Could there have been better timing for a movie about the power of ‘Big Pharma’? You decide. Crisis is a film about the bad side of drug supply – whether it be illegal or (supposedly) legal.

Based around the USA’s continuing opioid epidemic, the movie runs three stories in parallel, two of which converge. The main characters for the three threads are:

Gary Oldman playing  university professor Dr. Tyrone Brower,
Evangeline Lilly as Claire Reimann an architect battling her own oxycodone addiction while searching for the truth about her son’s death.
Jake Kelly, an undercover DEA agent trying to bust a  cartel Fentanyl smuggling operation and played by Armie Hammer, .

Note: I didn’t know about Hammer’s real life antics until after watching the movie when I looked him up online, so I will just review the film and let you read about him separately (if you wish).

The Plot(s)

The illegal drug business…

Undercover agent Kelly is trying to arrange a big drug deal for illegal opioids across the Canadian border by making contact with the leader of the ring known only as ‘Mother’. Meanwhile Claire Reimann’s son turns up suspiciously dead and she starts her own investigations while trying to avoid falling back into her old drug habit.

She finds that her son’s death is related to one of his friends who was caught by police running drugs across the border for the Montreal based cartel. The youngster is subsequently killed in prison and it seems that Claire’s son was just a loose end.

She drives into Canada determined to find the man responsible and where she will cross paths with the undercover agent. The grieving vengeful mother and the DEA agent trying to catch ‘Mother’ in the act are on a collision course. I won’t spoil the ending to the convergence of these two plot lines but you may just see it coming before it happens.

The legal drug business…

Meanwhile a new opioid is undergoing lab-rat trials. Dr. Brower’s team at the university have  been testing a new drug for a major pharmaceutical company. They discover some nasty side effects of the drug and Brower brings this to the attention of the drug company’s contact (played by another British actor Luke Evans). It just so happens that the same pharma company funds much of the research at the college (as they do in real life of course). The new drug is supposed to be a ground-breaking “non-addictive” painkiller and the pharma company is keen to rush the drug to the market (and of course make a fortune!).

The pharma company applies pressure to the university and Dr. Brower’s job becomes threatened unless he hides the findings in his report. His name is dragged through the dirt when the university fabricates stories of sexual harassment. The drug company has close ties with the government (as they do) and despite Dr. Brower’s attempts to bring out the true findings of the research the new “non-addictive” opioid is approved by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration). Now why does that ring a bell with recent real life events? Hmm… Let me see…

Critique

Definitely a film that grabs your attention and pulls you deeper into its plot lines. This movie has obvious similarities with two things. One is the 2000 movie Traffic. It is hard to watch Crisis without comparing it to that excellent movie. The other is the Coronavirus farce that has been unfolding in real life. Was the timing of this movie deliberate? Releasing a movie showing the pharma industry as untrustworthy while our governments are trying to get us to trust them blindly with vaccines yet to be FDA approved. It is an odd one…

This movie definitely does not paint the FDA or Big Pharma in a good light. Probably rightly so. But it also exposes the huge opioid epidemic particularly in the USA where (I have read) more than 40,000 die of opioid addiction every year. The film ends with a sobering note flashed on screen: More Americans have died from opioid abuse in the last year than died in the Vietnam war.

There are some good acting performances but Oldman – who is usually excellent – was not at his best. He resorts to shouting too many of his lines almost trying to be like Al Pacino.

I give this movie 4 out of 5. Not as good as the excellent Traffic, but definitely worth watching.

Sunday was ANZAC Day in Australia and New Zealand. Last year it was more or less cancelled due to that covid nonsense. This year there were plenty of ANZAC parades with lots of people in attendance. We were in Jervis Bay to witness a very community friendly march and service to commemorate those who gave their lives for the freedom we still enjoy. A freedom that allows us to celebrate such days.

ANZAC Day at Huskisson 

The small seaside town of Huskisson was the setting for the ANZAC Day parade. This little town sits more or less in the centre of the various Jervis Bay communities. It is the centre for tourism in the bay area and it is easy to see why it is such a popular spot for holidays and short breaks.

Around the bay to the south lies an Australian Royal Navy base so the naval forces were well represented. There were plenty of ex-servicemen who took part in recent conflicts and those right back to the Vietnam war. As a British born person I forget that Australia took part in that war. Whatever the outcome and whatever anyone may say about that war the men fighting there were trying to help the Vietnamese. Fighting for their freedom. Many Vietnamese eventually made Australia their home.

