Adults can be bullied too

and there is more of it now. 

There is an article in this morning's paper from the Chairman of something called the "anti-defamation commission". In it he is suggesting that access to social media is a major factor in bullying. This is the justification for denying those under the age of fourteen to access to all manner of social media. Take it away, or so the argument goes, and bullying will decrease. It will go back to manageable levels and do less harm. 

The jury is out on that one. I am wondering however if the problem goes back further than the advent of social media. 

Most people would look on radio as a wonderful thing. It brought entertainment into the homes of ordinary people. At first you needed to purchase a licence but technology overcame the possibility of controlling that.  "Trannies" were the big thing of my youth. It meant we could take a radio with us anywhere there was a strong enough signal and listen to all manner of things. There were households where the radio would be on all day and well into the night. The number of broadcasting stations increased. The variety increased. Commercial radio came into being with all the advertising jingles and more. 

And there was no longer any need to go outside your own home in order to be "entertained". You could simply sit and listen in comfort (or otherwise) "at home".  This did not happen immediately of course. It happened over time. Access to radio had to become widespread. The variety had to be there. "Talk back" radio was still a while away so there was no interaction with other people. Here most people still went to church on Sunday mornings and often went visiting on Sunday afternoons. There was sport and there were other clubs and interest groups. Young people had Scouts, Guides, church "youth groups" and the like. They went to the pictures on Saturday nights in groups. 

Television came in and there was a decline in these activities too. There was even more reason, or so people thought, to stay at home and be entertained. Social interactions were still there but not quite as common as the pre-television days. It happened without people even being aware of it. You might not be talking and interacting with the radio or the television set but you were being entertained. 

Bring in the widespread use of the internet and then social media and you suddenly had a way of "communicating" with each other without actually having to mix with them at all. There was no need to leave your own home to have "social contact" with other people. 

We have been led to believe that this is good. Some people have hundreds of friends on Facebook. They spend hours on Snapchat and more hours looking at video clips on Tik Tok. They "research" issues on Wikipedia and more. Social life is centred around the mobile phone, the big television screen and similar items. You can do the "self-serve" thing in the supermarket or keep your eyes on your phone screen so you do not need to chat to the checkout person. 

And people do just that. Some of them "work from home" and have almost no interaction with other people at all. Is it any wonder we have a rise in mental health issues? When we do see other people we no longer know how to act easily and naturally. We worry that we might have said the politically incorrect thing. Things are said "in fun" because we are nervous and anxious. It develops from there and the "teasing" turns into "bullying" instead.

There is more to it than that of course but the adults demanding an end to social media access for young people perhaps first need to look at what might just be a bigger problem - we no longer communicate with each other as easily as we once did. 

Taxi vouchers only help if

you can afford to pay the fare and the taxi turns up in time to get you to your destination. This may explain why I have only used my own "taxi card" three times in two years.

Let me explain. Taxi vouchers are available for people with a range of disabilities who have sufficiently serious mobility issues and cannot use all forms of public transport. 

I had no intentions of getting a card. I can, with some difficulty, still get the trike on a train. I can go anywhere the trains go and then pedal still further.  I cannot use a bus because trikes are not allowed on buses. Buses go to many more destinations than trains of course but... 

Of course it was Middle Cat and our doctor who put their heads together and decided that I was eligible for taxi vouchers. These days the "vouchers" are actually a card you present to the driver but the cards still tend to be referred to as "vouchers". If you have one then you are eligible for one or other of two things. There are half-price fares for people who can use regular taxis and ten per cent fares for people who are dependent on "access" cabs - the vehicles which take the person still in their wheelchair.  Both these things still cost more than going by public transport. As a "senior" the train costs me nothing as long as I can get the trike on and off the train without the wheelchair ramp. (I have yet to challenge that.)

Yes, it costs something but it is still a much better scheme than no scheme at all. This is perhaps why, at our library knitting group yesterday, someone queried why J... was not there again.

J... has not been there for the past three meetings. I am not sure if she will come again. She should not be driving but I suspect she still is and that the doctor has, as they often do, given in to her demand to keep her licence - if she has renewed it. Does she have taxi vouchers? "Somewhere". She does not want to use them. Recently she had to attend a clinic at a hospital. She is perfectly capable of ringing the taxi company and ordering a cab but the nearby aged care home organised it instead. When the taxi did not turn up someone rushed around and took her to the appointment. Yes, sometimes taxis do not appear when requested. It is a constant problem here. The other problem is that drivers resent doing "short" trips. They only want to do extended journeys. The access cab drivers are better at short trips but that is perhaps the nature of their work. Regular drivers do not like doing short trips or half-price journeys. (It does not cost them in the end but it does at the time and they know the tips will not be as high.) 

That J... was not there did not surprise me. If it was simply a matter of getting in the car and driving there she might have come but there are multiple issues with doing that now.

As we discussed this I could not help yet again thinking that transport issues do cause isolation.  Not everyone can rely on others to pick them up and transport them where they need to go. Taxis may not always arrive and the cost is often too much. It can leave people with no social life at all. This is especially so when people no longer even know their neighbours. 

I do not know what the answer is - apart from taxis and access cabs for the same price as public transport. That is very unlikely. 

I need to ring J... and at least be sure she has someone to talk to for a short time.     

Teaching the "5Cs" is now

more important than teaching the "3Rs". These are more important than giving students the skills they need to pass the examinations which will give them university entry. This is what we are being led to believe if reports about teaching "critical and creative thinking, character, citizenship, communication and collaboration" are correct. No, you don't teach these things from the time your child is born or from when they enter the education system. This is a special course which is taught over two fifty minute periods each week. Along with something called THRIVE it is intended to turn students into better citizens. It is also intended to make them better students.

I doubt it works. The students at the school where the value of this has been questioned think the course is a joke, rubbish, a waste of time and more. The teachers resent time spent on it. They do not like having to grade students on these skills, sometimes grade students they have never actually taught. All class interaction is supposed to be considered in assessing these things.

It is a long time since I went into a classroom with students in their final year of school. I see enough of the students outside the classroom. I see them in the library. I see them supporting each other there. Sometimes I will exchange a few words or read an essay or give them a little help in the form of asking them a question so they can try and see another way of seeing a problem. It is always a bit of a balancing act.

If you don't have the "5Cs" under control by the time you reach the last year of your schooling then you never will have them. Two fifty minute lessons a week is not going to help. It is more likely to hinder your progress still further. The idea that you can in any way quantify these skills is also ridiculous. Not all students are creative geniuses who participate in class at every opportunity. Some students will work well in groups. Others will be better working alone. Still others will be happier following directions. It does not mean they lack character. What of the very quiet student who simply gets on with the work involved and then, even more quietly, helps another student? Such students do exist. Are they to be penalised for not speaking up? 

It seems to me that this is not about "balance" or "character building" or "turning out good citizens". No, I suspect it is about something else altogether. The program came out of a university which has a compulsory "indigenous studies" course for all students. You are required to do this course no matter what you are studying.  It is a course considered by many to be not about education but about indoctrination. The information and the ideas there cannot be questioned.  The same apparently applies to the 5Cs. 

Learning to be a good citizen should start at home. It can be reinforced at school as and when necessary. It is not something we should be "teaching" students in their final year...because we can't. We should also be allowing them to question...because they will.  

Who has the "right" to public housing?

In one of those odd coincidences there is an article in this morning's paper about someone in public housing. He is an older blind man with a prosthetic leg whose "best friend" is his guide dog. Despite his eyesight and mobility issues he gets around and cares for himself.

The small unit of accommodation next door is currently vacant. The resident is currently the probably unwilling resident in other accommodation. That unit was firebombed and his neighbour only just managed to get out in time before extreme harm was done to him and his dog. It was almost certainly related to drug dealing on the premises - the reason for the absence of the usual resident. 

The purpose of the article was of course to question why, when we have a housing crisis, was the accommodation being held vacant for someone who had broken the law. The answer was along the lines of "well he needs to go somewhere when he gets out". That a person who is homeless through no fault of their own might need accommodation too is apparently not of interest to those responsible for public housing. There is a long list. Put your name on the list. In ten or more years from now you might be lucky.

