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In May 2024 Wendy and I travelled to Europe and after a string of flights landed in Berlin. By now we are quite familiar with that city and caught public transport to Emily and Guido's apartment to be greeted by our grandchildren and their parents.  I have previously reported on their family, so, suffice it to say, we had a very pleasant stay and even got out to their country place again.

From Berlin we flew to Greece and had an initial few days in Athens, before returning to Berlin, then back to Greece, a week later, to join a cruise of the Greek islands and Türkiye (just one port).

At the end of the cruise we spent a self-guided week on Crete. We finished our European trip with a week in Bulgaria, followed by a week in the UK, before flying back to Sydney.

 

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Travel

Argentina & Uruguay

 

 

In October 2011 our little group: Sonia, Craig, Wendy and Richard visited Argentina. We spent two periods of time in Buenos Aires; at the start and at the end of our trip; and we two nights at the Iguassu Falls.

Read more: Argentina & Uruguay

Fiction, Recollections & News

Ignorance

 

 

The Harris-Trump debate is in the news and the most talked about moment was when Harris mocked his rallies and Trump responded by asserting that Haitian immigrants in Springfield were eating the residents' pets. 

 

"At the ABC News presidential debate, former President Trump went on a tear accusing Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, of eating pets."

 

 

This was the real Springfield, as opposed to the Simpsons' fictional one.  

  

Yet, Trump saw no warning signals before repeating this obvious nonsense.  It reminded me of his suggestion, also picked up on Social Media that Covid-19, might be overcome with household disinfectant.

 

President Trump claims injecting people with disinfectant could treat coronavirus

 

 

And his claim that the F-35 stealth fighter was actually invisible.

 

In a Thanksgiving speech to the US coast guard, President Donald Trump hails the F-35 fighter jet, calling it an "invisible" plane that they "enemy cannot see".

 

 

We already knew that his grasp of American, let alone World, history was woefully inadequate for someone aspiring to, and actually holding, high office.  And this gets to the heart of the matter: he's an ignoramus.

I don't mean he's stupid but he's lacking in the most basic knowledge of how the world actually is. 

No doubt the occasional cat or dog does get eaten by a homeless person but ravenous immigrants, en masse, falling on the pets of Springfield?

The average twelve year old could tell him that this story is unlikely to be true. That same child could tell him that a stealth-jet is not actually invisible (to the naked eye); and that injecting disinfectant; or exposing yourself to radiation, sufficiently energetic to kill a virus infecting you, would very likely kill you too. 

But his ignorance is legendary:

 

Donald Trump often discusses history, and he has a unique way of talking about it.

 

Yet, on several cruises that we have been on with older Americans: "What do you think of Donald Trump" is a standard question at dinner. A few don't like him but for the great majority: 'The Don' can do no wrong. All the negative things said about him are just 'fake news'.  They are 'welded on' regardless.

It will be an interesting election.

 

 

 

Opinions and Philosophy

Science, Magic and Religion

 

(UCLA History 2D Lectures 1 & 2)

 

Professor Courtenay Raia lectures on science and religion as historical phenomena that have evolved over time; starting in pre-history. She goes on to examine the pre-1700 mind-set when science encompassed elements of magic; how Western cosmologies became 'disenchanted'; and how magical traditions have been transformed into modern mysticisms.

The lectures raise a lot of interesting issues.  For example in Lecture 1, dealing with pre-history, it is convincingly argued that 'The Secret', promoted by Oprah, is not a secret at all, but is the natural primitive human belief position: that it is fundamentally an appeal to magic; the primitive 'default' position. 

But magic is suppressed by both religion and science.  So in our modern secular culture traditional magic has itself been transmogrified, magically transformed, into mysticism.

Read more: Science, Magic and Religion

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