Youth in Asia...

In the Australian today I read an article about Australians overseas and how irresponsible they are and how they depend upon consular services and complain heavily when they´re not given absolutely perfect assistance.

One quote:

The latest figures from the Department of Foreign Affairs show that 2009 is set to become the first year when more than 1000 Australians are arrested and when more than 1000 Australians are expected to die overseas.

and another:

...at how Australians were abusing consular services overseas, refusing to take responsibility for their own care, ignoring travel advice and complaining about embassy staff.

"Australian embassies are not travel agencies, nor is it their job to provide free travel insurance," he said, adding that a culture of complaint had developed where embassy staff were blamed and abused for "not helping" or being "too slow" during emergencies or where people had got themselves into trouble.

Speaking as an Australian currently overseas and engaging in dangerous activities and ¨adventure tourism¨ I think that this harks back to my old message. People need to be accountable for their own actions. More importantly, as a nation we need to look after ourselves, not expect the ¨nanny state¨ to sort out all our issues. This is another example of us becoming infantilised by a government that looks after us from the cradle to the grave.

As a tourist, I have travel insurance. More importantly, I have a strong realisation that the places I´m going, the Ecuadorian Government is not going to be able to provide search and rescure for.

Even back home, my friends and I have an attitude of ¨self rescue¨ wherever possible. If you´re in trouble you get out. If you can´t kayak out you walk out. If you can´t walk, you wait until you can. You don´t expect the chopper overhead and you don´t ask for it´s assistance unless it´s an emergency.

I personally don´t have a problem with someone who wants to walk through Colombia, or take a peyote tour of Mexico, or live in a slum in India with a guru or even row a boat across the pacific (not that you´d catch me doing ANY of those things).

But when the shit hits the fan, as it will, because it always does, take some responsibility. Try and get out of there yourself. And when a hard worked embassy official, who doesn´t really give a shit about you because you´re the 19th Australian this particular guru has buried in elephant shit, comes in and saves your arse, try being grateful, not narky because they didn´t find your bong at the bottom of the pile or he refused to fly you first class back to Sydney.

Get some travel insurance. Be polite, because that´s a good rule in life. TAKE PERSONAL ACCOUNTABILITY FOR YOUR ACTIONS. Don´t attack people who help you. Try and payback the money expended on your behalf.

If everyone did that, would there really be any problem?

cheers

Harry

euthanasia

And no, I´m not talking about Japanese teenagers here.

This is a topic I´ve been thinking about for sometime. What has inspired me to post is a column by Andrew Bolt (crypto-fascists like him a lot as well) about Phillip Nitschke. Check out his column here. Some of what he writes about is pretty horrific, especially the fact that many of the people killed off by Dr Death have not only not had terminal illnesses, haven´t been in pain and have often been just old and lonely. Not exactly how things were meant to be is it?

So what do I think about euthanasia?

I support it, but with some (massive) qualifications. All those people who love the idea are too quick to forget that euthanasia is basically killing someone, and to take a human life is the greatest sin there is.

So who should be allowed euthanasia? In my opinion, those who are terminally ill (proven terminally ill), in great pain and with not long to live.

And where is my position different to Dr Nitschke´s?

I believe that euthanasia, as the taking of human life, must be treated as such and be subject to criminal prosecution.

If someone whom you love and care for is dying, in great pain and wants nothing more than to end it all, than most of us would be moved to try and do something to help. And if we truly cared for that person we would do this depite possible adverse consequences to ourselves.

I remember an example from my Legal Studies class in year 12 where an elderly gentleman killed his elderly wife because of the pain she was in. He was tried for murder, admitted his culpability but put forward the circumstances and the jury found him not guilty.

This man killed the woman he loved and accepted the personal consequences (a murder trial). If you aren´t willing to do the same than you shouldn´t be advocating euthanasia (a rather horrific name really, trying to disguise it´s own terrible reality).

I know that this leaves some people out in the cold. Many elderly people don´t have someone that close to them (many have no-one at all) who can do the deed. Others will find their loved ones simply can´t face the consequences. That is tough for them. But if Dr Nitschke wants to help out than he should. And then HE should go to court and justify himself.

I also remember hearing of cases from the Netherlands. Legalised euthanasia saw many doctors and nurses start to off patients who had never requested any such thing, more often than not without the knowledge or consent of family.

This is definitely a topic that is ¨thin edge of the wedge¨ stuff. Once you open up this particular can of worms, who knows where things will end up.