All this is something I have been thinking about recently as those of us who shop on a regular basis in our local shopping centre are being harassed by a woman who keeps begging for money. Yes, she is in public housing too but should she be there? This woman is painfully thin and unkempt. The staff in one of the local supermarkets know her well. She buys cigarettes there and tries to steal the cheap day old bread. There seems to be a policy to let her get away with that because she can turn violent. It is apparently for the same reason that when she destroys the furniture in her accommodation more appears and someone from the council clears away the accumulated rubbish.

She frequently tries to get money from me. I have never given her any. Most people I know have never given her any but several days ago she had a very elderly and very frail woman bailed up. The older woman looked frightened and tried to move around her but her trolley was grabbed and more demands were made. She tried giving her a little and was apparently told it was not enough. People were simply walking past. They did not want to get involved. I admit I was thankful I was in the middle of a complex transaction in the Post Office and was not in a position to get involved. I am not sure what I would have done anyway. I am a coward I suppose.

The situation sorted itself out when someone who must have known the older woman came along and the younger one moved off shouting. By the time I was out of the Post Office they had all gone. 

I wonder though what should be done about this woman. She is obviously mentally unstable but not so far "out of it" that she does not know what she is doing is wrong. I have seen the police reprimand her but that is all they seem able to do. One of them walked off after she had let out a stream of abuse at him one day. 

And yes, this woman has what should be comfortable accommodation. It is public housing accommodation. It is not simply a single room but an entire "unit" of accommodation. She is not caring for it. Others seem to come and deal with it when the situation gets too bad. So should she be there when there is a "housing crisis" and mothers with young children are sleeping in cars to escape domestic violence? Who is the "more worthy" - if such an idea is even possible?

I know there are no easy answers to any of this but we added to the problem when we closed residential institutions. It might help to have this woman under closer supervision in other accommodation and have a mother and children in the unit perhaps.  

 

 

Daycare, daycare, out of school hours care,

pre-school and grandparent care. By the time most children are five they have seen more of other adults than the people who are supposed to be their parents. 

Yesterday I had a brief conversation with a young mother who is about to go back to work. She has been one of the "lucky" ones whose employer had given her six months maternity leave and held her job open for her. 

"I know I'm lucky," she told me, "So many mums don't get the same opportunity I've had...but I still wish I did not have to go back to work." 

She is going back to work "because we need the money". They are buying a house and run two cars. The new baby is her first "and probably the only one". She thinks they "probably won't be able to afford another". At the same time she "loves motherhood". 

There is something wrong here. Her six month old child is about to enter the "care" system. All the love and attention her little one has been given is now going to be replaced by expensive group care and this will likely continue until the child is considered old enough to be trusted to care for itself.

I bit my tongue and said nothing about how little this person will actually be earning. By the time she has paid out for the sort of day care required I suspect that "going back to work" will not actually increase their income by any significant amount - if at all. Even if she was presented with the actual figures I doubt very much it would convince this person that it might be better to stay at home. Her own "career" depends on returning to work and she has been told, and told often, that her own career is too important to stop work and be a full time parent and partner.

Of course I grew up in a generation when many mothers did not "go to work". They worked as unpaid carers, as child minders, as parent minders, as canteen ladies at the school, as volunteers in other places. They cooked and cleaned, washed and ironed, gardened, made their clothes and ours, heard our "reading" and read to us - and much more. They did all this but they did not "work". Those were just things that mothers did. 

Were they really that "bored" and "unfulfilled"? I am not sure where that came from but I rather doubt it. My memory is of women who worked. They worked hard.

Now it seems they are still expected to do much of that and go to work as well. They have more "labour saving" devices and pre-prepared food, clothes can be flung in a washing machine and do not need to be ironed, the "garden" is "easy care" and some of them will make time to "hear reading" but the bedtime story might well be a DVD or a YouTube video.  Their pre-schooler will know about the "correct pronouns" and "global warming" from their day at pre-school even if they do not know about Peter Rabbit eating too much and Christopher Robin jumping in puddles. 

Something has gone wrong somewhere. The supposed "social-emotional benefits" and the "economic benefits" for the full time return to work might be there but I doubt it. Passing over the care of your child allows for politically correct indoctrination to take place of course. We still seem to believe that even when the problems raised by Soviet or Communist or even some of the kibbutz style child care have become obvious. 

But "mothering" is not important is it? It is some sort of old-fashioned gender based fallacy isn't it? 

Watching that young mother interacting with her young baby I must be too old. I have this odd idea that mothering is important - more important than "going to work".  It just seems wrong that people can no longer afford to work at mothering.  

So YouTube will need to go down

the tube as well will it?

Downunder is supposed to be getting some of the most stringent rules with respect to those under sixteen accessing "social media" and the internet. How this will work and whether it will work are questions which are yet to be answered. 

Now our so-called "e-safety Commissioner" wants to include YouTube in the list of things which under sixteens are banned from accessing. The Commissioner is trying to tell us that teachers, the vast majority of whom apparently use that video streaming site, will still be able to use it in the classroom. It is simply that, outside that, students will not be able to use it. 

This is bordering on the ridiculous. 

I am not a parent but I hope I am as concerned as any parent about what this means. That huge resource which has been used as the means of obtaining information about all sorts of things will no longer be available. Yes, a few young ones might go out and kick a football instead of searching the internet but I doubt the ban is going to have much of an effect on the physical health of the young. 

Will it have a positive effect on their mental health? It might seem like that for a short while. There will be a novelty period where it is claimed it is working but smart "kids" are going to find their way around any ban. If they can break into supposedly secure sites now then breaking into sites which have an age ban is going to be just another challenge. Banning something will simply make it more desirable.

I am guilty of using YouTube myself. I used it to find out how to replace a battery in something yesterday. I then passed the offending item back to a woman who is in her nineties and not confident using a computer. In future am I going to have to log in using a passport type photograph and my birth certificate to prove that I am more than sixteen? 

I have had children tell me that some of their homework has consisted of trying to find information about a topic and doing that research on the internet. Is that going to stop? I have been concerned, and remain concerned, about the quality of some of the information available. There are many things on the internet which are quite frankly wrong. They misinform rather than inform. Banning the young from finding those things might seem like a good idea but is it going to teach them to discriminate? Will they actually be more likely to believe everything they read because they think all the "harmful" material has been filtered out?

The idea that this will stop the other very harmful social behaviours which extend far beyond teasing is another nonsense. It may reduce such behaviours for a while. Those responsible for the ban will tell us it is a success but, having discovered the power of it, students will find a way around it or invent even more harmful ways of hurting.

I doubt banning YouTube or other forms of social media is going to solve the problems that have been created by another generation of over-protective parents who want their children to be "top" of everything and Olympic athletes with it while also not allowing them the freedoms we had in childhood.  Children who are constantly supervised and entertained are never going to learn the social skills necessary to negotiate and compromise and care for each other. We need children who can entertain themselves. We need children who can create their own play and their own games.  I think we should start with that and start early. That way YouTube and social media will return to being a tool for sometimes and not a way of life. 

Imagine putting six dictators on an

island in the middle of an ocean. They would be given the basic materials to build a shelter and food, any medication they need - and nothing more. There would be no means of communicating with the outside world. Once a month a plane could fly over and drop more food. They would remain there until they agreed to cooperate - or killed each other.

What would they do?

Is this a "Lord of the Flies" scenario or something more? Surely it has to be something more than that. Imagine the likes of Putin, Xi, Kim, Khameni, Lukashenko, Hun Sen, Assad, Mnangagwa and others having to try and even live in close proximity to one another. Who would win?  Would one of them end up dictating to the rest of them or would they be killed off one by one? Who would have the skills and the willingness to do that?

I could list even more but you can probably think of some others for yourself. It is also evident to me that others would probably take the place of these men. (I tried to think of some women - if you can think of some let me know. They must be alive today.)

I tried to imagine who might be the first to die. If they were to be killed who would do the deed? If Trump was sent there would he try to "negotiate"? What would Pope Leo do if he was sent to try and sort things out? How would Gutteres handle the situation? What about the aging Dalai Lama?  Is there anyone who could actually sort the situation out?  

