#i know christmas island is an australian territory but still

[j4gm]

I was playing Geoguessr with some friends yesterday and we got the most hilariously Australian round imaginable. Right off the bat we had a sign warning us about road trains, and then a bit further down was this incredible warning sign about extremely dense crabs that would destroy your 4x4 if you ran over them.

It's crazy out in the middle of nowhere in Australia, am I right?

.

.

.

WRONG

It's Christmas Island????

[radramblog]

Australian State Flags rated

Vexillology is a subject that, like many others, I have a passing interest in. Very passing. Look I occasionally browse r/vexillologycirclejerk, the One Good Subreddit, because they have some very fresh and funky memes.

One thing I do know about vexillology and flags in general is that nobody ever actually looks at state/provincial flags, and that as a result there’s a bunch of weird ones hanging about. I’m sure this is even more true of Australia, seeing as we have many less people to care about our many fewer state flags.

So for today, I’ve decided to shine a light on some state flags and see if they’re any good. Spoilers: they probably aren’t great? (Edit: they’re also largely very very similar, oops!)

New South Wales- in keeping with the name, New South Wales apparently has decided its flag should be fairly Welsh as well. Except not, because the image on that one is a cool dragon instead of this random lion, and the red cross is actually an English thing. This is extremely lame! The placement of the O R B is also pretty awkward and uneven, leaving a whole bunch of blank space that’s just. Blue. It’s centred if you just look at the right half, but it looks weird next to the Union Jack.

I don’t like the Union Jack. Get used to seeing the Union Jack a lot. 1/5.

Queensland- Okay, so, we took the NSW one, took the lion and the cross off it, and put a nice little crown on because, you know, Queen. While this is somewhat less ugly than the lion, it is also less cool, because fuck the royalty. Add in the cyan not contrasting well with the darker blue (imo) and you have a recipe for another not good flag. 1/5.

South Australia- Well now we’re getting somewhere. Take the previous two, get rid of the shit designs in the circles and replace them with an extremely good bird. Look at that plumage, that dramatic posing! What a good. That, and orange (its supposed to be gold I think, but come on) is a good colour to go next to navy. Unfortunately, it’s still sitting next to the fucking Union Jack, so it’s not going to be that good. Fuck colonialism, 3/5.

Tasmania- Wait ok so this is just a lion again, but if the lion was drawn by the same person that did the welsh dragon. It’s a lot less busy without some nonce cross in there (save Jack in the corner), which is great, but Bri’ish lion flag designs never look good to me. You want your iconography to be simple but striking, in my opinion, but whenever they put a lion on there it has to have too many details to communicate “lion” that it just looks super mid. 2/5.

Victoria- of the many, many places on this Earth named after Queen Victoria, this state sure is one of them. We’ve dropped the circle motif for this one, which is nice, but the crown is still fucking there. This is literally just, we took the country flag, and replaced that cool star with a lame crown. Somehow this is Dan Andrews’ fault. 2/5

Western Australia- I’m obviously biased, but it’s a very good little swan we have there. Black swans are iconic of Perth, there’s many, many of them on the Swan River (funnily enough), and they’re common enough that it’s not hard to spot one of them doing something gnarly and immediately ruin all majesty they ever had for you. In my case, it was when one of them looked like it was preening, or at least sleeping with its head tucked in its wing, for a few minutes before dropping a deuce and buggering off.

 But I digress. It’s also on a gold background, representative of the intense sunlight that we live with in WA. It would be great if just the right half of this flag was the whole of it, but unfortunately, lmao Union Jack. 3/5.

Australian Capital Territory- What you thought we were done? Come on now. There’s like, 2 internal territories and 3 external ones still to go.

 With the states behind us, we get to say goodbye to Jack as well. He shall not be missed. Uuuunfortunately, while we do get the classic Southern Cross, we also get this ridiculously busy design on the right. These swans are so mad, and why are they standing like that? Why is one of them white? Why is there a fucking castle here, we don’t have those? The mind boggles. 2/5.

Northern Territory- Oh, that’s much better. The southern cross ditches the bluey background for the much more accurate pitch black of space, which contrasts great against the ruddy brown of the desert the Territory largely is. The flower is simple, but elegant, and uses the same colours as the left third which I appreciate. This is just a good, solid flag. 4/5.

Christmas Island- For as much as Australia gets associated with the “green and gold”, I’m surprised it took this long for that colouration to actually show up on the livery. I’m not a huge fan of, just, the map of the place on the flag for the place, and Green/Gold and Blue/White aren’t a great colour combo. But there is a very good bird here. 3/5.

Cocos Islands- Yo that’s the crescent from the Malaysian flag, huh? Yeah so apparently the history of this place is kinda fucked (Australian history, bad? Nooooooo….), but the residents are largely Malay descendants, so fair enough. As far as the flag goes, it’s an interesting mix of iconography that is largely fine apart from the absolutely terrible looking palm tree on the left there. That’s some 2002 clip-art shit right there. I actually like the right 2/3rds of this, so just… remove the left third. Actually I think most of these flags would be significantly improved by the removal of the left bit. 3/5.

Norfolk Island- It’s just a tree, dude. 4/5.

 Well that’s all of them. Ultimately, most of these were bad, and none of them were actually, like, great. That’s kind of just state flags for you, though. I’m no expert vexillologist, but there are only a couple flags that have truly caught my eye, and none of these fit that bill.

 We have a lot of stinkers, and tragically, nothing nearly stands out like some other countries get their state flags to do. As a final note to leave this on, and to prove my point, I’m going to present the flag of the Isle of Man.

Fucking Brits actually have a good one. Can we get this instead of the Union Jack, please? Thanks.

[lindoig6]

Recording your surveys

The surveys that are of greatest value have been found to be those lasting just 20 minutes and covering a defined area of 2 hectares (100 metres x 200 metres or similar).  These are very easy to do and I sometimes follow a route to several of my regular survey locations and I might do 6 or 7 surveys in a day.  What each survey aims to do is to identify and count all the birds I can find within my 2 hectares in 20 minutes.  Sounds simple?  And it is!  All I need to know is how to identify the birds I see and to count how many of each species.  If I see a huge flock of seagulls, I need to estimate as accurately as I can the number of birds in the flock.  At other times, I might follow a route where there are lots of Red Wattlebirds or Noisy Miners flitting from tree to tree in front of, and behind, me so I have to do my best to guess how many individual birds are there even if they decline to perch conveniently still while I count them.  But an educated ‘best guess’ is better than a wild guess or none at all.

Because I visit the same places fairly often, the various species I see remains pretty stable so I have prepared a list of all my likely species with space to insert numbers for each species when I see it.  Any unusual sightings simply get added at the bottom of the page.  I can then add my numbers for each species and enter the totals in the app after my 20 minutes is up.  The app is designed to let you add your count for each species as you go, but I have found that using the app in real-time slows me down and occupies time that should be used for looking for birds.

I use one of two apps to record my surveys and it is worth exploring the differences and why you might use one in preference to the other.

Birdlife Australia has developed its own Birdata app specifically designed to report your Australian sightings.  On the other hand, Cornell University has its own eBird app in which you can report any survey worldwide.  Obviously, if you are surveying birds outside Australia (including its offshore territories – Christmas, Cocos, Macquarie, Norfolk Islands, etc., and the Australian Antarctic Territory), you need to use eBird.  Within Australia, you have a choice but the preferred reporting app is probably Birdata.

I have tried to ascertain what linkages exist between the data recorded in each app – without much success.  If I report via both apps, is my data duplicated?  Alternatively, if I report via only one app, which should I use and is the data exchanged between the two databases?  The best I can offer is that I believe eBird data is periodically fed into Birdlife Australia’s database, but only for standardised 20 minute 2 hectare surveys.  As far as I can divine, there is no similar mechanism to feed Birdata into the eBird database.  To further confuse the issue, there are some differences in classification and nomenclature between the apps making data transfer between them more problematic.

