• Well put, and I hope to see your documentary. I hate the idea of vaccinations and believe they can be harmful individually but we are part of a community and as such, we have responsibilities to each other, so my son'a vaccinations are up to date. The reality is that no one knows what will happen to us or our children, whether we are talking about injury by vaccine, or injury by preventable disease, or running in a marathon where a terrorist is in wait, or getting in a car and being wiped out by a drunk driver. We all do what we can for our kids and we can try and protect them as much as we can - but none of us escape misfortune. I have a friend whose son has shocking tumours and a limited life span. My own son has a platelet disorder which means we have to be constantly vigilant that he doesn't injure himself lest he bleed internally. Let's do what we can for our own - but let's not harm others in the process. - Alice Smith
  • What a fabulously challenging topic. Jackdan, very well delivered argument. I'd love to see your research. Publish it! Sonya, I look forward to tomorrow night's documentary. Thanks for taking (what sounds like) a rational approach. - Misty
  • Thanks jack... a very interesting response and, from my communications with Sonya I think this is exactly the conversation she's hoping for. Be very interested to hear your response after viewing the doco. - Wendy Harmer
  • As someone who doesn't follow the Australian Vaccination schedule, I already feel like I am risking ridicule and worse posting here. We have been hassled and hounded by doctors, nurses (one of us is a nurse) and other parents. Blamed for the resurgence Whooping cough and related deaths, etc. Our stance is that we immunise based on our own needs and intelligence. As a for instance, we are not convinced that our children needed to be vaccinated against Hepatitis B at birth, especially given that the vaccine contained Thiomersal when it was recommended to us. I'm not sure how aware you are of the Japanese experience with the DTP vaccinations in the mid 1970's, but as a result of many adverse reactions and over 30 deaths as a direct result of the vaccine, the schedule was altered and children were vaccinated later. I am aware that the vaccine is no longer a whole cell vaccine, however it is worth considering the delicate balance of the immune system in infants below 6 months of age. So we immunise roughly to the Japanese schedule. There is no Hep B or vericella. And MMR is given as MR and Mumps separately. We will make the call on Japanese when we visit next month. I note that the tone in the promotion of the doco appears to depict the non vaccination school as driven by emotion with the pro vaccination argument being driven by Science (which is a pretty broad concept). Our decision to vaccinate alternatively has been based on a lot of careful research and is based on risk mitigation considering that vaccinations do carry a percentage of risk, however small. We have the advantage of also being Japanese citizens, (myself a spouse resident) and can access the differently combined vaccines and scheduling. When recently discussing this on a facebook post I was branded an anti Vaccinator. Abused and blamed. My response is that I think there is a better way. A much better way. And the heavy handed pressure to Immunise to schedule, which then elicits a strong anti response from those who question, but are discouraged strongly and frowned upon for questioning, has created a climate of 'for or against', emotion or science, us against them. All pretty narrow reductive way to explore a whole collection of different diseases, risks, and vaccines (including their varieties of compositions, combinations and timing). So we have attempted to immunise the best way that we can ascertain. It's a tricky time consuming task to get all the info on each different vaccine from the manufacturers, to research each and every disease to ascertain the risks of actually contracting it and then what the risks associated with the disease are, but it has been worthwhile. I think that the community could benefit from a less doctrinal approach to the current immunisation schedule and regular review of disease risks and the vaccination schedule response. - Jackdan
