An "argument" with China

or simply a request for the Chinese Communist Party officials to act like responsible citizens? 
I can only suppose that those opposed to an investigation into the virus that has laid low the world have some economic interest in doing so. Why else would you want to deny the rest of the world potentially life saving  information? Why would you want to prevent people from discovering something that might prevent this from happening again?
It is because we ask questions that we have things like anaesthetics and antibiotics and blood transfusions and vaccines and so much more. If we can get a vaccine for the Covid19 virus the world will be a safer place. To do that we need to understand what it is, where it came from and much more. Is there really something wrong with that.
One of our "philanthropist" billionaires in Downunder recently hijacked a press conference where he was showing off his acquisition of ten million Covid19 tests from China. No, he isn't giving them away. While he "won't make a profit from them" he expects to be paid for them. He will expect to be paid for them in other ways as well.
What is more he had a Chinese diplomat with him as a warning that Downunder is not permitted to "argue" with the Chinese over the source of the virus. Apparently we aren't allowed to investigate it at all. 
Really? It is the very thing we should be doing.  
This billionaire is trying to dictate to the government what should and should not be done. His mining interests have suffered severely  in the current crisis. For him it is vital to see China's economy surge again. China will need iron ore and coal and more from Downunder. He sees a return to the good times  if this happens - the good times for himself   
I have long argued that  the Downunder economy is far too China and Asia focussed.  I have always said we are not "part of the Asian region". If anything we are a Pacific country but, more specifically, we are European style country in the Pacific. Yes our northern neighbour Indonesia is a south Asian country but we are not Asian. The pretence that we are has been holding back our economy for  years. It's the easy way out. If we took any other approach we would have to greatly increase our presence in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and South America. We would need to increase our language capacity many times over. 
While other countries, including those in "the Asian region" (and most particularly China) were busy entering those areas. We remained focussed on Asia, attempting to become "family" instead of good neighbours. It may be too late now - or perhaps we have been given a second chance because of the virus. We will need to really work at it if we have.

Domestic violence has

not decreased because of the "stay at home" requirements. It is likely that the opposite is true. The halving in the number of reports is most likely due to the fact that people cannot get help when they most need it. They are trapped.
I was talking to someone yesterday who went to desperate measures to get help for a neighbour she knows was being abused.  The fence between them is falling down. Her husband went out in the wind and rain the other night and gave it a little extra "help".  Their neighbours have a dog nobody seems to trust and it was now on the loose in their back garden. This made it essential for something to be done. The police were called and, warned by my acquaintance's husband, rather more inquiries than a dog on the loose were made. The husband has again been removed and charges have now been laid - for a second time. This time he won't be able to threaten his wife into withdrawing them because the police have laid the charges he will have to answer. He's in custody - at least until tomorrow.
My acquaintance was worried about whether her husband was likely to be held responsible for the "damage" to the fence and the subsequent actions. He has apparently admitted his actions to the police but they don't seem at all interested. 
    "They did say (the other man) is known to them and they spent ages looking in his sheds and went away with something."
Yesterday morning my acquaintance was looking after the neighbour's children while their mother was being interviewed. It's her chance, one she now wants to take.
There are many problems ahead, not the least of them keeping the abused woman and her two children safe.My acquaintance is worried too. 
    "J.... did the right thing but we are both a bit scared. That M....knows some right nasty types. If he finds out what J.... did then I don't know what will happen."
Domestic violence has ripple effects. It is all too often the victims who end up being "punished" more than perpetrators. As the mother of two small children I would be terrified.
The mutual acquaintance who put us in touch called me later and thanked me for talking to her friend. She said she thought they should not have got involved, that the victim should have sought help for herself. I didn't bother to point out that this might well have been impossible, especially right now. Her friend clearly did not feel that way and knew more than she did.
I will probably never learn any more. I really don't want to know anyway. It seems more important to hope the situation can be resolved so that everyone is safe - and that more victims can get the help they need.

"Download the app!"

