Ben Roberts Smith: pride goeth before the Fall. You have fallen, dear Ben. Pour yourself an icy beer into the prosthetic limb and have a deep sigh. Why you? Well...there's a reason for that. There's stuff you should do, and there's stuff you should not. I know its a drag, but that's true. Sure, we should never have gone to war in Iraq or Afghanistan, they were evil errors of governance, but, still, there on the ground, once you're there and you wanted to be there, you just don't cut loose, you have to make sense of it in a way that doesn't involve killing innocent muslim folk and poor families who actually have to live there. There's a lesson in that for you. It's a life lesson. Learn it.

Koreas

 I find it very interesting that even though North and South Korea are very different, there are fascinating things about both that are linked.

Although the South is a very advanced high technology first world nation, the personal goals of people seem to involve the central significance of wealth, prestige, status, and family, all equally. That's quite a frontier secular world.

One would think that in such a modern and secular state, that there wouldn't be much time for religion or mysticism, but, indeed, there is a great depth of 'the spiritual' within the society.

The North, of course, is a bit more obvious in crowning the Supreme Leader as a mystical shaman-like persona.

In this way we can see the ties that bind North and South together. In family, and in the mystic.

This is my step daughter, Tianshu, from sound-recording goats in Kathmandu in 2018, to completing her studies at RMIT Melbourne Australia, in 2019, and today, working in Shanghai, 2023 Well done, young lady.

 

I find my blog interesting. I get between 5 and 50 readers a day and its all much the same as Facebook stuff. The Blog's main issues involve Australia, a bit, and the remarkable importance of North Asia, something that I only seem to see as important, and pivotal for the whole real World. North Asia is where the future is happening, not in the USA or in Europe nor the Middle East. The importance of anything happening anywhere really only comes into focus when you consider it in relation to the remarkable thing that North Asia is. If Israel disappears from a map? Doesn't matter. If Russia obliterates Ukraine? Doesn't matter. But, North Asia, the great tectonic broken plate...everything matters. The 2 Koreas becoming one, the 2 Chinas becoming one, the proximity of Japan, Russia, the perpetual USA Nuclear Death Armada, wow, this is the real business of the real world, and the real present and future of it, and all that happens there really matters to us, and to everyone. Its the only place a world war could happen, and , well, I guess, it might, but no one wants that. Everyone, except maybe the USA, is very scared of that happening. I think the job of the world is to help the USA mature a bit, and for it to value peace and prosperity. If we can do that, well, the future is basically all good. Sure, the Koreas will be re-united. Sure, China will take back Taiwan in 2049, we know that. its really about how we manage that.

I find my blog interesting. I get between 5 and 50 readers a day and its all much the same as Facebook stuff.
The Blog's main issues involve Australia, a bit, and the remarkable importance of North Asia, something that I only seem to see as important, and pivotal for the whole real World.
North Asia is where the future is happening, not in the USA or in Europe nor the Middle East.
The importance of anything happening anywhere really only comes into focus when you consider it in relation to the remarkable thing that North Asia is.
If Israel disappears from a map? Doesn't matter. If Russia obliterates Ukraine? Doesn't matter.
But, North Asia, the great tectonic broken plate...everything matters. The 2 Koreas becoming one, the 2 Chinas becoming one, the proximity of Japan, Russia, the perpetual USA Nuclear Death Armada, wow, this is the real business of the real world, and the real present and future of it, and all that happens there really matters to us, and to everyone.
Its the only place a world war could happen, and , well, I guess, it might, but no one wants that. Everyone, except maybe the USA, is very scared of that happening.
I think the job of the world is to help the USA mature a bit, and for it to value peace and prosperity. If we can do that, well, the future is basically all good.
Sure, the Koreas will be re-united. Sure, China will take back Taiwan in 2049, we know that. its really about how we manage that.

This blog is just about me, John, 69, Australian, writing about things that interest me about the country I live in, and the nearby world of Asia.

Recognition and Reconciliation:Indigenous Times: Have we started on the Reconciliation bit yet? I recall this old matronly type country woman from around Berrima country who was a hundred years old and could clearly recall going out with her Dad and brothers and learning how to shoot Aborigines down by the river, then roll their bodies into the river to get rid of them. It was kind of normal for her, as a child, and being an outside-type true Aussie girl, she got pretty damn good at it too, and at horse riding and the like. As she grew into womanhood, she kept up the practice and improved her aim, and well taught her kids the various skills of shooting, and knowing where they were hiding. She went on and outlived her best friends, her husbands, and all her enemies, and died in her bed in my hospital, painlessly, surrounded by great community love, and enjoying a morphine and midazolam drip between the dry sherries. Funny old world, ain't it? No, as for Karma, no, get real, it just doesn't happen. It's not a human truth at all.

Australian Referendum/ Indigenous Recognition: John Arthur Fitzpatrick 57 m · Shared with Your friends The Division Bell It was sad to hear Noel Pearson describe a life long colleague of his as someone scared and pissing his pants simply because he disagreed with Noel. Noel's capacity to be a bit of a sanctimonius prick is obvious. One got the opinion that this was all a bit of a political power-play with Noel deluding himself into thinking that the referendum had already taken place and that he, somehow, beyond anyone else, had won it. Noel didn't say he thought Stan Grant was pissing his pants when just a bit of the race blowtorch was applied to his belly by riff-raff regarding his somewhat dopey, somewhat weak as piss statements about the recent bizarro Sassenach Coronation. Where was the pipe-bomb? Where was the Continuity in the Struggle? Now, Stan has always been a bit dodgy when it comes to reporting the news. Anything about China in his reporting is usually horribly skewed towards the evil of the Communist Party of China, rather than about trying to actually report any factual news. He has been toe-ing the Morrison line about hate-for-China for years now, simply because he knew Australians are racist and would like what he said. The chooks have come home to roost, Stan. As for the Question we are to answer in the referendum, yes or no, well, still, to me, there are 2 questions in it, and these odd recent convolutions are no way to garner a positive clear and simple outcome. If you believe that the Australian population has the searing intelligence to take apart the Question and realise that no one will be disadvantaged, and it'll all be a great thing, well, then, you're even more moronic than they are. There will always be riff-raff here in Australia, about 10% as the base, but that number easily jumps to 25%++ when anything difficult is up for discussion...and when the economy is failing...about another 20%. And with one major political party out of 2 against the Yes vote... how many percent is that? A fair few, I reckon. Then, of course, are the Hopelessly Woke folk who will cancel the whole thing and not vote at all. That's called being actively 'subversive'. You just have to be a lot smarter than Noel or Stan to move forward with what was a basically good idea, fair recognition ...but now, ohhh, I can't see it passing muster now. Too much flaming diesel on the BBQ now. At first I thought the referendum was a bad idea, then changed my mind to it being a good idea, and, now, well, its a good idea but cant win due to how it is being handled by indigenous groups and equally by the riff-raff. It is more a Division Bell than a Vote. There could well be an unpleasant 'righteous backlash' by the riff raff either way. People are getting very sick of the referendum already. It has lost simplicity. Whatever trust Australians had seems to be failing now.