Ken Henry talks of the dysfunction of Australian politics. Nobody Listens.

The privatisation of the energy market is an unmitigated disaster. And that’s an acknowledged fact. It’s capitalism eating society . But what of small business and households? The echo of Maggie Thatcher beckons; ‘There is no society’.

Bob Brown. Talked of destruction of ecosystems. No one listens.

There’s lots of talk about the wage deal and the latest indices prove that the big end of town is making bigger profits. It’s time for a tax cut for the big end of town. Wages growth stiffed and it’s all good news for the shareholders. During a scintillating discussion with Cecil yesterday we remarked on how the city country divide is now an abyss, and it shows no sign of slowing. In the city’s there’s wealth, and privelege. In the country opportunity is drying up. Steady employment a mirage, and increasingly reflective of urban refugees who’ve left the cities for a more economically viable life, were they can enjoy poverty in more bucolic surroundings. And all awhile the federal government (of both descriptions) ignore the seismic shift as winners and losers are winnowed and sorted into their respective bins. So this fragment from another associate working in the onerous and marginalised realm of small business tells us where we’re going. And the fascinating assessment is that the politicians no longer represent the ordinary people. There’s a lot of ordinary people, and bereft of imagination, the political circus is unstoppable.

Tim Flannery talked of global Co2 Catastrophe. No-one listens.

On a happy note though Tony Abbott has been offered a job with Corey Bernardii, and we hope he accepts in due course. A man of his intelligence, imagination and wisdom is urged to make the move. That move could be Adelaide, Perth, the Cocos Islands… anywhere. And now for this pearl from one of the ordinary people.

Paul Keating, Predicted the banana republic. No one listened.

‘In my view, under the current regulatory regime, small businesses such as ours need to collaborate and co-operate, rather than bitch and bite each other, whilst in the meantime, the mega corporations continue to rule the pack and effectively tax us all to enrich their shareholders. There is no constraint upon the large corporations, and they remain “protected” corporations by the competition laws that protect their duopolys and oligopolys. The ACCC and the Courts deem them to provide outcomes that are in the “consumers interest” – if you can screw a supplier to death, and another one pops up who is just breathing, thats just fine and OK. The only path to prosperity for the small end of town, is to go around the mega companies and not to engage with the mega corps at all – get to the consumer by other pathways.

It is this very basic imbalance in the structure of the competition laws in this country that is widening the wealth gap between the haves and the have nots. Neither of the major parties are addressing it and they continue to bicker and banter away in Canberra with their heads firmly stuck up their own rear ends. In the meantime Pauline Hanson and One Nation are harvesting the discontent. Their polling will continue to grow and in my view they are already the 3rd largest political force in this country. It will not be too much longer before they are second. The LNP are going to be thumped at the next election in Qld, but what is really interesting is that One Nation are carving votes out of both the Conservative and the Labour voting spectrum. Green voters remain rock solid’.

Rupert Says. Everyone Listens.

Men with attitude and real hair. The Trump news Team.

Lord Murdoch, accepts his investiture as gauleiter of Oceania.

So the New York Times doesn’t like Donald. Fair enough, Donald doesn’t like the Washington Post either. He doesn’t think much of the Chicago Tribune, and he’s not too keen on the New Yorker either. We at Pcbycp think if asked he probably wouldn’t mind the cartoons, they’re still a wonderful mix of the urbane and the idiosyncratic. Sometimes, we at Pcbycp, who can’t hold a candle to it, just don’t get them. That’s Donald’s problem. He just doesn’t get what goes into a decent bit of journalism these days. It’s hard work and not for the faint hearted.

We’ve got it easy. In Russia a decent journalist is dead. On order ‘from up on high’. There’s no future in what’s loosely called ‘Investigative journalism’ these days. Much better sticking to facebook and twitter. Donald loves twitter. You are restricted to one hundred or so characters. And he’s right, it’s all you need. Any more just becomes information overload, and there’s subtleties that the public just don’t get. Bit like the energy debate in Australia. The public don’t need to know as to why the system fails us. It may be rotten behaviour on part of private energy suppliers and the lobbyists, but the public are being told it’s all retribution for steering away for Coal. Pure and Simple.

And coal is right, they have an archaic, dirty polluting substance which receives huge subsidies and it’s at risk of being replaced by solar and renewables. Let’s not get the facts in the way, Coal, archaic, wrong, and inefficient, is ‘good for humanity’.

Un-newsworthy. People who don’t get Sky News and benefit from the trickle down effect.

