Clever Kites

After a long winter of beautiful blue skies, the bush around Darwin is dry.

For months, the days have been warm. The skies have been cloudless.

The nights have been cool. By the end of winter, the

Territory starts to head into fire season.

The first fire starts with a small flame. It swallows the dry grass. It runs up the dry bark of trees. Before long, flames are leaping into the sky, wrapping around the tallest branches and jumping across roads.

Flying over the flames are the kites.

Clever birds.

With their sharp eyes, they find small animals rushing from the searing heat. They swoop and dive, grabbing the animals in their feet

and flying off to eat them.

Over time, these birds have learned a few tricks.

One of their most impressive tricks is fire starting.

Knowing that fires chase out their food -

they start their own fires.

The birds swoop down and grab a burning ember in their claws.

After flying a short distance, they drop the ember into the dry grass of a nearby bushland. The heat and dry grass blend and flames quickly form.

Once the fires start, they don't seem to stop.

Thick smoke rises into the sky, showing where the latest fires are burning. Kites hover, dive and swoop. The air smells of the fires and everything is covered in blackened ash.

With everything black, smoky and charred,

there's nothing to do but grab a camera...

Its amazing how quickly the plants burst into new life.

Even though the Territory is always hot and lacks the colours of autumn, it moves through definite seasons and this was one of my favourites.

Vietnamese Anniversary

Today is the anniversary of the Battle of Long Tan - in Vietnam.

I once put in a real effort to understand a

little more about the Vietnamese War.

I gave up.

All I can remember is that the West would take over an area,

they’d move on and the North Vietnamese would move

back into the area and take it back….

And on and on and on.

The Vietnam War saw Australians fighting in jungles and villages for ten years, from 1962 to 1972.

Around 60,000 people made up the Aussie troops.

I went to Vietnam and headed out to the Demilitarized Zone. Old stone churches still bore the bullet holes from the war. Crater holes still lay across the ground. Amazingly brave men and women still worked the fields – searching for undetonated bombs. Land mine accidents were evident in the number of amputees living in the towns and villages.

What I remember the most, are the Vinh Moc tunnels.

The entrances to the tunnels were well hidden. Watching a guide open a secret entrance to the tunnel, lowering himself through the small space before hiding the entrance again was amazing.

Life in the tunnels was so safe that no villagers lost their lives.

I was impressed that the Vietnamese villagers were clever enough to carry the tunnel soil, by boat, to an island off the coast. Several of these trips would be made by night. The beach exits were carefully hidden by dense trees and foliage. They remained undetected by the western soldiers throughout the duration of the war.

The digging of the tunnels continued over the years that they were used. The digging began in 1966 and around 60 families lived in the tunnels until early in 1972. While I walked deeper and deeper underground, the tunnels became darker. Small lights had been set into the walls. The roof became lower and my shoulders started scraping against the sides of the tunnels. Several small rooms were built along the tunnels. They were about 2m by 2m. I was stunned to hear that this was where a family would have lived for four years. While the bombs rained down, the villagers lived, taught their children and loved. One of the rooms was used as a maternity room. Seventeen children were born inside the tunnels.

So, while it is the Anniversary of the Battle of Long Tan today, it’s not just the Australians I think of.

I'll take my wrinkles anyday!

This month, in Australia, a boy stood high above a Melbourne street. He looked down, saw two children in a pram and threw acid – a powerful tile cleaner. The acid hit the children... babies, really. One was 2 and the other was only 5 months old.

The boy who threw the acid is only nine years old. Being under ten years of age, he cannot be charged.

Luckily, the two young children will completely

recover from the attack.

How can this happen in Australia – and how can there

not be public outrage?

I’ve often wondered at the strength of acid attack victims.

I admire their courage and bravery.

Sulphuric acid is the most commonly used acid and is easily found. It’s in car batteries (35% concentration), but, is also available at 98% concentration online.

Kerosene has also been used in acid attacks.

This acid has a disastrous effect on flesh. Skin melts, bones are exposed and often melt. Many victims become blind once the acid hits their eyes. If areas of the nose, throat, ears and mouth are hit by acid, the victim may lose the ability to hear or speak. Attackers usually aim for their victim’s face or genitals. Disfiguration is permanent. While mortality rates are low, victims express extreme agony immediately after an attack and many wish for death in the following months and years.

Imagine walking down the street with a face so terribly scarred that no features remain visible... Victims will generally require 25 to 30 operations as basic treatment for their injuries.

We don’t hear much about these attacks, so I was surprised to read that in Bangladesh, at present there is an acid attack every two days. The most common victims are young women

aged between 14 and 25.

Attacks are often made by husbands. Maybe the woman refused sex, declined a marriage offer, maybe he suspects her of something or is jealous of her. Disputes over land settlements are another common reason for attacks in Pakistan. An example of this is when an aunt fed her one month old nephew acid. By 15 months, he still couldn’t talk – his mouth and chin fused to his chest. In India, acid attacks are used to help people remember their place in the caste system. In Cambodia, attacks are made by wives, seeking revenge on their husband’s lovers. In Afghanistan in 2009, many female students were attacked because they were going to school.

