Welcome, Weirdos, I'm Darren Marlar and this is Retro Radio Sunday on Weird Darkness. Each week I bring you a show from the golden age of radio, but still in the genre of Weird Darkness. I'll have stories of the macabre and horror, mysteries and crime, and even some dark science fiction. If you're new here, welcome to the show and if you're already a member of this Weirdo family, please take a moment and invite someone else to listen. And please leave a rating and review in the podcast app you're listening from. Doing these things helps the show to keep growing. And while you're listening, be sure to check out WeirdDarkness.com for merchandise, my newsletter to connect with me on social media and more. Coming up, it's an episode from the Humphrey Bogart Theater. It's an episode entitled Dead Man from 1949, where Humphrey Bogart plays a voice from beyond the grave, seeking justice for a crime that seems to have gone unpunished. If you're not familiar with the Humphrey Bogart Theater, it's not surprising. From what I can find, this is the only episode, the pilot episode ever produced for the show. It'll be obvious it's the pilot episode as you listen, as the announcer even indicates where a commercial would be placed if the show was ever picked up for distribution and syndication. It's too bad the show was never picked up. Having Humphrey Bogart as the star of every episode would definitely have been entertaining and memorable. Humphrey Bogart was an iconic star of the American Silver Screen, especially in the 1940s, playing classic bad guys and coming late to leading man status in legendary films like The Maltese Falcon, Casablanca and The African Queen. He also made numerous radio appearances before and after this attempt at his own show. You're about to hear a rarely heard treat, Humphrey Bogart from 1949 in Dead Man.  Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. This is Humphrey Bogart. Tonight's author, James M. Cain. Tonight's story, Dead Man. I'm Hollywood, a new dynamic series based on the work of the great names of the modern short story presented by the actor, producer, Humphrey Bogart. Actor, producer. That's a moniker I'll have to get used to. You know when an actor turns producer searching for material becomes one of his main jobs. And one of mine is to read stories of all kinds. Adventure, romance, mystery, comedy, always looking for strong yarns. Well told, it will achieve the big result, entertainment. And this is the type we're going to dramatize for you. Speaking as Bogart the actor, I'd like to appear in some of them. This is especially true of the one we're going to bring you tonight by James Cain. James is a great student of human nature. That's evident in his novels like The Postman Always Rings Twice, Serenade, Double Indemnity and The Moth. He doesn't write short fiction often, but in this piece which appeared in the old American Mercury, you'll find the offbeat qualities that have made him famous. He got the idea for Dead Man one night waiting for a freight train to pass. There were some hobos perched on top of it and well that's our story. But before we start, how about a word from High Averbank? In this spot each week we would have an opening commercial followed by a short billboard. Now for the first time on the air, James and Cain's great short story, Dead Man, with Humphrey Bogart as Larry Knott and William Tracy as Lucky. Hey, what are we slowing down for? Why does a freight train always slow down ten miles from nowhere in the middle of the night? Railroad bull coming down the line of Budasov. So let's get off. We're going slow enough to jump. Yeah, but too fast to get back on. Hey, he's flashing his light now. All right, boys, pile off, hit the senders. Let's go. Okay. Hey, what happened to that kid that was on here? I didn't see him jump. He climbed down in a cold shoot. Hey, kid, the bull's coming. You can't hide from this guy.  He won't see me in this shoot. Okay, okay. I'm giving you guys a break. Are you going to jump? Come on, make it right. Fall easy and roll when you're hit. Try to be a nice guy and then walk all over you. Anybody down that cold shoot? All right, wise guy, climb out of that shoot. Turn off that flashlight. I'll turn it off.  Hide out on me, will you? I tried to give you a break and you hide out. Oh, like that. Look out. Look out the bottom of this shoot. It's open. We'll... Oh, it'll fall. You'll go with me. Where are you? You're not getting away from me.  You had your chance.  You'll do a bit and a clink for this. You're going to get me there first. Now, big guy, this might even things up. Kid, put down that bike. I'll put it down. I was picking on people. I wasn't going to steal your lousy railroad. Nobody, maybe you let me go. Mr. Hey, Mr. Mr. Get back to Los Angeles before morning. See how far on this roadside. 17 miles. Keep running, kid. You've got a long way to go. Larry, who is it? Look, I didn't mean it. No, but you did it. Now, you've got to run. You've got to run for the rest of your life. Just LA. That's all. I'll be safe there.  I'll be safe. You can't beat this, kid. I can. I can. I ate two meals yesterday in the soup kitchen. If I get back in time for breakfast, they'll remember me. Nobody will ever know I left the town. Nobody. Nobody.  You're dead. Any bread to put in this slop will be glad you're living. Move on. I don't know why they're all as kicking. That smells good to me. Oh, gee. You must love this, Grubb. Thought you'd be off 30 today. Me? Why would I be off? You mean you don't even get Sundays off in this joint? Sunday, wake up. This is Saturday. Saturday? Hey, that's right. It is Saturday. They're hanging signs and big banners all along the main drag for the parade. What kind of parade? The Shriners. Well, you get to see that for free. That ought to be your speed. Yeah, that's me. My name is Lucky. My name is Shorty, but I'm over six feet. Nothing like that with me. I really got luck. Yeah, like what? Like, for instance, getting a hunk of meat in this soup. Ain't no meat in there, but there's going to be some, ain't there? She ever played over quick. Don't let nobody see you. Thanks, Shorty. OK, Lucky. Don't let them guys see the meat. Back of the hall ain't lighted. Grab a table back there. Sure, sure. I'll eat, I'll eat. You'd better. You'll need strength. You've got to have strength to keep moving. I made it here. I'm all right. Sure. You made Shorty remember you and the day will stick in his mind because of the parade. That's smart, but it isn't enough. Why isn't it enough?  They never close the books when a cop gets killed, Lucky. They work all day and all night. They ask questions. I got answers. You better have them. You better have them fast. You're tired. I gotta get some sleep. Where, though? Where? Sign pointing up the street, said Lincoln Park. It's only 6 a.m. I can sleep there. And get picked up for vacancy? That's bad. They'll bring you in for that and then start on something else. I can hide. Must be as stable as something in a park. I gotta sleep. Time to get up, son. There's a man here to see you. Mom, I didn't do anything honest. It was a mistake. You shouldn't have left home, son. I begged you not to go. Now the man is here. Tell him to go away. Tell him I'm sleeping. I've been too lucky. Go away. Leave me alone. No. I want you to get ready for what's coming. Where did you spend last night, kid? In a flop house. Yeah? Which one? I didn't pay no attention to the name. It was just a flop house. Where was this flop house at, Lucky? How should I remember? I've never been in L.A. before. I don't know the names of those streets. What did the place look like? It looked like a flop house. Do you think they'll buy that? What did the place look like, Lucky? What did it look like? Let me go! Let me go! Let me go! Let me go! Damn! The side door was open. I thought this was the park's stable. It's the elephant house at the zoo. What are you doing here? I... I just wanted to sleep, that's all.  One of them might have rolled right over on you during the night. During the night? Yeah. Yeah, it was here all night that they might have killed me. They've got a good mind to call a cops and turn you in. No, no, no, please don't do that. I'm broke. I couldn't go anyplace else. Give me a break. If I find a job, I'll be okay. All right. Now get out of here and stay out. Thanks. Thanks a lot. I'll get a job. Are you all right? Great. They won't know about the freight if I get a job. If a guy killed somebody, the cops wouldn't expect to find him looking for a job. Who are you? It was enough. I'm young. I'm strong. You're running again, kid. You're running again. Let me check the air in this rear tire. It looks low. What's chances I'd get my job around here? If you mean right here in this service station, the chances are nothing flat. Why not? The sign says you're open 24 hours a day. I work 12. My brother-in-law works the other 12. We don't need any help. I ain't asking much and you could both cut down on your hours. Look, brother, I know it's tough, but I got troubles of my own. I'm barely making a living myself. Here, here. Here's two bits for something to eat. That's all the help I can give you. I ain't asking for a hand out. I want a job. If my clothes were better, would that change your mind? Even if the morning paper said you'd been elected one of the ten best, best men in Hollywood, the answer would still be no. I haven't got enough to do myself. Well, suppose I get better clothes. Would you talk to me again? I'm a registered Democrat. I'll talk to anybody. But I'm not hiring. I'll be back when I get better clothes. What's your name? They're right over the station. Hook. Oscar Hook. Thanks, Mr. Hook. Just got an idea. I can talk myself into a job. Don't waste your time. Here, take the two bits. All right, thanks. I'll work it out for you when I come back.  