There is an old Slavic proverb that says vinegar in freedom tastes better than honey in slavery.
Many Slavic proverbs express folk belief that winter is the time ruled by wolves, and a message about the “driving off” of wolves can be heard in spring, We all use proverbs to add simple truths or humor to our speech
Mystery of Sydney and its Decline Proverbial Reigning Over Us
Everything is coming back to haunt Sydney …
THERE was an inevitable splash of publicity when NSW Premier Morris Iemma announced his Government's new director-general for the Department of Education this week.The headlines leapt on Michael Coutts-Trotter's past as a convicted heroin courier and former drug addict. The office of Mr Egan has proved a boon for several budding bureaucrats.
Mark Duffy, director-general of the NSW Department of Energy, began his government career in Mr Egan's office, too, working as chief of staff.
Previously, Mr Duffy was a Labor favourite who worked in the NSW Labor Council as a union official. And in those days -- 17 years ago -- he knocked around with his friend and fellow union official Michael Costa, now Mr Iemma's Treasurer.
John O'Neill is another Egan protege. The former journalist and staff member to Mr Egan is now executive director of Tourism NSW. Before he became an assistant director-general in the Premier's Department, Chris Raper was head of the Liquor Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union. He was also a vice-president of the NSW ALP.
John Whelan, now director of policy and research in the NSW Department of Gaming and Racing, was previously chief of staff to the portfolio's former minister, Grant McBride.
But Mr Whelan's Labor credentials go much further. He is also the son of former NSW Police Minister Paul Whelan and previously worked on the staffs of former NSW premier Bob Carr and former federal Opposition leader Kim Beazley.
Other senior NSW public servants include Chris Ryan (former adviser to Andrew Refshauge), Todd Clewett (former deputy chief of staff to Craig Knowles) and Aldo Pennini (former adviser to Mr Carr and Frank Sartor).
• ALP faithful grow into mandarins;
• · Kerry Chikarovski & Luis Garcia Chika, South Melbourne, Lothian, 2004 (237 pp). ISBN 0-73440-708-4 (paperback) RRP $34.95. Chika: Aiming for the top
• · The greatest myth that has emerged out of the end of the Cold War is that a philosophy of freedom has triumphed over an ideology of totalitarianism. The post-World War II period was, in fact, merely a conflict between differing forms of the statist ideal. On both sides of the Iron Curtain, the dominant idea was that men could not be left free to make their own choices and that the duty of the state was to supervise and oversee their affairs. Living the Life of a Lie; Boris Berezovsky, the billionaire Russian exile, has broken his silence over the death from radiation poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko to say the former spy had saved his life. Poisoned spy saved my life, says billionaire exile
• · · The BRW Rich 200 list met with some interesting guerrilla marketing in May. The Big Issue, a street magazine sold by the homeless and long-term unemployed, had a cover story on the Poor 20 that mimicked the Rich 200. Rich Live Longer, Poor Die Younger