Questions about the Illawarra NSW

 The Illawarra region depends significantly on only the normal surface commute trains for public transport to and from Greater Sydney.

There are no underground Metro trains, no light rail gliders and no ferry services between Circular Quay in Sydney and Port Kembla.

No regular bus services operate between the Illawarra and southern Sydney border.

Many baby boomers from the Illawarra area and NSW south coast use the rail to get to Sydney Airport flights or Circular Quay Sydney Harbour for their cruise ships.  It is an almost two hour trip one way.

There is an over dependence on private cars on the long highway from Sutherland to Wollongong and vice versa.

There is under developed infrastructure in the Illawarra, whose voters have always elected Labor - and which Labor at State, Council and National levels may possibly have taken the region for granted.

I am told that AUKUS submarines paid for by Canberra to the USA, if realised, are going to be stationed at Port Kembla. 

The town's main manufacturer BlueScope faces in 2025 high Usa tariffs for steel production.

The Illawarra has joined some other parts of Greater Sydney in having its economy churned by property sales, barista cafe lifestyle and aging services, but it does not look and is not as dynamic as some key suburbs across Greater Sydney.

Many Sydney property owners have also sold out across Greater Sydney and resettled along the NSW South Coast, if not moving out of the Big Smoke to be on the Central and North Coast of the State.
Property prices along the Illawarra have also risen alongside the mushrooming of high rise blocks.  Youngsters may naturally gyrate towards Sydney side, but the persistent lack of supply of housing there has embedded itself to a horrible situation of spiking rental lease costs, increasing vehicular traffic and crowded suburbs.

The Tasman Sea may be near and scenic to Illawarra residents, but her beaches have lured the demographics of south west Greater Sydney, especially when there are no parking fees, welcoming beach infrastructure of bbq pavilions and less people than in Cronulla, Bondi or Manly.

Wollongong Cbd is showing signs of struggling businesses.   There is a much reduced David Jones, but retail sales may bot be encouraging, especially for the smaller shops and eateries.   Crown Street Mall looks awesome and sea breezes also bless it due to its location near Wollongong Harbour.  The weekly Friday markets have stalls operated by people outside town and things are asked for at Sydney prices.   Maybe Thursday to Friday evenings show the most economic activity but not on other nights.

The Ilawarra may best be described as a residential corridor rather than a bee hive of business, innovation and consumption.
There can be no innovative plans or design to make the Illawarra prosper better for the future. It is seen as a university campus town whose fortunes can depend on foreign markets.  No high tech footprint has arisen in all these years.
Wind farms are planned by the government outside Wollongong Harbour but the energy generated can possibly mostly serve the burgeoning populations of Greater Sydney up north.

The tourism potential of the Illawarra has not risen to what can be.   Even the world class UCI cycling event in 2022 was amazingly not promoted like in Europe or North America. 

#yongkevthoughts

The Land of the Long White Cloud

 

Viewing New Zealand as only a refuge from nuclear war is to under rate the country's potential, its advantageous features and uniqueness.

When NZ as a nation signed the nuclear non profileration Treaty, it was quickly recognised as likely safe geographically away from military nuclear impact, especially when it was perceived nuclear risks were higher in the Northern Hemisphere.

The rather more pure nature of the NZ environment has potential for hosting technology industries that do not tolerate pollution.  When congestion, industry and energy needs have significantly caused low and bad quality of air, water and resources in many countries, the refreshing alternative in NZ is not sufficiently recognised.

As the rest of world gets quagmired in more military, trade and cultural squabbles, NZ's value can rise in the background - provided NZ does not get involved in geopolitical alliances that can unnecessarily drag any nation down fighting for the causes and agenda of other nations.

Human beings will find the present serene nature of NZ life attractive for better health, creativity and other factors that more powerful societies lack of.

The challenge for NZ is to develop a more viable economic landscape instead of just relying on its past and present framework.
For years, over reliance on tourism, agriculture, higher education and movie making has exposed NZ to the vagaries of foreign markets.

When and where the economy does not work enough, people leave.  When and where seeds of future economic growth are seriously and correctly planted, a better future awaits.

