At the turn of the 20th century the Irish newspaper the Skibbereen Eagle may have been serving a small provincial audience in west county Cork but that did not stop it casting a grand eye over wider events.
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“Dear Tsar of Russia,” the paper warned in one editorial, “the Skibbereen Eagle has its eye on you.”
History does not record whether Tsar Nicholas II quaked in his Russian boots on hearing the news from a farflung outpost of the British Empire, but given the grisly fate of him and his family in the Russian Revolution, perhaps he should have paid a bit more attention to the Skibbereen Eagle.
I’m reminded of this story every time I use the editorial section of this newspaper to comment on wider events that on first glance don’t appear to be relevant to north-west Queensland.
Who or what is the Nicholas II of the early 21st century?
Is it Vladimir Putin, the current Tsar of Russia, who seems determined to bring the world to the brink of conflict as he flexes Russian muscles in Ukraine and the Middle East (not to mention appearing to be the puppet master behind Donald Trump’s shenanigans)?
Is it China, as its Communist leaders suppress democracy at home while also practicing strident nationalism abroad in the chess games of the South China sea, and keeping alive North Korea’s despotic and dangerous regime?
Is it world leaders who seem powerless to act in the face of melting polar ice caps, rising sea levels, increasingly erratic weather and environmental havoc, while Australia continue to put its collective head in the sand?
I do not know, but I do know that in today’s interconnected world, nothing happens in Nebraska or Kamchatska that doesn’t also affect Mount Isa. It doesn’t help when Queensland elects clowns like Malcolm Roberts who prefer to see the unfolding catastrophe as a giant one-world conspiracy. The North West Star has its eye on you.
***
And speaking of clowns, a word of advice to those suffering from coulrophobia:
If you are ever attacked by a mob of clowns, always go for the juggler.
I’ll see myself out...
DB
Derek Barry
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
