A Small Treasure

 

Recently, a book came into my possession. It is not exactly in mint condition, but it is nearly 100 years old, and can hardly be expected to be in mint condition.

On the first page, there is a certificate stuck on.  

It says  'Presbyterian Church of Victoria and Tasmania,'  

            Gre Gre North School,  

            Awarded to Mervyn McRae

            as the prize of the Junior Bible Class. 

And there's a signature and a date, 19/10/28.  That is 1928, nearly 100 years ago.

The book is still perfectly readable.  'The Turn of the Tide,'  by Eleanor H. Porter.

But this is not why it is precious to me.  That was my father who was awarded this prize so many years ago.

It is strange to think of him as a little boy.  I remember him as a great father,  'Pa' to my children, as a genial middle-aged man, and for a time,  a 'Grey Nomad.'   He started a farm, raised his children, played tennis and bowls, and wrote a couple of books with the help of his wife.  

But also, I remember him as a shadow of his former self, one of the sad residents of a Nursing Home. 

It had me thinking - we see an old person, and tend to forget that this person had a rich history. They worked and had a family, most were fathers and mothers, they knew heartbreak (everyone knows heartbreak at some stage)  and once upon a time, they were little boys and little girls.

This little old book is a treasure.

-------------------------

-------------------------

Who are the racists? The accuser or the accused?

 

There is a supposed racism scandal.  A member of the staff of the royal family asked a woman,  black skin and exotic dress, where she came from.  Since the answer was that she was British born, and the one making conversation was still making conversation,  or maybe was curious, she asked where her family was from.  Fair enough, she was quite obviously not of Anglo stock.   

Horror. Scandal, "Racist," was the cry.

But who are the racists?  

The one who asked, or those who think that asking is somehow insulting.  Black skin is not something to be ashamed of,  and an interesting background is something to take pride in, if anything.  

Below is the picture of the woman who was asked an innocent question, and chose to make an enormous fuss about it.

Ngozi Fulani.

Another instance:  The infamous Oprah interview with Meghan Markle and Prince Harry.  Apparently, someone said something about the baby they were expecting, how dark it would be.   But there is nothing wrong with having dark skin.  The one making the comment  (if it ever happened)  obviously didn't think there was anything wrong with darker skin,  so the racists must be the ones who do - the ones carrying on about the supposed racism in the question.  

Are black women like Oprah Winfrey or slightly darker-skinned people like Meghan Markle so ashamed of their complexion?   Because it is just a difference, not a defect.  If these twits would realise that, maybe they would not see racism everywhere.  

Meghan and one of her babies

A co-worker (Aboriginal) was expecting a baby with her husband, also Aboriginal.  I was imagining a gorgeous brown-skinned baby in contrast to my own blonde babies, and said something like that.  How was she insulted?  There is not a thing wrong with having a gorgeous brown-skinned baby.   It was not a racist comment.

People have to rethink what they call racist.  I have heard that even Maths has been labelled 'racist,'  goodness knows why.

But it seems to me that the ones who see 'racism' everywhere are frequently the one who see a darker skin as inferior. They are the racists, not those making innocent conversation. 

---------------------------------------------

Aboriginal Crime

The subject of Aboriginal crime.

 
I live in a small regional city. At pre-school, every day, the kids recite a 'thank you' to the local Aboriginal group for allowing them to use their land. Plus there are Reconciliation days, Naidoc week, yet another 'apology' for a wrong, real or imagined, plus constant talk of disadvantage, frequently twisting or inventing 'facts' to suit the agenda. We are falling over backwards to try and placate the Aboriginals of the town.

So what is the result? Well, if I get broken into tonight, my car stolen, myself threatened, the odds are almost 100% that it will be Aboriginals that are doing it. Because every time a little child recites a thank you, every time some fat Elder takes a couple of hundred dollars to do a 'Welcome to the Country,' the chip on the shoulder grows and far too many decide that whatever they do to whites is justified because Aboriginals are so wickedly persecuted.

We are following the wrong track, as evidenced by the fact that 40 years ago, Aboriginals were actually doing far better than they are now. We need to think again, stop all of the useless programmes that never do any good, and regard all of us as Australians.

