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In May 2015 four of us, Craig and Sonia Wendy and I, bought a package deal: eleven days in Taiwan and Hong Kong - Wendy and I added two nights in China at the end. We had previously travelled together with Craig and Sonia in China; Russia, India and South America and this seemed like a good place to do it again and to learn more about the region.
Taiwan is one of the Four Asian Tigers, along with Korea, Singapore and Hong Kong, achieving the fastest economic growth on the Planet during the past half century. Trying to understand that success was of equal interest with any ‘new sights’ we might encounter.
This article contains a series of recollections from my childhood growing up in Thornleigh; on the outskirts of Sydney Australia in the 1950s. My parents emigrated to Australia in 1948 when I was not quite three years old and my brother was a babe in arms.
A fortnight ago I was moved to suggest that it was possible that the alleged gas attack in Syria might not be the work of the Syrian Army. I withdrew the posting when more convincing evidence of Army involvement became available.
Because of our visit to Syria took place just before the most recent troubles began, I have been, perhaps, more interested than most. I wanted to know why Syria is automatically assumed to be guilty when there are some very nasty groups on the other side?
We are fed so much doctored information, spin, that it is hard to get the facts even when we are directly involved.
So to claim that I know what is actually going on in Syria is fanciful. Assad vehemently denies responsibility; the Russians are doubtful; and the inspectors have not yet reported. But the certainty, and aggressive language, of the Western leaders accusing Syria of this latest incident seem extraordinary - do they know something that they are not revealing publicly?
As I have explained elsewhere I have fond memories of Damascus and of Syria in general. Damascus was the most pleasant and interesting of the cities we stayed in; lacking the extremes of poverty and wealth we saw in Cairo (and in Egypt in general) or the more western normality of Amman in Jordan.