Your Day Is Done: A Mammalian Species

He kept hearing it all the time: "A mammalian species". As if they were talking to each other, offering explanations for what they saw. There was a lot of clashing, weaponry of different kinds, medieval, those battles which had provoked the heights of courage and invention while divorcing souls from bodies. "There's a scientific explanation," someone said. "We just don't know what it is."

That same tragic, terrible voice had landed him here: In the most human of situations. His biological mother was dying up the hill and he fussed over the situation as if fussing could change anything. He had no normal range of emotions, but he went from frustration to sadness and back again every time he went near the situation. 

"It was the year his mother died," he heard, denounced, that so-called inner voice, daemon. But Socrates' daemon got him killed. And his was entirely unreliable. He heard all the strange fragments of thought. He heard derision and frustration and resignation all circling through the trees, and that song, which way the wind blows. He was still fascinated by the feel of the air. He was still dissembling into a legitimate human. He was going to stalk through the powers that be; and yes, throw the money lenders from the temple, although it had been so long ago. 

We were never one person. We never came to save you. We came to alter the course of history; and here, because they worked in such large numbers, because they were in a sense a flock, or a herd, or whatever message of forgiveness and absolution you wanted to deliver, he begged for them to cease and desist, for to hear the music of the spheres, as it was called in these parts. 

Mammalian. They caressed each other. They protected their children. They hid from the overwhelming powers that be. They used duplicity at every step. Waved a dismissive hand. Begged for forgiveness and purity of purpose; but of course, these things were entirely irrelevant. They looked upon an ancient shore. Was it that different a million years ago? Five hundred million years ago? Everything was ancient and born again. The technology filtered through a lattice of dreams. He was going to beg not for forgiveness or absolution, for his sins were minor, but for the power to be the man he once was, to command armies, to keep the harem busy, to fall in love under the blissful feel of palm trees, for power, strength, truthfulness, compassion, forbearance, of course, for high intelligence and great courage, for determination and good health. 

The waves washed across a distant shore. The eagles, if that's what they were, rose to greet him. He was never going to say die; admit defeat; live a life of quiet resignation. The powers that be would not allow it. Destiny would not allow it. 

And so he strode forth, and the servants scattered in alarm. 

"We may never meet again, so let's get started." 

THE BIGGER STORY:

The federal Health Department has learnt a thing or two from Scotty from Marketing. It has just announced version seven of the aged care pandemic plan. Never mind that the previous six versions never existed. Expecting accountability from the Coalition government is mere tilting at windmills, writes Dr Sarah Russell.

Where to start in listing the deceitful behaviour of the Coalition government regarding aged care.

Is it that the “7th edition” of the Updated National COVID-19 Aged Care Plan has just been released by the federal Health Department when there was no 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th or 6th edition? A great trick from Scott Morrison’s marketing playbook – revise history by giving the impression there were six earlier editions when in fact there were none.

That the government continues to make announcements that are just re-announcements?

That it continues to throw huge amounts of taxpayers’ money at aged care providers but refuses to tackle the real changes that are needed?

That it can demand accountability for the $1.5 billion in pandemic funding given to aged care providers but it won’t demand accountability for the whopping $21 billion the providers receive annually?

And on it goes.

Bonanza for providers

By all accounts, the pandemic has been a cash bonanza for aged care providers, with funding announcement after funding announcement. While these give the impression the government is doing something, until it tackles the systemic failures that led to the deaths of 665 residents in aged care homes, the government is pouring our money down the drain.