That´s another reason why my solution is simple and effective. It doesn´t change anything and it demands a meaninful sacrifice from those involved in assisting. Of course, in this day and age where the concept of sacrifice and service are often sneered at or reject outright my idea is unlikely to be popular. But hey, I´m not big on killing old people just because they´re old, so I guess we can´t all be friends, can we?

cheers

Harry

he likes it wet and sticky...

If you click here you´ll be linked to a video from Oregonkayaking.net, in my opinion just about the best kayaking site on the interweb.

While it´s a long video and not particularly exciting, check out what happens at the 10minute mark. A gentleman in a creekboat gets surfed in a hole for 2 minutes (!!!), while looking as if he really doesn´t want to be there.

While I´m no playboating expert, I think I can provide a few ideas for the next time he finds himself in such a situation.

1) Maybe try and do something fun. It looked like a pretty nice surf spot. Maybe do an upstream pry and try and drag the nose around so you´re surfing upstream. Maybe that way you could actually pull yourself to the shoulder?

2) Don´t lean back so much. You have much less control, especially with your hips, when you lean back.

3) Try and keep your hands a bit lower. Obviously in that situation it´s a little bit difficult, but so´s trying to roll with a dislocated shoulder.

4) Following on from number 1. If you don´t want to do something fun, but want to get out, try and stick the end of the boat into the water. An ender of some kind would more than likely have caught green water and gotten you out.

5) Following on from number 4. Do you notice the instant he went upside down he came out of the hole? That was obviously a big, deep river with lots of flow. Lots of green water around. Going upside down is a way for your big, fat, stupid head to grab some of that and get you out of there.

Like I said, I´m not an expert. I hate holes. I´m a massive pussy when it comes to stoppers, hydraulics, pour-overs, anything like that. I won´t even surf a wave if it´s breaking! But even I could have got myself out of that one a bit earlier.

cheers

Harry

what we really need is more money for wiccans to hold an inter-faith service celebrating the solstice...

As I´m sure some people may know, a few gentleman accustomed to motoring around the countryside on two wheeled contraptions had a bit of a contretemps at the Sydney Airport the other day. This little encounter among gentleman has rather upset some people, especially those who think that maybe the people responsible for security at the airport should have ¨done something.¨

Peter Faris, of the The Australian, suggests that the incident demonstrates gross incompetence by the AFP, that Mike Keelty should resign and asks the question what if those involved had been terrorists?

Key paragraph:

After Mumbai and Lahore, what is even more frightening to consider is that jihadist terrorists could arrive at Sydney airport by taxi, shoot hundreds of people in the terminal, and escape by taxi. It seems there would be no intervention by AFP security or anti-terrorist police. This, of course, is much more attractive to the jihadists, because they would not need to die in suicide bomb attacks.

I have to stand up and agree with the general thrust of this article, although I´m not sure I´d be putting more funding into the AFP. There are certainly excellent reasons to have an AFP, amongst them the coordination of efforts in dealing with crimes that cross state and federal boundaries and the past history of massive police corruption at a state level in various jurisdictions (most famously NSW). But improving and strengthening state police forces I believe is a much better solution, in concert with the continuing work of the AFP and the ACC. Although I would get rid of Keelty, he´s dead weight and has been for years now.

Faris says that citizens pay their taxes and deserve to be safe on the streets. I think it´s more important than that. I believe that a fundamental part of a nation´s social and economic well being is based upon the rule of law and the safety of citizens and their property.

While some may disagree with me, how about this for a theory. The crime and drug problems of African-Americans in the ghetto are not caused by poverty, lack of opportunity or lack of jobs. Rather, lack of opportunity and lack of jobs is caused by crime. Who´s going to start a business, or invest in a business or a property if they live in an area where every day you at risk from violent criminals? I´ve seen The Wire, so I know what´s it like the ghetto!

Why have many Asian countries dragged themselves upwards while many African nations continue to wallow in the pit of poverty and aid dependence? It´s obviously not corruption, since by reputation many Asian countries are ridiculously corrupt, especially Korea, one of the strongest Asian economies.

The difference is that it is incredibly difficult to start a business (a proper business, not selling some cabbages by the side of the road) in many African countries, many of them continue to use aid as a crutch to avoid doing anything to start an economy (a topic for another day) and many African countries cannot guarantee basic law and order for petty crimes, let along major ones such as kidnapping, rape and murder. Not only that, but there is a difference between corruption (skimming some off the top) and a police force or military that just takes whatever it wants.

