Farewell to The ‘Marj’

~ So the ‘Marj’, that stupid, disrespectful sobriquet coined by god knows who, has finally bitten the dust.

Well might the citizenry cry: “Halleluiah! The Marj is Dead!”

Don’t get me wrong, I had no problem what-so-ever with Adelaide's new hospital being called the Marjorie Jackson-Nelson Hospital, in honour of our former State Governor, and former Olympian, but I had plenty of objections to it being called the ‘Marj’.

There seems to be some part of the Australian psyche that loves to give well known public figures stupid nicknames, like the Australian cricketer Darren Lehmann’s, ‘Boof’.

If you go to the Adelaide Now site and search for “Boof” you will find plenty of headlines with that word in the title, but precious few with the name Lehmann in them. Here are just a few:

• Boof’s push to seize cricket control
• Boof rules out SACA challenge
• Boof wields willow on red carpet
• Boof bound for India
• Boof from Pads to Punts

Some of the articles even refer to him as ‘Boof’ Lehmann, not Darren Lehmann.

If I was Marjorie Jackson-Nelson, I wouldn’t want future generations of school children left baffled and bewildered, wondering why their state hospital was being confused with margarine!

After all, how many times have you sat around the kitchen table at breakfast or dinner and said, “Pass the marj”?

I can just see the future headlines now:

• Argy bargy at the Marj (in response to controversy)
• The Marj: Premier lays it on thick (say no more!)
• Budget cuts: pass the Marj (demanding hospital be spared from budget cuts), Or…
• Budget cuts trim fat off the Marj (this is getting out of hand!)
• Health minister trips over the Marj (!!!)

I could go on, but you get the picture. In fact, the rot has already set in. Search Adelaide Now again for ‘The Marj’, and you will find these headlines:

• Marj budget burden fears
• Factions dig in over Marj
• Doctors blast 'mad Marj' plan

You’ve got to love that last one. “Mad Marj”, indeed. Little wonder then, that Mrs Jackson-Nelson asked that her name no longer be associated with the hospital.

In a poll conducted by Adelaide Now, apparently more than 54 per cent of voters thought the name change was a good move, while only 5 per cent thought it was a "disgrace and insult" to Mrs Jackson-Nelson.

Actually, it is a disgrace and an insult that only 5% thought it wasn't!

It is a disgrace that highly respected public figures like the former Governor are not kept out of the petty politics used by both side of the political spectrum to score cheap points. It is a disgrace too, that normally highly regarded members of the medical profession also stoop so low as to join the grubby scrum.

And it is an insult to a life time of personal achievement and public service that their names and ongoing memories are reduced to ridiculous nicknames like, the ‘Marj’, or ‘Boof’ or some other stupid moniker.

Image curtesy of the Adelaide Advertiser:
Former Governor Marjorie Jackson-Nelson inspecting troops during the opening of State Parliament. Picture: JAMES ELSBY

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