I spent a while looking at the faces of acid attack victims. There’s real sadness there... agony... but also incredible strength and beauty.

This is Katie Piper’s story.

Read this one – she tells the acid attack story better than I do.

She was attacked in London.

http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/news/553998/I-felt-acid-melting-my-face-away-and-wanted-to-die-Now-Ill-show-the-world-this-evil-rapist-didnt-win-Acid-attack-victim-Katie-Piper.html

http://www.depilexsmileagain.com/gallery.htm

This is a photo gallery

http://www.acidsurvivors.org/

http://www.depilexsmileagain.com/index.htm

Paraskevidekatriaphobia

I learned a new word today.

Paraskevidekatriaphobia.

Paraskevidekatriaphobics are the people who have a morbid and irrational fear of Friday the 13th. Then there is this word - tridecaphobia.

The fear of the number thirteen is called tridecaphobia. Being that tomorrow is Friday the 13th, I thought I would look at some superstitions. I now know that there are some tasks I should carefully avoid on Friday: never

begin any new work,

write a letter,

knit,

launch a ship,

begin the harvest,

cut finger-nails,

start a journey,

get married,

or give birth. Most of these are easy for me - so I feel confident that my Friday the 13th will pass by relatively peacefully.

Here are some of the extremes which we have some to accept as normal - even though few of us would admit to being superstitious!!: More than 80 % of high-rises do not have a 13th floor Many airports skip the 13th gate Airplanes have no 13th aisle Hospitals and hotels often have no room number 13 Many cities do not have a 13th Street

Then there are the ladders, which must be carefully avoided, the black cats and the cracks in the concrete.

Be careful... watch your back and be grateful that you are not paraskevidekatriphobic!

For Just Twenty Bucks

It’s Missing Person’s Week.

Appropriate really, after the book I just finished reading.

It’s titled: “Mummy, Come Home” and was written by Oxana Kalemi.

The book is the story of Oxana’s life. She was born in the Ukraine. Desperate to earn money, she ended up overseas, following the promise of work. She found herself sold to a human trafficker and her life changed forever. She was sold to different men until she ended up in London, forced to work in massage parlours.

After being sold so many times, locked away in small rooms and forced to sell her body, her self-esteem was crushed. By the time she was in London, she had dodged bullets crossing borders with her pimps and was terrified that any misbehaviour from her would result in pain and harm to her three children, back in the Ukraine. Language barriers and the fear of imprisonment also prevented Oxana from seeking help. It’s difficult to imagine a life such as Oxana’s.

Human Trafficking is so rarely heard about that it is easy to ignore. But when you learn a little about it, it is impossible to ignore. After reading the book, I was inspired to learn more about Human Trafficking. It is defined as a person being taken against their will and being forced into sexual slavery, domestic service, sweat shops, labour, sale of human organs and child marriages.

I learned that this is a multi-billion dollar, international business. It has surpassed the gun trade in terms of profit.

It is second only to the drug trade.

It’s the fastest growing international crime in the world.

Each year, it is estimated that over two million women and children are sold into sexual slavery. The worst area for abductions is South East Asia. Children as young as 5 are sold and often, for just $20.

It is estimated that between 2 and 4 million men, women and children are trafficked every year. That equates to more than one person every minute, every day. UNICEF estimates that 1.2 million children are trafficked each year.

Trafficking affects most countries, including Australia. Young women are attracted to Australia “The Lucky Country”, where they believe they will easily get work and make a lot of money. They soon find themselves sold into prostitution, paying back thousands and thousands of dollars to the men who bought them. The majority of Australian women are strong and refuse to be treated abusively by their partners – the young girls are forced to fill this void. Some of these girls are

forced to work in isolated rural communities.

There are several sites on the web which provide more information about human trafficking.

Somaly Mam was trafficked as a child from Cambodia. She has started a foundation, which can be found at http://www.somaly.org/ .

http://www.stopthetraffik.org

http://www.thejammed.com/

The Jammed is an Australian film about human trafficking, about three girls sold as sex slaves.

Swimming with Crocodiles

Katherine Gorge is stunning.

The sheer rock walls rise from the water, high up into the air.

Boats drift down the gorge and the gentle lapping of the waves against the tin is a peaceful background to the natural beauty. A feeling of calm settles in and my worries drift away. Brilliant blue skies contrast magnificently with the reds of the rock.

It’s hot, though.

After a few hours in the boat and a walk along the gorge, the cool water is very tempting. The guides seem to believe that it’s safe to swim in the gorge. Apparently, salt water crocodiles don’t swim this far up the gorge.

(I don’t see them getting into the water, though!)

With sweat trickling down my back, I give in and wade into the water.

The cold water is shocking against my heated skin.

But.. before long, I’m feeling refreshed and clean again.

Getting back into the boat, we round the next corner of the gorge and there...

before us...

sits a crocodile.

Its bathing in the sunshine.

But... it’s a freshie... a fresh water crocodile.

Even if the crocodile had been lying on the bottom of the gorge, directly under my feet... it would probably have ignored me.

Probably...