Thank you, thank you all! As Chair of the Australian Republican Movement, your humble correspondent has been overwhelmed with good wishes from people across our brown and pleasant land since the news broke of James Packer's kind donation of $250,000 to the Australian Republican Movement. In fact, he is one of hundreds of people donating, right down to $2 from a 7-year-old girl. With the money, we have been able to do two key things. Firstly, lower our membership fee structure so that, if needs be, people can join for as little as a dollar a month. (Just Google us, and the door to a prouder future will open!) And we have just employed a fulltime campaign manager, Sandy Biar, who has consulted to the Liberal Party and National Party on multiple state and federal election campaigns. His job, together with our National Director Tim Mayfield, is to set up the infrastructure so that we are ready to go once the campaign proper starts. We need members, money, awareness, and hunger. Our key enemy is not actually the monarchists, but inertia. I am speaking to any large crowd that will have me, including 200 Monarchists later this month, courtesy of my friend, Professor David Flint, the Chair of Australians for Constitutional Monarchy. The guts of it? We have a 2020 vision for a plebiscite on the republic, and in the words of Australian of the Year David Morrison at the ARM National Lecture last Saturday night, "We are on the move, but not yet on the march."
But, by Gawd, we are close!
Teresa: "I am not a saint"
So after all that, Mother Teresa has been announced by the Pope as a saint? It is rare indeed, that I make even slightly informed commentary on a pronouncement of the Vatican, but circa January 1981, I met the Nobel Prize winner, briefly at her orphanage in Calcutta, in the company of two South American businessmen, both of whom fell to their knees and started kissing her hand. With my own ears I heard her say, "Get up, get up, I am not a saint, I am not a saint." Does that count for anything? I know, I know, maybe "humility," as the Auxiliary Bishop of Melbourne said to me. But to me, she sounded genuine. If she was a saint, she didn't seem to know it at the time? Just saying ...
Gotta love this city
Yup, fair enough that this week the threats from ISIS to our country made headlines, along the fault-lines marking the stress points between Muslim and non-Muslim Australia. Elsewhere, though, the great stuff that doesn't make headlines, goes on. On Tuesday evening a couple of dozen teachers from a Catholic school on NSW's Central Coast – St Edward's Gosford – travelled down to Sydney to visit and tour the Gallipoli Mosque in Auburn, as part of their Social Justice program, the idea being to bridge the gap of understanding between their own belief system and that of Islam. (I am hoping that both sides will soon make their way to us atheists!) During the tour they were at times joined by a quiet and reflective fellow, introduced as Mohammed. At tour's conclusion the teachers decided to stay on for dinner and were stunned at the vibrancy – the colour and movement! – of the Auburn restaurant strip. They chose award-winning restaurant Jasmine and enjoyed a sumptuous banquet. And yet, at the meal's conclusion when the College principal went to pay, he was assured that the bill had already been taken care off. Surely not?
But yes sir. That man over there has paid for you and your party …
Who? It was Mohammed. A humble member of the Auburn Islamic Community had been keen to do his part to bridge the same gap.
"A fabulous ending to a fabulous day," one of the teachers told me, "and Mohammed if you are reading, a hearty thank you from your friends up the coast."
Told yers. Gotta love this City! And yes, of course we need all our security and intelligence apparatus, but beyond all that, it this kind of interaction that will do most to keep our whole mob clear of the troubles that beset so much of the rest of the world.
JOKE OF THE WEEK
Joe takes his blind date to the carnival. "What would you like to do first, Kim?" asks Joe.
"I want to get weighed," she says.
They amble over to the weight-guesser guy. He guesses her weight to be 65 kilograms. She gets on the scale; it reads 71 kilograms and she wins a prize.
Next, the couple go on the Ferris wheel. When the ride is over, Joe again asks Kim what she would like to do. For some strange reason, she repeats, "I want to get weighed." Still, first date and all, Joe takes her back to the weight-guesser. Since they have been there before, the bloke guesses her correct weight, and this time there is no prize. The couple walk around the carnival and again Joe asks, "Where to next?"
"I want to get weighed," she repeats for the third time! By this time, Joe figures she is really weird and takes her home early, dropping her off with a handshake. Her room-mate, Laura, asks her how her blind date went.
Kim responds, "Oh, Waura, it was wousy."
They said it
"Aussies are good fighters in war. Whereas an Asian probably wouldn't be. There's horses for courses. You don't put donkeys in the Melbourne Cup."
Tony Pettitt, DLP candidate for Hawkesbury Council in Saturday's elections. I am guessing Genghis Khan didn't get the Memo?
"I've tried a remote control for my television. But really it's so much easier to ring."
The late Elizabeth the Queen Mother, quoted in Column 8 this week, as reported in the book What a Thing to Say to the Queen.
"We have been supportive of same-sex relationships and commitments and hope that the time has come to recognise loving relationships as marriage."
From a letter to Malcolm Turnbull from the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) asking the federal government to legislate for same-sex marriage.
"Braconid."
The word that earned Brett Smitheram, from Chingford in east London, 176 points and the title of World Scrabble Champion this week. As if you didn't know, a braconid is a parasitic wasp.
"After due deliberation and frequent prayer for divine assistance, and having sought the counsel of many of our brother bishops, we declare and define Blessed Teresa of Calcutta to be a saint, and we enroll her among the saints, decreeing that she be venerated as such by the whole church."
Pope Francis, translated from Latin, making Mother Teresa a saint.
"Son of a whore, I will swear at you in that forum."
Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte to US President Barack Obama, who promptly cancelled their meeting.
"Clearly he's a colourful guy."
President Obama being diplomatic about President Duterte in reply.
"Light the ground beneath them and scorch them with terror."
From Islamic States' new magazine, Rumiyah, encouraging "lone wolf" attacks in Australia.
Twitter: @Peter_Fitz
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