The Entrenched Culture of Corruption

It may save money to dump problem kids on teachers, but they are not trained or paid to dedicate all their time to those problem kids. And the learning outcomes, and future prospects and opportunities, of all the students suffer as a direct result of those flawed laws, policies and procedures. The children under this flawed system hear “no, don’t stop” are are learning they can get away with anything. No accountability. No repercussions. They take this ill-education and idiocy into the real world as unhinged adults who inflict themselves on others. It doesn’t really matter. It’s not like anyone in the public education system is going anywhere. If you want to have a better chance at getting into university, achieving good grades and obtaining high-wage employment, you need to attend a private school and have parents with friends in high places. My experience at uni revealled just how hard it is for people who have to pay their own way, and work hard, only to watch lesser students g...

Christmas is always a difficult time of year for people like me. Easter and birthdays too. They are a constant reminder of the brutalities and horrors we have endured. The absence of what others have. Not gifts and lavish meals, but normal families. Brothers, sisters, cousins, parents, uncles, aunts and grandparents who want to spend time with one another, share stories of the things they’ve done over the years instead of backstabbing, sniping and other vindictive acts. Worse, it is no different to any other day. The same nasty, spiteful, too often brutal behaviour undermining the ‘magic’ of Christmas a child is supposed to experience. Memories of spending time with my grandparents infected with the absence of a self-centred, sociopathic father, the cruelty of my mother and, in years that followed, the hateful behaviour of my step-father and my mother’s second son. Memories of cherished gifts given by my grandparents only to be broken by those hateful people, or vanish without tra...