pattern emerging of eg suffering here in Australia. These stories and lives are not hard to find. - ro.watson
  • Stirring stuff, sue. Alas, from a bygone era. The www is where it's at. Few outposts are as isolated as they once were and now, with the whizz bang NBN they'll be able to access information from all over the world. The ABC has grown into a monster. The Drum website alone must cost a fortune. Then we've got numerous tv channels, radio, SBS and *hundreds* of journalists and ancillary staff ALL for a population of 22 million? It's a crazy waste of taxpayer dollars. If these journos can't cut it in the private sector, which their ratings indicate they can't, then too bad. Let them get jobs writing blurbs for breakfast cereal and cat food. If you want evidence of ABC bias, check out the poll questions on The Drum. Personally, I want it slashed and burned. And, I repeat, I'm a past Labor member. - Gee
  • I agree Sue. I love ABC Radio National and also ABC tv - from The Night Garden up. Lately I've been tuning in to the drivetime program hosted by Waleed Ali, 7.30 report and Emma on Lateline. All maintain high standards. Cheers, Carmen. - Carmen
  • Gee, the ABC Radio National has played and still does, a vital role in unifying Australians as Australia. It has been the one and only voice since the inception of radio, that has been able to be heard no matter where you are in Australia. It has connected the rural and the urban listeners, it has provided thought provoking programmes on health, science, music, art, literature, technology, religion, opera, language, the list is endless. Most importantly it has provided hundreds of different types of educational programmes over the years. Many of us can remember when the ABC broadcast singing programmes into our primary schools, imagine that, all the state primary students in Australia singing the same songs at the same time. They had a wonderful children's club for all Australians to join. The ABC is the organisation we turn to in times of war and disaster, only it has the gravitas needed. The ABC in later years has provided innovative programmes where farmers give a field of their crop and urban listeners select how that crop will be treated, when to fertilise, pay insurance, feed, water, reap. Again we see the great way the ABC unites the country and allows listeners to understand each other over the rural/urban divide. The ABC consistently has interesting, confronting, innovative interviews with people who make you think. The ABC broadcasts throughout Asia, fostering greater understanding throughout the region. Greater understanding can only lead to better trade, human rights, mutual respect and sharing of common goals. The ABC encourages local talent in all areas, something rarely seen on commercial radio/TV. So tell me where is the bias, what percentage of the programmes have a bias, what sort of bias is it, political or other? Here is an organisation that has united a very young country, a federation of states that have held together and together developed a common social ethos and a pride in our culture. This is no parasite it is in fact the host from which we all feed. - sue Bell
  • Capisco. However, after getting a major (not kidding) allergy which has eventuated in my frequent-flyership at the gynaecologists (best friends now!) - I can (as a total nobody - but a somebody to my gynaecologist) - thoroughly and wholeheartedly endorse LUX SOAP. I wash clothes, dishes, and me with it - and have never looked back. If it makes me look like Ma Kettle - so be it. Bring it on!! (really not joking about this one). Cheers, Carmen 50 Shades of Unemployment at http://50shadesofunemployment.blogspot.com.au - Carmen
  • Oh Mrs. Woog - your before shot is so much better than the after. However lately I've become a closet watcher of that TVSN channel (non stop advertising). I've just seen Dimitri of Hollywood, advertising his "uber quality" product range. If I had the money, due to Dimitri's infectious advertising approach, I would buy every product. But it all went sadly wrong, this morning - during the live model makeover, when he accidently knocked the model's hair-piece - causing it to fall off - no kidding! Hilarious. And there I was with the credit card, about to hand over my money for his product that would give me "Hollywood celebrity bee-stung lips!" On the topic of makoevers, makeunders etc. some readers may find this post a worth read: "The Hazards of Faking It" http://50shadesofunemployment.blogspot.com.au/2013/01/the-hazards-of-faking-it.html Cheers, Carmen - Carmen
 
11
Categories:  The Dating Project, Wellbeing

THE DATING PROJECT #3. OFF WE GO!

By Bettina Arndt
May 25, 2012

Let the fun begin!

Rob Tiller and I spent the week sorting through the flood of volunteers for our Dating Project looking for two women who want to get serious about looking for a mate. We were looking for one woman in her 40s and another in her 50s to join Lou Lou, 34, writing weekly blogs about their dating adventures.

Along the way Rob and I will be their cheer squad offering advice and support.

It was a tough decision with so many wonderful women wanting to come on board. But the choice was finally made and we’d like to introduce Astrid and Iris – the new members of our dating team. (These are not their real names.)

