Something terrible has happened. I just received a call from my brother Eric. He lives in London with his wife and two children. His wife's mother is visiting at the moment to help with the kids. They’re currently in Sardinia, in Italy, on holiday.
They were on their way home when an accident happened at the train station. You know those gates that close automatically? Well, my three-year-old niece, Sierra, went through the gates — and her five-year-old brother, Joey, tried to run through after her. But the gates closed. On his head.
My brother said it was a very serious accident. Joey is now in hospital in Sardinia. Apparently, they initially said he could go home, but after doing a CT scan, they discovered a bleed on his brain. The neurologist said he has to stay in hospital. If they can’t contain the bleeding, they’ll have to do brain surgery.
It’s just such an awful, awful thing to happen. One of those freakish, unscripted moments — unbelievably unfortunate and deeply unfair.
Joey is such a sweet, good, innocent little kid. And the terrible truth is, it’s only through hearing this news that I’ve realised how little I really know him or his sister. They live in London and have only been out here twice. I speak to them on WhatsApp when I talk to my brother, but they’re usually just doing kid stuff — they don’t really want to chat with me.
I pray to God that everything will be okay with Joey. And when it is — I am going to make 100% more effort to get to know those beautiful children and spend time with them.
My brother always complains that I haven’t visited them in London. He’s right. I’m going to Botswana in December, but after that, my next trip will be to London. I just need to find the money. Maybe I could become a phone sex worker. Or not!!
I’m not a crier, but I feel like crying now — for little Joey, and for my brother. He was in such a bad way when I spoke to him. Honestly, I think he’s had one of the most brutal 18 months I’ve ever heard of.
His best friend was killed in a freak boating accident. He lost his father. He lost his nanny — who was like a grandmother to him. And now this.
I know there’s a chance Joey could end up brain damaged. That is such a dreadful, unbearable thought.
But I have to believe — that even the most cruel and merciless God would not be that cruel and merciless.
I was talking to my Mum's GP on the phone about her and then when we'd finished he asked if there was anything else he could help with, and I said, actually, yes. I’d recently had a test for toxo, and I wondered if he could check the results.
He had no problem doing that, and I was absolutely shocked to hear that I was toxo negative.
I know I’d said I’d let go of the whole cat-madness narrative, but ever since I learned about the parasite, I had built my entire identity around being a host. I thought every single thing that had happened to me since I was in Tanzania was because of the parasite. I literally could not believe I was negative.
I asked, “Are you sure?” and he said yes. He was also a little curious — he asked why I’d had the test and why it mattered so much. I just told him I was sure I had it, and thanked him for checking.
I still can’t believe I don’t have toxo. It makes no sense — I’m the prime candidate to be a host. I used to think I’d be nothing if the result came back negative. But I don’t think that anymore.
I still think it’s an amazing and magical parasite — though not necessarily magical in a good way. I believe there’s a link between cats and hosts and desire and madness. Maybe one day I’ll sit back down and really think about it again. But since I’m not a host, I’m not as invested as I once was.
When Mum got home from the doctor, I started to feel uneasy. I felt like I hadn’t answered the doctor’s questions as honestly as I should have. So I sat down with her and told her everything — the questions, my answers, and how I felt about them.
Then I asked if we could make a deal.
I said I wouldn’t pressure her to get any more tests or assessments right now — but that if I ever felt there was a serious problem, I’d come to her and tell her. And I asked her to promise that if that ever happened, she would take me seriously and agree to further testing.
She agreed.
On Wednesday, former Foreign Minister Alexander Downer published an opinion piece about Gaza and Hamas. In it, he argued that peace in Gaza cannot be achieved by pressuring Israel to halt its military campaign while Hamas continues to operate. He claimed Hamas is winning the propaganda war by manipulating media coverage of food shortages and civilian casualties, and that many in the West — including politicians and journalists — are too quick to accept Hamas’s narrative while ignoring Israel’s.
