Dear reader, we have it on good authority, (Google Maps) that the distance from Berlin to Warsaw is some 573 kms, and the distance from Kherson to Kharkiv is a mere 554 kms. On closer analysis we discovered the distance from Paris to London is a mere 479 kms, and the distance from Paris to Lyon is a trifle at 469 kms.
Dr Werner Von-Brain, the top rocket scientist at NASA.
These are tremendous distances on paper, but on a macro scale a mere trifle. As we write, the Artemis spacecraft is hovering a mere 185 kms above the lunar surface. It has been proclaimed that a human colony on the moon may be only a mere decade away. That gives us a decade to start destroying the first extra-terrestrial eco system. ‘If there’s water in them craters, we’ll grab the lot’, says former Rio Tinto Vice President Will Juukan- Gorgeit.
What’s 300 kms in the scheme of things? The distance from Dimboola to Melbourne? Or if you take the cultural extreme, the distance from London to Newcastle is 379 kms. And in that instance a whole separate culture between the south and the north is derived. A cultural chasm one might think.
The Artemis spacecraft, shown here in downward position for lunar re- entry. Also trialed for up-coming missions to Uranus and Mars.
So, though the nearest bank branch may be 300 kms away, that would indicate a breakdown of not just the bureaucracy and its diminishing reach, but the breakdown in simple communication. Communications that could only be improved by conscripting (under generous leave and superannuation entitlements) native runners, Morse and Heliograph stations, and Semaphore across the dry interior. A boon to employment and a fraction of the cost of paying executives for the Snowy River Mk2, The NBN, and those whose task it is to rein in the overreach of the NDIS.
Still though Frank may have a point, in short; ‘It’s enough to make you go MENTAL’!
Frank writes…
Buenas,
Both these men suffer from severe undiagnosed mental conditions. Brought about by failure in communication and access to un-answered Centrelink enquiries.
Wendy and I were watching a programme on TV on the Mental Health Crisis in Australia. It made us realize that there is probably not a single person in Australia who doesn’t know anyone (including themselves) who has mental health “issues”. In the programme, there was a wide-ranging discussion on the effects on the nation’s mental health by covid lockdowns, the housing crisis, education, inflation, poverty, prejudice, health staffing shortages and you name it.
It was then that Wendy came up with one of her perspicacious insights:
“One of the main causes of mental health problems in Australia is the bureaucracy” she declared.
A week after that programme, I caught myself in a room by myself, loudly and furiously shouting obscenities. Absolutely not my style. I’m one of those fortunate people whose top paddock is relatively devoid of loose kangaroos. What had caused my fulminations, is hearing the following two alternating recorded messages interspersed and repeated in a matrix of rather crappy music:
Banking Call-Centre operators eagerly transcribing Frank’s enquiry into bureaucratic gobbledygook via the ‘Weaselword app”.
“Thank you for waiting, our operator will be with you shortly” and
“We apologise for the continuing delay. We appreciate your time is important and will ensure your call is answered as soon as possible”
‘Shortly’ ended up being 1 hour 45 minutes. A further half an hour only to be told they couldn’t help me and I had to go to the nearest branch.
The distance from Yuendumu to the nearest branch is just short of 300 Km.
I restrained myself from remarking that from Manila to Luzon is only slightly further.
What precipitated my need to contact the bank is that when making some, for me, unusual bank transfers, an algorithm (not a real person) locked my account. It is still locked while I suffer from what is no less than bureaucratic/administrative torture. This is the closest I’ve come to losing my marbles. I don’t look forward to in due course having to try to get onto the NDIS. Nor completing a decade of overdue tax returns, nor belatedly applying for an age pension.
Yes, I know, many of you reading this will be able to retaliate by boring me with similar tales. The point I’m trying to make is that 300 Km is a fair distance which can be glorious but can also disadvantage the disadvantaged.
This poor man waited so long on the Centrelink help- line he was forced to take the law into his OWN HANDS! (If you’re forced via centrelink call centre to take the law into your own hands, or know of someone who is suffering feel free to call lifeline, and wait. As they have been told to treat your call as important, though we all know they couldn’t care less and their jobs are not as highly paid as an NBN executive, so you can’t really blame them anyway.
Hasta luego,
Frank
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYQ4uV8NDJo Futurama Hermes bureaucrat song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OV2Tsoam-wI Frank Zappa- The torture never stops.
And this one just for the music:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvHBEQsHFAA Aretha Franklin – Baby I love you.
No such problem is the NATIONS FINEST are called upon to deliver JUSTICE!
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