The Xander and Nico Pod

Farewell and All That

2010-09-10T17:55:00.000+10:00

Well, this is it. I said, once the Federal election was over, I would wrap up my blog - as I've said in posts over the last few months, I've completely lost my mojo and the timing seems right. But now that the time for the last post is here, I'm not quite sure what to say, except for one thing.

Thank you. Thank you to everyone who's ever read a post, come back to see what else I have written, left a comment (supportive or otherwise!), looked at the photos, followed a link, thought about what I have said. Many of you over the years have said that you've enjoyed what I've written, which has meant the world to me. When I look back at my first post, it doesn't feel like all that long since I wrote it, and yet. When I started this blog, I was 24, living alone in Newcastle, and Xander was a kitten. I'm now in my thirties, married, living in Sydney, and Xander is "mature" according to veterinary standards (which puts a slight lump in my throat when I think about it). Over the last seven years, I've had five jobs, lived in four apartments, covered three Federal elections, made tasteless jokes, infringed copyright and tried to incite violence. It's been a great teacher, both of writing and HTML. But nothing lasts forever, and it's definitely time to go. Thanks again, and I hope to see you all at my new project soon (I'll post the link here when it's ready to go).

Where we attempt to wave goodbye.

The Penultimate

2010-08-26T17:17:00.001+10:00

Best laid plans being worth the blank fields they're typed on, I was intending to do a last-ever post here the day after the election, then finally get started on my new blog.

That plan was predicated on the notion that we'd know who had actually won the damn thing by then.

So, I'm going to keep on keeping on here, and wrap up when this whole electoral mess does. May God have mercy on us all.

Time To Farewell?

2010-08-10T16:53:00.002+10:00

Dear readers. I've been running this blog for nearly seven years now. I never thought it would last this long, not in my worst nightmares. And in recent months, I've hardly been posting at all. This is because I think I've pretty much said everything I have to say. I've complained about politics and every day life as much as they can be complained about. The fact that there's a Federal election upon us and I can't bring myself to write about it is a clue. I've already covered two elections, you know? Makeovers aren't helping; this blog has been through nearly as many colours as my hair over the duration.

So, although it will hurt - a lot - I am thinking of letting the Xander and Nico Pod die a natural death. I want to focus on something else, like an idea for a local photography blog I have in mind. I've got nothing left to say and I can't force it anymore. I think some of what I've written over the years was actually pretty good, but whatever mojo I've had is gone now.

But I'm not certain at this stage. I'm not expecting to be begged to reconsider, but I'd be interested to know if anyone really thinks I should keep going. Doing a token post every now and then to make the ten-year mark is one idea. And if the Coalition win the election, I'm sure my anger will help fuel the sort of half-decent posts that came from my rage during the Howard years. But otherwise I'm not sure I can see the point in continuing, like a sad old pop star who could have retired and their peak, but is just embarrassing themselves now. Actually I'm past my peak. I don't want to become the INXS of blogs.

Once A Socialist

2010-08-08T15:55:00.001+10:00

"The man who is not a socialist at 20 has no heart, but the man who is a socialist at 40 has no brain".

We've all heard that quote. I know I have many times, mainly from people who expect I will grow out of my politics, just as they hope I will grow out of being a Goth. I'm afraid that the latter hasn't happened yet, and I'm guessing the former won't either.

As I get older I'm shifting more to the left, and I'm not alone. Last week I went to see Bob Brown, leader of the Australian Greens, speak at Leichhardt Town Hall (one of the joys of community involvement is spending a lot of time in cold halls eating cake). I expected the audience to be full of dreadlocked student types, but instead the bulk of the crowd was aged between 40 and 60. It could be because students are a bunch of lazy good-for-nothings who didn't want to shell out $15 on a rainy winter night, but I rather think that the more decent people get to look at the world, the more leftist their views become.

The underlying philosophy behind left wing politics is the belief that what happens to other people is as important as what happens to you - the values that Barack Obama spoke of at the 2004 Democratic Convention. The ethos of the conservative, on the other hand, is "Screw you, I've got mine (and I want more)". We see this not just in big business, but in "average families" telling the Daily Telegraph that they will cheerfully switch allegiance to whoever keeps interest rates low, plies them with tax cuts whilst services suffer, and keeps those nasty boat people who are crowding the country away. It's a mindset we can thank John Howard for; part of the shameful legacy he left this country with. But there is another way, a better way. I won't be sopped to by the major parties.

And I don't think capitalism works. Oh, I know it "works" financially, a bit, sometimes. Kind of. But there's more to humanity than that. The idea that the market is the perfect arbiter of value is insane - as I declared to myself when, not long after having been laid off last year, my partner working double shifts as a nurse to support us, I saw a poster advertising that the Chk-chk-boom chick was making a guest appearance at Home nightclub and no doubt, getting more money for showing up than we would see in a month. But the market says that is all fair, right and good.

