Back to work Reality

Six weeks on the road and now I?m back home to sort 2,000 emails (mostly spam) and a host of “where have you been” enquiries. The trip was a large undertaking with nearly 12,000 km covered over 6 weeks through some very remote parts of the country – Arnhem Land and the Simpson Desert to name two. We talked to literally hundreds of Australians, both local and travelers and to mobs of tourists. We dined with politicians, both white and black and have heard more from the “horse?s mouth” than most people do in a lifetime. We were privileged and appreciated the confidences that people shared with us. It was very illuminating. I would like to be able to say that I saw hope and promise in the Territory and in Queensland in respect of the Indigenous question but I can’t. There was little good news and a lot of misuse of government funds. Considering the scope of the trip I intend to post regularly on what I encountered amongst daily musings on day to day events in the world and Australia. There will be a travelogue of sorts interspersed with summaries of local opinion. If you live in the Victoria, NSW and Queensland voting triangle and have not had the chance to travel and talk to people at the coal face you might find these local opinions interesting. If your vote has been based on warm and fuzzy op-ed pieces written by people with an agenda that precludes truth or includes lies by omission then you might find local opinions at odds with your beliefs and compassion and consequently disturbing. Whatever, I can only tell it as I saw it.