Recently four staff at the library were given the option of resubmitting applications for renewal of their contracts. They were all in their 50's or 60's.
And the two replacements are young. Surprise surprise. I have recently had contact with one of the new young librarians. My question is - why don't Library staff read the reviews of new books reviewed in The Age? Surely all Librarians no matter what their age would take some interest in newly published books. From my investigations it appears they do not. Because I asked one of the replacement librarians if she could get a book that had recently been reviewed in The Age. She had not heard of either the book or the author. I made her take note of the name of the book and the author and I asked to be notified when it came into the system. This was some time ago. I still have not been notified. I have no confidence that the girl meant to do what I asked. She was simply treating me with the contempt that she considered I deserved by pretending to pander to my request. Am I being ageist? Maybe - but my impression is that a lot of young people are not all that well informed and nor do they want to be. Why did the council ask the older employees to take on new contracts? And why does the council have contracts for Librarians? Draw your own conclusions.
0 Comments
Dear Councilor
I attended the Council Meeting held in the old Town Hall and I write to you because of your speech which you gave speaking in support of the motion you put regarding the Piano returning to the Art Gallery. In your speech you appealed to people to lessen the emotion involved in the issue yet it was obvious to me that your voice contained a certain amount of suppressed rage. You appealed for reason yet you did not let 2 fellow councilors to vote claiming they had a conflict of interest. The underlying rage in your voice indicated you had an interest which could have also been argued to be conflicted. The question is self evident – why did you not also remove yourself from voting? As a Councilor I believe you have to grapple with many issues where the issues are not clear cut – the issues will seldom be black and white and you will always have to make a judgement or compromise. In this case however the issues are clear cut. Pushing the reset button will not solve the problem and your comment “the piano is not going anywhere” could turn out to be political double speak. I do not understand why all the issues could not be ventilated in this matter and I ask if you could answer the following questions.
I believe the real conflict of interest is between those elected and those appointed. - Who has the power? I ask if you could reply. Thanking You Neville Gibb In 1967 President Lyndon Johnson came to Australia. He was extremely popular. There was a lot of adulation given to him. He could have been a Roman Emperor visiting his colonies. Indeed years later it was revealed that in private he had said just this. Our Prime Minister had dedicated himself to be "All the way with LBJ" and could only be described as his close comrade in arms. It was claimed that there was even a close personal friendship. Large crowds all over Australia flocked to see The President. It was something of a triumphant progress. There were also a small number of protesters who followed him everywhere. Some were intent on violence of a type. At one point some red paint was splattered on The Presidents car. At another point some protesters had laid in front of his car.
At the time I worked in the Taxation Department. We were at the last moment given the afternoon off. We were given no instructions to welcome the President when he came to Melbourne - we were just told we could leave work early but I guess the inference was there. I disapproved of LBJ and his policies - indeed I had a deep concern about the Vietnam War and Australian American relations - but as I had to walk past the Town Hall on my way home I thought I would watch what happened. I was slightly surprised that there were not an awful lot of people lining Swanson Street and I was able to take up a position opposite the Town Hall. There were a number of well dressed young men sprinkled amongst the onlookers. I stood next to one. I did think there was some thing odd about them because they were all silent and they wore hats. Finally the motorcade drew up. At this point the well dressed men raised their hands above their heads and shouted "lets hear it for LBJ" in unison. They were obviously some kind of American cheer leaders. They then started cheering out loudly "Hooray for the USA". The car pulled up in front of the dignitaries that had assembled outside the Town Hall. LBJ saw a woman holding an American Flag and he literally leapt out of the car and grabbed the flag. He turned to the crowd and started waving the flag in a crazy looking way at the face of the crowd. The crowd then rushed towards him and he rushed towards the crowd and they became entwined. He was all the time waving his flag in an intense crazy way and cheering equally as crazy. He was shouting - this is the American Flag - look at it and be excited. Or something similar. It took a second or two for order to be restored. The Town Clerk who was dressed in his Official Regalia was almost knocked over. He had lost his shoe and his Magisterial wig was askew. My distinct memory is the look of annoyance on the Lord Mayors wife as she was pushed and pummeled by the crowd. She had lost her place as one of the dignitaries who was supposed to curtsy and bow to LBJ as he got out of his car. She was not a small woman and the look on her face said she did not enjoy being pushed out of the way by the lower classes. But everyone acted like riff raff. In fact all the dignitaries had acted like teenagers at a pop concert. LBJ was a cheap rabble rouser and the crowd were all cheap rabble. Especially the dignitaries. They screamed the most. They wanted to kowtow. The whole crowd had a mob mentality. It was all very undignified. I found the whole thing extremely vulgar. I did not move a muscle. I did not say a word. I stayed completely silent. I was in fact struck dumb, I had witnessed something extremely distasteful and demeaning. I was reinforced in my conviction that the Australian People were totally morally corrupt. This was damming evidence in front of my eyes. What were the Australian people doing? Why were they doing this? They were certainly proving themselves to be not worthy of any respect. Nor trust. The well dressed young American man standing next to me did look at me suspiciously. I didn't wait for the speeches. I left. I turned my back on LBJ and walked away. I believe that this is what all Australians should have done. We should have all turned our backs to him. But no one did. |
Categories
All
Topics
All
Archives
February 2024
|