National parks and reserves are to be

treasured and cared for as well as preserved for future generations.

I remember a bill board I saw quite often as a young kitten. It advertised something  which puzzled me at the time. If I asked my parents about it then  it obviously meant nothing to them either because I would have remembered the answer  - and perhaps have forgotten the billboard altogether.

The billboard advertised a "cherry blossom festival" in Japan. This was  to my mind something quite extraordinary, indeed it was extraordinary. First of all it was advertising Japan which was a very exotic, rare and unlikely destination at the time. Nobody we knew had ever been to Japan. It was unlikely that anybody we knew would ever go.  Indeed it was at least another twenty years before I met anyone from Downunder who had been to Japan or was going to Japan. Then a friend's daughter went. She was actually learning Japanese and she eventually spent some years living there.  

It was at that time I began  to understand the significance of the cherry blossom festival. M....  wrote and told me about the festival. She had been told by people she met there about the festival. When  it occurred she was bewildered and disappointed. People were making a fuss about "a few trees and a tiny bit of blossom". It took her some time to realise that, living in a major Japanese city, this really was something that the local people did get excited about. They really appreciated and cherished those few trees in a way that only the locals could do it.  Those trees were rare because trees were rare. Blossom was rarer still. People went simply to look at it. 

I understand a little more, although not enough, of Japanese culture now and I can appreciate a little of what those Japanese were seeing and feeling. It still puzzled me that the billboard had that impact on me and that I should remember it in that way but I am glad  it has.

Yesterday, being Father's Day, Middle Cat went and "sprang" the Senior Cat from the residence and we all went off to a local arboretum and then on to a local reserve. There is a narrow winding road in to the reserve. At the beginning of it there is a small caravan park. At the end of it there are a few houses. Middle Cat knows someone who lives in the last house at the end of the road. For that reason she can go past the point where cars are supposed to stop and turn back. Instead she took us right to the end where it was quiet. 

I would not want to live there in summer. It  is a fire disaster waiting to happen. Yesterday though it was lovely. It was green. Middle Cat  stopped the car for a bit. We watched two boys of about ten or eleven building something on the far bank of the creek. They were so intent on what they were doing I doubt they were aware of us. They were doing the sort of thing we did at that age - something that almost no child who lives in such close proximity to the city can now do. We watched the birds and observed the blossom which is coming out on those trees which flower, particularly the wattle.

As Middle Cat started the car again I heard the Senior Cat give a contented sigh. It was a "cherry blossom" moment I suppose. 

It is "Father's Day" here - and I suppose elsewhere

although I have no idea about that.

It isn't something this family fusses about. Like "Mother's Day" we see it as an excuse by others to tell us how we should buy an expensive present for our father. 

The Senior Cat would be appalled and embarrassed if we did that. He knows we love him and that we will always do whatever we can for   him. 

If he phoned me right now and said, "Get me out of here" I would get help and go and get him. I would do it at any time of the day or night and I would miss an event I had been looking forward to in order to do it. I have no idea how we would cope but he wouldn't do it unless he felt there was no other option. We all know that. He is not unreasonable.

Our mother was the same about "Mother's Day" - in fact rather worse. We were not allowed to do anything to celebrate that. It sometimes led to us being embarrassed in other ways. We became experts in fielding questions (and even on occasion lying) about what we had done for her on Mother's Day.

Today though Middle Cat is planning on "springing" the Senior Cat for the day. It is forecast to be a lovely day - sunny and warm without being too hot. So far no plans have been made. It is up to him. If he simply wants to sit and chat to his SIL as he works in the shed that's fine. If we take a picnic somewhere that's good too. What he does is up to him. It isn't because it is Father's Day. It is because it happens to be a Sunday and good weather.  We last did something similar about ten days ago. All things being equal we might well do something like that again in the future.

And this is how it should be - for us. I know other people will see it differently. They will do things differently but this is right for us. I know that such occasions are going to become more rare and that they will one day stop altogether. I dread that moment and I know it could happen at any time. It is why it is important to make the most of times together now.

It is also why those protesting about doing things like wearing a mask and using hand sanitiser infuriate me.  

