The view from Swanvale

My great friend Pip Courtney has been in Rockhampton in Central Queensland covering Beef Week for Landline on the ABC.

You can the online page on by following this link.

http://blogs.abc.net.au/theoverflow/2012/05/beef2012.html

As I tap at the screen here in the media room in Auckland, in the room next the leaders of the Smaller Island States are apparently setting the hard and firm agenda they will be taking to all Forum leaders later this week.

If I sound a little cynical, can I quickly remind you that in previous years this meeting has come out with an agenda, which the leader’s swear by, but which, two days later, after the leaders retreat, seems to have been ignored, or forgotten. Instead they fall into line with the wishes of Australia and New Zealand. I wonder what will happen this time? There agenda does seem quite practical though. Quite changes features high, transport and labour mobility get a mention. So maybe, just maybe, they will get a word in sideways. More on this as more happens.

Interstling, but not really surprising, no mention of Fiji, despite claims by these leaders and their representatives last week, that they will pushing for the lifting of its suspension from the Forum! Sometimes, words are no more than that.

I know. It’s a long winded intro, but it had to be said.

I’m in New Zealsnd reporting on the Pacific Islands Forum. It’s supposed to be the major meeting of the region, worthy of all sorts of media coverage. But right now, right here, you wouldn’t know it.

The streets of Auckland are covered in banners celebrating the start of the rugby this Friday. Every second person is wearing an All Blacks jersey. It’s footy footy footy, followed by more footy, and that’s the message from the Prime Minister John Key, through to the cab driver and down to the derro on the corner rying to clean windshurlds with a dirty newspaper.

But the Forum? Forget it. I asked a heap of people on the waterfront what events were hapening in Auckland this week. “The World Cup” said all of them. “What’s the Forum?” Was the answer to my next question. You can guess what I was asking.

What makes it all the more frustrating is that any coverage from the travelling Australian Canberra Press Gallery, will only focus on the words of Australia’s Prime. Minister, keen to get her views on what’s happening in domestic politics.

Anyway. I’m here. I’ll do my best, and I can only hope you appreciate my efforts. Fair bet it’ll only bd you and me watching.

I’ve been back in the USA for just over a week. A few days in LA, best forgotten quickly, and now on the East Coast. I’ve popped down to North Carolina, to its Outer Banks for a few days, mostly to soak up a bit of aviation history (The Wright Brothers!) but also to see a bit of its coast. (Awesome)

I write this from Tappahannock in Virginia, right near the waterways which make up Chesapeake Bay. It’s part of the whorl which I have long dreamed of seeing, having read books about its history, and also novels which feature the bay, and its many tributaries, in the story. Very impressive.

After three months in Mexico though, the US does come as a culture shock. Where life in Mexico happens on the street, and there is at best a cavalier respect for the law, and rules, here it is strictly by the book. Police and State Troopers on every road, speed limits which you should respect, and a niceness which takes a bit of getting used to. Everyone is sir, or Ma’am. and roadside and zebra crossings respected. That said, I’ve met a lot of nice people who seem happy, if not surprised, that I’ve chosen their part of the world to visit.

But, and I’m not the first person to point this out, the food here is shit. To much it, to heavily processed, and to fatty. And this comes from someone who enjoys a good meal, in particular of heavily processed fatty food. I should be in pig heaven, but sadly I’m not. One meal a day is my limit in the USA.

But all is good. I’m having fun, and I’m heading North tomorrow. Chicago and Wisconsin are my aiming points. Chicago because it sounds like a city everyone should see. Wisconsin. Because as you’ve probably gathered, I like places off the map.

Speak soon.

I write this from around thirty thousand feet above North America, winging my way towards Los Angeles.

Ain’t technology grand?

This flight marks an end to a three month trip through Mexico and the Caribbean, Cuba in particular. It would be very cool and new age to say that I’ve completed with trip with a new sense of reality and purpose. But those who know me, know I don’t buy into that bullshit. I can say that it has made me think about the future, and what options there are. But I also think that’s natural for anyone who’s taken an extended holiday, and got away from the usual.

But enough of that.

I can say that I have fallen in love with Mexico. A mixture of the third and the first world, with the richness and poverty of both sides in clear view. A history which goes back thousands of years, and of which its people are rightly proud, and only to happy to share with you. Although it must be said they do want to show you at a price even though it’s a cheap one.

Over the past few months I’ve paid a pittance to eat some of the best tasting and healthy food I’ve ever experienced, while also paying to much for something which could only be described as a gastronomic minefield by any dietician. I’ve made friends, partied and drank to much, been ill and been well, and to be honest, I wouldn’t give it up for anything. I’ve experienced the megatropolis that is Mexico City, the hills and native strongholds of Chiapas, the ancient city of Guanajuato, and the Pacific beaches of Oaxaca which each Winter become the home of Americans and Canadians looking to escape the snow and chills of their home states. It’s a good choice. They are some of the best beaches I’ve had the chance to sit beside, swim and surf in, or be nearby while doing fuck all. I’ve spent time in its American modelled tourist trap of Cancun. So without sounding to much like a some sort of love sonnet, let’s just say a visit there comes with my strongest recommendation.

For Cuba? Well Cuba’s interesting. The last bastion of socialism, and while it no doubt has a vitality, it’s slightly strange to a westerner like me to not see the advertising signs and obvious indications of commerce and society which we’ve come to take for granted. I like it, but probably a bit like Vietnam, more than once you found yourself talking to a local, only to find you are expected to contribute to their income, or that they are really nothing more than an aggressive tout for a cab company or casa. I’m glad I went, but like thousands of others, you can’t help but feel that when the trade embargo with the US lifts, all that will change. The amount of money that will roll in will make that inevitable. And while I sound like I’m at sixes or sevens over this, I can’t help but feel it’s a bad thing, but that it’s a bad thing most Cubans would welcome.

Anyway, now the USA, with the Big Apple and the East Coast on the agenda. I’ll have a brisket sandwich for all of you.