If we want to maintain our free society and our strong economy, we need to ensure that we continue to keep our citizens and their property safe (and in these present economic circumstances that seems reasonable).

First step? Forget about more money, lets see much more respect given to those who enforce the law.



I think, as a general principle, that if a person were to spit at a policeman, than that policeman should (in approximate terms), kick them in the crotch, beat them lightly around the legs and body with a baton, chuck them in the paddy wagon and spray some pepper gas on them for good measure.

Instead, we have police copping abuse both physical, oral and psychological (in one of the toughest jobs out there) and having no real recourse, apart from courts that will often impose nothing but the mildest sentence, if anything. In Victoria we´ve even had a Police Commissioner going further than that, trying to get police to talk more and seeking less physically confrontational (read small female) police officers.

Police do a crappy job without the powers (of physical abuse) that are a traditional part of their repertoire. Can´t we move into the 21st century in a way which incorporates the good parts of physical violence and intimidation without the bad parts (corruption, criminality and beating confessions out of suspects)? And by the good parts I mean, again, that people respect police and if they don´t like them they certainly don´t voice their opinion because they know what´s good for them!

I think that would be a major step in reducing crime in Australia, particularly violent crime such has increased in a massive way in Melbourne´s nightclub district in recent years.

I have much more to say on this topic, but i´ll leave it there as an intro.

it´s not all bad

Surely Mitchell Johnson must now be considered as the äll-rounder¨in the Australian team? Not only is he leading the bowling (one of the young, hungry, pace attack Angus described) but he´s also getting in a few decent knocks with the bat, including a century. Stats from the third test here

And on a different note, I thought this was absolutely hilarious.



I found both things through Tim Blair the crytpo-fascist´s blog of choice!

cheers

Harry

Movie night

Yesterday I ventured well away from the gringo areas of Quito in search of a rubber camping mattress (that I need for padding out my kayak). However, while there weren´t any tourists around it definitely wasn´t dangerous. I basically went through a series of very large malls, completely similar to a Westfields or similar back in Australia.

Highlight of the day? Walking past a Dungeons and Dragons shop and seeing all the Ecuadorian nerds sitting around playing D&D card games! Was a slightly darker skinned but otherwise exact replica of their counterparts back home!

Anyway, I thought it would be cool to see a movie, since I haven´t been to the cinema in a while, so I went and checked it out. I was keen to see Wolverine, which was advertised as being out, but it wasn´t. Choices were a bit hard because all the posters were in Spanish, but eventually I went for RocknRolla, only because I recognised Thandie Newton´s name, and she´s been in some pretty good movies.

Once I got in, I recognised a lot of the actors (just not by name), but more importantly, I discovered it was a Guy Ritchie movie! ¨Cool,¨ I thought, ¨this should be fun.¨ And it was!

In fact, it follows the visual and storytelling styles of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch quite closely. It´s immediately and obviously recognisable as a Guy Ritchie movie, and this is a GOOD THING in my opinion.

The movie features gangsters (believe it or not), crazy, violent, Russians that seem impossible to stop, different story lines that all gradually merge together, lots of strong accents and a mostly male cast (although Thandie Newton is quite fun). As I said, it´s a Guy Ritchie movie.

I really enjoyed it, it was funny, dramatic, a little bit deep (all you need to know about life is found on the walls of cigarette packet), violent and generally entertaining. Plus I really liked the ending, especially the line about how much the painting was worth.

If you liked Lock Stock or Snatch than you should enjoy this, although it´s not quite as good as either. I´ve never seen that movie he made with Madonna, but I imagine it´s absolutely nothing like this at all.

I give it 3 stars out of 5.

check out the trailer.




and see a negative review here

cheers

Harry

Rupert Murdoch is the biz

I just read a speech by Rupert Murdoch that is the best summary I have ever seen of the situation between Israel and the Palestinians, and more specifically, explaining what is happening in Gaza right now.

Read the speech here

One great line

If you are committed to Israel's destruction, and if you believe that dead Palestinians help you score a propaganda victory, you do things like launch rockets from a Palestinian schoolyard. This ensures that when the Israelis do respond, it will likely lead to the death of an innocent Palestinian - no matter how many precautions Israeli soldiers take.

cheers

Harry

impulse purchases

As we all know (presumably), when you go to the supermarket they always have lollies, drinks and magazines at the checkout. These are there for ¨impulse¨ purchases, ie you didn´t actually go to the supermarket to get the latest copy of Who Weekly, but when you saw it you just couldn´t resist.