I have concluded that to ensure my Australian data is included in the Australian database, I need to record it in Birdata. (Obviously, all my ex-Australian surveys need to be recorded via eBird.)  Neither app is perfect, but both are fairly comprehensive and contain some clever tools, but Birdata is quite clunky compared with eBird that is easier to use.  Neither works well without internet access, but eBird has some advantages over Birdata in that regard, particularly if you wish to record more than one survey while out of internet access range.

[nebanna]

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[ultradoux]

2020 Reading List

Because in the end it was a great year for reading! Just a list of the books I read this year, with comments that (maybe) get progessively more boozy as I go on

1. The Historian - Elizabeth Kostova: A really irritating read to start out this year (feels prescient?). Only worth it for the travel log features of places like Istanbul, Amsterdam, and most of Eastern Europe. Even Dracula was completely boring and useless. 

2. Howard’s End - E.M. Forster: Love, love, I will forever whore myself out for bright women acting mildly rebellious in Edwardian England, love

3. Les liaisons dangereuses - Choderlos de Laclos : Pas un seul personnage aimable, c’est magnifique, 10/10

4. The Brothers Karamazov - Feodor Dostoevsky: Did I read this as a flex in early confinement mode? Absolutely. Did I enjoy it? Christ no. If I have to read one more Christ allegory I’m climbing up on that cross myself. 4/5.

5. Chéri - Colette : C’était mignon et trop sucré, comme de la pâte aux amandes. Moins de 100 pages, du coup à avaler dans une gorgée. 

6. Pride and Prejudice (for maybe the 8th time?) - Jane Austen: Substitute “Regency” for “Edwardian” in the comment for Howard’s End and I’ll literally start vibrating. I want to be buried with this book, preferably with 90s Colin Firth, too

7. The Sorrows of Young Werther - Goethe: I go through more sorrows in seven hours of existing than Werther did in his whole life. Pass. 

8. The Epic of Gilgamesh: Ok, fine, I skimmed. You ever try reading a religious text out of respect and interest, not being very religious yourself, only half the text is missing and it’s been written so long ago that most of it is gibberish until you stumble upon a few lines that reach across millennia and sucker punch you? Similar experience. Hard to find a good translation. 

9. Mémoires d’Hadrien - Marguerite Yourcenar : Il m’a fallu une putain de pandémie, mais j’ai en fin (en fin!!!!!!!) fini ce bouquin et qu’est-ce que c’est beau. Yourcenar était un génie, ce livre est son chef-d’oeuvre, je suis tellement content que je n’ai plus à le lire. 100/10.

10. Dune - Frank Herbert: Ok, don’t come at me because it will only frustrate all of us (much like this book did me), but SNOOZE. A+ world building, but God, at what cost?  Timothée Chalamet could respectfully get it, though.

11. Going After Cacciato - Tim O’Brien: This was good? Like in the territory between okay and good? Just like a fine little book, albeit stuck in the middle of the Vietnam War. 

12. The Good Earth - Pearl S. Buck: Is a white American woman from the 30s necessarily the best person to write about rural China? Probably not, even if she was raised in rural China. Honestly, though? Still pretty good. 

13. Tender is the Night - F. Scott Fitzgerald: Do you ever get so desperately bored of pretty, rich 1920s people having pretty, rich 1920s people problems, like being tragically unfaithful or having too much money and not enough problems? No? You might by the end of this book -- but it’ll sound pretty while you’re reading. More engaging than Gatsby, in any case. 

14. Jamaica Inn - Daphne du Maurier: Reading a du Maurier novel is always trippy because the tone is like “I’m a plucky heroine and I’ll give them a piece of my mind!” and then the stakes are literally “I’ll bash your head in and strangle you on the moors and you can’t stop me.” Reading this book is like swigging moonshine in a soft, lace- and chintz-covered tea room. Gotta love it. 

15. L’éducation sentimentale - Gustave Flaubert : C’est bizarre, car mon beau-frère s’appèle Arnoux aussi, mais c’est une belle histoire qui perd un peu de son élan vers la moitié du roman. Je préfère Madame Bovary quand-même.

16. Wishful Thinking - Carrie Fisher: Who doesn’t love Carrie Fisher?

17. Shogun - James Clavell: Is a white Australian man from the 80s necessarily the best person to write about feudal Japan? Probably not (he was not raised in feudal Japan). But it’s well researched and very good. This unfortunate theme in authors did not continue this year, luckily. 

18. Chanson douce - Leïla Slimani : J’adore, j’adore, j’adore. Louise m’a donné des frissons tellement elle faisait peur. Impossible de ne pas se mettre à la place de Miriam; à lire, 100%.

19. A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian - Marina Lewycka: A cute, light read that I stumbled upon in a bookshop (support local businesses, kids! Jeff Bezos will harvest your dreams like one of those shitty vampires from Charmed where they couldn’t afford good special effects!) Some of the writing felt a little more caricatural than anything else, but I liked the main character. Sometimes things can just be fun. 

20. L’ombre du vent - Carlos Ruiz Zafón : !!!!!!!!! Le livre de l’année, l’étoile de l’été, un gout de miel qui a laissé des traces sur mon âme. Que d’amour pour ce livre (et ce n’est pas que le champagne qui parle!)

21. L’étincelle - Tahar Ben Jelloun : Etant l’époux d’un Tunisien, je suis plutôt obligé de tout connaître sur le printemps arabe, et j’ai bien aimé ce livre. Par contre, d’après ce fameux époux tunisien (bisous baby!) ce n’est pas forcément la meilleure ressource pour en parler. 

22. Barbe bleue - Amélie Nothomb : J’aime bien Amélie Nothomb, mais c’est clairement pas son meilleur. Ça donne envie de boire du champagne, par contre. 

23. Les contes de Perrault - Charles Perrault : Ecoutez, je me faisais chier en août, et c’est quand-même pas mal. Merci à Barbe-bleue d’avoir inspiré tous les cauchemars de mon enfance.

24. La princesse Palatine - Christian Bouyer : BOF. Elle aurait été plus intéressante si elle avait eu des vrais problèmes. Profite bien de tes châteaux, betch. 

25. Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe: For some reason I started this one years ago and didn’t get past the first few pages, but it was totally compelling this time around? It truly is a wonderful (and tragic) story, completely worth a read. 

26. Rules of Civility - Amos Towles: Katy is the type of person I wish I was, I would look so good in 30s clothes, I just wish I hated NYC a little less (it’s not your fault, NYC [I mean it is but I at least feel bad about it])

27. A Room of One’s Own - Viriginia Woolf: Quintessential! Still a transcript of a lecture though. Prosecco is amazing! 

28. Le horla - Guy de Maupassant : Soyons honnêtes c’est plutôt une nouvelle. 

29. Alcools - Guillaume Apollinaire : J’aime pas la poésie, même quand elle est belle. Meh.

30. Consider the Lobster - David Foster Wallace: I’m so tired of this man being the standard for everything. I mean I know I ended up reading this but what the hell. He was just bored. He read a few edgy novels and he was bored. Come on. That being said, this was an enjoyable read. 

31. Doctor Zhivago - Boris Pasternak: Ok, to be fair this was a PAIN in the beginning, but by the end I had tears?? In my eyes. That very rarely happens. Love it. 

32. Censoring an Iranian Love Story - Shahriar Mandanipour: It would have been better if he was so convinced of what a great writer he was?? What was the point of the weird dead little goblin?? Must we read from countless men every day of our lives?? Must we????

33. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrel - Susanna Clarke: So my Fenian grandmother loved this book, which is why I feel I have no right to go too hard on it, but at the same time if English exceptionalism had a literary form it would be this book (but like that insidious kind of English exceptionalism where it’s all tongue-in-cheek, so if you call them out on it they just mock you for being a rube. I see you, English exceptionalists. You’re only special because you’re on an island)

34. Go Tell It on the Mountain - James Baldwin: Christ I loved this book. Anyone who reads or writes hopes one day to be as lucid as James Baldwin. 

