"Remember the people whom you come from"

 is a Gaelic proverb. It was written into the family Bible, possibly by my great-great-great grandfather.  We will never know that for certain, can only guess at it. 

Did he write it there to be a reminder or a command or a prayer or something else? We will never know. 

It is a proverb which will resonate with many people in Downunder. Yes, there were and still are indigenous people who know their ancestry goes back many generations in this country. There are many more whose ancestry goes back only a short way to the arrival of the First Fleet.

And there are families like my own whose ancestors go back only a few generations. It was my great-grandparents who came here from Scotland. Rightly or wrongly we still feel closely "attached" to our Scottish roots and the culture arising from it.

Quite some time ago now we had a large clan reunion. It brought together many members of the clan. Others who could not be with us participated in more distant ways. It could not have been held at a better time because almost all the grandchildren of the first arrivals were able to be there...and it was and still is a very large family. 

The generations which spread out from there have become much more aware. Indigenous people talk about an attachment to country, of being custodians of the land around them. They also see it as a responsibility to care for it and for their culture.

I believe those of us whose ancestors came from other places have a responsibility to remember too - remember where our ancestors came from.  We have two Gaelic words on our father's funeral notice "fois dhut" - "rest in peace".  It is to acknowledge his ancestry - of which he was very proud. I know there are people who will find this strange. They will tell me Scots Gaelic is a dying language. It isn't. It may be very slow but it is growing again and we now recognise that losing any language means losing an entire culture and way of thinking.  That may well keep Gaelic alive and growing. I hope so, just as I hope for the truly indigenous languages of this country.

 Cuimhnichibh air na daoine bho'n d'thainig sibh - remember the people whom you come from. 

 

There were carrots under the hedge

and strawberries down the driveway.

Yesterday I wandered aimlessly around our garden for a bit. I needed a break from making endless phone calls - and answering them.

The Senior Cat was a gardener. As a kitten I remember being upset because, still learning to steer my little tricycle, I accidentally ran over a  plant in the vegetable patch. The Senior Cat did not get cross with me. He managed to rescue the plant and hug my tears away. 

When we moved to the city for a few years he grew more vegetables. My mother grew flowers in the front garden. We ate the vegetables and the money my mother got from selling the flowers to the local florist helped to buy the other things we ate. Teachers did not get paid a lot and the Senior Cat was paying to do his arts degree.

We moved to yet another place. The Senior Cat tried to garden there but eventually gave up. The water supply was simply too salt, the ground too hard. He kept the weeds down and that was about it - apart from dreaming about the garden he would have when we moved on. 

We did move on. He gardened much more than his predecessor but not as much as he wanted to do. We moved again. Ah! The school sheep produced some useful stuff for gardens. We had vegetables again even though he had to garden in between running a very big and very complex school with many problems.

Eventually the Senior Cat was posted back to the city. He knew there would be no more country service. He had done more than his fair share by then. Gardening could now commence in earnest.

My maternal grandmother had died not long before and my parents moved into the house. It was convenient to do this although not the choice they would necessarily have made. The garden had been neglected for years. Neither of my maternal grandparents had been interested.

The Senior Cat set about learning more. He joined an organic gardening group - and eventually became the President of it. He dug and he used the piles of manure that had accumulated from the hens our grandmother had kept. He pruned old trees and removed a dead one (later turned into other things in the workshop). 

He needed more and more space as he planted beans, peas, lettuce, tomatoes,rhubarb, sweetcorn, celery (not too successful), cabbage and more. Where was he going to put the all important potatoes? Ah, that space at the back that was still empty. It was a bit too near the track leading to the railway line to have anything too attractive. 

And then there were the carrots. They could go into that space along the hedge between us and the neighbours. The carrots would surely get enough sun there. And the strawberries? Well you don't waste all that potential gardening space down the driveway at the side of the house do you?

Eventually they moved here. The Senior Cat brought all sorts of gardening items with him. We kittens moved away. The Senior Cat did not need as many vegetables for the family. He grew them for other people - and a huge patch of spinach for the local vet to feed the native animals which could not be returned to the wild.

He was still gardening in pots on trestle tables when he moved to the last residence. Until the last few months of his life he helped to develop the barren garden space there into a garden. He taught the staff and some of the more able residents how to garden in a way that can be managed there.