I am wondering if there are two different people called Tony Abbott

and whether they were both Prime Minister of Downunder at some point. Did I miss an entire election somewhere? Oddly they look alike too.

The Tony Abbott I worked with was not the person the media keeps describing. He was Minister for Health. There was a major problem, one he was required to deal with as Minister. I went to him without much hope. The problem might cost something to solve unless he was prepared to listen to an alternative. I knew I might just get one of those sort of pro-forma letters saying the issue was being "looked into and we will contact you again later".  

I did actually get one of those letters and was trying to work on other ways to deal with the issue when I was called in to talk to not merely a public servant but the Minister himself.

He asked me to explain the problem again. I did. He asked me what I thought the solution might be. I gave him both possible solutions. He called someone else in and I repeated myself. I was asked some hard questions - and had the answers for them. 

Then it was, "I think we can do this. It might take a little while but I don't see why it can't be done."

It was done. It took longer than it should have done because there were a number of staff in the department who were working actively against him. Their delaying tactics were many, varied and designed to make him look incompetent. There is nothing unusual about this. Like everyone else public servants have political allegiances.

I had more dealings with him later. As Prime Minister  he also took time out to write me a very personal letter on a subject completely outside his role as Prime Minister.

This was the man who became the "misogynist" Prime Minister. He was unfailingly courteous. He really listened to a female who just happened to have an idea.  

This same "misogynist" Prime Minister had a female chief of staff - chosen by him over men who might well have been equally or even more capable.  He was accused of being "homophobic" but it seems rather strange that he chose a gay to be his media/press secretary - and that he has a very close relationship with his lesbian sister as well friends in same-sex relationships. It has also been said that he supports paedophiles because he supported someone accused of appalling crimes. What he was really doing was supporting a friend  he believed to be innocent of those crimes - something the High Court later found to be the case. It wasn't that he believed his friend to be in anyway perfect or that he always agrees with him. It was simply that someone he knew was in trouble and he supported that friend. 

Despite that he is said to "lack empathy" although I felt he was just the opposite when I first met him. Certainly his later letter to me showed a great deal of empathy.  

It is said he "does not believe in climate change" but finding out where he has actually said that is proving to be something of a problem. It seems more likely he hasn't actually said that at all. It is just that he doesn't always agree with the more outspoken on the causes and solutions. 

He is of course Catholic, devoutly Catholic. He once began to train for the priesthood but left that path. There are suggestions he did not feel he was worthy of that role. His beliefs are aligned with that. His manners are more old-fashioned than is common. And yes, he has been known to "lose his cool" as one of his staff told me one day.

He is far from perfect. None of us are perfect. He has made mistakes. We all make mistakes. There are in fact other people who have held the same positions who have made bigger mistakes and who have most certainly lacked both courtesy and empathy. They have also held views that many disagree with - but they do not come in for the same degree of criticism.  

Perhaps though the endless criticism of him says more about his detractors than it does about the man himself.

 

Border closures

are getting ridiculous.

I am not opposed to border closures to prevent the spread of Covid19. I am opposed to border closures for some and not others - specifically footballers. Why should footballers be treated any differently?

Even if they are required to quarantine for fourteen days why should footballers and all the officials and support people who are with them for a match be considered "essential"? They are not essential. Football is nothing more than a game. 

Yes, I KNOW  "people love their footy". I KNOW for some people it is the highlight of their day, their week, their year and their life. It is still just a game. Even my football mad cousin - the one who was once a selector for a major football team - agrees that the present situation is ridiculous. 

There really should have been no football at all this year. It is a "contact" sport. I didn't notice the players wearing masks. The training sessions must have involved breaches of "social distancing" because the matches which have been played certainly did. 

And now they are playing the so-called "Grand Final" outside the state it is usually played but in a state which still has some cases. They are going to allow a sizeable crowd to attend the match. After all, this is football. Football is so important.

