Lev Lafayette's journal

I don't think many Australians fully understand the importance of China to the ongoing economic development of both countries. Many might be aware that China is Australia's biggest trading partner, both in terms of imports and exports. As far back as 2019-2020, according to the ABS, 27% of all imports came from China and 39% of all exports went to China, and this has been increasing every year. Iron ore, coal, and education are notable exports, but following the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement (ChAFTA), agricultural produce and pharmaceuticals have also become popular. Imports have mainly consisted of telecommunications equipment and household appliances. Whilst imports themselves are likely to flatten (households can only have so many appliances, a person can only have so many mobile phones and computers), China's dedication to transforming their economy means that "green steel" is on the agenda, produced by hydrogen rather than coal furnaces, and produced here in Australia - but only if we develop the renewable energy to power such facilities. Our economic future is closely tied to China's, and there is really no alternative.

I have emphasised this point in my president's report in the October newsletter of the Australia-China Friendship Society - along with writing reviews of two recent and impressive Chinese films: "Caught by the Tides" (2024) and "Resurrection" (2025). The former I saw in Darwin a few months ago, and it weaves a long-spanning and troubled romantic story with over twenty years of footage, making it part fiction, part historical footage. The latter I saw recently at The Astor as part of the Melbourne International Film Festival, and combines several short period films with a time-travelling science fiction thread whilst referencing several other films in content and style. Further, in my role, I have recently had the opportunity to discuss matters with a number of delegations from China.

A little over a week ago, I hosted an arts and culture delegation from the Chaoyang district of Beijing and took them to the National Gallery at Federation Square to give a tour and explanation of the development of Australian art. They are very keen on following up with an exchange programme. Then, a few days ago, representatives of the Jiangsu Friendship Association and I, on behalf of the ACFS, signed a Memorandum of Understanding with great fanfare at the Chinese Museum, as a photo exhibition on Chinese modernisation in Jiangsu was being launched by the Jiangsu Federation of Literary and Art Circles and Creative Victoria. Last night, I enjoyed the company of the Quanzhou Trade Delegation at a wonderful dinner hosted by the Fujian Association of Victoria, and I gave a brief speech on behalf of the ACFS.

It's one thing to be cordial in a transactional business relationship. But, as I said in my speech last night, relations between people are more important than relations in business, and friendship is more important than contracts. Friendship with China means that both parties will engage in respect, understanding, and accepting differences. It means being honest, open, and inviting. The bellicose attitude of some Australians, including Australian politicians, towards China and the Chinese demeans our national character and, really, is quite embarrassing. Fortunately, through its seventy-five-year history, the Australia-China Friendship Society has stood for building relationships, building partnerships, and building friendships. We have our Annual General Meeting at the end of this month, 1-3 pm. Sunday 30 November 2025. Maybe some of you with a similar mind should come along.

I've boarded the silver bird and landed in Darwin, where I'll be staying in Mr Blue Sky in Darwin City, which I still have to remind myself that I am a co-owner. Co-owner Lara and tenant Adam have been wonderful hosts to me, with Cocoa rabbit, the 11-year-old spritely dwarf, providing great entertainment as always. The weather here is of magnificent quality; consistently in the high twenties, clear skies, and gentle cool breezes off Darwin harbour with delightful views across to the National Park. From this vantage point, it's all rather idyllic.

There are nominal household matters to sort out, but it is a convenient time for the Darwin Festival. I have a lifelong interest in aesthetics, which I have to grudgingly accord myself a modest analytical ability. From metaphor, referentiality, creativity, technique, persistence, and connections, I must also confess some apparent predictive skill when evaluating the future success of self-proclaimed artists. Darwin's contribution to the fine arts is not exactly famous, being small and distant, but there are plenty of opportunities in the programme which will receive a fair review in the week to come.

In the meantime, I was blessed yesterday with a second opportunity to visit to the Menzies School of Health Research (Charles Darwin University) (not to be confused with the Menzies Institute for Medical Research (University of Tasmania), let alone the Menzies Research Centre of the Liberal Party. The Darwin Menzies centre particularly interests me as they have a small high performance computing system, which has a few file system and management issues, but nevertheless great to see that it's there! I was hosted by Anto Trimarsanto, a medical researcher in malaria (specifically Plasmodium vivax), who also dutifully informed me that Menzies has an outpost in Timor-Leste. My brain is now working on how to combine these multiple interests.

