Gentlefolk,
This Post describes our main activities during the first half of September 2023.
I have quickly decided to do this short post before our departure.
Vera and I are off on an overseas trip from 14 September to 17 October: Sydney - Bali - Bandung - Amsterdam - Medemblik - Wittgert - Weilheim OBB - Bangkok - Sydney. I will include those highlights in my next post (probably end October 2023).
The contents of this post are in the following sequence:
Photos of our activities during 1 - 13 September 2023.
News items which caught my eye 1 - 13 September 2023.
Herewith photos of our activities 1 - 13 September 2023.
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| The National Library has some interesting exhibitions - I attended this one which focussed on Australian's love of sport. |
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| Interesting story about a cricket team made up of Indigenous Aussies which toured England in 1868. |
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| A painting of the Indigenous Cricket Team. |
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| WW1 recruitment poster emphasised sport. |
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| Aussie Rules icon, Roy Cazaly (1893-1963) was famous for taking marks. |
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| Australians love all kinds of sport. |
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| The Empire Games later became know as the Commonwealth Games. Victoria recently pulled out of hosting the 2026 C'th Games - too expensive and not value for money. I would be surprised if they were held again - a vestige of Colonial days. |
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| Dawn Fraser, champion swimmer and Australian icon. She won 8 Olympic medals. She won the 100 m freestyle at 3 Olympics. |
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| Rugby Union has been popular on the East Coast of Australia, but has lost some support in recent years. The Aussie team, The Wallabies, have won the Rugby World Cup twice, in 1991 and 1999. The 2023 RWC is being played in France at the moment - go the Wallabies!!!! |
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| Rob de Costella, world champion marathon runner. He lives in Canberra. |
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| Dylan Alcott (born 4 Dec 1990) excelled in both wheelchair tennis and wheelchair basketball. In tennis he won the 4 major Grand Slams and Olympic Gold in the same year (2021), an incredible feat. His advice to young disabled people "for every one thing you can't do, there are 1,000 other things you can do". What a champion! |
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| Playing golf at RMC Golf Club; John Tilley hitting off. |
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| Golf buddies, from left: John, Phil, me, Brian, and Bill. Unusually, I won the day with a 44 (9 holes), even got a birdie on the 95m Par 3 5th hole!!! |
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| Jen & Tom went to Kurt's final basketball game for this season. They won! Kurt will finish school this year, and intends to do an electrician apprenticeship. |
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| My U3A Current Affairs group meets on Wednesday mornings. Enid was the group moderator; she passed the baton onto Hamish (pictured) and Gary. It's a fun group. |
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| We attended this cabaret at Smith's Alternative Cafe. It started off well, but then diminished. |
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| At the Cabaret with Paul & Maria, and Robin & Tieke. |
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| John Shortis and Moya Simpson were the best act in the Cabaret. |
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| Jen visited for the 30th anniversary of graduating from Canberra Girls Grammar. Here she is with one of her best school friends, Eliza. |
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| The Australia China Friendship Society hosted the annual High School Awards for best students of Mandarin. Many proud parents attended. |
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| The students who received Awards for doing well in Mandarin studies. Also included are Carol Keil, President of ACFS and Mr Song, head of the Cultural Office of the Chinese Embassy. |
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| I am a volunteer tutor at an English Conversation Group for migrants. We meet for 90 minutes every Monday morning at Woden Library; start off in a big circle and then split into small groups. Normally about 20 come to practice their English. |
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| The U3A German Conversation group meets on Monday afternoons at the German Harmonie Club. From left: Gaby, Harry, Irene, Martin, Peter, Jim, Trevor. Not shown Ian. |
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| Paul Mills gave a very interesting talk on "The economics of war" to the U3A Australian History group which meets on Tuesday mornings. |
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News items which caught my eye 1 - 3 September 2023.
($ are US
dollars unless otherwise shown)
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Global
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South Africa: fire in a building in
Johannesburg, 76+ dead, many injured. Paris banned rental e-scooters. Thailand: the King reduced Taksin’s jail
sentence to 1 year. Sweden: The Nobel Foundation reversed its decision
to invite Russia, Belarus and Iran to this year’s Awards. Major flooding in Spain,
Libya, Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria, Brazil, HK. F1: Max Verstappen won the Italian Grand Prix;
his 10th consecutive win. Israel: clashes between Eritrean asylum seekers and
police; big demonstrations against govt plans to curtail the power of the Supreme
Court. ASEAN meeting held in Jakarta (Albo attended). G20 (85% of World GDP) meeting held in Delhi
(Albo attended). Athens: limited visitors to the Acropolis to 20K
per day. BRICS: 6 countries will join in Jan 2024:
Argentina, Egypt, Iran, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia and UAE. RWC: France beat New Zealand 27-13 in the first
game of the World Rugby Cup. Morocco: a major earthquake near Marrakesh
killed thousands. Soccer: Neymar 79 goals passed Pele’s 77 goals
scored for Brazil. Pete played 92 games for Brazil between 1957-71, while
Neymar has played 125. President of Spanish Football,
Luis Rubiales, finally resigned following his controversial kiss on Jenni
Hermoso after the World Cup win in Sydney. Tennis US Open: Djokovic beat Medvedev in straight
sets, his 24th Grand Slam title; Coco Gauff (US, 19) beat Aryna
Sabalenka (Belarus) to win the Women’s Singles title. Basketball: Germany beat Serbia in the final
of the World Championships.