35. The Maltese Falcon - Dashiell Hammett: I was left largely unmoved. 

36. Alexis - Marguerite Yourcenar : Pendant six mois j’ai cherché ce bouquin, et une fois trouvé il m’a déçu. Alexis est gay, voilà le grand choc. 

37. Kafka sur le rivage - Haruki Murakami : Je ne suis toujours pas sûr d’avoir bien compris ce livre ; il faudrait peut-être le relire encore une fois. Mais ça vaut le coup d’être relu encore une fois. 

38. Le mec de la tombe d’à côté - Katarina Mazetti :  Super cute comme roman!! Inattendu, mais ��a a super bien démontré le conflit de cultures même à l’intérieur d’un pays. 

39. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley: I should have totally read this in high school, but didn’t. I’d waste your time with a bunch of faux-deep statements about how prescient this was, but I’m about a bottle of prosecco deep and no one really wants that, right?

40. Ninth House - Leigh Bardugo: I am basic for reading this and I am so glad I did; very good stuff, I’m all in, I’m sure UChicago had the same type of shit, love it!! 

41. The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho: I read light on Christmas break, ok? 

42. Watership Down - Richard Adams: I’m not big on anthropomorphic, animal-based stories, but this really went off? These are some hard-ass rabbits, respect.

43. Sharp Objects -  Gillian Flynn: Intense!! Great!! Sharp!!!!!!!!!!

[isaacathom]

every time i rewatch the roman mars ted talk i get really sad that the ACT and NT have such good fucking flags. have you SEEN them. theyre gorgeous. ok the seal on the ACT one isn’t great but it just looks so much nicer in its layout than the actual State flags. and god, the nt flag is so fucking sexy. its gorgeous. what the fuck. i like that they dont have the union jack, for one, because Fuck that. and instead they use out slightly more unique symbolism of the southern cross (’unique’) and make it just. ohhhh

look how fucking sexy that flag is. it hurts me to see such a good looking flag. this shit isn’t fair. i might make the flower bigger but GOD its such a good look flag.

and then thats victoria like....... mhm? thats what we went with? the australian flag but with the extra star removed and a crown added? jesus christ. i know we’re named for a monarch and we have to rep that but JEsus CHrist. guh. ugly. Ugly.

and even the external territories (aka the ones everyone forgets) are cool!! like 

look at THOSE. ah!!! i love them! the cocos one (middle) is a lil crowded, and i might suggest the christmas island one (top) be simplified too, but theyre still way fucking cool. i love them.

holy Fucking Shit Sydney What the Fuck! what the fuck. fuck me. holy fucking shit. Lads? Lads. What in the fuck are you doing.

BRISBANE. BRISBANE. WHY.

ok i feel like hobart is like 40% of the way to a flag with some fucking Oomph. some goddamn pizazz. i respect this one. it has potential.

also i cant find melbourne flag on wikipedia which is stupid hold on

smth like that. what. come the fuck On dude. come oooooon. this shit stinks. redo it.

[ladystylestores]

Canada Is Resettling Asylum Seekers Shunned By Australia

Chloë Ellingson for BuzzFeed News

Amir Sahragard recently arrived in Canada after six years at the Papua New Guinea detention centre.

Amir Sahragard thinks he would be dead if it weren’t for the group of civilians who sponsored his passage to Canada after six long and brutal years in migrant detention centres in Papua New Guinea.

“The only thing that [kept] me alive in the last two years was this,” he told BuzzFeed News.

“I’ve been mentally and physically sick and the only reason that I didn’t kill myself or that I’m still alive was this sponsorship process, because I didn’t have another option.”

Sahragard is one of thousands who tried to claim refugee status in Australia but were instead routed to offshore detention centres in the Pacific because of their mode of transport: boat. Under this harsh regime, people like Sahragard who sought safety in Australia by sea were instead subjected to brutal conditions and years of limbo.

But Sahragard is also one of the lucky ones. He found a way out, and not just to another centre on the Australian mainland, but to Canada — where refugees shunned by Australia are increasingly placing their hopes of freedom.

Sahragard, now 28, began his long journey in 2013 when he fled his home country of Iran. Anxious about his family, who remain in Iran, he won’t talk about why he left the country.

His next stop was Indonesia, where he boarded a ship he hoped would bring him to Australia, where he could declare refugee status. The ship was filled with families and other single men, some that he got to know as they waited for the ship to leave.

They were at sea for four days. “The boat was like a scary movie,” Sahragard said.

When the ship arrived at the remote Australian territory of Christmas Island, it was intercepted by the Australian Navy. Officers brought them onto the island, taking everything the asylum seekers had with them, Sahragard said.

Sahragard and his shipmates were processed, given medical checkups and new clothes, and told they’d be sent to an offshore detention centre. After being bounced around to various compounds, Sahragard said he was asked to sign a paper that would transfer him to Manus Island in Papua New Guinea. At the time, Australia was paying the government of Papua New Guinea to take migrants and hold them in a facility on the island.

Sahragard didn’t sign the paper, but was sent “by force”, he said. Guards put him on a bus, then a plane, and half a day later he landed at the Manus Regional Processing Centre.

The scene there, Sahragard said, was “the worst thing that I [have] ever seen”. Some people were ill, others didn’t have clothes, and everyone was terrified.

“I was alone and like 21 years old and I’d never seen things like that and everything was by force, so I didn’t have any choice,” he said.

He was put in a small room with three other men and two bunk beds, in a compound called Foxtrot. Again, he was shuffled around, sometimes to tents, sometimes to facilities that lacked air conditioning and were sweltering in the tropical environment. Eventually, he landed at a compound called Mike. It would become his home for four years.

Jonas Gratzer / Getty Images

Children bypassing the barracks where the asylum seekers are living on Manus Island, February 2018.

At Mike, detainees were permitted to use the internet once and have two 10-minute phone calls per week. They had access to laundry and a mess hall, but were also subject to abuse and violence by locals and guards, Sahragard said.

In February 2014 a riot broke out. A friend of Sahragard got hit in the face with a stone and his eyes were bleeding. With the lights out, Sahragard tried to take care of him and wait for a medical response. It was chaos. It was hard to tell who was in the fray — locals, police, guards — and he distinctly remembers the smell of the bullets being fired. Another friend was shot in the buttocks.

After the chaos, the detainees were gathered outside, he said, and beaten.

“They beat people with whatever they had. They had rods, iron, everything like that,” he said. “They were just assaulting and beat[ing] people and when they gather us in the yard they said ‘you can’t remain in our country, this is our country, this we run it and you can’t do something that we don’t want you to do’.”

For a month after, the detainees lived in the mess hall without access to phones or the internet, according to Sahragard. When he finally returned to his room, he saw a bullet hole that went straight through two walls.

At this point, he wasn’t sleeping, and his days were filled with paranoia, stress and the agony of not being able to do anything or make any decisions for himself. He was also shedding pounds and getting dangerously underweight.

They were not being fed properly, he said, and nobody was cleaning the compound. Detainees were continuing to rebel with hunger strikes.

In 2016, the PNG Supreme Court declared the facility illegal. Detainees were suddenly able to sign out for the day and leave the compound. They could shop in Lorengau or swim in the ocean, but it wasn’t any safer outside. The locals were hostile to the migrants and would rob and assault them, leaving some people with long-term neurological injuries, he said.

Soon he was transferred to Hillside Haus, another facility on the island. This one had hot showers — a luxury Sahragard didn’t even realise he’d missed.

“It was like rich that I could have hot water for shower. It’s really funny when I think about it but it was something that I really was missing,” he said.

