Category
Australia
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Australia, Heroes
Australians Are Awesome, Round 3
An Australian cameraman was in Haiti covering the devastating earthquake there when he missed getting footage of an 18-month-old girl being rescued. Rather stupid, wouldn’t you say, since that’s what he was there for?
Nope. He didn’t get the footage because he was the one doing the rescuing.
This, along with CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta manning a makeshift hospital after the Belgian medical team left/was ordered out (accounts differ) is going to change a few minds about the media. And frankly, I’m surprised this kind of thing doesn’t happen more often. They’re people too, and many have clearly been moved by the tragic events.
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Australia, News
Great, I’m Famous
A terrible story from Australia:
Ward, who was arrested a day earlier for drink driving, spent four hours in the searing heat between the mining towns of Laverton and Kalgoorlie, suffering third-degree burns where his body touched the metal floor, the inquest heard.
A sad end, cooked to death in the back of a police van. And here’s the part that caught my eye:
…guards Nina Stokoe and Graham Powell, who provided Ward with only a 600 millilitre bottle of water and did not check on him throughout the journey, had breached their duty of care.
Just to be clear: I am not an Australian prison guard. Nor am I a Canadian photographer or an English novelist, but those are stories for a different time.
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Australia, Heroes
Australian Rules
And I ain’t talking about football. Let’s read a bit from this guy’s Victoria Cross citation:
During the conduct of this vehicle manoeuvre to extract the convoy from the engagement area, a severely wounded coalition force interpreter was inadvertently left behind.
Of his own volition and displaying complete disregard for his own safety, Trooper Donaldson moved alone, on foot, across approximately 80 metres of exposed ground to recover the wounded interpreter.
His movement, once identified by the enemy, drew intense and accurate machine gun fire from entrenched positions.
Upon reaching the wounded coalition force interpreter, Trooper Donaldson picked him up and carried him back to the relative safety of the vehicles then provided immediate first aid before returning to the fight.
So. Imagine running almost the length of a football field, picking up a full grown man, and carrying him back the same distance. Now imagine angry Afghans shooting machine guns at you the whole way.
As part of winning the VC, all members of the Australian armed forces will now salute Trooper Donaldson, up to and including the highest ranking officer. The rest of us? We can do nought but buy him a beer.
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Australia, Heroes
More Evidence Australians Are Awesome
My earlier post about the band The Living End did its best to highlight how I feel about Australians. Short version: they’re like Americans with more balls.
And right on time, here’s some new evidence. An Australian man in his early 20s saw a shark attacking his 13-year-old cousin. So he jumped on his surfboard and paddled out to help. The shark had a firm grip on the girl’s leg, but her cousin punched it in the nose, causing it to let go.
He then helped her aboard his surfboard and paddled in to shore as the shark pursued them. All I can say is, this guy is big “down under”.
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