Good luck, kid. Thanks. Think about what? The clothes. So they're dirty, so what? Not all clothes get dirty that way. Where'd that cold-ass come from? From the Frates. What is that truth? Don't you know there isn't much cold brought into Southern California? That car may be the only one in six months. And I was killed on it, Lucky. Better think of something else, kid. You better think of something else. I'll get rid of his clothes. I'll get others. That won't be easy. Lots of people have seen you in those clothes. I told you how cops work. Cold-ass done your clothes, and it was cold-ass done mine. I got it all over me, too. New dut. I'll get him. I'll get down to the cheap store. Somebody'll trust me. Maybe. But the cops will be looking for somebody with cold-ass done his clothes. Remember, Lucky. You'll be very easy to remember. I'll pick a small store. They can't check them all. They can't check them all. In a moment, act two of Dead Man. But first, a word from our sponsor. This, of course, the middle commercial. If you love old-time radio, you'll want to visit our friends at ClassicRadioStore.com to provide all the shows for me to wear. At ClassicRadioStore.com, you'll find thousands of episodes available in pristine, digitally remastered sound. Every episode they offer at ClassicRadioStore.com has been transferred from the master recordings and digitally remastered for superior sound quality. That's why the episodes that you hear on Weird Darkness sound so clean. And the shows at ClassicRadioStore.com are all uncut, unedited, and are delivered to you as they were originally broadcast, including the classic commercials. You can download great shows that'll chill you and thrill you, such as Suspense, The Whistler, Inner Sanctum, Lights Out, and more. There are mystery and crime shows like Sherlock Holmes, Philip Marlowe, Dragnet, and Sam Spade. They've got a great collection of old-time science fiction radio shows like X-minus 1 or Dimension X. Plus, there is a ton of comedy and westerns there too if you want to relive the shows of yesteryear. All the shows are available to instantly digitally download, and the links never expire, so you can order them now and listen to them anytime you like. And because you're a listener of Weird Darkness, you can save 20% on any and all radio shows on the website by using the promo code Weird at checkout. Just visit ClassicRadioStore.com, select all the radio show packages you want, then at checkout use the promo code Weird and save 20% on your whole purchase. That's ClassicRadioStore.com, promo code Weird at checkout. No, no trust.  You go out and work. You get money to buy things. Look, lady, I want to work, and I can get a job if I have that out there. I can start to work Monday morning. All I need is white pants and a shirt. I have to pay cash myself. No trust.  This means a job for me. I've got to get that out there. I'll pay you next Saturday as soon as I get paid honest. Look, I would like to help you, but I can't do it. Okay, it's your store. I've been out of work a long time. What kind of job you're going to get? Why you need white shirt and pants? Maybe he's going to drive an ice cream truck. No, it's a gas station. I've got a rule. You've got to have white clothes before you can work this. They all wear white clothes. White clothes for the grease in the trucks. One day you're going to look worse than you do now. What else would I want an outfit like that for? Holy smokes, my own things are better for the road, ain't they? I don't look like I own a yacht, do I? Tell me, where's this gas station you're going to work? Hollywood. The guy named Oscar Hook runs the place. It's an Acme station. You don't believe me. You call him up and ask him. Hollywood's the other side of town. How'd you get over here? I worked all the way over from there to get stuff for the job. That's a long walk. Why'd you pick my store? I asked half a dozen places. Somebody's got to have a heart. When a young man doesn't go to school or to work, he's getting into trouble. What size you wear? 15-shirt, 28 waist on the pants. All right, all right. I'm going to the back room. Take over your clothes. I'll bring the stuff. Thanks. He'll need shoes, too. Here's a worn-out. Here. Maybe he's hungry. Put the dollar in the pants. Make him a full partner in the store. Here's your things. You want to wrap up the old ones? No, no, throw them away. You got pretty dirty. Your coffin with black? Yeah, I did some work yesterday. We got a big fireplace in the restaurant for something to eat. You're ready now? Yeah, yeah, this is swell. I'll fix up a bill for you. Here you are. $9.84. And $1 service charge. Service charge? What kind of... All right, okay. Never mind the service charge. Sure, sure, forget the service charge. There's a tag of something in his pocket here. Oh, it's... It's a dollar. That's all right. You'll find it, you'll keep it. It's your lucky day, huh? Yeah.  Here, Mama Sita. You'll burn the old clothes with the papers, huh? Sure, sure. Goodbye, boy. We pray for you. Goodbye, and thanks. Thanks a lot. How about yours? All right, now I'm clear. Yeah, but what about the old clothes? I left them, I'm rid of them. Sure, but somebody else has them now. That's the evidence, kid. He noticed the dirt. They're gonna burn them. That's what they said. You won't see them do it, though. How are you gonna know? I'll go back, I'll go back and get them. No, you can't. That'll look funny. You said you didn't want them. I changed my mind. I'll burn them myself. Where? You got a private apartment, someplace where you can turn a key? Look kind of funny, building a fire and an empty lot to burn clothes. Besides, they might think he was faking about the job. They'll burn them, they said so. Sure, they'll burn them. Walk a little faster, kid. Walk a little faster, kid.  I went into a lot of trouble to get these clothes. There must be some way I can use them. Kid, look. Look at the dough in this cash box. Eleven bucks. And that's for two families to feed. The night shift won't bring that. It won't slice any thinner. Well, I guess you're right. Say, why don't you hit North? This town's dead right now. You could earn a living picking fruit up there. Yeah, it'd be great on the road and this white outfit. I can get you right in the line-hole truck. Guy I know drives that route tonight. He'll leave about seven o'clock. They like company to keep him awake. But that means you have to stay awake, too. You look tired. Maybe you got a place I could lay down until then. Not here. You got any dough? A buck. There's a cheap hotel a few blocks up. Sack in there and sleep till just before seven. Okay, I'll see you later. Good job after all, how lucky. Now you've got a run for it. Get out of town. They can't tag me, I've got a head start now. Don't see how you figure that. There's cops up north, too. Already there, waitin'. Guys on the road get picked up all the time. I look all right, they'll pass me.  The cops'll know about that when you don't show up to get the storekeeper his dough. If I stay here, they'll pick me up easier. I gotta go. I gotta take the chance. Sure, that's the only chance you got. Run. Get some sleep. Then run. Well, yeah, bud. You can call me at 6.30 tonight. That's half a buck, sign this card. What's the matter, bud, you forget your name? No, I just haven't written in a long time. I haven't even heard anybody say it. Except for my nickname. You can't take nicknames. Sometimes the cops come by, they want to see the list. Cops? What for? All knows. They gotta look like they're doin' some kind of work, don't they? You matter, cops worry you? No, no. Why should they? Well, it's something you know better than me. Yeah, is he changed from the buck in your key? Okay. That's my name. Ben Fuller. Where's the room? Straight down the hall. Room 13. Ain't superstitious, eh? No. I'm going down to the church to help decorate for tomorrow. You want to come? No! We used to go always. I'm not goin' anymore.  I'm sick and tired. You shouldn't feel like that. You have a nice home and a nice job. Yeah, workin' on the hardware store in a hick town. I want to go places and see things. I want to be somebody. You are somebody, Ben. You've got friendship and respect. You won't always work for somebody else. You'll build something of your own someday. You bet I will. But it won't be here. Someday I'll go away. Someday I'll live in a big city where things happen. And I'll have everything I want. I want you to have everything, son. I want to help. Won't you come with me? No, I told you! No! Lucky! No, no, wait, Mom. Wait, I'll come with you. Too late. Lucky, you can't go now. I didn't mean to hurt you. I didn't. You never wanted to hurt anybody but you did.  That's a lie. Is it, Lucky?  It wasn't dead. It was a good town. We had a basketball team and a bandit played in the park in the summer in a lake where we could swim. Yeah, but that was the kids. Not for a man. Your father waited his life there, too, didn't he? No, he didn't. He was the best barber in town. Everybody loved him. Everybody. That wasn't good enough for you, though. Lucky. I don't know. What's that noise? It's already plain. What are they doing? What are they building? That's where they're going to hang you. You're not going to see it.  You already did. I'd hate to have you over a customer at night, bud. What are you doing throwing a fit? I was dreaming, that's all. Dreams like that you can have. I'm on at 6.30. Ain't you going to catch a truck or something? Yeah. Yeah, thanks. I'll check out right away. I'm getting a ride north. You're going north to pick fruit, am I right? Only look like I've got enough thought if I had no suit and a train ticket home. I want to go right back. Sure.  I never should have left. Yeah, most guys I carry feel that way. But they never know what'll they try. Some of them start back too late. What do you mean? Ah, health is gone. Are they getting a one-way jam? Hey, I got to make a stop here for a few minutes, you mind? Oh, ain't even out of town. I know, but I got a stop here. Hey, what are you stopping here for in the police station? What's the idea? Cops after you for something? No, no, of course not. What are you so jumpy for? Well, they pick you up for vagrancy, hitchhiking, son. Yeah, relax. They don't bother anybody. They're glad to see you go. Well, it just seemed a funny place to stop. That's all. Well, the police station ain't the only place on the block. I'm just going in that cafe across the street for a cup of java. This is the long hall, and I'm broke and I got a tab in there. I'd buy you a cup of coffee only while it's on credit. It's kind of rubbed it in to bring a guest. All right, go ahead. Hey, there's a mission house just the other side of the police station. You can get coffee in there for nothing. No, I'll wait. I don't blame you. They play music in the place that's murder. Oh, there's an evening paper on the shelf behind the seat if you want to look at it while I'm gone. You can turn on the cab light. Paper? Yeah, that's good. Thanks. I'm just looking at the paper, that's all. I'm not a very important guy. Maybe it wouldn't be on the front page. The capitated party of L.R. Not Railroad Detective assigned to a northbound freight was found early this morning on a track about 15 miles north of Los Angeles. It is believed he lost his balance while passing another train and fell beneath the wheels. I don't know. I don't know. No, kid. Only you and I know. You can't know. You can't know anything.   