Published The Advocate, November 12, 2005


AT THIS time of the year I stand on the balcony and love it when the wind blows and the white caps fleck Bass Strait. This morning a howling westerly was flaying the sea and the broken water crashing over the harbour reef looked like threshing sharks. Then, after the last rain squall, the sea was spotlit by a glassy, yellow rod of sun. I was moved. Moving right along, some of Tasmania’s best seascapes are currently being used in the state government’s $250,000 feel-good advertising campaign, "The possibilities are endless". The campaign pushes the Tassie Pride button for all it’s worth. Far be it from me to say the ads are taxpayer-funded propaganda to benefit the government’s re-election chances but at the very least they are a case of preaching to the converted. My opinion matters no more than anyone else’s – less possibly because I am an immigrant – but it would be interesting to hear how the campaign can be justified on public interest grounds. Do we really need clap-happy advertisements to tell us how great we are, especially when we are footing the bill? The sexual assault helpline advertisements serve a useful public service; government boosterism does not. Something else makes me wince: People boasting that Tasmania "punches above its weight". Used whenever a Tasmanian person, place or product gains recognition beyond our shores, the term is favoured by politicians who hope some of the lustre will rub off on them. The underlying message is Tasmania is a small island with a small population – often the underdog – and yet we can achieve greatness against the odds. We then take shared pleasure in one of our own being successful and recognised. Fair enough. Of course we should celebrate the wins and awards – The Advocate reports many such stories – but I have a problem with this punching above our weight business. In boxing parlance it sounds as though we have entered a division where we have no right to be. That we cannot match it unless someone does something exceptionally beyond the norm expected of a Tasmanian. Does that sound like an inferiority complex? Just a question. Or a desire not to be taken for granted? It doesn’t take much to be noticed for our special achievements. But we should take pride in who we are and what we have achieved without the need for slick advertising and cheer leading. Boag’s brewery advertising uses the one word, Pride, to express pride in its product and the workforce. A good campaign for beer. But in the wrong hands, Pride is also one of the seven deadly sins, as in being full of oneself and, as the proverb says, pride goeth before a fall. While I was staring out to sea, the wind changed to a vicious nor’easter and the backyard leatherwood tree, heavily sprung under its weight of gumnuts, snapped a branch and crashed onto the bed of purple irises. Which only shows what can happen from punching above your weight.