School Bullying

I've been toying with whether or not to write about this for a while now. My sons attend a school in Sydney. My youngest son was in his first year of high school last year. Mid way through 2010 one of the classes asked each boy (yes it is a Boys only school) to talk about their family background.
My son mentioned his mother was of German background.
Unfortunately this started a prolonged six month campaign of bullying by a few of the boys in his year. Most of it calling him and his mother a Nazi, simply because of his German heritage.
The school took some action towards the end of the year when it turned physical. While the physical side of things ceased, the boys started other more subtle ways of carrying out their bullying. Exclusion from activities, going quiet whenever my son joined a group etc.
Over the Christmas break my son had a couple of bad days where he was actually suffering anxiety about returning to school this year.
I spoke with the school and asked if classes could be arranged so that the worst perpetrators were not in the same class as my son. I also started my son off with some Aikido classes to build up his self confidence.
Well it turns out his self confidence has grown. On a school bus last week he was being bullied by two boys flicking a key attached to several rubber bands at him. My son asked them to stop three times. On the fourth "flick" my son turned around and belted the one with the rubber band and key. A fight then ensued and my son ended up on top of this boy on the floor of the bus. He asked the other boy to calm down and he would let him up. Of course as soon as he let the boy up he was attacked again. My son responded with another "great punch" to the eye of the boy and then the bus driver intervened. According to my son a "cool" Year 12 boy said it was a "great punch".
Long story short: I know it's not PC to encourage violence, but gee I'm a proud dad, and so happy my son stood up for himself.
Of course this means both boys (my son and one of the bullies)are on detention at school tomorrow. Fair cop and well worth it in my view

NZ Miners

Lovely to hear the service in the Maori Language on TV today.

Rest in Peace.

SSGT Salvatore Giunta - Medal of Honour

I just watched the video of Staff Sergeant Giunta being awarded the Medal of Honour by President Obama. So my last post is now wrong: Obama didn't use a teleprompter this time and I actually thought he did a very good job.
Giunta is a truly humble individual who sounds very deserving of the honour just bestowed upon him. His speech afterwards was as good as you will see anywhere. He and our own Trooper Mark Donaldson VC seem to have been made from the same mould. Giunta’s statement that he would give it back in a second if he could have his friends who were killed in action back with him was truly inspirational.

Robert F. Kennedy

I watched A Ripple Of Hope last night on ABC TV, about Robert F. Kennedy and the night Martin Luther King was assassinated. Robert Kennedy was an inspiring orator. I can't help but compare his heartfelt speech on the night Martin Luther King died, spoken without notes, to current politicians, both in Australia and around the world.
Most of the current Australian politicians would be lucky to read a speech without tripping over it in some way, and I haven't seen a speech by President Obama where he isn't reading from a teleprompter.
I wonder what a different place the world would be today if either "Bobby" or his brother John, had not had their lives cut so tragically short?

Wild Dog Tier - OCS Survival Training '82

The boys from OCS Portsea class of 1982 snow survival training at Bernacchi (ANARE training centre Wild Dog Tier) Tasmania. Rock : "get me a chopper"