You can't talk. You're my imagination, that's all. You mean conscience, don't you? Get away. You can't come back now. You're dead. You don't know anything. I'm free. I'm lucky. I don't know. You've beaten the law, Lucky. They can't catch you. Nobody knows now. Nobody but you.  I'm a dead man. What's the matter?  No. No, I'm all right. Well, if you are, you can climb up on the shelf and lay down. I changed my mind. I'm not going with you. Thanks, anyhow. Suit yourself, kid. So long, mister. So long, mister. Where do you think house, Sergeant Jamison? Hey, okay, Joe. Make out a report on it. Now, what can I do for you, boy? I want to get myself up. What'd you do, kid? Steal something? Or are you trying to get a free ride home? No. When did it happen? Last night. Where? On the railroad tracks going north. It was like this. Wait a minute, kid. I'd like to get a card. Okay, what's your name? Ben Fuller. No middle name? They call me Lucky. Lucky, huh? Like in good luck? Yes. Lucky. Like in good luck. Bogart will be back with you in just a moment. But first, here you would have a closing commercial. After which, here again is Humphrey Bogart. Next week, a story with a big fellow himself in his timing way. In weeks to come, other great yarns by John P. Mark one. Steven Vincent Benet, John O'Hara, Joey Bromfield, Christopher Morley, James Thurber, James Gould Cousins, Ben Hecht, Irvin Cobb, Thomas Wolfe, and other great names published in the Charles Grayson anthologies, Stories for Men. Tonight's story was adopted for radio by Joel Muricott. Music composed and conducted by Lynn Murray. D. Engelbach, directed and produced for Santana Productions. Until next week when we meet again. Good night. See you with us again next week at the same time Humphrey Bogart will return to present another great short story. This time by one of the foremost men of contemporary fiction, Ernest Hemingway. This is High Aberbach speaking. Music Thanks for listening to this week's Retro Radio episode of Weird Darkness. If you like the show, please share it with someone you know who loves old time radio and leave a rating and review in the podcast app you listen from to help spread the word about Weird Darkness and Retro Radio Sunday. And a huge thanks to our friends at ClassicRadioStore.com for generously providing the old time radio shows you hear on Weird Darkness Retro Radio Sunday. Remember you can save 20% on all of the ClassicRadioStore.com shows by using the promo code weird at checkout. The rest of the week I narrate new stories of the paranormal or strange stories, true crime, monsters and mysteries. So be sure to subscribe to the podcast if you like the show. I upload episodes 7 days a week. You can email me anytime and find all of my social media links on the contact page at WeirdDarkness.com. Also on the website you can listen to free audiobooks that I've narrated, shop the Weird Darkness store, sign up for the newsletter to win monthly prizes and more. Weird Darkness is a production and trademark of Marlar House Productions. Copyright Weird Darkness. I'm Darren Marlar. Thanks for joining me in Weird Darkness.


Hello everybody, E here. Welcome back to another book review. Today, we are talking about spontaneous human combustion by Richard Thomas. And no, not the Richard Thomas that played John Boyd Walton. Someone on Goodreads said that and it made me chuckle. But no, Richard Thomas is a seasoned professional, is author of like 150 short stories and three novels, award-winning, all that stuff. And he deserves all the all those awards from what I can tell from this book because the TLDW is, there's this, this collection is damn near perfect. This is now my number three favorite collection of all time, just below Clive Barker's Books of Blood and Mariana Enriquez's Things We Lost in the Fire. I loved every single story in here except for one and even that story was well written. I just didn't like the mythos and we'll get that, we'll get to all that here in a second. But first off, I want to say this. On the front, Chuck Pollanick says, in range alone, Richard Thomas is boundless. I agree with that. He says he is Lovecraft, he is Bradbury, he is Gaiman. I don't, I don't necessarily agree with any of those except for maybe Bradbury because he's far more interesting than Lovecraft and Gaiman writes a very, not a very simplistic, it's deceptively simplistic, but a very simplistic, he has a very simplistic style of writing and Richard Thomas does not. If anything, I would say he's more and this is a compliment coming from me. I know a lot of people give this author crap and ignore the genius that he actually was, but he, but Thomas is more David Foster Wallace meets Cormac McCarthy meets, let's see here, there was someone, oh, Clive Barker. Those three authors, I think, are closer, well, Thomas is closer to those three than to anyone else and especially the David Foster Wallace one because of the way he structures his sentences. Especially, I can't remember which story it is, but it is all one. See, it's called Undone. It is all one sentence, five pages, all one sentence with only commas and m dashes. I like stuff like that when an author can be creative enough and has the talent to keep a to keep one sentence going for five pages. That impresses me. I know a lot of people get upset about things like that. But just like to get a fifth set about Cormac McCarthy's lack of not punctuation, quotation marks, because he uses use this punctuation. And Thomas does use quotation marks, although there is very, very little dialogue in this collection. I have not read his longer stuff. I don't know if his novels are more, more dialogue heavy. I'm not sure the novella or novelette toward the back. The Ring of Fire is a it does have a lot of dialogue and it did break up the, you know, the chunk after chunk of text. So that one was far easier to read. In fact, I think I read that 50 page story quicker than some of the 20 page stories just because there was so much dialogue. But anyway, my favorite story in here period hands down is clown face. The the visuals, the atmosphere, everything was so on point. But also it was horribly is like you could feel the sorrow and the the angst coming off of the page. This is a very short story, but I think it's the best one in the collection. My second favorite would probably be Ring of Fire, even though I saw the twist coming. It's still a fantastic story and a great lead up. I think the only reason why I caught the I predicted the end the twist at the end is because, you know, I'm a writer myself and I kind of see where things are going once the way he built it up is something that I might have done. It would have been a path that I would have went down but that's that's beside the point. Other standouts, Notice Tollens, I think it's called. I'll be completely honest with you. I have no idea what half of these story titles mean, and I didn't look them up. But I noticed Tollens is another great one. Saudade, S-A-U-D-A-D-E is great. Let's see here. Let's talk about the one story that I didn't like. And I can't remember was it in his house? Let me let me check. I'm going to go back here to in his house and see if that's yeah. In his house is the only story that I did not like. And the reason I didn't like it is very simple. It has to do with the Cthulhu mythos and it is written as a letter. Two things I absolutely cannot stand. I can't stand HP Lovecraft and I can't stand a Pistolary, a Pistolary, whatever it's called, when things are written in dialogue entries and letters, text messages, that kind of thing. I don't like reading that. I don't I don't know why I don't like reading scripts either. So it's just something about the format that aggravates me. I don't want to be talked to directly like that or reading someone. I'd rather see the action playing out, I guess, is the best way to put it. But there is no action in the story either. It's literally like Clyde Barker's Mr. Be Gone. Whereas like, don't read this book. Don't, you know, don't read this story.  And it's supposedly a letter or an email or whatever it might be. And it has actual quotes from Lovecraft's Cthulhu that that language no one understands. It but that's the only story out of 15 stories that I didn't like. That's insane, usually with collections. It's I would say upwards of five stories or more that I that I won't that'll be OK or I won't like. But this thing is easily as good as Night Shift by Stephen King. It has the range. It's very eclectic. The one thing I'm not sure about the first off the spontaneous human combustion. None of the stories dealt with that, nor were they called that. And also, unless one of those is is in one of those titles is a different language for that, I'm not sure. But the cover has a werewolf in red bursting out and shattering a woman's face or maybe it looks like a werewolf or maybe it's just a wolf. I don't know. Wolves are mentioned throughout the story. But the cover in those gorgeous. I don't does it fit? I don't I don't know. And I'm not one to knock off stars or anything for for cover art. But it's just I don't I don't know. I was looking for a werewolf story and I never got one. So but I got everything else. I got clowns. I got I got all that stuff. In fact, there's two clown stories. And if you read the end notes where he describes why each story got written, I think you'll have fun with it. Please read those after you read the called end notes for a reason. But Richard Thomas does something that I normally do not enjoy in short stories. He is 100 percent about atmosphere.  