In all this time, there had never been a glimmer of hope of getting out. Sahragard clearly wasn’t going to make it to Australia, and even the NGOs like UNHCR, Red Cross and Amnesty International that were on the ground in PNG hadn’t been able to help him get out. He had not applied for refugee status in PNG, for fear he would be stuck there forever if the claim was approved. But remaining as an asylum seeker presented a huge issue: he was not allowed to apply for resettlement in the United States under the refugee swap deal struck in 2016.

Finally, in 2017, Sahragard heard of a Syrian refugee who made it to Canada through a private sponsorship program. In Canada, a group of citizens can raise funds to bring a refugee to the country and provide settlement assistance when they arrive. He managed to connect with volunteer refugee advocates who were eager to help him.

In 2018 he submitted his application and began the long waiting process to get approved. At that time, talking to the volunteers helping him was the only thing keeping Sahragard going.

Chloë Ellingson for BuzzFeed News

“The last year [in detention] was the hardest time for me,” he said. “I was really scared and I couldn’t sleep [for] months, and can’t eat, and it was the worst time.”

Fifteen months passed. Then, Sahragard was told he had to get a medical checkup, and he thought he might finally get out. He was approved for travel, landing in Brisbane before being escorted onto a Canada-bound plane by Australian immigration enforcement.

Even when Sahragard saw the travel documents, he still couldn’t believe it was happening. The disbelief lingered through the 14-hour flight, and through his arrival at the airport, where his sponsors greeted him by draping him in a Canadian flag.

It took weeks for him to truly accept what had happened. “I thought that I still might wake up and see that I’m in Manus or I’m still in Papua New Guinea in detention,” he said.

That was in November. When he spoke to BuzzFeed News in February, Sahragard had been settling into his new life in Toronto, first staying with an Iranian family who also came to Canada as refugees, and now renting his own room. He was attending college for English and making friends, but he was still plagued by the trauma of his time on Manus.

He has continued to sleep poorly, but was recently approved for Ontario’s public health care system, where he can access a family doctor.

Sounds are still a problem, too.

“There was a fire alarm in our building yesterday which really drove me crazy,” he said. “It was really scary for me because when I hear those things or the ambulance in downtown it really gives me stress and I get really paranoid about these things because of all the experience or the memories that I have.”

It’s getting better, day by day, but it’s still hard for Sahragard to imagine a future, of any kind, in any place, after spending most of his 20s scared, alone and detained.

“I live my life in a day for now,” he said. “[The present] is the only thing that I think of for now because I really don’t want to think about something that I couldn’t reach. That would be really hard for me, and I’ve lost like six years of my life for nothing.”

Chloë Ellingson for BuzzFeed News

For others — at one time Sahragard’s peers — Canada remains a dream.

Abdolah Sheikhypirkohy also fled Iran in 2013 only to be sent to Manus Island, and like Sahragard, the 2014 riot is one of his most traumatic memories. Local police arrested him and put him in a cell with almost 40 others, including six refugees.

“They beat me up, they punch me, they hurt me, cut my lips,” he said.

Over his six years in PNG, Sheikhypirkohy thinks he lost 12 teeth. For the first few years in detention there was no dentist at all. After three years, one arrived, but they had one solution for dental problems.

“They just pull it out. Not crown or filling or root canal, nothing. Just pull out. I don’t have many teeth now. I have problem with chewing,” Sheikhypirkohy said. It was his missing and infected teeth that brought him to Australia for medical treatment in July 2019. He has been detained in a hotel in Melbourne since then.

He applied for private resettlement in Canada over six months ago. Like Sahragard, he had never applied for refugee status in PNG and could not apply to go to the US, where more than 700 people have been successfully resettled.

Sheikhypirkohy has written to Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau three times: to tell him about the situation on Manus, to send condolences about the Canadians killed when Iran shot down a plane flying to Ukraine, and to ask him to help get his application for resettlement approved.

Trudeau’s office replied each time to tell him there was nothing they could do. His latest request was forwarded to the Canadian immigration minister, and a representative emailed Sheikhypirkohy telling him where his application was up to and explaining the process.

Sheikhypirkohy was stoked to get the replies. “Even though he said he cannot interfere in the matter…at least someone answer, replied my letter,” he said.

“I said to myself, if my application get approval, I’m sure I’m going to be in the perfect country, that cares about people. Here they just call me, ‘go back to your freaking country, boat people’.”

Jonas Gratzer / Getty Images

Karam Zahirian, another refugee seeking asylum, is seen on Manus in February, 2018.

Jafar (a pseudonym to protect his identity) has been trying to go to Canada from Nauru for the last two years. He was sceptical the plan would work at all — “in seven years, we had many news, many rumour, but nothing happen” — before hearing about the first flight to Canada.

His US application rejected, he has high hopes for Canada. “I saw on the internet about the Canadian prime minister, he is very humble. I see also Canadians, very, very good people. They are welcome to refugees, very incredible,” he said.

Sheikhypirkohy and Jafar may be waiting a while. The volunteer efforts that helped Sahragard reach Canada have ramped up. There are now dozens of people in Canada, Australia and the US organising to fill out applications, fundraise and ultimately free the men from detention. But so far, only 11 people have made it to Canada: a handful in 2015 and 2017, then eight more last year.

The process is slow: each application requires sponsors to prove they have thousands of dollars to support the refugee, and the Canadian government offers limited sponsorship spots each year. Now the coronavirus pandemic has paused resettlement in Canada entirely, though applications are still being processed.

The arduous process also means the groups helping to file the applications — Ads-Up, an Australian-North American group dedicated to helping refugees stuck on Manus and Nauru; the volunteer group Operation Not Forgotten; Canadian non-profit MOSAIC; and UNHCR — have to figure out who to prioritise. At the moment, that’s people still held offshore, those with medical conditions, and people who have no other resettlement options.

Still, the volunteers working to make it happen are committed to ending Australia’s offshore detention program.

“To get everyone off would be hundreds of submissions and millions of dollars,” said Ben Winsor, the founder of Ads-Up. “But that’s our ultimate aim.”

The softly-spoken Sahragard feels safe in Canada. But now he is dealing with a new challenge: the pandemic. His classes have moved online and the social isolation is triggering traumatic memories.

“It reminds me of the time I’ve been in detention, because it’s the same situation, I can’t do anything.”

But he’s chosen to speak out — reliving memories he’d rather not — because he hopes his friends back in Manus can get out too.

“It’s really hard for me to talk about all these memories, all these things, but the only reason that I’m doing this is because I get the help, and I want them to get the help also, to have their future and save their life.”

Chloë Ellingson For Buzzfeed News

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Your Friday Briefing – The New York Times

Coronavirus cases soar in China

Health officials said that 564 people had died from the virus and that there had been more than 28,000 confirmed cases, an increase of more than 35 percent in just a few days.

Outside of China, 225 cases have been reported, and a death in the Philippines. But the World Health Organization said that no new countries had reported cases.

Here are the latest updates.

Wuhan: A 34-year-old doctor who tried to raise the alert about the coronavirus has died of it. The authorities in the city, the epicenter of the outbreak, will begin rounding up the infected into mass quarantine camps. People are scrambling to muster help in Pittsburgh, Wuhan’s “sister city” of 40 years.

Quarantines: The number of coronavirus cases aboard a cruise ship quarantined off Japan doubled to 20. And Australian evacuees taken to Christmas Island, a former detention center for asylum seekers, were given sunscreen, sandals and video games, but some complained about conditions there.

Celebrating acquittal, Trump calls his impeachment ‘evil’

In a long, stream-of-consciousness speech at the White House on Thursday, President Trump said the Democrats who impeached him were “corrupt” and “horrible” and claimed vindication following his acquittal a day earlier in the Senate’s impeachment trial.

“It was evil,” he said. Some of his remarks veered into profanity.