All good things must come to an end, and with enormous gratitude for their presence and acceptance of their departure, I've had to bid Lara farewell from her stay at The Rookery (but soon enough, I'll visit Mr Blue Sky in Darwin). During this week we caught up with some of Lara's friends for an evening at 123boom, a sort of live-action video game, and for our the anniversary of the third year of our meeting we went to Leftbank for a long lunch with paired wines and, then to the Yayoi Kusama exhibition at the NGV. Kusama's interest in the detailed life of plants to the erotic (and ultimately pumpkins) is really quite wondrous and appropriately a little disturbing at times. With the exception of a rubbish period when she played with abstract expressionism, her artistic life is really quite exceptional.

The weekend also included an evening in the company of Tim B., and Kitty OF, friends and family. It is well over thirty years that I've known Tim, albeit the distance between Melbourne and Sydney separates us. No time was wasted in ensuring a quality catch-up and I am personally required to reciprocate the visit. The following evening went to Justine M's birthday-cum-2nd housewarming in Thornbury, another great evening of motorcycle adventure videos and superb conversation, before making my way to Carla's birthday gathering whose second part was at a karaoke bar - excellent company, but that wasn't really my style of bar.

One matter that is outside of this active artistic and social update that I must mention is an update on the Gamers for Isla fundraising campaign. With about three weeks to go, this has exceeded the initial and modest expectations that I had set - around $5000 was my target. This was reached in 14 days, so a new target was then set at $7500, which was reached in in 28 days. So a new target was set at $10,000, and it seriously looks like that's going to be passed in the next couple of days. Sometime this week, I'll have to collect the incredible donation of six boxes of games from Simon S., many quite rare and collectable, who is deserving of great accolades for this generosity. One thing for certain; we've made a difference, and Isla's scholarship will receive the positive start that I wanted to see.

Over the past few days, a significant number of people - around the four-hundred mark - have reached out to me to offer birthday wishes. The experience was quite beautiful and affirming in the sense mentioned by Erich Fromm: "love [is] a spontaneous affirmation of others on the basis of the preservation of the individual self", forming a bond of solidarity between the self and others. One does not seek affirmation (because that reduces the self to seeking approval from others as a directive), but rather one acts according to learned virtue without expectations, but nevertheless is joyous when affirmation is received. Which, in my own reflective way, is to express my deepest thanks and gratitude to all of you.

The day itself was relatively low-key, but I do like stretching it out into a week of celebrations. A good portion of the day and even the past week has been spent in the company of a young musician of quite incredible talent, Lani, who has also recently taken up paralegal studies. In the evening, Erica invited me over to watch Hayao Miyazaki's newest film "Kimi-tachi wa Dō Ikiru ka" (titled "The Boy and the Heron"), which literally translates as "How Do You (all) Live?" One is charmed by the autobiographical elements and, of course, the thematic bravery - it asks the fundamental question of what each of us is doing with our lives and how we treat others. Pretty appropriate viewing on one's birthday, really.

Last night, I attended the opening exhibition of upcoming artist Sarah Jennifer's "Opulentia" at Chapel on Chapel. I spent a good portion of the evening chatting with the artist, who seemed quite excited by the fact that she had accidentally made some highly appropriate popular culture references from the 1980s in her works. Her style is one of the great sweeping arcs, bright colours, and abstract surrealism, and I hope to attend the exhibition again soon.

To finish off the week tonight, I was a guest of the Chinese Consulate, attending a reception at Kooyong Tennis Club for the Chinese New Year. It was, as it always is, an astoundingly well-organised event with a truly impressive array of speakers, attendees, and performers. I was quite delighted to spend a good period of time with an old friend and former minister, Luke Donnellan. It's a long time since I've seen him, and he rather looks like a stylish older Roy Orbison these days. Another person whom I met for the first time and spent a good period of time talking with was Andrew Irving, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Australia. I am sure we'll be having a few more discussions in the future.

