Just Fun

An ursine "Nutcracker" 
Or  "I can see all the way to Kiev  from up here!" 

Violence in any form

Putting this up with a slight sense of hesitation.
The problems of the Church and institutions has been in the news more often than not. Certainly over the past few months things have come spewing out as witnesses or victims have come forth to give evidence to the various commissions and bodies that have been set up to deal with these practices.
One thing is patently obvious: that the vast majority of perpetrators or predators are male. It is seemingly not confined to the church but also to those areas where adults have complete control over the children e.g. boarding schools ( many of these cases of abuse are hidden and not talked about) as well as celebrities etc etc.
Abuse is not merely sexual but physical, mental or any other form of bigotry that twists the minds of those who condone and encourage such behaviour.
Ghandi once famously remarked that poverty is violence in a pure unadulterated form.
It wasn't so long ago, perhaps less than thirty years that a child's evidence was ignored as juries were instructed to  favour the denials of the accused ; it was considered that adults were more likely to tell the truth than youngsters.
What is also clear is that the gender of victims is not confined purely to the males but to both sexes; it's distressing to realise that many are and will continue to be subject to violence in one form or another,
It is fortunate that the perpetrators are in the minority. Of all the priests and adults who exist,  those who actually commit these crimes are a small percentage. Many people do good work and are not known or recognised as such.

The stuff that dreams are made of

Narendra Modi (of India) dreams of bullet trains and new cities. Can he succeed? asks the Washington Post May 16th 2014 

 

Personally, don't think so..not without some form of  harness anyway!

Summer Memories in Oz

Summer's been a little warm this year. The delights of a summer in this part of the world include beach,pool and more of the same.
For the unwary or new arrivals there are a a couple of things to look out for. Maybe three, apart from funnel web spiders , sharks , salt water crocodiles (known affectionately as salties ) , box jelly fish and snakes, that is. In the face of such adversity, it's surprising that our population is increasing .

Beach

Hot sand, hot tarmac and prickly lawns

caused by

Tarmac

 those nasty little buggers called bindis which stick uncomfortably to your bare feet. They are almost impossible to get rid of. A bit like the current government (for the foreseeable future at least).

Bindi 

There's more underway

Not to worry .I am doing this:-

or this:-

or even this

 But not to worry..more IS on the way