Again, that title contains one of those puns that your favorite blogger is fond of. The elections were pacific yes but not the eruptions. Both types however do take place in the Pacific, ocean that is.
Australia shifted back on Sunday to the right! Not the whole big island of course which stayed put but its political landscape.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/07/us-australia-election-idUSBRE98503J20130907
The Conservatives had it easy though, despite unsavory remarks on ex-PM Julia Gillard … or maybe because of them? As the Labor switched back to Kevin Rudd after it, the very same that they had ousted in 2010 for Madam Gillard? New PM Tony Abbott may be right ( of course he is, with a capital R ) to point out that you just can’t play such balancing acts without asking the people which elected you? The left-wing Labor now has to rebuild itself.
The one nice thing about the great land of OZ though, regardless of their choices in leaders which concerns only themselves is that they have a style of their own as witnessed in that very South Pacific picture from the BBC :
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-23999805
Cowabunga, mates! 😀 But the old dame had more serious comments on Saturday, check their top ten list of Aussie election facts :
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-23930633
There was another important election this week-end that concerned the Pacific but it was held in Buenos Aires? The International Olympic Committee selected Tokyo, Japan to host the 2020 summer games.
http://www.olympic.org/news/ioc-selects-tokyo-as-host-of-2020-summer-olympic-games/208784
I have major qualms with the Olympic movement ever since it allowed professionals back in 1988. Olympics are supposed to encourage more or less regular people to train and compete in sports at a high level. That was Baron Pierre De Coubertin’s intent when he reinstated the old Greek practice at the end of the 19th century. Although, the tilting point might instead have been 1980 when the Western nations refused to participate in the Moscow games whereas the originals in Ancient greece called for a cessation of war to hold the human spirit festival of will that the games from Olympia should have always been? In any case, they are now in my honest opinion but a smorgasbord of money and that certainly played a part in the selection of the Japanese capital ( again? ). Madrid and Istambul were the other contenders? Spain is heavily burdened by a financial crisis and the outrageous spending might have displeased many? As for turkey, until it finds back a semblance of civil peace, now denied by the ongoing protests that again saw Gezi Park and Taksim Square controlled by the police last week-end, its chances of holding good-willed events, fake as they may be, will remain slim?
In any case, good for you, Tokyo, if you come out with a Manga guide to the Games, I’ll spring for that!
[ By the way, little known fact : Tokyo is Earth’s biggest city by far, more populous than the whole of Canada? Check it out! ]
The last election touching the Pacific region was in Russia which extends all the way to Japan for those who may not know.
http://rt.com/politics/election-day-united-victory-608/
It seems that the Putin gang ( United Russia party ) has won again? I can’t say that pleases me but again, the decision is not mine but that of the Russian voters. I’ll even go as far as to salute it for the same Putin-led government came out with an initiative in the Syrian crisis today! Bluff or not, this is an interesting proposition likely motivated by the specter of Franco-American strikes. We’ll cover it more tomorrow.
The bad news came from the Philippines :
http://www.cnn.com/2013/09/09/world/asia/philippines-muslim-rebels-unrest/?hpt=wo_c2
The rebel Muslim faction of the MNLF attacked the mainly Christian city of Zamboanga. The Moro National Liberation front is nothing new, active since 1971. It did agree to peace deal in 1996 but elements have kept on fighting in disorderly fashion.
The other eruption though is not one of violence but instead a potential one! A volcano was discovered in the Pacific Ocean!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24007339
Again the trusted Beeb is informing us that a submarine volcano named Tamu lies 2 km beneath the waves off Japan. It seems that the Tamu reaches down 30km into the Earth’s crust. This new volcanic structure is not only bigger than the Hawaian Mauna Loa but actually as massive as Olympus Mons? That is not a Greek mountain mind you but instead a Mars one? And until this discovery thought to be the highest peak in the Solar system relative to the size of the planetary body bearing it?
And since the name of it is derived fron the Texas A&M University where the co-discoverer William Sager ( now with Houston University ) used to teach, we have thus crossed the Pacific all the way to the East, in this case the Western coast of the United States ( all things being so relative ) and can sign off for now.
See you in less than 24 hours, Tay.
Definitive Lapse of Reason 