Operation Sad Return

From SMH:

There were too many coffins, too many pallbearers and a guard of honour far too long. And there were too many families - nine of them - and you wondered: did it matter to them that their grief was shared across this and another land?

They were borne home in the rear of a C-130 Hercules, each aluminium coffin draped in the flag and lowered to a tarmac where waited a prime minister, a president, 100 men and women in a guard of honour, a band, a lone piper and 54 pallbearers from the Australian Federation Guard - six for each of the seven men and two women killed when a Sea King helicopter crashed on a relief mission on the quake-hit island of Nias on Saturday night.

What followed yesterday was a short journey that seemed to last an eternity. It took two minutes for each group of six carriers to make their precise march forward. From the honour guard there were 100 salutes for each; paying their own respects, the Prime Minister, John Howard, and the Indonesian President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, bowed their heads nine times.

Nine hearses waited. But there were matters of state to be dealt with before ceremony could give way to the banality of the Glebe morgue. Mr Howard, Dr Yudhoyono and the Governor-General, Michael Jeffery, rose and walked the red carpet to bestow the honours of high office.

From Indonesia, there was the Medal of Valour, the highest award the country could give. They sat atop cushions which Dr Yudhoyono placed on the coffins; and from Australia, a vice-regal tradition - wattle for the dead. The Australian leaders wore it in their lapels, too. Major-General Jeffery straightened the flag on the last coffin, lay a sprig of gold, and made way for the families.

Operation Sad Return

From SMH:

There were too many coffins, too many pallbearers and a guard of honour far too long. And there were too many families - nine of them - and you wondered: did it matter to them that their grief was shared across this and another land?

They were borne home in the rear of a C-130 Hercules, each aluminium coffin draped in the flag and lowered to a tarmac where waited a prime minister, a president, 100 men and women in a guard of honour, a band, a lone piper and 54 pallbearers from the Australian Federation Guard - six for each of the seven men and two women killed when a Sea King helicopter crashed on a relief mission on the quake-hit island of Nias on Saturday night.

What followed yesterday was a short journey that seemed to last an eternity. It took two minutes for each group of six carriers to make their precise march forward. From the honour guard there were 100 salutes for each; paying their own respects, the Prime Minister, John Howard, and the Indonesian President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, bowed their heads nine times.

Nine hearses waited. But there were matters of state to be dealt with before ceremony could give way to the banality of the Glebe morgue. Mr Howard, Dr Yudhoyono and the Governor-General, Michael Jeffery, rose and walked the red carpet to bestow the honours of high office.

From Indonesia, there was the Medal of Valour, the highest award the country could give. They sat atop cushions which Dr Yudhoyono placed on the coffins; and from Australia, a vice-regal tradition - wattle for the dead. The Australian leaders wore it in their lapels, too. Major-General Jeffery straightened the flag on the last coffin, lay a sprig of gold, and made way for the families.

(no subject)

A very interesting article:

Public school students who leave year 12 with lower marks than their private school rivals overtake them academically once they hit the "level playing field" of university.


A couple of years ago I had one of the uni physics lecturers say to me that public school students generally do better than the private school students at uni. He thought it may've had something to do with some private schools spoon feeding/teaching students to pass exams, or that public school students are just used to making do without much.

(no subject)

A very interesting article:

Public school students who leave year 12 with lower marks than their private school rivals overtake them academically once they hit the "level playing field" of university.


A couple of years ago I had one of the uni physics lecturers say to me that public school students generally do better than the private school students at uni. He thought it may've had something to do with some private schools spoon feeding/teaching students to pass exams, or that public school students are just used to making do without much.