Chip away at that chip on the shoulder of Aboriginal kids, and maybe I will not need to worry about my safety when I go to bed at night.

Be kind at Christmas

I just had a phone call from a cousin. He's had a rotten year - hip replacements, bowel cancer, eye surgery. Healthwise, things are looking up for him now, but he is still elderly, and far from fit. 

He told me his Christmas was to be 'nice and peaceful,' which I translate to mean 'lonely and miserable.' There is family close, but they have little to do with him now. I don't know whether there has been an argument or they just don't want to be bothered with him. 

What I am saying to you is, if you know someone like that, forgive the transgression if there has been one, tolerate his faults (you also have faults) and be kind enough to offer to share your Christmas. Sometimes, a phone call is all you can do. But make that phone call. We should be kind at Christmas. Other times, too, but especially at Christmas. 

This Christmas, there is an added complication, the paranoia fed by the media. They are actually encouraging people to exclude anyone who has not been vaccinated against Covid. Know that the vaccinations are not actually very effective. We can all catch and spread the virus, so it makes no difference who joins you at Christmas dinner. Do not discriminate on this basis. Family and kindness is more important than listening to the never-ending propaganda. 

I remember one of my first Christmases alone. I was a long way from home, and working. A work friend made a special effort to come in and give me a small gift. It was so sweet of her, and never forgotten. So be kind at Christmas. It is more needed than usual as so many of us had a rotten year.

This web page belongs to M. A. McRae.

'The Unvaccinated." Making them "The Other.'

There is a sinister thing happening in Australia, but not just in Australia. Most of the Western world seems to be affected. A portion of the population has been set aside for exclusion and even vilification. Now, one would think that anyone has a perfect right to do with their body as they choose. ‘My body, my choice,’ right?

I would have thought it so obvious a right that it would not need defending.  

And yet those who have chosen not to be vaccinated against Covid 19 are being sacked from their jobs - 'No jab, no job.'  

And then there is the 'vaccine passport,' now common throughout the Western World, although it goes by different names, such as the 'Green Pass' in Israel.  Without a vaccine passport, in many countries, you will be denied access to venues such as pubs, restaurants, cinemas and clubs. 

Dan Andrews, dictatorial premier of Victoria, says that they are moving from a ‘lockdown’ economy to a ‘lockout’ economy’– those who have not been vaccinated against Covid are to be locked out of society.

In the Northern Territory, the premier is planning to fine a person $5,000 if they decline the vaccine. 

While none of the Covid vaccines are proving nearly as effective as we were led to believe,  those fully vaccinated can still contract and spread the virus,  at least they do seem to provide protection against serious illness. So ‘The Unvaccinated’ are not a big threat to those who are vaccinated. It appears their crime is more in the perceived disobedience, and now their exclusion from society is their punishment.

Australia has achieved extremely high levels of vaccination for this disease. That is what happens when people are threatened with loss of livelihood plus condemnation from all around. Nurses, policemen, soldiers, workers in supermarkets – all are being sacked if they refuse the vaccine.

 Unbelievably, several Victorian MPs will be excluded from attending parliament this week, because they are either not vaccinated, oppose mandatory vaccination or simply think that their medical information is supposed to be private! 

 ‘The Unvaccinated.’ ‘The Other.’  Some think that exclusion from venues such as pubs and restaurants is not enough punishment. They are to be shunned. Gladys Berejiklian, former premier of NSW, said that she would not want to be in the same room as an unvaccinated person. Jacinta Ardern, NZ PM, said the same, ‘people who are vaccinated will want to know they are around other vaccinated people,’ and acknowledged, quite unashamed, that she is creating a country with two classes of people based on vaccination status.

Worse. There have been some unhinged celebrities who speak of ‘re-education camps’ and indefinite isolation for those still recalcitrant. A certain independent reporter in America was able to get people to willingly sign a pretend petition that those who have not been vaccinated should be evicted from their rented accommodation. He said something like ‘They don’t deserve it when they are endangering us all.’

And many were happy to agree that those dreadful people should be denied even a roof over their heads.