The past week, in addition to my usual work, has consisted of my annual series of five guest lectures for the UniMelb master's level course, "Cluster and Cloud Computing" which covers supercomputing from a high level, the local system, job submission, parallel programming, more than enough Python, and a modicum of Linux commands. The course coordinator and I had some discussions about how the education system is prepared to teach the intricacies of object-orientated programming, but core operating system commands are learned by osmosis. After all this comes the marking of the 380 students enrolled this year. In addition, I have three days of workshops to run next week, with much greater detail and with the addition of regular expressions into the mix.

I have been blessed by a few occasions this week with a visit of my dear Darwin friend, Lara D. Hilariously, we met at the airport at 12.30am on Saturday morning, as her plane from Darwin arrived at the same time as mine did from Townsville. Shortly afterward we found ourselves visiting the Triennial exhibition for what must be the fourth time or so for myself and later in the week it was off to the Da Vinci (and friends) exhibition at Lume, which is another impressive show (although I twitched a bit on a misattributed quote, which is sloppy of them), with VR flyovers, drawing classes, a lovely cafe, and Lume's signature immersive experience of art and music, in this case mainly 19th and 20th century Italian operatic.

On a more culinary and personal aesthetic dimension I hosted a very nice dinner for Liana F., Julie A., and Erica H., during the week which included confit byaldi, the signature dish from the film "Ratatouille", which turned out pretty well for my first attempt at this; it looks fancy, but it's pretty straight-forward). Another event of note was attending Anthony L's wonderful annual gathering at "Life's Too Short", attending with Ruby M. We took the opportunity to visit the NGV at Federation Square beforehand with the wide collection from the Joseph Brown collection. Anthony, as host of his event, noted that it was International Submarine Day and offered plentiful AUKUS-based "yellow submarine" cocktails (rum, tequila, citrus, with more than a dash of imperialism). It dovetailed well with my attendance the day prior at a Labor Against War meeting with former Qld Senator Margaret Reynolds visiting in support.

I am now down to the final week of editing the 15000-word research project for my Master's in Climate Change Science and Policy, following that and a short presentation on the topic, that will be the conclusion of that degree, although I strongly suspect what is the beginning of a lifetime of further study and activity on the subject, starting with the initial subject of my research project; climate change impacts, adaption, and financing for Pacific developing nations. As much as climate change mitigation is absolutely necessary to prevent future impacts, some impacts are and will occur regardless - hence the need for adaptation. For the Pacific, we are talking about nations that have contributed very little to greenhouse gas emissions (both in absolute and per capita terms), but will feel the brunt of its effects; the moral principle of torts should apply.

In my working life, I have two impending HPC-related trips interstate pending in the next two weeks. The first is a visit to Sydney for Supercomputing Asia, where I have a presentation to give as part of the international HPC Certification Forum and a poster on HPC training metrics and usage. Apparently, if you train people, they submit many more jobs - who knew? Two weeks after that, and with an interesting dovetail with my studies, I'll be spending a week in Townsville conducting training workshops at the Australian Institute for Marine Science; it's been almost ten years since I've visited said people and it's pleasing to see that some of the staff are still there!

Even with all this on the agenda, I have had some opportunities for social occasions. Liana F., and I caught some the Triennial exhibition that's on at the NGV, which makes me want to go again, and for Invasion Day we went to Connection at Lume; our third visit to said exhibition. On Wednesday night I received an impromptu ticket to see the Pet Shop Boys' movie "Dreamworld" with Robbie K, which I observed featured quite a demographic of men of a certain age and greater than zero on the Kinsey Scale, and on Tuesday night caught up Nathan B., who is visiting from interstate with a lovely collection of old and true friends at Naked for Satan. For someone who is finishing a master's project I've had zero evenings this week when I've been in my own company; possibly not the most sensible decision, but I'm rather glad that I did manage all this.

For the sake of inclusion and opportunity, I will count the seasonal feasting with gaming with the younger folk at Ru's Crew in Fawkner for the Solstice. It was another afternoon of the Root board game with about ten people playing or otherwise in attendance and this time I played the "Corvid Conspiracy" which is deemed almost impossible to win, on the grounds of their predictable pace. The afternoon was successful for the dual-player Vagabond with a strong finish. In between turns, I enjoyed discussing worldbuilding with Andre, who is designing a world with many tectonic plates (which slotted in quite well with my interest in the physical geography of the Pacific).

