Here’s a story about stationary road rage, with a moral at the end.
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On the weekend, a beautiful Sunday morning, I was slowly backing into a car park at Dingo Dell on beautiful Mount Buffalo. Whiz! A black Mercedes stationwagon drives straight into the space (it’s probably a Sydney thing) and without making eye contact with me, the driver with two small children enters the cafe.
Somewhat nonplussed I park somewhere else and, wanting to pleasantly note the rules of engagement with backing into a vacant car park, tap the driver on the shoulder. Making excellent eye contact, with my best polite voice I suggest to him that he might keep a lookout for cars backing into vacant spaces.
His eyes do not waver from mine and he says he did not see me, he is only there for five minutes, yada, yada. His well-dressed children look on and later ask: “Daddy, what did the man say?” He responds in a pleasantly infected but unidentifiable European language.
A pleasant coffee later and my partner and I emerge to his departing vehicle and a deep key scratch down two panels of my car. Proof of offence? Nah – some of my best friends drive black Mercedes and speak in European to their children.
But there is deep suspicion, and a lazy $1000 to spend on spray-painting two panels.
Here is the moral – if you tread on an ego that is very well nourished and doesn’t take kindly to gentle chastisement, look out for the consequences.
Warwick McLachlan, Glenroy
Have your voice heard
This Friday there is a very important forum being conducted in our region that I would encourage farmers, business operators and community members interested in our future to attend. It has been organised by the Speak Up Campaign and is titled ‘Uniting the Southern Basin’.
The forum will not only discuss impacts of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan on our communities, but also sensible options that can ensure we maximise environmental outcomes and regional prosperity. Surely that should be our aim, but unfortunately politics is involved and the ‘aim’ has been clouded.
If we are to overcome the politics we need people power and unity. Through the Basin Plan’s implementation there are five key aspects that are proving detrimental to the Southern Basin, which encompasses our regions.
(a) The MDBA’s ‘just add water’ philosophy.
(b) An incorrect view that the Murray River and its storages can fix all the Basin problems.
(c) The massive social and economic damage being caused by the Basin Plan, which reports are telling us is far greater than MDBA modelling suggested it would be.
(d) The political refusal to acknowledge the need for ‘end of system’ solutions.
(e) The indisputable fact that it is a physical impossibility to deliver flow targets down the Murray River without causing catastrophic floods and their associated damage to public and private property.
We have a voice and that voice can be registered with Speak Up with support attendance at the forum on Friday April 13 from 11am at Moama Bowling Club.
Generations to come are relying on us.