On 19 February 1942, the Japanese mounted two air raids on Darwin and mainland Australia came under foreign attack for the first time since white settlement.
Admiral Chūichi Nagumo (1887 – 1944), the mastermind of the Pearl Harbor attack on 7 December 1941, planned the Darwin raids, which involved 54 land-based bombers and 188 aircraft launched from four aircraft carriers operating in the Timor Sea. The Japanese, who were preparing to invade Timor, correctly surmised that a disruptive air attack on the Darwin base would hinder any Allied counteroffensive.
Admiral Chūichi Nagumo
The first attack began just before 10.00 am and lasted 40 minutes. Heavy bombers struck harbour installations and the town, while dive bombers, escorted by Zero fighters, attacked shipping in the harbour, the military and civil aerodromes and the hospital at Berrimah. The second raid began an hour later and involved high altitude bombing of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) base at Parap. This raid lasted about 20 minutes.
Singapore had fallen to the Japanese only days earlier and the civilian population of Darwin, believing that an invasion was imminent, panicked. Looting and disorder was rife and approximately half the city fled south in an event which became known as the ‘Adelaide River Stakes’. Hundreds of Australian servicemen abandoned their posts. Three days after the attack 278 servicemen were still missing.
Together the two raids killed at least 243 people and between 300 and 400 were wounded. Twenty military aircraft were destroyed, eight ships at anchor in the harbour were sunk, and most civil and military facilities in Darwin were destroyed. The Australian government, concerned at the effect of the bombing on national morale, played down the event and claimed that only 17 people had been killed.
Australian soldiers survey the damage inflicted by Japanese bombers.
In the coming months other northern Australia towns, such as Townsville, Katherine, Wyndham, Derby, Broome and Port Hedland, would suffer from Japanese air attack. Further south, Sydney and Newcastle were attacked by submarines. Darwin would be bombed a total of 64 times, the last raids occurring in November 1943. None of these subsequent raids would, however, match the ferocity of those on 19 February 1942.
berlioz1935EditIt is easy for people to lose sight of the “big” picture. They are mostly concerned with their “own little” world. Perhaps it is human nature and we need leaders who can explain it all to us. But the leaders are not always “fair dinkum” as we say here in Australia. They have their own agenda and it takes a while before we noticed we have been had.Reply
auntyutaEditI think, Berlioz, that elected leaders, once they are in government, do not go very much by what the people want, who elected them. They can always lead the majority of voters astray, again and again.Reply
berlioz1935EditToday at the parliamentary question time, I heard the PM saying Labor was stopping the City Link tunnel project in Melbourne. It was outrageously misleading if not even a lie. Because this particular project was rejected by the people of Victoria at the recent state election.
auntyutaEditIn that case the people won. The project was stopped because the people did not like it. Naturally, the PM would not have liked it, that Labor promised the people to stop the project. It got them elected at Victorians State elections, and they kept their promise. For sure, the PM hates it even more, that Labor stuck to their promise!
cardamone5EditYou are very wise, Aunty Uta. Having been in Germany during World War II, you should be advising leaders in how to avoid war or any strife. I feel a blog post coming for you…can’t wait to read it.What you say about Australians wanting to keep taxes low but expecting government to cover infrastructure, etc, is true in America as well. Also true about it impacting low income households the most. Here in America the top 1% income bracket runs the government because they need to be wealthy to afford to run campaigns. We elect them, but their fear related platforms make voters lose their heads temporarily under the delusion that if they don’t get their vote their rights will be infringed on. Of course this is my opinion.Thank you for this thoughtful post, and the lovely pic.Love, EReply
auntyutaEditDear E, what you say about voters’ sentiments sounds absolutely right to me. Berlioz says that it is easy for people to lose sight of the “big” picture. They are mostly concerned with their “own little” world. Advising leaders? For that, leaders have to be open to advice. Chancellor Merkel for instance says in the Ukraine Crisis a military solution is not possible. It remains to be seen whether what she says is going to be taken seriously. There are well known academics in US who have done research on the East European situation. They can explain to you why it is not wise to confront Russia. The Ukraine can never defeat Russia. It is not possible, unless you have World War Three! Russia needs Ukraine or at lest part of it, as a buffer zone. The West should not prop up a corrupt Ukrainian government. It is not to the benefit of the common people no matter how much they long to belong to the West. Let them have normal trade relations with the West. That should really be sufficient. They do not need to belong to NATO. This only confronts the Russians. Why are Western leaders so determined to confront Russia? Why are they not willing to listen to the experts?Reply
auntyutaEditThank you very much, dear Berlioz, for these very important links! Much appreciated. Thank you.
