The Queen’s Birthday Notes

 

It’s unclear to what extent recent Victorian winter of Australia-grabbed-with-global-warming (at least, as locally-asserted) resembles a mother-country’s summer time of the Europe of the Little Ice Age, of which timing this holiday was quite sustainably established. Sunshine and blue skies meet golden leaves covering a soil so splendidly that European early autumn-touched forests and parks have sharply been associated by the acquiring with a luxury of the Northern Hemisphere’s natural beauty somehow surviving the conquest of a civilization unstoppable.    

This year, this pastoral landscape is marked with the early-spring elections federal oncoming. Could one correct a suggestion that traditionally estimating a local environment as a top world sanctuary while the rest of the Universe presents strange abnormalities mostly (for instance, one could understand, that produced in the Netherlands, a JanoskiansThe Australian Boy Band’s clip reflects such approach to others law and order) well-grounds an electorate’s relaxed attitude toward the election campaign if even certain US-style elements blossom at the dawn of the third millennium in this part of the British Commonwealth persistently.

While some opportunities are existing in a post-recent-mineral-export-boom country locally and a traditional scarcity of jobs for, especially, professionals from, call it, overseas-qualified background, is at a sky level steadily, revelations of trading the works to lure into local education as an entry-stage to a permanent residency (PR) in Australia might be seen as a logical fortitude of this season of exhibiting. The expert forecasts for a future economics’ renaissance are as much various and short-time actual as a challenging weather in Melbourne, some days sliding from heat to cool, calmly to windy, sun-shining to raining every quota of an hour, remaining in general, still colder than in Sahara but a bit warmer than on Arctic Ocean shores. Integrated, nothing points at the returning of lucky Australia true-blue-Aussies-enjoyed-a-time-life-permanent-full-time-employment-in but further adjustments along non-industrial lines. Well, also more and more catering for e-subscribers only, mediastill educates. Maybe, it does unwittingly sometimes as these days a tremendous story of a recidivist-on-parole having murdered his next object-of-passion happened to be a Melbournian journalist with an Irish passport and overseas-based frequent-travelling-capable close relatives. Surely, a stranger’s observation aired during his in-train cell-phone conversation “We live in a society where animals enjoy more rights than humans” is better gauged by even those acquainted personally with a factotum legal after the Court’s disclosure of case details.

Thus, using a public transport is bestowed on with a life-broadening advantage of getting informed miraculously by reading means handy and/or simply listening passively.  

Public transport is a hot topic in situ undisputedly. And this Queen’s Birthday long weekend, apart from student exams, was sufficiently used to modernizing and repairing of train and tram systems, substantially disrupting both  car traffic and daily plans, the replacements uncooperative phenomenally, which was so exceptionally-different from a customer’s previous local experience with similar events. 

Heavy raining started afterwards.

Summer Storm, Australia

 This summer in Victoria-an Australian state where island called Tasmania near touches a continent on small scale big geographic maps- so far looks much cooler than usual. Actually, since 2005 this picture of cooling-down warmest season has been repeated-a far cry from the heat of the nineties famous for apocalyptic visions of predicting the zero-reserve water reservoirs with all technical-economics consequences for “saving Australia” institutions involved. Skies surely do not know of advance carbon tax/price on carbon introduced locally might bring about to save a human world globally.   Well, life is going on pretending not so much happens in the air. 

Cold mornings have been followed by sun-radiated afternoons as a “no news is good news” seems to be a first victim of whatever oncoming inevitably.

Meeting Dr. Yi So-yeon

I’d just returned from meeting with Dr. Yi So-yeon, a South Korean cosmonaut, arranged by the Institution of Engineers Australia.

Also general information of her flight made news round a globe already, meeting a living history-that is what in Korea and books on a space discoveries she had been memorized-is really the event.

A not-so-big comfy IEA conference room was not surprisingly full with variety of members and graduate engineers some coming with kids, and Dr Yi So-yeon presentation was really eye-opening for many who just realized that her flight was executed as a part of the Russian-Korean space program cooperation.

There were many questions covering variety of aspects linked to her mission and attendees were really surprised by a Russian Orthodox clergy involvement into a flight routine while information of psychological preparedness, of which lack of clocks aboard and impossibility to follow indicators during the launching yielded a positive mark from a space researcher.

