Heading North

Yesterday on the Sydney Morning Herald website I came across this picture, which shows two Israeli girls writing messages on shells ready to be fired towards targets in southern Lebanon. What is happening in Lebanon at the moment is extremely disturbing. Who does Israel think it is? They seem to have a complete disregard for the people of Lebanon and are basically destroying any chance Lebanon had of a recovery after all those years of civil-war. Of course the story which seems to be dominating the news here and around the world is all the foreign nationals trapped in Lebanon by the Israeli offensive. What about the rest? Are we just going to leave them - just like the people of Rwanda (have just been watching Hotel Rwanda - more about that later), who were abandoned when they needed help? The US - and Britain - have to stop supporting Israel and bring an end this cycle of violence and bloodshed. Israel has for all intensive purposes declared war on Lebanon and the political leaders of countries such as the US and Britain (and I'm sure Australia, since John Howard seems to support whatever Bush does) are just standing by and letting it happen.

A mid-week post is quite a rarity given how busy I seem to be at the moment. It's been very warm here today and about an hour ago it looked like there was going to be a thunder storm, but I don't think that's going to happen. There's that wonderful smell though when there's going to be a storm - reminds me of a Sydney summer. Everyone is complaning about the heat of course. I don't understand it. People here complain when it's cold and wet and then complain when it's warmer than 20 degrees!!! I love this weather.

Am heading north for the weekend tomorrow! I didn't actually have any plans for the weekend - apart from maybe going to London - but when Kiya discovered that getting to York by train was going to be an expensive proposition, I suggested that we find out how much renting a car would be. We managed to get a great deal, so we're going to drive up to the NE tomorrow after work, stay with my Aunt and Uncle and come back on Sunday via York. It's going to be great - especially if this weather holds out.

Today in class I watched Hotel Rwanda with my students. I watched it for the first time last week and was very moved, so I decided to try it with my advanced class. Often students don't get into films, but everyone in the class was glued to the screen. Tomorrow we're going to watch Shake Hands with the Devil, which I saw last year at the Sydney Film Festival. Both very powerful films.