Notice I have yet to list a woman in all this. Is there one? 

Would doing this make the United Nations Security Council see sense? I doubt it. The Security Council has to be one of the most ineffective bodies there is. 

I will leave you with those thoughts. Let me know, if you wish, who will blink first - if you can.  

 

 

Do domestic politics matter more than foreign policy?

I will repeat that, do domestic politics matter more than foreign policy? It would seem they do to our Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs. They are fence sitting.

They are fence sitting and making fools of themselves, and us, to the rest of the world.  I suppose I am not really surprised but I am alarmed by their "calm down and negotiate" stance on every issue. Oh yes, it sounds good and it sounds even better if look as if you are not taking sides. 

Let it be said now that I am also alarmed by the escalation of the situation in what we call the Middle East. The situation in Gaza should never have been allowed to reach the level it did.  It reached that level partly because "diplomacy" and "negotiations" failed. There was no real desire for these things to succeed. Backed by Iran the Hamas terrorists believed they could wipe out the "cancer" as the leadership of Iran likes to consider Israel. It has proven to be more difficult than that, much more difficult.

The idea that the politically insignificant country I live in can influence a major conflict by fence sitting is ridiculous. It is also dangerous. If we were invaded in a hostile way from the north then why would anyone come to our aid? It was already doubtful but now it is almost a certainty that the rest of the world would simply let the invaders move in. 

We need friends but we are treating those who should be friends as casual acquaintances and fair weather friends. The question is why of course. At the risk of grossly over simplifying the situation I would say it has more to do with domestic politics than foreign policy.  We have just had an election and the government was returned with what seems like a huge majority. Yes, they have more than twice the number of seats as their main opposition. Their grip on power is being touted as "secure" and it is being said they will be in government for at least another term after this - and perhaps another. 

But is that really the case? Labor had around thirty-four percent of first preferences. The Coalition had around thirty-two percent of first preferences. Labor is relying on those preferences. It is relying on preferences to get them through next time too. Without them there are seats where more radical candidates will win, much more radical candidates. We might want to deny it but Muslims make up the second largest religious grouping in this country. Christianity still comes first but Islam comes next. 

According to the last census 3.2% of the population identified as Muslim. It may not seem much, indeed too small to worry about, but their influence is far greater than it would seem. The present government is very aware of that. It knows it needs their vote to remain in power. Fence sitting is as much, perhaps more, about domestic politics as it is about foreign policy. 

So their President and our PM have not "met" yet?

There is an extraordinary discussion going on here. People are complaining, worrying, dissecting and expressing alarm. The President of the United States went home early from a meeting and, horror of horrors, he did not stay to meet our Prime Minister as planned. It was a scheduled, twenty minute meeting! It was important!

No, it wasn't. Meetings like that are rarely important. They are made out to be but the real work gets done behind the scenes by others. Work is still being done in that way. It is very unlikely anything would have been "negotiated" in twenty minutes. This is particularly so given the two men who would have been meeting.

The President likes to keep people guessing. He likes to keep them on edge. He will pretend he has not made up his mind even after he has. It is how he works. Possibly he believes people will be more ready to accept his decisions if he works that way. I do not know. I have not met the man. It is highly unlikely I ever will. He is hard to follow the way he thinks.

I have not met our Prime Minister either. It is also unlikely I will ever meet him but it is easier to read the way he thinks. He likes to believe he is a very important person, not just here but on the world stage. That is a view held by many people, even some of his closest and strongest supporters. 

The problem with this is that he is an important person in this country. He is important simply because of the position he holds. It is no more and no less than that. He likes to mention he was brought up by a single parent on a housing estate and that they were short of money. This may be true but money was found for him to be educated within the Catholic system. Were there connections there he does not wish to acknowledge? It seems likely because they would not fit with the narrative he likes to tell. That narrative is very important to him. 

As Prime Minister he does not seem to have the same force of personality as some of his predecessors - on both sides. I have met five previous Prime Ministers - three Labor and two Coalition. They all came across as leaders, as much stronger personalities. The present incumbent does not come across that way. I may be quite wrong about this of course but the view is shared by many other people.  It is felt by many that he goes overseas to meetings whenever he can because he is trying to be a big player on the world stage. As a country of around twenty-seven million people we simply are not seen as that important. Perhaps it is time for our PM to recognise that, stay at home more often and build a stronger country?   

When someone's freedom is at stake

then a comma in the wrong place can matter. Yes, legal language does need to be that precise. Writing legislation is quite possibly one of the most difficult things which needs to be done in law.

I have never actually had to do it. I doubt very much I could. My mind simply does not work that way. I have, in a very small way been involved in the process of trying to decide what the law should try to do. That was hard enough and I have no desire to repeat the experience. (It was the "equal opportunity" legislation for this state. I also sat on the tribunal for a while - another experience I did not enjoy.)

The need for precise language came up again after my blog post yesterday. "Really Cat! Does it matter that much?" I was asked. I said "Yes, it does."

We misunderstand things far too often. We have arguments with other people because we misunderstand intentions or directions or consequences. Much of that has to do with language.

Law students are required to do an enormous amount of reading, most of it is in the very legal language used by judges. It rarely makes for amusing reading.  

In my first week at law school I complained (hopefully in a nice sort of way) to my first year tutor that my reading speed had dropped by about half. I knew why of course. The language I was reading was different. Yes, it was supposedly English but it was legal English and it was very different from everyday English. 

My tutor, a lovely person, smiled. She asked me what my usual reading speed was. I told her. She smiled again and told me I was doing very well. The undergraduates were much slower. She also assured me that I would likely soon be a good deal faster but some of the undergraduates would always struggle. Again she was right. I did get fast, a lot faster but I never reached the level of someone like the Professor of Commonwealth Constitutional Law who seemed to merely glance at a page and understand it.  No, I did not expect to do that.

In my second year at Law School I took on the responsibility for a group of students for whom English was a second language. It was a challenge. It also taught me more than I suspect I taught them. They were students whose English was perfectly adequate for every day purposes but legal language was a struggle. Understanding it was difficult enough. Writing it was even more difficult. 

We were given examples of what happened when language was not used in a very precise way. It was not simply the words used but the way they were used. I write this blog straight off without revising it. There are undoubtedly "split infinitives" and other grammatical errors everywhere. I try to write it as if I was simply talking. Doing anything else would take too much time. It is a daily mental exercise for me. Nobody is likely to die because I put a comma in the wrong place but it mattered when we had the death penalty. A comma in the wrong place could still incarcerate an innocent person or let a guilty one go free. 

Such problems can begin with the reports written by police too. It is why it is important for police to have the skills to spell and write reports. Someone else's freedom may depend on it.   

Can't spell and can't do the maths

but we will give you a gun so you can be a member of the police force?

Our state has a serious shortage of police officers. It is apparently such a serious shortage they are lowering the standard required to pass the entry examinations in spelling and mathematics.

I do not know what the current entrance examinations are like but I suspect the standard is low. I know we are not getting a stream of university graduates into the police force. Nobody expects that. I do however see the police out and about and I have observed them. On rare occasions I have had dealings with them.

Last week I had occasion to go to a major shopping centre some distance away. When I arrived the entrance I had planned to use had three police cars, a fire truck and an ambulance there. There was no activity around these things. There were three police leaning against one of the cars just chatting. 

I would normally lock my bike to the rack next to the entrance. Did I just go to another entrance and then, with some difficulty, make my way to the other end? I decided to ask if the entrance was open.

"Yeah, just go on in." I was told. It was permission but it was hardly what I would have considered to be a "professional" sort of response. It was well meant enough but it almost certainly reflected the level of education of the officer I had asked.  

If we cannot find recruits who can read and write and do basic calculations to a good standard then we need to look at why this is so. We cannot have police relying on spell checkers and calculators or using AI to write reports. That might be even more dangerous than giving them a gun.  

"Bur I am only taking eleven supplements"

and she is taking four prescriptions as well. 

Yesterday someone asked me if I had given some thought to the way I would need to take the low dose of blood pressure medication with me if I do manage to get away in September.

