The Drought
The drought across Australia is certainly giving us all concerns. Our farmers are really doing it tough and we are all praying and hoping that rain will come and make life easier for them. We live in such a vast country – the distances are amazing, as is the landscape. I have driven in my car (Mitsubishi Lancer) around Australia. I can’t remember now how many kilometres I clocked up – but it was significant. It was back in 2012/13 that I did that. In some ways, I long to do it again, though I doubt I will.
Our towns are very far apart, and a good number of them are finding that their populations are decreasing making life difficult for those businesses that need good numbers of people to keep going.
Moving to the City
It is not surprising that many folk choose to move closer to the cities or big towns, where more modern facilities can be found. Young people often choose not to work the land as their parents and grandparents have done, and choose to go to university in the cities to get qualifications that mostly don’t equate to employment in the bush. Sad but true. I love reading stories about the folk who chose to go to the city to study and eventually return to the country.
I often wonder if some city people would consider moving to the country to live for a few years – perhaps artists or others who can work independently, but whose presence can assist the small country businesses. Maybe they could work for short periods too – but they could become customers of local businesses.
Drought Affecting Education
It is sad that some children are being pulled out of boarding schools because their parents can no longer afford the fees. Read here.
I would hope that something could be done to help them to continue their education – would it be government subsidies, or the schools (some of which make huge profits) can assist here. Perhaps they could arrange to continue their education in other ways. I know a lot of country areas don’t have good enough internet to conduct quality education programs, but that should be a priority for many reasons.
Chinese Education Programs On-line
I watched this video – more interested in the data re the internet usage in China. Awesome figures. But towards the end of the video there is information about how the education of children in remote areas of China is proceeding with online classes. I know we do a bit of this in Oz, but we should do more.
What do you think?