I won’t climb atop the pile-on about Grace Tame imitating Johnny Rotten at The Lodge except to say that I hope her fiancée takes away from the experience something beneficial to his future well-being. Like many others, Miss Tame had a difficult start to life. Being named Australian of the Year was obviously beneficial to her and she undoubtedly has much more to give. Her advocacy may, in due course, have a healing impact on others desperate to break away from trauma and fulfill their potential. Her achievements are not trifling but they were stymied. Women who take on such roles are strictly policed handmaidens of the feminist hierarchy and are always being watched. Provided they avoid damaging the men of Labor, unions, arts and letters – provided, I mean, that they focus their outrage on Liberals, Nationals and Christians – they are encouraged to carry on, even as pork chops. It follows that Miss Tame’s tantrum yesterday should be read not just as narcissism but as a hostage video. She knows the price of fraternising with a conservative.
I wouldn’t want Danny and Leila Abdallah to be named as the real Australians of the Year – that would be a trivial bother they could do without – but they exemplify everything that’s really fine, rare and noble in human beings, not merely Australians. On February 1, 2020, three of their children – Sienna, eight, Angelina, 12, and Antony, 13 – and their niece, Veronique Sakr, 11, were killed when a drunk and drugged driver crashed into them on a footpath in the Sydney suburb of Oatlands as they walked excitedly to the shop for ice creams. According to police, the 31 year-old man at the wheel – deranged on alcohol, cocaine and MDMA – was travelling in a 50 zone at not less than 111 km/h on impact.
In a statement his solicitor read out to Parramatta District Court last March, the culprit apologised to the Abdallah and Sakr families for the “accident,” a description presiding judge, James Bennett, rejected outright. Indeed, this was no accident but the self-indulgence that a decaying Anglophone dystopia glorifies. In a victim impact statement, Mrs Abdallah forgave the unforgivable: “From day one I didn’t hate you. I pray you find faith in your life and turn away from drugs and alcohol.” Her husband echoed the sentiments, telling the man he was forgiven – “for your sake, for my sake, and most importantly for my family’s sake.” Bridget Sakr, mother of Veronique, also forgave the son of a heartbroken retired policeman: “I pray that if you have not met God, to find him.”
In the months of 2021 that followed, the Abdallahs’ home was robbed, the roadside shrine to their children was vandalised, a proposal to memorialise them at the scene of the crime was repeatedly rebuffed by a greedy golf club and they suffered a miscarriage. They still had the resolve to launch i4give Day (1 February) to enjoin others to “find someone you can forgive” and “set them free.” The couple also announced they and their three surviving children are expecting a new baby in March. “Tame is a weapon,” said new Australian of the Year Dylan Alcott yesterday, admiringly and oddly. So are the Abdallahs but not of war.
Well chosen and well said CL.
Indeed.
I’m just a reader of the news and not connected to the Abdallahs but I feel enormous anger towards the driver.
That family have far more grace, dignity and faith than this mere mortal can come close to achieving.
It is ironic you have shown why there should never be an Australian of the year. More ironic it occurs when NSW was proclaimed a colony of the UK not when Australia became a nation.
No-one can choose which is the better cause for the year and is that what Australian of the year is now?
Which is the better cause? Dealing with people who sexually attack minors, people who have disability living in Australia or families who are the innocent victims of crimes?
There are many other worthy causes but again that is not what Australian of the year should be about.
There should never be an Australian of the year.
OK.
For once I agree with you.
In more recent years the position has been repeatedly used and abused by those with an agenda (e.g. Goodes, Batty, David Morrison, Tame).
We seem to be just about the only country which does it.
There should never be an Australian of the year.
Eureka, a sensible comment from Non Compos Mentis. Nor should there ever again be an Australian Honours List (New Years Day, Australia Day, Queen’s Birthday or any other day).
Both concepts have been damaged beyond repair.
C.L., this link may be of interest:-
Courage: Grace under pressure
The admirable Abdallahs are not snowflakes.
P.S. I too think the AOTY award meaningless. There are countless unsung heroes who go about their daily lives not with eye-service for the praise of men but to serve them. The servant-King is our model, but regarded then and now with contempt by many. The Abdallahs, it seems, were treated with similar disdain after their tragic experience.
Grace Tame might not realise it, but the scowl on her face likely has nothing to do with Scott Morrison and everything to do with the activists who have filled her heart with hate and created obstacles to her using her ‘platform’ to further her own actual message. Prior to aoty, she focused on outcomes for victims, since she has been corralled into casting political figures in a poor light. That has achieved nothing but sow more divisions and the reason she is collecting deserved criticism. It’s outrageous that the love media refuse to out the faceless players who manipulate people like Grace.