That is extreme. It is also extreme when doctors say they will refuse to treat ‘The Unvaccinated.’ And yet, the Victorian branch of the AMA (Australian Medical Association) surprised and disgusted us when it suggested that unvaccinated people who get Covid should “not disturb the public health system, and let nature take its course”. The implication was that they should not be treated.

 The statement was later ‘clarified’ to say they didn’t mean any such thing. But it was said. And some doctors are refusing to see any person who has not been vaccinated, at least according to a facebook post I happened to see -  “local GP in my area will not see any unvaccinated patients. His negligence has led to delays in serious medical issues in people. I hope they sue him.”

So how are the majority of people feeling about a percentage of the population being denied their new ‘freedoms?’ There does not seem to be much concern.  

What the news likes to cover are cheerful people enjoying themselves now that lockdowns are mostly over.

 They would not cover an incident such as when protesters were peacefully filing past some outside diners, and were subject to foul insults.

Rebel News journalist, Avi Yemeni, covered that story. Calls such as ‘Get the jab and fuck off,’ and worse. https://www.facebook.com/joinRebelNews/videos/627360201770368









So how are the majority of people feeling about such a large proportion of them being turned into an underclass?

Because, remember, this underclass does not only include those who have chosen not to be vaccinated. Some have not had the opportunity to get the second jab in time, some had a poor reaction to the first, and decided it was best not to get a second, some are pregnant, and sensibly deciding not to risk their unborn baby with such a new vaccine, and some do not have a smartphone or are not capable of downloading the particular app to show vaccine status.

Not computer literate, not smart phone capable.

    

Those excluded might also include those who refuse to use ‘freedoms’ that all of us do not have access to. That would be the principled ones, so probably only a few.

 

In NSW, the percentage of the population fully vaccinated with the two doses is now around 86%.  So 14% not fully vaccinated. Add to that the other groups, and you have over 15%  of the population excluded from normal life.   “The Unvaccinated,’ they call them. Effectively ‘The Other.’

Many are likening the exclusion of this group as akin to the way that Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, Communists and other perceived undesirables were treated by the majority during and in the years prior to WW2. While some people were taken away to ‘work camps,’ the respectable citizens averted their eyes. They were ‘The Other,’ and didn’t count.

 So now ‘freedom days’ have come, and the media is happy to cover all of those people enjoying their returned freedoms, limited though they are.

Those not permitted to enjoy a meal at the pub or even go and have a much needed haircut are totally ignored by the mainstream media. The attitude of most is summed up by a comment made on facebook in answer to my post criticising the vaccine passport. “Chill out, nobody cares. The rest of us are getting on with our lives.”

This is sad. This is sinister. How easily the majority of the population can turn on a minority.

Warsaw, Poland, WW2

------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------

Face Masks - mere superstition?

We know that facemasks have no use at all outside, and virtually none when used indoors.  It is an easy subject to research if you doubt that assertion.

Until a couple of days ago,  (regional NSW, Australia)  there was the irrational requirement to wear a face-mask even when outside, even when no-one was close.  Penalty - $500.  And since the police are engaging in 'high-visibility policing,'  ie deliberate intimidation of the populace, it is quite likely the maskless individual will be seen and fined.

But that requirement has been dropped, and masks are only required when indoors. 

And yet, when I went into town today, nearly every person was wearing a mask. I drove past a high school and even there, at least half of the kids (who were outside)  were also wearing masks. 

Why?   Do people believe it offers some protection against Covid even when outside in the sun and the wind?  Even when no other person is near?  

Or are they thinking it is a sign to other people that they are good little boys and girls who do what they are required to do, and then a bit more?  

I think that the wearing of face-masks has gone from being a perceived aid to the prevention of the spread of Covid 19 to mere superstition. It is surely not a conscious belief, but somewhere in their minds, many people think that if they wear the face-mask, no germ (or Virus) will dare to come close. 

During the days of the Black Death, people used to try and avert the threat with 'a pocket full of posy,'  various herbs or flowers.  These days, the face-mask is our equivalent.   It is superstition.  What a shame that the ones who make the rules, arbitrary, ever-changing rules, appear to share that superstition!  

---------------------

-----------------

BOOMERS - 'We had the best of it.'

The Baby Boomer Generation - 'We had the best of it.'

