Come on Over to Caravanserais.com

OK … the new site is up and running. You become instantly cooler if you check out www.caravanserais.com today.

What do Peanuts, Soda and Bible all have in Common?

They are the names of some of our students!

Other names of our students include: One (born a winner, clearly), Ohm (you know, like Ω), Mind (two of them), Big (he was heavy-set to say the least), Nut, and Ice (”Ice, Baby”).

And I’ve met a 7-Up and a Mango before!

At birth, Thai mothers give their children strange nicknames to use instead of their super complex proper name.

We Picked the Archibald!

Well, even though we are in Thailand Amy and I picked this year’s Archibald Prize winner simply off the internet.

Looking at all the finalists Guy Maestri’s portrait of Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu stuck out prominently. The haunting and shadowy contours of Yunupingu’s face stood out. His eyes appear almost absent. Its a very memorable piece. Amy and I both looked at eachother and agreed immediately it was the best entrant.

The likeness of the portrait to Yunupingu’s latest album cover is a little disconcerting though. I’ll let you be the judge.

Foot Down on FTAs?

Have you ever wondered where Australia has got free trade agreements? As talks start with Korea, it is worth considering that all of our FTA partners are members of APEC (with the exception of the Gulf States).

• ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand FTA
• Singapore-Australia FTA
• Thailand-Australia FTA
• Australia-United States FTA
• Australia-New Zealand Closer Economic Relations
• Australia-Chile FTA

Free Trade Agreements under Negotiation

• Australia-China FTA Negotiations
• Australia-Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) FTA Negotiations
• Australia-Japan FTA Negotiations
• Australia-Malaysia FTA Negotiations
• Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement

Free Trade Agreements under Consideration

• Australia-India FTA Feasibility Study
• Australia-Korea Preparatory Talks
• Indonesia-Australia FTA Feasibility Study

With the financial crisis causing a form of systems collapse, Australia needs to go looking aggressively for new markets to kick start foreign demand for Australians goods and services.

Here are out top 10 trading partners:

√ Japan

√ China

√ United States

Republic of Korea

United Kingdom

√ New Zealand

India

√ Singapore

* Taiwan

√ Thailand

I would argue that Rudd needs to quickly close the deal on India and Korea. And what about the possibility of an Australian-UK FTA, particularly in services and education?

Going Up in the World to Caravanserais.com

Ladies and Gents caravanserais.wordpress.com is going up in the world.

We are about to make the transition to … wait for it … caravanserais.com!

Maybe a make over might be in the mix too. More to come…

Jesus Loves Pornstars

Full marks for guts from the Bible Society Queensland on this one.

Bibles with covers “Jesus Loves Pornstars” at Sexpo and the new website www.xxxchurch.com to help people with sexual addictions.

Jindal vs Obama in 2012?

Is this the saving face of the Republican Party?

Indian-American, Rhodes scholar, Governor of Lousiana, and a state health secretary at the tender age of 24, Bobby Jindal upsets every stereotyping apple cart. For the 2012 GOP nomination for president (if he runs early) Jindal in the complete antithesis of Sarah Palin.

He is already setting his crosshairs on Obama. Watch this space…

QLD Election Called

Surprise, surprise Bligh has finally called the QLD election.

Green has released his regular seat-by-seat analysis.

Here is the pendulum. There are a swag of seats on low margins for the ALP. I’ll give you my tips soon.

Credit Crisis Explained

If you’re still struggling to understand what has happened in the credit crisis, you should really watch this video. It explains the crisis simply and visually from first principles.

Biggest Wheelchair Distribution Ever

I’m sorry in my post-marriage euphoria I haven’t been more regular in my posting. As you know Amy wins out every time now. But I promise to get better…

Over the last week I’ve also been busy with the biggest wheelchair distribution that I’ve ever been involved with in Thailand. Over a week and a half we have fitted hundreds of patients from Mae Hong Son in the hilltribe north to Songkhla in the Moslem deep south.

The immense travelling distances (even by Australian standards) and busy distribution days has been intense to say the least … but oh the amazing satisfaction! It has been extraordinary.

When you see a child with advanced cerebral palsy break into a smile and fits of excitement from receiving his new wheelchair it’s priceless.

For a full blow-by-blow analysis of the distributions head on over to Garner Report by Craig and Annie Garner.  It has great pics and write-ups of each of our distributions around the country. They are part of the Joni and Friends team who have come from the US to deliver and fit the chairs and to generally share goodwill in spades. Our Wheelchair Project is the local partner that work alongside Joni and Friends to help them in distributing their chairs within Thailand (through the Thai Department of Public Health).

Anyhow, everyone is really tired tonight after our final distribution here in Songkhla. We will soon make the 30 hour trip back to Chaing Mai having made many new friends and giving a wonderful gift of mobility to hundreds of needy Thais.