Views in verse on 'sports nuts'

Aussies love their sport

"Aussie, Aussie, Aussie ...Oi, Oi, Oi" ...you can say that again!!!

Just off the Soccer World Cup and now the nation 'takes a seat on the couch' for the Commonwealth Games starting this week in Glasgow. 

This is allowing for the fact that Australians actively follow three major football codes during winter: Aussie Rules, Rugby and Rugby League. Last night seventy thousand fans in Melbourne went out to see a club game (Swans v Hawthorn) and that same night forty thousand fans in Sydney went out to watch two local Super 15 Rugby teams (Waratahs and Brumbies) battle it out for a seat in the final next week. Rugby League is also a huge drawcard on the east coast coming into finals time. Free to air and Foxtel football are huge drawcards in prime time. We love our winter football codes.

But none of this will stop us sitting up and watching our athletes fighting it out in Glasgow. Australians are expecting their team to bring back about half the medals that are on offer; any contest with 'the mother country' will always guarantee a competitive response from all Aussies. So the interest will be intense.

There is no doubt that the average Aussie is a 'sports nut'. And ...we wouldn't have it any other way!!!



The Die Hard Fan

What is this light
That dances round me?
My skin is cold within
Am I watching
Am I sleeping
Is this face my kin?
I hear soft grumbling
The image mumbling
There's no clear lines I see
What's this happening
Surely dreaming
A chill sweat covers me

I try to move
But nothing's moving
Confounded by the light
I'm now awake
On that I'm clear
Fumbling in the night
Blimey! ...not Dad?
...reaching out...
...he's long past skin and bones...?
Now he's touching
I feel his breathing
I hear his gravelly tones:

"Son, we worry about things
That our life brings
We're not happy till it's done
We lock ourselves up tight
Day and night
Much like a train we're riding on
I don't know the answers
As I'm telling you this
My life was lived the same
But I need to know
before I go...
Did the Boys win that last game?"

"Did they smother Plugger
That big hard bugger?
Did Kelly make them pay?
Did Tighe do it tough
Down the guts
To steal the game away?
No apartheid fall
Nor Berlin Wall...
My life wouldn'a bin the same
I've just gotta know
before I go...
Did the Bloods win that last game?"


Sent from my IPhone - Grahame J Flynn

CFMEU - 'views in verse' on being Australian

Views in verse ...on being "Australian"
Change in our society is only ever achieved through touching at people's hearts - not by instilling bullying and driving fear
Real Australians reach out to their fellow Australians with empathy and respect. They lead by example. Over time, this brings reward won by mutual co-operation and shared success.


On my daily morning walk through central Sydney this week I was met by what appeared in front of me to be a 'mob of bikies' in their black jackets and 'colours'. Before baulking to cross the road I read one of the emblems ..."CFMEU'. They were all the same.

They were in fact clustered in front of a coffee shop - all dressed for battle.  A day in court I suspect. The closer I got the more evident it became that there was only just enough of them to actually spread out and seemingly 'claim the sidewalk'.

As I nudged my way through them however I heard only one voice: "...that was all I had left...". A very personal voice coming from within a mob that looked anything but personal.

In reality, the words I heard from the one member could (probably would) invoke help and support from greater society for one who is really 'doing it tough'. Sadly though guys, we as humans generally draw immediate conclusions from what we first see (threatening?), basic instinct has taught us this. Further... we ALL must at least appear to be open to others or no-one will ever stop to listen.

Sometimes 'groupthink' is a very dangerous thing. You can't ever go back to check the very foundation upon which you (we) stand. Without a clear understanding of core values (founded within society's values at large) our objectives and plans can be skewed towards something that we may have never intended to be in the first place. Integrity begins with the individual.

The Great Aussie Bloke

He's been the lovable larrikin

The butt of many a joke

For he speaks his mind right at you

plain speaking kind of folk

To get a true likeness of him though...

the painter would need few stokes

For straight up and down 

just as you find him

is the great Aussie bloke:

Give him a field

He'll raze it clean 

in just a given day

Give him a bar 

he'll fill it with fun 

At his regular pay

Open his eyes 

to a worthy cause

He'll move  

without delay 

Yet introduce him 

to a worthy miss

He'll quietly shrink and choke...

Not much with his softer side really

The great Aussie bloke

The 'engine's always running'

He's 'chatty' and forthright

A friend  in need...? 

He'll turn up ready

to help him with his plight

Injustice found?

In his own way

He'll defend the given right

A time of darkness...?

he'll be there too

to raise his sleeves to fight...
Then without words
he'll tip his hat.... and
slowly roll a smoke...
Straight up and down
Just as you find him

He's the ...great ...Aussie ...bloke

Forwarded from my I-phone Grahame J Flynn

CBA - it's a matter of trust!!!

CBA - it's a matter of trust

Views in verse on trust

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia in the clumsy handling of it's recent client crisis really needs to take a good look at itself. Honesty is always a good start.