And that emotion carries all the way through. That is very, very impressive. And I think the lack of dialogue helped that even more because a lot of these have to do with isolation, has to do with solitude and sorrow and not redemption so much, but payment for past crimes. Like there's a lot of stories with that theme, the payment for, you know, the the comeuppance for past crimes. He is also a very obtuse and very vague writer. I had to read certain sections multiple times. I like doing this. If you don't, then, you know, you might want to stay away, but he's such a fantastic writer with so much depth and subtext to every single paragraph, every single line has punched to it. And some would some would call his stuff run on sentences. I don't call it that. There's plenty of punctuation. There's plenty to break it up. And it feels it's just all about inflection. So it feels right in this context. So I'm a huge fan of his style. His style is very Cormac McCarthy, other than he does use quotation marks. I don't want to scare anybody off with that. Very Cormac McCarthy is very stark. But sometimes you have to look closer. You have to look a little bit deeper than what is actually on the page. And I love stuff like that. I love puzzles. I love vague writing as long as it evokes emotion. And every single one of these stories evoked an emotion from me. Even the HP even the Lovecraft one, because I hated it. So every single one of these stories evokes something in me and got a reaction out of me. So this is an easy five star collection. Oh, by the way, Turner Publishing sent me a review copy for this. It has caused no bias. They've sent me books in the past that I haven't liked. But yeah, this one, I would definitely suggest if you are a fan of a fantastic writing and atmosphere, this is going to be the book for you. It is not a book that I suggest you read quickly. In fact, I read two stories a night and then I finished off the odd number with the novella at the end. It was perfect for that is basically the way they have it built up is it's the same amount of time to read two stories every night. So it worked fantastically. Thomas, if you're the if you're the one who set up the list, you did a fantastic job because you really nailed the tone and you nailed the time it would take to read each each each story is basically even if you read two stories a night, because some are on the shorter side, some are on the longer side. Sometimes those two stories would be the same length. So it is just something I enjoy when authors take that into consideration and whether or not he did take that into consideration.  But have you read spontaneous human combustion by Richard Thomas? If you have, let me know down there in the doobly-doo.  But if you felt any of those things, let me know in detail so that we can have a discussion. But until next time, I have been E, you have been you. This has been another book review. I'll talk to you guys later. Bye bye.


Hi guys, my name is Jen. I absolutely love crafting. I absolutely love it during Christmas time And I'm gonna show you in today's tutorial how to make these these are so cheap and easy So I sold these last year, but I used actual vinyl this time I'm subbing on this and I sold these for $5 you can make this whole thing for under 50 cents And I'm gonna show you how you have to stay tuned till the end All right, so I'm starting in design space I'm gonna go to my upload button and I'm gonna find these images I'm gonna go to view all and all these images that I have here I actually purchased from the dollar bundle deals from design bundles So these are ones that I specifically picked up to make these with so you're naughty little poop Wish you nothing but Merry Christmas. These are really cute So I got all of these and I thought they were really cute So I'm actually gonna grab every one of these so if you're not Familiar with the dollar deals from design bundles if you always if you come to my channel and you check out the community section Every time there's a dollar deal going on I post about it It's something that you do not want to miss because like I said You can get all of these for a buck a piece and I even save more money because I use honey It's just an extension on firefox that I have and every time I buy something online. It takes off money I'm not promoting it or anything. I'm just saying if you want to save some extra money It's definitely something to look into so what I'm doing is I'm just making these a little bit smaller So we could see each one here that we're going to be working with and just get a better idea of what they're gonna look like So there are quite a few but with honey. I was able to set save 15 cents on each one of these doesn't sound like a lot but from a dollar going to 85 cents per one I love saving money. So that's an extra way to be able to do that. So if you're interested in it I will leave a link down below. You can sign up under me and you'd help me save even more money So I would appreciate that if you're not already a user I would appreciate it if you would do it under my name. So going forward with this. These are the ones that I'm going to be using Basically the only thing I want to do with this is I'm gonna shrink my screen since there are so many of these And I'm trying to get as many as I can because when I print this off It's gonna put hopefully three on a page. So I'm trying to cut out as many as I possibly can I'm still new to subbing So if you guys know something that I don't know or you know if I'm doing something improper Please let me know. I'm not a type of person. That's gonna take anything badly So if I'm doing something and I can improve it or I can help others Please do let me know I am brand new to subbing. So this is kind of new to me as well But I'm just kind of teaching you guys as I go along So with that being said the toilet paper I'm actually using I bought from Dollar General And trying to find one really quick. It is called a smart and simple bath tissue It's a dollar for six rolls granted these rolls are not that big But still you know, it's a buck for six rolls You can't go wrong to make this whole project it cost under 50 cents and last year I did sell these with the actual vinyl not subbing on it and I sold mine for $5 a piece So you're gonna be making about $4.50 on each one that you sell if you choose to go the route pay $5 a piece So the only thing I want to do is change the size on here And I know mine is roughly gonna be three by three So I don't really want to go over that size and you want to always check the size of your rolls because they could be different than mine So I don't want you to do three by three and then you're like, oh, it didn't fit minor It was too small So I always want to make sure that you're getting the right size for it So I'm just gonna take each one of these and kind of look because my screen is shrunk I meant 75% it's gonna look a little bit smaller So I'm gonna go up here actually and change this to be three And I'm automatically gonna leave this locked here because I don't want to skew it at all So if I go back, I'm gonna show you the full screen here. This is going to be a lot bigger So it's a lot bigger than what it looks like before I'm actually gonna do these. I think it was four by four So I think I'm actually gonna change this to be four just to make it a little bit bigger and get the most out of each One so again, I didn't unlock it I'm just leaving it because if I do four by four and it's gonna skew it and it's not gonna look good I just want to make sure I'm not going over the four by four here So I'm just gonna go ahead and do each one of these just change them each to four and again, please go and measure your Toilet paper as funny as that sounds Because I don't want to tell you one thing and then you go and do it and you're like, yeah, it was too small So I'm gonna shrink my screen again so we can see all these this one's finished. This one's done I'm gonna go ahead and fast forward this you guys don't have to watch me do this But this is just how I'm going to be doing it. Oh see example right here So this is four and I went over to the height is four point four to one too high it's not going to fit so this case I actually am going to unlock it and Shrink it up a little bit because I do not want to go over that four by four So I'm gonna go ahead and finish all of these but in case you get something like that Just make sure that you're checking each one All right, so I'm done with all of these perfect size what I want I'm gonna go into each one and push flatten and that's gonna print then cuts you see it changes on the side here So here's this one here So I'm gonna push flatten as you see it changes on here and it changes it to print then cuts So if you look how it looks here and then once I push flatten it changes it So I'm gonna go ahead and do that for each one of these All right, so now I have them all done. I have them Flattened so it's gonna print then cut I have it all the size I want I'm gonna go to make it Then hopefully I'm gonna get two to three images off each piece of paper, so we will see okay, so I'm gonna get two All right So here guys is where I struggle if somebody knows please let me know if I'm missing something or doing something wrong I know that the black marks here that cricket is going to read this when it cuts it out the issue I've been having previously is It would cut out each piece like this like the eyes separately the mouth separately Snowman separately it would cut all this out individually. I'm having a problem with that and I'm not sure if you guys can help me So what I've been doing is taking this bringing it down a little bit Just so I can actually have this printed out on my piece of paper But then I take a scissors and I just cut it out and get rid of the black lines and all that so I just take this part right here, I'll cut it out after it's done printing and Put it on the toilet paper itself. So what I'm using actually is I just purchased a new eco tank. It's the eco tank 2803 and it works really well. You just have to make sure that you change Don't actually put in the regular ink that comes with it, but you have to purchase Subbing ink so make sure that you do that so I mean anybody knows what I'm missing here Please do let me know this is how I do it I just separate it a little bit here so I could take my scissors and cut in between if somebody knows an easier way Please let me know that the so that Cricut will be able to cut it out for me But