“The Valentine’s artisan sourdough bakery and coffee shop operates out of three locations – Rutherglen, Albury and Wodonga.”
After having left Benalla, Peter and I had a lunch break at Wodonga. We went to the Valentine’s coffee shop in Wodonga. The bread was very much to our liking. There were a variety of fresh healthy options to go with the bread. And the coffee was very good too.
On our way back home to Dapto we were staying overnight in Gundagai. Peter’s driving in our ancient Audi went very well. He loves driving the Audi long distances. The Hume Motorway is not a bad road to drive on.
We went to this Art Show on Sunday the 11th of November. This Art Show a bit further away from Benalla was part of the Benalla Festival. There were some good pictures by local artists exhibited.
The following pictures were taken at the Mansfield Zoo where we went on Monday, the 12th of November. Peter took these pictures during our visit to Mansfield Zoo. Mansfield is not very far from Benalla.
AT THE MANSFIELD ZOO
This is our son Martin with a bucket full of feed for the animals.
This is a fairly long article with very interesting data. I copy here only one small part, but to be more up to date with Australian migration programs please go to the above link! So this is what it says towards the end of the article:
We’ve seen more refugees — and the sky didn’t fall in
“One big change in recent Australian immigration policy — receiving little fanfare from the Prime Minister — was the increase in the annual humanitarian (refugee) intake from 13,750 to more than 18,000.
In addition, then PM Tony Abbott in 2015 announced an additional one-off intake of 12,000 refugees from the Syrian conflict. Most of these arrived in 2017 and were Christians from Syria and Iraq.
This meant an effective doubling of refugee intake in 2017. The sky didn’t fall in. While the service providers to newly arrived refugees were stretched, they coped well.”
What I feel about family: I like to feel close to family. I am most happy when I feel that my family wants to be close to me. That goes for my immediate family, but also for very distant family. Whenever people in other countries make me feel that I’d like to get to know them personally, they are like my family. I feel that all over the world there are people who could be my family.
Now my thoughts on being busy: I am 84. Has my life been busy? Yes and no. Some people would probably say of me that I am a bit lazy. I feel I often have not been as busy as some other people. Well, I try not to be too lazy. At times I love it to be very busy. At other times I just want to spend time as though I am on holidays!
It says that hard work keeps away poverty. This may be true if your hard work is not being exploited. I have been lucky all my life that I never had to work extremely hard to live a fairly good life. Even in times of severe scarcity after World War II the work I was required to do as a child I would not call hard work. I think it is good to be able to work in an efficient manner and to be able to enjoy working. Whether the work keeps away poverty, well, this depends . . . .
“Toleration keeps away violence.” Well, I love people to be tolerant towards each other. Without tolerance we cannot have a peaceful world. If people hate another religion for instance, we have to try to convince them that people of other religions have as much right to a good life as people who live a different religious life or a non religious life. Love is essential. I believe it can overcome all hate.
The world is witnessing the highest levels of displacement on record. An unprecedented 65.6 million people around the world have been forced from home by conflict and persecution at the end of 2016. Among them are nearly 22.5 million refugees, over half of whom are under the age of 18. There are also 10 million stateless people, who have been denied a nationality and access to basic rights such as education, healthcare, employment and freedom of movement. . . .
And there is so much more on this subject on this UNHCR page! There is also this video:
“OK, listen. I studied your report the whole day, and there are a few mistakes in this video. I hope you don’t find me obnoxious for pointing them out — and I do think I owe that to how much Global Trends helps me every year: 1) “One person is forcibly displaced every three seconds. That’s 65.6 million people.” No, actually that’s the 10.3 million newly displaced people in 2016 alone, whereas 65.6 million is the total, current population of forcibly displaced. Believe me, I did the math. 2) The number of refugees from South Sudan is 1.4 million! This is what the report says. Plus, the number of internally displaced is obviously higher than that of refugees — I’m not sure whether that always happens, but it surely is the tendency for a least developed country in war. 3) As to the discussion of the refugee-hosting countries, the figures for Pakistan are from last year (they fell in 2016, and today the country hosts only around 1.4 million refugees), whereas the figures for Turkey have risen, but not quite as much as you put it: it hosts less — not more — than 2.9 million refugees (2.869 millions, to be exact). Other than that, your work is beautiful, and I am a fan (I’m serious).”
