Australian's of the Year, our leading lights for 2011, are right up our ally.  Simon McKeon, a social entrepreneur, equal rights campaigner Professor Ron McCallum and round the world sailer Jessica Watson.  Local Hero of the Year is Donald Ritchie who lives near The Gap in Sydney, a notorious location for people intent on ending their lives by jumping off the cliff. Three men concerned with social issues and a young lady from Queensland.

I also saw an item suggesting Julian Assange as Un-Australian of the Year - hence the title 'See-Saw' (always looking for the balance).

That's a bit harsh, I thought.  Surely exposing the truth ( he can't be as bad as the people who actually DID those deeds) is a good thing? 

Simon McKeon certainly has a challenge on his hands.  Social entrepreneur? Sounds like a meeting and marrying of the free market and social services..........is that possible?

And equal rights?  Equally challenging, I think, in a society (the lucky country) whose indigenous population have extraordinarily high child mortality and extraordinarily low life expectancy and are extraordinarily over represented in prison, as well as in mainstream ( white society) extraordinarily low female participation in the high income earners clique.

Suicide we've blogged about before but this guy actually saves lives by taking people from the edge to his home for a cuppa and a nice chat - inspiring, huh?

 Our young lady challenged herself and won.  Powerful in Pink.