No theme for this blog, just a random collection of thoughts, observations and news. Last night I hosted 3 entomologists at the homestead as the cottages were full. A prof, a postdoc and a technician. All the way from Arkansas to collect and study mites of a certain family. The red ones I understand, including those in the rainforest known as ‘scrub itch’. They collect dirt and leaf litter, put it in plastic trays and study it minutely to find the mites perhaps half a millimeter across. A painstaking task you would think, but excited gasps of joy happen when they discover their prey. The unfortunate victim is then photographed, picked up with a droplet of moisture and deposited in a tiny vial of ether. Its fate is to be processed for DNA. The paperwork involved to get it to the USA will weight a million times it’s own weight. All the permits to be allowed to collect organisms in OZ, then the quarantine requirements to export to the USA and other red tape to finally get it to Arkansas. To avoid some of the mountain of red tape, they will drive down to Canberra and the National History Museum for them to export this tiny fraction of a gram of specimens to the US. They were all interested, no passionate, about seeing the other wildlife in Australia. When having dinner, a possum strolled past us at the dining table to plunder in the kitchen. I elaborately ignored it to create the impression that this is an every day occurrence, which it is. They were enthralled, as the single species of opossum in the US is a ratty looking pest. It pays to be cute. They liked the birds, especially when I took them to a golden bowers birds bower and the male showed up despite it being out of season.
Fellow Australians, I was born in the UK which was largely wiped clean of any life about 15,000 years ago by a sheet of ice 2 km thick and has only a tiny fraction of the species which exist here. Please revel and enjoy the fantastic and unique variety of plants and bugs and animals that Australia has. Truly amazing. Please value that and work to keep it.
The wet season didn’t happen and only about one third the average rainfall. The much delayed winter may be starting as I had to put on a jumper today. I am quite sure that global warming is with us and at a much faster pace than current models. Record after record has tumbled this year and the pace seems to be accelerating. Recent polls put the economy as the most important issue for the election to promote ‘growth’. I would like to redesign the economy for shrinkage. Oh, you haven’t heard that word in the economists lexicon. To suck our heads in on consumption. To head towards a livable planet rather than a ‘Mad Max’ dystopia. The green party has not grasped the nettle to tell us that we have to reduce consumption even though it is the elephant in the green room. I hope the sex party is still on the ballot paper.
It is well known that politicians get elected to represent established vested interests. Old money. Their job is to look into the future …….. and make sure it doesn’t happen. I can’t see any variation of that trajectory for the coming election in Oz. Same ol, same ol. But wait! in the US there is Hillary representing the deep state, the insiders, the slimy palm greasing lobby system, the elitist 1% sucking every last dime from the workers; against the billionaire Trump, the outsider apparently, proposing policies somewhere to the right of Genghis Khan. Wow! that is entertainment.
How can a billionaire represent the interests of people struggling for a basic living? He is so far up in the stratosphere of his own ego, he can’t see the ground. If elected president, would he do anything to redress the imbalance of wealth distribution and severely tax himself? Don’t think so. Same might be said of Turnbull, though he is not a loose cannon like Trump.
Guests just left included a retired couple originally from Singapore, now resident in SA. A delightful couple on their way back from PNG where they were volunteering in the highlands of the Western Province. Working for a Christian organisation providing human services because the government doesn’t. We had a long talk about the belief in sorcery and the terrible, endless, cruel revenge killings of ‘witches’. When somebody dies, even the very old, the assumption is that it was caused by sorcery and a perpetrator is sought and accused. The accusation is enough, evidence is optional, and they are put to a horrible death. Don’t be condescending here, the last such instance in Europe was about 1850, and the Harlem persecutions in the US might be more recent. There was an article about exactly that, sorcery killings, on Al Jezeera (I can’t believe Al Jezeera isn’t in spell check) the next day. I posted a comment which I rarely do, with Al Jezeera, as any comment stream quickly devolves into insults hurled back and for about the zionist/arab conflicts. Even if the original article was about the crop failure of sorghum in Ethiopia. I was saying that the culture shock problems in PNG are immense, and simplistic solutions offered by various creeds are unlikely to work in anything less than a century. I even got a compliment.
I still haven’t got a replacement generator for the hydro. Been on order from China since Feb. I may have done my dough there. I paid some money and all I have is promises. I have made some other inquiries but not even an answer. If anyone out there knows of a 240V, 4 pole, single phase 2-3.5KW , bare shaft generator, that exists anywhere in the world, please get back to me. I am beginning to think of Alibaba and the 40 thieves.
Well I try to keep my posts under 1000 words and as of “thieves” I had 999. Now I’ve blown it.
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