It is something you commonly hear in a gathering of those of us of similar age - 'We had the best of it.'

And so we did. We grew up in a time of increasing prosperity. Few of us knew real hardship. Hardly any of us knew what it was to go hungry.

1950s

In our childhood, we knew freedom that our grandchildren never know - bonfire nights, being allowed to play near the river without adult supervision, learning independence a lot earlier than they do now. In Queensland, there's a law that children cannot walk alone to school until they are twelve. Twelve!

  

Oh yes, we were so much more free than the poor children growing up now.


In our teen years, we grew more aware of the Cold War, and the prospect of instant annihilation by nuclear bomb. I clearly remember one teacher at high school assuring us that there was a nuclear missile aimed right at us, right then. Since it was a small country town, that was quite unlikely, but all the same, just a few bombs on a few capital cities would have meant that an enemy (the Soviet Union, of course) would not need to spare a thought to possible interference from Australia.

'Mutually assured destruction,' they called the policy, aka 'MAD.' In other words, each contender would have enough destructive power to send the enemy back to the stone age, except that the 'victor' would also be sent back to the stone age.

Even now, I found six books on my shelves from that era - all about the likely course of a nuclear war, and survival strategies - if survival was possible.

 

Did we fully believe that the world as we knew it could end? Maybe, partially. I remember my father once asking me when I was around twenty, and I thought about it and finally replied that Yes, I thought there would be nuclear war one day.

We had no control over it, so most of us didn't worry too much. There was the 1962 Cuba Crisis, but we were children then and took no notice. (I suspect it was largely kept from the news, so adults would have known little more.) We must have come closer to nuclear war then than at any time since.

Most of us went on with our lives, but maybe that threat was a factor in the growth of the Hippy movement - 'Make love, not war,' and choosing to be 'flower people.'

Drugs, as well. The drugs didn't get into my local school until after I had left, but the younger baby boomers - some of those destroyed themselves with drugs, mostly Heroin at that time. (They started with Marihuana and LSD was also big in some quarters - 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.')

From Australian War Museum
Australians in Vietnam

The Vietnam War.

Thousands of young men were drafted into the army for two years, where they were sent to be traumatised in a war that we should never have been in. Sound familiar? We were assured that no soldier who was not a volunteer would be sent to Vietnam, but I can remember news footage of a young man being carried onto the ship kicking and screaming. He did not look much like a willing volunteer.

Opposition to our participation in the Vietnam war mounted, and when a Labor leader, Gough Whitlam, was elected, he put an abrupt end to it. I will always be grateful to him for that, as my young brother would soon have been of an age to be drafted.

So our Vietnam veterans returned, quite quietly. Sadly, some of the opposition to the war was extended to hostility toward the young men who were only doing their best to do their duty.

Vietnam now

It was not long later that America also retreated, leaving victory to the wicked communist North Vietnamese. Except that somehow, they have made a rather nice country anyway, and a favourite tourist destination.

Women's Liberation: 

Another major change was the Women's Liberation movement, helped along by the advent of the Contraceptive Pill. By the time I went to work, it was no longer accepted that women would automatically leave their jobs once married, and families became smaller. I had two children, my parents had four, my grandparents fourteen and five respectively, and that is fairly typical of the generations.


Sadly, the feminist movement has totally lost its way these days. The so-called 'leaders' seem absolutely barmy, and would rather invent offences like 'mansplaining' and 'manspreading' than dream of doing anything about our poor unfortunate sisters living under Islam.

The 'Grand Tour.'

That term is from olden times, when a young man was not considered educated until he had done some travelling. It applied only to the rich, of course.

In our day, it was not only the domain of the rich. We worked for a few years, saved our money, and off we went for a year or two of 'backpacking.' We stayed in Youth Hostels, (far more basic than they are today) and hitched rides, or travelled by bus, plane and train. We could work if we chose. As I recall, the 'Working Holiday' permit for the UK allowed us to work for 6 months of each year.

At that time, the plane fare across the world was relatively far more expensive than it became later, meaning that we stayed longer. It is only in more recent times that so many people have an annual overseas holiday. Surfer's Paradise was fashionable then, not Bali, and not places further afield.

The 1970s. 

