Panda-ing to the U.S

Bear Hug

It's been a bit of a quiet time for China.

After the Malaysian Air disaster, focus has been on the Ukraine, Russia and Crimea. Attention is once more turning to the adolescent superpower.

There are accusations flying around re Chinese military officials hacking into U.S companies'
computer systems and the subsequent theft of sensitive material. The Australian press is also keen to tag along..advancing similar claims..a sort of keeping up with the Joneses. I'd like to add more on this trait but have been criticised for being too long winded with this blog  (not from a reader )  so I'll keep it short.

Of course there is little doubt that espionage is a tit for tat business. I don't imagine the U.S. is not as pure as the driven slush when it comes to espionage  or cyber spying.

It was of course a frightful thing to happen, the disappearance of the Malaysian Airlines Boeing with more that 200 people on board. It might well be one of those mysteries that last for years although the current salvage team are confident something will be found within the year. Here , the Chinese were also actively involved and their ships scoured the ocean for days. Unfortunately  a few seamen call Ping  fell overboard and their retrieval caused not a little confusion with news reporters Apparently a number of Pings were located and retrieved.

It's an awful and sad business for all those involved, while there has been a fair amount of skull-duggery mainly to cover up gross errors and inefficiencies by those authorities responsible. A messy affair with the pilots' reputation being torn to shreds in their absence.

To conclude while on the subject of things Chinese , here is a photo taken by my son while he was working in Shanghai.
Luv it!

OMG!

Sydney living

The Harbour City

It has its problems but Sydney is quite a city. 
Arriving here many moons ago , in winter, we saw more sunshine during the supposedly "cold"months than we had the previous summer in Europe. There were disadvantages and the adjustment to a different way of life were enormous . Rule numero uno was to reply enthusiastically to anyone who asked what we thought of Sydney  that we loved it! We once made the mistake of openly being critical of the things we found different , to which the blunt  reply was "Well, you'd better shape up or ship out!' Fairy nuff! (Translation : Fair enough; as a Uni professor once pointed out , we run words together like it was going out of fashion . Eggnisher for example is air conditioner ,which we had to use quite a bit this summer, and narsen parsee is nice and spicy when eulogising on various curry condiments available).
Accents can and do vary. Original Aussies can identify a Melbourne, Adelaide , Perth or country drawl with ease. Then, on the other hand , as one columnist wrote,  you can be "flayed with diphthongs" when visiting one of the expensive, very expensive (10% off for additional siblings ) schools. Oft, when catching a taxi from the airport to the city,  unwary travellers are subject to a stream of the vernacular that makes heads spin.

This is something very Sydney ( and perhaps the rest of Oz as far as I am aware ) in that everyone likes to know what you think of Australia. I can't for the life of me imagine anyone in Dundee, Scotland asking that question.It would be met with a bemused expression or at the worst by much rolling around accompanied by gales of laughter. Sorry Dundonians. A friend of mine remarked once ( himself a Scot not Scotch) that in his travels he had never met anyone who actually lived in Dundee. They had fled. Much has happened in Dundee since those prehistoric ages but the memory of what it was like still lingers.

To get back to Sydney,  one of the lesser known benefits is that on a Sunday,  transport passes ( Family Passes) are available that allow travel all day wherever and whenever the fancy takes you for the princely sum of $2.50 p.p. 
It allows you to see much of Sydney you would never really visit. It is mooted that those who live on the North Shore never really go South and vice versa. The western suburbs is where the rough diamonds and salt of the earth live , while the Eastern suburbs...well, let's just say they are special.

The painting ( one of mine) is a view of the City which was done in Balmain,  quite a trendy sort of place where the aspiring right people live; a bit arty farty although once rough as guts. Being a peninsular, house prices there are some of the most expensive with correspondingly vast mortgages (and parking fees). Still quite democratic though,  another good Aussie trait . You've got to give it to 'em, mate! The way that mate is used would fill a book. Perhaps more thoughts on that later.

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.