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Alotau

 

Alotau on the mainland, less than 400 kilometres from the capital, Port Moresby, it's quite a civilised place, with conventional supermarkets (where we bought Australian wine); some nice houses and a good deal of traffic.

 

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Alotau

 

The local adults seem a little put out by all the rather large, by comparison, white people flooding off a bigger than usual cruise ship but the children were treating it as a holiday and some wanted to chat. Their English is excellent - they learn it at school in place of or in addition to Tok Pisin (pidgin) the official lingua franca. Papua New Guinea has some 830 living languages plus English and Tok Pisin.

Two boys attached themselves to me. They each had a different home/family (One Tok) language but couldn't tell me what either is called in English.

This more traditional market, on the walk into town, was almost exclusively for betel nut.

 

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Betel nut sellers

 

Many people here, as in PNG in general, use betel nut. Betel nut is an addictive stimulant drug that is said to increase stamina and alertness and induce a sense of well-being and euphoria. It also increases salivation, resulting in regular spitting of the red juice that stains the users' mouths and rots their teeth. Users take it with lime (calcium hydroxide) that is sold in bags by the vendors; mustard sticks (daka); and sometimes chewing tobacco.

Alotau is on Milne Bay, made famous by World War 2.

 

The battle of Milne Bay

 

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The Milne Bay War Memorial

 

The battle of Milne Bay is remembered as the first defeat of the Japanese on land during the Pacific War.

 

In May 1942 a Japanese force was landed up the coast to take the strategic allied air base near here. The highly skilled and battle hardened Japanese, who had recently taken Singapore against insufficiently trained and inexperienced British and Australian troops, were initially successful. It was a fine demonstration that if you have an army it needs to have battle experience - a sword grows rusty in the scabbard.  The 'Peter Principle' (people are promoted until they are found to be incompetent and then there they sit) gets to work, particularly amongst the officers.

But this time, the now more experienced Australian defenders, with some US participation, retained air superiority and were better prepared. Although reinforced, the Japanese lost almost a third of their troops and were forced to withdraw. It was the beginning of the end for them.

 

The school

We had booked a ship sponsored bus tour that, later in the day, showed us around the town and to a school.

As I previously mentioned, the children meeting the boat were multilingual and apparently literate. So education at least to primary level appears to be good.

 

 

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Kwoto Mission School
The dancers were there because we were
There was also a performance by the school choir - introduced by senior students
not unlike a Primary School in Australia

 

At the Mission School there was the ubiquitous dance group. In addition there were speeches and singing by the school children - at least the ones not playing truant.

I was struck by how self effacing (perhaps timid around Europeans) these kids were compared to Australian kids the same age.

 

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The bus took us up to this lookout where guides gave a commentary
and some local people dressed up for us tourists - working for tips
I felt sorry for this guy - his heart wasn't in it but the kid was charming

 

Back down the hill we were dropped off at a larger food (growers) market - more food that the previous one - but again lots of betel nut and bags of lime to go with it

 

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The growers market
as mentioned earlier there are also several conventional (unremarkable) supermarkets in town

 

 

Off to sea again

 

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All at sea again

 

 

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Travel

Ireland

 

 

 

 

In October 2018 we travelled to Ireland. Later we would go on to England (the south coast and London) before travelling overland (and underwater) by rail to Belgium and then on to Berlin to visit our grandchildren there. 

The island of Ireland is not very big, about a quarter as large again as Tasmania, with a population not much bigger than Sydney (4.75 million in the Republic of Ireland with another 1.85 million in Northern Ireland).  So it's mainly rural and not very densely populated. 

It was unusually warm for October in Europe, including Germany, and Ireland is a very pleasant part of the world, not unlike Tasmania, and in many ways familiar, due to a shared language and culture.

Read more: Ireland

Fiction, Recollections & News

Chappaquiddick

 

 

 

'Teddy, Teddy, I'm pregnant!
Never mind Mary Jo. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it.'

 


So went the joke created by my friend Brian in 1969 - at least he was certainly the originator among our circle of friends.

The joke was amusingly current throughout 1970's as Teddy Kennedy again stood for the Senate and made later headlines. It got a another good run a decade later when Teddy decided to run against the incumbent President Jimmy Carter for the Democratic Presidential nomination.

Read more: Chappaquiddick

Opinions and Philosophy

Frederick Sanger - a life well spent

 

I have reached a point in my life when the death of a valued colleague seems to be a monthly occurrence.  I remember my parents saying the same thing. 

We go thought phases.  First it is the arrival of adulthood when all one's friends are reaching 21 or 18, as the case may be.  Then they are all getting married.  Then the babies arrive.  Then it is our children's turn and we see them entering the same cycle.  And now the Grim Reaper appears regularly. 

As I have repeatedly affirmed elsewhere on this website, each of us has a profound impact on the future.  Often without our awareness or deliberate choice, we are by commission or omission, continuously taking actions that change our life's path and therefore the lives of others.  Thus our every decision has an impact on the very existence of those yet to be born. 

Read more: Frederick Sanger - a life well spent

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