It seems it is more important than medical emergencies. I wonder how the mother who was not able to cross a border and consequently lost a baby feels about the match? I wonder how much a woman who has a few weeks to live feels about not seeing her daughter for the last time. What about the farmer who hasn't been able to check his cattle and the people who have lost their jobs (in aged care) because they live on one side of the border and worked on the other? How are schools who have students and staff straddling the border coping? There is the daughter whose mother has MS, whose father has had surgery and whose sister is disabled. She cannot visit them to help. And what of all those other people who live on one side and work on the other?

Brother Cat lives in an area where they have had no Covid19 cases. We are all thankful for that but we have no idea when he will be able to visit the Senior Cat. No, we aren't complaining but it does make us acutely conscious of people who have a more urgent need to cross a border.  We are also conscious of all the people who live alone in the state still under lockdown. They have not even been permitted to have a single visitor. Imagine being shut in a tiny flat in a tower block unable to go out - except for essentials - or have anyone come in. Is it any wonder that mental health issues are on the rise?

But footballers can go and play a close contact game in another state. Why? 

Caring for the frail aged

is an increasing issue here - and elsewhere.  It is an issue which is not going to go away and we do need to address it. 

I suppose I have been rather conscious of it for many years. If you ride a bicycle or, in my case, a tricycle then you tend to meet the elderly. They might be out walking a dog, pushing a pram, tending a garden or doing something else. These are the people you meet first. It might be a smile or hello and, somehow, it progresses from there to "nice day" or "we need some rain". With some people, perhaps most people, it goes no further. With others it is casual conversation and eventually a sort of friendship. You find out where they live and drop off a plant or, on a hot day, tell them not to walk all the distance to the shops but you will do it for them and they can pay you when you get back. Eventually you find yourself dropping prescriptions in to the chemist and more.

I have had Power of Attorney over the affairs of two such people. They had nobody else. I have dealt with shopping, banking, medical appointments and more. I know other people who do the same for their neighbours or people "down the street" or "around the corner". We still live in something which is not quite a village but where some of us still know one another. It is changing and I am sorry that it is. The Covid19 virus did bring people together for a while but too many people are reverting to their old habits and the elderly are once again being left behind. 

And some of them are moving into residential care because there is nobody to care for them and their needs are too great. I have become extremely conscious of this again as we go in and out to see the Senior Cat. I suppose the place does the best it can but it isn't home of course. I pass rooms where tiny old ladies are slumped in chairs asleep. The television is constantly on. Nobody visits them. 

Middle Cat and I see the Visitors' Book all the time. More than once I have been in to see that the person ahead of me was Middle Cat the day before or a name I recognise as being a priest or church visitor. There is almost never anyone else. 

They don't make it easy to visit of course. 'Flu vaccination certificate? Yes. Not everyone has one of those of course. Not everyone is aware of the need for one. Doctors grumble at the extra work of writing one. You are supposed to ring and make an appointment to go in. Middle Cat and I simply phone about half an hour beforehand and tell them we are coming. If there was illness in the place that would be different but visitors are rare. Each time you go in there is a form to fill out. You get your temperature taken and so on. 

I went in yesterday to take some things the Senior Cat needs to do "a little magic show" for the residents (and any staff who can sneak off I suspect) tomorrow. There was nobody in reception when they buzzed me in. I took my own temperature - 35.8 thank you - and filled out the form and used the hand sanitiser. I went past the sleeping ladies and the person with the laundry trolley. I handed in the medication they wanted for the Senior Cat.

I found him dozing in his room and woke him up. He claimed not to be asleep but I know he can and does snooze often. It is one of those things you do at 97. All the same once he was awake he was alert and we looked at something he wanted to do tomorrow. He discarded it as "not safe for some of the dementia patients". 

That done he inquired whether I brought any singlets. He did not seem to have any. I was taken aback by this. His pyjama pants have gone missing too. I sighed inwardly. We knew this was likely to happen. We said we would do his laundry because of it. There are three singlets missing, a shirt, the pyjama pants and two odd socks - handknitted socks. Middle Cat will try and investigate. She is better at such things. 

