while not null: August 2015

I was thinking about passports from various countries yesterday and I noticed a funny thing. Some countries have "fighting" or "warrior" emblems on passports, others not so much. I wonder if there is any correlation between the symbols of the country and how its citizens see themselves, or how would they react if their country was attacked.

Some "fighting passports":

U.S.A:

An eagle with an olive branch and a bunch of arrows. Your choice punk.

Russia:

An eagle with two heads and a mace in one leg - does it say: do not mess with me? I think it does.

Less aggressive, but still showing muscle:

Poland:

An eagle with massive talons, not little "hands".

Germany:

Still an eagle, but smaller - Germany is a pacifist country now.

Not aggressive at all:

Italy:

Leaves, gear, and a star - look like a communist emblem. Not scary in itself.

France:

A rolling pin and a little axe - kitchen tools. :-)

Mackay is about 1000km north of Gold Coast. Jetstar flies there, so off we went.

South Mackay in the distance and left, North and West Mackay in the front.

The city is currently experiencing economic downturn, but being there I get a feeling that this is not the first time it happened.

One million dollar apartments - never built.

Extra wide streets - hardly used.

Somebody lives here.

But there is opulence too:

The harbour

Horse racing on the beach

There are also beautiful old buildings, sometimes obscured by too wide streets with omnipresent cars, or by the much needed revitalisation works:

Erected 1890

Town Hall 1912

Art Deco Hotel Mackay, 1940

"There was a construction boom in the early 20th Century due to a series of unrelated events which combined to transform the appearance of the city. These included: • the fires in 1915 and 1916 which destroyed many shops in Victoria Street • the devastating cyclone in 1918 which destroyed 80 per cent of the buildings in the city • a policy of the council at the time to replace all timber commercial premises with masonry structures for safety reasons • a population explosion that made Mackay the second fastest growing city in Queensland for more than a decade • the economy of the city was made buoyant by steady sugar prices and co-operatively owned sugar mills which led to money being retained within the community. "