  • I'm an E cup. When I was younger and skinnier I was only a C cup and could handle underwires. Then I got pregnant and discovered the bliss of maternity bras. Post babies and breastfeeding I went back to the wires only to find they poked me and now I've got 'birdseyes' in my cleavage. I cannot fathom the underwire. Obviously the person who designed it has never had to wear one. Having big boobs we're all encouraged to wear them, but now I'm old and fat they're far too uncomfortable to contemplate. I'm happy with my 'wirefree' bras. I figured that if manufacturers could make a maternity bra without wires that fitted perfectly and provided excellent support to lactating breasts, they could do the same for large, non-lactating breasts too. I found the perfect fit for me at a large chain store and bought the same type for years. Not terribly sexy, but comfortable and serviceable. Now I've discovered same large chain has a moulded cotton bra in large sizes. Better still, you can order them online when the sales are on and collect them from the store. Bliss! - BeansGran
  • Well put Sonya. I am so glad that you have created this documentary. Also, you have put forward a voice of reason backed up by compelling evidence & your own credibility. I am pro-vaccination, but I understand why it is an delicate decision for many parents. I haven't come across the anti-vax theories (I'd never even heard of the AVN until Mamamia kept writing & tweeting about them). I'd always just followed the immunisation schedule. But I have come across a lot of pushy pro-vaxxers and I have to say, it is a turn off. I understand that it's a passionate issue. But is it an effective way of increasing immunisation rates? Of course not. Some pro-vaxxers make it their full time job to name, shame & harass people opposed to vaccination. Is harassment going to change their position, heck no! Is it going to galvanise their anti-vac position, quite probably! I just think we need to be smarter about this. I know it is not a "debate" in the sense that the science is in on the benefits & general safety of vaccines. But it completely normal to feel uneasy about purposely injecting your child with something most of us know very little about. And then watching their every breath that evening as they process that vaccine. Sonya, I hope that your documentary is the beginning of the change in the way we talk about immunisation. Well done. - Kasey
  • I am very impressed by what you've set out to achieve and how you've come about it. Much of my work these days is in vaccination and I work hard to break down the myths and false beliefs people have about vaccines. I find listening to concerns, empathy and responding with good evidence based information has been the most successful manner I've had so far. I also reassure parents that it is always their choice, but I also share that I am a mum too and that I choose to vaccinate my child fully. And funnily enough that's usually the clincher. Respect, good information and empathy can go a long way. I really hope that many people watch your documentary and help absolve the many concerns and myths surrounding vaccination that are out there. You must be proud of your work :) - The Huntress
  • Not everyone has access too or any interest in the internet, you cannot drive a tractor and watch the internet but you can listen to radio, you cannot drive a car and watch the internet but you can listen to radio, you cannot wash the dishes, the clothes, yourself and watch the internet but you can listen to the radio, you can also lie in bed with Phillip Adams, half my University of the Third Age students go to bed with Phillip. Australia's best journalists were trained by the ABC. What I don't understand Gee is your palpable hatred, how can you be so angry all the time, just relax and learn that we are all different and some of us prefer the quiet nature of the ABC compared with the ranting and rage of radio shock jocks and commercial TV. Your phrase 'slash and burn' is shocking to me, no one I know hates anything, no one I know wants to destroy things or institutions, not even the IPA, why such violence of language? - sue Bell
  • [...] Science says vaccinate! [...] - LET'S TALK (NOT SHOUT) VACCINATION
  • Thankyou Emma for your good work and humanistic attitude towards others. I could not do your job and be nice to others at the same time, i'v e realized. The other ABC journo's et al should be taking notes.......all the best in your career! - louise
 