So though Donald is really really cross with the journalists, he’s making a very good point. Most people can’t be bothered about the news. The news is just not interesting enough. That’s why he does his news through Sky. That’s Rupert’s baby. Sky makes the news compelling. There’s goodies and baddies, and nothing overtly complex. And the best thing about Sky-news is that even in Australia, you’ve get up to date presentations on how the news ‘really is’ from people like Peta Credlin and Andrew Bolt. It’s balanced and puts the boot in on anyone who talks nonsense about global warming, soaring inequality and on issues such as the decision by a group of very well paid old men to cut the awards for Sunday workers. That isn’t news at all.

So Donald is leading the way?. No way Jose!!! We, as Australians are leading the way, and the sooner Michelle Guthrie can get rid of all the trouble makers and lefties in the ABC and replace them with more ex Murdoch executives the happier we’ll all be. Because a happy Australian is a proud Australian, and a proud Australian, as Donald and Rupert demonstrate is more about waving the national flag, and talk of defence as absolutely necessary to being great again. And they’ve demonstrated this commitment by slashing wages, and watching the vast majority get poorer and poorer, whilst they get richer and richer. For those on top the view is serene, for those on the bottom, it’s just not news-worthy. That’s an order from ‘up on high’. Believe us, that’s news!

I Tell You True
By Ali Cobby Eckermann

I can’t stop drinking, I tell you true
Since I watched my daughter perish
She burned to death inside a car
I lost what I most cherish
I saw the angels hold her
As I screamed with useless hope
I can’t stop drinking.  I tell you true
It’s the only way I cope

I can’t stop drinking I tell you true
Since I found my sister dead
She hung herself to stop the rapes
I found her in the shed
The rapist bastard still lives here
Unpunished in this town
I can’t stop drinking, I tell you true
Since I cut her down.

I can’t stop drinking, I tell you true
Since my mother passed away
They found her battered down the the creek
I miss her more each day
My family blamed me for her death
Their words have made me wild
I can’t stop drinking, I tell you true
‘Cos I was just a child

So if you see someone like me
Who’s drunk and loud and cursing
Don’t judge too hard, you never know
What sorrows we are nursing.

from “Little Bit Long Time’ 2009
This poem won First Prize at the inaugural ATSI Survival Competition 2006.

Re-posted from 1 December 2013

This Dispatch is titled “Language” and was written February 20 2017

Bonjour,

Next Dispatch I expect to write about ‘Position Doubtful’ a wonderful book by Kim Mahood I’m about to finish. Meanwhile….

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bawDFY8G-o4

“Above all, let us permit native children to keep their own languages, -those beautiful and expressive tongues, rich in true Australian imagery, charged with poetry and with love for all that is great, ancient and eternal in the continent. There is no need to fear that their own languages will interfere with the learning of English as the common medium of expression for all Australians. In most areas of Australia the natives have been bilingual, probably from time immemorial. Today white Australians are among the few remaining civilized people who still think that knowledge of one language is the normal limit of linguistic achievement.”
– T.G.H Strelow,1958.
“To deny a people an education in their own language where that is possible is to treat them as a conquered people and to deny them respect.” (The Hon. Kim E. Beazley Sr., 1999)

 “When you lose a language, you lose a culture, intellectual wealth, a work of art. It’s like dropping a bomb on a museum, the Louvre.” Kenneth Hale Japanangka.

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” Martin Luther King, Jr.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmLVxRS_Sxs

In these cynical days, one doesn’t hold one’s breath for positive outcomes. Los hijos de puta estan en contról.

But hey, what can we lose by signing the petition?

I just signed the petition “It’s Not Too Late – Urge NT Govt. To Pass Legislation To Support Our Aboriginal Languages” and wanted to see if you could help by adding your name.

Our goal is to reach 7,500 signatures and we need more support. You can read more and sign the petition here:

https://www.change.org/p/it-s-not-too-late-urge-nt-govt-to-pass-legislation-to-support-our-aboriginal-languages?recruiter=12232583&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=share_email_responsive

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1baOxLwccB8

Obrigado,
Frank

Making decisions free from ideological taint.

Dear reader, at last a sensible discussion from a former PM.

Mr Tony Abbot has nailed it. The Liberal party is on the brink of losing the next election. And his reasoning is spot on. They’re way way too left leaning. The trouble is, the electorate can’t see the difference between the Liberals under Turnbull and Labor Under Shorten. “Too right”! We hear you say. And this is a clear sign of rot. And the rot, could lead to something really disturbing, like full blown democracy, (sorry that’ll never happen) or just a whole lot of lefty principles like ‘fairness’ infecting the whole apparatus of government.

