And today the scientists are on the verge of beating polio, one of the terrible diseases which affected vast numbers of people, particularly children, around the world leaving them blind or crippled. Last year there were only 16 cases reported (in Pakistan and Afghanistan). It’s possible that this year we might be able to say that polio has also been eliminated.

These terrible killers have been beaten by the combined efforts of governments and dedicated workers. Great achievements – but we still have potential killers out there.

It has been calculated that there are about 15,000 nuclear weapons held by a handful of countries, and recent hints by the leader of North Korea show that the threat of a nuclear war still lingers.

It has been estimated that 100 million people would die in the first half hour alone of a full scale nuclear war. The devastation would have a permanent impact on the planet itself.

That is why the announcement late last year that the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Swedish born activist Beatrice Fihn and her organisation The International Campaign to Ban Nuclear Weapons was so welcome.

Australia, like most countries in the world, spends huge amounts of money on defence – but making plans for war seems so wrong. It would be interesting to know how much Australia contributes towards peace and the elimination of nuclear weapons!

We continue to spend billions on weapons but very little on encouraging peace. We have even reduced our spending on foreign aid but, surely, foreign aid is an important contribution to world peace. It is far better, and cheaper, to have friends in other countries than any spending on so-called ‘defence’, which is usually ‘offence’.

Maybe a genuine government would be contributing large sums to the ICBN organisation. And not only money but by giving it genuine international support.

It won’t be easy to introduce an international ban on nuclear weapons – but it hasn’t been easy to rid the word of smallpox and polio either. Helping the ICBN in its huge task might be better than buying costly submarines.

At this stage the only thing standing between us and a nuclear war is in the hands of that strange man who leads North Korea and America’s Donald Trump. And Mr Trump is followed at all times by a military man with the computer which has the button to be pushed to start a nuclear war. It is his decision alone.

Maybe giving our full support to the ICBN seems a logical choice – but how many of our political leaders would even think that way?

It seems that many of the current opinion writers need lessons in history and evolution. For example, mankind has had about two million years of existence, using a method of reproduction that is similar to all other animals. Until, suddenly, scientists created a simple, cheap and convenient method so the female of the species can decide if, and when, she might produce babies.

That has been the greatest change in mankind’s long history and it happened only a few decades ago. Before that invention the arrival of babies dominated most females’ lives, from the time of puberty to the time many women thought they were past child bearing age.

“But there have always been means of contraception”, they say. That is WRONG. There was no such thing. Even Queen Victoria had nine children. And producing children was a huge problem for any girl or woman unless she had a man to protect and provide for her and her family.

Today’s younger women should talk to their grandmothers and other older women to learn just how tough life was for girls and women. Then they might realise how lucky they are today.

At last the Turnbull Government has agreed to have a Royal Commission on the banks. They really had no option because public opinion was that the government believed that unions were guilty of terrible things, while the big end of town was populated by honest, upright people who could do no wrong.  

The whole concept of a democratic country is that everyone should be treated equally but that doesn’t seem to apply to the top end of town. It’s now 10 years since the global financial collapse caused so many problems worldwide, but it seems that not one person who was responsible for the underhand deals that caused the collapse has appeared before the courts and sent to jail. Why?

Then there are the owners of enterprises who have stolen money from their own employees by deliberately underpaying them. And how about the crooks in the banking and insurance industries? How many of them have even faced court accused of theft? Will a Royal Commission have the power to change this concept that the top end can do no wrong?

It seems there is some sort of agreement that while the rest of us are severely punished and even sent to jail if we break the law, the biggies at their end of town are given some sort of protection. The only answer seems to be the creation of a Federal ICAC with the same sort of powers given to the very effective NSW ICAC.

This would also show the voters that the present government has nothing to hide and that we could put aside those niggly feelings that some politicians believe it has to protect the rich and powerful, even if they act illegally or unfairly in their quest to become even richer and more powerful.

A Royal Commission into the banks is a good start but a Federal ICAC should eliminate those niggly feelings.