Downer defended Israel’s actions as necessary rather than cruel, and suggests that antisemitism plays a role in the widespread dismissal of Israel’s perspective. He also asserted that a two-state solution is impossible unless Hamas relinquishes control of Gaza and ends its hostilities toward Israel.
I wrote a response to the article in the form of a letter to the editor. While Mr Downer focused heavily on Hamas, I deliberately chose not to mention them. Instead, I focused on the structural and political barriers to peace — including Israel’s continued settlement expansion, the unequal treatment of Palestinians, and the broader international double standards in recognising suffering and injustice.
My decision not to mention Hamas was intentional — not because I support them, but because I felt there was no way to reference them without risking the perception that I sympathised with their actions, which I do not.
You can read my letter below.
To The Editor,
With respect for our former Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, I feel compelled to respond to his recent opinion piece on Gaza. His argument overlooks key realities and dangerously conflates criticism of war crimes with antisemitism.
It is not antisemitic to oppose the bombing of refugee camps. It is not antisemitic to object to the starvation of civilians or the destruction of hospitals and schools. These are not “propaganda victories” — they are humanitarian catastrophes confirmed by countless independent organisations, including Médecins Sans Frontières, Amnesty International, and the UN.
Mr Downer speaks of a two-state solution, but how can that ever be realised while Israel continues to expand illegal settlements in the West Bank, annex Palestinian land, and impose an apartheid system — as documented by both Israeli and international human rights groups?
The suffering in Sudan is real, but it is not a justification for minimising Palestinian suffering. We must be able to condemn all injustice, not use one to deflect from another.
Peace cannot be achieved through denial or deflection. It will come when international law is upheld, occupation ends, and Palestinian lives are treated as equal in worth and dignity.
Kind regards,
Me
They printed the letter, which really surprised me. The title they used was No Peace Through Denial, and I took two photos of it in The Advertiser.
I don’t regret writing the letter. Ultimately, the path it’s going to take me on will hopefully be a good one. But Mr Downer was a friend of my father’s, and is a friend of my mother’s. My dad would have been absolutely livid at me for sending a letter to the editor like that — taking an almost naive arrogance up against a former Foreign Minister.
I don’t think anyone cares about the letter. Not one person contacted me saying they saw it in the paper. No one contacted Mum. I think it makes me look like a fool. And to be honest I feel so embarrassed about it. Who am I to challenge the former Foreign Minister?
I do think he was wrong about a number of things — especially the idea that anti-Semitism is fuelling most of the anti-Israel rhetoric. But the truth is, I can’t really back it up. It just looks like leftie bullshit. And the lesson I’ve learned is that this — this isn’t how I want to get my message across.
I shared the letter with my Amnesty International group here in Adelaide — they liked it, they seemed happy with it. But it didn’t affect anyone else. No one wrote in about it today. It was just… nothing.
This is the same kind of arrogance I displayed when I was working at the Downing Centre. It’s delusional. I’m not saying Downer is right — because he’s not — but I wrote like I knew better than him. Like he was completely wrong. He probably laughed when he read it.
It’s 5:32am and edging closer to 6:00am — the time I’ve started getting into the habit of tuning in to David & Will on FIVEaa. The show has everything I need. Yesterday they were taking donations for the Hutt Street Centre and Catherine House, and I made one — then I won the hourly prize!
I won a $100 seafood voucher and a ticket to a trial by jury — which I’d actually been thinking about going to anyway.
I’d been feeling a little down about being toxo negative. And today I was stressing because I omitted Hamas from my letter to the editor. But honestly — none of that bullshit matters.
After receiving the call from my brother about my nephew, I’ve come to realise something simple and true: all that matters is family and good friends. That’s it. That’s all that matters.
I don’t care that I’m not infected. And as for the letter — I gave it a different perspective. I’ve learned something from it. And next time, I’ll be smarter about how I express myself.