Yesterday I was having a bit of a stroll around Quito´s ¨Old Town¨. While there I saw a number of people walking around offering items for sale. The most common you see is guys hawking sunglasses. It just rained a little while ago and a few guys were out trying to flog umbrellas.

But riddle me this. Who, while walking around, suddenly goes ¨hey, you know what I really need right now? Some clothes pegs! Hey look, there´s a lady walking around selling some, how convenient!¨ Other items for sale I saw included batteries and dustpans (sans brooms). It just seems a little strange to me, but hey, what do I know?

Harry

Ex-judge Marcus Einfeld gaoled for lying over speeding fine.

Good.

Check out further details here. This is a guy who obviously thinks that he is better or special and tried to tweak the system to his advantage.

That´s all

Harry

political theory

How can we tell whether a political movement enjoys proper grass-roots support or is just a small but energetic bunch of activists? Is there a way to ascertain whether a political movement is going to achieve success?

This guy thinks there is.

Check it out.

Harry

la Merienda

Here in Ecuador, many restaurants offer a ¨set menu¨. For breakfast this is Desayunos, for lunch it´s Almuerzo and for dinner its Merienda.

Normally a merienda involves soup, a main course (normally with rice and some kind of meat) and maybe a glass of juice or a tiny dessert.

I´m here today to tell you about the Vagabonde Pizzeria in Tena. Jurgen, the owner (a German), makes the BEST merienda around. Not only is it awesome but it´s different every single day. Check some of the photos of a sample menu. In fact, when it comes to the best restaurants in Tena, Ecuador, this would have to be the preferred destination (although the Shrek Burger is not to be ignored!).

We start off with a small bruschetta, made from bread baked in the pizza oven that day. The tomato and garlic topping is smashing.

We then follow up with a bowl of delicious soup. Soup is a big thing in Ecuador and Jurgen´s is always great.

Then we have the main. In this case, a delicious schnitzel with vegies and sweet potato chips. Always different, always good.

Sometimes, if you´re lucky, Jurgen will also deliver a tiny piece of feather light tiramisu as well!

Price?

$4.25, including a 600ml bottle of beer.

Cheers

Harry

a good newspaper these days is hard to find...

Does anyone read the Wall Street Journal? I get emails from them occasionally with a selection of recent articles and op-ed pieces. They´re normally REALLY good.

For instance, here´s an article about native Americans that suggests ways in which to improve their economic situations. Seems very relevant for Australian aborigines as well, especially the stuff about law and order. You can´t develop economically if you´re not safe.

And here´s a really interesting article about ethanol. Best quote -

¨...So successful but politically unpopular businesses will be punished for not buying a product that does not exist...¨¨

Incidentally, apparently if you buy the petrol with ethanol in it available in Australia, your fuel consumption goes up because the ethanol has no real effect, so you´re burning more fuel in total. Don´t know how true that is.

Anyway, check out the Wall Street Journal, it´s a good read.

cheers

Harry

Some good news at last...

See here for some positive news in these troubled times.

cheers

Harry

Harry the hater...

There was a french kid staying at my hostel last week. He had red fair and dreadlocks and didn´t really speak English. For some reason I had an overwhelming desire to punch him in the nose. I´m not sure why.

I just found him really, really irritating. Luckily he´s gone now, so I won´t need to worry about it...

Top Ten Rivers in Tasmania - Upper Wilmot River

The Upper Wilmot is possibly the most brutal, difficult and most committing river in Tasmania (in my opinion). The only river that would match it might be the Dove Canyon, which I haven’t personally paddled.

This is an easily accessible river that has only ever been paddled twice, for very good reason.

Where the Lea and the Iris rivers meet at Lake Gairdner, the water is diverted by pipeline through the mountain into the dams of the Forth River. From the Wilmot dam the usually dewatered Wilmot River travels roughly 30km downstream to Spellman’s Bridge.

These 30 km feature numerous long, committing and extremely difficult rapids, most with serious consequences. The rock is very sharp and scratchy and the river is pushy and difficult. The vast majority of these rapids are walled in with extremely high cliffs and are impossible to portage and extremely difficult to scout.

That being said, the huge cliffs and the committing nature give this river a really awesome feel, if you can get onto it you should, it’s amazing.

