Friends of the Armchair Traveller

This morning another gift arrived from Aeon Of course Aeon were only forwarding something already out there in YouTube land,  but I probably would not have come across it except for the friendly service of Aeon  which has often sent me these rare gifts and now I forward this to my friends: Not everyone is able to live in such a splendid creation as this spectacular house built by Frank Lloyd Wright. Billions of humans alive on the planet today live in  hovels, or tents, and have no proper place to call home. This is one of the great conundrums of my life: how do we reconcile these two extremes? Even though we are all aware of this polarity in human existence, I still favour the  trailblazers who show us there are other ways humans can live, if they have the right sort of economic conditions and political leadership. Sadly we live in a world where political leadership seems bent upon destruction of people and their homes, even their hovels and tents, and where global ...

  A ward in a major hospital in Gaza, image courtesy of Médecins Sans Frontières Australia Well, I hope I will never have to be admitted to a hospital with facilities devastated like this. In fact I have a great aversion to hospitals even when they are relatively clean and well run as I have found here in Australia. Even at my worst moment in 2015 at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, I was never confronted with a ward such as we see in the image above. The procedure I was in hospital for required an operation in the middle of the night, in a theatre which was "under construction"... it was being "renovated" while still being used for serious operations! I was aghast at the situation but had I had no choice, it was an emergency and I was happy to be looked after by people who cared about my wellbeing and did their best under the circumstances. The news we endure every day and night shows us that we are a most privileged society... it's far from perfect here, but you ...