34
Categories:  Harmer's Hoopla, News and Opinion

LONDON. A GLIMPSE OF WHAT COULD BE

By Wendy Harmer
August 13, 2012

“Despite all the familiar fears of failure – of traffic snarl-ups, botched security arrangements and dreadful weather – we have surprised ourselves by staging a global event of infinite complexity with near-perfect success.” Jonathan Freedland, The Guardian

Well, they would say that, wouldn’t they?

But it’s true. Congratulations are in order. The only surprise is that the Brits have surprised themselves.

 

Closing ceremony… a day in the life of London – before the arena turned into a giant moshpit. Photograph via The Star.

As someone who has always loved Britain (since I read my first Beatrix Potter book as a child and I wished and wished I had been born there), it has been painful to see the nation’s increasing self-doubt.

It’s been like watching elderly parents, who don’t become wiser with old age, but more fearful. Wary and suspicious of anything new.

If London 2012 goes some way to restoring a more confident, brave and more compassionate Britain, then it’s a wonderful thing.

“Of course it cannot last, not at this pitch at any rate. Already, like the holidaymakers who know they are due to fly home in a couple of days, the sense, even the dread, of a return to normality is looming,” Freedland continued.

So this is what the British must tackle after the euphoria of the games wears off. Why is “normality” such a depressing scenario for so many?

Athletes enter the arena for the closing ceremony. Photograph via BBC. And then, below, supermodels, including Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell. Photograph via smh.com.au.
 

After all, for most Australians, “normality” is the thing we strive for. The greatest thing we have to offer.

Perhaps it’s something to do with the daily reminder the British are given that some are “high-born” and some are “lowly”. I’ll never forget the day I toured an English stately home and the English woman in front of me took her small daughter by the arm and pointed out a portrait on the wall.

“Look,” she marvelled, breathlessly, “look at her. She’s a Duchess!”

I wanted to whisper in that child’s ear: “ Yes, and she’s no better than you.”

In Australia, like most nations in the world, the gap between the wealthy and the poor grows ever-wider, but the absence of a “ruling class” is something we take for granted.

A history of great British music, including John Lennon and then, below, a Spice Girls reunion. Photographs via The Star.

Perhaps London 2012, coming straight after the Queen’s Jubilee, reminded the populace that world-class achievement has nothing to do with “lineage” and that the meaning of the word “privilege” means something else entirely for the rest of the world.

It’s a privilege to have a safe and peaceful spot to watch a sunrise or sunset and know, in your bones, that it doesn’t look any better if you are viewing it as a Prince or a pauper.

I didn’t particularly enjoy the opening ceremony of the London Olympics. I gave it a “fail” on its confused theatricality. Its lack of a grand moment.

But I do acknowledge that – with its nod to the National Health System, its embrace of multi-culturalism and celebration of quirkiness – that it spoke to its home audience and may have hit the target as it stirred the Tories into fury.

Goodbye, London. Fireworks light up the arena during the closing ceremony. Photograph via National Post.

The declaration of it as “multicultural crap” by one Conservative MP, meant it did what director Danny Boyle had intended it to do. The late Robert Hughes, an avowed Republican, nailed it when he said: “The fear of sudden cultural discontinuity is merely a cistern into which the monarchists can pour their inarticulate bad dreams about multiculturalism.”

I suspect Freedland being grandiose when he says: “And so perhaps historians might record this strange, heady fortnight as the moment when we finally laid to rest a national myth that had dogged us so long, concluding a narrative that began with one London Olympiad and ended in another: the age of decline, 1948-2012.”

More than six decades of decline? That’s a long time and more, surely, than 14 days can restore.

He also says that when the shine of gold fades, Britons will quickly revert to their distrustful views on immigration, the reality of austerity and the governance by corrupt politicians and bankers and, he mentions, bad weather.

But who could deny the populace a Golden Fortnight and a glimpse of what could be?

Not me.

Well done. Well played. Carry on.

What were your highlights and lowlights of London 2012?

What do you think of the closing ceremony?

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34 Responses to this article

  1. Brit August 13, 2012 Reply
     
     

    What a load of patronising drivel. Hate to think what you would say if you hadn’t “always loved Britain”.

     
    • Wendy Harmer August 13, 2012 Reply
       
       

      Sorry, just the view of a “colonial” and, not that different to what your own media says, as a matter of fact ( did you read Freedland’s article? And there are many more like it.) The amount of Brits on Twitter (including Stephen Fry) saying “no one thought we could do it” was telling. BTW: I really loved the closing ceremony “house party”, thought it superior to Danny Boyle’s opening effort.

       
  2. Brit August 13, 2012 Reply
     
     

    You mentioned “colonial” – not me.

