Life, Down Under. The digital diary of Vera & Alex Olah: Post #268 31 August 2023

Gentlefolk,

This post describes some of our activities during August 2023.

The contents of this post are in the following sequence:

Photos of our activities during August 2023.

News items which caught my eye in August 2023.

International Trade.

A bit of fun - some politically-incorrect cartoons.

Highlight of the Month was the 2023 Women’s Soccer World Cup, hosted jointly by Australia and New Zealand. It started on 20 July with the final played on 20 August; 32 countries participated, 64 matches in many cities across Australia and NZ. Similar format to the Men's World Cup: 8 groups of 4 played a Round Robin with the top 2 in each group going through to the Knockout Stage, followed by Finals (Quarters, Semis, and Grand Final).

Major surprise, and fascinating: many of the "Big" soccer countries did not make the Finals: Brazil, Germany, Italy, Argentina, USA, Portugal.

Australia's team, The Matildas, did better than expected (unlike Europe, soccer has not been a mainstream sport here). We beat France in the Quarter Final (on penalties); but lost to England (3-1) in the Semis. Sweden beat us 2-0 for 3rd place. Still, coming 4th in the World was a great result.

Spain (La Roja) beat England (The Lionesses) 1-0 in the Final, and were crowned World Champions (Spain is also current U17s and U20s World Champion).

At the celebrations, the President of Spain's Football Federation, Luis Rubiales, kissed Jenni Hermoso on the mouth which became a major controversy.

Hinata Miyazawa (Japan) got the Golden Boot award for most goals (5); Aitana Bonmati (Spain) got the Golden Ball award for best player of the tournament; Mary Earps (England) got the Golden Glove award for best goalie.

The Women's World Cup certainly put Women's soccer on the map in Australia: big enthusiastic crowds at all the games, with record TV audiences when the Matildas played.

Photos of our activities in August 2023.

Former Prime Minister (2007 - 2010), Kevin Rudd, currently Australia's Ambassador to the USA attended the unveiling of his official PM portrait at Parliament House Canberra, together with family. The portrait shows him at work in his study, surrounded by books and Chinese porcelain. His pet cat is shown in the bottom right-hand corner.

We found this action shot of Andrew in 2003 when he played for Eastern Suburbs Rugby Union. They won the Sydney 1st Grade Competition (Shute Shield) that year.

I visited this exhibition at the National Archives. Gough Whitlam was one of our better Prime Ministers (1972-75).

Mr & Mrs Whitlam (both deceased).

Walking near the Sydney Opera House.

The National Archives has a permanent exhibition dedicated to Australia's Federation in 1901, when the six self-governing colonies joined toegther to form the Commonwealth of Australia. These were our "Founding Fathers": Henry Parkes, Edmund Barton, George Reid, Alfred Deakin, John Forrest, Samuel Griffith, Charles Kingston, Andrew Clark, Catherine Spence.

One can't imagine, now, Australia not one country. But Federation was not a foregone conclusion, with the 6 self-governing States all jealously guarding their own jurisdictions.
Henry Parkes' famous speech in Tenterfield is creditied with starting serious discussion. Interestingly it focussed primarily on the threat of invasion (ie defence) as the driving force for Federation; there was no mention of "Australianness" or national identity. It took a decade of "hard jakka" to get it up. New Zealand attended the meetings, but in the end decided to go it alone.

The Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act, signed into law by Queen Victoria on 9 July 1900. The new country was proclaimed on 1 January 1901 by the Governor General, Lord Hopetoun, at celebrations in Centennial Park, Sydney.

RMC Duntroon Golf Course. The month or August, usually cold and frosty, had many nice days this year: calm and bright and sunny and around 15C. Great golfing weather.

We visited Sydney and wathch Eddie and Jay play soccer. Eddie's ball skills have improved even from the Kanga Cup in Canberra a month ago. He is obsessed and really enjoys the game.

Eddie's team getting some half-time directions from their coach.

Eddie plays for Easts Football Club. The team has dome well this year.

The 2023 Women's World Cup was co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand. Andrew and Eddie are both soccer fans and watched many games on TV.

