I didn't see word news on Monday but suspect it may have been a one-word screen day. I did see Denton
ANDREW DENTON: A lot of people see you as this larger than life Steve Irwin... In some ways a one-dimensional, almost cartoon character. What they perhaps don't know is you've bought huge tracts of land in Vanuatu and Australia and Fiji and US. Why have you done that?
STEVE IRWIN: I'm a conservationist through and through, Andrew, that's why I was put on this planet. Easily the greatest threat to the wildlife globally is the destruction and annihilation of habitat. So, I've gone, "Right, how do I fix that?" Making a quid here, people are keen to give me money over there. I'll buy it. I'll buy habitat ... So, whenever we get enough cash and enough - and a chunk of land that we are passionate about - bang, we buy it.
I'm a bit of a - I'm a wildlife warrior through and through ...
5 comments:
AD: She [Bindi, Irwin's daughter] came close to a carpet snake.
SI: Bit her right on the face. Her first snake bite.
AD: That must have been a proud moment.
SI: It was a very proud moment. She's a snake maniac.
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heh.
One thing he did was show a multitude of kids, and grownups, that bravery can be warm and loving and fun, as opposed to fierce and grim and heartless.
And he showed them that constantly, again and again.
And I tend to believe that it was that quality of emotionally present courage, that fearless and selfless love, that bothered people that were bothered by him, more than anything else.
Conservation, environmentalism, defenders of wildlife - these things have moved, and are moving, from a marginal, elective, kind of hobby-ish pursuit, to the front lines in a war on what it is to be human and alive.
Steve Irwin is a hero.
That's a perspective I haven't seen elsewhere, Roy. I found the Crikey-schtick a bit wearing, but anyone in showbiz knows the value of a catchphrase, so I could forgive that.
The arguably over-confident interactions with animals were part of his ratbag charisma. Our sanitised corporatised world could do with more ratbags.
The New York Times said worse things about his style and it's effect, than Dr G Greer did, but none of her attackers read anything written by foreigners, so they don't even know.
She quoted Dr Peach a marine biologist who said rays do not sting unless they are touched. Word round Port Douglas is that the ray was going to be bait for sharks in the documentary.
He was a hero to me -
as a wildlife campaigner and someone who was putting it back. He had the passion and the resources to make a difference.
I have to admit I didn't see beyond that 'Crickey-Schtick' (or know much about him at all) before the second of the Denton interviews (after the Baby Bob thing). He came across as a genuinely warm and loving man.
The Greer issue is just a sideshow to me at the moment, though I think you're right Brownie about the insularity of oz opinion - (blogosphere too for that matter)
And you're right about that quality of emotionally present courage,Roy.
And perhaps related to something Al Gore said - also on the Denton show - about not giving into despair, as it's as bad as denial.
(I have to summon my courage now to watch what I imagine will be a harrowing look at the plight of Orangutans in Borneo)
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