My life in the farm.

WELCOME TO OUR BLOG YOU ARE INVITED , TO BROWSE AS LONG AS YOU LIKE. Anyhow, here I will publish my own diary and what I see happening in the world, and when I do not have much to say, I will write posts from my life story. 

So, today I am writing a post from my life story, that I have called,  my life in the farm. 

Anyhow, you can also find this article at, http://oldman-lifeworks.blogspot.com, 

My other sites; http://frankmenchise.com,http://diybrickwork.com,http://manneedsgod.co.uk  

You can see more at this addresses, DIY brickwork  and,  http://diybrickwork.com,  

To see more visit this link, My life in the farms.   

Farms are very lonely places, it might be okay to live there for a few days, when you want some peace and quiet, since no one will disturb you. But it is not the right environment for a young man, that needs to develop their skills for their future life, specially if they need to change their way of life later. 

  

Welcome to my article, My life in the farms. 

Dear readers, in this article we talk about my life in the farms of southern Italy when I was young. Anyhow, I need to point out that then life was different from today; so, let us compare our life now, to the time when I was young.

From my life experience, I can assure you that life in the past was much harder than today. Because today we are living in this new and wonderful era of electronic devices, and you can choose to listen, watch, or play with these electronic devices anywhere. But in those times, there was nothing similar, in fact, we could not even guess that these things were going to come up and they would help humanity to live a better life.

Therefore, I want to say to the youths of today; can you imagine a world that has no man-made electronics devises? A world with not even a single push button devise that you can amuse yourself with. Today everywhere we go; we see people with their mobile phones doing all sort of things, which is wonderful.

Anyhow, life was completely different then, it was quiet and boring and that is how my farm-life was like when I was young. So, let me describe this life in the small farms of Southern Italy.

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The small farms of those days  

In the small farms of those days there was no electricity, so, we had no electrical devices, or a portable radio to listen to, because those devices had not come out yet on the market, and even if they were, we could not afford one, you see, there wasn’t any money around in farming those days. I know that today it is hard to believe what I am saying, but it was so, we could only afford to buy things needed for surviving.

So, I had to grow up in this lonely environment, in the company of our farm animals, which they don’t talk back to you when you say anything to them, they listen and everything ends there, even if there is a certain understanding between you and those animals, so, you may feel that you have some friends. Therefore, as I grew up and became a teenager, I realized that I was falling behind to the rest of the town community, in a social way. To understand what I am saying here, I need to explain that I was working in the farm every day, we were allowed to go to our home in town ones or twice a week in the evening and when we were not too busy in the farm we could also spend every second Sunday in town with the members of our family that were permanently living in town. This is how I was able to compare that I was, were in a disadvantaged position.

As I said, we were in a disadvantaged position and becoming dull, as long as we were in that position; here I mean everything at all could have helped us a bit, even knowing what was happening in the community, which the other boys in town seemed to know everything and we seemed so dull, when we were compared to them, also the ways of expressing ourselves clearly was not easy, since we were forced to live a lonely and taciturn way of life, therefore we did not speak much.

There were times that I wanted to have a radio like the people in town, so that I could listen to a proper way of speech, or perhaps even a song or two, and I could improve my knowledge that way, but it was not possible. Therefore, I was stuck in that lonely world, where one is stuck with one’s own company and thoughts day and night for ages, and there was not much that we could do to improve it.

In the farms of those days there were only a few people staying and working there, and they were doing their farm duty. So, they did not care to talk to you, if you were younger than them. Then those people that are in the farms don’t talk very much, since in their isolation there is nothing much to talk about; so, they are used to be taciturn, and there were days when only a few phrases were exchanged between us; so, conversation was very low indeed. Therefore, this way of life that I was living could only affect me later in life in a disadvantageous way, because I was young and my needs would have been better served, if I had been in a sociable place to learn a more sociable way of life. 

