Australia Day 2021

In January, 1788 the First Fleet arrived from England and as some see it, "invaded" Australia. Most of us see it as a settlement of prisoners and others who would make Australia into the envy of the world as it is today.

Most of us who live here are happy to have been born here or been given the opportunity to immigrate here.

The great landmass of Gondwanaland or Terra Australis as it was later to be known, could have been settled by the Dutch, Portugese, French, Japanese, or several different countries. But the English got here first.

The English did what they did everywhere. They built railway lines, settlements, planted crops, mined the earth, and set up systems of governance that worked well.

Unfortunately, as seemed the case with all advanced civilisations moving into territories inhabited by primitive people, many bad things were done on both sides. While we need to learn from the past mistakes of our forefathers, after 233 years, there are some who still live in the past and can't move on from the horrors that were committed.

Today we are the benefactors of the First Fleet. We have a relatively stable and efficient Westminster System of government. We speak the most sought-after language on the planet - English that has become the language of choice for business, industry and science across the world. Millions of people from other countries want to live here and many immigrate each year.

We feel safe in Australia. We feel confident. We feel happy and content.

I consider myself blessed to have been born a ninth-generation Australian. My first ancestor came from Arbroath in Scotland and was "transported" to Australia for stealing cheese. Others followed from England and my paternal grandmother from the United States of America.

My wife's ancestors came from Germany. So our children are a mix of many nationalities.

Today as with every other day, I'm so thankful to be an Australian.

Robin

PS: My father was born on Australia Day and as a child convinced me that the nation had a holiday for his birthday. By the time I'd turned 24 I knew it was bullshit!

The Truth About Happiness

When my almost 18 years old grandson Tory rang me he said that he was unhappy with his life and wished he could be happy like other people, meaning some of his cohorts. 

As it was one of the few times he seemed to have time to spare, I spent a long time talking to him about goal setting, happiness, how happiness is transient, and how we need to identify what makes us happy and do those things; provided they aren’t illegal, immoral or adversely impact on our neighbours. 

I spoke about internal locus of control, an identified psychological state of mind of people who believe they have control over what happens in their lives. Conversely, we discussed external locus of control, the opposite - everyone and everything else is to blame for what happens in our lives. 

We spoke of pessimists and optimists. I asked him why he didn’t ask his friends if they are happy and if so, why. That way, I said, he could do what they do and hopefully share in the happiness. However, as anyone over 18 should know, neither happiness nor unhappiness is a constant state (unless you’ve been smoking mood-altering substances, but we won’t go there). 

According to US celebrity media personality, Tucker Carlson, “There are a lot of ingredients in being happy: Dignity. Purpose. Self-control. Independence. Above all, deep relationships with other people.” 

I thought that was a good start to understanding happiness however, it’s reasonable to suggest that like me, other people have moments of happiness and unhappiness, and also longer periods between when we neither feel happy nor unhappy, but are content. 

We are simply idling along and at any time during that stasis, our state of mind could change immediately, for numerous reasons. Although he wouldn’t admit it, I sensed that my grandson’s drop in spirits was brought about by his impending year 12 exams. The fear that he hasn’t done enough work to get a good result, and the challenge of transitioning from school into a desired apprenticeship are foremost in his mind at present. I felt no different when I was leaving school over 50 years before him and you who are reading have doubtless shared the same experience. 

When I taught Emirati women in the United Arab Emirates, I used to tell them that every morning when they get out of bed, they can make a choice: choose to be happy or unhappy. The ball was in their court. I told my grandson the same thing. 

The truth is, that to think you can live life in a constant state of euphoria isn’t realistic. Neither does one wish to live in a constant state of depression. The answer is to foster a positive, optimistic outlook and find things to fill in your day that please you. Develop those deep, fulfilling relationships. Barring the medically identified reasons for depression, this should lead to a reasonably decent life.

Postscript: Now 19 years old and an apprentice electrician, grandson Tory is a much happier person than he was when I wrote this article.

Are the Scammers Stupid?

 

By now, I have at least a billion dollars of Bitcoin. By all accounts, I'm wealthier than most.

Well, I would be, if the daily email messages I receive telling me of the huge amounts of money that have been added to a Bitcoin account I don't have, were true. Damn! It would be nice to be a billionaire, even just for a day or two.

Obviously, someone thinks I'm silly enough to click on a link to check out a Bitcoin deposit in an account I don't have. 

Then of course there are the legions of messages from women (perhaps) inviting me to view their beautiful naked bodies if I just click here. Why would I do that? I see all the beautiful women I want on Tumblr and Instagram. Like Bianca at left from Instagram. Bianca doesn't only have a body many a woman would die for and most real men 

would like to "play" with, I've seen her face - it's very pretty too.

Bianca is simply perfect. Except that I have to water the plants, make dinner and watch the news, I could look at her all day.

When I go shopping or walking in my neighbourhood, I see equally beautiful women and although they are mostly - always - dressed, they still look gorgeous and remind me of how fortunate I am to be able to see all the beautiful things nature has provided for us.

Last, but not least are the morons who send us email or SMS messages (I block the latter) advising us we have a parcel to collect when we know we haven't ordered anything.

Could it be a present from a long lost relative? Or perhaps Microsoft has decided to give everyone a free watch? Or perhaps it's simply bullshit and it's not very hard to find the truth.

An email I received from Australia's national postal service, Australia Post had an email address as shown above: "mooeasy.com."

Now, I'm not a rocket scientist, but in the 73 years I've lived in Australia, I've learned that Australia Post doesn't use mooeasy.com. If I know, you can bet your life most of the other 25 million Australians know too.

How stupid are these scammers?

Robin

PS: You can find the beautiful Bianca here.

The Worst Bannerfests I've Seen

When I bought my new HP notebook, I decided to use Microsoft Edge instead of Chrome that I have been using for years.

Edge comes with tabs that are full of news articles and advertisements from a huge number of media sites, even those as disreputable as The Guardian.

Among them are some of the worst Bannerfests I have ever seen such as that shown in the image at left.

What's a Bannerfest?

It's a site that pretends to be providing an information/media service, but is really a sales site focusing on generating income from dozens of banner links. In the image above, you can see that two separate adverts for the same product even appeared at the left simultaneously.

Usually, one gets sucked into opening the bannerfest by noticing a headline of interest. You click and find that the page that appears is chock full of banners. The article you wanted to read has several paragraphs and then you have to click a button to continue to the next part of the article that is again short.

This process goes on ad nauseum until the end of the article if you stick it out for that long, which I don't. A common strategy is to use a headline with images, perhaps of beautiful women in bathing suits. You then have to click to move to each image working your way through the bannerfest.

I make it a practice never to click on any of the advertising banners and usually only view page one before deleting the page. You should do the same.

Robin