elizabeth2560EditMy mother lives in a strata complex of nine units. She has been treasurer of her body corporate in a voluntary capacity for many years. With her health issues, she is no longer able to do it and there is no-one else who will take it over. My brother suggested to the other owners they contribute just a little more each moth and pay for a body corporate manager. Well that did not go too well with them at all! You are correct that people do not want to pay just that little bit extra for shared expenses. They feel they are being robbed and cannot see it as improving their own quality of life.Reply
auntyutaEditOur complex has ten units, Elizabeth, and Peter has been taking on this honorary job right from the start when the units had just been built. That was twenty years ago! We are in a similar kind of situation. Nobody wants to relieve Peter of the job, and nobody wants to pay extra fees for employing someone. Peter is really getting on in age. I don’t know for how much longer he can do it. All the body corporate business is handled by an office in Wollongong who are very good in handling all our requests which Peter has to relate to them. Thank you very much for your comment, Elizabeth. Reply
The EmuEditGood to read your comments on such diverse subjects Uta. Nobody really wants to take chances with their money anymore, much like in the bigger picture where various governments control taxpayers money and do not spend it on what the people expect, they tend to spend it on infrastructures that appeal to their electorates, hence ensuring their political aspirations. I have never seen Australia go through a worse government phase as we have seen, and seeing still, in over a decade or more now. Regards to you both, hot tomorrow, 43 here.Reply
Labor and the Coalition may be broadly in agreement about the risks and threats of China and the volatility of geopolitics. But they have very different approaches and they use very different language, writes Stan Grant.
Posted 23h ago23 hours ago / Updated 19h ago19 hours ago
I knew a storm had been forecasted for the afternoon, so I purposely set my alarm for an early rise to make the best of the morning…..my thinking was, if a storm was heading our way, then the saying, “red sky in the morning, sailors warning’, might also come to fruition🤞
It didn’t actually look that promising when I headed up the snicket
But as I reached the church I could spy a tiny piece of red glowing between the trees
Once I reached the corner, my eyes must have been like saucers at the view beyond the catkins
A small smear of pink has been painted across a cloud
And once I reached the playing field, I could see the reflection of the sky in the house windows to my left, then looked right and there it was….a glowing pink morning sky
On Monday, the world — at least the free thinking, non-authoritarian world — was shocked when Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, declared dictatorial powers over the people of Canada by invoking wartime powers. He then labelled the peaceful protesters terrorists, claimed they were carrying out an “illegal occupation,” claimed the ability to seize their assets without due process using private banks, and empowered police and military to help him carry out those orders.
To anyone who has ever studied history, they see these moves by the Canadian government as a massive step to transform their parliamentary democracy into a fascist state. Freezing assets and government taking money from citizens over a peaceful protest, is a direct affront to any semblance of a free society.
During another interview on Wednesday night, Canada’s Justice Minister David Lametti told a reporter that anyone who donated money to the Canadian Freedom Convoy, should “be worried” about having their bank accounts frozen.
Days after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he would invoke emergency orders to crack down on demonstrators by freezing their bank accounts, five major Canadian banks went offline on Wednesday night, as customers reported their funds were unavailable, according to technology website Bleeping Computer.
There were countless stories of banking customers who experienced trouble accessing their funds yesterday evening. No bank explained the source of the outrage, but essential to note the outage comes, as we said above, days after Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act.
The question I walked in on my husband watching porn and now I feel extraordinarily hurt and abandoned.
My grown-up children have left home and I have managed to have a rewarding career. However, having a good relationship always eluded me until I was in my 50s.
I have been married before and I am in my early 60s now. We have been together for a while. I thought we were ecstatically happy and that, at last, I was in a truly fulfilling and equal relationship. I now doubt all this, and have lost respect for my husband. We have tried to talk about it, and he is only sorry that I am upset and doesn’t seem sorry that he used porn. He must know women are often exploited and always objectified in these situations. He says his love for me is as it ever was, and says he’ll stop if I want, but I want him to want not to do it
You’ve discovered that you and your husband have different views about porn – and this may have triggered your teenage trauma
‘It is important that you have sympathy for each other’s points of view.’ Photograph: John Kirk/Getty Images
The question I walked in on my husband watching porn and now I feel extraordinarily hurt and abandoned.