There were lots of times when I was alone and nobody was near me to say a single word, and this was happening most days. So, in my isolation I would start thinking and learning things all by myself in my own way, anything at all that came into my mind, or things that would happen in the farm, and when you are by yourself for a long time, and think by yourself for a great length of time, you don’t need to express your thoughts in words to yourself, therefore anything that you learn may start being stored within your own mind in a different way, you still learn things, perhaps even more accurate than when you learn with words: The only drawback is that when you have to speak out, lots of times you would not know what to say; not because you don’t know it, since in your mind there is a clear picture of what you need to say; but because you find hard to find the right words to express yourself. So, this is one of the great disadvantages, which I and those youths who were unlucky like me, since they ended up working in their own families’ farms. I am sorry to say it, but we had to put up with the hard consequences which have followed us for the rest of our lives. Now allow me to describe the farm life of those days.

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Describing our farm life.   

In the farms of those days, because there is nothing much to talk about, farmers’ people are usually taciturn; and when you compare this way of life of the farmers, to the towns’ people way of life, you can feel at once the difference. You see, when you are in small towns, people converse a lot with each other, but in the farms, there seems to be a great silence of human voices, not only because there are not many people to talk to, but also because those people that are there are not interested in talking, since they are there to do their job and run the farm. So, we who happened to be living in the farms when we were young, we had to keep ourselves to ourselves, and this is how and why we became dull later in life.

So, whoever has happened to have lived in the farm as I did would have to become dull, particularly if one was as young as I was and the few people around me were much older than me, because as I said those people in the farms were there to do their jobs, and therefore, they could not care about the young ones’ developing social skills, because it had nothing to do with the running of the farm, and because they didn’t know anyhow, so, they would go about doing whatever they had to do, after all that was the way of life in the farms, and people accepted it as being normal. But today I hate the way of life that I had to live in the farm when I was young, because it made me then a dull person. 

Of my shortcomings, I became aware even more, when I had to leave my farming life behind, since I had to start a different way of life somewhere else. And since then, right through my entire life I have tried to catch up with the rest of the community, but it seems to me that I have never been able to catch up completely. So, this is the reason why I hate that way of life; it is because such a way of life, can only breed dull people; and so I and all those youths which ended up working in the farm at a very young age had to become dull.

But this is not all that I could complain about; because there were times when we went to town, while we were there, we could feel that the town’s people, would ridicule us for being what we were, and this would hurt us very much, because it was not our fault for being what we were.

This is a sad story, but let us try to turn this negative aspect of life into a positive one; because whatever we do there is a positive side to it; in this case the positive side is that we have learned that we have to work hard to earn a living, and we have learned to accept things the way they come to us. Now, by using what we have learned, let us turn negative into positive wherever we can, that would be the only sensible thing to do in life.

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Turning negative into positive. 

Dear readers, I have had a large share of hard life myself, for that reason I can cry my heart out for the consequences that it created, but I am not going to surrender and continue to cry my heart out forever; because I believe that we must try to overcome our inner pains, therefore, from now on, I am going to try to turn this negative event of my life into a positive one, that is the only way to go about with these things, when they happen to us.

Now the story of my life has many sides, one of which is that I had to work in our family farm, when I was young, and there were some future problems attached to it. Because I worked in the farm when I was young, during my life I have felt disadvantaged, feeling disadvantaged is a negative thing, and I have felt hurt even more because I was living in the farms without knowing the consequences that could follow me, so, even today my heart wants to cry out, but I am not going to let it happen in this negative way. Because I have made up my mind that I am going to fight back and try to turn a negative experience into a positive one, I believe that this is the only way that makes sense and I am going to do it anyhow. I know that what I am saying here may sound ridiculous, but I am going to do it anyhow, as this is the only way that I can think, how to break away from my negative feelings these days.

Now, I am going to make an effort and break away from my old farm life and try to live a normal life, therefore, I am going to turn negative into positive, as this could be the only way to deal with my life drawback; so, in our next article, I will be talking about, Turn negative into positive. 

To see more click on this link,  My life in the farms. 

See you soon.

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My farm life chapter.

WELCOME TO OUR BLOG YOU ARE INVITED , TO BROWSE AS LONG AS YOU LIKE. Anyhow, here I will publish my own diary and what I see happening in the world, and when I do not have much to say, I will write posts from my life story. 

So, today I am writing a post from my life story, that I have called,  my farm life chapter. 