Here’s Astrid, 45, from Sydney, telling us why she was just the right girl for the job:

“Oh my goodness, I have been reading The Hoopla since its inception. Then today I read the article about the Dating Project whilst I was supposed to be (and still am) writing a Management report for the Board… ho hum and I thought – ‘Pick me, no wait don’t pick me, no yes PICK ME ‘.

Why pick me? Well you said you wanted someone in their 40s… I am 45 so I fit the first criteria and I am a dating novice… since my divorce.

Here’s my story…

* 45-year-old single mother of 14 and 17-year-old daughters.
* I work full time as a Director of a Not for Profit Community Organisation.
* Separated from ex-hubby when girls were 2 and 5, divorced a long time now.
* Have been on one date years ago and it was just strange and felt wrong so I didn’t try again. Instead I got busy with the girls, work and study and made myself too busy to be “available”.
* In the Christmas holidays this year a few very well-meaning friends told me I needed to get out there and date, they put a profile together for me, I got lots of hits – but found it all very weird. I chatted to someone for a day  then took down the profile never to be seen again. That was my foray into dating.
*Apparently I am awesome, funny, hot (very debatable), smart – have my ‘shit together’, so I have been told – so why am I single???
*On the issue of being single – I am happy, happy in my own skin, happy with the life the girls and I have created, I have fabulous, long-term friends, a great family, a really nice little cat and I am well regarded in my profession.

BUT as my girls get older I am starting to think having a companion, someone special, someone to love and someone that can’t wait to spend time with me would be great. Who am I going to ride my Harley with as I age, who is going to jump on planes and go to exotic places with me??? Who is going to rejoice with me when my grand babies are born and hold my hand when celebrating the triumphs and sorrows of my girls.

So if you have got to here and are still reading – I am keen, really keen yet slightly terrified but it’s time for this mum to dip her toe into the world beyond this life I have created around me… to see if I can make it through a date without boring someone to tears or wanting to leap through the bathroom window.”

And how did Astrid feel when she learnt she was one of the chosen ones?

“My first reaction when I heard your message last Wednesday was – ‘No, No, No…’ but deep inside I was happy, scared, excited. As I listened to message that day I had two staff in my office and apparently I sounded like I had won something huge, they thought I might have won lotto or something like that. When I told them they were so excited and can’t wait to follow the journey.”

Yes, we’re really excited too about watching what happens to Lou Lou, Astrid… and now here’s Iris, our third dating adventurer.

 Page 1 of 3 next >>
support us

11 Responses to this article

  1. VRog May 25, 2012 Reply
     
     

    Totally agree with Rob’s advice. Great profile Lou Lou – I wish you, and Astrid and Iris the best of luck. I will be following your journeys with interest!

     
  2. Alice Shaw May 25, 2012 Reply
     
     

    So exciting!! Looking forward to reading all of your dating adventures.. I really hope you meet someone nice. Oh and if there are an abundance of nice guys, and you just can’t date them all, then feel free to fling a few my way.. thanks :-)

     
  3. Susan May 26, 2012 Reply
     
     

    Hope it all goes well. You all seem to be content in your own skin….a must before even thinking of exploring…. An awesome task ahead…Enjoy….

     
  4. Loz May 26, 2012 Reply
     
     

    Best of luck girls and enjoy the journey.

     
  5. gatorgirl June 14, 2012 Reply
     
     

    What a fun project. I’ll be watching! Best of luck.

     

Have Your Say

Get e-mail notifications for new comments

 

You may also like

Left Right

porno porno sex

FEATURED CONTRIBUTORS

Talking About Dementia
Get Started!

Your Score:  

Your Ranking:  

Hoopla Poll

If you are menopausal - what is your menopause treatment approach?

Comments

  • Jack Richards: Why censor the pictures, Ro? Don't call them "young men" either. They are "vicious animals" as their act so clearly e...

    Reply|Read all

  • ro.watson: Anyway. So long Latin. I know there will be people close to Hazel who will be feeling sad and confused today. Sad for ...

    Reply|Read all

  • ro.watson: Perhaps I am projecting, but there really is something very special about the relationship between a regular cartoonist'...

    Reply|Read all

  • gogirl: Ordinary folk, extraordinary soul. You'll be remembered Hazel Hawke, for the wonderfully decent, down to earth, inclusi...

    Reply|Read all

Freebies

Copyright © 2012 The Hoopla

All Rights Reserved

Site by Feel.
loading time: 0.8 sec