Message To Our Readers – In A Time Of Covid

Hello Friends, Followers and Subscribers- wherever you may be – and especially all Freo People!
‘In a time of Covid’.
Sounds a little like a favourite novel of mine, ‘Love in a time of cholera’ by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. (I think I got his name right; for some reason I’m always wanting to say ‘Gabriel Marquez Garcia’.)
I should say, though, that the ‘The Shipping News’ by Annie Proulx (the inspiration for FSN) beats Love in a time of cholera by a short nose. If you’ll excuse the language of the Sport of Queens in this post-animal cruelty era.
Cholera. Covid. Tough times.
I’m pleased to see, however (if you’ll further pardon me for inserting a ‘however’ mid-sentence), that wishing friends and foes alike, at this time, to ‘Stay Safe’ is commonplace and heartfelt.
‘Community’ is now the bythought, the byword.
That said, Covid issues go well beyond the Freo community. And we have to hope our leaders, Federal, State and local, have their thinking minds, not their raw political ones, switched on to the max; and to trust them. That’s the way our Australian democracy is designed to work best.
It doesn’t mean, of course, that we the citizens, expert and non-expert in things that bear on Covid questions, shouldn’t speak up. It goes without saying that we should. That’s also how our democracy works best, and how our leaders are finally best placed, and informed, to make the best decisions they can, on our behalf, in the circumstances.
I’ve just read an Endgame analysis by John Daley from the Grattan Institute, initially posted on The Conversation website. As level-headed as any I’ve read.
Daley plumbs for Endgame C. Seems sensible. Probably, we currently have a diversified approach, which may not be recommended but perhaps is understandable as we search for the best or optimal approach.
In this time of Covid, we at Fremantle Shipping News aim to continue to bring you as many local stories as we can. Especially stories that show how Freo People are adapting and engaging as a community in these difficult and testing times.
We’d also like to invite you to contribute your stories on our Community Page, coming soon here on our website, as well as with your posts on our Facebook page, and with your illuminating Freo photos on our Instagram account.
As part of this focus, we will broaden our daily ‘In Port’ photography section so that images of what’s happening around Freo can help to inform us all. Often a picture is truly worth a thousand words! We will rename this section ‘Fremantle Today’.
Finally folks, all of us here at the Shipping News wish you well. Stay safe.
Michael Barker
Editor
Fremantle Shipping News