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The Human Spirit

(click on heading to leave comments at bottom of page) I was writing about Mary Ann’s character in a recent blog. Most of the revealing information comes from the reports made about her while she was serving her sentence in Van Diemen’s Land after she had been sentenced to 7 years’ transportation in 1834. The […]
The post The Human Spirit first appeared on David Cairns of Finavon.

Emancipation

(click on heading to leave comments at bottom of page) The horrible images of unjust killings and brutal policing that have come out of the USA in recent weeks reflects a culture of haves and have-nots. Having lived in both South Africa during the era of apartheid and the USA – in both the north […]
The post Emancipation first appeared on David Cairns of Finavon.

Discovering Mary Ann

(click on heading to leave comments at bottom of page) It’s been a momentous couple of weeks with the ‘Black Lives Matter’ protests, the funeral of George Floyd as well as the continuing struggle against COVID-19. It makes you wonder if we have come far enough in the last 200 years although, looking over the […]
The post Discovering Mary Ann first appeared on David Cairns of Finavon.

Recurring History

(click on heading to leave comments at bottom of page) I had intended to write more about Mary Ann Goulding’s story but the last 10 days in the USA have been momentous ones and have demanded attention. The murder of George Floyd and its stirring of memories of similar racist attacks and its renewed exposure […]
The post Recurring History first appeared on David Cairns of Finavon.

A Conflagration of Riots

(click on heading to leave comments at bottom of page) I wonder.  What is the collective noun for riots? I also wonder where is this all heading? We are seeing a spontaneous uprising in the USA protesting another killing of an unarmed black man by a white police officer.  Unquestionably, long-standing racial prejudice in the […]
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LEADERSHIP & INTEGRITY

(click on heading to leave comments at bottom of page) I have been following the furore around Dominic Cummings in the UK over the last several days with both interest and not a little anger. If you are not interested in UK politics, this is the senior and extremely influential advisor to the UK’s Prime […]
The post LEADERSHIP & INTEGRITY first appeared on David Cairns of Finavon.

The Pendulum

(click on heading to leave comments at bottom of page) A friend of mine whom I have known since I was a small boy, passed along an article from the ex-Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd to me. As he said, his politics are not everybody’s flavour but this particular article resonated very strongly with me, […]
The post The Pendulum first appeared on David Cairns of Finavon.

Genesis – Mary Ann

(click on heading to leave comments at bottom of page) To continue…. I mentioned in my earlier post Victoria and I had come across contemporary records of Mary Ann at the female factory in Hobart. We had also seen some of these records beforehand too. The first thing that struck us both was what appeared […]
The post Genesis – Mary Ann first appeared on David Cairns of Finavon.

Auditors & Trust

(click on heading to leave comments at bottom of page) I know I said that I would talk about Mary Ann, but I just had to comment on something happening in the USA right now. It seems to me to eerily echo things that I wrote about in the Helots’ tale… As many of you […]
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Genesis – Robert Bright

(click on heading to leave comments at bottom of page) As I said a few days back, I was going to come back to the writing of ‘Downfall’ …. Having decided to write Robert’s and Mary Ann’s story, I began the steps of collecting information and digging into the records. I initially thought that it […]
The post Genesis – Robert Bright first appeared on David Cairns of Finavon.

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