The local State Emergency Services (SES) also took part. These are the people that rescue you if your area gets flooded and put their lives on the line to fight wild forest fires. Both of these disastrous events have occurred over the past twelve months in this area. Many of these brave people are volunteers.

Several local schools joined in the march paying their respects to those that lost their lives. That was nice to see.

The short march ended at the town’s war memorial where there was a service. The event was well attended and it was a real pleasure to witness the strong community spirit. The area certainly did the ANZACs proud this year. Well done Huskisson and the Jervis Bay area.

Back to our outback adventure last summer holidays…

From Wilcannia it is a one hour (93km)  drive to the tiny outpost of White Cliffs. This is one of the main opal mining areas in Australia along with Lightning Ridge (central north NSW) and Coober Pedy in South Australia.

The small town has a population of around 200 although there are several stations (ranches) in the surrounding area that would increase the overall catchment figure. Despite the tiny population the local primary school opened in 1895, and has supposedly operated continuously ever since.

History

I am always amazed how these places were founded, and even more fascinated how anyone came to be here in the first place. How on earth did European settlers discover opals in such a remote location?  Well the story goes like this…

In 1884 the first opal in the area was found, by a group of kangaroo hunters. One of them left the group to track down a wounded kangaroo and picked up a pretty stone which he spotted on a tone covered hill. They all suspected it could be opal and when they found a jeweller he confirmed it. Even though that first opal was not considered “precious” the jeweller advised the group that finding such opal could still be much more profitable than kangaroo hunting. The group filed a claim and started digging for opal. Five years later in 1889 the first precious opals were discovered and the opal mining industry began in earnest. The town was established in the late 1800s and opal has been mined ever since.

Other opal mining areas have similar ‘pure luck’ tales. It always makes me wonder how many other areas remain untouched out there… for opals and other minerals.

Underground Living

Many of the locals live underground where the houses remain cool in the heat of the summer. In places like White Cliffs it gives the impression that the already small population is almost non existent. Most of the visible properties are motels, the tourist centre and the odd shop. But everywhere you look there are the usual signs of opal mining just like we had seen in Lightning Ridge.

One local entrepreneurial couple even offer guided tours of their large underground home. I think it cost $10 for adults (kids free). Very interesting.

Here are a few more shots from inside the underground home:

Underground Accommodation?

There are even a couple of underground hotels (one more a B&B) in the town and we stayed in the (famous) White Cliffs Underground Motel. It seemed like a good idea at the time of booking – being underground and definitely “different”. In reality the place has been allowed to decline. Badly. The rooms have no facilities as there is little if any ventilation for things like kettle steam and a fridge would just heat the room up (defeating the object of keeping cool). Similarly there are no en-suite bathrooms, only shared facilities dotted about the establishment. They were OK but when you are already paying a premium to stay in this unusual place such lack of luxuries soon hit home.

The place was pricey but was very busy – I believe because of high demand due to the novelty factor. (It’s the classic ‘been there, done that’ crowd – which I am ashamed to say we fell in with on this part of our trip.)

They also asked us not to leave food in the room as they openly admitted to having a ‘mouse problem’. We saw one running down a corridor on the first night, but no more after that, although there was ‘evidence’ (i.e. mouse droppings) inside the almost rotten wardrobes that passed for room furniture. It struck me as very odd that they didn’t seem to doing much to deal with the ‘mouse problem’. There were no sign of traps or anything else that a vermin extermination company would deploy. It was as if the owners couldn’t care less. Enough people were booking and wanting a piece of the famous outback underground dwelling experience. Having spoken to some of the staff I think something will need to change fairly soon. It seems the hotel is also struggling to retain their workers.

We will not be going back there for sure and I would recommend anyone wanting to stay in White Cliffs to use one of the other motels or B&Bs.

First Solar Power Plant

National grid power was not available in White Cliffs until 1993. Before that people used their own (diesel) generators. But in 1981 an Australian National University experiment became what is considered to be the world’s first solar power station to be used commercially just at the edge of the town. Fourteen parabolic collectors covered in 2000 tiny mirrors, focus the sun’s energy onto a spiral absorber. There the temperatures reach between 555°C and 1000°C. Water was passed through the absorber, quickly turning into super-heated steam. The steam was then piped to drive a steam engine which in turn drove AC and DC generators. The DC generator charged 300 volt batteries providing power at night. It managed to produce 25 kilowatts which was enough to power the local hospital, school, hotel, post office and 12 residences.

In 1996 the station was connected to the national power grid and enhanced to provide 50 kilowatts of power. But in 2005 it was closed and I have no idea why… It was supposedly “mothballed” so should be able to restart with not too much hassle. Don’t you think that is really odd considering how we are now constantly bombarded with “green” energy propaganda? I do.

