"So what has migration done for you?"

I had a rare few hours out yesterday. My cousin T... picked me up and, along with his partner R... we went to the other side of the city to have a light meal with another cousin M... and his partner J...

It was at a cheap and cheerful venue we had all been to before and we enjoyed it just as much this time. It was also just a couple of hours sitting and chatting to people I love and know well. 

Later in the afternoon I was talking to someone else who was complaining about "all those immigrants coming in". He is someone I am wary of and try to avoid if I can. He wanted to know what "all that migration" had done for me. 

"Well I just had lunch out and the place we went to is run by Lebanese migrants," I told him, "It was very nice."

He laughed as I thought he might but I persisted in giving him an answer I knew he would not want. I told him about my personal experience with migrants, not simply the big names who have come to this country as migrants.

I told him about one of my closest friends. I... came here from Italy at the age of thirteen. She never went back to school because there was no job for her father and she had to work to support the family. She did not speak English when she came but she ended up running her own shop. She worked beyond retirement age.

Her story reminds me of Middle Cat's late father-in-law who came from Cyprus speaking no English. He did the same thing and brought out all his siblings one by one and then his parents. They all worked beyond retirement age. 

There is my friend D... who is Jewish. Her parents migrated here after the war. They survived the unspeakable horrors of a concentration camp and went on to bring up two doctors, a lawyer and a university lecturer in psychology. 

There is the delightful Syrian couple who run the tiny cafe in our shopping centre. Just after Christmas I shared a recipe belonging to my great-grandmother with P... She had asked if I would after I gave her a small pack of biscuits as a tiny "thank you" for being so concerned about Middle Cat. Recently P... introduced me as "part of the family" to someone else. She meant it too. Sharing a recipe is an important part of acceptance among the women in Syria.

After the second part of my shingles vaccination on Monday I stopped for a few quiet minutes - as we are required to do - and sat next to a Muslim woman with a small child. The child was curious about me and I engaged the child in conversation. Her mother then joined in and we spent longer talking than I intended. She is going to English classes because she wants to be part of her child's school community.  I came home with her address so I could send her some information about a person who gives free English conversation lessons. I know L... has just seen one family off to another state and is planning on taking on another to help. L... came here from Iran as an older child. She will understand many of the difficulties.

Today I need to get my 'flu jab and get a prescription renewed at the chemist. In both places migrants will be the people who help me.

That is just a tiny fraction of the way migration influences my life. I don't need to look far. I don't need to see the owners of building companies, shopping centres and more. I most certainly don't take the attitude of my questioner. He forgets he is also the child of migrants to this country. He likes to believe he has been here "forever". His family has not. They may have come not long after the First Fleet and mine may have come long after that but they still migrated.

If my great-grandfather had not chosen to be a sailor instead of a dominie-crofter in the north of Scotland he would not have met my great-grandmother. I would not be here now. I am very, very proud of my Scots ancestry - and their courage in migrating. It has done a lot for me.  

Trumping Trump's tariffs

will have to be done somehow. The Great Depression came about partly because of the same economic strategy. (They imposed tariffs at a time when the economy was already struggling. It didn't work. It won't work this time.)

It is actually even less likely to work this time because the world is a very different place. Trade is a much bigger international affair. All countries have other trade agreements in place. I am no economist and I may even be completely wrong but I doubt it. I see tariffs as increasing the price on everything a country imports. It will not make home made goods cheaper unless they are already available for less the price and are better quality. That just does not happen.

Downunder is going to have eat humble pie and return to real negotiations with the European Union and the United Kingdom. We were too arrogant last time. It is going to have to build stronger ties outside the Asian region. Yes, I have been saying that for a long time. So have many other people I know. Our politicians do not seem to be listening.

Yes, our beef farmers are worried about the likely effect tariffs will have on their industry. The reality is that successive governments in this country have been lazy about that. They have assumed that the US market was there for the long term, that our beef would always be wanted. What a shock to discover they might be subject to tariffs! They should have been preparing for this from the time that it looked likely President Trump would win first time around. People know how he thinks. They just do not want to believe it will happen. The US is a big market from our perspective. From the perspective of the US it is a small market. Cutting out our beef completely would have no effect at all on the ability of America to feed itself.

As a country we are lazy, very lazy, about marketing our goods and services. Some of us think we are "too small" to be able to bargain effectively but high quality goods and services are always needed. Wherever there is a need then there surely has to be some negotiating power? We need to lift our game and lift it urgently if we are going to survive.