Significant funding, planning and removal of roadblocks accelerate the flourishing of new sectors - perhaps those that utilise effective wi-fi capabilities, encourage experimental laboratories and use the higher educational or skill sets of the residents.  Possibilities can be found in biotechnology, artificial intelligence, food security and advanced transportation.

Super rich celebrities cannot treat NZ as a doomsday housing back up and should invest more to develop NZ in relevant growth industries.

NZ must never be seen as only a stopover or providing just scenic panoramas.   She must identify and develop her niche qualities already existing or waiting to grow up.

#yongkevthoughts

Renewal Revisited

 Renewal is the key word, no matter what day or date it is.

Renewed energy, renewed love, renewed purpose. 

Reinvigorated faith in what works.  No need to tweak or experiment again. 

Restored belief in the healing that comes after an unexpected rupture.  Renewed health, repairs and dreams.

Rationalisation in a cause, no matter how hidden, for a symptom - and it does also cover positive energy outcomes.

Readiness to conquer an ever changing
world, as we can still rely on consistent practices and attitudes even if we renew.

Reciprocation of give and take is part of the renewal process - and feeds into the practice of consideration, healing and regrowth.

Regrowth is necessary to discard the debris of what life can throw at us, some unimportant and others teaching us valued lessons.

Revocation and rejection are necessary steps when we let go of emotions, priorities and matters that no longer matter.  Allow space for our inner joy and journey ahead.

Realisation is part of renewal, before and after.   Each of us is a different and unique being on an evolving journey towards higher awareness, potential and characteristics.

Satisfactory reputation is the outcome of renewal.  We are put through encounters with different people, sensations and experiences - have we learnt from each?

Requisition of nurturing attributes is definitely more significant than acquisition of material goods and commercial experiences.  As we grow older, renewal means the greater ability to see shallowness and less meamimgful matters, things and diversions.

Relationships strive on renewal.  We meet and get to know new personalities or characters with whom we connect with pleasure.   We let go of acquaintances as it is obvious there is not enough purpose to carry on. We are grateful that we have relationahips with those that always make our day so to speak.

Renewal is what we go through that fuels our personal journeys.  It is a process, a tool, a result, an aspiration and an inspiration.

#yongkevthoughts

Europa Europa

 Europeans are often viewed as originating in the north west corner of the Northern Hemisphere.  This misperception of the term "European" can downplay the extensive presence of Slavic demographics in Russia, south eastern Europe and the eastern Slav nations.

Russia has lands extend from eastern Europe to the coasts above Japan, Korea and China - 77 per cent of Russian territory is in Asia, although most Russians live in Europe. Russia can be said to be straddling both Europe and Asia.

It really depends on a point of view.

The European continent as such can be seen as layers of differing historical, religious and cultural implications.  The Vikings were focused on colder climes, as opposed to the Mediterranean nations that were the locations of the Greek, Roman and Ottoman traditions.

In between are the core of what is perhaps to be central European -  Latin influenced territories meeting up with Germanic homelands and spreading into the Balkans.

The impact Europe has made on the contemporary world has been having better technology, implementing colonisation, stirring geopolitics, conducting the major wars of the 20th century and securing world wide trade links. 

The Empire under which the sun once never sets - the British - has spawned five Anglocentric societies that still cuddle together in political flavour and intent in the 21st century. 

Apart from the Mother Country, the other four already have resident Indigenous peoples before their colonisation.  Britain used to extensively rely on agricultural, human, logistics and military resources from this alliance - and still do to varying extents.  Three of these nations still have a British monarch at the top of the chain.

There are two obvious nations geographically far removed from Europe -  but evolved into their present day realities primarily built from European settlement.  One is Argentina, populated by southern Europeans - and the other is Australia, first settled by the British and Irish.  Each nation is sited in a part of the world surrounded by non European cultures.

Being geographically located so close to northern Africa and the so called Middle East, Europe has significantly been affected by outside influences.  The European mind has in the long term been heavily influenced by, amongst others:

Arabian mathematics,
Greek philosophy,
Roman infrastructure,
City states that valued diversity, Mongolian attacks,
Muslim rule,
the Renaissance,
political upheaval,
artistic movements,
the power of royalty and
movement of peoples attracted by her wealth and relative freedoms.