You need approximately a foot of water going over the dam to paddle this river. From the start the river quickly hits the first gorge. Get through this and keep on pushing to the second gorge, because that’s where you’re going to spend most of the day. The very last rapid in the gorge has a massive boulder in the centre that you need to get to via a dodgy eddy to scout. Below this the river mellows somewhat, although there are still some very good grade 4 rapids and there starts to be a lot of trees starting to grow in the river (it rarely flows after all). The good thing is that there is almost no wood in the main gorge and everything is paddleable.

If you get to do this river, allocate AT LEAST 8 hours on the water, if you get in trouble out there it would be almost impossible to get out and often when you can it’s on the side of the river that is much further away from everything. Take a strong crew and have fun!

(If I’ve talked this river up a bit, it’s because you can’t afford to take it lightly, don’t get on the river at 3 in the afternoon and think you’ll get through, it’s never going to happen, we pushed REALLY hard and still took nearly 7 hours.)

http://www.loungefilms.com.au/kayaker/explore/displayimage.php?album=search&cat=0&pos=13

The Loungekayaker website seems to have been replaced by some prick´s personal business website, but this used to be a link to some photos on there.

http://www.webspawner.com/users/billshep/wilmotriverwalk.html guide to walking into sections of the gorge

Cheers

Harry

King of the Andes...

I am writing this from an internet cafe in downtown Quito, capitol of Ecuador (where broadband at a cafe averages 80c to $1 per hour). I got in last night after close to 30 hours of travelling (and nearly 23 hours in planes) from Sydney.

First impressions. The weather is really good, we´re up at altitude but it hasn´t effected me too much. It´s quite sunny but not too hot, especially considering we´re sitting on the equator. (Equator - Ecuador, not it´s not a coincidence).

The people are quite friendly, even though not a huge amount of them speak English. Bit of a mix ethnically, from light to dark, but lots and lots of indian heritage quite obvious and most people have dark hair and dark eyes.

Things are cheap, but not consistently so, I`ll have to be careful in Quito that I don´t spend too much money.

The area where I´m staying (the Mariscal) is very touristy and apparently has a very bad rep for crime and violence (according to the Lonely Planet). However, walking around last night there were private security guards and cops everywhere. I saw dozens in a couple of blocks. This morning there were some proper cops hanging around, armed with assault rifles and pump action shotguns! No messing around for those dudes obviously. From what I´ve been told it´s quite safe now, due to a massive crack down (obviously all those cops and security guards), so that´s a bit of a relief.

This is a proper city, with high rise buildings and the like, lots and lots of people in suits. People obviously take care in their appearance.

Anyway, going to the pub tonight to attend a quiz night and hang out with some other travellers. Hopefully onto Tena tomorrow and kayaking! Got a line on a couple of boats, so I´ll need to buy something soon.

Basically, Quito seems really nice, will definitely come back and do some touristing.

Cheers

Harry

Hey Virgin Blue!

What's with airlines and emergency exit rows? I got asked on Monday if I'd like to sit there, which of course I would. I was checking in early, I'm youngish and obviously reasonably fit. Suppose the time came when I actually had to grasp the red handle, open the door, turn it around and throw it outside, I feel reasonably confident that I could.

So why, out of 6 people in my row, were 4 of them 2 couples in their fifties, if not their sixties? I do not believe that most little old ladies have the strength to do what you need to do if you sit in that row. And hubby next to her had a knee brace around his leg as well, don´t see him putting a lot of weight on that leg.

So who´s to blame? I don´t know this, but I think people are selecting the emergency rows when they select their seat online. This immediately seems dodgy to me. You should at least have to pass some rudimentary visual test to sit there. At the least.

Not that it´s just virgin. I was on an airnorth flight once when a granny who was at least 80 was in the emergency exit row. She was moved to another seat but her ancient husband stayed there. Safe? No way

Harry

Riddle me this....

Who stops off on the way home from work and picks up a dozen crispy creme donuts? And walks out of the shop with a child?

The reason I ask is that my hotel at Sydney airport (although to glorify it with the name hotel is far too generous) is next door to a mcdonalds and a krispy creme. And they are both very popular, especially the donuts around about tea time. What's going on there?

As for the hotel, well, it basically consists of a bed, a tiny tv and the world's smallest toilet, apparently designed for a midget. Still, at least it's close to the airport.

Ecuador tomorrow! (after 22 hours flying time).

cheers

Harry