Patriot Realm

Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinborough, has died. I feel a deep sense of sadness when I think of this man who, like so many others around the world, has died in a world that is so foreign to everything that he sacrificed for and fought for. 

After over a year of stifling rules, restrictions and stressful family betrayals, I wonder if he died of simple old age, of grief, the vaccine or just simply thought " Oh Bugger it. I've had enough. "

Back in 2001, The Stargate franchise aired an episode that, in hindsight, seems strangely sinister when it is re-watched twenty years later. Episode 416 opens with Dr. Samantha Carter approaching a man sitting at a table outside of a small restaurant. It’s her husband, Joe. Samantha tells him that her pregnancy test came back negative; they are both disappointed. As Sam walks him to a terminal for him to leave the planet on business, they discuss the Aschen — an alien race with whom Earth has been allied for a decade. The Aschen’s medical technology is very advanced and, ten years earlier, they had gifted the world's population with a vaccine that would increase human life expectancy. 

Aschen medical technology includes an anti-aging vaccine, anti-cancer treatment, and medical machines that can reverse tissue damage and mend broken bones. They are hundreds of years ahead of us.

As we count down to ANZAC Day, it is important to remember that it was the brave men and women who fought for freedom all around the world that have given us the opportunity to fight back against any further threat to our liberties.

This month we have been featuring stories of the wars, the conflicts and the battles waged across the centuries and oceans to bring us what is now being taken without a shot being fired. The Marines, the brave pilots and sailors, the soldiers and the sacrifices that they made for us.

Today, I want to remember the first two Sydneys. The HMAS Sydney from 1901 - 1941.

Lest We Forget. 

The western world has a very high opinion of itself and its supposed values, and its treatment of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange makes a lie of it all.

Truth. Justice. Freedom. Democracy. We are taught from an early age that these are the sacred values our society upholds with the utmost reverence, and that we are very fortunate to have been born in a part of the world which holds such virtue.

When good women get involved with good men, all manner of amazing things can happen. In a partnership of equals, the possibility of one plus one equalling three or even four is not only possible, but it is also extremely likely. While standing alone, one person can only ever achieve the potential output of one. But, when coupled with someone of equal potential, the numbers can change dramatically. 

It is time to gather our resources and focus on the job at hand: to get back to OUR world where we worked together in unity and harnessed our strengths and pulled together as a team.

History has shown us that many powerful men partnered with powerful women. Their power may have come from different directions, but they were. as it is said so sagely " Sympatico." They worked in harmony to each other's benefit.

In The First Angry Shot I made reference to the defence installations at the Southern end of Port Philip Bay.

These were started in the19th century when Victoria was a colony of the Crown and in the 1880’s was described as the heaviest defended port in the Southern Hemisphere. In the days of sailing ships Port Philip Heads provided much of its own defence via its natural advantages. It sits at the Eastern end beyond the Shipwreck Coast of which Matthew Flinders said "I have seldom seen a more fearful section of coastline."