Friday, November 10

It's insidious, but we're being bombarded every day with 'gentle' encouragement about how we should spend our money and, to an extent, I can cope with that, but now we're being pressured in how we should think.  Browsing the Internet the other day, I found my attention drifting to a little article about the ethics of buying shoes.  I didn't know that ethics was part of this mundane activity.

Oh, yes, there's more to buying shoes than picking the right size and negotiating a reasonable price.  If you buy a name-brand sneaker, you have to be aware of the toxic chemicals that go into their manufacture, and the fact that even the most expensive ones are made by exploited child labour in China or some other third-world country.  So, maybe it's better to stick to old-fashioned, tried and true leather.  However, there's another whole can of worms associated with that decision.

The article showed pictures of the appalling leather tanneries in India and talked about the early deaths resulting from the chrome used in the process, as well as more child labourers who work in slave-like conditions.  

Not wanting to go through life bare footed, I had a dig around for sustainable, ethical alternatives, and stumbled across a new product called pinatex (the n should have a ~ accent but I haven't got a Spanish keyboard). For generations, weavers in the Philippines have been hand-weaving the fibre from pineapple leaves into a beautiful shiny fabric which is used for high-quality garments like the Barong that men wear on formal occasions.

Now, a new process can turn pineapple leaves into a leather substitute which makes great shoes.  The material is like a suede and is manufactured in a city called Labo and sold to hand-picked designers.  Marilyn and I know Labo well as it's the nearest big city to our friend Kit's resort on San Miguel Bay.  In fact, we were involved in a project to help build a new school for a farming village on the outskirts of the city, where they grow pineapples.  Serendipity!

I pushed on to see where I could buy the shoes in Australia and was directed to a Vegan web-site.  Vegan?  I don't want to eat them.  Not content with trying to change our diet - pushing nut cutlets and soy marshmallows - they've moved on to infiltrating such diverse causes as the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and Same Sex Marriage, and now they want to tell us what to wear on our feet.  Is there no end to it?

Saturday, November 4

It's Craft Fair weekend again in Deloraine and the locals' quiet life is once more disrupted by the influx of thousands of visitors cluttering up the streets and emptying out the ATMs.  Marilyn and I are playing a low-key role this year, helping out on the gates but keeping away from the nitty-gritty of the organisation.  Marilyn does a shift each day in the hospitality area and she enjoys the interaction with the judges and other volunteers.

Tonight was the Awards Presentation.  This was always a bit of a bun-fight with lots of drinks and free finger-food but the current Director has aimed for a bit of class and has put on a nice meal and the expectation that people will dress up a bit.  Marilyn and I hadn't planned to go but, at the last minute, found ourselves putting on the glad rags.  It was a pleasant night.  We sat with the judges which is always interesting and had a great meal.

For each table of eight, the caterers brought out platters of pork belly, poached salmon and pork and veal rissoles.  A three-tiered cake stand had salad, potatoes and vegetables.  It looked terrific but I'm not always a fan of self-service at a crowded table, when the food is covered with sauce and everyone is in their best clothes.  The chance of a messy accident is high.

However, the food was delicious and we came through unscathed.

This year, we have a researcher from, I think, Flinders University, working on a study on why events like the Craft Fair are so successful.  Despite the fact we live in a low-population area, we depend on volunteer labour, and we are seriously affected by rising costs, we have managed to survive and grow over 30-odd years.  During this period, highly-subsidised capital-city events have withered and died, but we haven't depended on government funding or council support.  As Michael Veitch used to say on Fast Forward, 'There's something in this for all of us.'

Friday, November 3

I've complained before about finding myself on the roundabout of medical appointments, checking my diary every Sunday night to see what's on so I can plan my week.  And I've come to realise that the Government is complicit in this, inventing new programs to keep us oldies going back to the doctor over and over: bowel scan kits come through the mail, the doctor's surgery is full of signs for free 'flu shots and free shots for shingles, and the list goes on.

Marilyn had a letter the other week from a crowd called Australian Hearing, inviting her to ring for an appointment for a hearing test.  Marilyn controls the volume button on the TV remote and I had been complaining that it was getting a bit loud for my comfort, so she made the appointment.  LSS, she had some hearing loss and now has a nice little box with a pair of government-provided hearing aids.

Of course, there's always more to the story.  At her first visit she was given a card; if she recommended someone else to join up, she would get a Coles voucher.  Fantastic!  I had my test last week and, surprise, surprise, I have a slight hearing loss too.  To their credit, Australian Hearing said that I could go on as I am without aids but I would certainly get some benefit from wearing them. Not being one to refuse a free gift, I put in my order.

No money has changed hands, so where's the profit?  As eligible pensioners, we simply sign a form to signify we have been treated and Australian Hearing receives a handsome cheque from the Treasury.  For our involvement, Marilyn and I each have a pair of steam-powered Medicare hearing aids in a handsome presentation box.  I'm being cynical, influenced by too many 1950's British comedies making jokes about NHS glasses and teeth; the hearing aids we have are high-tech, not at all intrusive and very effective. Oh, and we have a Coles voucher as well.

Thursday, November 2

I've mentioned Quora before - the website where people ask naive questions on trivial matters.  It's a site just begging to be sent up and I sometimes wonder whether the contributors, in fact, first send in the questions and then write a clever answer.  The following was spotted by Jamie.  I hope the hapless US citizens reading it understand the irony and don't take it too seriously.

Is Australia a horrible place?