My grown-up children have left home and I have managed to have a rewarding career. However, having a good relationship always eluded me until I was in my 50s.
I have been married before and I am in my early 60s now. We have been together for a while. I thought we were ecstatically happy and that, at last, I was in a truly fulfilling and equal relationship. I now doubt all this, and have lost respect for my husband. We have tried to talk about it, and he is only sorry that I am upset and doesn’t seem sorry that he used porn. He must know women are often exploited and always objectified in these situations. He says his love for me is as it ever was, and says he’ll stop if I want, but I want him to want not to do it.
I experienced a serious trauma when I was in my teens and have had bouts of depression since then. I have not been good at choosing the right men to have relationships with, but with years of counselling I managed to turn my life around. I really thought that this time, by being with a kind and interested man I had at last got it right, but now I’m unsure.
I feel betrayed by my husband using porn. It is as though he has been cheating on me.
Philippa’s answer I’m not saying using porn is right or wrong, because me declaring judgment on it won’t change anyone’s behaviour. It is more useful to understand it. And yes, I dislike the objectifying, potentially exploitative side of the porn industry. But I can also understand it’s nice to have a little private pleasure. A bit like having a lovely, satisfying poo that you wouldn’t necessarily tell anyone about.
You mentioned your teenage trauma, so I’m thinking it is still relevant. What trauma can do is shatter previously held beliefs such as: “Most people are good and trustworthy.” After the trauma, you may have developed rigid rules like emergency measures that come with new beliefs such as, “I shouldn’t trust anyone.” I’m wondering whether discovering something new about your husband which is hard for you to understand means you’ve reverted to this type of emergency-mode way of thinking – thinking in very “all or nothing” terms. You’ve gone from “ecstatically happy” to what sounds like panic – that marrying was a mistake, as though your discovery may have reactivated this old trauma and tipped you into an emergency trauma-mode mindset.
What you are doing is discovering something new about him. It’s a part of him, it’s not all of him. Some of us tend to assume that sex means the same thing to our partners that it does to us. This is not done consciously but in a sort of take-it-for-granted way, and it is often left unsaid. This is why it can be a great shock when differences are found. You might be feeling excluded because he kept this part of his sexual life a secret. Maybe you find it disgusting and feel contaminated by it. It might be tantamount to him having sex with someone else. But for him, porn is probably nothing to do with his real-life relationship with you, but instead about his relationship with himself.
Beware of seeing the issue in terms of just right and wrong
The thing to remember is that each of you will have formed different attitudes to relationships and to sex and to porn: this might be difficult to explain or talk about because both of you might not have been in the habit of putting non-conscious assumptions about sex or porn into words (perhaps not even to yourselves). But I want to encourage you to keep trying, so that each of you can understand the other. I don’t think you’ll ever be on exactly the same page, but I do think it is important that you both really understand what is on your respective pages and have sympathy for each other’s points of view.
He has probably been watching porn in private moments all the time you have been together, and all the while you loved and trusted him and felt “ecstatically happy”. He may need private time to masturbate, but whether you want this to be kept secret from you is something else to talk about. There is a difference between privacy and secrecy. The former is OK and the latter can feel like betrayal. I hope you can find a way of talking about how you each do privacy, how you need it and how you use it. It might enrich your relationship.
Porn can be destructive when it is addictive, but as he offered to give it up if you wanted him to, it does not sound like he has an addiction to it.
Beware of seeing this issue in terms of just right and wrong, and keep the dialogue open. Porn is what the genitals enjoy in private. This might be very different to who we each are with each other.
You’ve discovered that you and your husband have different views about porn – and this may have triggered your teenage trauma
‘It is important that you have sympathy for each other’s points of view.’ Photograph: John Kirk/Getty Images
The question I walked in on my husband watching porn and now I feel extraordinarily hurt and abandoned.
My grown-up children have left home and I have managed to have a rewarding career. However, having a good relationship always eluded me until I was in my 50s.
I have been married before and I am in my early 60s now. We have been together for a while. I thought we were ecstatically happy and that, at last, I was in a truly fulfilling and equal relationship. I now doubt all this, and have lost respect for my husband. We have tried to talk about it, and he is only sorry that I am upset and doesn’t seem sorry that he used porn. He must know women are often exploited and always objectified in these situations. He says his love for me is as it ever was, and says he’ll stop if I want, but I want him to want not to do it.
I experienced a serious trauma when I was in my teens and have had bouts of depression since then. I have not been good at choosing the right men to have relationships with, but with years of counselling I managed to turn my life around. I really thought that this time, by being with a kind and interested man I had at last got it right, but now I’m unsure.
