9/11 Revisited

Most of us can remember where we were and what we were doing on September 11th 2001.

I’m no exception, and recall watching the television coverage until the early hours of the morning. To visit the site of the event which shaped the beginning of the twenty first century was impactful.

The museum that has been built to commemorate the event is an amazing example of the cooperation of many agencies, and its presentation and interpretation of the 9/11 story is mind boggling.

It also serves as a memorial to the 2977 people who were killed and the more than 6000 who were injured.

It’s also a remarkable piece of engineering. The new One World Trade Centre that replaced the twin towers is a spectacular example of contemporary architecture.

I was surprised to run into an Australian working as a volunteer. His accent gave him away.

Last of the Jumbos

This dear reader, is the fifteen year old 747-400 which got us to the big Apple. Excuse the pole in the middle. It was the best I could do.  Registration is VH-OEF.

 It is difficult to photograph an aircraft when you’re sitting in it.

Our plane was one of the four (I think) 747s remaining in Qantas colours. They are being phased out in favour of 787 Dreamliners, but frankly, I was OK with the big bird. Our plane was roomy, refurbished, and comfortable. Surprisingly, it also wasn’t full, and we had empty seats in our row.

It also had state of the art in-flight entertainment which occasionally reset itself. Mostly it was great, with heaps of late run movies.

This is a bad pic of the range of entertainment options.

Qantas tucker is OK. This is lunch (Cuban beef) with mashed potato.

And this was breakfast. Long distance air travel is probably the closest human experience to that of a battery hen....

Brisbane International Musings

This, gentle reader, is not our aircraft.

Our aircraft is a 747. This is an Airbus A330 which is parked on the Qantas flight line where our plane should be.

Our plane is westbound somewhere over the Pacific, running two plus hours late.

Let’s hope the hotel in the big Apple has 24 hour check in. We will be getting there somewhere around 3am tomorrow.

Or is that today?

The time zones do my head in.

This is a great terminal, and the Qantas staff very helpful.

The face scanner threw a  hissy fit when I rocked up. I know I’m ugly, but this was ridiculous.

 I had to front a real human being who compared my passport photo with me.

It was me.

Apparently the technology has problems with beard colour. It doesn’t like grey. If I had known that, I would have dyed it in the interests of efficiency.

Now it’s hurry up and wait. Reminds me of the army.......

Deadly Dave

Pic courtesy Australian

Senator David Leyonhjelm is making a prize goose of himself (again).

This is nothing new, of course. He does this with monotonous regularity. Usually the issue relates to firearm regulation. He advocates deregulation, which has proved so successful across the Pacific.

Leyonhjelm is a contrarian, only because that behaviour gets him noticed. He is largely irrelevant in terms of political clout, which is fair enough, given that his election was largely accidental, and partly a result of the carelessness of many of those who voted for him. They were confused by the term “Liberal”.

If he had any integrity, he would substitute “Libertarian” for “Liberal” in the title of his party of one.

Thinking about it, perhaps “Glibertarian” would be a more accurate label. His depth of understanding of the concept is shallow to say the least.

The incidents in play involve some pretty childish behaviour. He had a verbal stoush with a female colleague which degenerated into his referring to her sexual activity. That is not on - whether it happens on the floor of the senate or your local workplace.

Later, he doubled down by reporting “rumours” about her behaviour on the echo chamber called Outsiders.

A producer got the chop for that, whilst the Senator and his two sidekicks got off scot free.

Since then, the female senator has begun to consider her legal options, a number of parliamentarians (of both genders and both sides of the chamber) have strongly suggested he apologise, and Qantas who airs the show on its in-flight entertainment, has been criticised for doing so.

Leyonhjelm has a problem.

Couldn’t happen to a nicer bloke......

Nobel?

Image may be subject to copyright.

The media's had a field day with the Trump/Kim Jong Un meeting.

It had everything. Thousands of photo ops, endless opportunities to compare bizarre hairstyles, and a plethora of symbolic images.

Trouble is, it's a little difficult to measure any productive outcome beyond lots of statements from both sides.

In reality, Trump's administration has apparently made one significant concession, viz the cancellation of routine joint military exercises.

The North Koreans have allowed the repatriation of remains of US service personnel lost in the Korean war.

The US concession seems to have been made without reference to either Japan or South Korea.

 Let's do a quick and dirty analysis of the sequence of events leading up to the Trump/Kim Jong-un meeting. Note the activity of Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong-un, rather than anyone on the US side. Any time Trump's people got involved (Bolton & Pence), with the exception of Pompeo, the whole thing became precarious.
  

