Other Than Football
Well I leave for Sydney tonight and then off to Johannesburg tomorrow morning at 10am. Very excited. However I am not going to talk about football today. People often say to me “do you talk about anything else other than football? In other words do you care or have an opinion on anything other than football. In short, YES I do. So today I will give you a quick summary of what I consider important and my personal opinions on things other than football.
Shout Out
First I am going to give a shout out to some people and organisations that do things I admire and support.
Cate Bolt is in her own words “An ordinary mum trying to achieve extraordinary things”. Cate gave up a life of being financially comfortable, running a business to one of that dedicated to helping others. Cate made that decision as a mother of 9 children and before the GFC. Her husband Rick, lost his job last year and they ended up Homeless. Throughout all this Cate has continued her crusade to start an orphanage for homeless youth in Indonesia called Project 18 and also has Catescause here in Australia for our own homeless people. Have a read of her sites and decide if you can help out. I think she is more than ordinary.
Also I should add that she hates Football (all codes) and is not happy that the South African Government has spent zillions of Rand on the World Cup whilst Millions of their citizens remain in poverty. We have almost nothing in common, but I respect Cates opinion and admire her tenacity to achieve her goals.
Charities
My wife and I make conscious decisions every month do donate to charities. We have a sponsor child with World Vision, a young boy in Ghana. With the help of my family and friends I raised $745 for Mission Australia to help homelessness in Sydney. We give regularly to Red Cross, Care Flight, Mater Hospitals and a number of others. I find that giving to those less fortunate is very rewarding. I don’t have the guts to do what Cate did but we will continue to give.
And the football world also supports charities and causes. The Green and Gold Army, our Aussie supporters group have been raising money for the South African Red Cross to help their fight against AIDS.
My Opinions
Politics – I am a confirmed swing voter. I don’t believe either party deserves my total support, never have. I do vote every election based on policy and who I believe will do the best job as leader. I voted for KRUDD, and am of the opinion that sometimes you get a lemon. Shit happens. I can’t believe it has only taken him 2.5 years to reach the arrogance it took Howard 8 years to reach. I’ll be searching for Don Chip at the next election.
Super Profits Tax – Storm in a tea cup. The mining companies will end up accepting it but this was badly handled by the government, as is their mantra throughout their time so far.
War on Terror – Afghanistan I can just accept but going in to Iraq was an unmitigated disaster. The yanks should never have gone and we should never have followed. However as we are part of the problem we must be part of the solution.
Israel – Sick of the arrogance of Israel. Netanyahu is the next biggest threat to world peace since George Bush left office. Stop thinking the World owes you something and come to a solution that will give the Middle East stability and the world peace.
I could go on, but I have to pack for my trip to South Africa.
Cheers
Tezza
June 02 2010 12:38 pm | General
Cate Bolt on 02 Jun 2010 at 12:53 pm #
Blessing to you Terry. I think we have far more in common than you realise. We both are passionate about life and care deeply for other people. We both are completely dedicated and loving parents who find more joy in their own home than anywhere else on earth. We both are doing our best to live our dreams and share them passionately with the world. We both have no idea who we will vote for at the next election – although, I never voted for Krudd in the first place
Enjoy your trip, Terry. I’ll look forward to hearing from you in July – we can exchange travel stories.
Big love,
Cate
My respect for you and your family is deep and I truly am grateful every day that my life has been blessed by people like you.
Terry on 02 Jun 2010 at 1:36 pm #
Cheers Cate, thank you for the kind words.
I’ll be updating Twitter regularly, but I will have heaps of blog material for when I get back.
Antsvb on 08 Jun 2010 at 6:24 pm #
All the best for the trip mate. Travel safe and enjoy!
Looking forward to hearing all about it when you get home.
C’MON AUSSIE!
Football Gifts on 22 Jun 2010 at 4:00 pm #
Great article, it’s nice to focus on other things other than football when most of the world seems to think it‘s all that matters at the moment, a big shout out to Cate Bolt, she sounds like an amazing woman.