Mandy Vandy

Editors must be having the pun-tastic time of their lives.
Vandy spent up to $70,000 trying to learn Mandy.
That's our crazy Mandy Vandy. It would normally defy belief, except that it's now relative to the very recent revelations of stupidity from Ian Campbell, Kelvin Thomson and Santo Santoro.

Firstly, I'm amazed that such a sum of money could be spent at all, given that someone could do an Arts degree double majoring in Chinese and still only incur $12,000 in costs.
$70,000? Granted, the confirmed figure so far is $31,000, but even that is still ridiculous.

But aside from the issue of cost itself, the part that disgusts me the most is that it has apparently been wasted on an inept Vanstone. A Mandarin-speaking businessman was present at a speech which Vanstone delivered in Canberra, and apparently (from the Sydney Morning Herald):

"She doesn't appear to believe in tones, which are the most important part of speaking Mandarin," the businessman said. "It was excruciating".

Appalling. Keep in mind Vanstone very recently pronounced:

"If you say hello to someone in their own language, you touch their heart, if you say hello in your language you only touch their head,"

Indeed. I might add, if you butcher someones native language, you can piss them off.

Quite literally, in Chinese, one tone can be the difference between an accent(口音) and a blowjob (口淫).

And to think, the PM is considering posting her to Beijing as an ambassador. That's an alarming lack of judgement. It's no wonder Rudd is leading Howard on the issue of national security.

It's an interesting time we're at. Some of the most valid criticism of the Howard government is coming from conservatives like Andrew Bolt, criticism which by its nature isn't based on left or right ideology, but on pure rationality. To the point where Bolt is pointing out that "From this Government now comes the first unmistakable whiff of decay."

Some would say that the smell has been there a while now, but the point remains.
I suppose this whole Mandy Vandy Mandy issue will just act as a metaphor for the larger issues of incompetency of the incumbent government.

Compare Mandy Vandy's Mandy to Rudd's. Whilst it's not really related to policy, I think it's that sort of contrast that people are starting to perceive, and that's what's leading to the consensus of 'it's time'. It's not just an issue of ideology, but competency.

I'm sure Liberal party advisers will be desperately searching for a fluent Mandarin-speaking, fresh faced member to hold up to the spotlight.
That's definitely not Mandy Vandy though.



Vanstone, in the middle of a Mandarin tutorial.