Political advertising

appeared in my Facebook timeline yesterday. Apparently the government is permitted to bypass my ad-blocker and tell me how I must vote in the upcoming referendum.

I am becoming increasingly concerned about the pressure which is being placed on people to vote "yes" and the attempts to block out anything which supports "no" or any sort of balanced discussion. People have strong opinions about the issue but it seems that only one answer is considered "acceptable". Anyone who dares to disagree with the "yes" camp is being told they are "racist" - and that is perhaps the least pejorative word being used. 

I am also becoming increasingly concerned about the millions of dollars being spent on the "yes" campaign and the very real efforts to prevent the "no" campaign from obtaining funding. "Big business" is pouring millions of dollars into the "yes" campaign. "It's the right thing to do". There are all sorts of sports people, people in entertainment and others being hauled in to support the "yes" campaign. They are all telling us that "voting yes is the right thing to do". 

When my very definitely indigenous friend M... told a group of people he would not be voting "yes" because he believes it is a racist, divisive move no better than South African apartheid he was asked to leave - and not come back. It is a group he has been a member of for many years. He has been President and Secretary of the group but feelings are so strong about this "need to vote yes" that he has now been ostracised.

So what in the heck is going on here? I have read arguments for both sides. I will continue to do so. If I am asked I try to engage in a balanced way but I am more and more concerned. The present government is telling us that there is only one answer but look more closely at some of those who are pushing for this answer and I am alarmed by some of the things they are saying. Is "yes" the answer or just a first step? Will "yes" lead to unintended consequences? What will "yes" actually change? More importantly, what will "yes" change that could not be done now?

There are so many people I know who want the referendum question to be divided into two - recognition and then "the Voice". The first would pass without the need for all this divisive talk. The second might but that is much less certain because so much of it can be done without adding it to our Constitution.  It would not suit those who have a much bigger agenda but it would have been a very positive step. 

It is the bigger agenda which worries me. I doubt it is going to benefit many of those it is claimed will benefit.  

There are too many migrants

coming into Downunder this year. The present government plans on bringing in 400,000 more people - and that does not include people who try to get here illegally. 

Our present population of around 26.5m people simply cannot absorb that number in one year. We don't have the ability to do it. We already have a severe shortage of housing. That alone should be enough to make any government stop and think, "How do we house all these extra people?" Apparently it isn't something they feel they need to think about.

But it isn't just that which worries me. There are other things we don't have and that we need to do much more about before we bring in large numbers of people. Housing is an issue which something can be done about. We can do something about all the other infrastructure needed to support that number of people - the transport, the health services, the education facilities can all be dealt with but we will also need the jobs which support these things. Yes, perhaps we can even manage a great deal of that, especially if we lower our current standard of living.

The present government believes it can absorb this year's 400,000 people by spreading them "out across the regions". This is not where migrants want to live. They want to live in cities where all the services are available, where there is all the support they need. They want to live where there are people from the country they will go on calling "home" even when they become citizens of another country. Unless we have done it ourselves it is impossible to understand how hard it is to move to another country. Even when we want to do it there are many difficulties and many adjustments to be made. When people feel compelled to do it for reasons of security it can be even more difficult. 

We all know these things. Our lives are much more interesting than they might be because of all this cultural diversity. I don't want to see it halted but I think we are taking in too many people too quickly. It seems to me that there is a very big problem we are just not giving enough attention to. We cannot supply an essential. 

What we cannot supply is something which is absolutely vital to life - and that is water. There is a reason why our population is concentrated around the coastline - and just some of the coastline at that. It is because water is scarce on this continent. There are vast areas of desert. If we had water in those areas then we might be able to sustain a much greater population. We need to think about water before we continue to bring in so many people. It can be done but it is going to take work which is not yet being done. If we really want to help then we need to start working on water resources now.  

A rescue at sea

appeared in my time line yesterday. There were some very anxious hours for many people as they waited to see if a young man endeavouring to sail alone around the coastline could be rescued. He was out in the "Bight" in some extremely rough weather. I am not exaggerating when I say "extremely". 

