As you can see, I’ve been having a bit of difficulty capturing wildlife in the wild, as it were. So I found these a bit less challenging. If we need them for a pageant, we’ll be able to get them here.
Interesting to find that the Faith Schools issue is very much alive downunder. The Head of the National Curriculum Board suggests that the rapid growth of faith-based schools ‘has threatened the social cohesion of the nation’. The Age, the local newspaper here, reports it very much as an issue to do with creationist teaching in schools under the control of the religious right.
Also interesting [and impressive – in this culturally somewhat American place] is the constant concern with issues of environment and climate change. Not surprising really when water supply is a constant problem. The government is responding to a report by economist Ross Garnaut which looks like being at least as influential as the Stern Report of 2006. The mood is of the need to be alarmed – but it is positive as well – a bit like the way in which Big Arnie in California has been carving out his own very popular response to the same issues. One of the papers reports the Executive Chairman of Macquarrie Bank responding to a ‘Who is going to be the richest person in the world in the next ten years?’ question from a school child. Responding, he talked about the need to convert the world from one energy-producing system to another. ‘The people …. who actually make that happen, I think, will end up being the wealthiest people in the world.’