Andrew got tickets to the Quater-final of the Women's World Cup, England beat Colombia.

Our seats in Stadium Australia were way up at the top.

Eddie & me at the England v Colombia Quarter Final; England won.

In the Final of the WWC Spain beat England 1-0.

Andrew, Caz and Eddie went to the WWC Final at Stadium Australia. They managed to get front-row seats this time.

Eddie's "trophies" from the WWC. He got about 30 players from different teams to sign the T-Shirt.

We went up to the Gold Coast to look at retirement options. Enroute we stayed with Siri and Bob Morrison at Nambucca Heads, which is about half-way between Sydney and Brisbane.
Bob and I were colleagues at the Australian Embassy Jakarta in 1972-3m and we have stayed in touch since then. They attended our wedding in 1973, Jen's in 2002, and Andrew's in 2011.

There are some really nice coastal walks around Nambucca.

Siri had a new "super-duper" armchair delivered.

We celebrated my 77th birthday with Siri and Bob.

This time we stayed at the San Mateo on Broadbeach. Beautiful weather, 13C - 28C every day. Amazing to think it's still winter and cold down south. I swam in the pool most days.

Broadbeach, just south of Surfer's Paradise. Our hotel was a block from the beach.

Watched the annual Surfer's Paradise Air Show; impressive skills.

The sea water temperature was 21C, some people swam but I prefered the hotel pool.

Vera found a friend near popular Kurrawa Surf Life Saving Club, where we had some meals.

Friends Nikki and Charles came from Brisbane. Charles was in one of my classes when I taught English at the China University of Petroleum, Qingdao. He fell in love with the Aussie way of life and is a permanent resident; a qualified engineer; he and Nikki moved from Sydney to Brisbane a couple of months ago.

Caught up with Denis and Irene Smith. Denis was Vera's boss at MC Computing in Canberra.

We had lunch with Michael Tjoeng at Kampung Malay. We were colleagues in the Australian Embassy Beijing in 1985-86.

Met Helen and Terry Nicoll at Halcyon Waters, Hope Island.

Inspected Seachange Riverside at Upper Coomera.

Carolyn Verner showed us around Seachange Emerald Lake, Carrara.

Tania Carson showed us a villa at Adelphi Springs (gated community in Southport).

We went to Sunnybank, Brisbane to watch Nate's team GPS Gallopers play Ipswich in the semi-final of the Brisbane Under 16s Rugby Union competition. The pitch was pretty dry & dusty in places. Ipswich were bigger and stronger, but GPS were more agile.

Nate about to kick a penalty. He was captain and played 5/8.

Winner are grinners. Nate's team GPS Gallopers won 37 - 36 with a penalty right on full time.
He played well - has very good ball skills & sense.
The following week GPS beat Brothers 20 - 16, to get them into to Grand Final against Sunnybank. Fingers crossed!

Tom, me, Vera and Jen at Nate's footy match.

Jay and Eddie dressed up for "Book Week" at Waverley Primary School.

The teachers at Jen's school dressed up for "Book Week". This was Jen's last week - after 5 years at Grovelly, she decided a change was needed - will start next week in the Admin Office of a large Catholic Girls School, Mount St Michael in Ashgrove.

On our return from the Gold Coast we stayed with Niniek and Paul for a night. They took us for dinner at the Pennant Hills Golf Club, where Paul is a member.

The best steak I've had for a long time - perfectly cooked (medium rare) and flavoursome. Thanks Miltons for a very pleasant night.

I arranged for our U3A Australian History group to visit the Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House.

The Australia China Friendship Society hosted a talk on Traditional Chinese Medicine by two expert doctors.

We returned to find trees in full blossom in Canberra.

I am a volunteer guide at the Museum of Australian Democracy in Old Parliament House. The volunteers were invited to a morning tea, to meet the new Chair of the Board of MoAD, Barrie Cassidy. He spent many years at Parliament House as a journalist, and is very well known as a political commentator; he was Bob Hawke's Press Secretary from 1986 - 91. He has fond memories of working in OPH and is an excellent choice the lead the Board.
Barrie attended the function with his wife, Heather Ewart, who is also a well known TV journalist (currently host of the ABC's Back Roads program).