While thanking his allies, Mr. Trump said “top scum” at the F.B.I. had long plotted to end his presidency.

He personally attacked top Democrats, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Representative Adam Schiff, and mocked Senator Mitt Romney, the only Republican to vote to convict him.

Context: President Bill Clinton reacted to his own impeachment acquittal in 1999 by calling for reconciliation.

Dead heat, and more errors, in Iowa count

Senator Bernie Sanders drew nearly even with Pete Buttigieg after the release of almost all results in the Iowa caucuses, the crucial first contest in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.

The state party has been delivering results piecemeal since Monday amid delays attributed to “quality control.” But a New York Times analysis found a slew of errors and inconsistencies, raising doubts about whether there will ever be a definitive outcome. Here are live updates.

Response: With 3 percent of results still outstanding, Mr. Sanders declared victory, while Tom Perez, the Democratic National Committee chairman, called for the Iowa Democratic Party to “immediately begin a recanvass” in order to “assure public confidence in the results.”

Iraqis doubt U.S. accusation against Iran-linked militia

Just six weeks ago, an attack killed an U.S. contractor in Iraq. The U.S. blamed an Iranian-backed militia and, at the peak of a series of retaliatory exchanges with Iran, killed the country’s top general, Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani.

For a time, the U.S. and Iran were at the brink of war, and Iran accidentally downed a Ukrainian passenger jet, killing 176 people.

But Iraqi military and intelligence officials now say they believe it is unlikely the militia — which denies responsibility — carried out the attack that killed the contractor. They say that circumstantial evidence points to a different culprit: the Islamic State.

Our correspondent in Iraq investigated.

Grounds for doubt: The volley of rockets that killed the contractor on Dec. 27 was fired from a truck in a Sunni Muslim part of Iraq’s Kirkuk Province. The area was notorious for attacks by the Islamic State, but would have been hostile territory for the Shiite militia the U.S. blamed, Khataib Hezbollah. That militia has not had a presence in the area since 2014.

If you have 7 minutes, this is worth it

The Oscars tell a story of their own

Ahead of the Academy Awards on Sunday, our critic Wesley Morris discussed the nine films nominated for best picture, eight of which are about white people.

“Couldn’t these nine movies just be evidence of taste? Good taste? They certainly could. They are.” But after years of threatened boycotts and diversification campaigns, he writes, “the assembly of these movies feels like a body’s allergic reaction to its own efforts at rehabilitation.”

Here’s what else is happening

Boeing investigation: The company and U.S. safety officials are refusing to cooperate with a new inquiry by Dutch lawmakers into a crash near Amsterdam in 2009 that killed nine people and had striking parallels with two more recent accidents involving the manufacturer’s 737 Max.

Night sky: Like SpaceX, the telecommunications company OneWeb plans to build a constellation of internet satellites for beaming internet back to earth. Astronomers fear that the satellites will seriously mar their view of the universe.

China: For years, the Thousand Talents recruitment plan attracted U.S. scientists with grants. Federal prosecutors now say China used the program to purloin sensitive technology.

Snapshot: Above, a selfie by the astronaut Christina Koch in October. She is back on Earth after completing three all-female spacewalks and setting a record for time in space. We looked at an even broader range of her accomplishments.

Cook: Finish the week with a hearty one-pan meal of roast chicken and mustard-glazed cabbage.

Listen: “I’m the Man” is the first single on “To Love Is to Live,” the debut solo by Jehnny Beth. The longtime frontwoman of the post-punk band Savages spoke to The Times about going solo.

Read: “Why We’re Polarized,” by Ezra Klein of the news site Vox, debuts this week on our hardcover nonfiction and combined print and e-book nonfiction best-seller lists.

Smarter Living: Our advice column Culture Therapist suggests ways to solve your problems using art. Today’s question is about opening oneself to new romantic relationships.

And now for the Back Story on …

Covering the Oscars

The Oscars are just two days away, and that means it’s crunch time for Kyle Buchanan, The Times’s Carpetbagger columnist. He spoke to Sara Aridi of the Culture desk about what it’s like to cover the awards show.

What stands out about this year’s season?

After last year, where Netflix was so ascendant, people are very excited about movies in the theater. “1917” is one of those movies that you need to see in a theater, and “Parasite” became such a massive word-of-mouth hit in the theater. Those movies provide that encapsulation of what we go to the movies for.

We go to see something on a gigantic screen that moves us in a gigantic way. We go to be transported into an experience that startles and shocks us. Streaming has its virtues and its pleasure, but I think those are two unique testimonials to what the theatrical experience can be.

Do the Oscars still carry weight in pop culture?

Absolutely. If the Oscars reflect Hollywood in 2020, it says that we’re still going through growing pains about the streaming era and that we still have a lot of ground to make up when it comes to representation and whose stories we take seriously.

How have you been preparing for the big night?

I’m trying to get a full night’s sleep. In the campaigning phase, from November to the Oscar nominations, you can go to a brunch for a certain star, and then to a lunchtime screening with a Q. and A., and then to an afternoon performance of a song contender, and then a premiere and then an after-party.

What else have you seen that readers might not know?

Joaquin Phoenix [who’s up for best actor for “The Joker”] has been a fascinating figure on this circuit. He’s trying to both play the game and stay out of it at the same time. All these awards shows have bent over backward to attract him.

I never would have thought I would miss the boiled chicken breast I usually got at these shows, but they have converted to a plant-based menu in the hopes that Joaquin will attend.

That’s it for this briefing. See you next time.

— Penn

Thank you To Mark Josephson and Eleanor Stanford for the break from the news. You can reach the team at briefing@nytimes.com.

P.S. • We’re listening to “The Daily.” Our latest episode is about Senator Mitt Romney’s vote to convict President Trump. • Here’s our Mini Crossword, and a clue: What the Earth revolves on (four letters). You can find all our puzzles here. • The 1619 Project is the centerpiece of a new wave of ads from “The Truth Is Worth It,” a Times campaign. Those with access to YouTube can preview our latest TV commercial, which will air during the Oscars on Sunday, featuring the singer, actor and producer Janelle Monáe.

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Aboriginal football’s first family

KEVIN Sheedy, that peerless promoter of Aboriginal footballers, first came into contact with the Rioli clan in 1974.

The previous year, the then-Richmond premiership star had been the first full-time development officer appointed by a League club, and his journey to the Tiwi Islands proved something of an awakening.

More visits followed and friendships were formed with the likes of Cyril Rioli snr (the father of Richmond great Maurice and the grandfather of Hawthorn superstar Cyril, or ‘Junior Boy’).

The late family patriarch, whom Sheedy remembered was “the chief of the island”, had eight sons, all of whom were raised on football, boxing and fishing and were encouraged to become community leaders.

The eldest son, the supremely talented Sebastian ‘Sibby’ Rioli (the late father of former Bomber Dean), was the first to play in the WAFL; and was followed by Maurice, who in turn blazed a trail for the clan in Victoria.

Sheedy remains enamoured with the family. “The Riolis are superstars – always have been,” Sheedy told the AFL Record.

“Every time they get the ball, people in the stands lift off their seats to look. The fans don’t know what’s going to happen, but they know it’ll be good, it’ll be different, and it’ll probably be pretty special.

“They are also unbelievable decision-makers because they see the whole landscape of the field.

“And they’re all tough. I haven’t seen a scared Rioli. They’re ball players who are smart and evasive, but if you hit them you know you’re going to get hurt.

“It’s a great combination.”

Here, we celebrate the four Riolis who have played senior football in the AFL/VFL and have helped make the Rioli clan the first family of Aboriginal football. 

Maurice Rioli

A football pioneer for his family, for Tiwi islanders and for many Aboriginal players in general, the late, great Maurice Rioli was a man who loved the big stage.

