On other matters
All the soft, white media people and politicians wailing about their “climate emergency” are such a contrast to our evergrowing spectful debate on the government’s role in regulating business against competing interests, and the necessary steps to ensure harm minimisation beyond mindnumbing slogans like “red tape”? Eve Stafford, Kuranda and effort, perseverance and resilience required to traverse the highs and lows of competition at a young age. It is character making. I remember getting up before school to exercise my horse and then again in the afternoon.
Most often, it is our parents who make these opportunities available in the beginning but longevity is a team effort. Parents can push all they like but it is down to the child to envision the big picture and put in the practice. To coin an overused cliche - “You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink”.
Now, as a parent, I have spent hours and hours sitting in theatres, watching children dance. I am the mother of a dancer who competes - five individual solos and the same number of troupe dances.
It requires a solid commitment on parents’ behalf and yet, we don’t have to get up on stage and do our very best to impress the adjudicator. Thank heavens.
How great are our kids and their teachers - be it in the horse yard or dance studio.
Together they set about learning life’s hard won lessons - the most important of which is hard work reaps rewards maybe not all of the time, but eventually and perhaps not in trophies, but in character, confidence and skill.
Let’s embrace these opportunities to report and celebrate our local talent on show, especially at the Cairns Eisteddfod. Pip Miller, Cairns 1843: Hong Kong is proclaimed a British
Crown Colony. 1977: Elvis Presley performs his final concert at Indianapolis – he died two months later. 2013: Julia Gillard is toppled by Kevin Rudd in a leadership vote. With a 57-45 win, Rudd is sworn in as prime minister the next day. 2017: Japanese airbag maker Takata files for bankruptcy in the United States and Japan after it is overwhelmed by lawsuits and recall costs related to it’s production of faulty airbag inflators. 2018: Navy divers begin the rescue of a children’s soccer team and their adult coach after they became trapped in Tham Luang Nang Non cave in Chiang Rai, Thailand (above).