I am not sure I can download any "app" but I will  download this one if I can find out how to do it.
Which one? The Covid19 app of course. It is designed to tell you if you have been in extended contact with someone who tests positive to the virus.
There have been squeals of indignation of course, "Why should the government be allowed to know where we have been and with whom we have associated?"
Well it isn't quite like that of course. Even if it was it would not bother me for the powers-that-be to know I had been to the chemist or stopped to check on an elderly individual tottering home from checking on her brother who lives around the corner. I have nothing to hide from the government. I don't particularly like the idea that they spy on me but they have been doing that for so long I am used to it. I expect it. 
What surprises me is that other people appear to be worried by this. The people who appear to be the most concerned also seem to be the people who have the fancy phones which behave like small computers. They have often downloaded one "app" after another. I know one person who has downloaded many apps - starting with astrology and ending with the weather anywhere in the world. She doesn't want to download the Covid19 tracing app because she doesn't "want the b....government to know where I am all the b....time." 
I pointed out that her phone, connected the way it is, allows her to be tracked by Mr Google and many others. It didn't go down too well. Perhaps I should just have kept my mouth shut. I know there are many people like her.
But, like it or not, our safety and our ability to resume something like our previous lifestyle will depend on many more people downloading this thing. It will allow us to be alerted if we have been in contact with someone who has the virus. It will drastically reduce the capacity for it to spread across the community.
One of the reasons I have tried to be so careful since the first case here is that I do not want to be responsible for the otherwise avoidable death of someone else. I don't want to be like the worker in a neighbouring state who went to work with a "sniffle" and ended up infecting many in a nursing home. That has caused the death of twelve people to date. The worker was "asymptomatic" and is not being held responsible but must be feeling that way.
Yes, I will go on taking extra precautions because I am a fairly cautious cat at the best of times. It's the responsible thing to do. I will investigate this "app" business today too.
Right now though I have no "apps" on my phone, nor do I have access to the internet. It is just there so I can care for the Senior Cat and be a responsible citizen. Mr Google would in any case find me very boring.

The story of Colonel Tom Moore

needs to be written up as a picture book for young children. It needs to be written to help them understand that giving time and effort is every bit as important as giving money. 
Yes the then Captain Moore set out to raise a little money - and ended up raising far more than he set out to raise. For me that is not the most important part of his story. 
For me the  important part of his story is that a man who is now one hundred years old, an age most of us don't even believe we will reach, set out to do something for other people. He set out to do something which, for him, was clearly a physical effort. It was every bit as important an achievement as those physically fit individuals who set out to run marathons or bike from Lands End to John o' Groats or across the Nullabor Plains in Downunder.
   "I can't see why everyone is making such a fuss about him," someone told me yesterday. She had phoned to ask if I would do something for her  - not for the first time. I am waiting for her to do something not so much for me as for someone else. She has a very reasonable and very reliable income. Her idea of doing something for other people is to simply hand over a donation. The idea that she might stand behind a stall or make a cake or drop a prescription in to the chemist for her neighbour is foreign to her - and yes, she would have the time and capacity to do these things. Her own craft work is beautiful. She is generous in her own way. It is just that she doesn't think of things that way.
Many of us simply need to do things for other people. We don't have the disposable income which allows us to donate money. I have also been brought up to know that one should and must help others. My paternal great-grandmother instilled that into her children. My paternal grandfather instilled it into his. The Senior Cat instilled it into me and my siblings. My siblings have instilled it into their children. The same is true across almost everyone in our extended clan - perhaps because our great-grandmother saw it as so important. 
It was partly because of my great-grandmother, a woman I never met, I set out on a journey of my own years ago. It changed the course of my life. It meant I didn't pursue the sort of career I planned. There were many times when I resented it and said "I don't want to do this." When a newspaper editor told me, "That is why you should be the one to do it" I could almost hear my great-grandmother saying the words. You don't always get to choose.
I don't know what children the good Captain has but I am sure he has not allowed them to sit around as idle couch potatoes. He has undoubtedly told them they didn't always have a choice. Sometimes you simply have to get out there and do it.
He also makes me wonder what the rest of us can do.
 