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert had their daughters married off across various European royalties, including that to the last Russian Tsar. 

The remnants of colonialism in the 20th century had Indians, Africans and south east Asians establishing residential status across France, Holland, the UK and Spain. 

The conflicts in 21st century Arab nations, economic seekers from Africa and south Asia and left wing political correctness added to another wave to another significant wave of migration, particularly to Germany and the Scandinavian nations.

The Indian diaspora seems to now be at its height of dispersion and extensiveness.
A transformative event was the expulsion of ethnic Indian residents from Uganda.  This started the Indianisation of Britain, which had to accept them based on their colonial status.  The Empire struck back and Anglo Indian manifestation spread onwards from Mother England to Canada and the United States.

Indian political and cultural prowess had already been evident in south east Asia before the advent of Islam and European takeovers.  Perhaps Indianisation here was more successful than Sinofication - one just reflects on evidence of Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms, artefacts, arts and structures scattered from present day Vietnam to Java.  The rather significant Indian influences also expressed themselves in language - contemporary Malay or Indonesian language has words originating from Sanskrit and other Indian tongues.

Will this historical Indian influence now seep and revive into the fabric of the five Anglicentric nations?  It has already established more than a beach head in the United Kingdom.  Will Indianisation jump across the Channel into mainland Europe - which is already grappling with Muslim demographics in the key nations of France, Germany and Scandinavia?

In eastern Europe, questions have arisen as to whether Russia wants to expand beyond her borders, or just wants to maintain her historical integrity.  Continental Europe's past has been significantly marked by what three powers do -  German- Prussian, French or Russian.  British royalty has Germanic foundations.  Europeans have given the world her share of philosophers, scientists, artists, political leaders and dictators.

South of the borders of Russia are the central Asian states and China.  China and India had the largest economies in the world before the onslaught of sailing ships, colonisation and the rise of European powers.  White Russians have lived together with Manchurians, Koreans and Han Chinese in the north eastern corner of the Eurasian mass.  The role of Russians as Europeans interacting with Asians has often been underemphasised.

The closeness of Communism from Soviet Russia into the development of Chinese Communism has resulted from how most European colonial powers treated a fledging and weak Chinese Republic after the fall of the last royal dynasty in 1912.
Key China leaders did however spend their formative years savouring and exploring revolutionary ideas and polititical thought in Paris.

The rather embedded sentiments in Europe from 1945, with the United States and her four Anglo connected partners rescuing Europe from the Nazis, are still difficult to shake off.  This sentiment perhaps has to be seriously resolved as Europe navigates into the future.  Europe has this vital opportunity to implement her own strategic interests and values in the face of changing geopolitics and the rise of a multi-polar world.

Most European powers have divested of their colonies, except for France and the United Kingdom.   Emerging powers are now strengthened by rising abilities in technology, infrastructure, trade and new networks in political relationships - not in far flung isles, navy ports of old and geographical spots which are no longer
strategic.

#yongkevthoughts

THE WRITING ON THE WALL

Elevated official superiority of one specific race  - Apartheid.
NAZI GERMANY

Extensive corruption extra ordainare -  Extreme Financial Greed.
DICTATORS AND KLEPTOCRATS

Discrimination even in small matters increasing to Utter Intolerance - History Repeats Itself and Lessons Never Learnt.
1980s SOUTH AFRICA.

Blindness to not developing society by education, merit and open values - Self Impediment and Destruction.
OPPOSITE OF INDEPENDENT SINGAPORE.

Divide and Rule learnt from colonisers followed by an Independent Country - Socio-political disintegration.
MYANMAR

Loss of inherent culture by push to strongly implement practices borrowed from another country - Significant loss of one's own heritage.
RISKS FACING SOME EMIGRANTS

Numbers of specific demographics dwindling, increasing emigration, export of human talent and tightening of blatant intolerance - Huge social change happening for years already.
21st Century VENEZUELA.

Fissures embedded already in a specific race, many of whom already subject to a hand out mentality,  sufferance of being exploited by the powerful and rich and the suppression of true development of a race -  Fooling the people.
EXPERIENCE OF THE INDIGENOUS

#yongkevthoughts