Mr Abbott, (who is a deep thinker amongst his salient gifts as an orator) makes significant reading. In his recently released suppository of essays, titled; ’Make Australia Right”, he surmises a “Cri de Coeur’ from people who think that Labor is moving to Green left and that the coalition has become Labor – lite”, He also claimed that his vision for the coalition was; ‘to maintain a clear policy direction that was philosophically acceptable, economically responsible and politically sensible’.

Santa. (before he acquired his little helper)

Good onya Tony! That’s why access economics revealed that over 65% of Australian support greater investment in renewables, and 65% is the magic number that got the same sex plebiscite across the line in Ireland. Don’t be spooked by 65% Tony and keep doing what you’re clearly doing very well. Be accountable. All donors who pay really big money can use the front door and the Prime Ministerial suite for private functions. There is one rule though, no one may dance on the coffee table, it’s made form real marble and is paid for by the taxpayers.

And be economically responsible. Even though no one in the electorate wants your stinking coal, Mr Adani deserves big taxpayer handouts, cos he’s a terribly nice man to have the taxpayer fund his really special railway. Though there’s no cost benefit analysis, but like the NBN and that future use is uncertain, bit like the froggy submarine contract, you’ve got a right as a right thinking person to plunge hundreds of billions of taxpayer finds into the projects because you wish to prove, (unlike those lefties in labor), you’re free of ideological taint. That’s right, you’re free thinking. As free thinking as Bob Santamaria was in stymieing Labor for twenty-five years after the Chifley government was booted from office. And like Bob, you’d rather have the Turnbull government kicked out, rather than suffer the stain of compromise of letting your peculiar brand of ultra right politics be diluted by left leaning compassionado’s. Now that Paddy MacGuiness is dead, you’ve got to lift the flame for Rupert, (Lord of Murdoch) all by yourself, and see that single mothers are punished, refugees marginalised and demonised, and that average people know where they belong as safe, smug and browbeaten. It’s your God-given destiny and you know what’s good for them. That’s what made you the P.M for Aboriginal Australians, and for that they shall be eternally grateful.

Mr Fahour and Jeannie Pratt. Proof that there are rewards and the benefit of facial reconstruction to those who work HARD!

Dear reader, we’ve had to do some pretty intense research these past couple of hours and we can tell you it’s not for the faint hearted. In light of the recent Fair Work Commissions’ ruling that workers should have their penalty rates docked we decided to see just how much a Fair Work Commissioner is paid. Now this is a compelling research project, please try it. We typed in; “ How much is a Fair Work Commissioner paid’? and all we received, (courtesy of Google) was reams and reams of information on how important the Fair Work Commission is in maintaining balance and fairness in the wages of ordinary Australians. ‘Hear !Hear!’ we hear you say. ‘Good on the Fair Work Commission’!! But after repeated attempts, (please try it) we still couldn’t get any idea on how much these singularly important and very very learned individuals take home. That left us puzzled, or to be more apt put us on a real ‘Ahmed Fahour’ type situation. And we are hopeful that Senator Patterson, protege of the IPA, may be able to enlighten us on this subject.

This is what a hard working Fair Work Commissioner looks like.

Now lets be fair, being a Fair Work Commissioner would be pretty hard work. You have to front to a Commission every now and then, which is probably like a Court. You’d have to get a taxi or a chauffeur driven car to get there, became your wisdom wouldn’t want to be tainted by the infection of conversing with ordinary people in the real world. And you’d have to earnestly (before lunch at your favourite restaurant) read actual submissions from the odd poor person as to why they are strangled by stifled wage growth and the cost of living. And then, you’d have to (after lunch) meet for an hour or so, (before determining which weekender you retreated to), what the devil these people were complaining about in the first place.

This is what a hard working Health Services Union Secretary looks like.

It’s not fair being a Fair Work Commissioner. Being a Fair Work Commissioner could compromise your standing in the community. If you put a foot wrong so to speak with your friends in the judiciary, the Chamber of Commerce, or even the party, or if you did something really radical as what used to happen in the Arbitration Commission, you could be in BIG TROUBLE. That’s the lot of those who must determine the lot of hard working men and women. Sorry we didn’t make that clear. ‘By working men and women’ we mean non-professionals. People who get paid a pittance for doing dull, repetitive, soulless, dehumanising work on a mind numbingly dull basis. You know, the person who serves our drinks at the club, or the individual who cleans the office toilets, and the other person, (can’t be bothered remembering their name) who picks up the rubbish. We get angry when they don’t empty the recycling bin, as we’re trying to do our bit to be sustainable.  But then again, lowly paid flunkeys are not that interested in saving the planet or the environment. I think that’s because they’re uneducated, or at the very least didn’t go to decent schools.