The beautifully skilled, left-footed centreman was voted best-afield in three successive Grand Finals – the 1980 and 1981 WAFL deciders with South Fremantle and the 1982 VFL play-off with Richmond – the last two in losing teams.

‘Mr Magic’ also won best and fairests in his first two seasons at Tigerland (1982-83) and was runner-up in the 1983 Brownlow Medal.

No wonder Essendon’s then dual reigning premiership coach Sheedy was so keen to snare Rioli

when he considered a change of clubs at the end of 1985.

Sheedy: “For all his brilliance, Maurice was tough, and a great tackler. And he was a lovely person.”

Although he initially found the training tough at Richmond, Rioli was driven to succeed, later saying: “I was wanting to prove to myself and others that I was good enough to play at that level.”

Maurice Rioli weaves his magic against Collingwood in 1985. Picture: AFL Photos

When Rioli was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame last year, former Richmond teammate Dale Weightman recalled a silent assassin.

“He didn’t talk much – he let his footy do the talking – and he was poetry in motion,” Weightman told the AFL Record.

“Pure class, silky-smooth, a great ball-handler, a great dodger and weaver, and a beautiful left-foot kick.

“He always seemed to have time and he never lost his feet – he had unbelievable balance.”

Weightman said Rioli was “ahead of his time” as a tackler, revealing he would advise teammates: “Hey brother, you gotta draw from the hips like a gunfighter.”

Rioli did his share of fighting too – in retaliation for regular racial slurs – and that’s where his status as an amateur boxing champion came to the fore.

Weightman: “He’d just give a little one-two and the bloke learned his lesson.”

Some years earlier, Rioli also delivered a boxing lesson to the much bigger and much louder Mark ‘Jacko’ Jackson at South Fremantle training.

Rioli later became a champion for his people, as a longtime Labor member of the Northern Territory parliament and later in community services on the Tiwi Islands.

All the while, he continued to mentor and inspire young footballers, among them members of his extended family, including Essendon great Michael Long and nephew Cyril Rioli – who, remarkably, also won Norm Smith Medals – and grand-nephew Daniel Rioli, who proudly wears Maurice’s old No. 17.

Long last year described Rioli as a “Rolls-Royce” who, from a football perspective, helped “put NT on the map”.

Rioli’s sudden death at just 53 on Christmas Day, 2010, provoked an enormous outpouring of grief, and he received a state funeral in Darwin.

Dean Rioli

Sheedy still shakes his head at the fact it was more good luck than good management that Dean Rioli ended up at Bomberland.

At 19, Rioli was overlooked by every club in the 1997 National Draft before the Dons grabbed him in the Rookie Draft.

“We should’ve got him earlier than that,” Sheedy said.

“You challenge your recruiting officer and they say, ‘Well, no one else (drafted) him either.’ But that doesn’t mean it’s right, because it left the door open for someone else to potentially get him. I’m glad we got him.”

The teenager hadn’t exactly flown under the radar – he’d won the WAFL’s rising star award and played a key role in South Fremantle’s 1997 premiership, slotting a game-high four goals in a come-from-behind six-point win, his last goal coming in the dying stages.

And, of course, he was a Rioli. But he had a crook knee and was seen to be overweight – issues that dogged him throughout his AFL career, when his 180cm frame ballooned to around 100kg.

Former Bombers assistant coach Robert Shaw last year wrote on the club’s website that had it not been for ongoing injuries, Rioli would have become “an Essendon champion”.

Dean Rioli played exactly 100 games for the Bombers. Picture: AFL Photos

Sheedy has genuine fondness for his former charge and vividly recalls his kicking and decision-making skills.

“Dean was a beautiful kick and he could see the whole picture,” Sheedy said. “He was one of the best disposers of the ball that I coached. Every time he got it, our forwards’ eyes would light up like Luna Park.

“The real art to kick the right type of ball to that particular receiver. Dean had that. He’d adjust his kick to a tall person, a slow person and so on. That’s a gift.”

Sheedy said that when Rioli played, he was “a great player, a tough player”, who would have been immortalised alongside his hero Michael Long as a member of Essendon’s 2000 premiership team had he not suffered his second broken collarbone for the season in round 21.

A decade later, Rioli recalled it as the “hardest moment” of his career.

However, he achieved another dream – that of playing 100 games so his name would be emblazoned on the No. 43 locker – and he’s grateful to the “kind-hearted” Sheedy for nursing him to the milestone.

There’s a perception Sheedy ensured Rioli played 100 games because it would give Essendon access to any potential father-son prospects.

But Sheedy dispels the myth. “It wasn’t about that. My philosophy was if they’re near it, they’re going to get there. If you’re not going to win the premiership that year, reward your gladiators for being loyal to the club.” 

Cyril Rioli

Cyril Rioli sees the adulation. But even after 10 years at Hawthorn, he finds it all a bit “weird”.

The Hawks have named one of their junior membership categories after him. They have done so for years.

More than 35 per cent of all player-branded merchandise sold at the club’s Hawks Nest merchandise outlets feature either his smiling mug (often on a mug) or his No. 33 jumper. Rioli gear sells nearly twice as much as any other player.

The Hawks were a bit slow to embrace Indigenous players, but thanks to the courage and willingness of former recruiting manager John Turnbull to challenge entrenched attitudes, Chance Bateman and Mark Williams were drafted to the club. Both are premiership players and were popular with members and supporters.

But the love for Rioli goes to another level. He is a rock star. Hawthorn people adore him like a son, and adding to the pleasure is that he should have played for arch-rival Essendon, the club that first forged a partnership with the Tiwi Islands, Rioli’s birthplace.

“Every time he gets the ball in a Hawthorn guernsey, I feel ill – and I haven’t been well for a long time,” said Sheedy, who finished up as Essendon coach just before the 2007 draft and who coveted Rioli for a considerable time. 

“Imagine Cyril Rioli and (former Tiwi Bomber Anthony) McDonald-Tipungwuti together in Essendon’s forward line. Good luck!”

Cyril Rioli’s tackling and defensive pressure is a constant. Picture: AFL Photos

The “Cyril” chant often breaks out at the MCG when he and the Hawks are up and about.

“It’s sort of weird,” Rioli said of the hoopla. “We just play for the love of the game.”

Rioli might not have been the best of his family to play the game. Maurice was obviously a star, but it is Cyril who has elevated the family to football royalty with his play over 185 games for the Hawks.

The Rioli clan have always played the game a certain way, but the brand has been shaped by Cyril. Any Rioli with a bit of talent is instantly compared with Cyril. Their progress through the junior pathway is compared with his.

Asked whether there’s a Rioli ‘brand’, Rioli said: “Growing up on the Tiwi Islands, it’s about playing on instinct and the team thing. It’s based around pressure and making my teammates better. We all tackle pretty well.”

In the dry world of football analytics, they’re generally classified as ‘one percenters’, but bearing witness to a Rioli tackle is like watching a virtuoso performance.

His has been a brilliant career – four flags and a Norm Smith Medal. The 2014 flag, the third he played in, might have been the sweetest of the lot, coming back as he did just in time for the Grand Final after shredding his hamstring halfway through the year.

The sad part is that he won’t be playing this weekend. He suffered a major injury to his PCL in Tasmania a fortnight ago and will be watching from the couch as the Hawks – wearing a jumper he helped design and promote with a clever ‘Mannequin Challenge’ style video on the club website – take on the Swans in Sydney.

“This one will be tough to watch from the sidelines because Hawthorn always does a very good job of celebrating the round,” he said.

Daniel Rioli

Daniel Rioli reckons he would have loved to have played for Hawthorn, wreaking havoc and snagging goals alongside uncle Cyril.

Essendon, the club of uncle Dean, would have been special, too. There was also the intrigue of walking into a club where no Rioli had been before, spreading the magic and making the family even more beloved.

