I am very pleased to read that John Brogden is leaving public life.
He can now address whatever issues he has without the added burden of being a public figure.
I hope he gets good quality solution-focused brief therapy and even better drugs.
Image from here
Let’s just say that I am a Muslim woman of middle-eastern origin. My husband and I have lived in Australia for 15 years. We are the proud parents of a young son aged five. Shahrdad is dark, charismatic and asks us lots of questions and we would do anything to protect our son.
We regularly travel back to Tehran to catch up with extended family and immerse our son in culture and language.
What will he have observed as the norm for him and his family by the time he is ten and the new anti-terror laws come under review? Will he think that all Australians spend anywhere up to three hours getting out of ’security’ at the airport after their arrival back from an overseas trip? Will he learn from us that venturing out in our white van causes suspicion?
What I am to tell him of our chosen homeland when, at the sunset clause stage of these new anti-terror laws, he is 15 and he has been stopped again and again, since he was 13.
How will I explain assimilation to him when none of his ‘white’ friends want to go out with him as they are sick of getting stopped by the cops?
"[…] that a particular suburb, there’s a threat about to emerge from that, or you’ve got credible intelligence information that some group of people in a white van are going around the countryside and they’ve got explosives on board. It gives you the capacity to search any white van, for example, if you put this act into place. It gets an instant response from the police. Now the Federal Government’s not talking about that, but they should be." – Kim Beazley
And how am I going to explain the concept of an opposition to him without him laughing out loud?
As the stories gush out of Latham’s gaping mouth, I am thinking that the question I should have asked was “how do we manage people suffering with Narcissistic personality disorders and persecutory paranoia in bureaucratic structures?”
The lack of empathy for everyone exposed by his need for a “notice me” behaviour is profound, and only superseded by his belief that almost everyone is involved in a systematic “bury Latham” plot.
As Latham’s rant becomes spew, any hope of insight gained by the ALP into distructive, unhelpful or flawed structures, policies, and cultures becomes more and more remote.
…Long,
longtime waiting.
Section of Echo and Narcissus painting by John William Waterhouse 1903
I believe the ALP will be waiting a long time before they become something remotely close to electable.
Clearly they were in trouble before this latest round of Latham-inspired damage.
The furore created by the information contained in the Latham diaries has had me wondering how bureaucratic structures manage dissent, diversity and different opinions.
How do they create mechanisms that allow for new players with different ideas, however improbable and whacky, to be heard, let alone debated and *gasp* implemented?
Generally, people who speak out against the structures, policies, and cultures in their workplaces do so at the expense of their long-term careers.
A person who does not speak out manages whatever emotional investment they have (if they have any) and resigns. Potentially taking all their fabulous, innovative and fresh ideas with them.
Julia Gillard seems to be getting a whiff of an answer…
As much as Latham’s venting is irritating; the alternative is silence-as-you-go which reveals nothing, exposes nothing and has the potential to change nothing.
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Mr Brogden said yesterday his actions were in jest and made towards a journalist he had known for years. But this was not the case with Angela Cuming, a journalist with The Sun-Herald, who was present when the party moved to the Marble Bar.
Cuming said she approached Mr Brogden and asked him about his election chances.
"He then stopped me … slipped one arm around the small of my back, leant down and said, ‘Enough of that. Are you available?’ I stumbled out some reply on the lines of, ‘No, I have a boyfriend, thanks very much.’"
Until women learn to say "Fuck off dogbreath" or "If it’s not 12 inches on the flop I’m not interested" (credited to my mate Moi) or "Like I want to see his willy" (credited to the girlchild’s friend Jasmine, aged 10, who was flashed at) then we as women will continue to have to politely thank boorish, powerful, sexually predatory men every day of every week.
Helena Carr understands a man like Brogden and her right to be treated with respect and will not accept an apology from him. Rightly so. A powerful, self-assured woman knows what she is worth and Helena is one such woman. She knows that the only way to deal with men such as Brogden is to shine a big bright spotlight on their behavior and name it up for what it is.
My girlchild will enter the professional workforce at the end of this year. She has been brought up to expect respect as a person and has been given permission to say all of the above. Knowing her, she will add a few more choice and appropriate lines.
Understand this is not about abuse for the sake of it. This about deconstructing a predator’s view of female and reminding them that a woman has a right to not be sexually harassed or assaulted.
"Well, he can ship his mail-order bride back on the boat." – Brogden
I’ll keep Helena Carr and ship off Brogden thanks.
Does Pittwater have a jetty?
Image from here