So obsessed had we become with the wage of a Fair Work Commissioner, it suddenly, (like a thunderbolt you could say) or a dropped scalpel, occurred to us that Kathy Jackson’s boyfriend, (do you remember her?) was a Fair Work Commissioner. You may remember the scandal? Kathy was also busy representing the lowest paid on the ladder of opportunity, and she socked away millions on travel, buying stuff and being entitled. And her boyfriend, Michael Lawler was a Fair Work Commissioner.

This ia what a hard working Health  Services Union Secretary and a hard working Fair Work Commissoner look like when they’re working hard together.

After a quick fact check we discovered he got paid four hundred and thirty three thousand (433,000.00) a year. That’s tough. And then, he went on sick leave and even missed the lunches, the end of year party and the overseas research opportunities, but got paid just the same. So it’s only fair that the lowliest paid should lose some of their entitlements on a Sunday. It’s not fair on the rest of us who’ve reaped the benefits of a freer economy and the prospect of stifled wage growth, insecurity and the prospect of never buying a house. And it’s comforting to know that the Fair Work Commissioners job, onerous, vexed and un-sung will continue to ensure that all of us who are employees, (insert low-wage earning scum) know (are told) just how much we’re entitled to.

It’s only fair.

It is refreshing to hear that the former Queensland Premier is looking after the banks.

What else can a former Premier do? They can write a huge autobiography and praise themselves for everything that ever happened as Bob Carr did. Or just get on with the job of pretending to be mighty and powerful. And what could be more mighty and powerful than working for the banks? The banks are the top dogs in this country. They’re unassailable. They govern the most precious commodity this country has to offer. Yes Folks. That’s Real Estate. They’re so top there’s nothing anyone can do about it. They’re beyond reproach. And as has been said by God himself; ‘They’re just too big to fail”. Banks are visionary, imaginative and the principle drivers of the ‘innovation boom’ and the ‘thought bubble’ in its entirety.

Former NSW premier Bob Carr admires himself.

When Government looks to leadership and vision the banks are there. And they’re the best banks in the world, and arguably represent the best banking system ever. Some, (and we have this on good authority) are cutting credit card fees by a huge one percent. How generous and public spirited is that?. A whole one percent. That’s a Rupert figure. What about the other 99%per cent you say? Don’t be greedy, as a reader of this blog you are the other ninety nine percent. We, represent the divine anointment of market based economies, it’s called the “ trickle down effect”. Get it!.

Whoops! Wrong Bligh.

The big thing is that the banks are really not interested in a Royal Commission. A Royal Commission would be no good for anyone, That’s why they’ve got Anna on board. She’s an ex Labor premier. Labor Premiers know all about working mums and dads. They represent the ordinary people. And we mean ORDINARY. After Campbell Newman, she looks like gold. There’s no one comes near her, unless of course Bob Carr was offered the job. Anna is absolutely reasonable. It’s not reasonable trying to get the banks to explain why they’ve made innocent retirees and the odd farmer stony broke. And there’s no point in putting the finger on some unprincipled, criminal, dishonest banking industry bastards. You see banks stick to principles. The biggest principle is the principle of winners and losers. For the banks to be successful there’s gotta be losers. And if someone gets shirty about losing the lot thanks to some dishonest illegal, criminal advice from a unprincipled banking executive it’s just they got caught on the ‘downside’. There’s an ‘upside’ though.

Steve Bracks. Doing it for the local car industry.

Anna knows a lot about banking, sent the people of Queensland broke. That was good for banks. Her accounting was so shithouse Campbell came in and sold off everything else. Campbell was really a new broom, he really cleaned things up. Anna will also make a clean sweep and she’ll reassure the public that Australian banks are the best, ‘most safest’ institutions in the world. In fact that banks are so heavily geared to housing as the expression goes, they’re ‘as safe as houses’. And the boom in real estate is eternal. And the banks have told the government not to change the iniquitous polices of negative gearing, tax write offs for the super rich and all the other shit the kleptocracy gets away with. Because pure and simply,’They Can’.

