A young woman died in a car crash in a leafy green suburb of Perth over the weekend. She was setting off for an evening with friends and had done the safe thing, booked a share drive so she could get home safely, even if she had a few too many drinks.
She didn’t get far. The driver pulled out onto the road, a 50km speed limit in suburban streets, and the car was hit by a Jaguar, being driven at 130kph. The young lady was killed instantly, the driver of the share car seriously injured.
The driver of the Jaguar was not in a good place, recently separated from his wife and was returning from a counselling session, had a couple of beers, tears filled his eyes as he sped through his suburb. He claims he did not see the Honda he plowed into. His blood alcohol reading was 0.183. That would indicate a few more than a ‘couple of beers’.
In the ambulance he tried to shift the blame to the share car driver; ’Wait a minute. They came out of now where. Why am I the fucking bad guy here? I only had two beers,’ he allegedly said.
Dash cam footage taken from his car showed him driving erratically, running red lights, speeding, the audio was of cursing his wife, others drivers, an ‘oh woe is me’ narrative, blaming all and sundry for his plight. His bail application has been denied since the magistrate hearing the case viewed images from the car camera which showed a history of dangerous driving and audio which was aggressive against his estranged wife and other drivers. He has been charged with manslaughter, a maximum 20 year imprisonment.
The young lady’s family’s ‘world is shattered. Our beautiful bright girl brought sunshine to our lives. We are now in darkness.’
There is more to this story, but it is the public domain and more will follow in the ensuing trial. The driver, a doctor from a wealthy family, and it appears he feels he can do no wrong.
Another story comes from the most expensive all girls school in Perth.
Snapchat messages circulated last year with ‘offensive comments about indigenous people, including references to alcohol use and suicide.’
Indigenous educators say they are ‘disgusted, but not surprised by messages sent between students at an elite private school in Western Australia invoking racist stereotypes about indigenous people.’
The school responded predictably. The school:
‘… is committed to fostering an inclusive, respectful learning environment for all students, from pre-kindergarten to Year 12. We value diversity and the importance of learning from one another in a supportive way.’
But the spokesperson did not respond to queries about specific incidents. There is no comment given about disciplinary actions taken by the school, just a comment that the school has a zero tolerance policy for bullying, racism and any form of discrimination… and so on with fluffy, feel good policy statements.
The students at the school are from some of the wealthiest families in Western Australia, from the ‘privileged elite’.
Both incidents are part of a pattern; privileged people live above the laws of the common people.
I think the doctor involved in the accident may find out that he does not live above the laws, even with the help of a senior counsel, a KC, as the case progresses through the arduous tracks of the legal process. A point of reference as this case proceeds is that a work colleague’s nephew had been involved in a vehicle accident about ten years ago, he was over the limit, killed a mate and injured a young woman and was imprisoned for 5 years. He is banned from ever get a driving license. He came from a working class family which mortgaged the house to pay the legal bill.
Another form of privileged arrogance can be witnessed in the reporting of anti-Semitic and islamophobic incidents which have occurred during the Gaza war in Israel/Palestine.
Somewhere there was a story that two Muslim women were attacked in Melbourne, that another person has been arrested for graffitiing on Muslim sites, mosques, schools, school busses, but it was a short story, hidden somewhere in a newspaper. Really of very little consequence, the attacks were just on Muslims.
To his credit, Anthony Albanese has commented on the attacks but the usually bellicose Peter Dutton had little more to say that he hoped the offender is caught as soon as possible.
Yet when a synagogue is graffitied, or an Israeli school is marked with obscenities, it becomes headline news. The soap box comes out decrying the violence against the Jewish community, the rhetoric screams in contrast to the rather sedate reporting of ant Muslim attacks.
Is it only since the Telegraph’s ‘undercover’ stunt at the Cairo Cafe incident that there is a bit of focus on anti-Islamic violence or is that something I have dreamed up? Is it that the attempt to confect a bit of racism and point out how hard it is to be a Jew in Sydney or any other place in Australia is a bit of a bit of a trumped up story, a bit of a fake news story?
Has that poured cold water on the confected rage coming from Dutton and the Jewish communities?
