Stephen,
Hope you are ok and that the invisible web of boomalacka continues to
protect....but there is news...funny, uplifting, and fair dinkum true (check
Premier's web site) ....this is the story....
OK...here it is...on Sunday, February 18, 2007...at Hurstville, in a speech
given by Premier Morris Iemma, as he acknowledged those who had made him
what he is, he said...
"Maurice Cohen joins us too.
He's the economics teacher who helped me tackle the HSC.
More importantly, Maurice taught me that economics is not just about profit.
It's about people.
That you run an economy to build a community.
Thanks Maurice for your integrity and your wisdom."
...no matter what your politics (but how could you vote for deadman?)...this
is a mighty effort and should be shared amongst the brethren...ok...
....hope you are ok....think this should get a run...will get some funny
responses....cheers...
dekka
_________
Maurice was able to talk about this as he is a teacher and they have no money and therefore able to quantify economics based on need. Pity he could not help the Premier solve most of the other issues surrounding the economy and the NSW Public Eduction System.
Good one Maurice
Good guys one, bad guys nil
Peter
Of course there had to be a response: Is it because of Maurice’s abilities at teaching Economics that the finances of the State are in such a mess?!!
Seriously, well done Maurice, and please don’t anyone even for a moment think I would consider voting for ‘Just round up any 200 people you want and charge them with anything even if there is no basis for it, just to get them off the streets’ Debnam (the approach that makes even Phillip Ruddock look like a member of Amnesty International).
Mark Smith
_________
My cover has been blown.
Circa 1980, St George Tech Matriculation class - an impressionable long haired Morris Iemma used to sit in the back. Must have done something, he got good enough marks and motivation to go to Sydney Uni to study economics.
what else can I say?
Regards,
Chook
_________
I say bugger it there's a few weeks left. 'Chook for Treasurer' is a winnable
campaign if we pull together.
Paul Brown
_________
Peter, Mark , Chook, et al...
Struth, old buddies, make no mistake, this Iemma guy (nothing wrong with being impressionable) is the goods, the ants pants, numero uno....sure there are a few people in the team that are a worry....but look at the alternative...eeeeek....
...he (Iemma), is at least willing to talk about building a community...no economic rationalist stuff.... Maurice might be a hero...or was it Geoff Brookes channelling through you...?
Anyway, make no mistake, Mr Cohen effort is significant...we may see a very poitive result....
cheers
dekka
_________
Stephen (and Derek),
thanks for passing that sweet piece on.
& not just some STHS urban legend like one of those Smithy stories from age of yore. History and mythology now acrete with URL's which can be very handy hooks.
And praise to the delightful and worthy Chook! - he always did have great heart and never feared to show it,
Graeme Sephton
_________
good on you chook....i'm surprised Morris didn't go further up the line and thank "Spooky" Brooks ...
kind regards, jeff matchett
what's that definition of an economist again?....
someone with a 50% chance of accurately predicting the past......
_________
29 April, 2007
Dear Stephen
If you could contact Peter Coleman I would appreciate it if he could provide an overview of the new public system he is apparently part of, this "NSW Public Eduction System" (bring it on)??? Isn't education a wonderfull thing. If only Tojo could see us now.
Cheers
Russell Overhall "from the sidelines"
_________
Stephen
Tell Russell that the new system is only the old system downgraded. Public education reached its pinnacle in 1969 when we all did the HSC. iT HAS BEEN RUNNING STEADILY oops [see] ever since
Tell Russ it is good to hear from him
Peter
PS Derek Lewis and i played in a cricket game on Saturday and we are both hobbling a little now
_________________
Here's the original article from the S.M.H.
Cult of Morris
THE drink-recycled-sewage-and-die election: Morris Iemma unwittingly defined the difference between Labor and Peter Debnam's Opposition for ordinary voters.
"On water recycling, Mr Debnam and I both agree - but with one key difference. My Government will force industry to use recycled sewage. Mr Debnam will force Sydneysiders to drink it," the Premier said at Labor's state election campaign launch.