Anyhow, you can also find this article at, http://oldman-lifeworks.blogspot.com, 

My other sites; http://frankmenchise.com,http://diybrickwork.com,http://manneedsgod.co.uk  

You can see more at this addresses, DIY brickwork  and,  http://diybrickwork.com,  

To see more visit this link, My farm life chapter

What is shown in this picture is a wheat field ready to be harvested. From the color of the ears wheat, it looks like it is a field of wheat called Cappelli, which was popular in the fifties, it seem that it will produce plenty of wheat this season, if the entire field is the same as we see in this photo. 

  

Welcome to my article,  My farm life chapter. 

Dear readers, this is the continuation of my farm life, so, whatever I am telling you here is the story of my life and nothing else. Now we can say that no matter how negative life can be, there must be some positive things also.

I believe that to explain what life was like in the farms of my native town of Genzano when I was young, I need to tell you many other things and the town itself, and then the ways of how people used to live in those times and what was happening at the time when I was young. So, let me talk about the town and the population first.

From my memory, I believe that the town of Genzano di Lucania early in the twentieth century had reached a population of about 7,000 inhabitants, in the forties when I was young the population had grown to about 8,000 and reached 8,389 in 1951 inhabitants, and this is the highest number of people on record that I know of. Even though people believe that there were near 10,000 people living in Genzano, but does not matter anymore, because in the seventies it had shrunk to only 5,500 inhabitants or there about. The reasons was that lots of people had to emigrate. Today at the present time while I am writing this article, the town of Genzano has 6200 inhabitant or there about.

My native town of Genzano is known as Genzano di Lucania to distinguish it from another Italian town Genzano di Roma. Anyhow, Genzano di Lucania has a territory of about 21,000 Hectares of land if I remember right, and about 80% of this land is arable land, and it is mostly used to grow wheat, especially durum wheat; the rest of the land is used to grow grapes vines or olive trees and other farm produce, and there are also reserves of grazing land. Anyhow, this town owes its wealth to the rural community that produces wheat, because this town is well known to produce lots of high-quality durum wheat, which the mills that make pasta buy at harvest time. Now even if the mills rush to buy this durum wheat, the price of wheat is not high, so, the farmers make only enough money to keep going and one has to think that it takes one year to produce and harvest a crop of wheat, so, it is not that good for the farmers; there are also other things that must be taken into consideration.

Anyhow, there are lots of other produce from the farms, because we used to have mixed farming, but these produce are used locally, and if some of them are sold out of the town, they are not a great deal to make any difference.

At the time when I was young there were lots of small farms in Genzano, and although the most important crop that brought in the money was durum wheat, in reality they had to practice mixed farming for their own needs, which I will try to explain how the farms were run at those times when I was young.

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How the farms were run then? 

Now, let me explain how these farms in southern Italy were run until the fifties, when things started to change, because of the new farming machine that were coming out, like the tractor and other machine that were replacing manual work; now, because these machines helped the farmers run their farms with less manual workers, the people that were employed in the farms had to find other jobs. Now, let us describe how things were done then, to understand the situation and what was happening to us young would be future farmers.

When I was young during the fifties, before these farming machines became affordable to the average small farmers, all the farmers used to have mixed farming, because it was necessary for many reasons, today mixed farming is practiced to a much less extend, and I will try to explain the reasons. Anyhow, to make it clear, I need to describe the different way of how the land had to be used in the old days.

In the old days to till the soil people used to do it by hand, like what we still do today in our own small home gardens, so, they would dig the soil in very small plots with a hoe, or something like that. But on normal fields in the farms the soil was tilled by ploughing the fields with horse power or other strong animals. Therefore, there was a need for a lot of people to be fed to work the fields, and there were a lot of animals also to be fed to work the fields.

