My November Diary continued

DSCN3477

DSCN3478 DSCN3476

Above are some previous pictures of the jacaranda tree in out neighbourhood. It is the only one close by and has not got very many blooms left. However I noticed this week wonderfully flowering trees in different towns of the Illawarra. At this time of the year they all seem to be still in full bloom and look very lovely. Unfortunately I never had my camera with me whenever I came near some of these beautiful flowering jacarandas.

The other day I went with Peter for a little walk near our house. It was early morning. Looking up into the sky we could still see the moon. Peter tried to take a picture of it, alas with not much success.

DSCN3480

DSCN3482 (2)

DSCN3483 — Peter took this picture of me. It was a beautiful morning for a bit of a walk.

My Diary nearly halfway through November 2017

.https://auntyuta.com/2017/11/14/burning-for-over-100-years-jharkhands-underground-fire-affects-5-lakh-500000-people/

I just published the above post and talked to Peter about it. He says I should say in my own words what I feel about it. It is good advice for I have some rather passionate feelings about it,especially since Peter pointed out to me how the ADANI company is presumably involved in all these dealings. How so?

As far as I know, quite a significant number of Indian power stations are still operated with coal. When I looked under “coal” in THE HINDU, I noticed this article from November 01, 2017:

http://www.thehindu.com/business/Industry/coal-stocks-start-building-up-at-power-plants-says-secretary/article19962323.ece

I understand that the Indian Government wants to see to it that a sufficient power supply is guaranteed.

I have not found out yet, whether at present Australia does export coal to India. But I found in THE HINDU a recent article that Australia wants to export ADANI coal to China:

http://www.thehindu.com/business/Industry/australia-notified-china-of-adani-coal-mine-approvals-in-letter/article19924918.ece

I found the following article from June 2016:

http://www.thehindu.com/business/Industry/Adani-may-abandon-Australian-coal-mine-project/article14386236.ece?gclid=CjwKCAiAoqXQBRA8EiwAIIOWspXkDxMbToHeWP8UR58tDj8l57SCxod9TMG3TmZwB637N5I_UjGcnhoCKpEQAvD_BwE

“Adani may abandon Australian coal mine project
PTI MELBOURNE, JUNE 05, 2016 12:56 IST
UPDATED: SEPTEMBER 16, 2016 10:50 IST
Adani.jpg
In this June 23, 2015 photo, Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani speaks with Australia’s Trade and Investment Minister Andrew Robb at the Australia India CEO Forum in New Delhi.
Gautam Adani tells “The Australian” that the project was yet to receive the green light after six years of environmental assessments and court battles.

Bogged by a six-year delay, Adani may pull out from the proposed $21.5 billion rail and mine project in Australia amid a series of legal challenges from environmental groups against the Indian energy giant’s plans to build one of the world’s largest coal mines.

Stating that he was “disappointed”, the company’s founder and chairman Gautam Adani told The Australian newspaper that the “pit to plug” project was yet to receive the green light after six years of environmental assessments and court battles.

“You can’t continue just holding. I have been really disappointed that things have got too delayed,” Mr. Adani said.

Mr. Adani said he hoped the court challenges to Australia’s largest proposed coalmine would be finalised in early 2017.

However, with one court case yet to be heard in the Federal Court, and at least two groups threatening High Court action, Mr. Adani warned he could not wait indefinitely.

Mr. Adani said that he was already scouting alternatives to feed his power stations in India.

Confirming he had met Australian Prime Minister Malcom Turnbull in December 2015 to seek to deliver greater certainty on such projects, Mr. Adani said, “We were suggesting how to bring in the certainty of the timing.

“We were asking how we get certainty of the time schedules… that is the most important for us in committing all of our resources.”

“It’s just covering up the real fact that what is damaging the reef is an increase in the temperature of the seas through climate change,” he said.

Another new Federal Court challenge to the mining lease for Carmichael, issued by the Palaszczuk Labour government, will be heard this year.

Mr. Adani said he originally believed the approvals process would take two to three years and that he has already spent $3 billion buying the tenements and the Abbot Point port lease.

The company is still exploring the financing issue of the project.

Mr. Adani said if there were no more unexpected delays, he had confidence that the project would get financing and “still be competitive” against other alternative sources of coal in India and Indonesia.

Adani Australia chief executive Jeyakumar Janakaraj said the co-ordinated campaign by anti-coal activists to block the mine had damaged Australia’s international reputation.

He said the business community in India had expressed concern about future investment in Australia. “I think it has already turned off a lot of switches. I am not saying it is going to be permanent, but there has been damage.”

Mr. Turnbull’s office did not comment on Saturday about Mr. Adani’s call for greater certainty to the approvals process. But the government has argued that all commonwealth approvals are in place and there are no remaining federal obstacles to the project proceeding.

Adani’s coal mines plan in Australia has been hampered time and again. A federal court in August 2015 had revoked the original approval due to environmental concerns.

