Punting Swami

Vagabond, ex spiritual seeker, meditating only on race form now... Hiding away in the hills of Byron Shire...

[Punting Swami @birgitwalker]

@RandSNewsfeed in ALLHALLOWTIDE form why is newcastle listed as a anti clockwise track?

[Punting Swami @birgitwalker]

https://t.co/HTfpLN72mi

why don't one racing clubs doing a horseplayers tournamount here. Surely it is a good idea to promote the challenge of punting

[Kat A 🌸 @SaiKate108]

@elonmusk

[Jason Blake @jasonsnakeblake]

Is RVL bring racing into disrepute by making a mountain out of a molehill? A video was taken without Kah’s consent, if the video was not taken, we would never be here. https://t.co/ejLS6Wegrf

[Peter Lawrence @PeterLawrence18]

Queensland Racing really treating punters and owners like mugs today. Doomben with the rail out 9.5m is not suitable for metro racing. If the tracks are tired, why not use the Sunshine Coast more?

[Bethany Cherisse @BethanyCherisse]

Every single human being alive today can lay claim to experiencing trauma at some point in their family lineage. At some point, somewhere, everyone's ancestors have been victims of some form of atrocity. Our history does not end when British colonisation began.

The very idea that there is a person out there living some picture-perfect charmed Pollyanna life where nothing has ever impacted them is actually absurd. No family tree can possibly be traced back to its origins without ever experiencing victimisation at some point in history.

Colonisation. Invasion. Slavery. Servitude. War. Extreme poverty. Child labour. These are phenomena that have been taking place since time began. They are not exclusive to being carried out by the British empire. Indigenous tribes and African Americans are not exclusively the victims.

No pun intended, but so many are so quick to whitewash history and selectively choose pieces of a narrative that fit their own ideology to push the agenda they want you to hear. But that's not the whole story. Erasing parts of it is still creating a false narrative

It really wouldn't suit a narrative of black victimisation and oppression, for example, to talk about the fact that between 793 and 1066 A.D. the Vikings regularly crossed the seas from Scandinavia to invade countries such as England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Spain, Italy, Iceland, and Russia - occupying the land, raping and pillaging, and taking [white] slaves.

It would also skew the narrative to talk about what life was like in Britain for the lower classes, from the Elizabethan era well into the 1700 and even 1800's. Crammed into tiny living quarters that were cold, damp, and vermin infested. Sharing filthy communal outdoor toilets and street water. If they were lucky enough to have a dwelling, that is, with many forced out when they were unable to pay greedy landlords. During the 1600s if the poor were found guilty of being able to do a day's work but had chosen not to, they faced the death penalty. Later, they were forced into 'poorhouses'. Many were forced to sell themselves into indentured servitude, and child labour flourished off the backs of orphans and the children of the poor. If caught or even suspected of stealing or other minor offences, penalties were severe and included flogging, the pillory, branding, whipping, burning, death by hanging or beheading. Settlement of the colonies created a new option - permanent exile to serve out a life sentence.

White slavery. This subject is ignored as though it never existed, because to do so would turn the popular victim portrayal on its head. It's little known that almost 60,000 convicts were transported to the Americas from the British Isles, sold into slavery to the highest bidders. Despite historical documentation. Australia's settlement had very little difference. A penal colony, built on the back of those forced into chains by their harsh circumstances. One could call it victimisation.

For some reason, they want you to view black people in chains forced to travel across oceans away from their homelands in horrific conditions, many dying along route, and those who survived being sold to the highest bidder for a life of hard labour, differently to white people forced to do the very same. One group is victims, the other must apologise. The same rules apply to having homes and land invaded. The difference? Skin colour.

We don't talk about the Barbary pirates - Berber and Arab slave traders operating out of the Barbary States, made up of Morocco, Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli. Carrying out slave raids on ships and in towns along the coast from Italy and Spain to the Netherlands to Franc and the British Isles and up into Iceland and the Eastern Mediterranean. It is estimated that between 1-1.25 million Europeans were captured to be sold in North African slave markets between the late 1500s and early 1700s. At least 25,000 of those were Britons. These people, and I quote, "had almost as little hope of buying back their freedom as the Africans taken to the Americas: most would end their days as slaves in North Africa, dying of starvation, disease, or maltreatment."

Portugal was invaded by North Africa in 711. In the 4th century A.D., the Huns, believed to have originated from what we now know as Kazakhstan, invaded Europe. Much more recently in 1977, Somalia invaded its own neighbour - Ethiopia. The list goes on. European invasions are only more talked about because they fit better with the white oppressor storyline.