Many volunteer guides attended the function to meet Barrie Cassidy.

A statue outside Old Parliament House in Canberra of the first women elected to Parliament: Dorothy Tangney was a Senator for WA from 1943 to 1967; Enid Lyons represented the electorate of Darwin, Tasmania, in the House of Representatives from 1943 - 51.
Someone has put sprigs of wattle in their hands.

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News items which caught my eye in August 2023.

($ are US dollars unless otherwise shown)

Global

Pakistan: an ISIS-linked suicide bomber killed 45+. Former PM Imran Khan (70) was sentenced to 3 years jail for corruption. Anti-Christian violence burnt churches.

Lebanon: clashes at the Eni el Hilweh Palestinian Refugee Camp, 11+ dead.

Canada: introduced health warnings on individual cigarettes.

Banking: HSBC reported first half 2023 profit of $22B (3x same period 2022).

UK: the annual stipend for the British Monarchy increased from 86M pounds to 125M pounds. Michael Parkinson, famous BBC chat-show host, died aged 88. Nurse Lucy Letby (33) found guilty of killing at least 7 babies.

Infant mortality: Sweden 1.8, Australia 3.3, USA 5.4.

Climate: Wildfires in Slovenia, Portugal, Greece, Canada (Yellowknife evacuated). Floods in India.

Italy: introduced a super profits tax on bank earnings.

Soccer: Harry Kane transferred from Tottenham to Bayern. Neymar transferred from PSG to Saudi al Hilal.

Moon/Space: Russia’s Luna 25 spacecraft crashed while attempting to land on the moon, but India’s Chandrayaan landed safely near the moon’s south pole. August 2023 had two full Super Moons (aka Blue Moons) which occur about every 2.5 years. The moon is now 357K km from earth, about 30K km closer than average, so appears larger and brighter.

BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) leaders meeting held in South Africa. Other countries invited to join (Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, etc).

World Athletics Championships were held in Budapest.

Thailand: Srettha Thavisin finally installed as Prime Minister; former President Taksin Shinawatra (74) returned from exile and was arrested.

Japan: released treated waste water from the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant.

Denmark: introduced a law against burning religious texts (such as Koran or Bible) in public. Sweden may follow.

France: banned the abaya (full length robe) in govt schools (previously had banned hijab head scarves in 2004).

Panama: drought has caused water levels to drop in the Panama Canal, reducing the size of ships able to access the Canal; 200 ships waiting.

Russian invasion of Ukraine

Ukrainian air drones made several attacks on Moscow and other Russian cities; sea drones attacked ships in the Russian naval base at Novorossiysk. Missiles hit bridge linking Russia and Crimea.

Saudi Arabia hosted peace talks on Ukraine; little result.

Ukrainian President Zelensky dismissed several recruitment officials for corruption.

US approved transfer of F16s fighters from Denmark and Holland to Ukraine; training of pilots and mechanics started.

Wagner Militia leader Yevgeny Prigozhin and 9 others died when his plane crashed north of Moscow.

According to New York Times estimates, Ukraine military casualties so far are 70K dead and 120K injured. The UN estimates civil deaths at 9,177.

USA

Former Pres Trump: two more (now total of 4) criminal indictments: (1) NYC falsifying financial documents in relation to payment to stripper (2) Wash DC mishandling classified documents, (3) Wash DC promoting the Jan 6 attack on The Capitol and seeking to overturn the election, and (4) Atlanta plotting to overturn the Georgia election result. Trump is the first President to face criminal charges, yet his support is solid; he even sold T-shirts featuring his mugshot.

Hunter Biden: Special Counsel David Weiss appointed to investigate Hunter Biden in relation to tax and gun charges.

Climate: Phoenix had 31 days of over 110F. Extreme heat killed an estimated 2147+ people in Arizona, Nevada and Texas. Wildfires in California, Nevada, Maui (Lahaina destroyed, 115+ died, hundreds still missing). Tropical Storms: Hilary hit California and Nevada, while Harold hit Texas, and Idalia hit Florida and Georgia.