In October 2015, the project got a new lease of life after the Australian government gave its re-approval.

Australia’s Queensland State government in April 2016 gave Adani permission to mine coal reserves estimated at 11 billion tonnes and to build roads, workshops, power lines and pipelines associated with the mine.

Environmentalists are fighting the approvals, saying the project will jeopardise the State’s future and destroy national treasures like the Great Barrier Reef.

More In
BusinessIndustryIndia coal Australia
Related Articles
Three French banks refuse to fund Adani project in Australia
Australia approves $2 bn rail line for Adani project
Adani’s Australia coal mine project cleared
No public funding in Adani’s coal mine: Turnbull
Decks cleared for Adani’s coal project in Australia: Envoy
File picture shows Gautam Adani, Chairman and Founder, Adani Group with Australia’s Investment Minster Andrew Robb during the India-Australia CEOs Forum Meeting, in New Delhi recently. Photo: V. Sudershan
Australian court revokes environmental nod for Adani’s $ 16-bn coal mine project
Three French banks refuse to fund Adani project in Australia
Australia approves $2 bn rail line for Adani project
Adani’s Australia coal mine project cleared
No public funding in Adani’s coal mine: Turnbull
Decks cleared for Adani’s coal project in Australia: Envoy
File picture shows Gautam Adani, Chairman and Founder, Adani Group with Australia’s Investment Minster Andrew Robb during the India-Australia CEOs Forum Meeting, in New Delhi recently. Photo: V. Sudershan
Australian court revokes environmental nod for Adani’s $ 16-bn coal mine project

This article is closed for comments.
Please Email the Editor”

Uta’s Diary

DSCN3475 — The alternative to having grass everywhere

Just returned from a little walk after having taken the above picture. I wanted to take another picture of a beautifully flowering jacaranda tree. But I took it from too far away and had to drastically crop the pic to make the tree more visible. Next time I’ll walk up closer to the tree to take another photo.

DSCN3476

Here now is a link to an interesting post about Sydney’s jacaranda trees:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-10-28/where-to-see-jacaranda-trees-in-sydney/9084172

The best spots to admire Sydney’s purple sea of jacaranda trees

ABC Radio Sydney

By Amanda Hoh

Posted 28 Oct 2017, 8:00am

A Headline in the Aim (Australian Independent Media) Network

The Turnbull Solution: “MPs must make a declaration that the declaration that they made wasn’t an untrue declaration!”

https://theaimn.com/turnbull-solution-mps-must-make-declaration-declaration-made-wasnt-untrue-declaration/

This headline really caught my attention. I read it with some kind of amusement. Our lives are filled more and more with some kind of declaration or another. Do I remember my mother’s maiden name? Luckily I do. and this is the truth.

Pictures from the 1st of November 2017

Peter watches a program of The Deutsche Welle on his Computer

Conflict Resolution – The Psychology of Conflict

In an article in the Sydney Morning Herald by Peter Hartcher

http://www.smh.com.au/comment/the-one-bright-spot-amid-the-worlds-problems-20171023-gz67gh.html

I found the following about Sharia law:

” . . . an international group of psychologists interviewed some 80 men who had fought with or lived under Daesh and published their conclusions last month in the journal Nature Human Behaviour.Daesh, they said, “has imbued a generation of young Sunni Arabs with a strict belief in Sharia law as the only way to govern society; and this is a value they are willing to fight and die for. They described strict Sharia as the only way to eliminate oppression and corruption, and many believe that ISIS’s foreign fighters truly fought for this.” Unless governments can show their people a better way to wipe out oppression and corruption, the appeal of Islamist extremism will live on.”

To my mind the key words were “oppression and corruption”. I googled these two words and ended up reading this article:

http://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/oppression-power

“Overcoming Oppression with Power” was the heading. It was interesting what was said about Nelson Mandela’s strategies. Some very interesting, mind boggling details were mentioned. The article was written by Morton Deutsch. Here is what it says about Morton Deutsch’s work in the field of conflict resolution.

http://www.beyondintractability.org/contributors/morton-deutsch

“Morton Deutsch is one of the founding fathers of the field of conflict resolution, specializing in the psychology of conflict. Currently Professor Deutsch is the E.L. Thorndike Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. He founded and is still active in Columbia’s International Center for Cooperation and Conflict Resolution. He is the author of countless articles and books, including the 1973 Resolution of Conflict, which is still in use today.”

All this shows me that in academia people know so much about such subjects like “oppression and corruption” as well as conflict resolutions.

Why is it that most people are not much aware of that knowledge? Should not at least the people in power be made aware of all that knowledge?