that's what I'm do with each one of these whoop this one got three on here So I'm just gonna make a little bit of space for each one The other thing that you have to do is mirror your image on each one of these because when you're using HTV or when you Ironing anything on you always want to make sure that you mirror your image. So I want to do that too Then I'm going to go and cut this out So I'm gonna click continue and I'm gonna send it to the printer So then it's gonna send it to whatever printer you have on here on file So I'm gonna select my printer and I'm gonna print this out and then I'm gonna show you what it looks like after it's done printing So I'm gonna click it here. I'm gonna show you really quick So this is my new one that I have and when I have this on I always turn this off I've tried it a couple different times. It just makes it look a lot better So try it one way try it without but I always take the bleed off on here I'm gonna be using my hippo subbing paper and I'm gonna show you what it looks like after it's done printing All right, so I have something I want to tell you guys so I actually did a video on this and I was going to leave it as it was but I want to be honest with you guys and Let you guys know a few things. So when I was already doing this I had parchment paper down and I wanted to show you the design actually goes right through my toilet paper onto the parchment paper Unfortunately, it went on to my actual heat press here that I'm using So please when you're using a heat press and iron and easy press and mini press whatever you're using Please put something down besides your Teflon paper Because it will go through so I'm just wanting to be honest with you guys It's right there so you can see it. So I'm actually gonna turn this I have my part in my Teflon paper down and then I'm gonna put actually a piece of parchment paper But another thing really quick like it. Whoops. All right, I'll get into it Like I said, I wanted to be honest with you I already did this video and I tried something that I had read and it really does work a lot better Okay, so I have two done right here the same images same toilet paper same temperature same Pressure everything so I don't know how well it shows up on camera But right here you can see it didn't really work as well and the colors not as a vibrant right here As you can see up here Please take this at your own risk This is why I was really thinking if I should say anything or not, but I'm telling you to learn with me So this one I did not use hairspray this one. I used hairspray. I know it sounds funny Especially with heat. That's why I was kind of should I say something or not? But realistically if you want something to look better, this is the one with the heat This is the one without this one does not look as nice I actually did a few other ones before I even tried the hairspray I don't know how well it's showing up, but this is not Divibrant at all. I'm actually going to be taking this off and starting over So take it at your own risk. I'm just warning you. It's hairspray. You have heat So just be very very careful with that being said. I'm using my heat press right here Here are my files that I cut out Like I said, I printed this out on the hippo Subbing paper came out really pretty so your colors are not going to be as vibrant until you actually use heat on it So this is what they look like I cut out the black Bars and I'm sorry. I don't have it because it's like I said I already did a video on this but I trashed it to give you guys the Option to try the hairspray. So this is what they look like if you guys know Please share with me because I'm new to subbing How to get cricket to cut them out individually like this I get the black lines around it when I print but then when I use cricket it cuts out each piece So this nose would cut out the little black Would cut out here the words would cut out it wouldn't cut out this whole file So the way I did is I just printed it out to on each paper and I cut it out with a scissors by myself So I'm gonna show you really quick how to do this like I said up to you Please if something happens don't hold me liable for this and just telling you what I read and what I've tried I've done a few without the hairspray and it really does not turn out very well So I'm just using some parchment paper. I don't want to ruin my Teflon any more than I already did so I laid this down I have my heat press set at 400 degrees for 60 seconds. I take dollar tree This is actually dollar general. I'll show you the bag really quick. It's kind of ripped open But you get the gist. It's dollar general toilet paper. I get six rolls for a dollar What I do is open it up Rip this sticky part off. So you start brand new flip it upside down and then go in a few squares and Then lay it down. So realistically I want to do like the first or second square So I'm gonna lay that one down I'm gonna get another one on here as well like this one this one didn't turn out as well either So I'm actually gonna rip this one off as well And start new and try the hairspray Oops one thing before you want to do this and I'm gonna do it away from the camera So it's not going by my heat press is actually put hairspray on it. So again Do at your own risk. It's just regular hairspray. I'm gonna hold it away from My heat press and I'm just gonna spray down one side Not a lot not getting it wet just a few sprays Like I said, I'm sorry. I have to do off-camera, but I'm not doing around my heat press I'm gonna take this one and just do the same thing. I'm just gonna spray Lightly and Then I'm gonna put it on here again I'm warning you do this at your own risk because it is heat and Hairspray and heat do not get along So I'm gonna take my file. I'm gonna do a different one I'm gonna do this one and I'm gonna show you what it looks like.  I even cut this too big So do not go off of what I say because your toilet paper could be a different size than mine So I'm gonna do the same thing take this one flip it and put it on here again a little bit too big For it, but live and learn, right? I'm gonna take another piece of parchment paper And I'm gonna lay this over it Again, if you have a heat press if you have an easy press Whatever you have You're gonna want to do this because you don't want that ink to bleed through again. I have my heat press set at 400 for 60 seconds I'm gonna push this down and I want to say heat press because I had easy presses I have these little show you really quick I have two of these little guys and by the time you hold it down on there It's it just takes forever. So I just have those in my drawer. I love my heat press I've had this for over two and a half years now. I absolutely love it have never had an issue with it and Just really highly recommend it. So if you're looking for something, I would suggest this I'm not trying to sell you anything, but this is the what I've had for the last two and a half years And they absolutely love it. It's a fancier studio. It's a 15 by 15 The price fluctuates. I got mine for I think 150. I think I've seen it for like 200 now So if you're interested just I will leave a link down below in case you're interested in it But I do have 16 seconds left. I'm gonna let this go and then I'm gonna show you what it looks like when it's done Okay, so it's done.  Oh Yeah, that's definitely a much better So you're gonna want to throw this out because you can't use it more than once your ink is already transferred hot So just be careful Oh, yeah, that is yeah, honestly a lot a lot a lot better So I'm gonna wrap this up and I'm gonna show you what it looks like And I'll show you the bottom too because actually like I said a blood right through I think it's cuz my toilet paper is very thin, but that is much better I don't know if I have one already. I Don't I already tore it off, but it was not as vibrant as this This is much much better So to finish it off You just want to take a piece of glue or piece of tape whatever even like a glue dot and stick it there So it stays in place and then at the end of this I will show you what I do with that I just take a dollar store bag put it in there But I sell these I sold these last year for five dollars, but I put vinyl on it This honestly cost me under 50 cents from start to finish buying the toilet paper the transfer the hippo subbing paper and Yeah, the bag so it's it's under 50 cents to make this So if I sell these I make four dollars fifty cents on it It's really awesome cuz it's really doesn't take that long So there's that one and I'm gonna wrap this one up and I'm gonna show you this one But definitely the hairspray honestly it worked a lot better But again at your own risk don't put it by any heat But this is what this looks like and then I'll show you the bottom So it went right through again There you go So you always want to make sure you put one on the top and the bottom really important because you don't want everyone Your heat press or whatever you're using so I'm gonna go ahead and finish your rest up that I have here But this is what they look like and Then this one so it's definitely a lot more vibrant I do on this one see a little bit of shadowing so I think when I pulled my heat press up I moved some of the I moved the paper So you have to be careful with that that you grab your paper right away But don't reuse it after you're done this one did did just fine You can see there's no shadowing or anything on this one So I'm gonna finish these up that was just how to do it again If you want to use a hairspray go ahead and do it but just be very very careful So I'm gonna finish mine up and then I'll show you what they look like when they're all finished and packaged These are really simple to make it costs under 50 cents to make them So you're gonna use this smart toilet paper from Dollar General. It was a dollar for six of these So I normally sell these for five dollars a piece It took me about 50 cents to make it from start to finish So you're gonna make four dollars and 50 cents on each one that you sell if you choose to go the route of Subbing on it and selling it for five dollars. I just bought some bags from the Dollar Tree I think there was like 50 bags in here for a dollar and then the tissue and then the subbing paper I wanted to show you really quick the subbing paper that I did actually end up using this is from hippo I have a bunch of stuff from hippo. I absolutely love their brand I love their products everything that they sent me to try out. I absolutely love so if you need subbing paper I would suggest this this is what I used in today's video if you have any questions Leave them down below But hit that subscribe button and leave me some comments and let me know how I'm doing happy holidays and happy crafting