I do not see this as a problem at all. It will simply go in the original packaging. It is very clearly doctor prescribed. My doctor was so unconcerned by all this she went ahead and doubled the number of pills I will be able to get next time around.

Not so this other woman. She was alarmed at the thought of me travelling at all if I had take any sort of medication. I know V.... as a  hypochondriac. She is often at her doctor for one thing or another. I know her doctor too. He once let his frustration with her and "all those supplements" show. It was a very brief, almost not there, look as she started to talk to him about something she had begun taking even before she entered his room in the clinic. His frustration was nevertheless obvious. 

Yes, she takes eleven different "supplements" and four prescription drugs. It apparently makes her annual holiday packing "very difficult because I have to take so much with me". 

I have tried querying all these so-called supplements and all the limitations she has put on her diet as well. It makes no difference. She looks pale and unwell to me. I know one of the prescriptions is for blood pressure because she showed me what she was taking and wanted to compare it with mine. I think she was disappointed to discover that we take the same thing but pleased to discover that she takes a marginally higher dose. She also showed me one for a thyroid condition which is commonly taken by many people and one for anxiety. The fourth one is one I looked up. It is of almost no value at all but sometimes given to people who want to believe they need to be taking something. 

And then there are the "supplements", the vitamins, the sleep aid and more. I cannot get my head around those. Apparently they are all "necessary" because "there are so many things I am allergic to I don't get proper nutrition". Really? Her husband, a long suffering man, tells me, "She is not allergic to anything if she wants to eat it." He has given up in disgust. 

All this of course is an addiction of a sort which is costing a great deal. I looked at all the pills and potions she had lined up one day and wondered how she could even be bothered. I would much prefer not to be bothered at all. I avoid taking things. It takes time as well as money. I have better things to do with my time and my money.  

Ooh how to lose weight easily!

Late last year I saw someone I had not seen for several months. He had lost a considerable amount of weight. I naturally wondered how he had done it.

I did not ask but I was told. "I was diagnosed as diabetic. The doctor put me on Ozempic."

Really? That was all he needed to do? Oh that would be so easy! I let him talk on and nodded and smiled and, I hope, said the "right" things. 

But, I wondered. I wondered even more this morning because apparently children as young as eleven and twelve are now being prescribed Ozempic and other semaglutide drugs like Wegovy to deal with their diabetes and their weight. The article in the paper mentioned the concern that these drugs are being prescribed more and more often. People want the easy way out.

It is human nature to want the easy way out. Is everyone as lazy as I am? Probably not - but there would be a lot of people who are. They may be even lazier. I don't know.

In the course of moving from one place to another I did lose some weight. There were at least two obvious reasons for this. I ate less because there was less time to eat and I was doing more than the usual amount of physical exercise. Neither thing did me any harm. I was actually rather pleased because I know I needed to lose the weight I put on during the Covid lock downs. Although I made an effort to get out and exercise at the time it was not the same sort of exercise I had done before that. 

But taking weight off apart from that is very hard work for me. I cannot get out for a brisk walk - the very thing that might help me lose weight if I was also "eating sensibly".   I do try to eat sensibly. On my recent visit to our GP she asked me something and I added something like, "I do try to think about whether  I have had enough protein, enough carbohydrate and enough of a good mix of fruit and vegetables and I try to do that each day." 

I think the response startled her - but I really do try to do that. It is something I doubt she does herself. Having the time to do it and deal with it is something she probably does not have.

But other people? I hear people saying how wonderful the new drug is. So many of them seem to believe it is an effortless way to lose weight, that all they need to do is "pop a pill" and they can eat whatever they like. A few know there are perhaps side effects and risks but they will take the risks because they have lost some weight and they "feel better" because they have dropped a size or two with no effort.

I wonder how long this will last before doctors stop succumbing to pressure to provide what appears to be the easy way out? When will we all realise that many of our weight problems are to do with eating too much and not exercising enough? 

I am as guilty as the next person in thinking it would be nice to be able to do. Someone please tell me that Ozempic is not a substitute for diet an exercise!  

I am not intending to travel unless

it is "safe" to do so.

All travel has risks. All forms of travel have risks. There are "acceptable" risks - the sort we take every day. If we did not take those risks then we would go nowhere and do nothing. We cannot live that way.

There are also unacceptable risks. These are the sort of risks we should not take. It is why government travel advice exists. 

Right now you do not travel to some very specific places. They are war zones. 

Apparently there are around three hundred and fifty people from here trying to leave Israel at present. There are another three hundred trying to leave Iran. Neither lot can leave because there are no planes flying in and out.

In our local shopping centre there is a tiny coffee shop run by Syrians. They are lovely people who tell me I am "family" because I have shared a single recipe with them. They made the shortbread and took it back to Syria with them when they went "home" for a month this year. Their home in Syria is in the quietest part of the country and they take the risk only after multiple checks. They are back here now and A... tells me he would not travel now, even if a family member was seriously ill. He does not expect the government to get him out if there is a major eruption of conflict.

I wonder how many other people think like that. How many of those in Israel or Iran went on holiday without thinking of the potential consequences? They might be fascinating places to visit but, even with family there, is it something which should be done?

Middle Cat and I have air fares booked and paid for. We have accommodation booked and paid for in Singapore. That is as far as we have got and the travel agent has not been inquiring about what else we might need to book. There might be a reason for this. It may be the same reason I am being cautious about making any more plans. If the situation between Israel and Iran escalates it may be that it will not be safe to travel.

If I was going to travel alone I might take the risk. It may not matter too much if I end up being blown up but Middle Cat has a partner and two boys to consider. If I was stuck in the UK it would matter far less than if we were both stuck there. We both have to consider that it would be our choice to travel. We should not expect our government to bail us out of trouble if we travel knowing it is not safe to do so.  I wonder if those who travel to trouble spots think about this sort of thing? 

So, we won't be travelling unless it is deemed "safe" to do so - safe in the sense that the risks we will be taking are the risks that sensible people think are acceptable. Will I be disappointed? Yes. Will I be sensible? I don't want to be but I am a nervous cat so I will do the right thing. 

Using a recording device without

obtaining permission from those about to be recorded is illegal. This is why some places (such as government departments) are supposed to ask before a conversation takes place over the phone if they are using conversations for "training purposes". 

"Training purposes" is a cover for other purposes of course, a supposedly neutral purpose but one used to cover themselves. No, I am not simply being cynical. It is all too likely that people will get upset and abusive and this is designed to keep them from that.

I usually say yes they can record because I am never doing anything more than something like making an appointment. Even now important matters go wherever they need to go in writing and I expect replies the same way. "Paper" trails are important - even email trails are important. "You said..." or "s/he said..." or.... something else and the information is there - or it should be. This is not perfect of course because nothing is foolproof.

But there is another good reason to have things in writing. People forget what they have said or done or they misremember. Anyone who has spent any time in court listening to a barrister pull a testimony to pieces will know that even the apparently most clear memory of an event can be torn to shreds. 

Keeping a record of everything we have said or done is impossible but keeping a record of the important things is necessary. How do we best do it?  Not in the way I saw recently. A friend was on Facebook and said, "Look! This is what I need! It would save heaps of work."

I was immediately suspicious. I looked. The same advertisement had come up for me. There it was a tiny recording device you could allegedly wear around your neck, It would record and then transcribe. Wonderful! No, perhaps not."

I pointed out two things. The first is that it would be illegal to use the device without the permission of everyone in the room if you were at a meeting - and that was the intention of the person who thought it would be wonderful. Yes, people might give their permission but just one objection would be enough to halt the use of it if the user was wise.

But the second objection I had was quite different. This device would not help you remember anything. It would have exactly the opposite effect for most people. If someone was no longer actively involved in the process of remembering they would forget more and much more quickly. The act of writing things down reinforces the memory that is to be preserved. It is why taking notes down by hand is so important. Even using a keyboard is preferable to taking no notes at all. Study after study has shown the importance of being actively involved in learning. The little recording device does not require active involvement. That matters.