Staying in touch with family and friends

is more important than ever right now. We all know that. I am wondering how many of us realise how  important?
The Senior Cat has told me, more than once, that the thing he misses right now is my friends coming in to talk to him. I think they may be his friends as well. 
Of course, at his age (97), many of his friends are no longer with us. Last year he made a new personal telephone book. The old one was a mess of crossings out, updates and the like. The cover was falling off. The pages were dog-eared. 
But doing the job was an emotional journey for him as well. He found that "so many people aren't here any more". We reminisced about people we both knew. He reminded me of things which had happened that had been important to him. We puzzled over a couple of names that had been added - "that was the man who came to...?" and "they were the couple who wanted me to fix their...?" 
The new personal phone book is a slimmed down thing. I found the address book I had when I first went to London  half a century ago. It was written into an old school memo book, the sort we used for "mental". It had once belonged to the Black Cat for just that purpose and I had, thriftily I suppose, pulled out the used pages and then used the rest of it. There were names there I barely recognised. I know people gave me their addresses before I left but even then I had no real idea of keeping in touch with them. They were on verge of getting married and having children. Even then I knew their lives and mine would diverge. The bonds had never been strong anyway. I have the second address book now. I can see it here on the shelf as I write this. It is a bit like the Senior Cat's personal telephone book. People have gone astray or missing altogether. It was first written in the pre-internet age. Email was something we knew nothing about. 
Email should make it easier to keep in touch - if you have email. I realise that some of my friends do not have email. Others do not always think to check theirs because it is not their normal mode of correspondence.
I know I should redo the address book - but I don't want to be reminded.

Home schooling is not the same

as being required to keep your child at home because schools are closed.
If you have not chosen to home school your child then there is no reason to feel anxious or guilty about your failings as a teacher. There is no need to worry about what your child is or is not doing. 
Schools in this state are open again. Medical advice is that children should be back at school - with extra attention to health and hygiene and certain other measures. 
The paediatrician across the road has sent her two boys back to school and to (part-time) day care. She will monitor them and the situation closely but she thinks they are better off there.
We have now had a run of five virus free days in this state. The problem is not over, not by a long way. It does mean though that school is considered "safe".
Still, they have said that parents need to make that choice. 
I went (with caution) to the supermarket yesterday - and did a much larger shop than usual before having it delivered. Ahead of me a woman was talking to the girl at the check out. They included me in the conversation when the girl at the check out said I had been a teacher. 
This woman has four teenage children, the eldest in the final year of school. They have all been home for some weeks. They are old enough to work independently and they have been.
    "All I need to do is discreetly check that they are not running into difficulties. I know they are doing the work," this woman told me.
She agreed she had been "incredibly fortunate" that her four teenagers are motivated enough to do what has been required of them. Indeed the oldest does not want to go back to school because he feels he is achieving a lot more from home.
Ms W feels the same way. She simply gets on with whatever she needs and wants to do. She likes the quiet of working at home alone  - and she can be trusted to do it. Not all students can. Many of them are much less interested and far less motivated. It does not make them poor students. Find something that captures their attention and they will listen and work on it. 
None of the teachers I know are expecting miracles of piles of neatly completed and (mostly) correct assignments. They are simply hoping for evidence of some work done and something more than hours spent playing computer games.
Parents should feel the same.

What has China got to hide?

It is a question a lot of people are asking right now. Why doesn't China want an investigation into the origin of the Covid19 virus? The Ambassador here in Downunder has warned of "economic" consequences if we persist in supporting the push for an inquiry and for even seeking an answer.
I don't know the answer of course. If I did then there would be no need for an inquiry - but there is a need for an inquiry. There is a need for answers - so that, if possible, nothing like this happens again.
The economic impact of this pandemic is going to be felt for generations to come. It is going to change the way we live and interact with other people. 
Chinese officials claim that, even with their massive population, they are almost free of infections and that it is "business as usual" there. Even in the unlikely event this is true then they have to realise it is not the same for the rest of the world. 
In this state we have had no new infections reported for five days now but that does not mean we are out of danger. We aren't. We are actually at the worst possible time. People are likely to get careless. They are tired of the rules about social distancing. They want to get out and see their friends. They want life to go back to "normal", to be like it has always been.That is not going to happen. What is more we are going into winter and it is even more important to keep those social distancing measures in place. It is even more important to be vaccinated against the flu this year...and yes, I have been. The Senior Cat and Middle Cat have had their shots too. As far as possible we are staying at home, away from other people. It isn't nice but it can be done. The Senior Cat has talked to my godfather and other people on the phone. ("It isn't the same as seeing them but it is better than not even hearing from them.")
We can do all of that and much more but it does not let China off the hook. If they have nothing to hide then an inquiry will benefit them as much as it benefits the rest of the world. The idea that China can impose economic consequences in order to silence us - or any other country - is wrong. If there is wrong doing then people must be held to account.