COLUMN I

GREETINGS and salutations to one and all.
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IT’S hard to believe the allegations against the co-ordinator of the Oro Provincial Disaster Committee and his deputy, who have allegedly been having a series of emotional spats while the rest of the province sinks slowly in the west.
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ASSUMING the allegations to be true, Oro victims must be glad that their acting administrator has sacked both of the gentlemen concerned. The last thing needed during a disaster operation is in-fighting between people whose egos blind them to the very disaster they are employed to deal with.
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THEN there’s the truly sleazy brigade. They see disasters and the matching donations that always pour in from concerned people as the golden opportunity to make a fast buck. We’ve known of situations where truckloads of flour and rice “disappear” into thin air.
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BLANKETS and jerry cans of water evaporate long before reaching the victims. Tools supplied to erect temporary shelters can later be spotted for sale in nearby markets. That’s where we hope the police swoop and make a few salutary arrests – corruption and disaster relief are indeed poor bedfellows.
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WE are again in danger of forgetting to alert vintage film buffs to what’s on the box. So here we go … at 12.30am tomorrow on Aunty ABC, you can enjoy a movie we thought was good the first time round; we’ll see if our memory is playing tricks tonight.
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THE flick is The Riddle of the Sands, one of J Arthur Rank’s better mystery adventures. In 1902, a British yachtsman sails into a German fleet conducting a mock invasion of England. Now that leads to all sort of brouhaha – but we don’t want to spoil the plot, so watch Michael York, Simon MacCorkindale and Alan Badel surrounded by a great deal of the North Sea and the siren charms of Miss Jenny Agutter.
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IN this week marking International Children’s Day, we plead with mothers to stop savagely belting children over the head in response to some wrong-doing or other. The possibility of brain damage is all too real – and such action is never, repeat, never necessary. Cheers!
– Dee Nesenolis
 

 
 
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