Journeys of life- part the second

In 1967 we set sail for Australia. I was 14. I think none of us, parents included, had any idea of what was really ahead of us.
Nevertheless we had an exotic trip aboard the SS Orsova of the P&O line. Visiting Gibraltar, then Port Said......just before the Suez Canal was closed we passed through, , bypassing Aden (where an 'incident' had occurred...a soldier I think having been shot.... ) we went to Djibouti on the horn of Africa.  I remember being quite frightened as night fell and we were far away, and quite aware, for the first time ever, that we were white people on a black continent.
We went on to the exciting city of Bombay/Mumbai....we had never seen anything like it. Encapsulating as it does both the tensions of India and the still present tensions of the Raj with its great gateway to India.
The tension that India is both British and Indian.
In the midst of all this is poverty and porn....women in cages.....I had no conception of what this meant.
From there to Penang and the Temple of a thousand Buddhas   and the Snake Temple (here). The stupid taxi driver gave my brother R a baby snake. At least we had the sense to realise that there was no way we would be bringing live reptiles into Australia.
A couple of day later we sailed into the more benign Singapore. A pleasant drive around and my father had clever photos taken of my mother sitting in his hand....I will try to find these and post them later.
Then we landed in Fremantle, sailed on to Adelaide (the Bight was rough!) and then we drove to Whyalla ......what a shock!

Royal obsession

On this anniversary of the defeat of the Republic referendum we are all reflecting a bit about monarchy.

A couple of articles in the press this week reminded me of this bizarre obsession we all seem to have worldwide with the idea that leadership and the right to rule is some how an inherited characteristic.

Touring Australia is a "Crown Prince" of the former Indian State of Rajpipia (here). How can you be a "Crown Prince" of a former state. I mean there is nothing to rule.

However the good prince, an openly gay man, is touring Australia and Asia to campaign against laws which criminalise homosexuality. His argument being that this aggravates the AIDS problem, I mean you are unlikely to admit to being gay if you are going to be executed!!!

I suppose the 'royal' status is a hook to grab attention. And why is it any different from a joke I might tell at the beginning of a sermon?

Likewise the Institute of African Royalty is meeting this week( see Associated Press's report here). At least these people may have some claim to represent some regional and sectional interests, though it is yet to be demonstrated that birthright is necessarily the best determinant of who might or might not represent the interests of a group of people.

There is a good photo of some leaders in traditional dress here....look at the footwear!

Meanwhile the ever smug Mr Abbott reminds us on RN this a.m. that we have 'evolved' our conception of monarchy by not focussing on the Windsors any more but rather on who the GG is.

Well, isn't that precisely what the Republican Movement wanted?

Pray Prey to advertisers

I wondered when the ABC's Gruen Transfer started just whether it would be successful. Taking as its premise the examination of the phenomenon of advertising, it seemed to me a long stretch to imagine that a discerning public might go for it.
However, under the flagship of Andrew Denton's company Zapruder's other films, one wouldl have to watch because he has an uncanny instinct for what works. And it is strangely seductive.
Particularly interesting is the segment in which two advertising firms are pitted against each other to promote the indefensible...whaling...ah Whale Meat, the Beef of the sea....and last week Child Labour (Tire them out and keep them out of trouble).
The disturbing thing is about how plausible advertising can seem. Which is, I guess, the point.
It's witty, intelligent and interesting; which is I suppose why Wil Anderson is hosting it rather than Dermot Brereton...who can stick to 20 funniest ads!

20 things I don't know

I was faintly bemused (but not at all surprised) to find that certain members of my household were already looking at getting an iPhone...even though they will not be available in the land of Oz until 2008.
Apple have done a good job of convincing everyone to buy their iProducts even when they are often less featured and almost certainly more expensive than comparable products. And not necessarily more reliable.
We have an iPod, for example, which gave up the ghost days after the 1 year warranty expired. Researching on the net would seem to suggest that this was not an uncommon experience worldwide. Its owner, the oldest daughter, finally got fed up of me trying to fix it and bought another one!!! The cheaper version..the shuffle. Miraculously the day after she bought it I got the first one to work!! So I inherited it. Good for me. But it still stops every now and then if you so much as breathe heavily near it. And it cost a fortune.
PC World has a good article about 20 things that need to be explained before you commit to the new iPhone. But we have a couple of years to wait.
But there is a big warning here, n'est-ce-pas, about the triumph of advertising over reason