     
    • Wendy Harmer August 13, 2012 Reply
       
       

      And to re-iterate, I would find standing around singing: “long to reign over us” depressing. NOW for a new Australian flag.

       
  3. Heather August 13, 2012 Reply
     
     

    Ha! looks like you might have stirred the fury of the Tories yourself, Wendy.

     
  4. Annette Piper August 13, 2012 Reply
     
     

    Politics aside…
    I enjoyed the closing ceremony but missed the opening ceremony as I live in rural NSW where digitial television is highly dodgy and it certainly dodged that day.
    Luckily I have subscription TV (which apparently didn’t have the licence for the closing/opening ceremonies) so at least I was able to see lots of the games, including those parts that DIDN’T have Australians in them (unlike the channel 9 coverage reportedly).
    I love the gymnastics and diving so was thrilled to see plenty of it and got a surprising amount of enjoyment watching the women weightlifters (mostly jealousy!?) and some decent track and field.
    Fortunately the reception gods were on our side and we witnessed the closing party this morning – my favourite part of that would have been Eric Idle. So glad Monty Python made it in there somwhere :) So British!

     
  5. Jane August 13, 2012 Reply
     
     

    I loved London 2012 – it was fabulous – the highs – the lows. Congratulations! I am not English but let’s give credit where credit is due! Amazing athletes who put everything on hold to achieve extraordinary feats. A sign of hope in what often seems a very bleak world. Thank you! Roll on Rio in 2016!

     
  6. Dirty Pierre August 13, 2012 Reply
     
     

    Keep your fish and chips and your pints of so called beer…. it should have been Paris

     
    • Margot August 13, 2012 Reply
       
       

      @Kate: losing their Empire decades ago and being stuck as a second rate, rainy island in the North Atlantic with a huge deficit would probably make anyone a bit miffed and condescending.

       
  7. anna August 13, 2012 Reply
     
     

    hear hear!

     
  8. Marnie August 13, 2012 Reply
     
     

    The Olympics offers the host country the chance to show itself to the world. Whether we approve or not, whether we like it or not is immaterial. That is the England they chose to show us. If it increases their own moral and lifts their spirits, if it increases their value of self worth and proves to themselves that they are still a force to be reckoned with, then who are we to judge. We have watched and marvelled at the ceremonies, cheered and cried with our athletes and had two weeks of outstanding entertainment. Let’s just be happy for the country that hosted us and accept it for what it was.

     
  9. Britt August 13, 2012 Reply
     
     

    No fury here Heather – just amused. And now that Wendy has given me my daily reminder that some of us Brits are high-born and some are low-born I’m off to prepare the staff for my after-Olympics garden party in my vast estate in the Glasgow suburbs – no plebeians on my guest list – and (sniff, sniff) no “colonials” either.

     
  10. foolio August 13, 2012 Reply
     
     

    I hope it doesn’t wear off as quickly as it seemed to in Sydney … we were all one big happy family for about 5 seconds… then the road rage kicked in again … We need those volunteers in bad hats and kacky shirts on a permanent basis!

     
  11. Britt August 13, 2012 Reply
     
     

    And yes Wendy it’s about time you got your own flag instead of using ours. Also shouldn’t you be thinking of becoming a republic? I think it’s time to grow up and stand on your own two feet. Just a gentle piece of encouragement.

     
  12. Kate August 13, 2012 Reply
     
     

    @Brit(t): Get over yourself.

     
  13. Benison O'Reilly August 13, 2012 Reply
     
     

    My absolute highlight was Mo Farah’s wins in the 5000 and 10000 metres. Loved how he was embraced by his adopted homeland; can only do the cause of multiculturalism good.

     
  14. Brendan August 13, 2012 Reply
     
     

    At least some things are timeless and enduring…a whingeing POM

     
  15. Jules August 13, 2012 Reply
     
     

    Wow Brit(t) – bad Monday??!! Take a break from the PC.

     
  16. Britt August 13, 2012 Reply
     
     

    Jules, Bad Monday? After a great Olympics? And the “colonials” are rising to the bait!
    Fantastic Monday! Toodle-pip to all.