True to the Germanic Christmas tradition, Erica H., came over on Christmas Eve (Heiligabend), where I had prepared quite a collection of culturally-appropriate food (I do think the Germans do Christmas well) for that evening and following days; Eier in Senfsoße, Schwäbischer Kartoffelsalat, Käsespätzle, Rösti mit Pilzen und Parmesan, Frankfurter Grüne Soße, and Pflaumen-Blaubeer-Sorbet. We also had a second Xmas dinner Part II last night. Between these, I went to see Anthony L., and Robin M., for what was advertised as a "grazing" event but ended up being a four-course dinner, plus grazing items, with Wesa C., Matthew W., and Sarah also in attendance. The following day attended an actual grazing event with Alison B., at the home of Lucy Sussex and was charmed to catch up with Jenner, of Doc Rat fame, whom I hadn't seen for at least 15 years.

Yesterday I caught up with Mel S., and she led the way to the northern suburbs for an epic op-shop run, which included surprisingly good music at each point of the venture. I think we covered 10 establishments in total, spread out over almost six hours and over ten kilometers on foot. With a hearty breakfast of the leftover Käsespätzle, this morning I ventured out to see the delightful Lara D., who is visiting from NT. True to style, we made our way through the day by visiting three bars (Arbory, Whiteheart, Her Bar), and attending two events. The first was "Marshmellow Laser: Works of Nature" at ACMI, which was a scientifically-informed digital artwork, and the second "Monopoly Dreams" dedicated to the famous boardgame. Our consensus was the former was the superior of the two, whereas the latter did have some interesting trivia about the game, it was more of an arcade experience. I noted that they studiously avoided mentioning the radical origins from "The Landlord's Game", or their attempt to sue the producer of "Anti-Monopoly".

I must confess that typically my cheery spirit in the season and gregariousness amongst company belies a deeply morose streak. This is mainly generated as a result of my deep and continuing consideration of those for whom the season can bring little cheer due to their circumstances with a proportional juxtaposition to the festivities. The happier the company, the greater the feasting, the more I find my mind and spirit in is in "the house of mourning" (Ecclesiastes 7). Certainly, I have not forgotten that house; and who Would, with the state of affairs in Gaza and Bethlehem being bombed on Christmas Day itself? I believe the key difference is that I have reached a certain sense of security within myself that I am personally doing enough. As much as I can encourage the betterment of the world if they do not heed the clarion it is up to them to realise for whom the bell tolls.

A good portion of this week was spent working on a 3,000-word essay - with 60 references - for the paleoclimatology paper (goodness, I've fallen into Aotearoa New Zealand parlance). My chosen subject was comparing the Younger Dryas, the last stage of the Pleistocene, with the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), especially in light of a recent paper that posit an impending collapse of the AMOC through the same mechanism as is commonly believed caused the Younger Dryas (i.e., a sudden influx of freshwater). If such a collapse were to occur one could end up with a situation where land and atmospheric temperatures increase, whilst the North Atlantic Ocean temperatures would fall - and there would be global ramifications. Interestingly, studies on the AMOC are most paleoclimatological as well, given that it's only been in the last twenty years that we've had an instrument record. Anyway, the essay will be followed up in a few weeks with an accompanying presentation.

Another form of connection between the prehistoric and modern occurred last night when I visited the Connection exhibition at Lume with Liana F. This is the third such event of theirs I've been to (along with Van Gough and The French Impressionists), it was really quite an impressive experience, expressing the deep and even religious connection of people to their land (broadly defined), and yet again with a combination of immersive and gallery artwork, accompanying music, interactive pieces and more. I was sensible enough to purchase "unlimited visit" tickets, so another visit mid-week is in order. One thing that really struck me was the disproportionate number of people from a non-European background that were present (based on phenotypical characteristics) - African, Indian, and Southeast Asian.

A related matter is the ongoing issue in the Voice campaign. I've had a number of interactions with "no" voters over the past few weeks. Based on these I started asking the question: "Do you know what you're voting on? The actual words to the constitutional amendment?". Of the 118 I surveyed (yes, really), over 97% could not give the correct answer, or even something close. Given that the 'no' campaign has now been caught out for instructing their volunteers to literally lie and sow confusion, one wonders what this means to the principle that an effective democracy depends on an informed public sphere, rather than one controlled by demagoguery.