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Russian invasion of Ukraine |
Kyiv confirmed drone attack on Pshov
Airbase, 4 planes damaged. Ukrainian counter-offensive made
progress around Zaporizhzhia. President Zelensky replaced
Defence Minister Oleski Reznikov. Russian drones hit Odesa. Putin and Erdogan met in Sochi.
Kim Jung Un visited Moscow. USA said it would supply Ukraine
with depleted uranium (DP) shells for the Abrams tanks it promised, as part
of a new $1B package.
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USA
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Proud Boys leaders, Joe Biggs and
Enrique Torrio, sentenced to many years for their involvement in the Jan 6 Capitol
riot. Questions raised about Mitch McConnell’s
(81) health; he is the leader of the Republicans in the Senate. A record crowd for women’s sport as
92K watched Nebraska beat Omaha in College Volleyball. Thousands of concert-goers at the
Burning Man Festival in Nevada were stranded after heavy rains. Apple launched its iPhone15 and smart
watches. revenue from sales of iPhones $40B in last quarter (down 2%). NYC placed restrictions on short
term rentals (like AirB&B); other cities which already have restrictions:
San Fran, Amsterdam, Berlin, Paris, Toronto, London. Republican leader of the House of
Reps, Kevin McCarthy, called for an inquiry into the possible impeachment of
Pres Biden. NFL: New York Jets quarterback
Aaron Rodgers tore his Achilles tendon after 5 minutes (they paid $75M for him)
in game against Buffalo Bills. Census Bureau: median Household
income in USA is $74,580 pa.
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Australia |
BOM: this winter mean temperature
was 1.5C above the long term average. Of Australia’s agricultural land,
2% is owned by Chinese, 1.9% by British, 0.7% by Canadians, 0,6% by
Americans, 0.6% by Dutch. Foreign owned water entitlements total 4,503 GL
(11% of total) of which 2.1% is owned by Canadians, 1.8% Americans, 0.8%
Chinese, 0.8% Brits. The ‘Yes’ campaign for a Voice is
losing ground according to polls; despite strong govt support, the referendum on 14 October looks likely to fail. Alan Joyce, MD of Qantas for 15
years, retired early following strong criticism of recent performance; Vanessa
Hudson took over. RBA: Philip Lowe’s last board
meeting left interest rates at 4.1%.
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China |
Typhoon Saola hit southern China
(incl HK). Baidu launched Ernie, China’s
version of ChatGPT. Huawei launched a new smart phone
with a locally produced advanced 7 nanometer processor. Chinese govt banned iPhones in Ministries
and Govt agencies; Apple shares fell.
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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').
Between 1996 and 2019 WTO members filed an average of 23.7 pa requests for dispute settlement; last 3 years dropped to 7.3 pa. Pres Trump "hollowed out" the WTO Appellet body, and Biden has continued that policy. Trump has said that if he is re-elected President he will impose a 10% import duty across the board.
China's share of US merchandise imports declined from a peak of 21.8% in 2018 to 14.6% in 2022
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Examples of Paraprosdokians (from Wikipedia)
(figure of speech in which the latter part of a sentence
or phrase is surprising or unexpected)
"Take my wife—please!" —Henny Youngman
"There but for the grace of God—goes God."
—Winston Churchill
"If I could just say a few words … I'd be a better
public speaker." —Homer Simpson
"If I am reading this graph correctly—I'd be very
surprised." —Stephen Colbert
"If all the girls attending the Yale prom were laid end
to end, I wouldn't be a bit surprised." —Dorothy Parker
"On his feet he wore … blisters." —Aristotle
"I've had a perfectly wonderful evening, but this
wasn't it." —Groucho Marx
"My uncle's dying wish was to have me sit in his lap;
he was in the electric chair." —Rodney Dangerfield
"I like going to the park and watching the children run
around because they don't know I'm using blanks." —Emo Philips
"I haven't slept for ten days, because that would be
too long." —Mitch Hedberg
"I sleep eight hours a day and at least ten at
night." —Bill Hicks
"I don't belong to an organized political party. I'm a
Democrat." —Will Rogers
“War does not determine who is right—only who is left.” —
Bertrand Russell
"On the other hand, you have different fingers."
—Steven Wright
"He was at his best when the going was good."
—Alistair Cooke
"Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside
of a dog, it’s too dark to read." —Jim Brewer, sometimes attributed to
Groucho Marx
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That's it for this post.
We're off to Sydney tomorrow, and then to Bali. Back home in mid-October.
Best wishes, stay healthy and keep smiling.
Vera & Alex Olah
Canberra Australia
Wednesday, 13 September 2023.