So, this need to feed so many mouths required a lot of produce and also a variety of produce, for this reason mixed farming was required, because it was the only way to produce all this variety of foods that were required. In the old days for several reasons the sowing fields had to be divided into a three-year-rotation, not only to achieve these variety of foods, but it was also necessary to rotate the fields to keep them producing, otherwise the soil would become tired and produce very little, in other words if we would continue to use the fields every year they would produce next to nothing and therefore it was not worth working them, for this reason our forbear had devised this three year rotation, which worked thus;

One year a field would be fallow land and it would not be used at all, or used very little growing broad beans or something like that, then the next year it would be sown with durum wheat, and the year after that the same field would be sown with oats or barley, or other light seeds, and the year after that to fallow land again. So, in realty there was only one third of the land producing durum wheat each year, which was the produce that brought in money to the farmers.

When I was young a lot of people used to work in those farms, and it was hard physical work, specially at certain times of the year, and there was no much money to be made, with the exception of every now and then when we had a really good wheat harvest; but when the harvest was lean everybody would suffer, and all one could do was to start all over again for another year, and so, one was hoping and praying God for a better harvest next year, yes in those times people were a lot more religious than today, so, they believed in God and prayed God and all the saints that they could think of, hoping that they could help them produce good harvests.

Anyhow, there were too many years of lean harvest when I was young, some average and only a few years we had good harvests. But somehow people kept going on, and they were so used to poverty that they accepted it and seemed to be happy just the same, because they did not know of a better life. But one has to keep in mind that the main harvest is only once a year, and one year is a very long time when there is not enough money to go around, even to buy those things that were really necessary to live a modest life.

For all the work that I did in the farm in my youth, I earned almost nothing, but I was able to eat plain wholesome food, and buy a few cheap cloths to keep warm in winter, which sounds very bad these days, but then when there was nothing better that one could do, even this hard and unpleasant way of life would have to do, as long as one could live a healthy life; perhaps living a healthy life was the only thing that we could achieve easily then, because the air was healthier in the country, the life was very boring but at the same time it was not mentally stressful compared to living in towns these days, and if there was any complain about a stench that came from the farm animals, it was something that would not harm anybody, it is only natural that all animals smell of something, we smell also of something even if we don’t notice it.

The human side of farming.   

Now, to understand farming and what was happening, we need to see how the ways of living had been set up, from the generations before us for their own needs.

Anyhow, at the time when I was young in Genzano, every family had a dwelling in town, no matter to which group of people or families we belonged, we all had a home in town even if it was only a few rooms that we could live-in, in the town itself. But the farmers’ families not only had a home in town, where their women folks elderly people and children lived; but most of the farmers had also a rustic farm building in the fields, where the farmer would keep his animals, and with the help of his workers if he had any workers he would work his fields from there. The farmers’ children especially those that were to become farmers would start working in the farm early in life, or as soon as they would finish their compulsory schooling years, that in those times were the primary schools.

The compulsory primary schools in Italy in those times were up to grade five; today you think that you could not learn much in five years, but in those times, we were taught to read and write, we were taught the four main math operations, addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, which are the base of just about everything, we were asked to solve simple problems with them at least ones a week; we were also taught our human history, even if it wasn’t in small details, it covered old history up to the Christian era, middle age history up to the discovery of America and modern history; it wasn’t a lot, but it gave us just enough to understand that the world changes and one Era ends and a new one begins. Anyhow, let us go back to tell you my farm life story.  

Now, some of the youths whose families were better off would start to help in the farm only during summer. But I wasn’t that lucky and at the time when I left school the first time, I was only 10 years old and I was going to be 11 years old during that year, when I had to start full time for the whole year in the farm. At that time young boys were only required to attend school up to grade 5, and I had already done so, so, I went to help in our family farm full time. Then a few years later the schooling laws changed, and all the youths had to attend school up to grade 8, or be at least 14 years old to leave school. So, I and a few other boys of my same age were the last of the little educated youths. 

Now you can imagine how I felt in the farm when I was young; I was the youngest boy around for miles, and I was of that age when young boys would start thinking about how best one could find a way into society, because we become aware of the need to be social and friendly with people, otherwise we would become shy and withdrawn just like I did.

Anyhow, this old way of living in the farms was hard for me, because, since the great loss of my father when I was 5 years old, my family had lived mourning him and a life withdrawn from society; so, now that we were all over that period of grief that any family can have, I felt that I was more withdrawn that the other boys of the same age. I needed a break, but it was not to be, because I was needed to help in the farm, so, I ended up working in the family farm and I became more isolated than ever, and that was no good for me socially.