 Parties, candles, colour. A fad for meditation and Astrology. A fun time, and the first generation where it was fine to enjoy sex before marriage since the risk of unwanted babies was slight.

Marrying, having our own families, and because we were such a large bulge in the population, things seemed to become available just around the time we needed them - everything from pantyhose in our teens (remember stockings and suspenders?) to the slow and reluctant passing of voluntary euthanasia laws right around the time we started to think about our last days of life.


Retirement.

Surely we are the first generation to have sufficient financial security that so many of us have been able to buy ourselves a caravan and become 'Grey Nomads.' Some of our parents managed it, but the Boomer generation managed it in their hundreds of thousands. In the last decade, there have been more and more of us on the roads, in all sorts of vans, from the small and second-hand to luxurious motorhomes. Nearly always friendly, snobbery a rarity. None especially rich, (the rich had overseas holidays) and none especially poor, as the lifestyle did, after all, cost something.

Entertainment around a campfire, gossiping, seeing new things. Enjoying life as much as possible before old age and poor health takes over. 'Adventure before dementia,' some would say. Or 'Every day above ground is a good one.'

Wandering, relaxing, enjoying life

But all good things come to an end.

In 2020, China exported a particularly nasty virus. But worse than that - it has managed to export its notions of how to deal with a population who might prefer to be free than to be confined. The idea of 'lockdowns' came from China, and now, in September, 2021, the idea of having a 'social credit score' and living under constant surveillance seems to have come here as well.

Australia is no longer a free country. It saddens me greatly. The excuse was a disease that kills mostly only the very old and the very sick. And yet what damage the fear of it has brought about.

There are other indications of a bleak future ahead.

  America withdrew from Afghanistan in a show of defeat so utterly incompetent that some have aired their suspicion that deliberate treachery was involved. The Taliban are now in charge there, and the women, never very free, will now be made invisible again behind their personal tents. Under Islamic Sharia Law. How very, very sad.

 

2001

The triumph of these barbarians will inspire other Jihadists. We can expect more attacks. There was already one in New Zealand (3rd September) when a man grabbed a knife in a supermarket and started attacking whoever was close. The 20th Anniversary of 9/11 is imminent. What's the betting that there will be Islamic attacks on that significant day?

And yet, the Islamists are not the threat that China is. It may be only a few years ago that Australia's leaders (very foolishly) signed a Free Trade Agreement with China, but now China is showing itself as undisguised enemy.

It has used economic coercion to try and bring other countries to heel, (and often succeeded) it has taken over the South China Sea, with a few objections, but no-one tried to stop it, it brought down the jackboots on the citizens of Hong Kong a lot sooner than they were hoping for, and worst of all, sometime probably in the next few years, it will try and take over Taiwan. With America ailing under a weak president, it is unlikely that anyone will try and stop them.

Soldiers of the Chinese Army

Once Taiwan has been digested, China is likely to turn its attention to further conquests. War with America would be a disaster.

If America under Biden prefers to act the craven incompetent, as it did as they left Afghanistan, that is also likely to end up in disaster. I don't know what will happen there, but I can see nothing good.

From a free country to what?

There is the loss of free speech, the rise in censorship, the 'Cancel Culture,' and our grandchildren being subject to lunatic ideologies in their schools, such as the ideas that males are bad, that whites are automatically oppressors, and that girls can turn into boys and vice versa.

And right now, we are losing our freedom in our own country. Signing in wherever we go, face-masks mandated whether or not they have any protective function whatsoever (they surely have none when outside alone) and the latest unconstitutional order is that proof of vaccination will be required as a condition of travel and as a condition of doing just ordinary things like having a meal at a pub, or crossing the state border - when the state borders finally open, that is.

It makes me sad and it makes me very angry. Those people who choose not to be vaccinated, (and they have a perfect right to make that choice,) will be the new under-class, along with any of us who stand on principle and refuse to use this new form of control. We have lost our privacy and we have lost our freedom

This image of a little statue which I have had since the 70s is displaying the sign which seems to alternatively mean 'Peace' or 'Victory.' Whichever, it is a sign of optimism.

I hope the reader can feel some optimism, because this lady has none left.

Yes, we had the best of it. 

 

----------------------------------------