Counterpoint: Tim Gilbertson – Happy Birthday, Jesus

I’ve never been big on nostalgia. Looking forward to making new and innovative mistakes is always more fun that dwelling on the host of past mistakes that seem to be the sum total of human endeavour up till now. But there’s first time for everything, so here goes.

The usual retrospective dwells on who died, which media creation kissed which baby, which sportsman triumphed over adversity, and what particularly strange devices women inflicted on themselves last year in the name of fashion.

So what was so weird and wonderful and different about  2008?

The answer, in the global context, is nothing. We were born, lived and died, and despite the miraculous progress of technology, we were ruled by the same feelings, emotions and primitive urges as our cavemen ancestors. We continued to despoil the planet and kill one another in droves either deliberately through war and oppression or through neglect and disinterest. The two billion malnourished, uneducated, unhoused citizens of the world attest to our timeless ability to ignore suffering and injustice and heed only our own needs. The tens of millions of refugees squatting on innumerable borders in misery and hopelessness are testament to our blinkered ability to ignore the unpalatable … as long as I’m all right, Jack.

As we have done for years, probably forever, the world spends  ten thousand times as much on armaments as it does on health, housing and education combined. The five members of the United Nations Security Council (Britain, France, USA, China, Russia), responsible for world peace and  progress are the world’s major arms exporters, providing over 90% of the world’s most despicable trade to countries whom they condemn in public but arm in private. It’s no surprise that most thinking people are anarchists.

Here in our South Pacific paradise, the Law Society has just admitted into its ranks Mr. Clint Rickard as “a fit and proper person” worthy of up holding the ideals and honour of the legal profession. Considering it was Mr. Rickard’s unrepentant practise while a uniformed police officer  to inveigle young women in to group sex sessions with him and  fellow officers, and considering that after being acquitted on rape charges he publically defended two convicted rapists as his good mates, and publicly damned his fellow police officers for doing their jobs properly, it makes you wonder exactly how bad you need to be unacceptable to the Law Society.

In another delightful piece of inspired lunacy, the Justice system has put on trial a poor demented Somali woman who attempted to hijack a plane from Blenheim to Australia. Rather than being placed in preventive medical detention, the Legal Eagles are staging a mammoth and unneccessary trial which will cost the taxpayer plenty and line the pockets of the lawyers. In medieval times, leprosy was regarded as punishment for sin and lepers were forced to live in squalor on the fringes of society. Leprosy was finally found to be a disease with treatable physical causes. I wonder if the legal profession will one day consider, that in this instance, going mad and trying to hijack a plane is a disease rather than a crime. I suspect that as long as legal aid exists, a lot of sickness will be treated as crime.

And finally, the DHB. The  worst attack on democracy in this country since the Battle of the Coral Sea and what’s happening? It’s being quietly swept under the carpet. I’m picking Mallard, King, Clarke and all the bit players will all get off scott free. To our eternal shame.

That’s why I admire Jesus. I have no idea whether he was the son of God, walked on water, raised the dead or turned water into wine. I really respect a man who has principles and is prepared to put his life on the line for them. Not the sort of bloke, I would  imagine, they would  welcome into the Law Society. People like him might put them out of business.

So happy birthday to Jesus, and a Happy Christmas to one and all.