A rare info on sleeping conditions in the space had been provided and audience presented to a great extent by English-as-a-second-language participants kept a breath at cosmonaut’s Russian language modest proficiency revelations-well, I could not imagine myself flying high after a year in Korea if selected for a similar locally-conducted Korean space program. Really, a Korean scientist is right telling of willingness to work in a team and a friendly understanding of her communicating problems experienced along whole Russian project but not always in local shops.    

It is unclear what job Dr. So-yeon does recently but attempts of Dr. Andy Thomas, a first Australian astronaut to return from the Cape Canaveral in a birth country were at the time postponed because of no need by local employers for an employee “skilled in the space walking” as media reported (so, Paul Scully-Powers – who?).

Good luck Dr. Yi So-yean –and with skills in Russian acquired additionally.

Michael Kerjman

The Peace Day

Peace Day

I don’t know what is special in September, 21, to call it a Peace Day.

Well, if the UN Peacekeeping Forces were established on this date in the forties of the last century, I would not say that calling a particular day as PEACE DAY is a very good idea because the rest of the year should be not less peaceful to a modest, mine understanding.

Anyway, I was intrigued with the UN-originated e-message inviting “if in New York” to the United Nations Foundation meeting at the Tribeca Grand Hotel and, also this Wednesday evening was packed with what-to-do, found a room made it there.

Used recently to some precarious attitude to the US visitor already, I was not surprised by awaiting letting me in an auditorium a doco “The War against the War” was to be screened,  a discussion following up, the UN prominent employees and a film creator in a Discussion Panel at a stage.     

Leaving aside Panel’s general speculations of possibilities to be employed for the UN System (networking, networking and once again, networking which what might be translated from a diplomatic into common language as “a mere pure protectionism”),  a very topic of interest for too many round the globe as to extent of being discussed even during the Peace Day celebration, a half an hour film presented was really a masterpiece required a really cinematographic expertise and producing skills Mr. Stevens Fischer is famous for (The Flamingo Kid, Short Circuit).  

Being scrutinized a bit for omitting the role of female contingent in the UN peacekeeping, an author looked happy and joking funny-to some-on a topic while this his work is a next good produce to approaching the issue softly-softly as Haiti, a place where no war activity factually, was mentioned as the greatest recent UN peacekeeping success.   

No wonder, sitting beside me, a complete strange participant sparking huge diamond hearings told me to express her visual disappointment for Mr. Edmond Mulet, the Panelist- an Acting Head of the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) refusing factually to answer a question “Is any personal responsibility, any accountably existing for the UN officials over failure if any, of peacekeeping activities?”

Regrettably, day afterwards my Twitter does not work properly-I checked this phenomena with kindly help of others library-goers twitter-users  –  hopefully, my post-meeting interview was recorded as organizers' camera was, eventually, working better than this social site today.

The Peace Day Panel, by M. Kerjman

When too much is too much

The Netherlands is going to abandon politics of multiculturalism as appeared from media.  

As seen from Australia, multiculturalism itself was an invention used to covering traditional apartheid and segregation in the timing of the locally rising nationalist movements in the middle of the twentieth century to somehow keep formally independent colonies to be lashed with as influx of mostly ex-local-ethnic-elites sought refuge in metropoly.

One could say multiculturalism was never implemented on terms of equal opportunities (and might not be in places, where mateship and networking rule de–facto officially).

The USA, a Land of the Free, was and is surely right speaking of a “melting pot” as a targeted notion reflecting a mere reality of a grass-root acceptance of en masse arrivals pragmatically.

Nearby-Chernobyl Shine - Again

Freedom of information is a really a good stuff bettering at least an individuals’ environment-linked vision for even a pure general educative reason.

To modest author’s opinion, the article “Nearby-Chernobyl Shine – Again” by Eugenia Romaniv (Євгенія Романів, “Біля Чoрнобиля знову фонить”) in the independent Ukrainian newspaper The Express (www.expres.ua), 3-5 June 2011, belongs to such publications surely.

I hope this amateur translation from the Ukrainian not only acquaints with a view by some local sources but also presents rich bits of a linguistically-cultural natural flavor many world-known Western editions are not exercising much.     

