Wednesday, January 19, 2005
RETURN OF THE MARGOOOOOOON
Margo Kingston is back! If, like me, you regard Margo’s first post of the year as a groundhog-like signifier of events to come, you’ll agree that we’re in for a brilliant 2005:
G’day. Webdiary is open for conversation in 2005, and I wonder if the tsunami will significantly influence the course of world events this year. It’s already triggered a leadership crisis in the ALP.
No. The ALP’s response triggered the crisis. One timely press release, issued under Latham’s name, would likely have avoided a January leadership spill.
The frenetic race by nations, big business and the very rich to publicly display their generousity was led, maybe even compelled, by the outpouring of generosity from regular people, individually, and through street and community fundraisers. Regular people also watched lots of news on the tsunami, as shown in Network Nine’s ratings for its specials. What were people thinking or musing as they watched amateur videos of the disaster - raw, on the spot reality? And will their personal priorities or even political outlook change as a result?
The personal priorities and political outlooks of regular people were displayed by their “generousity”. Margo continues to assume that regular people need changing.
After all, we’ve seen islands disappear, perhaps wiping out a people.
Louis Hissink asks in Margo’s comments: “Which islands have disappeared?” Margo’s response: “in the Maldives”. Hit the link to discover Margo’s definition of “disappeared”.
The tsunami almost instatly connected the peoples of the world - an electric shock of unity in empathy. The last time I sensed a similar connection was that weekend way back in February 2003 when people marched in record numbers around the world to demand an alternative to invading Iraq.
Yeah. I guess that’s why Margo rushed back from her holiday when the tsunami hit; that powerful sense of “instat” connection. Next, Margo addresses Mark Latham’s leadership crisis (this piece was published late Monday):
We’re peeking into an fellow human being’s existential crisis here ...
Enough about you, Margo! Tell us about Mark!
... and it’s a bit uncomfortable. Still, you can’t deny Latham his dignity. He’ll keep ‘em waiting until he’s ready and able to say what decision he has made about whether or not he must end his lifelong dream of leading the nation or put it on hold.
I hope Mark Latham’s is in good health, and that he can try to continue to lead the ALP. One reason is that I admire his stubbornness under media pressure.
She really must admire John Howard, then, who’s resisted greater pressure over a much longer period; much of it from Margo herself. Welcome back, Webdiarist!