It was a life growing green things - and people. I am no gardener but I have the bulbs hibernating in their bags in their space in the fridge and I will plant them - for him.

It is with immense sadness

I have to tell you that our greatly loved father, (aka known as the Senior Cat) left us at around 6:15 this morning. He was not comfortable so we are trying to be grateful that he is no longer in pain.

I am also very grateful I was able to spend about an hour with him yesterday. 

Ninety-nine years is a very long time to be here and we are very fortunate to have had him for so long.

 

Raising taxes

is something you do after the election. You don't tell anyone that you are actually going to do it. They already know that. What they are hoping for is one of those miracles which mean "someone else" or "other people" are those who will actually pay the extra.

The federal election has not yet been called but we are in election mode already. The last day an election can be held is May 21st. That's too close for comfort. 

The campaign is already getting very nasty. The Prime Minister has now been accused of using the "race card" to beat his opponent - back in 2009. It makes a great story. The Opposition is rubbing its hands in glee. The media is shouting it from the roof tops. A journalist I normally respect and like is responsible for helping to break the news. 

I have some problems with the story though. It is a "he said - he said - she said" sort of story from people who may or may not take the business of making a "statutory declaration" very seriously. After all, who is going to be able to prove something was or was not said to them back in 2009? There has also been more than one election since then. That the issue is being raised again now - when it was virtually dismissed back then - suggests that there is something else at work here. The man making the claim was, briefly, a member of the party now expected to win the election. He is reportedly still bitter about not being selected. Enough said?

That this sort of news is taking precedence over the tax issues which have been raised should be causing alarm. There is no way the present opposition can hope to cover the cost of even just some of the promises they are making without raising taxes. They argue "we will get it from the multi-nationals". If they succeed we will still end up paying but indirectly - and the amount they get still won't cover the cost of what is being promised.

The present government is probably no better in the sense that they are making promises which are unlikely to be kept. They have failed to keep some and prevented from keeping others - often by "independents" in the Senate. We might have had a national "Independent Commission Against Corruption" if the independents had allowed the government of the day to get on with the job they were elected to do. We might have had the national referendum on indigenous representation too. Time ran out because there were "debates" about other issues - debates designed to waste time and prevent legislation people voted for from passing.

I think I have had about enough of  all this time wasting, this nastiness, this bitterness. If I was about thirty years younger (old enough to have had some experience of life back then but not too old) then I would put my paw up. I would do it as an "independent" yes but, if elected, then I would respect the wishes of the people who voted for me. I would go back to them again and again and ask, "What do you want me to say. I will listen and act according to what the majority of you tell me you want." 

Could it be done? It could. It is an enormous amount of work but there are a few examples. Perhaps the media could remind us of those people of the past. They held the hoses as we say here.

 

Ice cream anyone?

I quite like ice cream. I still miss a certain ice cream shop  in London. (Londoners will know which one I mean but naming it would be advertising and I am not sure I can do that.)

In the hall of residence I lived in there were a small gang of us who would occasionally head off late on a Saturday afternoon to "the ice cream place" and buy that delicious,  creamy, sweet, cold  treat. It was good stuff, better than anything I'd tasted here in Downunder - apart from one brand.

We have our own brand in this state. It is actually made in this state. It is good ice cream, very good ice cream. It has won awards for its excellence. I have known this ice cream since kittenhood.

In kittenhood this ice cream was a very rare treat, a once a year treat. It was only available in one place unless you lived where it was actually made.  Given the choice between "fairy floss", a toffee apple or the ice cream we always chose the ice cream. It was special, very special.  They actually sold it in two flavours, vanilla and honey. It was the honey flavour which was so special.  It was sold at the state's annual agricultural show. Even our mother and the Senior Cat would indulge. 

We would sit on the grassy area near where it was sold and lick our single scoop cones around and around. This had to be done carefully so as not to waste a single drip. It was gone all too soon of course but we knew that, all being well, there was "next year".

They still make that ice cream. They still make it in the same place. Now they make more of it and it is available in supermarkets across the state. It is free of palm oil and other nasty things. It is very popular.

So why did the state's zoo decide it would no longer stock it? They have tried twice before to do this and each time there has been outrage. This time they have attempted to do it more quietly. Of course they have been found out. Claims that another company, a multi-national company, could provide ice cream more competitively have not been well received. One of the "things" about going to the zoo is apparently to have ice cream - and people want the local product. It is part of going to the zoo.

