I recall looking after a soldier who eventually went off and killed himself. Jumped out of a high tower on the Coast. He said 'well, we rolled into the town, in .......... in Afghanistan, and we were all hootched up on crack, and then some raghead kid fired an RPG that got caught in the steel wire, and didn't go off, it just fizzed there, and it really spooked us all, and we were so fuckin twitchy, so, we all got out of the truck, and just killed everyone in the town. We used so much ordnance that we ran out.' 'Later, the Army psychologist said that we did a good job. He did suggest that in future we try not to use all the RPGs and ammunition we had, as it was in short supply, but... we did a good job. We should be proud. We did the job. We did a good job. I don't know if we did a good job.'

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.