The "Bight" is known for high seas but these were extraordinary. The weather had come up far more quickly than anyone had apparently reckoned on. 

He might have been able to cope even then but it seems he was flung backwards and hit his head. Having recently hit the back of my own head I was more than ready to sympathise. He then did the sensible thing and set off his emergency procedure.

Rescuing him was not simple. A huge container ship, some 228m long, was diverted to see if they could do the job. Two other ships were also called in. The container ship managed to do the rescue after three attempts. It is surprisingly difficult to rescue someone in those circumstances. Do the wrong thing and you could end up killing someone very easily. (No, he could not be winched to the safety of a helicopter. He was too far out to sea and the weather was too rough.)

It was also a very expensive exercise. There have been the usual complaints today about the cost of the exercise and the usual demands that people be stopped from doing "that sort of thing" in the same way in which they objected to the search for the ill-fated Titan.

I thought of all this and thought of how I would not be here if it had not been for an incident which had a much more tragic outcome. It involved my paternal great-grandparents. Great-grandpa was first a sailor who became a ship's pilot and a marine-cartographer. In his early sailing days he went in and around the ports of northern Scotland. Then he ventured further afield to see something of the world. He met and became friendly with another young sailor doing the same thing.  They went into the navy together during the first world war.

During a massive storm at sea the other young man went overboard and was lost. My paternal great grandfather returned to Scotland at the end of the voyage and went to find the young man's relatives in Caithness. There is a family record of his visit of condolence to the family. And yes, it was there he met my great-grandmother in a crofter's cottage which is lived in to this day.

We don't know much about their courtship but it must have been very satisfactory because, some time later, my great-grandmother came out here alone to marry him. It was apparently a happy marriage and certainly a productive one. (There were eleven children.) If there had not been that storm and a man overboard I would likely not be here today.

Going to hospital

is something we all want to avoid if we can. Going to hospital and going into "intensive care", or "ICU" as we call it here, is something we all really don't want to do.

It is where my friend Computer S.... has apparently been. I am not surprised. He is morbidly obese and I mean obese. 

Middle Cat called me yesterday. He normally lives diagonally opposite her. The neighbour who lives directly opposite and mows S...'s patch of lawn came in to see her and told her S... was in hospital. He has apparently been there for over two weeks. Nobody was too concerned when the old Volvo was not out during the day. S... is a "night owl". I suspect it is because, that way, he doesn't need to see too many people. Yes, he is that obese.

When it comes to computers there is very little S... does not know. He has fixed problems for me over the years. He tried to teach the Senior Cat how to do things too. They liked one another.  S.... was in tears when the Senior Cat died. His own parents are no longer alive. He has a brother here. His brother is terminally ill with cancer. His sister lives in the United States. S... doesn't have a lot of contact with either sibling. He seems more concerned for them than they are for him. He was the one who cared for both their parents. 

Middle Cat and I have both tried to help S.... but, by the time we tried, his weight had reached that level where only serious medical intervention could help. He didn't want anything to do with that. Occasionally he would lose a few kilos and then he would put it on again and put on even more. It did not surprise Middle Cat or me. We were concerned but it seemed there was nothing we could do about it.

We like him in many ways. He is the sort of person who will do what he can to help someone else. When he was here several months back and I needed to go to an appointment his response was, "If your sister can't take you then let me know. I will." He would have done it too. He made a special trip to get a spare part the Senior Cat needed to repair something. Then the two of them did it together. He likes to feel needed and wanted.

So, we are concerned. Middle Cat made seven attempts to speak to someone in the ward he has now been sent to but nobody was answering the phone. They are almost certainly understaffed and overworked. We would go for a quick five minute visit if allowed - just to reassure him we are still there for him and ask if there is anything we can do.  But we don't know what his actual condition is. I suspect he is still extremely ill and may not even be allowed visitors apart from family. That's all very well but we might be best placed to help. 