We were only passing through the small town of Wilcannia on our way from Cobar to White Cliffs. And that’s the problem. Too many people just pass through this town.

Wilcannia sits on the banks of the Darling river. It is an example of a once prosperous town that has gone into decline, with no sign of how and when it will recover. But the town definitely leaves a lasting impression.

Once Prosperous

It is easy to see that this was a once prosperous town. The buildings tell you that. This was a thriving river trade port town…..”Was” being the operative word. Wilcannia used to be known as the the “Queen City of the West” back in the early 1900s when the river trade transported goods down the Darling river, on to the Murray river and then to Adelaide. When the railways and roads arrived it was all over for the river boat transport industry and along with it the towns that had sprung up along the river routes also began to shrink.

There is a motel a petrol station – sadly mainly used by passing tourist to fill up and move on. A small supermarket seems to be the only place to buy anything – certainly the only shop that was open. There is also the Wilcannia golf club where you can get a cold beer and do all the usual gambling activities that seem to take over these places. But it is certainly not family friendly. We went in and were forced to sit in a crummy, dank, back room because Dani is underaged. Hardly the sort of place to entice families of tourists is it?

Basically that’s it. There was a nice looking café-cum-art gallery (see photos) but it was closed and there was no sign as to when it may be open. There is the Hotel on the main road junction but again not much sign of life.

The Sad State of Wilcannia…

…and other similar towns. It is hard to see what can be done to restore any kind of prosperity to places like this. Tourism would seem to be the only answer. But as we have seen in other remote or outback towns, there is nothing there to keep tourists entertained. No bars, cafes or restaurants on the main streets. Of course those types of business need tourists in order to thrive. It’s a classic chicken and egg situation…

I am not sure what the answer is, But I do know what the answer is NOT:
There is a lot of money being wasted by supposedly well intentioned groups. Any money thrown (away) at the projects these kind of groups operate would be much better spent setting up sustainable businesses that will attract tourists and keep them in the town. Invest in things that will make people want to spend time in the area rather than just passing through. The large local Aboriginal population needs real direction not political activism. I have a few ideas if anyone wants to discuss it.

Hope for the future?

On a more optimistic note however there is a fairly newly developed camp site on the other side of the bridge. There was also the time of year. Summer, especially school summer holidays, does not seem to be the peak time for visitors in this part of the world. Maybe it is a little more bustling at other times of the year? I would like to find out…

Despite the town centre being a little run down, the lure of the outback is all around. The huge Paroo-Darling National Park lies to the north and east – although too far out to make a real difference to the town’s decline. Without doubt the one thing you notice in Wilcannia is the number of well preserved (or recently renovated) old buildings. It would make a great film set with some wonderful examples of colonial architecture. It is quite an attractive town and could easily become a bit of a tourist hotspot.

Here’s another one I wrote a while back and forgot to post. This was from our time in and around Dubbo (December 2020).

Wellington Caves

On our second day in Dubbo the weather was not that good. So, what better than a visit to an indoor tourist attraction? Not so much indoors as underground. We drove about half an hour south of Dubbo to the small town of Wellington to see the Wellington caves.

The Wellington caves are just south of the town, off the Mitchell highway that links the towns of Dubbo and Orange. There are three caves at this site but only one of them was open. As luck would have it the one that we were allowed into was the one I would have chosen; ‘the Cathedral Cave’.

The other two are an old fossil phosphate mine and the Gaden cave. The Fossil & Phosphate Mine is a completely restored underground mine from over 100 years ago. The rock walls have thousands of fossil and bones embedded in them. Old dinosaur bones from this site are spread across the world’s museums. While the Gaden cave seems to be a smaller version of the one we entered.

The Cathedral Cave contains Wellington’s famous stalagmite. The inspiring limestone and crystal formation reaches a staggering 15 metres in height. Highlights of the tour include the Altar, Headache Rock and The Well.

Tours of the caves began back in the 1885. Since then they have been popular with visitors, scientists and palaeontologists from all over the world.

Known as Altar Rock which is 32 metres in circumference at its base and over 15 metres high. This place is similar to other caves I have been inside but I can definitely recommend it.

Star Wars bar…

For a small town Wellington seemed to have plenty of bars although some seemed to be very recently closed down – That’ll be the virus crap again! Of all the bars we could have stopped for a quick drink we chose an Australian version of the Mos Eisley Cantina – better known as the Star Wars Bar (from the first ever Star Wars movie,  Episode IV – A New Hope, in case you are not familiar). I guess all small towns have one of these places…

The place looked like it needed some money spent on it and was certainly one of those bars where the regulars like to enjoy more than just the odd drink. Still, it was friendly enough – as these kind of places tend to be, if they are not on a planet like Tatooine that is.

