At our traditional Christmas event we were pleased to have John R Goodlad as our end-of-year speaker.  In this special lecture, John took his lead from the Ian Drury and the Blockheads song “Reasons to be Cheerful” expanded on what is going right in the world as we enter 2022.  John reflected on noteworthy positive developments to show that it is not all darkness and gloom when it comes to international relations.     John is our Immediate Past President and was a Member of the National Committee of the AIIA for 9 years. He has represented the Institute on various occasions including a lecture at NATO Headquarters,  leading a delegation to the Republic of Korea and participation in at the second track Australia-New Zealand/ASEAN talks in Kuala Lumpur in 2019. He is a former Australian diplomat who served in Thailand and Indonesia and he has a keen interest in the immediate region and Australia’s place in the world. John is the Honorary Consul for Colombia in Western Australia and is on the Committee of the Consular Corps of WA Inc. John is also a Master of International Law from the Australian National University.  He speaks fluent Thai and Indonesian, and some Mandarin, French and Spanish.