Saying the Coalition would force people to drink recycled sewage was as dirty as it got at the Hurstville Civic Centre, where Mr Iemma portrayed himself as a family man with the aspirations of ordinary folk.
Much of his campaign launch was a doleful exercise in homespun spinning designed to bury the recent political past - a past rife with ministerial resignations, late trains, empty tunnels, vengeful preselections and promises to turn salt into water - and celebrate the rattle of a simple man.
Even Labor's two-deck 2007 state election campaign slogan - More to do but/We're heading in the right direction - joined the spirit of the occasion as a masterpiece of mediocrity. A yawning five weeks from the election, Mr Iemma chose the district he calls home to launch his campaign before a small, select audience that outnumbered the media by just four to one.
He called it a community gathering. It was not, he said, a traditional launch packed with elder statesmen and Labor faithful. Yet the 200 people at the Hurstville Civic Centre were as carefully chosen as when Gough Whitlam, Bob Hawke and Paul Keating were routinely dragooned into attending Bob Carr campaign launches. (The only person resembling a tribal elder was the former long-serving Labor MP and raffle ticket seller John "Johnno" Johnson: "They dare not start without me.")
Instead of a Labor pantheon, Mr Iemma offered a selective memory of those who made him what he is. Many occupied the front row photo opportunity line-up usually reserved on such occasions for adoring ministers.
Mr Iemma acknowledged his parents, his wife Santina and their four children "who teach me every day the meaning of unconditional love", his "second parents" who looked after him when his own were working, his old English teacher Marie Erskine and his economics teacher Maurice Cohen. Even his footy coach, John Vizard, got a guernsey.
Then came another group whose stories, the Premier said, reflected the "uplifting power of government". These included Brian McCaughan, a surgeon (who apparently helped the Premier cut hospital waiting lists), Bernie Banton, the James Hardie asbestos warrior ("this man took on a corporate giant and became a giant of the people") and Ron and Caroline Delezio, parents of the multiple car crash victim Sophie Delezio.
"When I met with Bernie Banton, Brian McCaughan and the Delezios, I didn't ask how they vote," Mr Iemma said. "Like most of you, I don't know, and I don't want to know." But missing was a nod to the man who gave Mr Iemma his first political gig, the once Labor headkicker Graham Richardson, who lives by the dictum "whatever it takes".
For that matter, the elephant in the room was the Premier's predecessor Bob Carr. But Mr Carr, not invited, refused to be swept under the carpet on Mr Iemma's big day. As the Premier drove to Hurstville, Mr Carr was on the radio dismissing reported claims by the Opposition Leader, Peter Debnam, that he had often given the Opposition Leader advice when they met at public functions. Not true, Mr Carr said. "I've barely spoken to him for five seconds."
The only people who were press-ganged (albeit apparently willingly) into attending Labor's launch were students from Oatley Public School and Colyton High School. The young ones sang the national anthem, the older ones sang the praises of Labor's school-based apprenticeship programs.
The Deputy Premier, John Watkins, cloyingly interviewed the apprenticeship students - two building constructors and a hospitality hopeful - as part of the warm-up entertainment.
The other warm-up entertainer was the reigning Australian Idol Damien Leith, who unfortunately chose as his occasional song Hallelujah, the work of Peter Debnam's favorite singer-songwriter, Leonard Cohen.
A video presentation showed Mr Iemma's formative years at primary and high school and playing Australian rules; he recalled driving his retrenched father around looking for jobs; there were happy family snaps and the political years.
Gremlins struck when the video stopped midstream and the faithful were treated to a second helping of Mr Iemma's early years.
Then Shine, the hit of another Australian Idol, Shannon Noll, piped Mr and Mrs Iemma into the auditorium. He delivered his nine-page speech and his wife and children were wheeled on stage for the cameras.
After 12 years in government, Mr Iemma's decision to pose as mediocrity-made-God may prompt cynics to ask for the brown bag, please, but Labor obviously thinks such a guileless pose will resonate with the voters he needs most."
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