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More Photos of South America
South America
Peru - More Photos of South America
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- Written by: Richard_McKie
- Parent Category: Travel
- Category: South America
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This is a fascinating country in all sorts of ways and seems to be most popular with European and Japanese tourists, some Australians of course, but they are everywhere.
Since childhood Burma has been a romantic and exotic place for me. It was impossible to grow up in the Australia of the 1950’s and not be familiar with that great Australian bass-baritone Peter Dawson’s rendition of Rudyard Kipling’s 'On the Road to Mandalay' recorded two decades or so earlier:
Come you back to Mandalay
Where the old flotilla lay
Can't you hear their paddles chunking
From Rangoon to Mandalay
On the road to Mandalay
Where the flying fishes play
And the Dawn comes up like thunder
out of China 'cross the bay
The song went Worldwide in 1958 when Frank Sinatra covered it with a jazz orchestration, and ‘a Burma girl’ got changed to ‘a Burma broad’; ‘a man’ to ‘a cat’; and ‘temple bells’ to ‘crazy bells’.
| This article was written in 2012 and already some of the changes noted have changed. For example, in the decade that followed, 'same sex' marriage became legal. And sadly, several of those friends and relations I've mentioned, including my brother, died. No doubt, in another decade, there will be yet more change. |
Elsewhere on this site, in the article Cars, Radios, TV and other Pastimes, I've talked about aspects of my childhood in semi-rural Thornleigh on the outskirts of Sydney, Australia. I've mentioned various aspects of school and things we did as kids.
A great many things have changed. I’ve already described how the population grew exponentially. Motor vehicles finally replaced the horse in everyday life. We moved from imperial measurements and currency to decimal currency and metric measures. The nation gained its self-confidence particularly in the arts and culture. I’ve talked about the later war in Vietnam and Australia embracing of Asia in place of Europe.
Here are some more reminiscences about that world that has gone forever.
A friend forwarded me an article by Elizabeth Farrelly in the Sydney Morning Herald on April 12. Read Here or click on the picture.
It appears that Assange's theories about petite and grand conspiracies are well founded; and illustrated by his own case.