On the basis that there are some six billion people in the world, I am convinced that a fair number of them are what we would call “good people” who would make interesting reading if only someone bothered to take the time to ask them their story and write about it in an interesting way.
I am not talking about the sport stars or the actors and singers who succeed publicly and make lots of money doing it and then turn out to be prats in real life, I am not talking about the politicians or business leaders that are in fact doing it for themselves, I am talking about real people who do good things in life, who change peoples lives in some small way without asking for a reward or give up part of their lives to help their fellow man and not expect to reap any benefit beyond their due.
They do it because it needs to be done. The sort of people I am talking about would be be the characters behind Lawrence of Arabia or even Indiana Jones or even Dawn Dulhunty.
Behind it all however what they do is inspiration of another kind. Far too often we as a society are driven by the excesses of greed and corruption, we have it instilled in us daily that you can be bad, you can be corrupt and still you can be regarded as successful, whatever that means.
Recently a well known TV character in Melbourne Australia who had a massive following based on his hosting character on television and his later involvement in the art world, pleaded guilty to corrupt business practices that saw him being fined a huge amount of money in normal terms but possibly only a small percentage of whatever he made through that scam and being excluded from business for several years. How many people were affected by his greed is unknown or what effect it had on their lives is inconsequential but affected they were. It has been a couple of years perhaps but now his publicity machinery is driving him back into the public sphere again and I have to ask why? Why are we allowing it? What has he done to make amends for the pain and suffering he has caused? Surely there are enough people around with good vibrations that we can idolize?
It goes on of course. There are any number of people in the news this week who are there because they are bad or they entertain us with their excesses as opposed to being good people doing good things and making life an adventure as it should be.
So much for my high horse. Initially this column started out as a political commentary on stuff that six million other writers are commenting on so I have deleted all that and decided to concentrate on finding good stories about good people in the world and bringing them to the fore where they should be. I must say I was driven to change focus when I read about this kid who gained notoriety on trashing his parents house with a party then appeared on a national TV program and was paid some $80,000 by the program to do so. Maybe I am getting old but I just find it difficult to reconcile that this is what it being promoted as the present value system of Australia. It is a big world out there and it is my conviction that there are many more interesting people out there than that.
What this exercise will be is stories about people as I said who make life an adventure and contribute to the well being of other people either as individuals or collectively in the same way that Indiana Jones could save the good people from pending disaster. If I can achieve it, it will not be a simple chronology of events but a discovery of the hardships and sense of adventure that is part of their achievements. That kids can read and become intoxicated by their exciting if not difficult lives. As I write, there is plenty of that happening in the world right now what with the cyclone in Burma and the earthquake in China. As I see it, no one knows who are the men and women who will go to these disasters, no one knows the men and women of the fire service or the regional hospital systems, no one knows the men and women who protect Australia’s shores and numerous other endeavors that change peoples lives on a daily basis. It these people that should be the inspiration for the future generations of Australians.
You can be the judge. Please nominate someone for inclusion.
p.s. My bet is you do not know who Dawn Dulhunty is. Well you should. She is An Australian humanitarian who has worked with her husband Paul for their church group in places like Nepal and India and Kosova and a dozen other places around the world, riding elephants to work, putting peoples lives back together for thirty years. She is an Australian version of Mother Teresa, without all the hype. She inspires me and I will write about her if she lets me.
