MORE BINGLES WITH THE “SHINGLES” ISSUE

by Desmond Kelly “the Star of eLanka”

With all the road-accidents happening all over Australia, with all the “bingles” occuring, that could be avoided with some sensible pre- thinking, Australia’s incumbant Government is going around making themselves even more unpopular than they already are. Federal issues are now hitting the very people who have been previously responsible for the “triple “A” rating this Country now enjoys, THE PENSIONERS.
Instead of targetting the billionaires & millionaires who, because of affluence, pay the least tax, the huge Companies using all the “lurks & perks” possible, to pay the least tax & sometimes, NO TAX WHATSOEVER, our Federal Government is insistant on penalizing the folk who can least afford it. The old-age Pensioner.
As.it is, pensioners in Australia, or MOST of them, anyway, are forced to live the rest of their lives, practically on the “poverty-line”. In a first World Country like Australia, this should definitely NOT be the situation. If any pensioner (and there.are many thousands of them), have not been able, for any reason whatsoever, to buy or own their home, they are forced, on retirement, to pay exhorbitant weekly “rents” BEFORE they could then use the paltry balance of their funds to buy some food for the family. In a third-World Country, I suppose, this is acceptable, but NOT in Australia, where, I must add, even their forcibly retired GOVERNMENT MINISTERS receive MORE PENSION IN A WEEK than your usual pensioner receives in a YEAR!!.

A totally unfair situation where, I was informed by a neighbour, who uttered what must be the quote of 2016, “Once you become a pensioner, Des, you are automatically thrown on the SCRAP-HEAP.” Truer words were never spoken, and resulted in this TRUE story, my final “article” for eLanka in 2016. This has just happened to ME, plus every other pensioner out there in Civy-Street, OVER THE AGE OF SEVENTY NINE.

“WHATEVER ELSE THE “BINGLE”
DO NOT MINGLE WITH “SHINGLES”(OR DARE),
YOUR POCKETS WILL NOT JINGLE
WHETHER MARRIED OR SINGLE
IF YOU MESS WITH THE “SHINGLES”(SO, THERE!)” D.K.

Very recently, on television, came the warning.

There has just been an outbreak of Shingles in this Country. Until November 2016, one had to be the Prime Minister or a Parlimentarian to be able to AFFORD to pay for the “vaccination-needle” required to stem this awful disease which is the elder brother of “Small-pox”
This bloody “Pox” causes a severe rash on either one side of the human face or body, OR BOTH. Terrible itching, and if you happened to “scratch” with anything less than a thoroughly sterilized finger, you could probably get blood-poisoning & “cark-it”, even.

So, if you wanted to escape the undertaker, the price of a Shingles vaccination was anything from $200.00 to $250.00, depending on the doctor you saw.

From the first day of November 2016 ;-
The Government, in it’s wisdom, decided to make the “tingle of the shingle needle” freely available to the poor pensioners BUT, only to the age of SEVENTY NINE In it’s RIDICULOSITY (pardon my “coining” of the word), Our Government decided that any pensioner above this age would have to pay the full price for the “shot”. In other words, if you were silly enough to get Shingles after the age of 79, & if you didn’t have the “dough”, you were told where to go(or words to that effect). So, because I was 80 years old in July, 2016, this either meant that I was now on the scrap-heap, or that I was so ancient, anyway, Shingles would, in fact, AVOID ME and let me pass-on without scratching myself to death. Sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it? .
I THINK IT IS NOW TIME TO LABOUR ON TO OTHER THINGS, so I rest my case.
Desmond Kelly
“Star of eLanka”.

P.S. Notice that I spell “Labour”in the “English” we should use. Maybe, if the new President of America “trumps” over his predecessors as he says he will, I may consider using the “American” version of English.

To me, Bill Shorten is the opposition leader of the.Labour Party. If & when they win the next erection-oops, election(which, well, they might), I hope the new Prime Minister will “correct” the bad English, favour the pensioners who are 80 & over & please excuse the odd typho-errors that occur infrequently in most.of my “articles”. I now rest my “LABOUR”. D.K.F.C.
(Desmond.Kelly From Colombo).