https://www.dw.com/en/a-sightseeing-tour-of-berlin/av-19294769
Enjoy a sightseeing tour of Berlin’s famous landmarks in an open-top Mercedes. (Please go to the link at the top.)
And the next video shows a lot about what sort of transport is available in Berlin:
http://www.wollongong.nsw.gov.au/services/majorprojects/bluemile/Pages/default.aspx#gref
Yesterday Peter and I had a lovely day at Wollongong Harbour. Please go to my new site to read about it. Here is the link:
https://auntielive.wordpress.com/2018/07/17/wollongongs-blue-mile-tramway/
I wrote this six years ago in 2012. Yes, we will always remember you, Gaby.
Gabriele unexpectedly passed away on Sunday, 15th July 2012. She would have been 55 on the 28th August.
She lived her life to the full. She showed much love to everyone who got to know her.
Family and friends are very sad about her departure. We will always remember you, Gaby.
Shirley Smith (aka “Mum Shirl”) was an Australian activist who spent more than 50 years helping the needy, empowering society’s outcasts, and fighting for the rights of Australia’s Aboriginal population. She was a powerful voice for justice, equality, and human rights.
Julian Burnside is a barrister who specialises in commercial litigation and human rights.
The failings of super-minister Dutton:
This article by Julian Burnside was first published in the print edition of The Saturday Paper on Apr 28, 2018 as “A silk terse at a sow’s ear”.
Here are a few extracts from that article:
“. . . When Dutton took over the immigration portfolio from Scott Morrison in December 2014, he adopted Morrison’s misleading characterisation of boat people as “illegal”. Morrison had decreed that the people referred to in the Migration Act as “Unauthorised Maritime Arrivals” should in future be called “Illegal Maritime Arrivals”. Dutton has picked up the idea, even though it is a lie.
Dutton shamelessly uses the “illegal” tag.
At the very least, this shows ignorance of some basic facts; at worst, it shows dishonesty. Boat people do not commit any offence by arriving in Australia without a visa, without an invitation, seeking to be protected from persecution. On the contrary, they are exercising a right acknowledged in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Article 14 of the Universal Declaration starts this way: “Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.”
Australia made a significant contribution to the creation of the Universal Declaration, and it was Doc Evatt, an Australian, who presided over the General Assembly of the United Nations when it was adopted on December 10, 1948. More than half a century later, on July 27, 2017, Dutton wrote an opinion piece about Operation Sovereign Borders, which included these words:
“It’s now been three years since a people-smuggler’s boat loaded with Illegal Maritime Arrivals (IMAs) reached Australia …
“Had the Coalition not mounted OSB – the boats and illegal arrivals would still be coming.”
“. . . . Dutton told the public these refugees had received “an enormous amount of support” from Australian taxpayers for a long time, saying: “there is a very different scenario up on Nauru and Manus than people want you to believe”. Taxes cover the absurd cost of maintaining offshore processing arrangements. It costs about $570,000 per refugee per year to keep the men and women on Manus or Nauru. So in that sense, refugees receive support from taxpayers. . . . ”
“On April 7, 2018, Dutton called for “like-minded” countries to come together and review the relevance of the 1951 Refugee Convention.
So, here it is: Australia’s most powerful minister is wilfully mistreating innocent people at vast public expense. He is waging a propaganda war against refugees and against the people who try to help them. And he is trying to persuade other countries to back away from international human rights protection.
He tries to make it seem tolerable by hiding it all away in other countries, so that we can’t see the facts for ourselves.
Dutton has often expressed concern about people drowning in their attempt to get to Australia. But his concern about people drowning is a lie. If he were genuinely concerned about people drowning, he might treat survivors decently. Instead, if they don’t drown, he punishes them: he puts them in offshore detention for years. He does this in order to deter others from trying to seek safety in Australia.
Perhaps the most worrying thing about Dutton is not his dishonesty, but his propaganda war, which already has led the Australian people to accept things that would have been unthinkable even 10 or 20 years ago. He has blinded us to the fact that we are now deliberately harming innocent men, women and children, in ways that are completely inconsistent with our view of ourselves. After all, aren’t we the nation that believes in a fair go for everyone?
By small degrees Dutton is inducing Australians to tolerate the intolerable. His campaign to make cruelty acceptable has the potential to lead Australia to very dark places. Invested in him is great power to do so, more power than any minister has had before.”
Ihis is what the president writes in Twitter:
“I REALLY DON’T CARE, DO U?” written on the back of Melania’s jacket, refers to the Fake News Media. Melania has learned how dishonest they are, and she truly no longer cares!
I say good on her if she truly no longer cares what the Fake News Media writes. The question should be whether she cares about the children!
I think about this all the time. Do we for instance truly care about the children on Manus Island and Nauru? If we all wore jackets with some writing on the back: “We really care about the children on Manus Island and Nauru” – That would be utterly false, wouldn’t it? So what should we write on our jackets? Just ” WE REALLY DONT CARE” or what?
Melania Trump, CNN and other members of the media were at a facility with children aged 12-17.
We are in the midst of winter. We find the days and nights very cold at this time of the year. Apart from the winter cold we had a lot of changes in the weather during the past few weeks: A lot of rain, followed by a lot of wind, then off and on more rain. Hardly any sun, or when there was a bit of sun there was also a lot of wind. For quite a few days I had been suffering from a bad cold.
Today, on this last Sunday of the month, we finally have a lot of sun with not much wind. In the shade it is only 17C. However, it means, this is a beautiful winter day and a wonderful day to go out into the sun a bit. I suggested we drive to Kiama for an early fish and chips lunch at the harbour. Peter too likes the perch that is being sold at the fish and chips shop at Kiama Harbour. From experience we know it is good to arrive there early before the big midday rush. We managed to arrive in Kiama at 11,20 and did not have to wait long to be served our fish and chips.
On the way back home we stopped in Dapto at the Pie Shop and got an apple pie to eat at home later this afternoon. And when we arrived home just now we indulged in some desert: Vanilla ice-cream with loganberries and some whipped cream. Delicious!
