“AUSTRALIAN OF THE YEAR 2018” by Desmond Kelly ‘the Star of eLanka’

“The A.B.C”.,.to the fore, once again, supported by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, bringing you, the members of eLanka an “on-line” account of what I would term, a most prestigious “Annual-Event” that duly recognises persons chosen by their peers for spectacular achievements carried out for nothing other than making this huge multicultural Continent a better place for EVERYONE HERE, to live in.

On purpose, I do not intend to “detail” the names and achievements of 32 different “contenders” for this “title”, I would probably have to keep writing until 2019 to complete “that”, anyway, all the names & achievements of these wonderful people will be in the early morning newspapers of tomorrow, the 26th of January, 2018, Australia-Day & the holiday it entails.

However, let me start with the “name” of the holiday.

As every eLankan (Lankan/Aussie) should know by now, this writer will always “say it like it is”, come hell or high water. To do it any other way, would be “dishonesty”, as far as I am concerned.

The “venue” for the show looked great. A few hundred people in the audience (including the contenders), looked very much “classier” than any audience at a “Rock Concert”, for obvious reasons. They were there to appreciate great “doings” Audiences at most Rock Concerts & especially “Heavy” Rock Concerts are there, simply to yell their silly heads off, stomp their feet, & systematically “go deaf” in their old age, if they live that long.

Anyway, back to the “Australian of the year” event.

The “Stage” looked superb. The “Comperes’, all of them were very good, used their microphones with professional expertise, it was a pleasure to watch them.

There were four categories in the competition.

This included “Young Australians of the year” in which there was a young Sri Lankan from the Northern Territory. ( I’ll say no more about him, excepting that he had the famous name of a Royal Ceylon Naval Commander that I was privileged to know personally).

Then, the Prime Minister of Australia was introduced on stage. The P.M., very definitely “looked the part”.

In addition, I remember another Prime Minister of Australia who was one of the finest “orators” of his time, another “Liberal Gentleman” with the name Sir Robert Menzies, & Malcolm Turnbull (forgive the pun), strikes me as a fine orator too. He has certainly now “turned” into one, because his introduction to this important “Show” was perfect. No stammering, no scripts, no “acting”, He mean’t every word he said and said them well.

No complaints about ANY of the contestants either.

All of them, the young, the old, the timid, the bold, a pleasure to watch, now, you have been told. Each of them, (Australians that every one of us should be extremely proud of) came up “on-stage” & “said their piece” naturally, with conviction, and made me feel very proud to be a Lankan/ Australian.

Then, this band came up on-stage to spoil it all, for me. It was a sizable “group”, brass, horns & all. undoubtedly excellent professional musicians, plus male & female vocalists as their “front-people”.

Perhaps they were not to blame, but their “Sound-Staff”, as Donald Trump would say. should be sacked.

It was absolutely hopeless. There is nothing wrong with my hearing, but apart for a couple of words, I couldn’t hear what either vocalist was singing about.
Apart from the above, “The Australian of the year 2018 was a very good television production.