I don't like zoos. I didn't like them as a child. I won't mind if I never set foot in another zoo. But if we are going to have zoos then surely they should be places which support companies that support efforts to save endangered environments. Palm oil free ice cream might not seem much to some people but it was an environmentally responsible move by the ice cream company. It is one which many, perhaps most, people who visit the zoo would have been happy to support. 

The zoo has lost a "golden" opportunity. If you know your ice cream here in Downunder you will know which company I mean.  

"She's inside - playing the piano"

were the words that greeted me as I arrived at the church yesterday.

Yes, she was. There on the screen was a video recording of the friend we had come to farewell. She was playing a duet - a loud, cheerful duet. She was laughing, full of life. It was the way she would want to be remembered.  

Going to anything like that is difficult at the best of times. Right now it is even more difficult than usual but I wanted to be there. It was a memorial service rather than a funeral. It was right for her. It is what the Senior Cat has asked us to do for him.

As we went in to the church we had been asked to take one of the many scarves or shawls she had owned. I had made more than one shawl for her. Someone ahead of me was wearing one of them. It was a strange sensation to see her wearing it. One of her grandsons had tied a scarf  pirate style around his head. Somehow it looked right even though he was wearing a suit. I don't usually dress specifically for a funeral or a memorial service but this time I put on a blue jacket that L... had told me more than once that she liked. If it had been a size larger she might have "borrowed" it from me.

Unlike the funeral I recently attended in the same church this was not a requiem mass. Instead this was a reflection of an artistic, musical life. L... trained as a nurse. She worked under Vivian Bullwinkel - the only nurse to survive the massacre on Bangka Island in 1942 - and always said the experience taught her so much. L... was compassionate, empathetic - and chronically late for everything except work.

She was a wife, a mother, a friend, a concerned neighbour and much more. She was an artist. Some of her art work was on display for people to see. 

And she was a musician...giving us all a concert even when she was no longer physically among us. 

 

We would be fools indeed

to believe the promises being made by the present Opposition leader. 

He has already promised "cheaper childcare". Now he is promising some remarkable standards  for aged care. He  is telling us that residents in aged care will get 215 minutes a day for help with such basics as showering, dressing and eating. He is telling us that there will always be a registered nurse on duty. He is claiming that there will be mandatory standards for "tasty and nutritious" meals to be served to residents. What is  more he is claiming that there will be strict requirements requiring those who administer these places to show how each cent is spent.

On top of all this there is a promise to increase the pay of those who work in aged care. This is what will happen "when we are elected". (Notice "when", not "if". They believe the election is in the bag - all the opinion polls seem to point that way.)

Bollocks! The Senior Cat is classed as "palliative care" and the present standard of care comes nowhere near that for him or for anyone else. His residence is smaller than most. We know the staff. They know us. One of us goes in each day. We have helped with his care. We have had to help with his care because they don't have the staff. Many of the younger staff have no idea what to do or how to do it. They often see their employment there as merely temporary while they are looking for something "better".

The reality is that not many people actually want to work in aged care. It's understandable. It isn't just the poor pay. It is the dirty work and the emotional stress. It is dealing with difficult relatives and the many demands. It is knowing that people are not going to "get better". They are going to die. 

Those who build aged care businesses are not there because they want to care for the elderly. They are there to make a profit.

The Senior Cat's residence is fortunate in that there is a kitchen on site. The food, which I have seen often, is perhaps better than most. It is better than the food which was served in more than one hall of residence in which I lived. There is a choice - the residents are asked  to nominate their choice on the previous day.  Certainly there is no evidence of residents being served "two party pies" as their main meal on a Saturday or Sunday.

But there are other problems. The Senior Cat would not get anything close to 215 minutes of care a day - and he needs more help now than any other resident.  It is never likely to happen to any other resident in the future either. 

The cost of actually providing the level of care being promised is something that simply cannot be done. There would have to be a massive increase in taxes to do this and also to provide for the promises being made with respect to childcare. This would need to happen even if all aged care facilities and all childcare facilities were run on a "not-for-profit" basis. As they are run on a for profit basis it is even less likely.

I have no idea what the answer is - at least no idea what palatable, reasonable answers might be. What I do know is that today is April Fool's Day - and we would be fools to believe what the Opposition  Leader is promising.