First and foremost, what is a podcast? There are many different kinds of podcasts, and for the purpose of this blog, I’ll describe the one mentioned below. A podcast is a digital audio recording of a radio interview that can be downloaded onto an iPod or mp3 player, saved indefinitely, and listened to anywhere at any time of day as [...]
Category Archives: Culture
School of the Air
Education is the path to living a joyful, prosperous, healthy, and peaceful life. It also played a leading role in the life of my grandfather, Meredith G. Williams Sr. He was an educator and high school principal. Today, there’s a middle school named after him in Bridgewater, Massachusetts. When I learned about Australia’s “School of the Air,” [...]
Coach Captains
In Australia, the term “Coach Captain” has nothing to do with sports and everything to do with tourism. A coach captain is a tour bus driver, and the post garners a great amount of respect. The coach captain’s uniform includes stripes on the shoulders, and the best tour operators know the value of a good captain. Here’s an article if you’d [...]
Rotary in the Outback
While driving through the Northern Territory in the “Red Center” of Australia, I stayed in Alice Springs for three days. It’s a place made famous by the book A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute (1950), but there are other reasons it’s getting noticed these days. Rotary International holds an annual event that is one-of-a-kind. Aussies have a great [...]
Australia Supports Japan after Quake
While some countries are challenged to get along with others, Australia and Japan have made great strides since World War II when Japan attacked northern Australia. The movie “Australia” (2008) starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman gives us a glimpse into the struggle between these two nations during 1942 and1943. Sixty-nine years later, a short time really, much has been healed [...]
Walkabouts and Songlines
To go walkabout means to go on a journey of self-discovery. Aborigines, young and old, head into the desert barefoot and with few possessions for days, weeks, and months on end. It is a right of passage for young men, an end of life quest for the elderly, and an ongoing connection to spirit in the years throughout one’s [...]
Bush Tucker
“Tucker” That’s an everyday word in Australia, but one that is foreign to many Americans. A mom might say to her child, “Remember to take your tucker box with you!” as her child is running out the door to go to school. The term “tucker box” can be interchanged with the term “lunch box” because the [...]
Uluru’s Secret
If you’ve ever cleared a garden or a field filled with rocks, you know that many of the larger rocks must be dug out of the ground before they can be removed. They have settled, over time, deep into the earth, and the same is true of Uluru, one of the largest monoliths in the world. Uluru (also known [...]
Religious Zealots
Religious zealots are everywhere. They are the over enthusiastic believers in God who want YOU to believe in THEIR way, because they believe that their way is THE way to God. In Australia, religious zealots are known as “god botherers,” and they are trying to save your soul. My belief is this: a personal relationship with God [...]
Land of Opposites
Compared to North America, Australia is the land of opposites. Summer happens in the winter months, AM is PM, and North is South as far as the weather is concerned. When traveling north through Australia in January (summertime), the temperatures were rising to three-digit levels. My mind would say, “It’s supposed to get cooler,” and yet the [...]