These people have already endured so much (more than most could ever bear).
Why impose upon them the indignity of being associated with a puerile demonstration of a national inferiority complex?
To what end would it serve to actively diminish them in this way?
I’m delighted the Abdullahs are having another baby.
Amen.
Grace Tame is a Sociopath.
That’s why she was made AOTY
She led that Schoolteacher up the garden path, then called the cops.
Is anyone aware of the issue at New Cat? I get an “Error establishing a database connection” message.
Yeah.
Low Energy, Low Intelligence Paid Trolls such as yourself killed another blog.
Dick
The problem is you failed to send me my monthly cheque. Smarten up!
Dover is updating re technical problems at New Cat on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/New_Catallaxy
The Abdallahs would never do for Australian of the Year: they are – shock-horror – Christians.
Just compare Game’s petulance with the grace of Ash Barty: no whinging in defeat and no gloating in victory. More power to her arm!
All leftists are sociopaths.
Rubbish.
And is she even a leftist anyway?
I agree the grace of the Abdallah family in the face of their unimaginable loss and their forgiveness of the killer of their children is indeed an inspiration to forgive, forgiveness being at the heart of healing and being in very short supply these days.
I am, however, astonished at the vitriol poured on a small golf club in Suburban Sydney because it will not allow a memorial on its private property, as if, by its very existence it is somehow responsible for the crime. Why is no such memorial proposed on the public land which is available at the site, an area I know very very well?Why? Does anyone know what is proposed?
I can in no way imagine the sense of loss but my view is that a memorial on public property would be very much supported by a community horrified at the manner of the deaths of innocent children.
There has been an unrelenting campaign in the media led by some who should know better and others who are just media knuckleheads who gorge on outrage.
That media campaign has led to death threats against and harassment of board members. Is that acceptable? Not to me. In this regard should I be surprised that emotion appears to have won over reason, yet again?
Tinta, I’m not familiar with the street but it’s my understanding the site is a regular footpath abutting the golf course. The memorial proposal would require a segment of the club’s land to be feasible because the footpath’s functionality would have to be maintained.
Wyndham, thank you for that link.
I read the whole thing. Excellent.
Thanks Tinta,
1. Let me preface this by saying that I am very familiar with both the street and the club.
2. Everyone feels sorrow and anguish for the Abdallah family, including the board, management and members of Oatlands Gold Club.
3. It was not the golf club that killed those children. The children were walking along the footpath adjacent to the club when the horrendous accident happened. Their bodies were thrown onto the club land. The family graciously “forgave” the driver and yet they’ve spent the last year conducting a campaign against the golf club.
4. Everyone feels for the family. I know for a fact that the family were offered a tasteful memorial by the club which the family rejected. The family want a large memorial that will intrude onto the private land of the golf club. They want a memorial where they can go and pray. I’m sorry but the golf club is not a cemetery. The club is private land, owned by the members.
5. The golf club is not “greedy”.
6. I know for a fact that the board and the management of the club have been subjected to various threats, intimidation and so on. Police have been called several times because of these threats. Talk back radio garbage like Ray Hadley (the same creep who smeared George Pell and who has never apologised) has deliberately stoked and inflamed the situation and he has read out the names of the board on his morning radio show. Charming.
7. The MSM, as always, have handled the reporting of this disgracefully. They’re not interested in the facts of the case, they are only interested in pushing a hyperbolic emotional narrative. I find it interesting that people here, who should know better when it comes to the MSM, happily swallow the MSM’s spin about this. The Abdallah family have spent the last year using the MSM and politicians on both sides (who should know better) to push their side of the story at the expense of the facts. But I suppose, who needs facts when you want to swallow the emotional spin.
8. Once again, I reiterate, what happened to the Abdallah and Sakr families was dreadful. Everyone at the club feels for the family however the golf club is private land.
9. Just remember, even in hyper emotional stories, there is always another side to the story.
10. THE END.
I don’t think anyone has said that, nor do I think it’s fair to characterise the family as being ‘campaigners’ against the sacred golf club.
The request is for a sliver of space abutting the footpath. So yes, I would characterise the refusal as greedy.
These days I generally yawn when it’s claimed ‘police have been called’ about ‘threats.’ It’s almost always a publicity stunt.
Disgraceful comment.
Thanks Tinta for expressing what I’ve been trying to get out for months.