Here is the sequence of events leading up to Trump/Kim Jong-Un (KJU) meeting –

Jan 1st – KJU calls for better relations but shows off nuclear button on his desk.
Jan 3 – Trump tweets that he has bigger button.
Jan 9 – North & South Korea agree to a joint team competing in the Winter games.
Mar 5 – KJU says he is willing to discuss the future of his nuclear arsenal. Chung Eui-Jong (South Korea’s Director of National Security) visits Pyongyang.
Mar 8 – South Korean envoy visits US and delivers an invitation from KJU to meet with Trump.
Mar 27 – KJU visits Beijing.
Apr 18 – Pompeo meets KJU.
Apr 21 – KJU announces suspension of nuclear & ICBM tests.
Apr 27 – First North/South Korean summit between KJU and Moon Jae-In (MJI).
May 7 – KJU makes 2nd visit to Beijing.
May 9 – Pompeo meets KJU 2nd time.
May 10 – Announcement of Trump/KJU meeting.
May 16 – NK threatens to pull out over Bolton’s “Libya model” remarks.
May 22 – Moon Jae-In meets Trump
May23/25 – North Korea dismantles old nuclear sites.
May 24 – NK calls Pence “political dummy”. Trump announces withdrawal from talks.
May 26 – KJU and MJI meet again.
Jun 1 – Meeting announced for June 12.
Jun 12 – Meeting. 

Concessions –
NK – Releases remains of soldiers
USA – Cancels joint military operations (without consulting South Korea and Japan).

It seems that if any one individual is to be lauded for setting up the meeting it should be South Korea's Moon Jae-in.
MJI for a Nobel?
.

Two Evils

Picture courtesy The Guardian

I don’t know which is worse - the behaviour of some ADF cowboy/s who flew a flag with a swastika in Afghanistan, or the pile-on from the media in response. I'm not entirely sure which is the lesser of these two evils.

The appearance of that symbol on an ADF vehicle is pathetic. Some developmentally challenged juvenile/s who ended up in uniform in an operational theatre was responsible. The episode was childish. 

He/they were obviously sprung, and you’d assume given a well deserved boot up the backside/s,

There are always drop-kicks who collect Nazi memorabilia because they think it looks cool. They have no knowledge of history, possibly because they can't read or can't be bothered. Clearly, a few of these have ended up in the ADF.

Perhaps the ADF needs to screen its recruits more carefully, if idiots like this end up in the ranks. My understanding is that this screening is a work in progress.

Certainly, thousands of diggers (including my late father) fought against the tyranny symbolised by this flag, and many died in the process.

But I doubt that the drop-kick who attached the flag to the vehicle had any appreciation of that history, or any understanding of the proud traditions of the service he was part of. He probably wouldn't know his arse from his elbow. 

However, the incident has been blown out of all proportion. The media is adept at employing imagery, and they had a very striking image available, so they used it.

My recollection of National Service are that there were always a few of these two-bob lairs (as my dad would have called them) in every unit. They were thick, usually all mouth and trousers and typically went to water at the first sign of trouble..

They were best ignored, or avoided. Anyone stupid enough to fly a Nazi flag has obviously no thought for anyone or anything besides his own juvenile obsessions and would have been a bad risk in a contact.

So let’s not draw any more attention to stupidity. The chorus of outrage about the fact that this episode is being condemned is also ridiculous. To hear that commandos are somehow excused from disciplined behaviour, is, to put it simply, crap. They are/were subject to the same code of conduct as everyone else in the ADF.

The other frequent defense is that we need ruthless tough individuals to keep us safe, and that excuses all manner of things. In the first place, I doubt that what the ADF did in Afghanistan "kept us safe". Perhaps it's kept some Afghans safe and improved their quality of life - if so, that's great, but we were never under existential threat from the Taliban.

To believe that we have to reduce our behaviour to the level of that of our most brutal enemies to effectivelly fight tyranny has never been part of our national ethos, and I hope it never is.

In the meantime, let’s ease off on the cries of outrage. It doesn't help the morale of the majority of ADF personnel who aren't, like the perpetrators, as thick as two short planks.

The other issues relating to Afghanistan that are under investigation at the moment are of much greater consequence.

One of the strongest impressions I was left with after returning to Vietnam a couple of times was the respect the locals in Phouc Tuy maintain for Australians.

That respect is an absolute consequence of the behaviour of the diggers who fought there all those years ago.

Tonsley Park Reflections

This week I spent some time in Adelaide visiting one of my sons. I stayed in a pub at Tonsley Park because it’s close to where he lives.

I also hired a car, a Toyota Yaris, which was subsequently upgraded to the Mitsubishi ASX illustrated.

Adelaide always turns on extremes of weather when I visit, and this trip was no exception. It was wet, bleak, and the sun largely absent. This was in stark contrast to my last visit in February when it was 42 degrees. It topped out at 15 this trip.

The ASX reminded me of Mitsubishi Outlanders that were provided to me when I was working out west. It felt the same, smelled the same, and was equally unexciting. These days, Mitsubishi sells lugubrious looking cars - well engineered, but very conservative. It’s best feature was Apple CarPlay which helped me find my way around.

Many years ago, we owned a Mitsubishi Magna (1989) which provided reliable safe and comfortable transport for our growing family.

Back then, Mitsubishi weren’t afraid to innovate.

Sadly, no more cars are made at Tonsley Park.

But the reminders are there if you look properly. Chrysler and Mitsubishi once partnered in Australia.

(Blogged on the iPad).