Patriot Realm

When the Picasso exhibition was showing at the Art Gallery of NSW a number of years back, I accompanied Mrs Flysa despite my misgivings, which proved to be well-founded. The abstract paintings were stereotyped and uninspiring, and the relatively few attempts at portraiture appeared amateurish. The term sacred cow came to mind. 

It was a relief to escape and view the magnificent works of the masters in nearby rooms. By comparison, The Sons of Clovis by Evariste Vital Luminais and The Defence of Rorke's Drift by Alphonse de Neuville, were as day is to night compared to Picasso.

At the end of February 2020, the global village began to shake on its foundations. The world was presented with a foreboding crisis, the consequences of which were incalculable. In a matter of weeks, everyone was gripped by the story of a virus—a story that was undoubtedly based on facts. But on which ones? 

We caught a first glimpse of “the facts” via footage from China. A virus forced the Chinese government to take the most draconian measures. Entire cities were quarantined, new hospitals were built hastily, and individuals in white suits disinfected public spaces. Here and there, rumors emerged that the totalitarian Chinese government was overreacting and that the new virus was no worse than the flu. 

From California to France to Japan and beyond, nuclear power is all the rage suddenly.

The Wall Street Journal recently reported that California Gov. Gavin Newsom was spearheading an eleventh-hour effort to pass legislation to extend a lifeline to Diablo Canyon, a 2,250-megawatt nuclear plant that supplies some 8 percent of the energy produced in the Golden State.

Under pressure from lawmakers and environmental activists, the Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) agreed in 2016 to decommission Diablo when its operating licenses expire in 2024 and 2025. But in light of the recent energy policy environment, California lawmakers had second thoughts.

As time passes, we still get the usual collection of the bearded unwashed telling us how wrong we were/are for participating in any war because we should be celebrating peace.

These angry verbal shots are not the first, nor will they be the last salvos we ordinary grateful citizens will be subjected to by this ignorant element in our society. Ignore them and roll with the punches.

When one talks about the real angry shots and the peaceful scene of Port Philip Bay in Melbourne, Australia, on a calm and cloudy day,  one does not normally connect the two in the same sentence but on 4^th August 1914, and 5th September 1939, they did.

A commenter on this site said that we are watching life through a looking glass. 

This chance comment made one of our other contributors refers back to a quote from Lewis Carroll's book " Through the Looking Glass " and a quote from the Cheshire Cat.

He was talking with Alice, newly arrived in the land where insanity and nonsense prevailed. He said   “we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.” “How do you know I’m mad?” said Alice. “You must be,” said the Cat, or you wouldn’t have come here.”

In 1942, my wife’s Uncle was a metallurgist in Papua New Guinea. At the height of WW2 , he was living in the jungles of one of the hotbeds of the conflict. Unable to serve in the War due to being deaf ( years of working in a goldmine in New Zealand) he served in his own way by doing his bit and carrying on.

I found a transcript of his recollections of the time in Papua New Guinea during the war and I wanted to share it with you. It is typed as he shared it all those years ago. His time in the War in the jungle of Papua New Guinea.  

Here is his story of walking out of the jungles of PNG in 1942. As a courtesy. I have omitted parts that could identify him or his family.