Good afternoon,

The British Royal Family, were doing one of their periodic Australian showing the flag exercises. Yuendumu’s Superintendent received a letter on Department of Aboriginal Affairs (DAA) letterhead marked ‘Highly Confidential’ and advising him that a Royal Visit to Yuendumu was being contemplated. The Superintendent was commanded to carry out an urgent and thorough clean up of Yuendumu just in case the visit happened. The letter further instructed him that if he needed help he should ask for it under the code words “Send Coronets”. The task was impossible within the time frame provided. DAA had a radio shed in Yuendumu which as well as communication via the Alice Springs basedRoyal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) short wave radio network, was used for a daily radio sched with the DAA Alice Springs office. 

The frantic Superintendent got onto the DAA office on the radio and pleaded with them to “Send Coronets!” “Send Coronets!” No one at the DAA office had a clue what he was talking about. After several days of multiple requests for Coronets, the DAA mob wondered if he had lost his marbles. They sent out an official to ascertain what was happening. No Royal visit materialised.
The letter had been typed by the manager of the Yuendumu Social Club store.

A coronet is a small crown half way between a tiara and a crown. I’m not aware of anyone ever having worn one in Yuendumu.

The word ‘corona’ derives from Latin and in Spanish means ‘crown’. Typical of our times that the latest evocatively named Corona Virus has been renamed COVID-19 under the lame excuse that we might confuse it with other corona viruses. So are we going to change U.S.A. into U.S.N.A. lest it be confused with the United States of Venezuela (Estados Unidos de Venezuela as that country was known until 1953)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2cFN2iC9u8

So what can we learn from the Corona Virus Pandemic?
An invisible (to the naked eye) organism has disrupted the best laid plans of mice and men.
Our conservative government which was hell bent on achieving a budget surplus and wouldn’t contemplate increasing the highly inadequate social safety net payments suddenly could ‘find’ billions aimed at re-starting the‘post-Corona’ economy.

A government intent at continuing its death by a thousand cuts destruction of the Trade Union movement suddenly buried the hatchet.

One hardly hears of millions, it is all billions now. All targeted at getting back to “normal”. The “normal” of the Global Economy with its imperative of perpetual economic growth in a finite planet. An economy spreading like a virus.

Surely we need to pause and think about what was happening and what should happen in future. Surely we need to perceive the nakedness of the Emperor?

Take those hybrids of Tokyo’s Capsule (coffin) Hotels and Balinese luxury resorts, those cruise ships. Is it really a good idea of having hundreds of such plying the world’s oceans like so many Vliegende Hollander (Flying Dutchman)s? Isn’t something amiss when as I’m told, in Australia it costs less to stay on a cruise ship than it is to stay at an old folk’s home? Is it really a good idea to allow ships flying flags of convenience to land at our ports? Ships that hire crew at cheap labour rates and pay no income tax. Companies that declare their profits in tax havens.

Shouldn’t we expand our policy of stopping the boats to include these incubation vessels?

Undoubtedly many of you have thoroughly enjoyed stopping over at some exotic places and descending like a swarm of locusts on some hapless sycophantic communities and pumping some of your retirement money into local economies which have become thoroughly addicted to the tourist dollar. You may even have enjoyed the odd game of croquet, mini golf or shuffleboard or had a flutter on a roulette wheel on board. And don’t get me wrong, I’m not exactly squeaky clean when it comes to a carbon footprint. By the age of twelve I had crossed the Atlantic Ocean four times. We had to cross the Indian Ocean to arrive in Australia as part of the post war wave of boat people. To take part in the search for hydrocarbons for a year in Canada we crossed the Pacific Ocean twice and covered at least 15,000 km by road to catch our boat in Panama. As a family we went to Europe for a couple of months. I flew to an International Rangeland Congress in Argentina and we went to a wedding in Kerala. Once a year we drive 5,000 km to visit friends and gaze upon the Southern Ocean for a couple of weeks.

No, I’m not having a go at you-all. All I’m saying is that we should all pause and ponder the fact that in some of the worst polluted cities on our planet, there is a whole generation of fellow human beings who are experiencing clean breathable air for the first time in their lives. The next time we who are fortunate enough to live in democracies should consider voting for those who intend to do something about climate change. Those who think Greta Thunberg is a canary down the coal mine rather than disparage her as a spoiled brat. Rather than vote for those who want to safeguard our negative gearing and to continue on this crazy headlong race to the cliff.

Anyway, am sure your eyes are glazing over so let me turn closer to home:
I can summarise the situation in the Northern Territory in one sentence-
“Pubs have re-opened, book shops and libraries not yet”

As for Yuendumu:
At Yuendumu school, trees on the periphery of the school yard have been viciously pruned. Children were using these trees to climb over our recently installed school fence, a mini-version of Donald Trump’s Mexican “wall”.
Our Art Centre remains closed and so is our Centrelink office. The swimming pool also closed because of the Corona Virus and with the arrival of the cold weather will not reopen until next year. Our Police Station remained open and the Alice Springs jail has remained closed, but the monthly two to three day Yuendumu court sessions have been deferred.

Something to look forward to in the post-Corona world- extended catch-up court sessions.

History has turned the page- ah ha….

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bS3O5zg290k

And the beat goes on… la-dee-da-dee-da!

Saludos,

Frank