So shut up! leave the banks alone! They’re visionary. They’re agents of dynamic change and they’ve got things well and truly under control and their profits are stratospheric. As they say; ‘if it aint broke’. And Anna is so nice. She puts a face on banking you can trust. And she’s reassuring. That’s what the public needs someone familiar and in authority, (of a sort) to say: ‘There’s nothing to see here, move along, move along’. In banking that’s called, “ Public accountability”.

Makes good cents heh!

And the public will Love him for it!

In a stunning turnaround for the Turnbull Government the Coal Minister Josh Frydenberg has unveiled an ambitious plan to run the entire Melbourne Tram System on coal by the end of the decade. Opening the Coal Utilisation Network Taskforce at Parliament House he unveiled a map indicating the first super coal networks to transition Australia to an energy security future. The Minister, beamed;

George and Tony, Saving us from ideological purists on the left.

’This is a red letter day for Victorian technology moving forward. We as the Federal Government for Big Coal were stymied by the CEFC, (Clean Energy Finance Corporation) and realised we were up for some pretty stiff legislation through an unfriendly Parliament. We also had a big problem convincing states other than Queensland that Big COAL was great for humanity. But now the problem is solved. By gifting Melbourne’s tram network to the ADANI Corporation we’ve opened up super new efficiencies moving forward. Indeed the Melbourne tram network, though popular and burgeoning with patronage just wasn’t visionary enough and with Hazelwood closing there was not enough incentive for the public to transition to clean coal. That’s why we’ve developed ‘Route 20 20’. The ADANI Corporation will extend the tram network to outback Queensland, and ensure that the entire system is Re-routed to the country’s needs. And what better place than Victoria! By passing this Special Legislation, (PUTRID), the Public Utilities Transport Rent Infrastructure Deal, we’re acting responsibly to ensure that Victorians and the Victorian taxpayer will own this stunning piece of infrastructure. And it’ll establish balance for all Australians with a viable energy mix to ensure sustainability in the near future moving forward.

‘We’ve got to look at all our options because of the challenges the we face. Namely to have energy security and energy affordability, as we transition to a low carbon future’. (this is a real quote) Victoria was moving dangerously close to renewables and this was causing major trouble with our donors and the right kind of people who lobby us in Government. By gifting the tram network to Mr Adani, the problem is solved and will provide unparalleled efficiencies for new transport users, which happen to be lumps of coal. Lumps of coal have inalienable rights. They sit on the front bench in parliament and represent a persecuted black minority. In addition to giving this constituency representation we’re waving the statutory Myki fee for the fare. They’ll be transported comfortably by a fleet of augmented W class trams and transitioned directly to our loading facility at Portland. It’ll save the Great Barrier Reef from further coal related pollution and allow what’s left to be mined and converted into viable Real Estate. It’s a win for fast rail and a win for regional areas. AND it’s a win for third world countries we don’t give a fuck about, because Mr Adani owns them also. And the best thing is that like our lobbyists in the gambling and banking industry Mr Adani pays bugger all tax, so that any unrepresented, persecuted lump of coal left lying around will be available for really destitute people, the Melbourne homeless for example, and it will give them a rung on the ladder of opportunity.

Billy Snedden. Free from the taint of ideological purity and died, ( allegedly) a happy man.

The Sth Australian blackout was a crucial watershed. And they’re fucked on water too. Though we’ve worked tirelessly to close down the car industry and manufacturing in this country, we were worried that there wouldn’t be enough reliable energy to build the first two froggy submarines, ‘le toilet’ and ‘le merde’. Ideological purists within the party have sold off all the infrastructure to rapacious core private providers via our GREED initiative ( Green-ish Rented Energy Efficiency Developments). We were pretty much stymied on doing anything about that, and to be quite frank we were running our of ways to privatise anything else, (though we’re interested in healthcare) without the public getting suspicious. But this initiative is a doozy, the public in Victoria like rail, they’re crazy about it, this way they get plenty more rail, and the legislation ensures that the public get entirely routed. They’ll be so routed they’ll be shagged. And who aint happy after a good shagging. It’s what made the late Billy Snedden a great leader.

Last week brought  Rabindranath Tagore to our pages.  Today we bring a short poem from “The American-educated poet Yonejiro Noguchi, who fell out with Tagore in the 1930’s, published a poem in 1944 rejecting his earlier obeisance to Western ideals as profoundly mistaken:

America and England in the old days were for me countries of Justice:
America was the country of Whitman,
England the country of Browning:
But now they are dissolute countries fallen into the pit of wealth,
Immoral countries, craving after unpardonable dreams.