If tariffs do nothing else at all perhaps they will be a wake up call for this country. I am not sure that will work though. If we re-elect the present government then their determined Asia-centric focus is not going to help us find new markets despite the platitudes from the Trade and Foreign ministers. 

Tighten your seat belts. We are in for a very rough ride.

 

April Fool's Day

has come and gone. Some of the usual foolish jokes have been played on the unsuspecting...and there have been some more serious attempts to convince us that black is white, white is black, two and two make twenty-two as well as four and any other number of foolish pranks.

Yes, April Fool's Day can be fun but only up to a certain point. Beyond that it can cause a lot of stress. It should not be used as a means of "getting back" at people - but it is. It should not be used to "tease" people about issues which have strong emotional connotations for them - but it is. 

It is fine for me to go into the post office to pick up an important item, one that had to be signed for after showing ID, and have the staff pretend they could not find it while they are actually holding it in full view. The post office staff know me by name and they know how far they can go. That bit of mild teasing was followed by concern about whether I was overloaded with work because of earthquakes and tidal waves. We did not even consider it to be part of the April Fool pranks.

It is not fine to "fool" someone about pregnancy when they have lost a child themselves. That left the young woman in distress. Being told to "get over it" and "take a joke" just made matters worse. Someone talking to me took over and told her, "I need some advice about that risotto. Mine did not turn out nearly as well as yours." They were chatting as I left but it was not a happy situation.

I remember the occasion on which the state to the west of us decided it was going to implement "metric" time. That fooled a lot of people. Telling someone that "daylight saving" ended this past weekend is only funny if they do not have an urgent medical appointment or some other engagement. ("Daylight saving" ends this coming weekend.)  

There were once plans to build a canal from the harbour to the main square of the state's capital. Convincing people we might send special water buses along a to be built canal could fool people who do not know the state's  history but it can also be amusing for those who do know it.

A good April Fool joke will be genuinely funny. It won't harm anyone. There were a few around yesterday which did not fit into that category, indeed were not jokes at all. The Reserve Bank really has left interest rates on hold. I suspect they are regretting the last cut, particularly in light of the increasing problems with the United States. The Chinese really are mapping that undersea cable. It is a much more serious act than most people are aware of so you do not joke about it. You do not joke about these things because they are too serious, they affect too many people or they affect our national security. You do not joke about nuclear power or the floods interstate. I heard all of those things today. It was not funny.

I really don't have much time for April Fool's Day, especially at election time.

 

We are getting a visit from the Prime Minister

today. That news has magically appeared this morning along with news about a new health facility to be built in the electorate.

I am not likely to meet the Prime Minister. I have no desire to meet him - or the Leader of the Opposition. 

The announcement about the new health facility is actually old news. It was "accidentally" leaked back in February. It went into our local council's newsletter. They were then told it was "confidential" and the matter was removed from the council's pages.

None of this was "accidental" of course. It was all intended to happen. They want us to believe that the whole thing is something new, not something that has been some years in the planning. 

If it all happens, in the two stages which are planned, then it will run over cost by millions and take far longer than they say it will. This is a government project. 

I can remember when there was nothing at all on the site this will perhaps be built. We went past it many times when I was in my teens. The Senior Cat was setting up an "area" school south of the site. It was mostly rural land. Now it is urban sprawl. 

There is a university associated with the hospital too. At one time I went in and out of it on a regular basis. It is built on the side of a hill. It has to be one of the least accessible places I know. Yes, they now have a rail extension that far but it took years to build it and the station is too far from the university to be really useful. 

The hospital itself is too small of course. Such places always are. The lay out is confusing even for people who work there. A former neighbour is a doctor there and her frustration at having to "go the long way around" is, rightly, immense. Neither of us have seen the plans for the new facility which is to be added but both of us hope without much hope that it will be better laid out.

All of this of course will not matter one bit to the Prime Minister. He can simply walk in today with his chosen press people in tow and make the announcement about the "new" facility and the "new" funding and how much it is "needed". He will make pronouncements about how the previous government did nothing  and conveniently ignore the issues brought on by Covid and more.

It really must all be rather fun to be able to do all this. You can spend other people's money with gay abandon. There is no need to keep your promises because nobody really expects you to do that. Being a politician is really rather good fun isn't it? Mind you there is always the possibility that you might lose the seat even if you do not lose the election.