Marea With an E

Every four years

Love them, or just completely “over it”, the Olympics can really polarise public opinion.Generally speaking I’d say most people admire the athletes, their dedication, their talent and their passion - let’s face it, most of us have struggled to just get out of bed these last few chilly mornings. No, it’s the other  peripheral “stuff” that gets up our collective noses like the AOC very predictably demanding more funding for sport in Australia otherwise, God forbid the UK will beat us or, even worse, NZ will win more gold medals in European handball. Then, like clockwork, we have bleetings about how sport obsessed Australia is (guilty Your Honour) and good old Barrie Kosky puts in his two Euros worth:

“There’s an imbalance between the amount given to the arts and the amount everything else gets. No one had a problem with the billions that was thrown at the Olympics, which was essentially a sports party. OK, it did very well, la la la la, but we’re talking here about things that have to do with the soul of a country.”

He said this in an interview with Susan Shineberg in 2005 and he’s still banging on about it. He’s right of course but where do we start? Make it mandatory for every Australian to go to the theatre twice a year? Obviously not but I do like his idea of allowing children free access to opera, music and theatre during their school years to imbue their souls with the arts from an early age. That way it becomes as normal as going to the movies or the footy and less intimidating. But sometimes it just seems easier (and cheaper)to go to the footy than take out a subscription to the STC. How sad is that? Maybe if they let us chant “Aussie,aussie,aussie oi,oi,oi” during interval. Maybe not!