Champagne and Fireworks After Juvenal

CHAMPAGNE & FIREWORKS - or BREAD & CIRCUSES

" Already long ago, from when
we sold our vote to no man,
the People have abdicated our duties;
for the People who once upon a time
handed out military command,
high civil office, legions
— everything, now restrains itself
and anxiously hopes for just
two things: bread and circuses..."

- translated from the Latin of Decimus Iunius Iuvenalis (Juvenal),
Roman poet active in the late 1st and early 2nd century AD, author of the Satires. Born: Aquino, Italy. Died: 130 AD

or, In the original LATIN

"iam pridem, ex quo suffragia nulli
uendimus, effudit curas; nam qui dabat olim
imperium, fasces, legiones, omnia, nunc se
continet atque duas tantum res anxius optat,
panem et circenses. "

- (Juvenal, Satire 10.77–81)

PATHETIC AND INFANTILE

" I HAVE two words for the ABC’s New Year’s Eve broadcast
— pathetic and infantile. With the usual luvvies in top form,
the reliable ABC could not resist turning it into
a paid political announcement when they injected
a splash of Fran Kelly and her last word on the Sydney siege.
Her summary pronounced the gunman just a nut case.
Thanks Fran, I know I should be relieved and thankful
for your perspective on the past year."

Keith Mouatt, Casuarina, NSW
Last Post, Letters, The Australian,January 02, 2015