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In October 2011 our little group: Sonia, Craig, Wendy and Richard visited Peru. We flew into Lima from Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. After a night in Lima we flew to Iquitos.
| This article was written in 2012 and already some of the changes noted have changed. For example, in the decade that followed, 'same sex' marriage became legal. And sadly, several of those friends and relations I've mentioned, including my brother, died. No doubt, in another decade, there will be yet more change. |
Elsewhere on this site, in the article Cars, Radios, TV and other Pastimes, I've talked about aspects of my childhood in semi-rural Thornleigh on the outskirts of Sydney, Australia. I've mentioned various aspects of school and things we did as kids.
A great many things have changed. I’ve already described how the population grew exponentially. Motor vehicles finally replaced the horse in everyday life. We moved from imperial measurements and currency to decimal currency and metric measures. The nation gained its self-confidence particularly in the arts and culture. I’ve talked about the later war in Vietnam and Australia embracing of Asia in place of Europe.
Here are some more reminiscences about that world that has gone forever.
To celebrate or perhaps just to mark 500 years since Martin Luther nailed his '95 theses' to a church door in Wittenberg and set in motion the Protestant Revolution, the Australian Broadcasting Commission has been running a number of programs discussing the legacy of this complex man featuring leading thinkers and historians in the field.
Much of the ABC debate has centred on Luther's impact on the modern world. Was he responsible for today? Without him, might the world still be stuck in the 'Middle Ages' with each generation doing more or less what the previous one did, largely within the same medieval social structures? In that case could those inhabitants of an alternative 21st century, obviously not us, as we would never have been born, still live in a world of less than a billion people, most of them working the land as their great grandparents had done, protected and governed by an hereditary aristocracy, their mundane lives punctuated only by variations in the weather; holy days; and occasional wars between those princes?