But when Richmond called his name with the 15th selection at the 2015 NAB AFL Draft, it immediately felt right. The grand-nephew of the great Maurice Rioli (whom he calls his grandfather) should really play nowhere else.

“To be at Richmond where my grandfather played wearing No. 17 is unbelievable,” he said. “It couldn’t be any better.”

Daniel Rioli is making his own name at Richmond. Picture: AFL Photos

He need not venture too far to learn how revered the Rioli name is at Tigerland. 

“There are lots of stories,” he said. “When I’m signing autographs, Richmond fans tell me they watched my grandfather play, what he went through and what he meant to the club. Hopefully I can be a similar sort of player.”

Only recently, one of the training staff showed him a signed Maurice Rioli poster. Elsewhere at the club he came across an action shot of him playing, one he had never seen before. 

“I’m sure there are a heap of stories I’ve never heard before,” he said.

You would think there was added pressure on Rioli, given his name, number and footballing address,

but he shrugs it off the way so many of his relatives have when evading an oncoming tackler.

“Cyril really takes the game on, he can tackle,” he said. “(But) I can tackle, too. There’s a kind of pressure that comes with being a Rioli and it’s a good thing to have the name. Maurice, Dean and ‘Junior’ (Cyril) played their brand of footy and now it’s my turn to make my name. The pressure can be a positive thing.”

Rioli is blazing a similar trail to Cyril. Both left the Northern Territory at the end of Year 8 to complete their schooling in Victoria – Cyril at Scotch College and Daniel at St Patrick’s College in Ballarat – and a couple of the younger Riolis have been identified and might soon be heading down the same path. 

But the inspiration for Rioli will always be those who came before him.

“It’s pretty good growing up in the Northern Territory where all the Riolis are born and bred,” he said. “I’m pretty lucky to be part of all that.”   

THIS STORY WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE ROUND 10 EDITION OF THE AFL RECORD, AVAILABLE AT ALL VENUES.

The post Aboriginal football’s first family appeared first on Footy Plus.

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Nothing excites me more than traveling!

Extraordinary travel experiences in Australia, Indonesia, Canada, USA and the Caribbean – we’ve done so much yet there’s still so much to see!  What a fantastic year of travel it has been for us.

Living in Darwin, at the top of Australia is like being on holidays for the most part anyway, so when we have an opportunity to take a break it’s often a difficult choice of where to go but it seems that for 2016 – we didn’t have any difficult choi ces at all!

Most of these holiday breaks have only been a few days away- but it’s how we spend those few days that makes the difference!

Darwin is close to Asia with Bali and Singapore just a short flight away.

Bali, Indonesia – 10 days

We started our year visiting Bali, visiting Jimbaran, Nusa Dua and Ubud in February.

What an amazing country Indonesia is!  Unique culture, exotic food, beautiful people and spectacular scenery!

Melbourne, Australia – 3 days

A quick trip to Melbourne in May – one of our favourite Australian cities to travel to.  Good food and great ambience.  Melbourne always has a buzz of life about it and it’s always a good chance to catch up with friends and family.

Noosa, Australia – the Strade Bianche – 5 days

One of the most beautiful little towns in Australia, Noosa has it all!

Every year they hold the Noosa Strade Bianche (a bike ride for old blokes with old bikes).  It’s great fun, great atmosphere showcasing Queensland’s beautiful warm weather.

There’s lots to see and do for non cyclists so be sure to take advantage of this part of the world whenever you can.

An Aussie Road-trip – 2 days

An Aussie road trip is always a great trip is always a great experience.

This drive is one of my favourites! I love the stretch of road between Alice Springs and Darwin.

The Masters Games are held in Alice Springs every second October so we take the opportunity to travel to Alice Springs whenever we can.

I love the wide open spaces and the extreme rich colours of the Northern Territory.  A road-trip is a great time to talk, listen to our favourite music and sometimes to enjoy the silence.

Our whirlwind USA, Canada – 7 weeks

Just imagine traveling for 7 weeks

We planned well in advance for our December travels so that we experienced as much as we could. Each city gave us at least one ‘wow’ moment.

San Francisco – What an amazing place to visit.  I had never thought it would have such impact, but the Golden Gate Bridge took my breath away.  We loved the cable cars, Haight Ashbury Streets, Pier 39 and the fabulous seafood.  Check out the post.

Las Vegas – Vegas was a buzz of activity, street performers, shows, drinking and gambling.  We took a flight to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon and then a heli tour into the Canyon.  The colours and the massive size of the Canyon was something we didn’t expect.  Extraordinary!

Niagara Falls – Niagara needs to be everyone’s bucket list!  Sunshine, snow, rain – the view is spectacular.  We also took the historical tour through the caverns beneath the falls which gave us a greater perspective.

New York City – So much to do in New York City and so many people at Christmas time!  Times Square, Central Park, we saw an Ice Hockey match at Madison Square Gardens, and were lucky enough to see a couple of Broadway shows.  Fabulous food, a ride around Central Park on a horse and carriage, braving the subway, Grand Central Station and much more.  All amazing!

Boston – the Boston Library, Cheers, visiting friends, the display of ice sculptures in Copley Square on New Year’s eve.

Watch this space for our posts – coming soon!

Take a Caribbean Cruise

A Caribbean cruise has long been on my ‘bucket list’ and this was the perfect opportunity to thaw out from our travels in Canada and New York.  We opted to travel with Celebrity Cruises onboard the Celebrity Equinox. A nice modern ship with onboard experts in ensuring their passengers had a great time.

Ports of call were Haiti, Jamaica, Grand Cayman and Mexico were a great tease for us as it has fired us up and we’re keen to re-visit each of the islands!

Check out our post – Take a Caribbean Cruise

USA Road trip – Key West in Florida to New Orleans, Louisiana

We picked up a car in Fort Lauderdale to start our road-trip across Florida.

Key West has been on the ‘bucket list ‘ so we started by heading south across the Florida Keys.  The drive scenic, 260 kilometres of bridges and causeways through each of the keys until the very southern most point – Key West.

Such a small island but so much to do

The colourful history of Key West in it’s hey day.

The pirate industry – Shipwrecks and treasure hunters.

Hemmingway House – one of our favourite visits.  It has now inspired me to re-read all of Hemmingway’s books again.

Harry Truman’s House – knowing little of the US presidential history, it was interesting to learn of Truman’s time as President and the impact he had on the people of America.

Kennedy Space Center

NASA had scheduled a launch during our time in Florida so we were very excited to put this on the ‘must do’ list.  Disappointed when the launch was postponed but the Kennedy Space Center turned out to be one of the most interesting places we visited!

Lunch with astronaut Marcos Pontas who was the first Brazillian astronaut to join the US Space program, showcasing the Saturn V, Apollo Missions and Heros and Legends were just some of the experiences.

A ‘must see’ couple of days!

New Orleans

One of the most vibrant cities of our travels!

New Orleans is exciting, vibrant and full of interest.  A great music scene, street performers, fabulous food and historical sites.  There is a vibe in ‘Nawlins’ like nowhere else!  Another city we will return to!

What an amazing year it’s been for us now that we look back!  More posts coming soon so subscribe to our blog to see what we’ve been up to.

Some of these trips have taken us just a few days, but we’ve packed an enormous holiday into those few days!  Plan well, travel and enjoy life wherever you are and be sure to make the most of every moment!

Travel highlights – what an awesome year Nothing excites me more than traveling! Extraordinary travel experiences in Australia, Indonesia, Canada, USA and the Caribbean - we've done so much yet there's still so much to see!  

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An Outbreak of Racist Sentiment as Coronavirus Reaches Australia

The Australia Letter is a weekly newsletter from our Australia bureau. Sign up to get it by email. This week’s issue is written by Isabella Kwai, a reporter with the Australia bureau.