Yes, memory can be trained. It is possible to use all sorts of tricks and techniques but even those do not make up for actually physically committing something to paper.  As someone who has real problems writing anything down I am perhaps more aware of this than many people. My own lecture notes tended to be sparse. I would write down single words and have to remember what went on around that word. My memory is still supposed to be very good but it has taken years of "training" to do it. Other people will sometimes ask, "Cat, can you remember..." Often I can but I do not always remember. Why should I? 

Remembering everything that ever happened to us would be an immense burden. Equally not being able to remember things we need to remember is a burden of a different sort. I would not use one of those little recording devices (or a similar idea on a fancy phone) because I know it is important to remember without such aids. We should be teaching children to do the same.  

  

"You will have to download the app first"

I was told yesterday.

No, I won't. I am not downloading any "apps" on my very basic mobile phone. Even if I had the capacity to do it I would not do it. Why should I have to download an "app" simply to buy something? All it really means is that I am going on to a data base so I can then be bombarded with their advertising. Their "free" whatever it is really is not free at all. It is built into the price and their "special" is not really a special at all.

"Thanks. If I need to do that then I won't be buying it here."

"You won't get it cheaper anywhere else," I was told.

"Perhaps not but I don't download apps on my phone."

"Why not? You can get some great bargains here that way. It's a free app."

"Nothing is free."

The young one in the shop just looked at me in disbelief. I did not bother to try and explain. I went out and considered my next option. I had researched "on line" for what I needed and this had been the best option - apart from the app. That had not been mentioned on the website, certainly not the necessity to first "buy" the app in order to get what I wanted.

I prowled off feeling decidedly put out. It would have been a simple matter to "download an app" on a fancy phone perhaps but I still do not have a fancy phone that connects to the internet and does all those whizz and bang and whistle things. 

I stopped at the booth which repairs mobile phones and the lovely pair who work there finally sorted out another problem. The boy had researched it on line and actually thanked me "because it was good to learn how to do that - never came across that problem before". No, I could not pay them because I had helped them too. (English is their second language and I had told them how to write something.)  They agreed about "apps". I was interested in that. Neither of them has the latest phone. The girl's phone is about the same age as mine and the boy's is not much better. No, their phones are fine and they do not need all those "apps". These are people who work all day with other people's phones. I wonder what they do at night but I am sure it is not play games on their phones.

Apparently there are also "apps" on computers but I have never knowingly downloaded one - unless the sort I have for the purposes of actual work are also "apps". There are no "business" apps but I still need to "unsubscribe" from all sorts of things. It irritates me. When did the idea of putting someone on a data base in order to force advertising on them become a right rather than a privilege? There are two places which, despite my efforts to "unsubscribe" have continued to send me information. One of them is a real estate firm from my house hunting days. I sent them a polite message saying I had a new place for my sleeping mat and please to take me off their list. It has been ignored. Why? I will never do business with them. The other company no longer does business in Downunder but they still send messages. I have tried explaining that they no longer send items here (and it was for my BIL anyway) but they have ignored that. I will never do business with them again.

But apparently there are "apps" for things like the weather and ordering pizza and playing games I have never heard of.  I look elsewhere for the weather (mostly the sky) and I last ate pizza more than a year ago but not by ordering it on line. I do not play games on the computer, let alone on the phone. 

"Oh, I have dozens of apps," someone told me as I grumbled some more. His partner raised her eyebrows at me. I did not inquire how many she has but it would not be many. 

Perhaps this is what is wrong. Perhaps it is not the phones themselves but all these "apps" that are causing the problems? Is this why people do not talk to each other as much as they once did? If that is the case then there is even less reason to download an "app". 

 

Going to a mosque or a synagogue on a

weekly basis in Iran or Israel is not nearly as high as some of my fellow Downunderites seem to believe. 

Around a quarter of Iranians go to their mosque once a week. There are more men who do it than women. This is down from around a third twenty or more years back. I talked to a non-believer of Iranian origin about this some time back. He claimed that "not everyone who goes is a believer. If they don't go then they will be in trouble from their employer." I have no idea if this is true but he also conceded that young people are less likely to attend. 

In Israel the numbers are about the same with respect to Jews who attend synagogues on a weekly basis. It also seems young Jewish people are less likely to attend than older people.

Here in Downunder the numbers attending church on a weekly basis appear to be lower although about half of us claim to be "Christian". I thought about all this again this morning as I read main news sources about Israel and Iran. 

Why? Because news sources like to give the impression that the vast majority of people in both countries are devout believers who attend a synagogue or a mosque on a regular basis.  Much footage is shown of those attending Friday prayers as if this is what a majority does. We are told about "the Supreme Leader" and other religious leaders in Iran and how the "ultra-orthodox" influence decisions in the Knesset. We are told how Muslims want to take over the world and impose sharia law on everyone. Is it what most Muslims want?

All is not what it seems to be perhaps?  Starting WWIII is not going to win you respect or support. I am trying not to think about where the current friction between Israel and Iran will lead.  It is utter madness on both sides and it would seem that there are a minority of fanatics who wield too much power in both countries. 

Defending the indefensible

has to be done but perhaps not in the way many people believe. 

There are currently all sorts of stories in the media about the way AUKUS will fall apart and the nuclear submarines will go with it. True? Not true? 

I do not have the capacity to see accurately into the future. I can make some guesses about what "might" happen and that is all. 

There are things I know and many more I do not know. One of the things I do know is that it would be physically impossible to defend this country.  It is the world's largest island or the world's smallest continent. Take your pick.  It has a massive coastline and, while most of us live on the coast, there is enough of it that boatloads of "desperate" people do sometimes manage to get past maritime patrols. That alone should be enough to tell us two things. People want to come here because they see it as "safety" and we cannot control the borders as easily as all that. 

All countries have border controls. Border controls have been around since before the early Roman empire. Travel documents became common under Henry V in the 14thC but it was not until the 1800's that something like the modern day passport issued by the government became common. There was no need for these things. Most people did not travel that far. It might even be said most people did not travel at all. They stayed within, at most, a day's journey of their homes. 

I can almost see this happening again. Travel might not become easier at all. It might become more difficult. We might need to be able to show good reasons for travelling. In that way future governments might be able to control us using "net zero" claims and more. There will still be a tourist industry of course but it will be mostly within the borders of our own countries. Only the wealthiest and those with good reason to travel will be permitted to see the rest of the world. 

I might be wrong about that. I hope so. I hope I am wrong because it seems to me that we are already being invaded in other ways. China already owns vast swathes of this country. Wealthy Chinese have been buying real estate here for a long time now. This is not just about the houses that wealthy individual Chinese buy but about the vast sheep and cattle stations they own through complex "business" trails. It will be a brave government that tries to wrest those back.

We spend very little on defence, less per capita than it is said we should. I do not know how much we "should" be spending but I suspect it is much more than we do. This is not because we could physically defend ourselves. It is because doing so would at least suggest we were making some sort of effort. If we do then it might also look as if we cared enough to help some of our small Pacific neighbours.  That may prove more valuable during an actual war than simply allowing a northern power walk in.

 

A colleague of mine was arrested

yesterday. He was making his way to the hospital he works in when he was pulled over by the police. 

T... had done nothing wrong. That made no difference. He looks as if he might be Mexican-American and that was apparently enough. 

I do not know all the details but the incident took several hours to sort out. There was no apology from the arresting officers. They were "just doing (their) job". T... was very late in for work with flow on consequences for many other people. 

The reason I heard about it is because he was due to attend a conference next week but is now worried about leaving the country. T... is an American citizen by birth. His parents and grandparents and probably many times great-grandparents were American citizens. 

The colleague who told me this was alarmed. T... left me and others a brief message late in the day, "Am OK but need time to consider as advised might be best not to go."

What on earth is going on in a country which was supposed to be "the land of the free"? How has it come to this? 

I had, in a quite serious way, considered doing a "round world" trip when I began thinking about a journey back to my second home - London. It was not because I have any particular desire to see America as a country - although I think their national parks would be spectacular. No, I was thinking how good it would be to see friends who would be unable to travel here. While it would be difficult enough for me it would be impossible for them to go far.

Now it seems that even some of those with the physical and financial capacity are worried about leaving. Several projects I have been peripherally involved in have had to be dropped recently. Those involved are not Greta Thunberg type activists. They are just people who were being asked to volunteer help using their professional skills. 

