Saturday 11 December 2010

Caught with their pants down.

While Julian Assange remains incarcerated in London awaiting extradition to a foreign jurisdiction, where there may be a law he might have broken, major newspapers publish (carefully chosen) diplomatic cables that are embarrassing diplomats, ministers and politicians around the world.
None of those newspapers have had injunctions placed on them nor has any editor or owner been arrested. But more to the point, officialdom is falling over itself to not face up to the fact that the leaked diplomatic cables are telling us what our governments are really saying and doing in secret in our name! What is really going on here? I leave that question hanging to tell you a true story.

Many years ago a person I know well was invited to help ferry a yacht to Sydney. It was owned by a teacher from his wife’s staff, so she came along with their two children. A few hours into the one-day voyage, the owner’s wife and the two children became sea sick and were put to bed.

For his two hour watch, he was alone at the helm and although he felt something was amiss, because the ship had no Autohelm, he had no choice but to continue hand steering until he was relieved. But she was a lovely old ship and he was enjoying himself alone with the wind, the sails and the sparkling sea surging by the gunwales, fully occupied at the wheel way past his allotted time.

Some days later, a mutual friend told him that his wife had boasted to her, that while he was busy steering, she was ‘downstairs fucking the captain’ ha ha ha!

So what did he do? The friend believed it was better all round for the truth to be known. So although we all knew she often put a ferret in a burrow to watch the rabbits scurry out as it were, he thanked the friend and confronted his wife. She was recovering from breast cancer, so he constructed reasons why she might be driven to test her attractiveness and although devastated, he was not angry and calmly asked her to decide what she wanted to do, to go or to stay and repair the damage.

But if he had taken his lead from shrill pronouncements coming from certain political mouths, that Wikileaks founder Assange ‘should be assassinated’, he would have killed the friend and ignored the infidelity! Your turn.

This came in this morning’s mail and I invite you to have a look.

19 comments:

  1. If I was writing a fairly predictable plot for a political thriller, I might include the following. Information is leaked, which the general public will be surprised/amused to read. Of course there would be no real surprise among diplomats, or the governments they represent, because information of this nature is already monitored at the highest level. I would almost certainly include the launching of a 'smear' campaign, or trumped up charge, to discredit the source of the leak. But then, I'm only talking 'fiction'.

    ReplyDelete
  2. We're all still sniggering about Prince Andrew saying (in confidence) that Britain has the best geography teachers in the world!

    On a more serious note the second half of your post is a brilliant comparison.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I guess I am more concerned about the uncivilized and violent behavior going on in Britain about school tuition...what brats
    and houligans.....spoiled
    can you tell I'm getting older?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Frankly I haven't read anything leaked yet that didn't just sound like old womens gossip. Nothing recognisible as a state secret. What IS all the fuss about? Or have I been watching too many thrillers?

    P.S. No offence to old women.

    P.P.S Suz - I have an inkling that the "brats and hooligans" are just that and not students at all. Those I saw on the tele last night looked like they were out for a good time and would not be the slightest bit affected by increased fees - being that they had probably already left school at a tender age.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Great analogy Stafford!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Baa..No offense taken..hee hee
    I hope that is so about the mob
    If it's students..this world is truly in trouble

    ReplyDelete
  7. I believe Shakespeare wrote *centuries ago* about 'not shooting the messinger' ~~ wise man!

    ReplyDelete
  8. ... make that messenger please! Too early for correct spelling!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Can anyone in politics spell "transparency"?
    Nope- it's all about deals done behind closed doors. Hence- wikileaks.
    Now- about the spoiled brats: are any of those louts really students? Hmpf.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Very neatly put. There's a lot of hot air being expended on this subject, but this reflection on its issues is no threat to climate change!

    ReplyDelete
  11. being a part of third world we are much concerned how the decisions regarding our future and our fate ,both are controlled by first world....

    May God bless our planet.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Heavenly Muse... All of us that have been watching are concerned at the big picture. The bottom line on climate change is zero emissions and in a way that is easier achieved in the third world (with support) than it is in the highly developed industrialised economies that are built around fossil fuels. But, if it was an arms race they would find the money. However, climate change is worse than an arms race. You can stop an arms race.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Your post is always interesting. Everything seems so frustrating right now. I think most everyone would say, this just isn't what I signed on for?

    ReplyDelete
  14. wondering when the 'growing up' part will happen for 'grown ups,' where we look at 'what is' with wisdom, and sincerely seek to make it right, or much better...

    i appreciate your writing and insights.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Your post with its integral perhaps titillating analogy speaks well to a reader. Maybe not so much if one is a boat captain that has had a seasick woman with intent befriending him for hours below deck.

    And a little more agreement here, "...climate change is worse than an arms race." At least we KNOW an arms race is manmade and can be altered by man.

    Inspiring to read such a well written political piece. The hanging question remains disturbing. "...the leaked diplomatic cables are telling us what our [Global] governments are really saying and doing in secret in our name! What is really going on here?"

    ??

    ReplyDelete
  16. It is glaring that punsters in the press and in the media draw a blank about their furthering of the Assange affair. Who keeps talking about it, who rides the coattails (creates) of the Wiki popularity? Here, no one has noticed that the "leaks" were published by media giants, not handed out as printouts on some street corner...if you're a whistle blower, the first charge against you will be about sex..surprise!
    Good stuff...

    ReplyDelete
  17. Thanks everyone for the thoughtful comments. That you area out there gives me hope!
    And Lyn, I hadn't thought about sex charges in that way but looking back a little; Clinton, an able president, was brought down by being accused of having his cock sucked while Bush took us to war on a lie, killing tens of thousands and got away with it. So it's not just the media giants, it is a block of voters who believed a little illicit sex is more reprehensible than killing people.

    Just had another naughty thought. There is no way I could ever stand for 'high office'. Too many 'innocent' indiscretions!

    ReplyDelete
  18. ** W O W * ! You Tell Em Stafford !!
    ** H O P E * ! Is a ' Blogger Like Thee ' ..

    ReplyDelete
  19. I always emailed this website post page to all my associates, because if like to read
    it after that my links will too.

    Also visit my page :: raspberry ketone

    ReplyDelete

(leave a message)