Recently, when Andy Miao takes the train to work in Sydney, he has noticed other people’s disapproving looks if he does not wear a face mask. Although he does not have the coronavirus, Mr. Miao, who is of Chinese heritage and grew up in Australia, knows it’s because of one reason: his ethnicity.

“It makes people like me who are very, very Australian feel like outsiders,” said Mr. Miao, 24, who returned from a trip to China earlier this month and has since seen jokes degrading Chinese people. “It’s definitely invoking a lot of past racial stereotypes.”

But as the World Health Organization declared a global health emergency after the virus spread to countries including Australia, he is worried about an outbreak of misinformation, panic and xenophobia.

The virus has killed more than 200 people, with nearly 10,000 cases reported, though in Australia there are just a handful of cases, and health officials have said that the risk of catching it for many Australians is low.

Still, universities have delayed exams, face masks — used only weeks ago against bush-fire smoke — are a common sight, and the government plans to evacuate Australians from the epicenter of the outbreak in China.

Other responses here in Australia, where the relationship with China is contentious, have taken a more xenophobic bent.

Some far-right lawmakers polled their followers, asking if Australians should ban Chinese people temporarily from the country. A newspaper in Victoria, The Herald Sun, called the coronavirus a “Chinese Virus” on its front page, prompting over 40,000 people to sign a petition demanding an apology. On social media, fake announcements are warning people away from Chinese-populated areas, and memes are making light of early reports that the virus jumped from wild animals to humans.

“Racism feeds on fear and anxiety,” said Tim Soutphommasane, a former race-discrimination commissioner and now a professor at the University of Sydney. While the virus originated in China, “viral diseases don’t have ethnic, racial or national characteristics,” he said, adding that the misinformation was “alarming.”

On Wednesday, the government said that it planned to evacuate Australians citizens from the province to Christmas Island, an Australian territory 2,000 miles away from the mainland, to be quarantined for 14 days.

But many questioned the implications of using Christmas Island, where refugees and asylum seekers have been held, instead of military bases on the mainland.

It was not an “appropriate” place to quarantine people, Dr. Tony Bartone, president of the Australian Medical Association, said in a television news interview. Faced with the decision, many Australians are opting to stay behind in lockdown.

Some of the rhetoric has been reminiscent of a time when Chinese people were purposely excluded from the country. “You could read a similar article in the goldfields in 1860s Victoria,” said Jon Piccini, a lecturer in history at the Australian Catholic University.

As scientists race to develop a vaccine, the virus is likely to continue to spread. Many wonder if it will further perpetuate stereotypes — the same ones that once prompted Australia to ban nonwhites from calling the country home.

Mr. Miao said he did not blame people for being ignorant, though he added, “I don’t think it’s very fair.”

Have you noticed or been affected by the fear around the coronavirus? Write to me at nytaustralia@nytimes.com.

You can read more of our coverage here, or follow our correspondent Chris Buckley, who is reporting from Wuhan, on Twitter.

Now, on to stories from the week.

Michelle Elias contributed reporting.

And Over to You …

Last week, I wrote about the experience of learning to swim as an adult and asked you to share your places of refuge in nature.

“I go to the Seaview Dunes, which is a remote area on the Pacific Coast in South-West Washington, just north of the mouth of the Columbia River. One hundred miles from Portland, and there’s a lot of real — but ocean-less — forest in between.

Why all the way to the dunes? If you go into the dunes, there are just no people in there. It’s quiet, except for the Pacific Ocean. The sound of the ocean is there all the time, day and night. The ocean never sleeps. I walk to the water. The water runs to meet you. You can touch it. It’s thousands of miles to the next shore.

Sometimes, at night, the stars come down to the horizon almost all the way around. But I never go in the water there either. Just back into the dunes.”

— Fred Cann

from WordPress https://mastcomm.com/an-outbreak-of-racist-sentiment-as-coronavirus-reaches-australia/

[mastcomm]

An Outbreak of Racist Sentiment as Coronavirus Reaches Australia

The Australia Letter is a weekly newsletter from our Australia bureau. Sign up to get it by email. This week’s issue is written by Isabella Kwai, a reporter with the Australia bureau.

Recently, when Andy Miao takes the train to work in Sydney, he has noticed other people’s disapproving looks if he does not wear a face mask. Although he does not have the coronavirus, Mr. Miao, who is of Chinese heritage and grew up in Australia, knows it’s because of one reason: his ethnicity.

“It makes people like me who are very, very Australian feel like outsiders,” said Mr. Miao, 24, who returned from a trip to China earlier this month and has since seen jokes degrading Chinese people. “It’s definitely invoking a lot of past racial stereotypes.”

But as the World Health Organization declared a global health emergency after the virus spread to countries including Australia, he is worried about an outbreak of misinformation, panic and xenophobia.

The virus has killed more than 200 people, with nearly 10,000 cases reported, though in Australia there are just a handful of cases, and health officials have said that the risk of catching it for many Australians is low.

Still, universities have delayed exams, face masks — used only weeks ago against bush-fire smoke — are a common sight, and the government plans to evacuate Australians from the epicenter of the outbreak in China.

Other responses here in Australia, where the relationship with China is contentious, have taken a more xenophobic bent.

Some far-right lawmakers polled their followers, asking if Australians should ban Chinese people temporarily from the country. A newspaper in Victoria, The Herald Sun, called the coronavirus a “Chinese Virus” on its front page, prompting over 40,000 people to sign a petition demanding an apology. On social media, fake announcements are warning people away from Chinese-populated areas, and memes are making light of early reports that the virus jumped from wild animals to humans.

“Racism feeds on fear and anxiety,” said Tim Soutphommasane, a former race-discrimination commissioner and now a professor at the University of Sydney. While the virus originated in China, “viral diseases don’t have ethnic, racial or national characteristics,” he said, adding that the misinformation was “alarming.”

On Wednesday, the government said that it planned to evacuate Australians citizens from the province to Christmas Island, an Australian territory 2,000 miles away from the mainland, to be quarantined for 14 days.

But many questioned the implications of using Christmas Island, where refugees and asylum seekers have been held, instead of military bases on the mainland.

It was not an “appropriate” place to quarantine people, Dr. Tony Bartone, president of the Australian Medical Association, said in a television news interview. Faced with the decision, many Australians are opting to stay behind in lockdown.

Some of the rhetoric has been reminiscent of a time when Chinese people were purposely excluded from the country. “You could read a similar article in the goldfields in 1860s Victoria,” said Jon Piccini, a lecturer in history at the Australian Catholic University.

As scientists race to develop a vaccine, the virus is likely to continue to spread. Many wonder if it will further perpetuate stereotypes — the same ones that once prompted Australia to ban nonwhites from calling the country home.

Mr. Miao said he did not blame people for being ignorant, though he added, “I don’t think it’s very fair.”

Have you noticed or been affected by the fear around the coronavirus? Write to me at nytaustralia@nytimes.com.

You can read more of our coverage here, or follow our correspondent Chris Buckley, who is reporting from Wuhan, on Twitter.

Now, on to stories from the week.

Michelle Elias contributed reporting.

And Over to You …

Last week, I wrote about the experience of learning to swim as an adult and asked you to share your places of refuge in nature.

“I go to the Seaview Dunes, which is a remote area on the Pacific Coast in South-West Washington, just north of the mouth of the Columbia River. One hundred miles from Portland, and there’s a lot of real — but ocean-less — forest in between.

Why all the way to the dunes? If you go into the dunes, there are just no people in there. It’s quiet, except for the Pacific Ocean. The sound of the ocean is there all the time, day and night. The ocean never sleeps. I walk to the water. The water runs to meet you. You can touch it. It’s thousands of miles to the next shore.

Sometimes, at night, the stars come down to the horizon almost all the way around. But I never go in the water there either. Just back into the dunes.”

— Fred Cann

from WordPress https://mastcomm.com/an-outbreak-of-racist-sentiment-as-coronavirus-reaches-australia/