And I have now had four warnings not to come. Our official government travel warning page is also anything but reassuring. I will not be going. It may be that I would be safe but if T... can get pulled over on his way to work....  I just hope everything calms down and my friends and colleagues are safe.  

"Why do we bother with Europe at all?"

I overheard this while waiting in the medical clinic yesterday. It was a routine appointment - nothing more wrong than usual - but obviously not for the man in the business suit. He was on his mobile phone and apparently oblivious to everyone around him.

I could not hear the responses to his conversation. One side was enough. He was (apparently) firmly of the view that trade with our nearer neighbours was enough. There was no need for his business, whatever it was, to branch out. They could "grow" inside Asia.

It is a common enough belief here. "We are part of the Asian region" is a common mantra.  We do business with Indonesia, Thailand, China, Korea, Japan and (more recently) India - the big players. Apparently it is considered to be all we can cope with except for miniscule amounts elsewhere. We look to the other side of the Pacific of course - but America is there to protect us as long as we let them use our land bases.

All this has just become much more interesting and relevant because we have, in a very minor way, involved ourselves in the war in Ukraine. (We sent them some old Bushmaster vehicles.) We have, in a sort of way, taken sides in the war in Gaza. We are arguing with the European Union about what we are allowed to call some foods like wine and cheese. 

Our defence force is small and, if we had not already been invaded in other ways, it could not physically defend the country.  It is too small. It would always be too small. The biggest island on earth simply cannot be defended by that sort of force.

It is my belief though that we should bother with Europe. Several Prime Ministers ago there was actually a serious suggestion as to whether we should be negotiating to join the European Union. It came to nothing of course but would it have been such a silly idea? The general public never had a chance to debate it and any thought of doing it would have gone out the window with Brexit even if there had been any thought of doing it before.

All this was back in my thoughts as I read a column by Alexander Downer in this morning's paper. He was pointing out that we do need a defence force. We cannot rely on America to defend us. China has a massive defence force - and it is not just a defence force. It has the capacity to invade militarily. They may never need to do it though because they also have the economic power to do it. The Chinese already own vast swathes of Downunder. They control many of our business interests. If they just chose to blockade our ports (and Downer points this out) then we would be very quickly brought to our knees. America would be very unlikely to come to our defence - except in their own interests.

In all this do we really not want to bother with Europe at all? Do we really go on spending just a miniscule amount on "defence"? I think we should be "bothering" with it even more than before. 

The business man was still there talking on his phone when I came out of my doctor's room. I wonder what the people around him thought of his views on Europe. I think it is worth "bothering" about - even more now than before.  

So we don't say "Gday" anymore?

I was almost amused to see the column in this morning's paper where one of the local journalists was writing about the way many people no longer know their neighbours. 

I say "almost amused" because I no longer know my neighbours. I have gone from a short street where I knew everyone to a block of "units" where I do not know anyone. The only person I knew, and I scarcely knew him, has just moved on. He was a policeman and, like so many other young policemen, he has just "split" with his partner. The toll of night shifts and other irregularities was too much for her. I met her once - through the window - when she held up a cat to be introduced.

I know the name of the woman on the other side - but only because she shares the same name as Middle Cat. Middle Cat met her when I first moved in. She has never spoken to me, indeed avoids looking at me and everyone else.

A woman with a dog exchanged a few words one day but that was it.

Across the way there is a man who introduced himself as "I'm a divorcee". There is something about him that makes me want to prowl off as quickly as I can.  I know this is not good. I am grateful that Middle Cat and her partner only live three streets away. If I need help quickly it is likely I could get it. I am grateful I still live in the same area where I know so many people...and many more know me. 

 There are twelve "units" and I have not even seen most of the residents after five months here. They must come and go but they do it at hours when I am not alert to it. 

Yesterday someone did say "hello" in a sort of way. As I was about to pedal off a voice behind me asked, "Is that difficult to ride?" 

I was so startled I almost did not reply but then I turned around and we had a brief, friendly conversation. The only problem? She was a visitor. I probably will not see her again. 

  

Truth is the first casualty

of war and of news collection.

I am late to the blog this morning because I have been trying to explain this to a group who tend to believe anything they read - that group being readers of our state newspaper. I tried commenting on line and the "moderators" did not like what I had to say. I have now sent a letter to the editor. It will depend on which member of staff is looking at what might be published tomorrow whether it gets up or not.

But, let me explain something. My job involves working with individual aid workers. These are people who do not work in a paid capacity for big organisations like the United Nations (where they are funded by their own governments) or Save the Children Fund or any of the many "aid" groups we hear and see on the news. These are people who are often not paid anything at all. They may sometimes have (some of) their expenses met but that is all. If they are being paid then it is someone else's responsibility to help them, not mine.

Yes, these people will often go because they feel passionately about something but what they feel passionate about might surprise others. It will often not be some "noble" cause like "saving the environment" but something much simpler. There will be a dam that needs to be repaired or a channel which needs to be dug or a lake which needs to be cleaned so that people will have a safe water supply. There will be a bridge that needs to be repaired or relocated or altered or strengthened so that a transport route can stay open. There might be a mosque or a temple or another holy site which needs to preserved because it has great significance for the local population. There might be a new medical technique to be taught to a group of doctors or nurses so that lives can be saved. There are many other things which also need to be done and can be done in a limited time frame by an individual who knows what needs to be done and can communicate with the local people. It is a different sort of aid altogether and one which people know little about, about which people do not need to know. It often is not safe to do.

Those people will sometimes send back information which is at odds with the news we get on the major news services.  It is not often they do that because it is generally not safe to do so. Those of us who have remained at home and who are in their loop will get information on their return. Let me give you two examples from current conflict zones.

The first is, inevitably, from Gaza. Someone went in to try and repair something needed for human safety. While he was there another major incident was reported here. Hamas would have it that there were over a hundred people killed or wounded. The IDF would  have us believe a much lower number. The aid worker returned and said there were eleven physical casualties but no deaths. The building which was hit was empty at the time.  None of this makes what happened right or wrong but the story he brought back was very different and, as he was actually there, perhaps a good deal more accurate. He is trained to assess such things.

The second one example is from a conflict zone I will not name but the aid worker was lucky to get out alive. All the work had been done when an opposing group came along with explosives, tied three locals to the structure which had been repaired and blew it up. The aid worker and his local colleague had left the structure about an hour before and gone to look at the other problem he was there to fix. This act of terrorism did not reach any news service.

What we see and hear on news services is possibly no more than a vague approximation of the truth. Journalists may do their best and some take enormous risks to try and get their version of the truth out but it is their version. They have their own sources and their own prejudices just as I have mine. I have to hope mine are the more accurate of the two but that does not make these things any more or less palatable. Truth is a casualty in all of this and we need to recognise that when we read or hear "the news".  

Free speech is dead at

universities - or so one of the local journalists would have it. His article in this morning's paper was an unusually serious one for a Sunday.

He points out, rightly, that he started his journalistic career at university by writing for the student newspaper. At least one of his colleagues did the same thing. I suspect most of them did. 

I remember the student newspapers from more than one university. Without exception they were left wing, often radical left wing. One was so left wing it might as well have been a second communist manifesto at times. The articles in them were often so controversial they made the mainstream media as well. 

I never contributed apart from a report on an "access" conference I attended in Birmingham one year.  I doubt many of the other students read that. They would have been more concerned with a new "compulsory" unit required of students from abroad. 

Of course future politicians also joined the party political clubs on campus but student politics at each higher education place I attended was a left wing affair. If you did not believe passionately in the latest causes then you were ignored - or shunned if you were foolish enough to try and argue with them.

There were staff like that as well of course. I knew who they were and what their thinking was. Like other students I tailored my essays in order to be sure I passed. The pressure to do that was immense and I am not a cat who likes confrontation. 