     
  17. Joan Woolley August 13, 2012 Reply
     
     

    I loved every moment of the Olympics from the opening ceremony to the closing, the sporting events were spectacular especially Bolt on track and the marathon runner from Uganda, the Poms can sure turn it on when it comes to the point. congrates to our Olympians you did us proud and competed with pride for your Country the australian flag flies high.

     
  18. Britt August 13, 2012 Reply
     
     

    Brendan, Sorry, I’m not a POM.

     
  19. Margot August 13, 2012 Reply
     
     

    @Kate: my thoughts exactly. And to Brit(t): how’s that recession going over there?

     
  20. Brendan August 13, 2012 Reply
     
     

    It was good of you bring your civilising ways to the world, we all appreciate it – now please sod off and sell some more opium to the chinese so you can beat them in RIO.

     
  21. Britt August 13, 2012 Reply
     
     

    Margot, My second butler says it’s tough out there but I just tell him to suck it up or next thing he knows he’ll be sent to the colonies along with a few more convicts.

     
  22. Margot August 13, 2012 Reply
     
     

    Britt, sweetie, heaven forbid that should happen! Best keep it under your hat that Australia is one of the world’s greatest economic success stories or we’ll have yet another Pom trying to live here. Yes, the convicts have done very well for themselves since Federation. Now, Britt, back to counting those medals for you sweetie – it’s amazing what nine billion pounds can buy, isn’t it?

     
  23. sami August 13, 2012 Reply
     
     

    Obvious troll is obvious ;)

     
  24. Britt August 13, 2012 Reply
     
     

    Well, I’ve had a good day chatting to all you lovely little people down-under. Thanks to Wendy for dropping in the “colonial” tag. Gave me some great ammuntion. You all responded much as I expected.
    Bye for now!
    God save your gracious Queen.

     
  25. Kate August 13, 2012 Reply
     
     

    And Britt’s just won the medal that so many dislike his/her kind for – condescension.

     
  26. SandsOfTime August 13, 2012 Reply
     
     

    There’s been a lot of comment here (in London) in both the sports and mainstream media about how refreshing it is to have so many fantastic non-celebrity role models, and there’s also been a welcome focus on sports women – which is quite unusual in this soccer-obsessed nation. It all feels rather wholesome, and very enjoyably so.

    Benison I agree with you about the Farah wins – his win in the 5,000m brought tears to my eyes.

     
  27. Lea August 13, 2012 Reply
     
     

    Unfortunately didn’t see all of the closing ceremony, but have thoroughly enjoyed the banter above. I think Britt wins the gold medal for the new olympic sport of fishing- she certainly used the right bait to hook a few & reel them in.

     
  28. Eliza August 13, 2012 Reply
     
     

    Actually I think Brit is a gold medal at trolling rather than fishing. Sad to think she obviously spent hours looking for places to bag Australians about the Olympics. What a silly fart she is!

     
  29. Mumabulous August 13, 2012 Reply
     
     

    I’m deeply disappointed that I failed to rise early enough to see the ceremony this morning (despite having preschool kids). From what I manged to glean from the Twittersphere, it looked like a magnificent spectacle and a whole lot of fun. It may even has surpassed Sydney’s performance by the slimmest of margins.
    http://mum-abulous.com/2012/08/13/getting-good-closure-the-olympic-finale/

     

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Comments

  • Alice Smith: Well put, and I hope to see your documentary. I hate the idea of vaccinations and believe they can be harmful individual...

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  • Misty: What a fabulously challenging topic. Jackdan, very well delivered argument. I'd love to see your research. Publish it! ...

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  • Wendy Harmer: Thanks jack... a very interesting response and, from my communications with Sonya I think this is exactly the conversati...

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  • Jackdan: As someone who doesn't follow the Australian Vaccination schedule, I already feel like I am risking ridicule and worse p...

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