In an attempt to be social and get into the spirit of the month, I hosted a "Mad as Mad March Hare Hatter's Tea Party", which was attended by Wesa C., Rob and Angela L., Nitul D., with Maggie S. and Erica H., joining in later on. It featured readings from m ancient and well-loved copy of "Alice in Wonderland etc", including "The Mad Hatter's Tea Party" (of course) and "The Caucus Race" (for our visiting politician). Courtesy of Erica, there was even some Alice In Wonderland-themed tea, and Nitul added to the collection with a truly excellent Tassie Devil brand. Foodstuffs by yours truly were in the style of an English tea party - savoury pikelets with salmon, sandwiches (cucumber or egg salad, with cream cheese, white bread, in thirds, no crusts of course), and Rob plied us with his Rookwood Absinthe until we were all off with the fairies. Almost needless to say, an excellent afternoon of a wide-ranging conversation, and again Angela left me slack-jawed with her ability to recite with error veritable of Shakespeare.

The Tea Party was the conclusion of a couple of other social events I had been to over the weekend; the night previous I attended a vaudeville show (cabaret, music, comedy, stunts, burlesque) at Speakeasy HQ with Liana F., which really was thoroughly entertaining. We were quite keen on seeing the burlesque, but I think the comedy won us over - both of us have reasons to need a bit of a laugh and the combinations of absurd prejudices and puns were delightful. The evening previously I briefly visited the opening night of "Radical Utopia" at the RMIT Gallery, which was about Melbourne in the 1980s - as a semi-regular visitor at the time, the idea rather intrigued me, but it was neither particularly utopian nor radical - although they did have a Sinclair Spectrum on display which, in my opinion, was radical and utopian. A computer you could carry in your pocket! In 1985 that really was quite an amazing thing to do. Who would have thought that we'd all be doing it now?

Major events this past week have been across the political and aesthetic dimensions. I have signed up for campaigning in the state seats of Albert Park and neighbouring Prahran, and speaking of neighbours, I was interviewed for the local newspaper as part of a "meet a neighbour" column (the quotes and content aren't exactly 100% accurate, but close enough). Apropos the election, it is fascinating that there is less than two weeks left in this state election, it's been so quiet. This election does have a couple of interesting quirks; the main one which worries me is that the opposition has been taken over by ultra-conservative theocratic types, who really want to recriminalise abortion, voluntary euthanasia, re-allow conversion therapy, etc. The Greens have a problem of a different matter; Labor's introduced the sort of social and environmental policies in government that the Greens have argued from the security of a protest vote. The conservative fear slogan: "Vote Labor, get Greens" is a rather ironic one in this context. The state Labor government has managed to provide progressive civil rights, an employment-based approach to the environment (renewable energy production, mass transit), and the best performing economy in the country.

Apart from political engagements, there have been multiple aesthetic-based engagements this week as well. I neglected to mention a "Big Band" event the week prior at the Ian Potter Centre; really not my style of music, but performed competently enough. Another gathering was a presentation on "Creative Technologies and Intertwined Innovation" at the Victorian College of the Arts, which included Stelarc, discussing some of his most recent activities in body-art and disembodiment. Finally, last night attended an orchestra performance with lei_loo of a selection of works from Joe Hisaishi, the musical genius behind many Studio Ghibli soundtracks, at the National Theatre in St Kilda, a beautiful and just-so-slightly dilapidated building. Like other Fever events, it was a little on the short side but otherwise a very good performance.

An earlier update neglected to mention that I attended (online) the 2022 International Conference on Green and Innovation-driven Development in Cities and Towns hosted in Wuxi, Jiangsu province, PRC. It was a pretty high-level affair, carefully scripted, but the home of where various "garden cities" have been introduced as a reality and with a first-order concern with improving the quality of life in urban environments. The speakers included a few of managerial-political types, but I was impressed by the number of engineers, landscape architects, and environmental scientists that were present. It also increasingly looks like I will be visiting Auckland again in a few weeks to meet up with a number of Pacific Islander representatives where discussion of climate change mitigation will be high on the agenda, which they know the need on a visceral level far greater than most.