Middle Cat, being Middle Cat, will clear his letter box and see if any  of his plants need watering. It's all we can do. If he survives I am going to insist he signs the Power of Attorney I helped him prepare the last time he was here. I think he may need it but the friend he was proposing to use was away. I just hope he needs it and we won't be going to his funeral. 

Learning to cook

can be simple or complicated.  It seems to err on the side of "complicated" for many people.

My cousin's partner sent me a recipe for a cake yesterday. He is an extremely intelligent man who has taught himself to cook and bake. He approaches the whole business of food and eating in the same intelligent way he once approached his work. (He had a very high powered legal role in finance until he retired.) 

R...wrote the recipe himself and gave me all the information I need if I decide to make the cake. (I don't do much baking.)

I mentioned this to a visitor and she asked, "How did you learn to cook?"  The answer to that is both simple and complicated. My paternal grandmother taught me the basics. Grandma was a basic, no nonsense sort of cook.  She grew up on a farm where they made their own bread and their own butter. Her father or, later, one of her older brothers killed the sheep they used for meat. They grew their own fruit and vegetables. 

Grandma didn't know about pizza or spaghetti bolognaise or hamburgers. Chicken was something you had as a very special treat and sausages were what you had on the barbecue cooked by my grandfather if we went on a winter picnic. Grandma could make pastry and thus pasties. She made oatcakes but Grandpa made the porridge. There were sometimes puddings for a second course but most often it was fresh fruit in summer and stewed fruit in winter. There were scones and cakes to feed hungry children and then grandchildren.

Grandma taught me all these things along with soup and stews and the weekly roast. There was "shepherd's pie" and fish on Fridays. The fish on Fridays was not because she was Catholic but because that was the day local people could buy directly from the small boats that came into the port.

Grandma took me with her when she went shopping along the road which led to the jetty. There was a butcher who knew she knew about meat. There was a greengrocer who knew she knew about quality as well as quantity. There was a bakery where Grandma talked about the quality of yeast with the baker's wife. All of them treated her with respect.  

I don't know how they treated other women or how much other women knew. It was almost certainly far more than it is now.  They all did far more cooking than anyone I now know. There are some who still cook "from scratch" but by no means all of them do. 

I was teaching the Whirlwind to cook and to bake. She actually wanted to learn. Food generally just appeared on the table at her boarding school.  It was good but it did not have that "extra" that is home cooking. Her father was deeply appreciative of being able to take out a home cooked frozen meal. Yes, he could cook but it was "basic" and he knew she could do far more than he could. 

The two boys across the road are growing up and their mother, a busy doctor, has found time to teach them some early basics. They wouldn't starve. Next summer, if I am still in this house, we have agreed they will come and learn to make pasties. 

But, I have to confess, if we make those pasties then I will succumb to buying the frozen pastry sheets....I still can't make pastry the way Grandma did.  

Truanting, skiving off, wagging

or just plain "not going" to school?

I never deliberately stayed away from school for a day and my siblings didn't either. We would not have dared to "take a day off". On the very, very rare occasions we were ill we knew we would still be expected to do school work. I was quite knowingly sent to school with "German measles" or rubella because it was thought that it was actually a good thing to infect as many little girls as possible and "get it out of the way".  

And of course we had the added problem that our mother "did not believe in illness" of any sort. Her "Christian Science" beliefs did not allow for that. Until we moved back to the bush it was my paternal grandmother who would care for us if we were too ill to be at school. She would appear with such comforts as hot water bottles and "beef tea". Mum simply withdrew after making sure we had school work to occupy us. She didn't want to know. It is just as well we were very rarely ill enough to need to miss school.

