Perhaps we should stop whingeing for a moment and look at our country through the eyes of others.

The Commonwealth Games has killed the Gold Coast and forced business to close up shop. Games security were being treated like “prisoners on a work camp”. Warnings of dire traffic chaos were nothing more than a manufactured load of codswallop.

Take any issue, on any day, and notice the spin put on it here in Australia.

Yes, Peter Beattie has been as much a mascot for the Games as Borobi the koala. Credit:Renee Melides

Peter Beattie was hogging the limelight, when it was supposed to be the athletes’ Games.