Farming life of those days was so hard and boring, especially for me at that time of my life, when I was young. So, nowadays when I think about it, it makes me feel hurt and unhappy and I ask myself, why this had to happen to me, and I feel so hurt that I would like to tell you a story beginning with, ‘When I was young’ just to show you how much harder life was then compared with today’s ways of life.

Now that I have explained the ways of life in the farms of those days; I am mentally going over the farm life of my ancestors, who had lived the same hard life as I did, and they did not lament about it because they did not know better; you see I want to compare all those things together, to have a clear picture of what is happening to us. By comparing the farm life of these generations, I have come to the conclusion that I and those youths that ended up working in the farms when we were young, we were the last unlucky ones, because today even if a young man ends up working in the farms, they start when they are older and they cannot be as lonely as we were, because today they can have the company of electronic devices, like the radio and the mobile phones, so, we can always keep in touch with the rest of the world community.

Anyhow, I think that I have said enough in this article, so, see you in my next article called, My life in the farms. 

To see more click on this link, My farm life chapter.  

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August 2021 world news review part two.

WELCOME TO OUR BLOG YOU ARE INVITED , TO BROWSE AS LONG AS YOU LIKE. Anyhow, here I will publish my own diary and what I see happening in the world, and when I do not have much to say, I will write posts from my life story. 

Anyhow, you can also find this article at, http://oldman-lifeworks.blogspot.com, 

My other sites; http://frankmenchise.com,http://diybrickwork.com,http://manneedsgod.co.uk  

You can see more at this addresses, DIY brickwork  and,  http://diybrickwork.com,  

These news can also be found at this link, World News and My Views August 2021.

This is what is happening at Kabul airport, where the army is guarding the perimeter, it has been reported that the crowd want to run away from Kabul, and some mothers are so desperate that plead with the army personal to let them in, or at least take their babies and fly them out of Kabul. Now this photo was taken one day or two before the explosion. 

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Now let us talk after the explosion. Last time I heard there were 170 Afghans deaths and 13 US troops and many other people wounded. Now I wonder what is going to happen next. 

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Welcome to our blog, August 2021 world news review, part two. 

The Afghanistan war is over.

They say that the Afghanistan war is over, but what are the consequence of this war, we wonder if we have achieved anything, because there is chaos everywhere in Afghanistan, people are scared and running away, anyhow let us follow what the news on the internet have reported, (and I quote).  

US political analyst Joe Siracusa says the American war in Afghanistan may be over but “the war is going on” as it will only be a short time before the Taliban are “all over the place”.

The Biden administration had sent 3000 US troops to Afghanistan to help the partial evacuation of the US Embassy which came after the Taliban took over the Western city of Herat and Ghazni, a provincial capital south of Kabul.

“We’re hearing terrible stories from the provinces, the Taliban are going from door to door, they’re killing the men, they’re taking the wives, forcing them as brides to Taliban soldiers.

(THEN THE 16/08/2021, A FEW DAYS LATER THIS WAS REPORTED.)

The 20-year western mission to Afghanistan collapsed in a single dramatic day as Taliban gunmen poured into the capital, Kabul, on Sunday to seize back control of the country.

Amid scenes of panic, the Afghan president Ashraf Ghani fled the country and the US ambassador was evacuated to Kabul airport, abandoning the American embassy as diplomats frantically sought to destroy sensitive material before being airlifted out to safety.

Even before the Taliban announced plans to proclaim a new Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, it was clear that a second era of its rule had effectively begun. The group started the day so confident of victory that its fighters surrounded the capital, then ordered them to stay outside the city and wait.

Related: A tale of two armies: why Afghan forces proved no match for the Taliban

“Our forces are not entering Kabul city. We want a peaceful transfer of power,” said spokesman Suhail Shaheen. But with surrender apparently inevitable, Afghan government forces melted away, looting broke out, and hours later the Taliban claimed their men were needed to restore order.

