Der liebe Augustin

 

Lies das Buch hier

 

Ich fand dieses Buch vom Horst Wolfram Geissler in einem Antiquariat. Damals in Deutschland hatten wir viele Bücher vom Bertelsmann Lesering und "Der liebe Augustin" war auch dabei. Und somit nahm ich dieses 50-jährige Buch mit nachhause denn der Anfang liest sich ganz nett:

"Es geht die Sage: Einst war die Welt freundlicher gewesen als heute. Und wenn ihr die alten illuminierten Kupferstiche betrachtet, scheint das wahrhaftig zu stimmen.

Was für zarte, lustige Farben und Linien damals in der Welt waren! Die Leute trugen grüne Fräcke und mattgelbe Hosen, die Akazien flimmerten sanft in den blauen Himmel hinein, der heiter war, als lächelte der liebe Gott alle Tage darüber hin.

Es gab noch keine Eisenbahnen, keine Dampfschiffe, keine Kraftwagen und also auch weder Ruß noch Lärm, noch aufgejagten Staub. Es gab nur eines in dieser alten Landschaft: Ruhe."

Hört sich an wie am "Riverbend"!

 

Googlemap Riverbend

 

We're off to Cancerland

At the end of my radiotherapy treatment in September 2018

 

You have no maps for Cancerland and no idea if your passport has a valid exit permit. A guide gets in touch with you right at the very beginning. He makes sure he’s got your name and date of birth right and then says, 'I’m from the cancer police. You’ve got to come with me.'

So what do you do? You say, 'All right.' You have no real choice in the matter, as he says if you refuse to follow he’ll kill you. I said, 'I prefer to live. Take me where you will.' I’ve been following him ever since 2018.

I'm no longer being bombed with radiotherapy, and today's visit to Sydney is merely a quick check-up with the cancer police to find out if I've collected any speeding tickets. I'll let you know when I get back.

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There's one in every town and village

 

 

I've just come back from a late-afternoon walk up the lane to inspect the messiness the bringers of the sewerage and water reticulation have left behind after their first day on the job.

A fairly recent newcomer to the neighbourhood called out to me and we started talking. "Oh, you're that German from down the lane?" he asked. Whoops! It seems that my reputation has once again preceded me.

Yes, I'm that German from down the lane, and I image the reputation that preceded me was courtesy of a neighbour's wife who, whenever she could spy the Australian flag hoisted up my flagpole, screamed from the mercifully far away gate, "Just because you fly the Australian flag doesn't make you an Australian." There's one in every town and village.

(There's another character across the river who refuses to shop at ALDI. He's quite a jolly fellow and I admire his misguided conviction which costs him money as he's limited to shopping at Woolies and Coles.)

Like Socrates, I'd rather drink my hemlock than deny my German-ness which has stood me in good stead in all those years: industriousness, thoroughness, punctuality, honesty, and perhaps a bit of arrogance thrown in as well; after all, arrogance is still better than ignorance. I am German by birth and Australian by choice - and happy with both.

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Islands of Australia

 

 

Tonight at 8.30 ABC TV shows the first episode of "Doc Martin" Clunes' "Islands of Australia" with a very cameo appearance of David Glasheen, the Millionaire Castaway on Restoration Island. Are you reading this, Hubert Hofer in Cooktown?

 

"Doc Martin" with David Glasheen and his woman, Miranda the mannequin
Last time I spoke with Dave, he was missing female company.
Be careful what you're wishing for, Dave - click here

David Glasheen's house on Restoration Island

 

And, yes, "Doc Martin" then visits my old "home", Thursday Island, where I used to work and live in 1977 and for which I still have a soft spot. (Why do we miss people and places only when they are no longer around?) He meets Diver Dan outside Mona's souvenir shop of which I wrote about in my travelogue when I visited the island again in 2005:

 

"Doc Martin" with Diver Dan, born 1929, outside Mona's Bazaar

 

"I called in at a souvenir shop in the main street where I was met by a young Ethiopian, who had somehow got himself married to a T.I. girl. His wife's mother owned the shop which he now managed. They had three lovely children but after five years on T.I., he seemed to be getting restless. He was enrolled in some business studies and wanted to become an accountant but felt that the longer he stayed on T.I. the more his self-confidence eroded. He didn't know that he was suffering from - nor had he heard of the term - "rock fever" which originated among servicemen stationed in Hawaii during World War II. It meant a sudden and desperate need to escape to the mainland."

 

Mr Kazu welcomes Martin to Friday Island. Beyond Friday Island lies the weekend.

 

And he went across to Friday Island where Leo the Hun lived (and died) - click here - but where "Doc Martin" visited the Kazu Pearl Farm. More memories for me because during my time on Thursday Island in 1977 I befriended a Burmese marine biologist, Victor Aung, who had worked there. The sheer isolation and loneliness finally drove him away from there and the last I heard from him was decades ago when he had taken a job as a mail-sorter at the Sydney GPO. Where are you now, Victor?

 

Victor Aung on his visit to Thursday Island in 1977

 

If you're too busy tonight to watch "Islands of Australia", you can tune in again on Sunday at 3.55 in the afternoon or, if you have access to iview, go to iview and click on Episode 1. Say hello to mad-as-a-cut-snake David Glasheen and his sidekick, the lovely Miranda. Tell him I sent you.

 

Martin's last night on Restoration Island, dining on freshly-caught trevally

 

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I'm buying BHP!

 

We live in troubled times and the world’s largest economy is failing miserably in its role as 'global peacekeeper'. America once ruled as a moral leader, liberating Europe from Hitler’s Nazi regime and defeating the Japanese Empire which inflicted atrocities all across Asia.

While publicly preaching restraint, behind the curtains the US continues to hand out a colossal $95 billion in military aid to Israel alone which will no doubt fatten the purse strings of the likes of Boeing, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, and Raytheon, among others.

All this will be highly inflationary and affect the supply of basic minerals over the coming years. The outbreak of WW1 witnessed one of the most prolific price surges on record for copper. The graphic above shows its 120-year price history, adjusted for inflation. Copper reached the equivalent of US$9,878 per tonne in 1914 as the demand for bullets and other war munitions rose. The same thing occurred over the Vietnam War throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Demand for copper is currently outstripping supply, driving up prices. Copper supply has been strained by operational and political instability in regions where it is mined, including Congo, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, and Latin America. There are no quick fixes as copper's supply response is notoriously slow. A typical copper mine takes about 10-15 years to explore, develop and bring online.

 

Today's copper price is $9,654

 

Proof that metals will be a strong performer amid political chaos and geopolitical chest beating. While I truly wish the reasons were different, history tells us that major geopolitical tensions and the build-up to war are extremely bullish for metals. These are the real reasons commodity prices are embarking on a new era of price inflation. I'm buying BHP!

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