The CBA has carried the (almost) unquestioned trust of the Australian people since I can recall from my childhood days. Days when we were introduced to them at school as ...'our bankers'.

We have seen them grow into one of the largest banks in the world on the back of our common nation building. Mr Narev (being a new Australian) may be excused  for not appreciating the full depth of this trust and the responsibilities it carries. He cannot however be forgiven for spinning more lies in the face of his overdue responsibilities.

The tardy response to this recent appalling wealth building by the bank and its focus on crisis management  falls well short of what CBA owes its 'family' of members. The excuse that there were a few 'rogue individuals' involved is utter rubbish.

To be allowing our peoples' lifetime endeavours to be committed to risky revenue options without disclosure or allowance for clients' individual needs is 'professional negligence'. When this is driven by sales schemes that encourage 'rogue-ish' behaviour of its sales teams 'year in year out', it is clearly appalling management not just a few crafty individuals to blame.

Anyone in commerce knows that objectives drive set goals and that these goals then drive behaviour. The individual salespeople do not create the sales schemes ...management do. This is a matter of planned deception. These stakes are always too high for retiring couples ...they were not given the whole truth

Anything the bank does or says now cannot excuse lies and misrepresentation to its customers when this had already occurred and been reported on (ABC - Four Corners). The late responses by Narev were indicative of crisis management and thereby the containment desired. That Narev should now go for the false spin laid out on these years of deception is unforgiveable.

Simple truth was called for. Refunds, where due, were of course mandatory ...purile lies to accompany it were utterly uncalled for and in the face of all of this historical deception this is simply too much!

What have the Board done since? ...let's get some transparency here. Where is the real accountability? Not good enough fellahs!


As a segway into reconciliation of wrong doings: The Abbott Government as though to apportion some understanding of the 'few suggested rogues' theory has coined a term 'conflicted' earnings instead of simple 'commissions' for the purposes of banking reform.

In so doing unerringly touching on the truth ...the sales people involved over many years would indeed have been 'conflicted' in whether to do the right thing or the wrong thing working within a scheme that so easily richly rewarded inappropriate behaviour.

*Escape to Paraguay

The last of the leaves
are now falling
A cold winter coming our way
The days too are
getting much shorter
A chill wind blows hard down the lane
Another bad day at the office
My best efforts going astray
Can I just suspend all reason?
...escape to Paraguay?

The train travel goes as expected
Jam packed and running late
Once home I'm pained by the sight of
the landlord
Leaning across of 'his' gate
I suffer a self-serving sermon
Of finance in deep disarray
Where can I go to find refuge...?
...escape to Paraguay?

My wife is busy with dinner
Kids screaming ...the TV loud
We kiss ...she says to me smiling
"How can you come home to this crowd?"
"I just saw the grim reaper at you"
"...I paid them early today"
What makes people go and
behave this way?
Can we ...escape to Paraguay?

The bank's taken leave
Of their senses
They give ...then they just take away
Call to 'explain' far too often
Who cares what they 'don't' have to say?
Sometimes it wells up inside you
Twisting your head every way
Today my thoughts turned to folly...
The Forests of Paraguay


* the the 1890's hundreds of hearty Australians in the face of disenchantment with their lives in Australia set out to start their lives again in the forests of Paraguay. 

forwarded from my I phone - Grahame J Flynn

Clive Palmer - the new messiah

Views in verse

- on a call to integrity!

What a showman! But the real challenges await round the bend... how will he respond?



Clive Palmer gave birth to a new party at the last Federal election (PUP) and it seems that the mining magnate, now politician, hasn't stopped creating mayhem ever since. We have been treated to a political whirlwind these past few months; he has created a PR freight train to usher in his new senate team which it seems will hold power over decision making therein. The major political parties at his mercy? Is this a new dawn in Australian politics?

The most amazing thing to be sure (not the sight of this 'coalman' standing on the same stage as Al Gore last week) is that his senators are only now taking their seats this month. The scene is now set by Palmer for a critical awareness both inside and outside parliament of who will be wielding power going forth! How will he use it?

He has achieved this on a wave of popularity supporting everything he sees is good but without having to at this time make a single hard call. Good politics Clive and good luck. No doubt a great showman; the call to integrity awaits around the bend ...let's not set our hopes too high shall we? Many have said that his true motives lie in 'get squares' aimed more at his local Queensland rivals than any true platform of any national macro reform.

There's only one thing I know for sure is that objectives drive behaviour - what he does from here on will set the scene for why he really got into all of this in the first place. Time will tell.


The new messiah

Follow me
If you're tired
Of the way that it's all wired
We know
There's gotta be a better way

Follow me
If you're angry
About politics at large
I know we can both see a better day

Follow me
If their outlook's
much more vague
than yours and mine

Follow me
I know we'll
Get along
just bloody fine

Follow me
When I promise
About the changes we will make
Listen well as I explain
That things may change.

Dream on
As my intention
And promises to you...
Seem to float
Just like sweet bubbles
down a drain

From my iPad - Grahame J Flynn