I feel betrayed by my husband using porn. It is as though he has been cheating on me.
Philippa’s answer I’m not saying using porn is right or wrong, because me declaring judgment on it won’t change anyone’s behaviour. It is more useful to understand it. And yes, I dislike the objectifying, potentially exploitative side of the porn industry. But I can also understand it’s nice to have a little private pleasure. A bit like having a lovely, satisfying poo that you wouldn’t necessarily tell anyone about.
You mentioned your teenage trauma, so I’m thinking it is still relevant. What trauma can do is shatter previously held beliefs such as: “Most people are good and trustworthy.” After the trauma, you may have developed rigid rules like emergency measures that come with new beliefs such as, “I shouldn’t trust anyone.” I’m wondering whether discovering something new about your husband which is hard for you to understand means you’ve reverted to this type of emergency-mode way of thinking – thinking in very “all or nothing” terms. You’ve gone from “ecstatically happy” to what sounds like panic – that marrying was a mistake, as though your discovery may have reactivated this old trauma and tipped you into an emergency trauma-mode mindset.
What you are doing is discovering something new about him. It’s a part of him, it’s not all of him. Some of us tend to assume that sex means the same thing to our partners that it does to us. This is not done consciously but in a sort of take-it-for-granted way, and it is often left unsaid. This is why it can be a great shock when differences are found. You might be feeling excluded because he kept this part of his sexual life a secret. Maybe you find it disgusting and feel contaminated by it. It might be tantamount to him having sex with someone else. But for him, porn is probably nothing to do with his real-life relationship with you, but instead about his relationship with himself.
Beware of seeing the issue in terms of just right and wrong
The thing to remember is that each of you will have formed different attitudes to relationships and to sex and to porn: this might be difficult to explain or talk about because both of you might not have been in the habit of putting non-conscious assumptions about sex or porn into words (perhaps not even to yourselves). But I want to encourage you to keep trying, so that each of you can understand the other. I don’t think you’ll ever be on exactly the same page, but I do think it is important that you both really understand what is on your respective pages and have sympathy for each other’s points of view.
He has probably been watching porn in private moments all the time you have been together, and all the while you loved and trusted him and felt “ecstatically happy”. He may need private time to masturbate, but whether you want this to be kept secret from you is something else to talk about. There is a difference between privacy and secrecy. The former is OK and the latter can feel like betrayal. I hope you can find a way of talking about how you each do privacy, how you need it and how you use it. It might enrich your relationship.
Porn can be destructive when it is addictive, but as he offered to give it up if you wanted him to, it does not sound like he has an addiction to it.
Beware of seeing this issue in terms of just right and wrong, and keep the dialogue open. Porn is what the genitals enjoy in private. This might be very different to who we each are with each other.
Chapter 7 of the Real Anthony Fauci focuses mainly on the illegal and barbaric studies of AIDS drugs and vaccines Fauci foisted on fourteen thousand foster children in the 1980s and 1990s. Investigations by the Associated Press, the federal Office of Human Research Protections, and the Vera Institute of Justice confirm that most of these children lacked the federally guaranteed right to refuse consent. At the Incarnation Children’s Center (ICC) in New York, children who declined to take the toxic drugs, NIAID and its Big Pharma partners arranged to surgically implant feeding tubes in their bellies to force compliance. The Vera Institute, relying mainly on New York City Administration of Child Care documents, confirms eighty children died (out of the 582 in the ICC experiment), with many others experiencing unpleasant and dangerous side effects, including reduced liver function and severe anemia.
Chapters 8-10 explore the equally brutal and unethical vaccine…
Join me in my garret, where I keep my books on spirituality and theology. Pick a shelf, any shelf. How about the one that begins with books by Elizabeth A. Johnson and ends with a little book about contemplation by Martin Laird, Into the Silent Land?
And in-between are treasures of learning and wisdom and journeys into spiritual practice and reflection.
The Prettiest Cover: Ask the Beasts, Darwin and the God of Love by Elizabeth A. Johnson. (2014) Inside are several pages of notes I wrote when this book was the focus of a class I took at Wisdom Ways in 2014. https://www.wisdomwayscenter.org Johnson asks the question “What is the theological meaning of the natural world of life?” and “Why hasn’t theology taken the natural world seriously?” This is a dense book and as a non theologian, I was grateful to be studying this book with a group…
cardamone5
AuntyUta 