11 August 2015

Yes, turn off the mobiles

I have to agree with actor Benedict Cumberbatch, who was angered by mobile device users recoding his stage performance of Hamlet.

Unfortunately, people generally seem to have few manners at any type of live performance these days.

Common practice is to talk during performances and moving in and out of seats to get alcohol.

The same thing goes at sports events.

For the life of me I don't know why some people pay money to attend these events, at which they pay little attention.

Might just be a sign of how short attention spans are becoming. We get bored, we pull out a mobile to check emails.

It's one of the reasons I prefer to watch major sport on TV. I can focus and enjoy without the distraction.






-Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

25 June 2015

Government/ASIO PR stunt?

Was yesterday’s filming of terrorist hotspots at ASIO HQ just a government stunt to expand it’s “rule by fear” agenda?

Having worked at top secret level, I can’t see that ASIO would agree to it, despite what PM Abbott said in Parliament today.

Seriously, who would allow filming of classified maps inside our spy-catching organisation? ASIO, that’s who. But of course now it’s revealed the maps weren’t classified.

I now seriously question the judgement of ASIO boss, ex-SASR commander Duncan Lewis, who allowed this to happen.

17 June 2014

Dog finds PR client

I walked out of the house with the dog this morning. Who do we :bump" into? Angela Maxwell. She's walking around the world. We got talking, as she pulled her 45kg three-wheeled home. Rather than go into details of a half-hour conversation, check out her web site which explains it all. ProjectWeThrive She's raising money for women in underprivileged communities. I am now her honorary PR person while she's in Australia. That's for the next six or seven months. Please support her.

28 October 2011

Katter's Mad Hatter Party put its spin on blood money funding

Yesterday's The Australian featured the disturbing revelation that Bob Katter's Australia Party is funded by an arms company which is also associated with the murder of endangered species.

Today, further claims that the Party then provides bullets to people (via gun clubs) in return for their support.

I don't condone the arms industry or the slaughter of African animals (even if they are from a game reserve).

I wrote to Katter and the arms company, NIOA (the MD is Katter's son-in-law and Party vice-president). I received a reply only from Katter's people. I'd mention that NIOA was banned by Seaworld from hosting its 2010 Christmas party there because of its association with the killing of wildlife (the company advertises in hunting magazines).

I received the usual preprepared reply, with an attachment of their Party manifesto.

What the Party has done is put its "spin" (they refer to the endangered animals as being from "on a property that breeds animals"). Really, so that makes it okay?

The fact remains, these animals are murdered for what passes as sport or recreation (quite disturbing behaviour in most people's minds).

The fact also remains that the party accepts donations from the arms industry, which supplies weapons to these people. The company in question advertises in a range of hunting magazines. I'm all for shooting as a pasttime/sport (having served in the Army for 17 years) but not animals.

Rather than stand up for the rights of people to "have a flutter", Bob Katter might stand up for the rights of helpless animals.

It just reinforces the notion that this mob are just a bunch of redneck hillbillies. Maybe the Party should be renamed Katter's Mad Hatters. As one media report said: "the cowboys are calling the shots".

Today's The Australian
My site: http://www.prlab.com.au

21 October 2011

Bob Brown and the Greens deceive the Australian people ... twice

It was fitting the Federal Ombudsman resigned, but Greens leader Bob Brown's performance leaves me feeling sick.

It was the Ombudsman's pre-prepared questions to Green senator Sarah Hanson-Young (and didn't she go to ground) that caused the resignation. That in itself is deceit, on both sides.

However, Brown's holier-than-thou response, shifting blame on to the government, is a desperate attempt to mask the facts that the Greens were complicit in an attempt to undermine democracy.

Just like the Democrats, when they said they'd never vote for a GST, the Greens have betrayed my trust.

Never again, Bob Brown.

My site: http://www.prlab.com.au

19 August 2011

Heart Foundation a disgrace

Yesterday my mother-in-law in Geraldton was contacted by a Heart Foundation telephone caller and asked to donate. She is a pensioner, who has regularly worked for various Church charities.

When she told them she couldn't donate, the response was: "well, you better hope you don't have a heart attack."

My wife reported this by phone to your head office, which said it would investigate and get back to her today. She's heard nothing.

So I will now mount a PR campaign against the Foundation for both it's disgraceful conduct on the phone, and it's pathetic response to what was a most distressing incident for my 72-year-old mother-in-law.