When I was teaching I never had a child deliberately miss a day or a parent who would have condoned such a thing. My problem was the reverse. I had children who did not want to miss a day. I know I had one child who had insisted on coming to school although he was obviously not well enough. His mother sent a message. "He is not contagious. Let me know if he falls asleep." (It was a Friday and he didn't want to miss the next chapter of "The Silver Sword". I was reading it to them in the last period while they got on with knitting their football beanies. He admitted this to me the following week. "You could have read it for yourself," I told him. He grinned at me, "That wouldn't be the same!")

But apparently there are now an increasing number of parents who are much less concerned about whether their children are actually attending school. Some parents are even being threatened with court action. This puzzles me. School is all too often seen as not just school but a sort of free child minding service. There is also a much higher number of "school refusals" - children who do not want to go to school. 

"He tells us he hates school," one mother told me some time ago in the library. He had been failing to attend school and I had noticed him more than once. He found places where he could read without too many people taking notice. Yes, he should have been at school. When I talked to him he just shrugged and said, "It's so boring and it's noisy all the time." It was clear the learning environment did not suit him. He now goes right into the classroom under parental control and I suspect that is even worse.  

I know he is an exception though. He is a child who is happy to learn but not in the way he is being told he must learn. He is not a child from some of the outer suburbs of this city, a child who simply wanders the streets and gets into serious strife out of boredom. Even in the unlikely event their parents took them right into the classroom would they stay? At secondary level they might simply leave at a lesson changeover. It would be almost impossible to stop them.

When I think about it perhaps the remarkable thing is that so few students do actually deliberately truant. This morning when it is not just cold but wet and windy a warm classroom seems inviting. 

Economics or education?

I have a rather long letter in the state newspaper this morning. I was not sure it would get in or, if it did get in, they would use it without "editing" it. There is always a danger that the point you wish to make can get edited out and you then appear to be saying something entirely different.

But no, this one was printed in full. I was commenting on the proposed merger of two universities in this state. We have three universities at present. One is of course the oldest and first of them. It is the university the Senior Cat and Brother Cat attended. (I first went to university in another country.)  It was a traditional university back then. It produced more than one Nobel Prize winner and has had others on the staff. I worked there for a while.

Over the years it has become more conscious of what can only be called "economics". Some of the traditional courses have been cut back to a minimum. Almost all of them have been in "the arts". While "aboriginal languages" have been given a boost in funding the teaching of other modern languages has declined. English is also on steady decline. Psychology has moved to focus on "workplace" issues. Linguistics demands work in the aboriginal languages of this state. Philosophy is all too often demanding the agreement with woke ideas. There is more demand to agree in Economics, Business and Marketing. Even Law has not escaped entirely with woke ideas being presented and demands they be argued.

And we have the science side, physics and astrophysics

"Students don't want to do those. There's no work in those areas," I am told of arts subjects. They are also being told this. Students are being shunted into science. 

I wonder how the Whirlwind would cope if she was still alive. At school she was under pressure to "choose science". She was not interested. She studied the science which was compulsory. She didn't "hate" it but she didn't enjoy it. Words were of far greater interest. From the time she was small and I was reading stories to her she had wanted to know the meaning of words and where they had come from. Unlike so many young people I know she actually used her dictionary. By that I mean she did not simply look at the definition of a word but also at the origin. 

Despite all this she was still under pressure to "choose science because that is where the jobs are".  It did not seem to occur to anyone other than her father or myself that she might not be happy "doing science". There are still roles for our arts students. She had thought of things like translating and interpreting, librarianship and law. I think she would have been very good at any of those things. I doubt she would have made a good scientist. She would tell me, "I do not like science pracs" - laboratory sessions in science. That she was doing well in them was beside the point. She did not like doing the work. 

I wonder how many other young students are like this. How many of them are being told, both directly and indirectly, that they "must" do science? If they do add an arts subject to the mix it is the sort of English where they "study" film posters and make short films. (Yes, that's fine in a way but there is more to English than that.) If they choose to do a language it will be one that is considered "useful" rather than a language they can actually use with their own relatives.

I may be wrong but I can't help feeling education is becoming about the economic interests of society rather than the actual education of all of us.