Further to the confected rage on the war in Gaza, where the ABC silenced the voice of Antionette Lattouf after emails to the chair person and other leaders complaining about having a potentially pro Palestinian voice on the airwaves for a few days, the BBC in England has been called to remove a Gaza documentary because the narrator of the documentary about children living in Gaza is the 13 years old son of a deputy minister in the Hamas run government.
Why should some voices be silenced? Why are some people more important than others?
Why is the life experience of a child living in the hell hole that is Gaza to be silenced? If he were not the deputy minister’s son, surely other objections, that he is Palestinian would be raised.
As with the reason for Antionette Lattouf’s dismissal being given that she had posted a story on social media, while a story about the same issue, the starvation of the people of Gaza was aired on the ABC news at about the same time. Emails calling to silence her were sent to the highest officers of the ABC and they dutifully acted as instructed, so the BBC pulled the Gaza story, submitting to the power of lobbyists criticism.
Why is it OK to accept the word of the principal of an elite school that the racism which was in the texts sent by students in that school community that appropriate actions were taken and the sugary sweet commentary about inclusion are supposed to cover what seems like just another day of racism in the rarified atmosphere of the most privileged?
The doctor who allegedly killed the young woman has had his bail application denied. He will stay in hospital under guard until he can be moved to a remand prison. But his question resonates, ‘Why am I the bad guy here?’ When he has just killed someone through his repeated aggressive driving, his driving while well over the legal limit, but hey, he’s from a wealthy family, he’s a respected doctor having a bad day.
From the evidence presented to the court, it appears it was more than a bad day, he was having a bad month with a marriage breakdown and the anger and rage that flowed from that. An excuse for killing an innocent young lady?
I know, the incidents are not related but when I read of Muslim women being attacked in shopping centres, just for wearing their scarves and gowns, when I read of graffiti on Muslim school busses and other Islamic property buried in news media, yet when a synagogue is attacked, it becomes front page news, headlined around the country and grist for the political mill with questions of the Prime Minister who is somehow to be held responsible for the antisemitism.
When drunk driving causing death is a personal problem for a wealthy doctor but in Aboriginal communities becomes news and commentary effectively branding all Indigenous people as drunks and criminals, and the conviction rate and proportionate prison population seems to verify that it is criminal to be an Aboriginal.
In elite circles of the private school system the harm done by racism is buried under dulcet tones of apparent goodwill to all, or when the victim badge so well worn by the Zionists gives them greater access to media coverage and political support, we have a problem.
Yes, we are all equal, but some are way more equal than others.
The arrogance of privilege shines through time after time.
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Obviously this is “before the courts” and we are limited in what we can say. But is this not yet another case of male rage acting out upon females?
Yes, it is, Leona. It is also wealthy privilege. We see it in the social media videos of private school boys displaying their toxic masculinity and privilege in the public arena. Spoiled, wealthy children, who are this doctor in the making. Put on a pedestal from birth, and looking down on the rest of us ever after, supported by their money, their power, making them believe they are unaccountable, and often, they very much are.
Racism of course, is everywhere. As someone born and raised elsewhere, it was a shock coming to Australia where racism is normalised. It’s a shock to learn some of the “nicest” people are racist. Meanwhile in Australia, confected antisemitism is being forcibly stamped out but nothing is done about racism which is real.
The sense of privilege begins at an early age; parents choosing to send their children to private schools where kids are traditionally inculcated that they are ‘special’ are the progenitors of this sense of social privilege. It starts at schools, where the private education sector takes full advantage of the wishes of parents to give their children the ‘best start’ in life, continues at universities with their aping of British models; colleges and student societies that foster the sense of elitism… an old friend of mine told of his first year as a medical student and of how at the very first lecture the professor impressed upon the students that they were the elite of the university and would become in time the elite within society… such brainwashing leads directly, as demonstrated in this appalling story from Perth, to the worst sorts of social attitudes.
Yesterday I watched a boy get off his school bus, The Kings School at North Parramatta, one of this country’s most elite schools, where tuition fees cost around $50,000 p.a. I saw this kid, frocked up in his ridiculously anachronistic uniform, and had the sense of ‘there goes another, steamrollered by the system, whether he knows it or not.’ Another brain surgeon in the offing, or stockbroker, merchant banker, crypto-bro, rugger bugger…