Sadly many of not all of these places will close forever because of this virus garbage. Certainly in countries that have been much harder hit by lockdowns etc such as the UK.

Devils Hollow Brewery

On the road back into Dubbo the Devil’s Hollow Brewery is worth a visit. Another great example of the thriving craft beer industry. For me their beers were not that good. I have certainly had better at similar brew pubs. Maybe I am getting fussy. Who knows? All our tastes for these beers are very different so don’t let that put you off. The set up was ideal, the food was good and the place got very busy before we left. The place is located on a small industrial estate just south of the town. If you are ever in Dubbo I can recommend it.

One of the things I wanted to see was a large open cast gold mine. Something I had seen on documentaries on TV but never in real life (so to speak). I had seen online or read somewhere that the town of Cobar had two such places.

Due to rain we were unable to drive down the Darling River unsealed road between Bourke and Wilcannia. But there was always the option to take the slightly different route to Wilcannia on the main roads, and via Cobar. The town of Cobar is in the central west of NSW about 750km from Sydney on the eastern edge of the outback.

The Peak Gold Mine

Actually this mine produces copper as well as gold. That’s two for the price of one. Pull all the rock out of the ground and process it not only for the precious gold but also for the increasingly valuable copper.

The place is well signed, just outside the town and has a free to enter viewing platform overlooking the mine. Not sure why so many other similar places we came across never allowed this. Really odd I thought. The views into the bowels of these mines are fantastic.

Sights like this always impress me. It’s the sheer scale of these operations.

The Big Beer Can and The Big Verandah

The Australian penchant for making ‘Big’ things is on display in Cobar town centre too. And what better than a “Big Beer Can”? Especially on a hot day.

Sadly the hotel/pub was not open. But there was another hotel just down the street which had its own claim to fame on a list of big things…

The hotel verandah (or balcony) is 130m long and wide enough for four runners to race (and come to a stop) a 100m sprint. It is said to be the longest hotel balcony in New South Wales. Better than that the pub was actually open for a cold one.

Moving on West…

Cobar is yet another place that deserves more time to be explored. But our accommodation was booked and so it was back on the road. The long straight drive down the Barrier Highway to Wilcannia and White Cliffs.

Around Bourke

Although many of the unsealed roads were closed the odd one was still open. So, we took off into the Back o’ Bourke to have a look around. Into the outback…

Emus

Although Dani and I had seen several Emus during our time around Lightning Ridge, we had not managed to get close enough to photograph them. They say that you should not get too close to these large birds but that would seem harder than it sounds. They are very timid.

This area is definitely Emu country. They are easily spotted in the fields or low bush at the side of the roads. There must be thousands of them hidden in the denser bush areas.

Five Fords

One mainly gravel road that was open took us out into the back ‘o Bourke where we saw several of these strange tail-less lizards crossing the road…

I think the official name for these creatures is Tiliqua rugosa but I am not sure of its common name. Maybe one of you readers can help. What do they call them in Australia?  Is it a blue-tongued skink a bobtail or a shingleback?

If you see a sign like this one then you just have to stop for a beer. Right? No pub for 150km! No choice then mate. Pull over in 3 for cold one.

Well we did just that. 150kms is a long drive when you are thirsty. This was the Warrego Hotel and bar in the tiny outback spot of Fords Bridge.

All of these tiny hamlets (if you can even call them that) seem to have sports pitches of some kind. There are very few peole who live in these places but there are more who live in the surrounding stations (or ranches or farms – depending where you come from).

Enngonia

Anther tiny settlement with a good old outback pub is Enngonia.  Heading north to the Queensland border, blink and you miss it. As small as it looks there is a pub, War Memorial Hall and sports fields. The pub doubles as a general store selling pretty much all the essentials.

We even drove up as far as the Queensland border but the police were there to ensure nobody left the leper state of NSW. Especially if they had come from the ‘cluster’ capital of Sydney. Fucking pathetic if you ask me but what the hell?…

Mt. Oxley

I wanted to go to Mount Oxley but the road was closed. We only got to see it from a distance. It is an oddly flat table top mountain in an otherwise flat landscape and stands out on the horizon, not unlike Ayers Rock (Uluru).

