G'Day From Downunder

Here's wishing you all a Happy New Year for 2011. Did the fat man in the red suit bring you and yours what you wanted?

Now it's back to the daily grind again! Shovelling snow on your side of the world and me sunbathing on my side! So let's get the kettle on for a hot cuppa and we'll get going.

I'm looking for a little bit more than a suntan for 2011. I have a huge year of commitments coming up which includes bringing a bunch of my Irish Aussie mates over to New York for the 250th St. Patrick's Day Parade.

Along with the Leprechauns there will be lots of Kangaroos and Koalas at this year's parade.

I just thought I'd mention that. After all you don't want to be standing there watching the parade after a few pints and thinking you went overboard with green beer when you find a Kangaroo or Koala standing next to you, do you now?

Yes, I know it will be difficult for some of you when you see some of us wearing Koalas and shamrock on our lapels, instead of the traditional Shamrock on its own.

Oh my God it will be amazing, 250 years of Irishness on The Avenue, who wouldn't want to be there? A once in a lifetime experience for anyone who is Irish!

My good wishes go out to John Dunleavy and his dedicated team who are preparing this very special 250th parade. I wonder if Santa lent John any of his elves to assist with preparations.

At this stage I should own up to having lost a bet I had with the editor, Grahame. I wagered ten bucks that the Aussies would whip the English in The Ashes Cricket series. I now have to eat humble pie and will have the wager framed for him so that I may forever be ridiculed for my pompous arrogance.

However, it should be stated in no light manner that the English performance was magnificent. Hence my loss and embarrassment for putting my foot in my mouth - end of grovelling...

The Melbourne Tennis Grand Slam starts on 17th January so now onto Charley Brady's favourite subject - the Williams sisters.

Yes it's the one subject in his life that fades all else into insignificance. The girls may not be Downunder raiding the treasure chests of prizes at this year's Australian Open so they must be planning to visit Charley in Galway.

I have said many times Australia is a sports mad country; we went from the horse racing carnival in November to the cricket in December and now the tennis.

The Australian Rules night football series kicks off in February followed by Formula One in March and so on and on.

As you no doubt know I have been commenting over the years about the drought here in Australia, well guess what? The north of Australia is flooded! An area the size of Germany and France combined is under water!

In spite of all that I have yet to be convinced of global warming. Talk about chalk and cheese!

What about this for a cracker: our State Government here in Victoria is building a desalination plant costing well over one billion dollars and we the taxpayers have to pay five hundred million a year more for the use of the water, whether we use it or not.

Now here comes the cracker: all our dams (reservoirs) are almost full to the brim after record rain falls in 2010.

Obviously no one in the government checked the long term weather forecast in 2009. Now I wonder who was on the take with this. That money would have been better spent on hospitals and ambulances rather than an unwanted desalination plant.

Now that I'm talking about stupid things governments do let me tell you this; again the Victorian Government spent over a billion dollars on a new ticketing system for our trains and trams.

Rather than use a proven system such as the one in Japan (or even New York) our government went about reinventing the wheel and now after many attempts to make the system work they are thinking of scrapping the whole thing.

Again, a massive waste of taxpayers' money that could have gone to better use!

Oh yes, a lot of people made a lot of money out of taxpayers all for nothing. Who said politicians were smart? Stupid yes, greedy yes, smart no!

I suppose most of you have made and broken your New Years resolutions by now and not surprisingly as I understand the success rate is less than 5% so why bother? I'm not saying that you shouldn't loose those five pounds you put on over Christmas though.

We do talk silly sometimes don't we?

When we want to shed weight we say "I'm going to lose five pounds"; no, we are not going to lose it, we know where it's going. And then when we put on five pounds we don't say "Whoopee I found five pounds extra in weight". When we put on weight we don't find it. Yet we lose weight and we know where it goes. Give me Irish anytime; the English language is too confusing.

Now for my New Year's wish list:

My first wish is to clean up the banks and financial institutions for I fear as time moves on their horrendous failures and lack of accountability will be forgotten. Hence the tragic situation that Ireland finds itself in now!

My second wish is, I think, more of a fantasy; it is that we, the people, might elect politicians who will truly represent us and understand that they work for us not the other way around.

Maybe we should read them those famous few lines that John F Kennedy once said: "Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country". As I said, I think that's more of a fantasy!

My third wish is for more education for the young regarding the epidemic drug problem.

I have said many times law enforcement hasn't worked and won't work. Education is the only answer; as there is too much money and corruption in the drug trade and as long as those two ingredients are present it can never be wiped out.

I know that I have joked and laughed a lot about having a pint of Guinness every now and again but my final wish for 2011 is more education on alcohol use for the young.

Here in Australia and on my many visits home to Ireland I have seen the tragedy of binge drinking among the young.

Dublin, Cork, Limerick are no longer safe cities to walk in any night; Melbourne is not immune to this problem either.

Mark my words, in years to come, as with tobacco, when the governments' bill becomes too big for servicing the health problems from excessive consumption of alcohol, they will step in and apply restrictions.

Realistically, if the young continue with their excess of drugs and alcohol we will end up with a generation of drug and alcohol induced zombies.

No I'm not trying to scare anyone just pointing out a fact. Prohibition?

Twenty-five years ago on one of my regular visits back home to Cork I was horrified at what I saw one night in a nightclub.

I then wrote about the drug problem as I saw it and what the potential problems would be. No one listened and look at the state of affairs there in now!

Lets not pull punches here the drug problem is epidemic among the young and so is binge drinking... is anybody listening to me now? I hope so this time.

Until I talk to you again soon, be good to those who love you and Slainte from Downunder.

Don't forget that you can catch me on mike@globefins.com.au