"So what has migration done for you?"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Trumping Trump's tariffs

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

April Fool's Day

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

We are getting a visit from the Prime Minister

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Electioneering material is

being stuffed into the letterboxes almost faster than I can drag it out and bin it.

Yes, I bin it. I do not keep it. I look at it but only to see how the lies are mounting up. 

There are the lies about "what we have done" and "what they have not done" and the lies about "what we will do" and more. There are the "promises" that will not be kept.

The mother of the girl who asked me "don't they have to keep their promises?" saw me yesterday. She stopped to thank me - which was nice - but said she was worried. 

We are perhaps worried for different reasons but I could sympathise. The NDIS (National Disability Insurance Scheme) is out of control. It is costing far too much. This woman's daughter does need help. She could perhaps do a simple job like feeding paper into a shredder but many such jobs no longer exist. She needs to be occupied because she is as capable of being bored as anyone else.  The NDIS is not coping with that sort of thing.

It is one of those things which needs to be looked at but to say so is seen as electoral suicide. How dare anyone think of taking away money from a person with a disability. The problem is that money is being provided to some people who do not need it to live with dignity from one day to the next.  Like it or not some people have been getting NDIS money for things that are not essential. 

The other issue is the costs that are being charged. Yesterday my BIL came and put in a grab rail at the front door. It will make using the step there much safer for me and a number of people I know. He used an old grab rail from the previous house that the incoming people said they did not want. The cost to me was nothing but I would happily have bought a grab rail. 

The same thing provided by the NDIS would have cost thousands. It would have had to be requested. Someone would have been sent to assess me. Someone else would have been sent to assess the wall and the placement.  A grab rail would have been bought through an NDIS supplier at a much greater cost than one from the national chain of hardware stores. Then someone else would have been sent to see where it needed to go and, finally, someone would be sent to install it. The whole process would take months and cost thousands. 

"Oh it is the way we have to work," we would have been told.

I bought a small ramp so I can get the trike onto the front porch where it is out of everyone's way and out of the weather as well. I did some research on line. I looked at what the NDIS suppliers were charging - and bought exactly the same item from the national chain of hardware stores for half the price. A friend has just bought herself a new walker. It is the one recommended by her doctor and physiotherapist. They suggested going through NDIS but her need was urgent and they can afford to do it.  It was done at a fraction of the cost of going through NDIS and she has it within three days. She admits she is fortunate that they could do this but it also means she has been able to go back to work immediately.  With NDIS she would have been working from home and being much less efficient. 

These are "little" things in the minds of many but money could be saved. It is taxpayer money and it should be spent wisely and responsibly - but it is not the sort of thing election material tells you about.  

Driving without a licence

is an offence. It is an offence for very good reasons. 

This is something I am never likely to do for the simple reason I do not know how to drive a car. You could put me in the driver's seat and I would have (almost) no idea what to do. 

There are frequent reports in the press of people driving without a licence. These are usually people who have committed an offence of some sort, often the sort of offence which has caused them to lose their licence in the first place.

And then there are people who simply forget to renew their licence to drive. This actually happened to the late Senior Cat. It occurred at the time when my mother was dying in hospital. Of course the Senior Cat was under extreme stress at the time. One Sunday morning he was about to go to church when he came back in looking rather pale. He stood there in the kitchen and said, "My licence has expired. It expired on Wednesday." It meant he had been driving without a licence for three days. 

He did not go to church. The following morning he walked up to the local Motor Vehicles office and told the person behind the counter what had happened. Fortunately he met with sympathetic understanding - and an admission the person behind the counter had done something similar. He came home with his licence renewed but it gave both of us a nasty fright. We knew how serious the situation could have been.

Perhaps this is why I was so horrified when someone else I know told me she had been driving without a licence. She was blissfully unaware of this until she had to show some acceptable ID for another purpose. Her licence was handed back to her with the statement it was not valid and therefore not acceptable.

She told me all this in a phone call. Yes, she had driven home. No, she had not made any arrangements to renew it. She would do that in the coming week. Yes, she was intending to drive to the Motor Vehicles office to get it renewed. No, she had not done anything about getting a medical certificate. (She is over eighty and has a disability which requires her to get a medical certificate.) 

"But if I can't drive there how can I get it?" she asked me when I told her she must not drive without a licence. 

"Get a taxi," I told her. I was so alarmed by then. Her attitude was so very casual. She did not seem to be in the least bit concerned by all this. It was so different from the Senior Cat's reaction. 

I put the phone down feeling worried. I am already uncertain as to whether this person should actually be driving. She is someone I would not feel happy about taking me anywhere at all, not even to the end of the street.

I have another friend who is eighty-eight. She has just bought a new car. It might seem like a silly thing to do but she has a yearly medical to assess her fitness to drive. Her ability and fitness to drive is not under question. She chooses not to drive at night and plans her routes so as to avoid difficult intersections. Her reaction times are excellent. Recently she told me, "I won't renew my licence again and might even give it up before the five years are up." I would go with her but not the other person because I know she will do this. She will use taxis if she wants to go out. 

I know that taking a licence away from someone does have a massive impact on their lives. I know because never having had one has had a massive impact on my life. It does not mean someone should retain their licence for this reason. A licence is a responsibility and if you take a casual attitude towards renewal or show a willingness to drive when your licence is out of date - should you be driving?

 

There has been an earthquake

in Myanmar and surrounding areas. It occurred some considerable time before the evening news service - the one which is supposed to provide more international content - but it did not get a mention. This morning it only made a small article on page twelve of the state newspaper. 

I suppose I should not be surprised. Actually I am not surprised. The earthquake apparently came in at 7.7 on the Richter scale. It has obviously done a lot of damage. If it had been any other country then we would probably know a great deal more now. There would be pleas for assistance. 

But this is Myanmar. Someone I know is there at the moment. I can't tell you why but he did say "devastating" when he did manage to get a message out. It is not a word he would use lightly. He was due to leave today and now has to find an alternative route out. I have no doubt he will but he will be leaving behind a bad situation.

It would have been bad enough any way but this makes matters much worse. "The military will use it as another reason to cling to power," I can hear him saying that now. It is not something he would dare to say while he was there but yes, they will almost certainly use it as an excuse not to hold "elections" they claim to have planned for much later in the year.

A late friend of mine was a dispatch rider for the British army during WWII. He was in India and then Burma - the country which is now Myanmar. Somehow B... managed to survive the experience. It was very, very dangerous work. He said very little about it later in life but he was full of praise for the "ordinary" people. He found the Burmese villagers and those in small towns friendly. Perhaps it helped that he tried to speak their language and had informed himself of the way in which he should respect their culture and traditions. He went back once after the war and went along the route he had travelled more than once. He found "old friends" there. He had meals with them and passed on the books which had taken up most of his luggage allowance.

There would be none of that now. Outsiders would be treated warily and even with outright suspicion. There would be worried looks if you were seen associating with a foreigner. It is a sad thing in a country which has a rich history and even richer culture, a culture being eroded by military force. 

If the person who is there is correct, and I do not doubt he is, then Myanmar is going to need outside help.  At this point in a complex emergency there are usually requests for help filtering through to people with specialist skills but it has all remained ominously quiet. I hope that quiet is shattered soon.