I was especiallyinterestedto find something too about displacement due to climate change and natural disasters asfollows:
“In addition to persecution and conflict, in the 21st century, natural disaster (sometimes due to climate change) can also force people to seek refuge in other countries. Such disasters – floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, mudslides – are increasing in frequency and intensity. While most of the displacement caused by these events is internal, they can also cause people to cross borders. None of the existing international and regional refugee law instruments, however, specifically addresses the plight of such people.
Displacement caused by the slow-onset effects of climate change is largely internal as well. But through its acceleration of drought, desertification, the salinization of ground water and soil, and rising sea levels, climate change, too, can contribute to the displacement of people across international frontiers.
Other human-made calamities, such as severe socio-economic deprivation, can also cause people to flee across borders. While some may be escaping persecution, most leave because they lack any meaningful option to remain. The lack of food, water, education, health care and a livelihood would not ordinarily and by themselves sustain a refugee claim under the 1951 Convention. Nevertheless, some of these people may need some form of protection.
All of these circumstances – conflict, natural disasters, and climate change pose enormous challenges for the international humanitarian community. ”
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees is a United Nations programme with the mandate to protect refugees, forcibly displaced communities and stateless people, and assist in their voluntary repatriation, local integration or resettlement to a third country. Wikipedia
I don’t think it’s your brain that is responsible, but a tireless ego, a strong will to live that dismisses the fact of aging. I can surely see this with my Dad. As we age, the brain does not accept information as rapidly as in our youth, but I find that I’m able to think on a much deeper level as I grow older and have stronger powers of concentration.
Thanks for commenting. You are probably right. My post is more tongue in cheek than anything else. But there seems to be a disconnect of what we want and of what we can achieve. At times, it is frustrating. Generally, I’m happy with my age and with my ability to manage my life.
And here is a blogger friend’s response to it. Debra wrote:
“It should be scandalous, but I don’t think most people are even surprised any more. Very troubling, however. Thank you, Uta.”
After reading Debra’s response I made the following comment:
I am very concerned that politicians with some knowlege of science are often not capable of evidence-based decision making.
I hate it, when powerful corporations or special interest groups mislead us on science. And can we not be educated to see that we ought to aim that our food, power and transport are being produced in a sustainable way? I mean these things should be obvious to any government by now. And governments should show us the way how these things can become achievable.
I am not a very educated person. But I was able to find the above information (about the Union of Concerned Scientists!) on the internet. I would imagine anybody that gets voted into a parliament for sure has similar information at hand and ought to think about it what can be done about it.
I guess the problem so far is that powerful corporations and special interest groups have the power to overrule anything sensible that politicians might aim for in achieving in the interest of humankind. I wonder whether there is any chance that corporations might change their thinking drastically and maybe start acting more like the Union of Concerned Scientists might want them to act. And then maybe there would be a chance that governments also would be able to act accordingly. Sustainability does not have to mean that all of us have to live like paupers. We can still have a good life, without too much stress and not the constant threat of wars!
Please have a look, here is a link to some blogs I find very interesting:
https://www.ucsusa.org/about-us
The Union of Concerned Scientists is a national nonprofit organization founded 50 years ago by scientists and students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who sought to use the power of science to address global problems and improve people’s lives.
From: Heads They Win,
Tails We Lose
How Corporations Corrupt Science at the Public’s Expense
From 2005 to 2011, UCS conducted surveys
and received responses from more than 5,100 scientists at nine federal agencies, including the Food
and Drug Administration (UCS 2010e, 2006), the
Environmental Protection Agency (UCS 2008), the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(UCS 2005), and the Department of Agriculture
(UCS 2010e). Among other troubling trends, the
results revealed that hundreds of scientists across
the agencies had personally experienced political
interference in their work (UCS 2010e, 2009e).
Scientists attested that the interference often
stemmed from inappropriate corporate influence.
AuntyUta 
Reblogged this on auntyuta and commented:
I love this post and want to reblog it!
I don’t think it’s your brain that is responsible, but a tireless ego, a strong will to live that dismisses the fact of aging. I can surely see this with my Dad. As we age, the brain does not accept information as rapidly as in our youth, but I find that I’m able to think on a much deeper level as I grow older and have stronger powers of concentration.
Thanks for commenting. You are probably right. My post is more tongue in cheek than anything else. But there seems to be a disconnect of what we want and of what we can achieve. At times, it is frustrating. Generally, I’m happy with my age and with my ability to manage my life.