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The Lighthouse

The Eluanbi Lighthouse was originally built by the British with the consent of China as a result of frequent wrecks off the coast and had to be fortified against Aboriginal raids.  During the war with Japan in 1898, that resulted in Taiwan becoming a Japanese colony, it was damaged then rebuilt by the Japanese. During the Formosa Air Battle in 1944 it was again seriously damaged by US bombing before being rebuilt in 1962 as a conical concrete structure and is now among the brightest on the coast: ‘The Light of East Asia’.

 

 

Nearby there is a beach and a bizarre bridge to a small island frequented by local tourists and holiday makers.

 

 

 

The scenery coastal in this area is quite spectacular and for much of the remainder of our tour we were to travel along the eastern shore with one spectacular view after another.

 

 

Continuing up the east coast in the morning we encountered some limestone caves that in eastern style had been usurped by religion as places of significance.  I mistook the name of one for Yoni – it was something similar - that I presume had something to do with its appearance.

 

 

But the complex provided a much needed ‘rest stop’, so it was appropriate. 

Close by there was a beach adjoining a giant fish farm, nevertheless enjoyed by the locals, and a bit further on we stopped at a 'marble carving factory' near the river below to see if we would like to buy very heavy Disney characters.

 

More beaches were to be visited along the coast.  

 

 

All very stony and some quite dangerous.

 

Going to the beach Taiwan style - we were told that many people can't swim

 

We had only one remaining overnight stay before returning to Taipei.   

 

 

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Travel

Southern Africa

 

 

In April 2023 we took a package tour to South Africa with our friends Craig and Sonia. We flew via Singapore to Cape Town.

 



Cape Town is the country's legislative capital and location of the South African Parliament.
It's long been renowned for Table Mountain, that dominates the city.

Read more: Southern Africa

Fiction, Recollections & News

Julian Assange’s Endgame

A facebook friend has sent me this link 'Want to Know Julian Assange’s Endgame? He Told You a Decade Ago' (by Andy Greenberg, that appeared in WIRED in Oct 2016) and I couldn't resist bringing it to your attention.

To read it click on this image from the article:

 
Image (cropped): MARK CHEW/FAIRFAX MEDIA/GETTY IMAGES

 

Assange is an Australian who has already featured in several articles on this website:

Read more: Julian Assange’s Endgame

Opinions and Philosophy

Climate Emergency

 

 

 

emergency
/uh'merrjuhnsee, ee-/.
noun, plural emergencies.
1. an unforeseen occurrence; a sudden and urgent occasion for action.

 

 

Recent calls for action on climate change have taken to declaring that we are facing a 'Climate Emergency'.

This concerns me on a couple of levels.

The first seems obvious. There's nothing unforseen or sudden about our present predicament. 

My second concern is that 'emergency' implies something short lived.  It gives the impression that by 'fire fighting against carbon dioxide' or revolutionary action against governments, or commuters, activists can resolve the climate crisis and go back to 'normal' - whatever that is. Would it not be better to press for considered, incremental changes that might avoid the catastrophic collapse of civilisation and our collective 'human project' or at least give it a few more years sometime in the future?

Back in 1990, concluding my paper: Issues Arising from the Greenhouse Hypothesis I wrote:

We need to focus on the possible.

An appropriate response is to ensure that resource and transport efficiency is optimised and energy waste is reduced. Another is to explore less polluting energy sources. This needs to be explored more critically. Each so-called green power option should be carefully analysed for whole of life energy and greenhouse gas production, against the benchmark of present technology, before going beyond the demonstration or experimental stage.

Much more important are the cultural and technological changes needed to minimise World overpopulation. We desperately need to remove the socio-economic drivers to larger families, young motherhood and excessive personal consumption (from resource inefficiencies to long journeys to work).

Climate change may be inevitable. We should be working to climate “harden” the production of food, ensure that public infrastructure (roads, bridges, dams, hospitals, utilities and so) on are designed to accommodate change and that the places people live are not excessively vulnerable to drought, flood or storm. [I didn't mention fire]

Only by solving these problems will we have any hope of finding solutions to the other pressures human expansion is imposing on the planet. It is time to start looking for creative answers for NSW and Australia  now.

 

Read more: Climate Emergency

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