I suspect it is even greater now. It may not be true of the fee paying foreign students but it is true of the local students. There are required courses in politically correct subjects for everyone. Even the student studying geology finds there is a requirement to study indigenous beliefs about the landscape that have no relationship to what is accepted as the science. Any research project in psychology has to take into account "multi-cultural" ideas and beliefs. Reading lists focus on politically correct texts and thinking. No, I am not exaggerating I have seen the lists and read student essays that reflect all this.

Of course the idea of what a university should be has changed even more in recent years. Now it is openly said that they are there as job factories. Courses are taught in accordance with what employers are looking for rather than for the sake of learning. An "arts" degree in English or history or the classics is considered "useless" and something only the less able students will do. Parents tell me it is not what they want for their children. 

I suspect that "political correctness" is not helping any of this. It is considered "good" to be doing a course in the environmental sciences or genetics or robotics. If you must do an arts degree then it should be in gender studies or indigenous culture - both worthy things in themselves but surely no more important than any number of other things? 

I wonder what the function of a student newspaper really is now. There is so much more "on line" activity. People can throw out their ideas at a distance - just as I am doing now.  Students who disagree with the editors of the student newspaper can publish something on line. Do they do it?

I doubt it. Perhaps I am wrong but I suspect the social pressure to agree, to appear to believe in what is being expressed, is very strong. It may be that "free speech" has never really been there and that, if there was any, it is dying from fear.  

 

The cats have gone

or should I say "My neighbours have moved out"?

I did not really know them but the neighbours on one side of me in my new abode have moved out. They were renting and the rent was high. He is a policeman and often works night shifts. It is a stressful sort of job at the best of times so the fact they have "split" does not really surprise me. I knew there was tension there. 

They had two cats. I liked the cats. We would "talk" to each other through the window as I passed. They spent a lot of time sitting on the windowsills looking out. 

"We have one cat each," J... informed me when he came to ask if he could fill my rubbish bin with their rubbish. (I told him he could provided he put it out in the street ready for collection.) 

I wonder about this. Will the cats miss one another. They never seemed to fight...or not that I heard them.

It also made me wonder about other animals missing their companions, including human companions. They do of course. I do not care what anyone says because I am certain they do grieve. They know humans not simply as strange two legged creatures but as individuals. 

When the Black Cat left to live somewhere else she left two cats with our parents. The cats did not seem too concerned about this. They had each other and that large and lively dog who chased them was gone. I was in and out at intervals and the cats seemed to know me but they were strongly attached to Mum (who fed them) and the Senior Cat (who would play "fetch" the table tennis ball with them). They would wait for them to come home.

When I moved back in they had an extra human to care for and they did. Their attention would be divided between us. All three laps were there for sleeping on. When the Senior Cat came home from hospital after quite major surgery the cats watched over him and Mum and I saw very little of them while he spent most of the time in or on his bed. 

Eventually, as happens, one of them died of old age. The younger cat spent hours wandering and staring out of windows. One night he gave the most heart-wrenching howl. It was as if he had finally realised that his mate was not coming back. He attached himself much more firmly to me. I put a towel on the end of the bed. As I worked for years in the corner of the bedroom (not a good arrangement but the only one available) he could spend hours there on "his towel". He "slept with one eye open" most of the time. If I left the house he would almost always be waiting for me. Mum would say, "I don't know how he knew but he went out to wait for you." Surely he could not hear me pedalling from afar? Perhaps he could.

He was almost twenty-one when he died. We all wept. I still miss him. Now I will miss the small "conversations" with the other two cats but not in the same way. I really did not know them as well as I knew our own. How could I?  I just hope they are not missing each other in the same way. 

I warned J... "You will have to spend more time with your cat." He gave me a rueful smile and said, "Yes, I have already discovered that." Cats know. 

"He's eleven and he can't read

yet."

If a parent said that to me I would be very concerned. Yesterday it was said to me by a grandparent. 

I had an invitation to "coffee" with the former owner of our local indie bookshop. It is a lovely shop and much of its ongoing success is due to this woman. She has an encyclopaedic knowledge of the bookselling business and, in particular, of books for children. Although she "retired" from the shop and sold the business many years ago she still does some work for another business. She is in and out of schools all the time and she is only too well aware of what teachers are looking for in books.

I was aware of it too although, perhaps because I see so many children in the library, I had not felt her level of concern. The children I see are readers. Most of them are there to borrow books. Their parents and grandparents think reading is important. It is to be encouraged. What J.... was talking about was something different. 

I called in at the shopping centre on my way home and saw someone else I knew. "You're late today," she told me. I told her where I had been and why and thus came the comment about her grandson. I know the boy but I also know what she means. He is not a "reader". 

He will play computer games if given a chance but the idea of reading a book does not appeal to him at all. He is one of those who needs "interesting topics, simple language and larger print". It is all he is prepared to try...and he is not alone in this.

J... tells me that teachers are looking for such books. The books need to look much more sophisticated than picture books for the first few years of school. At the same time they need to be in language that these reluctant readers can handle. "Middle Grade" topics but very junior language? 

I was reading everything I could at age eleven. Brother Cat was much the same. Our parents used the "Children's Library" in the city as a sort of child minding service I suppose. We would come back to the city for the school holidays and there would be a library day for me and my brother while our parents did whatever else needed to be done in the city centre itself. The librarians did not seem to mind but that may have been because we would head for the shelves and then the wonderful window nooks where we could read and read and read.  We knew how to find the books we wanted to read too. Other children must have come in and out but we seemed to stay for hours. On one glorious occasion we took our lunch with us. It was solemnly handed over to the librarian at the desk and we went to read until she told us it was time to go outside and eat it. We were very careful about washing our hands when we had eaten!

There might be children who would still do that but I suspect even some "keen readers" are happy to leave the library after a short time. We left reluctantly.  

I wonder now how many children are not reading at night the way we did. I know, from multiple sources, that the number of parents reading to children is not as high as it once was. There have always been some who have never read to their children. Some cannot read themselves. There are others who simply do not see it as important. Now though there seem to be parents who say they "do not have time". They apparently cannot find time to do it. Some even struggle to find time for the child who is learning to read to read to them. I know families where the grandparents and the older children are those who hear the younger children do their "reading homework". If your parents are not interested in your reading why should you be interested? You need feedback. You need encouragement. You need to be told it is important.

I wonder how I would get on if I had to go back into school and teach a class of reluctant readers? How would I manage as a school librarian if the children did not want to read? Would a lot of books for those reluctant readers even help? 

Never be able to work again?

I think all Downunderites will know of a certain person who alleges she was raped in the office of a government minister. This allegedly happened after hours and the minister was not involved. 

The experience was said to be so traumatic the incoming government gave her a very large sum in compensation because, so it was claimed, she would never be able to work again. Curiously (or perhaps not so curiously) she now has another job. It has taken four years but she now has a role as the director of public affairs for a public relations company. 

This is surely a role where she will need to be in a "public" role most of the time. There will not be any hiding in the office. She will have to deal with people, all sorts of people.

Perhaps all this is legitimate. I have no idea. I have never met her. I am unlikely to do so. Her case was never settled in court. It was said the potential damage to her mental health would be too great for it to continue.

I also know of two rape victims, both of them at work by people in positions much more powerful than their own. Neither of them received any compensation. In both instances the mental harm done was immense, especially as they lost their jobs. Both of them took on much more menial roles and still look over their shoulders. They have not "recovered" but they have perhaps learned to live with the trauma.  I know these two people well and I would not wish their lives or mental health on anyone.

One of them left me a message this morning and asked, "How has she done it? How can she do a job like that?" 

I have no answer to that but I wonder too. There are plenty of conspiracy like theories flying around. The male involved has been made out to be a serial rapist. There are other charges he must now face but they have not been proven or disproven. He has no paid employment but has apparently been trusted enough to care for children of friends. That seems strange but they apparently trust him.

It will be interesting to see how this person who was said to be unfit for employment ever again will cope with what is likely to be an at least somewhat stressful position. Will she cope? If she does not then will it be blamed on the alleged rape or will it be because she is not able to handle the role?

The mushroom cook or

the mushroom murderer? That is the question which will need to be decided at the end of the trial.

At present there is a case being heard in a neighbouring state which seems to have captured national attention. It concerns the allegation a woman deliberately served her in-laws and another couple a meal of "Beef Wellington" with death-cap mushrooms in it. Three of the four guests died. The fourth will have medical issues for the rest of his life. 