Social Media: Top YouTuber (172M subscribers) Jimmy Donaldson, aka MrBeast, sued MrBeast Burgers for poor quality food. Influencer Kai Cenat caused chaos/riots in Union Square when giving away computers and play stations; 65 arrested.

Uber reported first profit: Q2 $326M.

Ratings agency Fitch downgraded US banks; stock markets fell.

Two US Navy sailors (both of Chinese origin) charged with spying for China.

After only 3 weeks, movie Barbie passed $1B at the box office.

Simone Biles (26) won the US Classic Gymnastics in Chicago.

Trade: imports from China in first 6 months of 2023 totaled $203B (25% down on same period in 2022).

Republican Party: first debate by 8 Presidential hopefuls. Trump refused to participate, instead did an interview with Tucker Carlson.

A ‘flash mob’ stole $300K worth of merchandise from the Yves St Laurent store in Glendale, California.

Deja Taylor, mother of a 6 year old boy who shot his teacher, pleaded guilty to child neglect.

Pres Biden met with leaders of Japan (Fumio Kishida) and South Korea (Yoon Suk Yeol); closer relations.

Serena Williams and Alexis Ohanian had second daughter named Olympia.

Economy: US inflation rate 3.2% for 12 months to July (Jerome Powell, Fed Chair, said inflation still too high). US house prices rose 2% (median now $407K) following 5 months of falls.

Australia

Economy: Inflation in Q2 (Apr, May, June) was 6%; RBA kept interest rates at 4.1%.

Cricket: England won the 5^th Test, to make it 2-all; Aust retained Ashes.

AFL: Lance (Buddy) Franklin retired, having kicked 1066 goals with Hawthorn and the Sydney Swans.

US Airforce to spend $630M on a mission planning and operations center in Northern Australia. A US Osprey helicopter crashed near Darwin, 3 US marines dead and 20 injured.

Voice: 14 October announced as date for the referendum on an indigenous Voice in the constitution; vigorous campaigning for both the Yes and No sides.

Australia’s Diamonds beat England 61-45 in Cape Town to win the World Netball championships.

KPMG was accused of inflating invoices for work done for Dept of Defence.

Former Qld judge Walter Sofronoff’s report into the handling of the Lehrmann case criticized both the AFP and DPP Shane Drumgold (subsequently Drumgold resigned, and sued the ACT Govt).

The Victorian Govt agreed to pay $380M compensation for cancelling the Commonwealth Games.

News Ltd dropped the defamation case against Crickey (and paid $840K for Crickey’s legal fees).

Coles and Woolworths, the 2 leading supermarkets, reported record profits.

Justice Stephen Gageler will replace Sasan Kiefer as the 14^th Chief Justice of the High Court. HC Justices must retire at age 70.

China

Floods: major flooding in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei Province; 33+ dead, many missing.

Covid: requirement for a negative Covid test for inward visitors scrapped.

Minerals: export licenses introduced for two rare earths Gallium and Germanium which are used in the manufacture of semi-conductors.

Tariffs: China scrapped the 80% tariff on Australian barley which was imposed in May 2020.

Trade stats for July: exports decreased by 14.5% (incl 21% to US) while imports fell by 12.4%.

Property: Evergrande reported a loss of $4.5B in the first half of 2023; it filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy to allow it to restructure debt in US. Another big property developer, Country Garden, reported a loss of $7.6B in first half of 2023.

Gina Raimondo, US commerce Secretary, visited Beijing and Shanghai. UK Foreign Minister, James Cleverly, visited Beijing.

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INTERNATIONAL TRADE

My 30 year career as an Australian Trade Commissioner gave me an interest in matters related to international trade. I subscribe to Bloomberg's excellent daily newsletter "Supply Lines - tracking Covid-19's impact on trade" (former title 'Trade Matters').

Here are some of the more interesting graphs in the Bloomberg newsletter during August 2023; they are largely self-explanatory.