What I want to talk about is about the economic transition and the income equality in China. So I will focus on three topics. Firstly is that I will present some evidence on the features, changes in the income equality in China in the past three decades. The second issue is how to explain the rising income equality in China. The last one I will talk about some of the policy recommendations for reducing income equality in China. So when I come to the conference a lot of people ask me how is the income equality in China is still rising or not. So I will say that income equality has been raised in all aspects. They have been rising in the urban area, also rising in the rural area, and the rising in the China as a whole. So let me give you some evidence to say that. So in the urban China you will see this picture that is Gini coefficient of the income equality. So from the beginning of the economic reform to the last two years. So you will see that the Gini coefficient in urban areas has been rising over time. And the Gini increased from 0.15 in the 78 and to the 0.35 in the 2011. So also if you want to calculate the income ratios of the top desire to the bottom desire you will see that the ratio increased significantly in the rural area. You will find same patterns in the rural areas. So Gini increased from 0.2 at the end of 70 to the 0.4 in the 2011. So the income ratio of top desire to the bottom desire increased magnificently, you will see. That is the income equality in the rural and urban areas. Yeah, let's come to the China as a whole. For the Gini coefficient you will see that it was 0.4, the less than 4 in the 88. Now you are close to 0.4 at something like that. Income ratios of the top desire to the bottom desire increased from 13 times in the 88 to the 23 times in 2007. So that is the figure, you will see that. That comes with a different estimate. Some estimates come from the World Bank and some estimates come from the National Bureau of Statistics. So if you just look at the changes in the Gini in the last three years, you will find that it's slightly decreased in the last three years. So that is come to the questions. How we should assess the recent trend of the income equality. So whether the China is reaching the Christmas turning point, all the China is reaching the turning period, the not-to-point is period. Also as some argument by some report published in China. But in my opinion it's hard to say the China is reaching to Christmas point. I still think the China is still in the stage of rising income equality. Why? So that depends, that we're concerned about how we should assess how large income equality in China. So whether you say income equality is rising or falling, it will depend on several elements that. The first is that how you define household income, you say the different estimates use the difference, the definition of household income, or the second the issues is related to the rural, urban, the migrants include or not because the large size of rural migrants live in urban area. Since SSB's estimate do not include rural migrants as urban population, that may lead to underestimate the gene coefficient. The third one that we know that all the estimates of the gene or income equality index will based on the household samples. The waste is very important, you use the different waste, you will get a different result. The last issue is about whether you will be used the regional PPP or not because the living cost in rural is much cheaper than in the urban area, if the living cost is high in the coastal area than in the western area. So that means if we want to get comparable income definitions, we should use the PPP to make some adjustment. So when we want to consider these elements, we will get a different estimate. So we estimate the gene by using the difference, the household definition, also use the different waste, also we include or exclude the rural migrants. So then we get the difference estimate for the gene coefficient. So also when we use the PPP, as you mentioned, the PPP index is evaluated by Lauren Brand and his colleagues. So we use that, also we get the difference estimate. To sum up the result we got from our estimations, we will find that if we do not use the regional PPP, so we will get the gene coefficient ranging from 0.47 to 0.45. So if we use the PPP, regional PPP, we will get lower the gene coefficient. So that means if we find some slight increase in the gene coefficient in recent years, we cannot make a judgment whether that increase is real or not. That will depend on how you estimate the gene coefficient. So but in the long term, China has facing the rising income inequality. There is no doubt about that. My second topic is that how to explain the rising income inequality. I will focus on the four elements that the first is that there are some significant differences of the income between urban and rural areas. The second is that is some original, some mobility and monopoly in economic sectors that will be explained, some large difference. The third way is that the rising returns to education. That means the income gap between our single work and the single work has been increasing over time. The last way is corruption that is related to the rising income inequality, also related to the income equity issues. So when we talk about the income inequality, usually we like to talk about the income inequality in rural areas and urban areas separately because China has been the country with a big rural and urban divide. So in the past 50 years, there is a difference. The policies have been implemented for rural and urban areas. So that means there is some significant difference between the urban and rural areas in terms of income and social security and public services access or reflecting the government policy and the political institutions discriminating against the rural people. So it's still very large, the income gap between rural and urban households. Also the big income gap between rural and urban areas play a very important role in explaining the rising income inequality in China as well. You see, first you just look at the income gap between rural and urban households. In the last three decades, you will find there are some fluctuations, but since 1977, you will find the urban and rural income gap has been rising. But just till the 2010, in the last three years, there's some slight difference, but the level is still very high. So when we talk about the importance of rural and urban income gap in China as a whole, you can do some decomposition. If we do the tailoring decomposition, we will find the importance of the proportion of the rural and urban gap in the total inequality has been rising from 1988 to 2007. And at this moment, you will find the income gap between rural and urban is over 50% of the total income inequality in China as a whole. Also you can use the different methods to decompose the total inequality with the same and between the rural areas. The method is based on decomposition of the gene and regression analysis. In 2002, you will find the rural and urban divide explain about near the 40% of the total income inequality in China. So the second element related to the rising income inequality is about uncompleted market reforms. I will say that that is when inequality is about rising regional disparities. China as a whole controls the large regional difference between east and west areas. You will see that the coefficient of variation of the household income per capita among the provinces has been rising particularly in the 90s. But recently it has been slightly decreased. If you just look at the regional inequality at the lower level, at the city level, you will find the monthly wage at the different cities is so big indeed. The city with the lower wages is about 500. The higher wages is three or four times higher than the lower cities. Also you can do some decomposition based on regression analysis that provincial domains can explain 10 to 12% for urban inequality in 2002. So that means the original inequality is a very important role. So also when we come to the wage difference between different economic sectors, monopolistic sectors have high income and the wages. If you compare some monopoly sectors like the banking and the insurance company, like some public sectors compared to manufacturers, you will find the relative wage has been increased significantly over time. So also if you try to do some decomposition, you will find monopoly sector and the competitive sector, you will find the segmentation, you will have become more and more important in explaining the regional and no sectoral income inequality. Also the third element relative to rising income inequality is returns to education by the recent, even with the expansion of the higher educations. So we will find return to education increased over times that will lead to the rising, the income, the gap between skill and unskilled works. So also some decomposition analysis indicated the education to play a more and more important role in explaining the rising income inequality in global areas. Now we will come to corruption and inequality. There are a lot of questions which I cannot answer. Why? Because we do not have the data to show how large inequality can be explained by corruption. But there is no doubt, corruption will increase income inequality, but how large it will be is still a mystery. So we still show more research on this issue. Finally, what kind of policy recommendation? I proposed the number of policies for the Chinese government. Some of the policy recommendations have been accepted by the government. Some new policies have been implemented to reduce the income inequality. But how it will be effect, it will depend on how stress of the policy, how you say deeply the policy will be involved, you say that we will find, perhaps we can find some evidence in the near future. So I should finish here. Thank you.