There is an odd mystery associated with Mt Oxley. Early explorer Charles Sturt noticed that sometimes, around sunset and after a very hot day, booming noises seem to emanate from the mountain. Sturt himself thought it may be due to gas explosions. He even noticed craters appearing in areas where he thought there had been ‘explosions’. No conclusive explanation has been found for the  noises and craters but one possible theory could be correct. The sudden contraction of the rock upon cooling at sunset after exposure to the heat of a very hot day causing the rocks to crack with a bang!

The road that runs parallel to the Darling river toward Wilcannia was also closed and this was one we wanted to take. That road is also the access to two national parks; Gundabooka and Toorale. There are more than enough reasons to visit the Bourke area again. Maybe… in the not too distant future…

As regular readers of this blog (if there are any) will know, visiting cemeteries in remote places is something of a habit for myself and Dani. The town of Bourke has a particularly interesting cemetery just on the south side of town. I thought it warranted its own post…

Bourke Cemetery

The other cemeteries I have blogged about were either in small towns (like Lightning Ridge) or places that went from boom to bust (like Silverton). In those paces all the graves seemed to be in no particular order. Here in Bourke however the cemetery was deliberately broken up into separate areas based on religion or even nationality. It had never occurred to me before but if a Catholic church has an adjacent graveyard then everyone buried there would be Catholic. Similarly in a Methodist church’s graveyard those buried would have been Methodist. At least in 99.9% of cases right?

Bourke cemetery is the first place where I had noticed the segregation on religious grounds. This was sectarianism or religious apartheid in the afterlife (even if you don’t believe in that stuff). All the main Christian faiths were there. Catholic, Church of England, Presbyterian and Methodist. But separated! There was even a small Muslim section – see below. Better still there was a section towards one corner reserved for “Chinese”.

Just in front of that mosque shack are the graves of the Afghan camel men. Such men and their camels were the pioneers of transport in this part of the world before river boats and railways. They are buried facing Mecca.

Then I saw this area….

General? Perhaps they were of no religious denomination, atheist or unknown. Couldn’t they have buried the Chinese in the “General” section? Instead of way back in the corner?

In case you were wondering; the Aboriginal area was not defined. Their graves were traditionally located on their own ceremonial land. In more recent times however the graves of Aboriginal people are mixed in with the Christian areas.

Fred Hollows

By far the most famous person buried in Bourke cemetery is Fred Hollows. I have written a separate and special post about him. If you haven’t already read it then you really should. You can find it here…

Dani finished school term one today. He brought with him the school photographs taken during the first week of term almost 10 weeks ago.

Easter Holidays

While I am still trying to catch up (in this blog) on the places we visited during the summer holidays, Dani now has three more weeks off school. Unlike the UK where the kids (and teachers) have a week long half term holiday here in Australia they continue to Easter, Christmas/summer etc holidays and then take that week. So this Easter we have three weeks of fun to look forward to.

In Spain they too go without a half term week’s break. But there they tend to store those up for extra long summer holidays.

Tooth Fairy (still) Waits…

Dani is slow to lose his milk teeth. None have fallen out as yet, but he has two lower incisors growing (fairly large now) behind them. Like a shark! Two rows of teeth! We took him to the dentist a couple of weeks ago and he said if they have not fallen out by the end of the Easter holidays then we had to take him back to have them pulled. Ugh!

Apparently the going rate per tooth here is one dollar. Cheap enough. He will lose four in the next few weeks whether he likes it or not. I have even offered to knock them out for him, which of course he just laughs at. He knows me too well. But at least that gets him trying to wiggle them loose.

The Innocence of a Child

While we were coming back from school today I mentioned that the tooth fairy may be paying a visit during the holidays. It must have triggered his curious mind. Because then Dani asked me something genuinely innocent yet so honest. He was so serious that it was actually quite funny and I had to twist a laugh into a cough.

He said, “I don’t understand something. How can Santa and the Easter bunny make and deliver toys and chocolate eggs. It just doesn’t make any sense. And how do the eggs have plastic wrapping on them?”

Now I don’t really want to be the one to spoil this part of his innocent childhood so I managed to divert his line of questioning by just replying; “Well there are lots of things that don’t make sense in life. Aren’t there?” He repeated how confused he was by it all and I just retold basically the same line. Then he switched subjects in the blink of an eye. It seemed to work.

There is something wonderful about children believing in things like Santa, the Easter bunny and the tooth fairy. It will be a definite milestone in his childhood when he learns the truth. Or will it? Who knows what the truth is these days anyway?

I am prepared to wait, for now. But should he find out from his parents or from other children in school, perhaps making fun of him? Tricky one…