Pardon me for being puzzled about the value of International Women’s Day which will take place tomorrow.  Why am I puzzled?

Well, I associate an International Day with minorities who are somehow in need of help.  They are lacking something and we have to help them by acknowledging their existence.  Worthy examples of such days are World Cancer Day, Victims of Torture Day, Abuse and Illicit Trafficking Day.

Such events are reminders of afflictions and injustices and we should definitely be more  compassionate towards them.

So how can being a woman be a disease or some aberration of nature,  something to be cured or repaired or eliminated?

I cannot come to terms with such an attitude because it doesn’t make sense to me at all.

We women are only inferior if we think we are inferior and by marching up and down the street and demonstrating or barring menfolk from the ABC TV screen in Australia for a “WHOLE”  day smacks of pettiness and tokenism.

Men must be killing themselves laughing at our silly behaviour.

How come men don’t demand an International Men’s Day just to even the score?  The answer to that is simple, of course. They don’t need one because they don’t feel second-rate. There’s no need to prove anything if you don’t have an inferiority complex about it.

I look forward to the day when women no longer feel the need for this kind of degrading tokenism.

Show some dignity please, Ladies…

Eddie used to prompt the contestants he liked by asking them “final answer?” when they chose the wrong multiple choice answer. What he was really  was telling them was  “Your answer is wrong so think again and choose another one of the other three multiple choice alternatives.”

He did this when the candidate was one he thought would be popular or good value for the show.  It was best if you have a schmaltzy sob story of what you would do with the money if you won it such as feed the hungry,  save the planet,  pay for your nanna’s hip operation.  And then Eddie would gush and utter “Gosh, I  hope you win. We want him to win, don’t we?”

People began to catch on to what he was doing.  After all, one cannot describe the show as a genuine quiz.  It is merely show business.

You had more chance of winning if it was Monday night and Eddie wanted to suck in the viewers to watch the rest of the week.  Nothing unfair about that but it is becoming predictable.  Monday night,  winning,  coincidence?

Unfortunately for Eddie and Channel 9,  people began to recognise a pattern of prompting so he adjusted his “Final Answer?”  to  “You tell me what to do.”

This directive actually means ” For crying out loud, choose another answer, cause this one’s wrong.”  And he often emphasises his prompting with  “Lock it in?” and the contestant locks in the answer which,  surprise, surprise,  is the correct one.

On occasion the contestant fails to catch on to his hints and doesn’t lock it in so Eddie becomes quite frustrated and turns to the audience and shrugs his shoulders apologetically as if to say “I did try…”

We in Australia believe that everyone, even celebrities,  should obey the law.  That goes for the “ordinary” human being as well as the visiting megastars such as Johnny Depp.

Depp may not care if animals brought into the country carry diseases which may infect our animal population, but we do. We are determined to protect our livestock and that is why there is a quarantine rule which prevents overseas visitors, no matter who they are, to declare that they have animals with them and agree to place them in quarantine.

Apparently,  Mr Depp who suffers from a swelled head has decided that the law should not apply to him.  Surely, it’s only for mere mortals, says Mr Depp.  “My little doggies are as special as I am.”

Ironically, it turns out to be the case, for sure

So when he was caught with a couple of  illegal puppies in his entourage he flew off in a huff and began to criticise the Deputy Prime Minister of Australia for threatening to take the canines away from him.

Depp has frequently made childish and petulant remarks  about Deputy PM Barnaby Joyce and the end result of these snide comments is that we are sick and tired of Depp.

The latest insult made by Depp is to describe Joyce as an inbred tomato, whatever that is. Perhaps Depp is familiar with inbreeding in vegetables.  His delusions of grandeur may encompass agriculture as well as everything else.

His lack of respect for our laws,  however,  has not won him any fans Downunder.