Reprinted in “From the Ruins of Empire” by Pankaj Mishra. 2012
[the best review I’ve seen of this brilliant book is here]

And this from  Rabindranath Tagore  (1938) quoted in the same book,

The carefully nurtured yet noxious plant of national egoism
Is shedding its seeds all over the world
making the callow schoolboys of the East rejoice
because of the harvest produced by these seeds
the harvest of antipathy with its endless cycle of self-renewal
bears a western name of high-sounding distinction.

Great civilisations have flourished in the past in the East
as well as in the West
because they produced food for the spirit of man for all time.
These great civilisations were at last run to death by men
of the type of our precocious schoolboys of modern times
smart and superficially critical, worshippers of self,
shrewd bargainers in the market of profit and power
efficient in their handling of the ephemeral, who . . .
eventually, driven by suicidal forces of passion,
set their neighbours’ houses on fire and were themselves
enveloped by the flame.

Today’s dispatch is  The gifts that keep on giving.  Originally dispatched on 16 January  2016

Hola, que tal amigos, bienvenidos a 2016, ojalá será mejór que el quince,

This Dispatch is being written on the 6^th of January. On this day Spanish speaking children are visited by the three Kings and showered with gifts (if they’ve been good and their parents can afford it).

In 1971 on our return to Australia from Canada, we drove through El Salvador. I was told by a local that 97% of land in El Salvador was owned by 3% of the population.

Whilst some “take me to Cuba” airplane hijackings had taken place, two years were to pass before Chile experienced its “9-11” and three more decades before it was North America’s turn. Access to San Salvador’s airport was unhindered. No metal or explosives detectors and no sniffer dogs. No heavily armed guards in black Ninja uniforms nor service personnel in bright yellow fluorescent jackets, lest they be run over.

A small group of Salvadoran airport workers in white overalls gathered in a café on the periphery of the airport during their lunchbreak. Just as the best value roadside food can be found where truckies take their meal breaks, so it was at this café. Simple fare, at the lowest price imaginable: brown beans with tortillas and generous dollops of sour cream, prepared con cariño, just right.

Our budget did not stretch to staying in motels, so we were grateful to be able to make use of the free airport bathrooms.

A brass plaque at the entrance to the building informed us that North American foreign aid had provided the airport for the people of El Salvador.

Apart from the white-overall brigade polishing the floors or lugging luggage, and a sprinkling of Latin looking men in business suits, the majority inside the building, also in business suits, spoke loud English with North American accents. Presumably these businessmen had come to San Salvador to make deals with the 3%. The Latin looking gentlemen presumably were the brokers and real-estate agents and interpreters doing their bit for their country to move forward.

Too much monkey business (Chuck Berry)… .  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8Y3ONAbaC0

In all fairness to those who convinced the U.S. Congress to approve the gift of an airport to the lucky denizens of El Salvador, some consideration had been given to the trickledown effect. Couples whose loud North American accents were matched by their loud clothes were sparsely distributed among their business suited compatriots, elderly men in Hawaiian shirts, palm tree motif, and Bermuda shorts, generally accompanied by younger women.

The trickledown effect was also very evident at the café of the brown beans, tortillas and sour cream. Where the runway crossed over the main road, the traffic dipped down to a short tunnel to get to the other side. The whole complex was located on a level playing field (such a one as the Trans Pacific Partnership rests upon).

All Salvadorans we spoke to, unprompted expressed their gratitude to the U.S.A. Government for having gifted them such a magnificent airport complex.    

Gimme a ticket for an aeroplane
Ain’t gottime to take a fast train
Lonely days are gone I’m a goin’ home
My baby, she just wrote me a letter

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95v7R67to-I (Joe Cocker-The Letter)

It is simply uncanny. Back to the future. In Yuendumu we are reliving this experience. Often Warlpiri residents stop us, unprompted to express their gratitude to the Government for having gifted us such a magnificent $7.6M police complex.

When discussing gifts, a friend rued the fact there hadn’t been three wise Queens instead of the three Kings. He speculated that three wise Queens wouldn’t have got lost, would have assisted with the child and no cabe duda (undoubtedly) borne more sensible gifts.

We three Kings of orient are,
bearing gifts we traverse afar…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrsWF3JlScw (We three Kings-Dolly Parton)

Que los tres reyes les hallan traido suerte, amór y felícidad… y risa, mucha risa (Mirth not Myrrh)

Franklin