The cook denies she did this deliberately. She says it was a "terrible accident". Whether it was or not will be up to the law to decide. 

Apparently there have been several writers listening to the evidence. Perhaps they plan to write about it? I do not know. 

I am not at all sure I would want to listen to this woman giving evidence. From the media reports she sounds, at very least, a confused and self-centred person who has not been able to make the most of the opportunities she was given. That does not make her a murderer of course but it will not be helping her case.

What it sparked me however was thoughts about eating at the homes of other people. As a child I cannot remember eating at the homes of people who were not directly related to me on many occasions. It was not something we did. We did not often entertain other people to meals either. If it did happen there would be some very special reason for it.  Apart from my grandparents we simply did not do it. 

Did other people do it? I have a feeling they may not have done. In rural areas farmers simply had to be at home to do things like milk the cows. They may go out later in the evenings but even that was limited if they had to be up before five in the morning to milk the cows, feed hens and more.  Perhaps people did it more often in the city? I do not know.

I can remember very clearly the first time I ate a meal in a restaurant. I would have been twelve at the time and we had come to the city for the school holidays. We children were very subdued. There had been an argument between Mum and her mother. Our parents never argued with each other. We had found the argument and the things Nana had said about us very upsetting. Mum was in tears and the Senior Cat was anxious and worried and, I suspect, very angry. As children we were not perfect but we were usually "good" and "obedient".  

There were very few places to eat a meal out in those days. The pubs did meals of course but our parents would not have considered taking us to one. We went to one of the few places in the city centre. It was small and quiet and rather dark. We sat in a corner and barely dared to open our mouths.

I have no idea what else was on the menu because Mum ordered for all us children. What she ordered was what she would have considered a treat for all of us...mushroom omelettes. We ate them silently but we ate everything on the plate. It was all we had, certainly almost all that could be afforded. I can never eat anything like that now without remembering that occasion...and I remember it every time I eat a mushroom.

The "Spider's Web" attack

on Russian aircraft was a masterpiece of military planning. It was also a much needed success for the Ukrainians. It may well have given them some hope if the Russians, at least one Russian, can be convinced that this is a war which is not worth fighting.

I am not totally convinced this will be the case. There may still be an aircraft somewhere capable of carrying a nuclear warhead that this one particular Russian would be more than willing to use. He won't care about the loss of a third of his air force if he believes he can still use a nuclear weapon to do the greatest amount of harm possible.

What was so good about the Ukrainian attack was the fact it was done with a minimal loss of life. If there have been any casualties then we have not been informed of them. At most it seems likely that there has been the loss of a very small number of lives. The Ukrainians are to be acknowledged for this if the Russians do not retaliate with a massive attack on civilians.

I have no doubt that this mad man and his henchmen will attempt such an attack if they still have the capacity. This has been humiliating for him. It will have been a much needed boost for their "enemy" and this is the last thing they want. They had been hoping to wear them down into submission and accept their "inevitable" fate of once again being part of the Soviet empire. The plans for "buffer" zones are nothing more than plans to take the country by gradually moving the boundaries of those zones.

Someone cheerfully told me this morning that "this will be the end of the war" but I doubt that. It could even lead to increased issues. The humiliating losses will not lead to success in the peace talks. To give in now will show Russians that their "strong" leader is actually weak. His position depends on remaining "strong" - or at least being seen to be that way.

There will be other high ranking Russians who must be wondering when they too will need to "fall" from high windows. They will wonder when the guns are being loaded to be used against them. There will be a search for those who have assisted the Ukrainians in this matter too because there must have been inside assistance.

The ordinary people on both sides are undoubtedly tired to death of this pointless war. I won't wish death on anyone but perhaps moving some of them to a penal colony in a remote area would help. 

Making a film of a book

is something I am never likely to be involved in. Perhaps it is just as well. 

Someone is writing about this in the state newspaper this morning and I have had reason to think about it all over again.  My viewing of such films has rarely been a happy experience especially where a book for children or young people has been involved.

Reading the article I thought back to a DVD I watched last year. It was something called "The secret of Moonacre Manor". One of my young friends at the library told me it was "fantastic" and I really should watch it. She was so enthusiastic and her mother was so encouraging that I borrowed the DVD to watch.

The story is supposedly that of "The little white horse" by Elizabeth Goudge. This book won the Carnegie Medal in 1946 and it is so good it is still available in print now. It is a book that I loved as a child. I knew exactly what Maria was like. I could see her clearly. 

The film was nothing like the book. It was an intense disappointment. There was only some vague relationship to the book.

It made me think of other film adaptations I had seen. I think all of them have been disappointing in that what I imagined was not at all like what appeared on the screen. Then I tried to be fair. I think Colin Thiele was pleased with the first adaptation of "Storm Boy" but he would not be happy with the much more recent remake. The first one does perhaps give some sense of isolation. The second one could be set on a beach anywhere in the world.  

I know Alan Marshall was quite happy with the adaptation of "I can jump puddles". He had never expected that the book would be of such interest to others. He was an old man when the film came out but friends said he was "very pleased" by it. Perhaps it was good to see his childhood through the eyes of someone else? 

The other film adaptation I know something about is Ivan Southall's "Let the Balloon Go". Ivan talked to me about the book even before he had written it. I think I really do know something about what he was aiming at.  "Trying to get inside John's head is one of the most difficult things I have ever done" he once said. He later said that, while he thought the film was "quite a good story" it did not succeed in getting inside John's head. Could a film even do that? If it cannot then should a film even be made from the story? 

Adult film versions of books often take liberties. They may even be necessary at times. It probably does not matter too much. If the author is still alive they may even agree to these and have a hand in writing the words.  Many adults who see a film may never bother with the book. It may not be of concern if they do not. 

Is it the same for children? My own feeling is that it does matter if the child does not read the book or have the book read to them. A film, however good, is not the book. It is a different experience. Children do not have the life experience to understand that...and it matters. 

Playing sport is dangerous

and it needs to be recognised as such.

Okay, okay I am not suggesting people do not play sport. It does have benefits too, recognised benefits. That said, it is also dangerous. 

Brother Cat once tried golf and ended up accidentally hitting someone in the head with a golf ball. The other person is still a friend but there was a great deal of blood and anxiety at the time. These days Brother Cat is looking at ankle issues brought on by compulsory sport at school.  He is lucky that is all. It could also be knees, hips, shoulders and hands.

Middle Cat played every sport she could. She was on the state team for two sports and was considered for the national team for one of those. Yes, she was good but now she sets off the alarm as she goes through airport security. Joint replacements tend to do that.

There was a story in this morning's paper about a former footballer looking at the potential amputation of a lower limb because of injuries during his career. This is not the first such story and it will not be the last. Football is a contact sport.

Last week there was a story about wheelchair rugby. I can personally inform you that, even at the most amateur of amateur levels it is a very dangerous game. The boys knew what they were doing the night they loaded an extra wheelchair into the van and took me off to "watch". I lasted about five minutes on the "field" before they laughed and let me sit on the sidelines. Most of the time I kept my eyes closed so I could not see them charging into one another.

At least there is now some recognition that at least some of this can cause serious injury and that the worst of these injuries may not be visible. Brain injury in contact sport is now being recognised and should have been recognised long ago. They now have to send children with head knocks off the field immediately and even immediately is too late in my view.  Padded helmets might help a bit but they are not the complete answer. And only adults foolish enough to risk it should be allowed into a rugby scrum.

So why on earth has someone come up with an idea that seems to be a combination of all that is wrong and called it a "sport"? The RUNIT or RUNIT Straight idea where people deliberately collide with one another while carrying a football is the height of stupidity. At least one person has already died and more will if they continue to take the risks this involves. Trying to ban it now will probably see those foolish enough to involve themselves "play" this "game" illegally. 

Yes, some exercise is good for us. Most of us do not exercise enough but others exercise too much and in the wrong way. All too often they are lauded for doing so. They are made into "heroes" but they are anything except that and it is time to recognise it - particularly if they indulge in RUNIT.