One should always beware the rhetorical value of music; but sometimes rhetoric clarifies substance.

It’s common for current Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) Governor Glenn Stevens (pictured right) to appear on television and radio around the time when the RBA announces coming interest rates. Stevens’ media engagements were different this time around, however. He made an appearance on television revealing his fondness for James Bond films and Jazz music. He also addressed an Easter breakfast for the Wesley Church in Sydney declaring his Christian faith and how he views his governorship as a vocation in God’s service.

What is going on here?

We’ve come to expect that politicians will milk their faith, rarely missing an opportunity to give a doorstop address after a Sunday service. But why would Glenn Stevens find it necessary to publicly profess his Christianity when acting in his capacity as the RBA Governor? Albeit a public role, the RBA governorship is not an elected position. There’s no need for Stevens to show the voting public that he’s a man of God and a good Christian.

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Still from the US Apache helicopter

WikiLeaks, a website for whistle blowers, has released video evidence of US forces killing two Iraqi Reuters employees: Saeed Chmagh and Namir Noor-Eldeen. The footage is taken from an Apache helicopter gun sight on July 12, 2007. The helicopter (one of two) circles above a town in Iraq as those on board try to identify who the people are on the street and what they are carrying.

The transcript of communication between ground forces (GF), the helicopter from which the footage is taken (H1), a second Apache helicopter (H2) and ground command (GC), although difficult to decipher, sufficiently reveals how events unfold:

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Have you ever heard a public healthcare system story like this: Aunty Jane needs an operation on her knee. She’s been on the public system waiting list for two years. Her surgery is booked for next week. She checks into hospital on the day of her surgery. She’s prepped and ready to go, but at the last minute her surgery is cancelled. The theatre that was to be used for her knee operation is required for emergency surgery. Aunty Jane still waits for her knee operation.

I hear many stories like this one, cases where the public healthcare system lets someone down. What I am struck by, however, is what usually follows. The person recounting the story laments the state of the public healthcare system. But what they usually see as the answer to Aunty Jane’s predicament is private health insurance. So the story goes, ‘If only Aunty Jane had private health insurance, then she wouldn’t have waited the two years; she would have gone in for surgery immediately; she’d be back tripping the light fantastic down at the local dance hall on Thursday nights’.

There are two problems with this response to Aunty Jane’s predicament, however.

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