What are we really scared of?
I thought that was already decided back in 1948 when "1984" was written by George Orwell
We are afraid of Big Brother.

Romany, good on you. I have friends from Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Sudan and other horror spots who tell me their horror stories, their stories of torture and death and destruction - most of which has been inflicted on them by the machinations of the west.

I am currently reading Ann Jones' book Kabul in Winter, about the history and plight of women in Afghanistan. Not much of it is new as I have friends who were forced into marriage at 12, had 6 kids by the time they are 21 and are worn out at 35. Young boys faced with being used as human mine clearers and Iraqis who had to flee Saddam -now their families come and say it is worse than ever.

In Sydney they whine about trains, yet we blew up the trains in iraq - we commiserate with Spain, London and Mumbai but don't say a word about what we did in Iraq.

We whine about the price of bananas, the price of petrol, blah, blah, blah.

We have become soft, lazy and selfish - I swear Howard has had the water supply laced with lashings of mogadon.

We have a totally corrupt system for sure but at least we are not being bombed.

I do agree that there is an over reaction when in comes to fear in the public. However, there does need to be a reaction.

Apart from that horrible attack on that innocent little girl and all the other atrocities around the world, in my own area a 19 year-old girl was knocked off her bike and raped, a person my wife knows had his hand smashed (25 pins) when a person threw a bottle from a car and it hit his hand whilst he was cycling - not to mention the usual petty crime.

Now a female would be foolish to go out alone in that area until the police catch the grub. That is police advice - not mine.

The fellow who had his hand smashed is unlikely to encounter those hoons again. The police say that throwing dangerous objects is a bit of a trend amongst young folk. They say that there is nothing they can do. (Just as well the thugs aren't Muslims or we'd never here the end of it. "Muslim Terrorist Hoons Attack Cyclist" would be the headlines not to mention Bolt who'd spin so much his head would pop off.

I often think that all an Islamic propagandist has to do is read out aloud our western newspaper reports to convince their dupes that we are a bunch of decadent hypocrites.

One more point, don't get me wrong, I am opposed to frivilous money- grubbing cases and a child rapist and rapists - well I hope and pray there is a hell for them, however, I actually want a rapist who can prove that pornography influenced his behaviour to sue a porn publisher or give evidence so that a victim can sue the living life out of pornogaraphers who help provoke this kind of abuse.

Ultimately, criminals are responsible for their decisions, but I think it is about time the porn industry takes some of the flack (and I mean bigtime crippling flack, for the part they play in the degradation of respect for women and children in our society).

Did it ever occur to anybody that this little boy trying out the rollerblades was hyper-sensitive and/or had other issues and was scared and he needed padding and his mothers protection and encouragement as otherwise he wouldn't have attempted rollerblading and that once the little boy became more confident the padding would no longer be needed and nor would the mother have to be next to him.

Why does everybody always jump to conclusions and always want to discredit the parents. Every child is different, we have to give parents more credit and the benefit of the doubt, some children need more protection and support just to get them to attempt things as their emotional intensity and reactions to situations and even pain can be extreme.

I think the biggest fear people have is of being ridiculed, discredited and ostracized yet it seems to be something that Australians seem to delight in.

Yolanda I accept your point entirely... the circumstances of that particular child are not known nor those of intent of his parents. What the scenario does portray is a symbol of the fear that does seem to pervade our lives. So the scene was not to be taken or even examined literally but serves to provoke conversation on the culture of fear that seems to be growing in the Australian psche.

Apologies, Jolanda, excuse the misspelling of your name...