Knowing full well we are unlikely to see such things again though I have bought two new singlets - thankfully half price this week! I have found the school like name tapes I bought to mark his brother's clothing. Middle Cat has said she will sew them on. We will emphasise again that we will do his laundry. They might not get lost. I am not holding my breath.

These are the little things. The very old among us need more than that though - and we are not giving them what they need. 

The media laws proposed by the ACCC

 and now before Downunder's federal parliament are said to be designed to protect news services and their content from a "power imbalance". They are designed to make Google and Facebook "pay for the material they use".

Now I know Google and Facebook are multi-billion dollar and very powerful entities but..... they do not charge the media services involved in the argument for them to put their material up on the web. Content from the website of the media services involved appears without charge to them in the "search" and "Google news" functions. Google does not charge us for it either. A similar situation exists with Facebook. It is advertising which pays for it.

They actually direct traffic to those same media services - who do very nicely out of it thank you very much. They will do even more nicely now. One of the organisations which will do best out of this legislation is Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. He has been trying to achieve this for a very long time. 

An argument could be made that Murdoch should be paying Google rather than the other way around - but Google doesn't need the money.

I have not seen the legislation yet but a friend who knows a great deal more about drafting laws than I do tells me that it is going to cause problems. He thinks it is "very poorly drafted" and that there will be "many issues" with it. I have no doubt he is right.

One of the problems is that traditional reporting has not been able to keep up with the fact that anyone can now "report". In my job I often get told about issues on the ground before the major news services are able to get it out on "the six o'clock news" or "the ten o'clock news" or even as "breaking news". People can put up video footage of an incident almost as it happens. It can be violent, horrific and terrifying - Google and Facebook struggle to take such material down. Murdoch may claim that such material is never put up by them but that is ridiculous. It goes up long enough to capture an audience and is then taken down.

My BIL works for a company that helps to set the algorithm changes which decide which advertising appears and where. My nephew runs his own company which acts as a platform which allows independent journalists to bid for work and sell their stories. Both these companies are going to be affected by this legislation although in different ways. Many others will be too.

If we want "news" both local and from around the world then someone has to pay for it. For the most part we will continue to pay for it through advertising - which is added to the cost of the goods we buy. 

But journalism will need to change again - and we need to ensure that all those involved in the dissemination of it are not given the power to control all, or even the most part, of what we see and when we see it.  At the moment that looks all too likely.

 

"Nicole from the National Broadband Network"

has been busy again. She has rung me three times so far this week - once on Sunday and twice on Monday. Along with the man from the "Telstra technical department" (who also tried three times) they have been busy in the "technical departments" around the internet.

I have lost count of the calls I have had from "Nicole". There must have been more than fifty by now. The Telstra man would have tried more than forty times I suppose. Both of them keep telling me that our internet connection will be cut off within twenty-four hours or the next day because we are going to be moved to the NBN. Strangely we were moved to the NBN long ago. There was never any question of us being cut off from the service...even when I had to change our service provider. It is all very strange. 

Yesterday I got so fed up with Nicole that I actually pressed "one" to "speak to the technician". I waited and then told the accented voice at the other end "SCAMMER!" He hung up rapidly.

I do not doubt they will try again. They do not give up. Middle Cat has led them on occasionally - just to have a little fun. I cannot be bothered. Brother Cat informs them that they have reached a certain location and the conversation is being recorded and traced. I have other friends who have tried other tactics.

And they still try all of us - in more ways than one. They keep hoping. I know people who have been caught out. And I know I could be. They are getting smarter and more convincing all the time. Once they were easy to spot but now they are better, smarter, faster, more cunning than ever before.  

My maternal grandmother loved using the telephone. She used any excuse to "make a call".  My paternal grandmother avoided using it. "It is much nicer to talk to people face to face" she told us. 

I wonder how they would get on now. My maternal grandmother would probably have embraced the internet and social media. My paternal grandmother would be able to  use it because she was an intelligent woman - but she would not have liked it. 

I use it, of course I do. In many ways it is a good thing. I can write this. I can "talk" to friends around the world. I can work from home. I can do other things  too. What I cannot do here is talk to people face to face. I have come to realise the value of that.

It is something that "Nicole" will never understand.