Alright, well, thanks Julianne, I would appreciate that introduction and I'm sorry that John Richardson couldn't be here today. Yes. Unwell. That's a shame, but I really appreciate the opportunity that you've visited InterPost to come out and create some members of the state governments, business communities, universities and so on. So I have been on a six city tour if you like and this is my last stop. So I've been on the road for a couple of weeks, engaging with a whole range of different government departments in the states, whole range of businesses and also peak bodies and of course educational and cultural organisations that have some sort of involvement with the South China region. And what I'm trying to do as part of my visit this time is really to highlight why I think, well why DFAT thinks and the government thinks that South China matters much more than ever before to Australia. And we have a vision for engaging the South China region and I want to outline that to you today and explain a few of the things that we've been doing, especially over the past year or so, to adapt our priorities in line with the changing needs and opportunities in the region. Now I don't need to convince any of you about the importance of China and I'm not going to try and do that. I know that you're already or very strongly engaged with China, but I just want to talk a little bit about South China. Julia I mentioned we look after several provinces in South China from the consulate in Guangzhou. The main one of course is Guangdong province. Guangdong being the largest province in economic terms in China. But we also look after a fair bit of provinces around the edges of Guangdong. That includes Fujian and Hunan. Hunan being the only inland province that we are responsible for. We also look after Hainan Island which some of my colleagues think is very upbeat. And we've got Guangxi and Yunnan to the west. So my observation has been over a long period of time. I want to how long of working and living in China over the years is that the South China region has been relatively, I think, misunderstood and for the most part overlooked by a lot of stakeholders in Australia, including myself for many years. And most of us probably know Guangzhou, for example, through the annual pilgrimages to the Canton Fair. Has anybody ever been to the Canton Fair? Yes, a few. But for the most part there's been a general rush to engage China through the windows of the bigger cities of Beijing and Shanghai and the eastern seaport. But my view is that Guangzhou and South China in general, while it was probably aptly described as a bit of an ugly duckling in the past, is really blossoming into a pretty good looking swamp these days. And all you have to do is look at the way the Australian government is increasing its resources in the South China region. We are expanding. It's one of the few places in the world where we are increasing our resources in line with the opportunities and the challenges there. And now Guangzhou, Australia, Australia and Guangzhou is now the second largest mission out of about 45 consular missions in that area. Now I don't want to give you too many statistics as that gets a bit boring, but I do want to put some of this in context and give you a sense of the scale for those of you who aren't as familiar with the Southern China region. If you take those six provinces that I was talking about, they account for a quarter of the whole population of China. And they also make up about 17% of our bilateral trade. Now Guangzhou province itself has the highest GDP of any province, or of any provincial economy. It's a bit over 900 billion US dollars, which I think based on recent statistics might be a near equivalent of a country like Indonesia. So the scale is enormous. Other provinces are getting pretty close and they're breathing down Guangzhou's neck, if you like. But the province still produces about a quarter of China's exports. Uninviably, it has the widest gap between the rich and poor of any province. So it's not all good. There's also pockets of poverty there. Talking about wealth, if you look at the state-owned enterprise sector in Guangzhou, the assets of that sector alone in that province are worth something like around a trillion Australian dollars. So I just want to also not just dwell on the economic, but briefly mention the fact that there are very substantial people ties that we have with that region. Of course, South China migrants have been coming here for more than 150 years. These days we tend to process something like 100,000 visas a year for people from South China who wish to visit Australia. At the same time, there are about the same number of visits from Australians into Guangzhou each year. So we're on a pretty even keel there. The number of Australians that are living in our consular district has increased by about 40% since the last election. So there's substantial growth in interest by Australians in coming to that part of the world to live, to work, to study. There are more students also from Guangdong, more Chinese students from Guangdong than from any other province in China coming into Australia to study. So they are a major source of student base for our educational institutions. At the moment we believe there's more than 800 Australian business entities registered in Guangdong problems, but we think the real number of Australian decent people working there is much higher than that. There are of course many businesses being run by Australians. So that gives you a bit of a flavour and just moving on to talking a bit about the economy, because I know that's always in the papers and it's always in front of mind for us. Just looking out from the window of South China, what's really happening in the trade and investment relationship with Australia? Well I think that this is a complex time for South China's economic managers. Of course we've still got ongoing weakness in the global economy and that's contributed in that region to struggling exports, slow down of GDP, asset bubbles and of course social tensions that we see from the rising wealth gap. But the effects of the most recent economic downturn I think have been much more nuanced and much more varied in South China. And that compares to just a few years earlier during the global financial crisis when there was a general downturn across industries in China. But now what we see is that certain areas of the country are growing while others are perhaps standing still or still in downturn. There's also a marked difference that we see between different sectors and industries. So there's a lot of grey in there now, it's not really as black and white as it used to be. Now for example just to give you a bit of a flavour of one of our provinces, the south-east and coastal province of Fujian. I don't know whether or not you've visited Fujian before, but it's traditionally been seen as a bit of a backwater and a bit of a favourite spot for the smuggling trade. But I was really interested to read recently that the high-tech industry out in Fujian last year exceeded 1 trillion RMB and that was an expansion of something like 15% and it made up for about 20% of the Fujian economy. So that was pretty interesting. And in Guangdong province there's a definite refocus of policy, of economic policy that we're seeing towards this much-talked-about economic rebalancing. That's also happening as a natural reaction to the weakness in export markets that's happening across China. The South Chinese are pretty well known for being innovative and adaptable and that's partly because provinces like Guangdong and Fujian rely a lot more heavily on the private sector, on the private economy than other parts of China. And I think in the next few years there are predictions that the private sector will make up something like 45% of Guangdong's economy. So it's quite substantial and a big change. There are of course a handful of major companies, global Fortune 500 companies in South China and it's also a hub for SMEs including many Australian SMEs. Because of this structure of the economy during the GFC there was a lot of blood on the factory floor, so to speak and including in the private sector. They really did have a very bad year in 2012 and there have been significant problems in the economic sector. The companies that are surviving or that did survive these lean times we think seem to have emerged towards recovery much faster than perhaps other regions. And they've re-emerged with more efficient operating models because, as I said, they tend to be very innovative and adaptable in South China. So while the business sector in South China really, really took it on the chin I think they've been able to get up again faster. And to give you an example, I want to talk about Dongguan. Has anyone heard of Dongguan or been there? Okay, I thought some of you might have been there because of course the then Premier of Victoria was in Dongguan last year and on his super trade mission. So many of you might have been involved with that. But Dongguan, for those of you who don't know, is a bit of a patchwork of factory towns. It's about halfway between Guangzhou and Hong Kong and it's been called the world's factory floor for a better part of 30 years. And for a long time it's been one of Guangzhou's most prosperous cities and if you looked back to about 10 years ago you'd see that the GDP there was approaching 20% on average each year. So super fast growth. And for a long time, most economists looked at Dongguan as a bit of a bell-lever for what was going on in the export sector in China. But I don't believe it's as black and white as that anymore. And the reason is because last year when the global economy was back in the Daldrums Dongguan's economic growth slowed to just 2.5%. That was the worst performing city in Guangdong province which is quite telling. So if you take Dongguan as your standard or as a mine canary you would have said, looking at those figures, that China was in for a pretty hard landing. And a lot of economists including Australian economists who travelled to the region to have a bit of a look around and saw what was going on drew this exact conclusion. But interestingly enough, if we fast forward to 2013 and we look at the results for Dongguan City in the first quarter of this year there's been a pretty robust and fast recovery in manufacturing with GDP up again to 8.6%. So more than 7% more than it was in the same period last year. So more importantly what we see is that the growth in investment in that city was up 32% in that period. So there's quite a bit of momentum in recovery there. This is quite a confusing picture and it's hard to see what you make of it. But what I think it might show is that the Pearl River Delta region is in transition and it's already on its way to becoming a more diverse and dynamic economy. In that province there's a very conscious policy to transition the economy and what has been a largely labour intensive model into more capital intensive higher value economy. This process is going on now. We can see they're in the middle of it. It's going to take time and we're going to see ups and downs while it's happening. So I think it's a pretty interesting situation. It doesn't mean that export processing is going to completely vanish from that region. But I think what it does mean is that we can't take the export sector or the export processing sector as the main bellweather anymore for what has become an increasingly complex regional economy. And it's reflected in the feedback that we get from all the provinces that we work with and of course that you work with in your roles as well about the sort of cooperation they're looking for from Australia. Because almost every provincial government that we speak to say to us they have a desperate need to grow their tertiary sector and to develop newly emerging areas of the economy in which Australia's got a lot of strengths. So for example in Fujian province we know they want to work with Australia to harness our food safety technologies. They're doing a lot of work in this area in Fujian and they have a big agricultural industry which they're trying to modernise. In Hainan they've shown interest in our organic farming and also in our ocean industries for obvious reasons. In Hunan province it's our environmental services agenda that's really in demand. And in Guangdong it's fair to say that Australia's very strong R&D and technological expertise is of great interest to that province as it continues to develop its advanced manufacturing. And as the largest source of Chinese students to Australia of course Guangdong is seeking closer cooperation with Australian education institutions including