@crown well they have the freedom to explore and read what they want by and large. Dream of Red Chamber is a famous Chinese novel. Genji Monogatari is a Japanese novel written over 1000 years ago by a woman. Hard read, but worth the effort. Don't extol your 'democratic freedom' too much. Of course I have no North Korean but I certainly do have south Korean students. Fundamentally people are not different.
@crown well yes, so far two of my Chinese and one Vietnamese students have read it - strange question. Literature is literature and reading is reading. Have you read Dream of Red Chamber or Genji Monogatari?
... and is Rishi Sunak either revered or respected in England? I think not, nor is his opponent who likens herself to and emulates Margaret Thatcher it would appear. As with American elections, a bitter and futile choice. Who will be the best of a bad lot then?
@op and you attribute that to the administration? That is absurd. America has never determined the oil price, wittingly or otherwise. Silly idea, don't you agree. America might be marginally the largest exporter, but they are also the largest consumer, by 50% over a country 3350% larger? Does that too reflect on the Administration? Oil price is not a result of which president is in power. When you cut off a major oil producer and exporter like russian, what would you predict as the outcome? This is Biden? Come off it!
@chancer do you see the US administration as responsible for the price of petrol then? And specifically Biden? Remember when Russia and Saudi took the barrel price down to $40 or less (briefly -40!)? So that was some genius move of the then US President or UK PM was it - come off it, guffaw guffaw.
just below AUD$2 per litre here. Aren't the Americans peculiar refusing the metric change!? 3.8 litres roundabout per gallon. I'll stick to the bicycle and Shank's pony.
@OP reminds one of a famous quote from T S Eliot's aptly named 'The Hollow Men' or should that be 'The Hollering Men'? This is the way the world ends (repeat X 3) not with a bang but a whimper'
My sciatica spread all the way down to my foot, left foot. They told me the further down it goes, the worse it is. Just hope it stays in the butt'ock as Forest Gump might have said.
Sciatica can be dreadful! 30 odd years ago. Rising from bed, getting up from a chair, brushing the teeth. I solved it with physio and 30 or so half-body pushups from the waist every waking hour for a few weeks. There were times I felt like I was walking on a broken leg. Sometimes the arm muscles were just as sore.
@starg what don't you understand? The bible IS a fairy story. The Greek myths carry equal weight for me. This is my view. There may be other values gleanable from the bible, but that is up to the reader and believer.
I heard stories of the moriori preceding the maoris and being more or less exterminated by them, but these have been somewhat discredited by modern archarologists and historians who assert there was no pre-existing species when they arrived. People cleave to their beliefs even in the face of evidence to the contrary, so what else can I say. For some reason the moriori have been assigned to the Chathams.
Idiot! Marxists? Sri Lankans have no petrol, unsurprising they impose law over access. You subscribe to Bolt and Sky News? That nitwit? It figures! So if you use "Marxists" should I not label you "McCarthyist"?
Spent too much time with communists? Well of my time in China, I never met one. You on the other hand, it would seem, have spent too much time with sheep.
And as for 'enough evidence' none of the courts or prosecutors think so. Speculation and wishful thinking do not amount to evidence, except for those perhaps who believe in things like the bible. Of course historically the Inquisition did not need such evidence but we have progressed just a little.
Do you wear a seat-belt when driving, or exert personal choice? Do you smoke in public buildings or express personal choice? Do you spit in the street - I remember days when there were street signs saying 'no spitting' - so much for personal choice. Swear or drink in public? What you do at home is your business. Try thinking below the surface.
RE: Anne frank....
@crown well they have the freedom to explore and read what they want by and large. Dream of Red Chamber is a famous Chinese novel. Genji Monogatari is a Japanese novel written over 1000 years ago by a woman. Hard read, but worth the effort. Don't extol your 'democratic freedom' too much. Of course I have no North Korean but I certainly do have south Korean students. Fundamentally people are not different.