Donald Ferguson

Donald Ferguson, lived in Australia

Updated Oct 7

Definitely.

There is no internet in Australia. This message was written on paper and sent via carrier pigeon to a waiting Russian trawler where it was uploaded.

Australia is ruled by an evil king named Colin and his queen Cheryl. They live in a triple fronted brick veneer house in western Sydney. Colin has banned slavery and made free healthcare mandatory despite our vigorous protests. He even forces our kids to go to one of our thousands of free world class schools. Worst of all Colin makes us vote once every few years. Voting sometimes interrupts our saturday grocery shopping for 10 minutes or so. The only upside to this ordeal is a sausage sizzle at the polling booth.

The climate is terrible. There is nothing more boring than months and months of warm sunny days. We envy all those countries that have regular blizzards and deadly hurricanes.

Australia is incredibly backward. We are forced to use plastic cards to electronically transfer money instead of paper cheques. Our plastic banknotes make it impossible for counterfeiters to make a decent living.

Life is very hard. Our unfortunate minimum wage workers have to survive on as little as $20/hr and four weeks paid annual holidays. They only get another 10-15 paid public holidays each year. The cops won’t take bribes and expect you to obey the traffic rules. It is an absolute disgrace.

Friday, October 27

Marilyn and I found ourselves at the movies this afternoon, watching The Sapphires, part of a series of Australian films organised by the local U3A.  The acting hadn't improved since the last time we saw it but it was worth watching again just for the music.  When the credits started rolling, there was the name which is appearing everywhere you look - Harvey Weinstein. I hope he didn't have a hands-on role in the making of the movie.  'Hands-on' has a worrying meaning when you think of Mr Weinstein.

I hadn't looked at whether the local University of the Third Age has anything to offer me in my current interest in study, so I checked out their website.  Offerings for Term 4 are limited: Felt for Fun looked interesting but I suppose it depends on whether Felt is a verb or a noun.  Sadly, it's a noun and I don't really want to learn how to make felt.

The only other thing on the menu was 'Ukulele for Beginners'.  Not for me!

I have signed up for another course, over the next eight weeks.  It's through a University in Barcelona and called the European Discovery of China.  

Wednesday, October 25

I've been reading the book 'What Happened' which Hilary Clinton has been touting around the world.  I won't finish it because it is the shallowest explanation of a political campaign I have ever encountered.  We hear lots about the appalling creature who became president but, in my eyes, the alternative candidate seems to have little more to offer.

Many commentators have said that Hilary Clinton tends to be whiny.  That certainly comes through in the book; she whinges, about how she was treated and how her speeches were interpreted, and how the Head of the FBI was unfair to her.  I was looking for evidence that Ms Clinton would have been a competent president, but I was disappointed.  She showed that she is motivated by pride, and the desire to prove that a woman can do anything a man can do - all very laudable but hardly the basis for throwing your hat in the ring for the top job in the US.  I soon got fed-up with her pithy inspirational slogans, and her heart-warming anecdotes about people she met on the campaign trail.  There was a whole chapter on the food they ate between rallies and how they fought over a jar of jalapeños with a yellow label.  When she was loading her masses of luggage into her car on the way to another rally, husband Bill cleverly asked 'Are you leaving home?'  I'm sure that little bon mot could have been left out.

Her whole outlook appears to be banal.  She claims to be intelligent but she wallows in sentimentality and trite statements made by folk-philosophers and populist poets.

  But, it's what the book reveals about the US political system which is the most damning.  Her campaign had 3 million donors with an average donation of $100.  $300 million spent on the losing campaign and, no doubt, a similar amount spent to put Trump in the White House.  Money well-spent? I don't think so.

Hilary underlined she was pro-choice, pro-faith and pro-something else I have forgotten.  It's sad that a political philosophy can be boiled down to a handful of binary choices.  And the greatest of these is pro-faith.  It is harder for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a non-believer to be president of the US.  Although, you only have to say you have faith; you don't have to prove it.

There must be others out there who have the capacity to be another Lincoln of Roosevelt.  If only the US system will allow them to rise to the top.  Somehow, I don't think so.

  

Tuesday, October 24

Marilyn is getting fed-up with me moping around the house so suggested I take on some study.  It seems like a good idea and there is so much on-line nowadays, I don't have to leave the comfort of my lounge-room.  I certainly don't have the energy to travel into the University in Launceston every day but the computer gives me instant access to universities right around the world.

Open2study, run by Open Universities Australia, was my first port of call and there happened to be a number of courses starting immediately so I've enrolled in an Anthropolpgy course called Becoming Human.  It's run through Macquarie University and runs over four weeks.  It seems there are 503 students around the world doing this course.  I'm into my second week and it's fascinating. 

I've also found a cluster called FutureLearn which has even more choices: the sky seems to be limit.

I'm amazed at the process the University goes through in an attempt to keep their students motivated. No sooner had I enrolled than I started receiving 'badges' - a Bronze Quill of Knowledge badge for participating in a forum, a Slingshot' for asking for a hint, a Camper Van for completing my profile, and so on.  I even got a Papyrus Map for earning the other Bronze badges!  It beggars belief.

I'm 74 years old and the lure of badges doesn't work for me. They're not even real badges so I can't even stick them on my old scout shirt.

Anyway, there's years of work ahead of me.  The University of Wollongong has a course on Homo Floriensis starting in a fortnight, the University of Glasgow can tell me all I want to know about Robert Burns and the University of Groningen can help me understand the Scientific Revolution.