it hopes to get a campus in Guangdong at some stage. And in the tourism sector what we see is that direct aviation links between Australia and Guangdong have grown four times in just three years. So we've now got something like 38 direct flights a week to Guangdong from various cities around Australia. Again demonstrating the strength of our two-way tourism cooperation growing and so on and so on it goes. I think South China offers all of us a wide variety of diverse opportunities and it has a wide variety of diverse economies but it can't be all things to all people and we live in a world of limited resources. So it's really just a question I think of knowing that there are opportunities out there but they're looking for what you want to focus on and target. I'm going to talk very very briefly about something that a lot of people when they talk about China mentioned which is of course urbanisation and demographic change and of course that's one of the big tailwinds that's driving China's economy and it's driving our engagement there. So we've got factors like the declining agricultural labour force we've got an ageing population we've got a one child policy and so on and these trends are going to continue to derive in my view a demand for our traditional trade in raw materials but we all know that that's gone off the boil a little bit and so this trend, the urbanisation trend fortunately is also going to drive increasing demand for things like clean technology for South China's cities for high quality agricultural products that address people's real concerns about food safety because there are food scares almost every week and for things like energy saving design for more comfortable living which is now demanded by the middle class as well as advanced health and medical services and aged care services and not to mention of course professional services of all kinds like accountancy and finance and logistics things that people demand more and more as they move into an urbanised lifestyle. I think as a Victorian I'm happily observed that I think a lot of these sectors are obvious strengths of the Victorian economy and the federal government's been very active in supporting state government relationships with China across the southern provinces. More broadly, over the past year we've initiated a number of new projects that I believe will benefit Victorian businesses and I want to spend a little bit of time now outlining those to you. Of course you're probably aware that back in April the Trade Minister launched a new business initiative the first one ever actually with a Chinese province so it's quite significant. It's called the Australian Guangdong Business Cooperation Council so it is a special business council that we've set up with Guangdong province involving a handful of companies about 10 companies on each side that will provide a platform for businesses from both countries not just to build networks and talk about common issues but we also hope, given Guangdong's reputation for reform and innovation we hope that it's going to come up with a few runs on the board in some sectors of interest to Australia. We want to get some practical outcomes out of the council. We also want to harness a critical mass of Australian businesses in the services sector that we see as particular opportunities there and other emerging areas of opportunity and I want all of you to know about this development because perhaps you might in the future have an interest in participating in the council. The membership of this council will rotate through time and will be taking expressions of interest from businesses and from industry bodies that would like to participate. So please spread the word around to other business people that you know and other bodies that you think might be relevant will benefit from this. I'm also keen to get ideas from the business sector and from government for things that we can put on the table for the council things that have to be feasible things that have to be achievable in a place like Wondong. Following that development in April we of course know that the Prime Minister visited Highland Island for the Burwell Forum at around the same time and made a number of important announcements and I'm sure you'll know already about the lifting of our relationship to a strategic partnership the announcement about annual dialogues between leaders and senior ministers and so on. But at that time you also will be aware that the government announced direct trading between the Australian dollar and the renminbi which we hope will make it easier for Australian companies like some of you here or those who represent the business sector here to buy and sell into the Chinese market and to promote two-way investment. On this note I'd be really interested to get your feedback as those who are directly involved in doing business on how you think this is playing out here in Australia and in your business relationships. As you know Wondong is one of the biggest sources of China's investment into Australia. Investment again is another topic that's always in the news. But I think that we've taken for granted for a very long time the potential and the level of investment interest that is coming out of South China. Recently we were very fortunate to have a visit, a road show in China by the FERB and the reason why I say we've taken South China for granted is because this is the very first time that the FERB has ever conducted a road show in that part of China which is an interesting fact in itself. And it shows I think that we are now much more engaged in harnessing this potential from that part of China. Australia's still the number one destination for South China's outbound investment. I talk to investors just about every day and I really am convinced that investors that we see do see Australia as a very good proposition. They see us as an reliable supplier. They see us as a stable democracy, a well-regulated business environment, good banking systems and legal systems in place. They see us as a holistic package because we are also a very liveable environment. We're a great place for migration. We're a great place to send your kids to study. That adds up to a really good package. The visit by the FERB was a really good chance to drive that home again. But also to hear the perspectives of the business sector in all of our provinces across South China about what they don't like about Australia and what are the issues around investing in Australia. For example, the fact that we are a high-cost economy but of course the answer to that is that yes, we make no apologies for that. We are a high-cost economy but we also have very significant advantages which I think is recognised. It was a good chance to dispel a few myths, particularly about how open we are towards foreign investment. Now that was a pretty interesting discussion. China's usually regarded, if you read the newspapers in Australia, you probably think China's a really big player in our investment landscape. But looking at the figures, you'll see that its involvement is actually far lower than the general perception. Investment from China has risen something like eight times up above the past decade. Sounds pretty impressive. But still, China only ranks as the ninth-largest investor in Australia overall. It accounts for something like 1% of our total foreign investment stock and 3% of our FDI stock. So those are not terribly large figures. And I'll say it again until I'm blue in the face and I know that you've probably heard this many times, but we've never knocked back an investment proposal from China, a firm investment proposal from China. We've put conditions on a few but we've never knocked one back. And when we say this to our business constituency in South China, they sometimes open mouth because they were not aware of that. And we say consistently to the Chinese community in Guangdong and around the provinces, we want you to invest far more aggressively than you are currently doing. Please lift your game. We've got a whole range of nationally mandated priority sectors and state government priority sectors where we need capital investment. So from the national perspective of course there's things like tourism infrastructure, innovation and clean energy and other major infrastructure, the digital economy, innovation sectors and of course agricultural science and food processing and food technology. That's all I'm going to say about investment but I'm also interested in what you think about that. Lastly, I don't have time. Okay, alright. I'll try not to tell them. Lastly, I just want to talk to you about another interesting thing that we've been doing where you might be able to help us with some outreach. As we've been talking about Australia's growing business and consumer things, growing very well, overwhelmingly positive. However, in recent years what we've seen is that increased trade has resulted in a higher number of commercial disputes. So these disputes are not always just about fights between commercial giants. Often they can have a devastating effect on small companies that are doing business with China. Even with ordinary Australians buying things on the internet is something as simple as that. Small companies are relatively more exposed because they don't have deep pockets and they don't have the legal and other resources enjoyed by the bigger firms. So you might ask, why am I talking about this sort of thing? Why am I talking about commercial disputes, the negative side of trade and investment and the same breath as talking about trade and investment in South China? Well, the simple reason is that the Australian government is very concerned about this because we are frequently called upon to intervene in commercial disputes with China. But very often it is the case that we are unable to assist in any way in these sorts of private commercial matters. So, of course, we're very concerned about this trend. A couple of months ago the government launched a new commercial disputes initiative that's called Doing Business in China. I think that we've already had a presentation down here in Melbourne. I only did the ACVC. Okay. To the ACVC. There's a lot of information on our website. Yes. This is an initiative that we're doing in partnership with peak industry bodies and business organisations, POSACVC being a major partner. And the whole point of it is to help to inform Australian businesses about the opportunities, also about the potential risks of engaging in business in China and how best to manage these risks. It's something we haven't talked about a lot in the past, but now I think we really need to do so. Some of the risks that Australian businesses face in overseas business activity include things like fraud, contract breaches, intellectual property theft, and coming right down to intimidation, threats, restrictions on your movement and even in extreme cases, criminal charges. So disputes are particularly likely to involve SMEs and that's the reason for that is because the smaller companies lack experience in importing generally. They're more likely to enter into informal or thermal business arrangements, which is a complete no-no. They're less likely to inquire about the seller or the other partner that they're dealing with and they're less likely to seek professional legal advice. So what we generally advise is if you can't afford to get legal advice, you should reconsider whether or not China is a good environment for you to be doing business. So the first stage of this initiative is going to involve outreach to Australian companies through business events and seminars and so on, both in Australia and also through our network of diplomatic posts in China. So that's partly what I'd like to do today is to make you aware of that. But the second stage of the initiative will involve some promotion around arbitration options and arbitration causes and commercial contracts. Also to build awareness about the ways to prevent disputes from escalating. So as Juliet said, the Ostray website, I think the DFAT website also links to it here, has a lot of material about this and we encourage if you're interested to go and have a look at it. So essentially what we're all about with our commercial focus down in Moldova is ensuring really that Australian businesses and other players have the best possible chance of succeeding in what is an exciting but I think an increasingly complex market. So I'm going to stop there because I've talked for way too long. So I look forward to your views and if anyone would like to take my business card I'm keen to stay in touch and I'm happy to hear from you at any time and thanks again for doing that. Thank you very much.