Lost British backpacker says he was 'total idiot'

Yahoo (AP) ^ | 7/19/09 | TANALEE SMITH

[DemforBush]

ADELAIDE, Australia – A British teenager who was found dehydrated and freezing after 12 wintry days lost in Australia's wilderness said he wrote farewell notes to his family and expected to die of starvation.

Jamie Neale, 19, told Australia's "60 Minutes" television program Sunday that he was "a total idiot" to venture unprepared into the Blue Mountains, 60 miles (100 kilometers) west of Sydney...

[Willie Green]

Pom according to the dictionary is a demeaning word for a British person in Austraila.
Does it stand for anything in particular?

Pommy

[HamiltonJay]

Nature not only can be rather unforgiving, nature is unforgiving. Most live such lives of comfort and detachment from the natural world most have no idea.

Nature is CRUEL.. the injured, the weak, the old and the young die, usually cruel and painfully. There weather does not care if you are cold, the prey does not allow you to catch it just because you are hungry, the predator does not show pity because you are lame. The berry does not care that you do not know it is poisonous. The snake does not care that you meant no ill will when you startled it. The wolf does not care you are a child who wandered away from its mother.

Nature is cruel, its harsh and its unforgiving, you step away from all the easy life we have created though technology and innovation, and step into nature unprepared, you will pay a price.

At least this guys realized it was his own stupidity that put him in that situation, and isn’t trying to blame others like everyone else in the world today who does something stupid.

[Scythian]

You’re right, the sense of value is ridiculous. $200,000 Australian - that’s over £98,000 sterling! Thats as much as I make working hard for four YEARS - so why bother to work hard? Why don’t I just go and make a public idiot of myself for a month? Well actually, because I have some dignity and morality, but there’s an awful lot of people who will make the connection and act accordingly.

Streak across the playing field during the superbowl or something, but you should be carrying a flag with the obama symbol that way the press will love you, then you make the talk show rounds, a book deal, just remember me when you get to he top ...

[Oztrich Boy]

Best guess is it's rhyming slang. The first derogatory term for a Brit Immigrant was "Jimmy Grant" of "Jimmie"(c.1845).

The extension rhyme to "Pommygrant" appeared c.1870

[ctdonath2]

Seems the guy didn’t even have a knife.

[Vanders9]

I concur. What kind of example is that setting?

[ctdonath2]

They wouldn’t be shelling out $200K if they weren’t sure they could make more off the story. Sounds like a smart move on their part.

[Vanders9]

In which case, the real idiots are us - the general public who want to read about it.