Been There Done That

20 Dec 2016

Season’s Greetings, Carols, Yacht Race, Sales, www, Darwin, Aceh

Anniversary, Archives, Disasters, Gay, History, Inventions, Music, Politics

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Season’s Greetings, Carols, Yacht Race, Sales, www, Darwin, Aceh

Season’s Greetings at this time from the team to all our listeners.
This week we acknowledge the birthdays of gay identities Bob Brown, a GP, federal politician and devoted environmentalist/greenie; and current pop star and great ambassador for our community Ricky Martin.

We add a dose of Christmas Comment as we chat about carols in general, and the first Carols by Candlelight public concert – devised and presented here in Melbourne in 1937.

In Australian history around this time, we remember that in 1859, rabbits were released into the Australian countryside (and became a feral pest), and that the Sydney-to-Hobart yacht race is now held starting on Boxing Day – in contrast to those other races where hordes of shoppers seek bargains at the Boxing Day Merchandise Sales.

In International matters, Phil reminds us of the genesis of the www – World Wide Web – or more appropriately now considered to be the World Wild West!

We are reminded that world catastrophes don’t respect holidays – as we note the on Christmas Day in 1974, the city of Darwin (NT) was flattened by Cyclone Tracy with 71 killed, resulting in the evacuation of most of the population and massive rebuilding. In 2004, the inhabitants of the Indonesian province of Aceh bore the brunt of a huge Tsunami wave with 270,000 killed and over a million people rendered homeless. The previous year, the ancient city of Bam in Iran was levelled by an earthquake with 50,000 killed. And sadly this year, a war rages in Iran with incredible tragedies.

Plus some trivia and mirth and much more ….