(End of quotes)

Now, we hope that the Taliban keep their words and a peaceful transfer of power can be achieved, for the sake of the Afghanistan people. Anyhow the entire world is watching what is going to happen next. Meanwhile we hope and pray for the best outcome.

Anyhow, just like what I was worried about that there could be problems, suddenly a couple of explosions have killed a lot of Afghans civilians and 13 US service members. And I quote what I found in the internet news. (Quotes). 

Speaking to reporters after delivering an address in the afternoon following an Isis-k attack in Kabul that killed 13 US service members, including 11 Marines and a Navy medic, Mr Biden battled Doocy’s assertion that he was squarely to blame for the chaos in Afghanistan, while pointing to the agreement inked by the Trump administration with the Taliban.

During the exchange, he argued that Doocy knew, and was refusing to include in his reporting, that attacks on US personnel had merely ceased last year due to a promise by the then-US administration to leave Afghanistan by 1 May. 

(End of quotes) 

Now. my view here is, what is wrong with these people? Do they want peace or want to continue fighting? Because that is the only way they know how to live, since it seems that their religion want them to fight, even when their enemy offers them peace. This is hard to understand, anyhow we will see what happens soon, when all US army personal leaves Afghanistan. This is a big problem to solve. the other one is the corona virus pandemic, so let us look at that.  

This is another photo after the Kabul airport showing the debris.   

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The COVID-19 continues.                     

Anyhow, let us talk about the COVID 19 pandemic. In August 2021. Let us start from Australia

In Australian during the month of August 2021, there is a second or third wave of corona virus variant called delta, and many people are sick, so, they started with some local lock downs, and ended up with several states lock down.

Anyhow, while people blame the politician because they have not organized sooner the vaccine, there are people that do not want to be vaccinated.

Anyhow, in Australia the state of N.S.W. has the worst outbreak and what is happening now, it is the 17^th of August 2021, (and I quote)

NSW recorded 452 new locally acquired COVID-19 cases in the 24 hours to 8:00pm yesterday.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian said a woman aged in her 70s from Western Sydney had died at Westmead Hospital.

"Tragically, overnight we had the death of a female in her late 70s at Westmead Hospital who was unvaccinated, and we extend our deepest condolences to her loved ones," she said.

"We know what a difficult time they're going through."

Of today's new cases, 129 were linked to a known case or cluster and the source of infection for 323 cases are under investigation.

NSW Health said 30 cases were infectious in the community, 24 were in isolation for part of their infectious period and the isolation status of 297 remain under investigation.

A record 168,000 COVID-19 vaccines were administered in NSW during the reporting period. (End of quote) ------------------- 

About the end of August 2021, Australia has about, 50,000 positive cases, and 993 deaths, the worst state is N.S.W. that has had 1218 positive cases in one day, and they fear that it is going to increase.  

The other states are a bit better, in fact Queensland so far has had only a lock-down lasting a bit more than a week. But we are worried, so, we have to wait and see whet happens next. Now let us see what else is happening. 

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The COVID 19 pandemic. In August 2021. In the world the confirmed positive cases are over 216 million, the world death toll is over 4.5 million people and growing, in some country like USA it has slowed down, highly likely because of the immunization, in other countries it continues, it goes up and down. Today, the highest death tolls are USA 647,000 deaths, Brazil 578,000 deaths, India 437,000 deaths and Mexico 257,000 deaths; this are the four countries with most deaths. 

I believe that we have said enough in this article, perhaps not enough about our views of the consequence and the reasons, which is a mix up of politics and religious beliefs, that we are going to write about in another article soon. 

To see more click on this link,  World News and My Views August 2021..

See you soon. 

August 2021 world news part one.

WELCOME TO OUR BLOG YOU ARE INVITED , TO BROWSE AS LONG AS YOU LIKE. Anyhow, here I will publish my own diary and what I see happening in the world, and when I do not have much to say, I will write posts from my life story. 

So, today I am writing a post about what is happening in the world. starting with the Olympic Games.   

Anyhow, you can also find this article at, http://oldman-lifeworks.blogspot.com, 

My other sites; http://frankmenchise.com,http://diybrickwork.com,http://manneedsgod.co.uk  

You can see more at this addresses, DIY brickwork  and,  http://diybrickwork.com,  

Some of these news can also be found at this link, What Has Happened in July 2021 .

