Heart to Heart

[Dave Smith]

I for one am glad that they do push on for with out there research I would not be here today.

Zondrae nice little poem, It’s good to let the kids and grandkids know that we weren’t always old by were real people at one time.


TTFN

[Stephen Whiteside]

Neville, speaking of being direct and clear, I'd like to see your nose one day.

[Neville Briggs]

Stephen . Some reckon Australians talk through their noses, but we don't write with our noses, do we

[Stephen Whiteside]

No, but that doesn't mean we have to hide them behind big books!

[Stephen Whiteside]

Marty and Bob, this is not directly related, but it is in a way. It relates to the rather odd priorities we seem to have sometimes in Australia.

I'm currently reading a biography of the Australian film director Charles Chauvel, written by his wife, Elsa. It's a great read. I decided to try to get some copies of his films (apart from 40,000 Horsemen and Jedda, which I already have.) I started with 'In The Wake Of The Bounty'. So far, however, I have not managed to get hold of a copy. The National Film & Sound Archive does not sell them.

It is available through Amazon (both on VHS and DVD), but for some reason the sellers will not post them to Australia. So we have this extraordinary situation whereby Americans have a better access to our own culture than we do! We can hardly blame the Americans for this. We have relinquished our own responsibility. If anything, we should be grateful to the Americans for doing something we have failed to do. Perhaps it just says something about America's population and general technological strength, that they are able to act as a repository for the culture of the entire western world. Still, I find it fairly depressing.

By the way, Neville, I did not mean any offence, and I hope none was taken.

[Neville Briggs]

Certainly no offence taken

[r.magnay]

I understand your frustration Stephen, we may as Australians get our priorities a bit mixed up sometimes and I know this is not true of every situation but.....we are always quick to sum things up about what we do not do as a nation rather than what we do achieve. Sure a lot of inventions, discoveries, achievments etc. end up overseas...generally America, so we get cranky with the government....everthing is the governments fault. We must remember that we have a land mass not much smaller than that of America but with a population of a large town over there! We still expect...(I say we meaning the likes of me who are remote!) a standard of communications, transport and general life style at least close to the standard of that in the populated areas such as the eastern seaboard and the south eastern part of the country, we have around twenty million people, probably half of those do no work at all for various reasons which leaves the rest of us who do work a bloody big job to do! We still have one of the highest standards of living in the world and probably the best lifestyle in general. We have a transport and communications network which has to cover a massive area for a few people, and still be maintained to high standard. We get more holidays than any other country in the world and have a better....?.....more generous social service than most if not all countries and still we complain.....that might be the pommy heritage coming out in us perhaps ...I know things can still be a bit depressing but I hope this cheers you up a bit...

[Stephen Whiteside]

No, you are right, Ross, and I pretty much ended up saying the same thing, I think...but if anybody could help me to track down any of Chauvel's films, I'd be extremely grateful.

[r.magnay]

Yeah you pretty much did say it Stephen, the rant wasn't really for your benefit, more to get it off my chest....sorry but I can't help you with the films either, I did wonder if you could access them via the internet though, it seems to me you can get anything on the net...it might be expensive if you do it legally though...

[Stephen Whiteside]

They are available on the internet, Ross, but they don't seem to be prepared to post them to Australia for some reason.