Enjoy! 

www.expres.ua 3-5 June, 2011 

Eugenia Romaniv

Nearby-Chernobyl Shine - Again

Start of excavating the fundament of the nuke station Fourth Block protective shelter (arch, confinement) caused an extensive leakage of radiation!

These days, there is alarming news from Chernobyl again. The radiation level had increased in hundreds rather than dozens of times. What did cause this raise? How far might this radioactive spot spread to? To what extent is an event dangerous for our health and lives?

While official sources keep silent, ecologists raise awareness. It is not cool to play with radiation as the latest nuke incident testified to in Japan more recently…   An independent newspaper Expres.com (E.P.) had acquired some details from the president of the Whole-Ukrainian Organization the “Union Chernobyl of Ukraine”.

According to Yuri Andreev being, apropos, a Chernobyl Nuke Station Staff Shift Manager on 26^th April, 1986, the disaster happened:

“A new confinement is being erected around the existing construction preventing the radiation leaks from the destroyed Fourth Block located in 18km from a station personnel residential town. The project is partly funded by Europe, marking the 25^th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster. Even the first steps of erecting the shelter, which were digging deep trenches and piling, lead to the exhaust of radiation reaching the level equal to one registered in the autumn 1986^th.   

What is an origin of this radioactive increase? Concrete plates were used to minimize harmful radiation around sarcophagus, and scuffled recently, dismantled fuel assemblies, graphite chips pushing a radiation level stabilized to date up in hundreds times! Movers, excavators make dust airborne. If radioactive particles fly around, what a radiation level might be? It is impossible to work there without respirators...”

E.P.: And who do work there? It seems the French won a tender for construction.

Y.A.:  Yes, they have won, but do you think they work in situ? They manage funding. The Turks command a daily routine while the Ukrainians do implement [physically] paid twenty times lesser than the French and three times lesser than the Turks.

E.P.:  One could feel, you oppose this project?

Y.A.: Imagine, a little more than a soldier in the field, waving hands like Don Quixote did, but none pays attention at.  Not so long ago, near all prominent scientists opposed this renovation, but as a smell of big monies appeared, all they became great patriots of this dough were telling the funding should be materialized.   

And I know this amount is behind funding required: Europe is investing two third of a sum necessary while the Ukraine is short of the rest. That is why a project will not be executed. We will just preserve our problems, postponing them for the future.

And this is just a half of problem. Much worse, the constructions are beyond any critique. They are not strong made from light, short-live materials, unable to last long time if even one could assume the confinement to be finalized. But, once again, it will not be done. We had got the similar experience already. About eight years ago the storage of radioactive wastes had been built in the Chernobyl Zone, ninety per cents of a project was executed as it was realized the waste containers were bigger than the chambers they to fit inside. About two hundred billiard euro had gone, as one could say, under the cat’s tail, the object was abandoned-as unsuitable.

It stands now as a monument to our negligence. And I am afraid it would soon be one more.   

E.P.: However, should something be done with sarcophagus, said, it is about to dilapidate?   

Y.A.: We had got a good Ukrainian project being designed by scientists from Kharkov and Dnepropetrovsk. It suggests concrete sealing of chambers concluding the fuel to prevent its migration, and strengthening the existing sarcophagus constructions, to cover a sarcophagus with a fresh soil afterwards, leaving the manholes for different measurements. On this side a dangerous waste plant might be built to use this already spoiled area, prevent a different clean locality from this plant polluting.   

However, there is no prophet in own Motherland. The foreign project was selected. As said, the responsible over a tender process did not omit a benefit while we had got a head headache extending steadily into the future. It is because the most problem, which is the safe keeping of the mortally-dangerous wastes, was not tackled yet. Inside sarcophagus, these wastes-Uranium, Plutonium-migrate, contact water and recharge further poisoning in this seemingly damned soil.     

E.P.: Is this side radiation dangerous for recreation? Can it spread around?

Y.E.: It can be spread with wind, vehicle wheels. Hopefully, a round-established thirty kilometer no-man zone saves only. Raining fixes an airborne dust on the ground… But in this case it infiltrates soil, which is not good either… Pity the people working there. They perform a useless job throwing their health and grand monies into a concrete.