And most overlooked of all is the way that Indigenous tribes and black nations have treated, and continue to treat, each other. The Killing Fields of Cambodia hold the bodies of over 1 million people slaughtered by the Khmer Rouge regime between 1975 to 1979. The Ugandan Genocide, where Idi Amin's 1971-1979 reign of terror saw over 300,000 killed. The Wagalla Massacre in Kenya in 1984 - the massacre of ethnic Somalis by the Kenyan Army, facilitated by other Somali clans. The Rwandan Genocide in 1994, with between 500,000 to 662,000 Tutsi killed by armed Hutu militias. That's before we turn to the blood thirsty traditional warfare carried out between warring tribes in the jungles of Africa, across the prairies of America, and even in the bushlands of Australia. It is nothing short of a myth that these people were kind to each other and lived harmoniously. That conflict and massacre and raping and slavery arrived with the white men. Brutality was common, and often seen as honourable.

My own ancestry can be traced directly back to slavery. Black slavery. But take a guess who captured and sold them? It wasn't the white man. It was their own people. A vast majority of the slave trade came about from black men selling black men. While that doesn't absolve the white people who bought and sold them, they're not the only ones who carry guilt. Nor was every black man simply a victim. Many became the oppressor. It's ironic how many people are either quick to forget that, or simply choose to ignore it.

Nobody alive today should be held responsible for the actions of those long dead and buried, and nobody should owe anybody anything for a past that has not directly impacted anyone alive today. Aside from its unfairness, victim culture prevents empowerment. It's not systemic oppression holding you back - it's a culture of victimhood. If reparations are truly owed all those who have experienced intergenerational trauma and victimisation as a result of the treatment of their ancestors, then the reality is that it is owed to everyone. Go back far enough, and there will be a reason. There are just some people who choose to weaponize victimhood, and some who are not allowed to.

[Dr. Anastasia Maria Loupis @DrLoupis]

It’s just as easy to buy a climate “expert” as it was to buy a COVID “expert”.

[Dr. Anastasia Maria Loupis @DrLoupis]

Neither should you.

[Punting Swami @birgitwalker]

AJ - racing needs some one to grow the sport , not destroy it.....

[BTFUsport @BTFUsport]

Our man @SchofieldGlyn interviewed @R1CHARDFREEDMAN and the guys spoke all about the future of racing in Australia. Is the innovation planned by Andrew Jones in Victoria a step in the right direction?
#racing #HorseRacing #racingvictoria

[Ben Cameron @AussieBenC]

@Racing The worst part is he’s delusional enough to think there’s a hidden segment of society eagerly about to engage with racing if they just remove the whips for 4 meetings, that new market he speaks of exist only on power point presentations & in his imagination

[James Melville 🚜 @JamesMelville]

He has a point.

[Michael Kruse @mickstips]

@deanwatling I personally would love to hear the jocks and trainers mic'd up. (pre and post-race only)

I could tune in to a horse I'm thinking about backing and hear the tactics and post-race report on the run.

As for during, nobody wants or needs that.

[Peter F @PeterF41208941]

@deanwatling The problem is the people running it don’t have a love for it.
That simple.
They’re pen pushers.
There’s no how they fell in love with it because they don’t love it.
They see dollar signs that’s it

[Geoff M @GeoffM75]

@deanwatling Something else that may help attract new participants (and not piss off the current ones).....get rid of Moonee Valley lol

Imagine turning up to your first day at the races & seeing 95% of the horses just running around for exercise.

It is a horrible advertisement for racing.

[Dean Watling @deanwatling]

My thoughts on the current debate in regards to the the direction of racing in VIC.

1. If you want to compare horse racing to F1 - F1 tackled their issues of audience and new fans by highlighting the key strengths of their sport which is the insights/personalities of the participants, the teams, the drivers. The ins and outs of it.

They didn’t try and please the small minority that are against F1 racing due to fossil fuels/ etc. They highlighted the strengths of the sport.

2. Communication - floating and leaking ideas to the public will never be a good thing, it leaves to many questions ajar. If they have a new idea they need it refine and planned before release.

3. I feel as though the best vechile to bring new fans into our great game is education and the current passionate participants. That is the best form of “advertising”. Support them and give them the tools to grow this great game in their own communities/families.

4. The best answer is thinking back to how you yourself go into this game?

For me it was Redzels second Everest, my first time at a major Sydney track at Randwick. I fell in love with the atmosphere, the parade ring and everything I hadn’t seen at home from a screen.

[Punting Swami @birgitwalker]

SACK HIM NOW....
we need leaders who care.....

[Dean Watling @deanwatling]

😳

[illuminatibot @iluminatibot]

Not enough people are worried that private transactions are disappearing, and soon the state will know EVERYTHING you do...

[Punting Swami @birgitwalker]

wow, a man with common sense..

[John Walter @J_Walter23]

Agree with nearly all this man says. Would add the wagering side needs to be championed also, combined with serious education and tools provided. Not treated like the black sheep, dirty secret. The stigma that "no one can win" invites no one. Its not easy but it must the goal

[Red Belly Sports @redbellysports]

We would love everyone to join us in celebration of Ed’s life.
Miss you big guy!