Welcome to our August 2021 news update blog

In this blog I want to say a few things that are happening in the world today, there are few happy things to talk about, because most things happen to be negative, in the sense that they can make us worry, but anyhow, it is important to remember what is happening.

Anyhow, the only positive thing that I can think about to report is the Olympic games, even if there have been some minor problems, but let us see at least the medal tally, which this year is a bit different from previous games, you see in previous games the USA was the dominant country by far, but this year it just got first place at the last closing day, so let us see the tally, of the first 10 countries.

 

USA                                        39 gold, 41 silver,33 bronze. Total 113

China                                     38,         32,          18,               Total 88

Japan                                     27,         14,           17,                Total 58

Great Britain                         22,       21,         22,                 Total 65

ROC                                        20,      28,       23,                  Total 71

Australia                                17,       7,         22,                  Total 46

Netherlands                          10,       12,       14,                   Total 36

France                                    10,       12,       11,                    Total 33

Germany                                10,       11,       16,                   Total 37

Italy                                        10,       10,       20,                  Total 40.

These are the top ten countries, that I am posting in this post to keep my personal record, it is a positive record. Having done that, now let me talk about other things, that I am afraid to say that they are affecting us in a negative way. 

What is wrong with the world today.

Yesterday I had a shock when I went to post a letter. One envelope with a single sheet of paper to go by airmail costs over 22 dollars, that is a ridiculous price by all standard, that letter is only a few grams, so, I must wonder what is wrong with the world today. Anyhow, this is how much they wanted at the post office, for this letter to be delivered in United Kingdom.

I believe that the COVID-19 is to blame, because most planes are sitting on the ground and going nowhere, while anything that must go through air travel costs a lot more. We hope that one day things go back no normal and they charge normal prices.

But this is not the only bad news to report today. You see, the corona virus with its delta variant is back, and time it is more infectious, so, it is hard to control even with the lock down, how knows when we will be able to go back to normal.

Now let us talk about the war in Afghanistan. After 20 years of war the western mission in Afghanistan has ended, and from my point of view, it has been a failure.

A reporter the 16/08/21 on the internet news said. The 20-year western mission to Afghanistan collapsed in a single day as Taliban gunmen poured into the capital, Kabul, on Sunday to seize back control of the country.

Well, there is a lot more that can be said, but it is not that simple to explain, so, we will write a longer blog next time to explain.

See you then.  

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The Olympic games and other news.

WELCOME TO OUR BLOG YOU ARE INVITED , TO BROWSE AS LONG AS YOU LIKE. Anyhow, here I will publish my own diary and what I see happening in the world, and when I do not have much to say, I will write posts from my life story. 

So, today I am writing a post about what is happening in the world. starting with the Olympic Games.   

Anyhow, you can also find this article at, http://oldman-lifeworks.blogspot.com, 

My other sites; http://frankmenchise.com,http://diybrickwork.com,http://manneedsgod.co.uk  

You can see more at this addresses, DIY brickwork  and,  http://diybrickwork.com,  

Some of these news can also be found at this link, What Has Happened in July 2021 .

Dear readers, in this blog we have some good news and some bad news, we will start with the good news the Olympic games and other sporting news, then we will talk about the bad news, the COVID 19 second or third wave that is upsetting us. 

Welcome to our blog, The Olympic games and other news. 

Dear readers, this is my diary to remember what is happening, in this article we will talk about the Olympic Games, then whatever happens in the world. You know everyone of us follows the Olympic games hoping that their country wins many medals. In my case I am following Australia, Italy, the USA, and a few others.

Today is the 6^th of August 2021 and the Olympic games in Tokyo in a few days will finish. We can say that Australia is doing well so far at the Olympic Games, they have already won 17 gold medals, 5 silver and 19 bronze, total 41 medals. There are a few more days before the end. As usual Australia has done well in all water games. The Australian girls have done an excellent job, they were better than the boys, but that does not matter.