Last Sunday in October 2017, Uta’s Diary

WP_20171029_10_14_58_Pro — “White Princess”

The “White Princess” was given to me recently. After replanting a lot of the flowers have opened now. I am very happy about this. We can see the plant through our dining room window or when we sit at an outside table. Today we have very mild weather in the mid twenties (Celsius). In the morning the outside table is in the shade. Peter and I were sitting there having a cup of lemon/ginger tea each and admiring this beautiful plant with the white flowers. After our morning tea break we got ready for a drive to Kiama. Peter took these photos from the spot where we had fish and chips as well as ice-cream for our lunch.

WP_20171029_11_12_17_Pro (2)

The last Part of my September 2017 Diary?

I hope, this is going to be the last part now. I think, our stay at BIG4 Nambucca Holiday Park I have pretty well covered by now, except for one outing, that is, we stopped one morning at Nambucca Heads Railway Station just to have a look. I assume it would have been on that day when we went to the Honey Place at Urunga:

https://auntyuta.com/?s=honey+place%2Cat+Urunga&submit=Search

When we stopped at that Honey Place, we were really on our way to Coffs Harbour. So we stopped at Nambucca Head Railway Station first.

nambucca heads railway station phone number

We went around the station for quite a while. It was early morning. The station master was not there yet. His shift started a bit later. While we looked around taking some photos, time passed quickly. And before we started leaving the station master already appeared for his shift and Peter could talk to him. It has been a while since Peter worked at a station. During the conversation with the Nambucca Heads station master, Peter mentioned that he used to work at Albion Park Station. However, this was a long, long time ago. It really has been a long time that Peter retired from his job.

DSCN3377 (2) DSCN3378 (2)

DSCN3379 (2)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macksville_railway_station

South of Nambucca Heads is Macksville Railway Station. We did not have a look at that one. But coming back from Coffs Harbour in the afternoon we went as far as Macksville. We had a pleasant stay there near the river and sat in a cafe having some tea.

http://www.aussietowns.com.au/town/macksville-nsw

Now to Coffs Harbour. I have no pictures of it, that is we stayed there only in a shopping centre for the toilet facilities and a bit of lunch. A lot of building work was going on in the centre of town. Somehow Peter never found his way out to the coastal areas. After lunch we turned straight back onto the Highway going back in a southerly direction until we ended up in Macksville where we liked it very much.

It is a pity we did not take time to see a bit more of Coffs Harbour. I am sure near the sea there are some beautiful spots as you can see here:

https://www.visitnsw.com/destinations/north-coast/coffs-harbour-area/coffs-harbour/beaches

On Thursday, the 21st of September, we were on our way back home. We stopped at Taree for lunch.

WP_20170921_12_24_26_Pro (3) — This was an excellent lunch near the Manning River.

Towards evening we arrived in Newcastle where we stayed at the Ibis Budget Hotel. Our granddaughter Lauren picked us up from our hotel to take us to a Pizza place for dinner. We were happy that we could see our granddaughter for a bit who was enormously busy at the time preparing for a competition.

We left very early the next morning and had a very good run home. We arrived home on Friday, the 22nd, at around midday. That was really a very fast drive home!

On Sunday we had at the club a belated birthday lunch with some friends and also some family.

After lunch we enjoyed Coffee and cake and later on some wine. WP_20170927_18_13_29_Pro

few days later it was the 3rd Birthday of Alexander.

September 2017 Diary continued

Here are some more pictures I took in the BIG4 Nambucca Beach Holiday Park. It is just the right sort of park for family holidays.

DSCN3309

DSCN3307

DSCN3308

DSCN3310

DSCN3313

This is what I wrote about our long walk along the beach at Nambucca Heads:

“Early in the morning we went for a walk along the beach in our toe shoes. Later on on that day we had a beautiful warm 30 Degrees Celsius. The beach was just lovely so early in the morning. We saw quite a few people walking along there, some with a dog or two. Several people started a conversation with us. One man said that he was from Melbourne. Another man had a dog that was part dingo. the man said the dog was very shy of people and was only one year old. Near where our camp was, there was a lot of driftwood.”

We actually reached this beach from a place called Swimming Creek Beach. I did show this in pictures here:

This is the third Part of my September 2017 Memories

Here you can see the pictures we took during our beach walk:

https://auntyuta.com/?s=Nambucca+Beach&submit=Search

And about the Uranga Honey Place I published a post here:

https://auntyuta.com/?s=honey+place&submit=Search

This is the third Part of my September 2017 Memories

DSCN3330

Japanese Drumming? This Van was parked next to our car for several days. So who were these Japanese people who were our neighbours? We never saw anybody going to that cabin next to ours. Why on earth was that van parked there? It was a mystery. Finally a woman appeared on the scene. She came out of the cabin and apparently was getting ready to leave the place. She looked Japanese to me. Eventually, I started talking to her. It turned out, she spoke perfect Australian. She explained that she was about to leave to go to some schools where she would give lessons in Japanese drumming. Yes, she was Japanese. Somehow, when she mentioned her husband, I asked her, whether he was Japanese too. She said, oh no, he’s a Newcastle bloke!