My New Hero

There is more than one Mohammad Tariq in the world, so if you are Googling, make sure you include "Keddies" in the search terms. You will unveil a story worthy of a Hollywood blockbuster.

This particular Mohammad Tariq took on a major law-firm, who had ripped him off mercilessly when they were supposed to be Acting On His Behalf. Mohammad Tariq - eventually - won.

You're probably thinking "that's nice", or something similar. Unless you are a compensation lawyer, in which case you're probably in the middle of shredding documents. Almost worse than a lone-voice-in-the-wilderness, Tariq fought against the establishment. He was threatened with incarceration as "mentally unstable" on one occasion. He was charged $49 by his own lawyer for being told said lawyer was taking a holiday. He was charged hundreds of dollars for phone calls that could have been (and most probably were) made by clerical assistants.

Tariq took to 'sandwich-board' protests. In April this year, one newspaper described him as a "one man headache" when he protested outside the TV station on which Keddies front man has a football talk-show. The same newspaper changed its tune in August, when barrister Michael Robinson, appointed by the Supreme Court, found that ''Keddies in each case has practised systematic duplication and overcharging, which, in my opinion, is deliberate and has in many cases led to the charging of costs that are grossly excessive''.

Mohammad Tariq took a stand and won. Sure, it took him 3 years, but he never gave up - despite all the 'experts' that told him that he would never win; he was wasting his time; he should get over it. Etc. Just a personal opinion, but I think he should be the official Poster Boy for natural justice and fair play.

Weirdness and Mind Power

I have to start, right here, by swearing to you that this is true. You can choose to be sceptical, which is your right. If I was sitting where you are now, and about to read what you are about to read, I can honestly say that I wouldn't believe it either. But that's probably more to to with being a cynic than anything else.

So I'm working away, doing what I'm paid to do, during the course of which some YouTube resources were being evaluated. A small and unexpected deviation into the area of Zen philosophy resulted in a number of footages of streams/forests/mountains with the feely-floaty musical background.

Next thing I knew, and I kid you not, into my office flew a Superb Fairy-Wren. Our American cousins should maybe thing along the lines of a "blue jay". It fluttered around alarmingly for a bit, then settled on the top shelf of my professional resources. For a moment there, I thought it might poop on the folders containing the last 7 years of stock take records. That alone gives pause for reflection.

I co-opted a colleague from a nearby office, and together we gently encouraged my little feathered visitor back out into the Wide World. Bird poop on stock take records might be a fair call, but it sure would be a financial tragedy on expensive reference books.

Being Friday, Staff Morning Tea was the next event on my schedule. Don't laugh - its a serious venue for exchanging information, strengthening working networks, ensuring sufficient sugar levels are maintained until lunchtime.

But Blow-Me-Down! (an Australian expression meaning a surprise of sufficient proportions to knock an individual horizontal). When I came back from Morning Tea, my small feathered friend was perched next to the main door of the library, waiting to be let back in.

Now the really spooky part of this is the thought of what might have happened if I'd been reviewing material on, for example, Continental Drift. Would we have had an earthquake?

Just wondering.