Gladys At 11: The Gathering Storm
Put simply: it was hard to believe.
That the Czars of Fortune could treat their own people with such withering contempt.
That almost the entirety of Australia was shut down.
He roamed the ruins. He was spooked. Outside the town lay open fields. Here on the frontiers of urban congestion.
It made sense, and little sense, a quagmire visited upon the population by fourth rate politicians grandstanding as saviours of the nation, and disappearing, hiding in their bureaucratic edifices. There was no end to the deceit. No end.
And while they destroyed the nation, they destroyed themselves.
Muscular, determined, there was no time for pussy footing around.
Those visions from the future; how real they seemed some days. As he topped over the hill towards that humble house, and could already see the transport and communication hub that was beginning to build, here in 2021. And which would later build into one of the nation's wealthiest centres.
The freeways were still under construction. The police station was barely manned in contrast to what would come. The wealth that would later grace this area barely beginning to build, and he, he could already feel the rivers building; the incomprehensible.
"We don't have the neural capacity to understand it," he said to a Jehovah's Witness who had engaged him in conversation. For them, everything reverted back to their Bible. Any attempt to say that these visions, of ravens and bright burning horses and all the rest of the animal spirits, of all the temples built down through time and all the incense that had wafted into still air, that all these things, these permutations, spoke not of a single thing, but of a technology only beginning to be understood.
While the country called Australia crash landed.
While a governing class, elected to serve and protect, instead perpetrated an utter, sad derangement on the peoples. For what gain? And like so many others now, he just kept asking: How Could It Be?
How could this happen, this terrible self destruction?
The falcons were alert, they still used the same imagery they had used for millennia; adapting, as strange as it seemed, to the technologies of this particular era.
And the minute those massively intelligent machines realised he could see them, they vanished from view.
It was a strangeness. It confronted everything they had ever believed in.
And one of the Watchers on the Watch muttered: "All around the globe."
Seeking explanation. They knew already.
He, no doubt like others of his kind, had been ordered to cooperate.
Here, where the technologies of the time, for the first time in history, enabled these people, once so desperately isolated, to understand that they were not alone.
NEWS:
NSW Health limits residents of locked-down tower block to six beers per day
Residents in a Sydney tower block under a strict coronavirus lockdown are having their alcohol deliveries policed.
Anton Nilsson and James O'Doherty
less than 2 min read
September 9, 2021 - 8:42AM
NCA NewsWire
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Residents in apartment blocks locked-down by NSW Health are having their alcohol deliveries policed as part of a policy to limit the number of drinks being consumed each day.
NSW Health has imposed rules limiting people in “NSW Health controlled buildings” to a certain amount of alcohol each day in a bid to “ensure the safety of health staff and residents”.
Mission Australia’s Common Ground building in Camperdown is the latest building where occupants are subjected to the harsh rules.
Residents of the social housing estate have complained that care packages sent by friends and relatives have been searched before they are delivered.
“They are searching all bags and things coming into the building … They confiscated a series of gifts. So things like bottles of spirits, we weren’t allowed to have those and we still (aren’t),” Common Ground resident Robin Elhaj said.
Residents are allowed to receive a ration of one of the following: six beers or pre-mixed drinks, one bottle of wine, or one 375ml bottle of spirits.
Excess alcohol is being confiscated until lockdown rules are lifted.
Residents can consult with a clinician if they think they need more than the allowed limit.
A Sydney Local Health District spokeswoman confirmed the limits are in place in NSW Health’s Special Health Accomodation, where Covid-positive patients and close contacts are sent for isolation.
However it is unclear what powers NSW Health has to limit the delivery of alcohol to people isolating in their own homes; public health orders do not mention alcohol limits.
A NSW Police spokeswoman said Police officers are not confiscating alcohol delivered to residential buildings, and do not have powers to do so.
“In all residential lockdown locations, NSW Police are there to ensure compliance with the Public Health Orders and assist NSW Health if required,” the Police spokeswoman said.
A spokeswoman for the Sydney Local Health District said when NSW Health took control of apartment buildings for the purposes of limiting the spread of coronavirus, the buildings became subject to alcohol consumption restrictions.