I believe that Italy has not been lucky, because they have won only 7 gold medals, 10 silver and 18 bronze, total 35 medals. If you split these three ways it should have been about 12 medals each, that is why I think Italy has been unlucky.   

USA is not doing as well as it used to be, since most time they were so far ahead, but this year China is ahead of the USA so far. Anyhow, today they have 29 gold medals, 35 silver and 27 bronze. This is the greatest amount of medal overall, but China has 34 gold medals, this puts the USA in second place.

Anyhow, we have still to see the end of the games in a few days to know which country has won the most gold medals, and most medals overall. We will talk about it in another article, then.  

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Now let us talk about other sporting news.   

These are last month sporting news. Soccer. In Europe they are all waiting who is going to win this year. This year finals are between Italy and England.

Anyhow, Italy won the finals this time, and the Italian fans are happy, but the British are not, and they blame the players that missed the spot-kicks.  

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the people targeting three black players who missed spot-kicks in the penalty shootout against Italy should "crawl back under the rock from which you emerged", while his culture minister vowed to push ahead with new laws designed to curb online attacks.

Marcus Rashford, 23, Jadon Sancho, 21, and Bukayo Saka, 19, were surrounded by a support network on Monday after being subjected to a torrent of racially-charged online abuse following England's heartbreaking loss at Wembley Stadium on Sunday.

Tennis. Roger Federer out of Wimbledon, Nick Kyrgios because of an injury is out too, and is not going to Tokyo Olympic Games. Ash Barty has won Wimbledon, and we are all proud of her in Australia.

The man final was won by Novak Djokovic, the Italian Matteo Berrettini should be happy to have reached the finals, better luck next time.

Anyhow, the Olympic Games have begun in Tokyo, and most of us will be following them, to see if our countries are doing well.      

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The corona virus pandemic. 

Now, let us talk about the COVID 19. the first week of August 2021, the confirmed positive cases are over 200 million, the world death toll is over 4.2 million people and growing, in some country like USA it has slowed down, highly likely because of the immunization, in other countries it continues, it goes up and down a bit here and there. Today, the highest death tolls are USA 619,000 deaths, Brazil 559,000 deaths, India 426,000 deaths and Mexico 242,000 deaths; this are the four countries with most deaths.

Now, let us talk about the Australian position. There is a second or third wave of corona virus variant in Australia, they have started with some local lock downs, and ended up with several states lock down. Now a lot of people blame the politicians for it, the worse affected state this time is N.S.W.

Anyhow, while people blame the politician because they have not organized sooner the vaccine. But then there are people that do not want to be vaccinated, so, is hard to say who is to blame, the states or the people?

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Anyhow, in Australia the state of N.S.W. has the worst outbreak and what is happening now is the following, (and I quote)

Premier Gladys Berejiklian has announced a significant tightening of restrictions,

New South Wales needs to drastically overhaul its approach to coronavirus restrictions or face worsening cases, a leading health expert has warned.

"There's got to be the curfew arrangements, (stricter) mask arrangements, the restriction of movement arrangements," Strategic Health Policy consultant Professor Bill Bowtell told Today.

"We cannot vaccinate our way out of this crisis. We have got to go back to COVID zero. But we can't do it in the next few weeks."

READ MORE: Five deaths, 262 new COVID-19 cases in NSW as lockdown extended to Hunter region.

Now about Queensland, after a scare that lasted more than a week, things are better.    
Queensland Chief Health Officer Doctor Jeannette Young is "genuinely hopeful" the state will emerge from lockdown on Sunday but urged residents to remain "cautious".

"It can take only seconds for that transmission to happen, so please, just keep wearing masks, keep coming forward and getting tested, use that QR code," she said on Friday's daily COVID-19 press conference.

"It's those things that will keep us safe and enable us, hopefully, and I'd genuinely am hopeful that we  will be able to lift this on Sunday, but if we don't do all those things that will make it really difficult to lift Sunday". (End of quotes) 

I believe that I have said enough in this blog, so, see you next time, with another blog about what is happening in the world, where we will continue to talk about the Olympic games and other things. 

To see more click on this link, What Has Happened in July 2021 . See you later.