Well, I am new to the Forum but this was a challenge for me. I am a first-generation Australian, Dad was English and Mum was Dutch East Indies...Both suffered through WWII. Dad was in the London bombings until they evacuated them out to the country and his father was in the RAF. Mum, her mother and siblings all became prisoners of the Japanese. Her father was a Royal Dutch Marine Pilot and had to evacuate the government to Australia. When it was time to retrieve their families, it was too late. He later flew for the RAAF on air-sea rescue and Black Cat missions.
This made me one of the last 50's babies being born in 59. So, I remember Sputnik, Laika, Gagarin, and Tereshkova from the Soviet state, Then we had Glen Shepard, Gus Grissom. This was the Mercury program single-seat ships, but they then did project Gemini, two people each mission. same people plus your well known Apollo members, and finally the Apollo program. Apollo 1 was a fatal disaster and nearly ended it all, but they did move on until Apollo 11 and Neil Armstrong uttered his now, well known if somewhat confusing words we can repeat quite easily.
It was at this same time music was in a revolutionary process, the iconic Beatles for the UK against the Beach Boys for the USA. I am sure there were other countries who had their own favourites, as we had some here in Oz. The dress code was changing, flares and mini skirts, ruffled shirts and wide collars, long hair on men with short on women. The Cold War was in full swing with the Berlin Wall, but not satisfied the USA created the Bamboo Wall. Vietnam became a war that should never have happened. But paranoid US Presidents would not listen to the Advisor at the time Robert McNamara and withdrawal ALL troops by 1966 and instead because of election campaigns two men managed to make it last for ten years and untold lives while propping up a dishonest, cheating government. Insidious weapons were made and used, such as the defoliant "Agent Orange", Napalm, Claymore mines, and many more. Then they withdrew and left all the people and their supporters behind. (Sounds Familiar)! We had Seven mile Island nuclear incident in the USA but they don't like to talk about that, the Chernobyl incident, Perestroika and Glasnost, China opening up to the West under the leadership of Deng Zhou Ping. The world was heading for peace or so it would seem, but some countries can't accept that and have to interfere in the name of Democracy...or is it Oil? The Berlin wall came down and families united after so many years apart. We had the Falklands Islands, andNew Caledonia incidents, Rwanda, Namibia and Cambodia.
I forgot, we had the ISS and other space stations as well, the Hubble telescope, the millennium bug
Ozone depletion, Acid rain, global warming and now climate change as the other two were not sustainable in proof of concept. Oh I believe there is climate change, it is Nature and NASA has already stated that the earth is 1'> off its axis of rotation so why not. The equator cant still be where it was 50 years ago now, can it? We have gone from being straight-talking people to being afraid to say anything for fear of being accused of some vilification act.
Politicians now think they are our leaders and not our employees, we vote them into the position to represent us, yet they get there and dictate to us. Something wrong there, really wrong. Now we have reached the political Zenith in the West where leadership has reached an all-time low. We have scaped the bottom of the political gene pool and barely form National leaders, let alone governments. What we have, for example, AUKUS is really the three stooges, the Five Eyes is really only Four Eyes because one saw the light and left the bunch of liars. We have a virus affecting the world and instead of working together to eradicate it, some just want to lay blame for it. others want compensation for it, while the rest cant get vaccinated against it. Such is the effect of the aforementioned countries in their groups. NATO is not a cohesive force and will forever be looking over its shoulder at its own allies. Nato combined with the USA and NATO is forever stirring up Russia or China by breathing their waters or other regional areas. I wonder if reciprocal exercises of the coast of mainland USA by both Russia and China would be seen as exercises or threats? We can see that the Army build-up in Ukraine has everyone reacting in a let's prepare for a battle mode.
The last thing I would say is I grew up through all of this and I saw so much, I was also brainwashed into thinking that China and Russia were something to be feared! WhenI was discharged from the Army I decided to visit my fears. I had already been on the battlefield, shot at, blown up and stitched up, so nothing worse could happen to me. Death was not fear anymore. First, it was Russia and Moscow. I called one of my friends from Poland who also wanted to visit Russia and so we met and we had a great time. We met all types of people, but the best was meeting some serving military guys. They were as curious about us, as we them, they wanted to show us everything and got permission from their boss to take us on base to look, drive and shoot the vehicles and weapons they had. They had no interest in ours as we had nothing with us, they were more into showing off. We ate in the mess and they became our personal minders while we were in the region. After three weeks I could only say that I had no fears of any of them. I saw the guards change, thank god we never had to kick that high, I would have ripped a hamstring, but sadly it was time for me to leave. Next, I went to China for my God Daughters Birthday. Here I was a little nervous, I had very poor language skill in Chinese and I forgot the address when I was filling out the paperwork. Forgetting where I was (CUSTOMS) I phoned my God Daughter who was outside and was asking her the address when I realised there were big signs with a phone image encircled in red with a one through it, Oh F*#k! I hung up immediately, wrote down the address and sheepishly approached the smartly uniformed officer in the booth. I handed over my passport and paperwork, then two more marched out, I was the last person there. A thousand thoughts raced through my mind, not the least being...who did you call, why and give us your phone. Instead, I was politely greeted in perfect English, Good morning sir, did you have some difficulty with the form? Yes I replied, I forgot the address of the hotel I was staying in and I phoned my goddaughter who is just outside waiting for me to get it. I didn't think and I just wanted to get it all done right.
That's ok, is this all your luggage, is there anything to declare? I declared my medication and showed my letter, meanwhile, one of the other two went off and go my goddaughter and brought her in. They then said "Welcome to China", we will help you with your luggage. They took it from me and carried it to her car and put it in, turned to me and said enjoy your stay, shook hands then left. I was there for three months and we lived in the country. It was great, no rich people, very few cars and busses frequently. I met a woman there and decided I would go back to her, so after four weeks back in Australia I moved to China for two years. and we lived there and then moved up central north for work reasons. Everyone wanted me to teach English, but I wasn't interested. Instead, I taught voluntarily in Universities down to preschools. Now I have hundreds of friends in China, some are even CPC members, not big ones but still members, I have learnt about 75% of the language to speak but understand almost all spoken. I have been to all the places that are mentioned in the MSM and all I can say is they lie. Seeing is believing! Oh, I married the woman I met and we will have our 8th wedding anniversary next February.
Now, sadly...I am hearing that the USA is leading the push to Boycott the Winter Olympics. How sad when Politicians can dictate to Sportspeople what they can and cannot do. Using them as leverage for a political statement. Sports and politics should never be entangled with each other. Japan had the Summer Olympics in the middle of the pandemic and nobody boycotted that, so just let the sportspeople make their own call.
Many more things have happened in my lifetime but hell I could be here forever too. I hope this stirs a few memories of the good kind.
Jeff
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