John Fitzpatrick. About New China, the Koreas, Myanmar, Thailand, and also about Japanese and Chinese writers and poets. The main emphasis is on North Asia and the political tectonics of this very important, powerful, and many-peopled area.
Tuesday, 28 August 2018
Generally, you'd expect about 10% of Australians to be knuckle-dragging fuckwits terrified of Foreigners in general. That is to be expected in our First World Society. When economic times get hard, as they are, and will continue to be, then that percentage jumps to around 15%. It is remarkable to me that the Government of Australia is based upon the fear of 10-15% of its population. An advanced society will put into process mechanisms by which they have a moral dimension to ratify the beliefs of the majority, rather than a fickle borderline minority. Politicians, instead of doing the cheap easy Knee Jerk response of appeasing the 10-15% of knuckle dragging fuckwits really have to think hard and work out something better than what exists now, in terms of Immigration, and to work very very hard at it. We pay them a lot. We pay them a lot more than we ever get...and they get better conditions and salaries and perks than we will ever experience in our lives...and all we get is fat pigs who will spread the fear of Foreign Devil people rather than meet their job description requirements. Why do they do that? Because they are just fucking lazy. We deserve a lot better than the Government we have.
It appears that Peter Dutton's moral passion for keeping out illegal folk from Australia doesn't extend to nice looking French au pair girls sponsored by his mates. Obviously a man of some convictions...with more to come I expect. Rich white South African Farmers, nice looking French au pair girls...I guess it all comes under his authority in terms of Home Affairs. What a Government. What a dick.
Monday, 27 August 2018
I see the new Australian Prime Minister has emailed the Liberal NP Coalition asking for unification of interests and the resolution of divisions in pursuing the issues related to the Drought and helping Australian farmers. The email, with the Subject Line of "Nyah Nyah Nyah Nyah! I'm the King of the Castle and You're the Dirty Rascals" was well received by a minority of members, including Peter Dutton who replied with an emoticon of a loyal smiley face.
Wednesday, 22 August 2018
I was brought up as Catholic, Irish, in Australia, and I loved it. It took me til 20. Then, as young men with a heart and mind do do, I looked around, found Buddhism, was inculcated into the Mahayana Kalachakra Belief System formally by the Dalai Lama when 35, then realised that it was exactly the same in every way as the Catholic Church, so I went my own way. I love wearing my scapula, I love my small prayers for a better outcome for everyone. I don't give either the Catholics or the Buddhists any of my money because I know that money fucks them up, always has, always will. Just look at them. We must first examine the contradictions within ourselves. After examining them, we can love them. If we have no contradictions at our heart, in our core, then we are the robots the world desires us to be. We can still love all of that and all of them, but don't give them your money. That's for you.
When are you going to retire? I doubt I will. When I was 50, as an expert in pain control in terminal disease, having sat with a good 300 folk who died in my care and presence, with excellent pain control titration and hypnotic conversations, it dawned on me that all these people came to me when they were retired from work. So, I left that job, from 50 to 60 I basically travelled the world, had an amazing and unrepeatable time, spent huge amounts, gave away some, and I did everything I could, both right and wrong, ethical and unethical, that I never did do before, and I didn't die, and so I have come back to work now. I doubt I need to retire again. I've done that. There are still strange people in the world who still think that time and life is linear. I'm not one of them. To arrive in Heaven with all my earthly debts unpaid, and without funeral insurance, is not a bad outcome for a life well and deeply lived.
Melbourne, Day Off:1: Woken by points of light through the blinds at about 9am. Gradual consciousness. Wanyi noted that the drive to Apollo Bay to buy Scallop Pies would take 3.5 hours rather than the 2 hours I estimated. I thought everything in Victoria was 2 hours away. So we had to speed up into full consciousness. 2: Left home at 11am, across the city, then down the M1 West. Stopped and ate Hungry Jack emergency food at a petrol place. Took a left turn to the Otways Mountains somewhere and stopped for a cigarette and for daughter to be photoed doing a star jump in the middle of the road. 3: The Otways are tall and very beautiful mountains and forest and the narrow road along the high ridge was a perfect place for both terror and vomiting. 4: Exited the Otways down on Wild Dog Creek Road and joined the Great Ocean Road. 5: Found Apollo Bay and the Scallop Pie Shop. $12 each now, so bought 6. 6: Put on big coats and the 3 of us wandered along the massive empty beach looking with wonder at the Great Ocean. Beautiful. Sun comes through the mire of the sky and in the breaking blue pristine waves are shards of crystal whiteness lit by Mother Sun. 7: Watched with wonder as some girl went out to the near horizon on a surfboard. 8: Spent an hour in the freezing beachside wonder. 9: Drove back along the Great Ocean Road noting that it wasn't a Short Ocean Road nor a Wide Ocean Road but rather a Long and Winding Vomiting Type of Great Ocean Road. 10: Turned inland at Lorne to get just get away from the Fucking Great Ocean and its Road and got nauseous going up through the wonderful forests. 11: Emerged back on the M1 at Winchelsea and went flat out to Melbourne. 12: Mrs Fitz and Daughter having running arguments regarding navigation as I just drove along. 13: Arrived in Glen Waverley, which was wrong, and then tooled the car to Box Hill and arrived sitting down to dinner at 7.45pm. 14: Then came the Sichuan food. Daughter, sitting down first, possessed the menu and wrote down what we wanted, then Wanyi jotted down a few items. 15: then there came The Enlightenment as to why folk like Sichuan Food. We each had our own boiling soup, mine with pork bones and lotus root, and we sat bits of food, abalone, prawn, wagyu beef, pig stomach, and pig vocal chords, pig's blood, tofu skin, cabbage, coriander and whatever that was, into the soup then fished it out and put it in the bowl with the sesame seed oil, the chilli oil, the whatever it was...and we became fixed in passionate composition...3 great white sharks consuming everything in a blizzard of tastes and smells. 16: Then we drove 5 minutes home. 17: Best day Mrs Fitz has had for years, including the nausea. Tianshu was happy. I was happy, though tired of driving. 18: Fell asleep by points of lights through the blind. We don't go out much or often. Incidentally, the Scallop Pies, that used to cost $10 2 years ago now cost $12 each. At $10 2 years ago they were stuffed with fresh salty sea scallops and well worth $15. Now, in 2018, at $12 a pop, they were just as fresh and sea salted, but there were fewer of them in each pie, so worth around $10. 18: Will we go back? Will we venture along the Great Ocean Road again? Nope. Never. At the same time, we had a wondrous day and Wanyi had a great, magnificent and unforgettable birthday. We will look for somewhere else to go to next year, just 2 hours away. My favourite moments: Saying "Wow! Isn't that amazing!?" John exclaims. Looks around, Mrs Fitz and Daughter, studying their phones. 7 hours later...someone says "Wow!"
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