So yeah, I'm a socialist.

~~~~~~

I'm always upset when I hear of acquaintances having their baby sons circumcised (not as upset as the baby, of course). My feelings about it are so strong that I never quite know what to say, fearing I'll go too far and be labelled a lunatic. But now, if I hear someone is considering the procedure I'll just ask them respectfully to read this, by far the best piece I have read for the case against circumcision. It's respectful, non-hysterical, compassionate and accurate. I'd encourage everyone to read it and pass on what you have learned. Please.

Where I Briefly, Despairingly, Comment on the Election

2010-07-26T13:42:00.002+10:00

Yes it has been a long time since I last posted, certainly in light of there's a Federal election coming up soon. But I've been busy...we were in between computers for a time...and also the whole thing is so depressing it makes me want to flush my own head down the toilet.

Maybe I'm getting cynical in my old age. I've seen quite a few elections now (especially since I took an active interest in the things long before I was old enough to vote), and even though I didn't agree with them on everything, I at least always wanted Labor to win before. But I'm so disgusted by their current shift to the right I can't bring myself to make a 2PP choice at all (God knows, if Turnbull was leading the Liberals right now, is it just possible I may have given my preferences to them? Surely not, but I wonder). Everyone has their own bugbears - here's mine:

Equal Marriage Rights - two unmarried, atheist female ministers (one the PM and the other herself a lesbian) oppose this. Why? Because they find it all a bit icky, or are they just afraid of an electoral backlash? I rather fear the latter. If they are personally opposed to gay marriage, the simple solution for them is to not enter a gay marriage themselves, but don't deny others the right. I'd have thought this would be a no-brainer by now.

Cash For Clunkers - marriage right exasperates me but this one makes me furious. If we're going on about "my taxes", well my taxes have gone towards the war in Iraq, funding baby bonuses for high income earners, and all sorts of other things I haven't been keen on. But that I am contributing to people buying new cars - the environmental benefits of the plan are dubious at best - whilst I've never learnt to drive because cars are killing the planet - well, I'm rapidly filling with rage.

Boat People - we have a new, "leftist" Prime Minister and what is practically the first thing she does? Panders to rednecks on asylum seekers and then tells us we're not allowed to call them rednecks any more. Instead of urging compassion, instead of dispelling the myths, Gillard opens the floor to talk back radio callers spewing venom. Not to mention, and perhaps worst of all, deliberately confusing the issues of asylum seekers and population growth in the public mind - as if the tiny handful of boat people who arrive each year are somehow a threat to the Australian way of life. Oh to see someone in power and stand up and say "boat arrivals are a small problem. We can handle it".

(Here's a statement which could be taken out of context) but I'm not sure the Australian way of life is one that should be protected, not in a country still bearing the scars of the Howard years - primarily selfishness. There's a new Liberal party ad that begins "This election is all about you". Great! Who cares if hospitals are funded if my family isn't sick. Who cares if services are available to help the poor, it's their own damn fault. Focus on my family, my unsustainably huge mortgage, me me me!

Not that anything I or any of the vast number of much better left-wing bloggers say will matter. Labor doesn't care about us. They don't care if we all vote Greens - they assume they'll get our preferences anyway, so why bother keeping us when we're not really lost. What they care about is losing voters to the Liberals; and politicians no longer have the courage to try to change public opinion, they just respond to it like yapping dogs. Our only hope is a Greens balance of power in the Senate, and just maybe one or two Greens seats in the lower house. But generally I'm quite despondent about the whole thing, so unlike the last two elections, I won't be posting a great deal more about this one.

So We Have a New PM (Or, Labor Eats Its Own)

2010-06-24T12:10:00.003+10:00

Remind me never to serve in a Labor government. I'm rather a sensitive sort, and I don't think I could handle the hurt and monumental ingratitude of being dumped by my own party, in my first term, so shortly after being Australia's most popular ever PM. But hey, that's me.

It's a ridiculous situation when looked at that way. The Australian electorate, it must seems, are pretty darn ungrateful. It's not enough that Rudd saved us from the GFC, oh no; at the first thing people are brainwashed into not liking (the mining tax) everyone gets cold feet. It's like walking out of a marriage at the first argument over which in-laws to spend Christmas with. Even that may be understandable (the electorate have pretty short memories, after all) but what's unforgivable is that Labor, instead of standing by Rudd, threw him out on his ass at the first opportunity.

That's what's wrong with non-Conservatives. They care too much about being liked; they spook too easily. Howard never wavered. He sat there grinning as he sent us into Iraq, sent troops to the Northern Territory to tell traumatised communities how to raise their kids, as he sent us to do two-hour shifts thanks to Work Choices. I despise him and what he did to Australia, but dammit he and the Liberals have the courage of their convictions. He stayed the course, with the party's support, till the (very) bitter end.

I had my own problems with Rudd - mostly over social issues. The Apology was great, but what about gay marriage, ending the Intervention, standing up on the asylum seeker issues. But we owe him a debt of gratitude for getting rid of Howard in the first place, and for all that we kept our jobs (this from someone who lost hers). Rudd's press conference this morning was unexpectedly moving. If only he had shown such emotion before, acknowledged he was a human with feelings and flaws, we may not have been in this situation.

As it all built up last night, I hoped Gillard would refuse to run. Realistically she didn't have a choice. She is giving her press conference as we speak, admitting she wasn't elected PM and will not delay the upcoming Federal election. It's a bit of a worry. Abbott and co will argue that Labor couldn't even get through one term intact, how can they be trusted with the ongoing stewardship of the country? It's not an invalid point. I shall not be sending my vote their way, though. It will be interesting to see if this means my local seat really will go to the Greens.

Of course now we have our first female Prime Minister. Yes, that's a good thing but do we have to keep pointing it out? It shouldn't be a factor that decided a vote (God help us if we had Julie Bishop PM, let alone President Palin). It's a shame it happened like this. Labor needs to harden up, frankly. Let's strap ourselves in; it's going to be a long nasty election campaign ahead.

Where I Apologise

2010-06-19T11:44:00.000+10:00

We've been enjoying the World Cup around here lately, but it turns out I'm quite out of touch. I thought Ronaldo was this guy:

But it turns out he's someone else now:

Who's to know these things? I wish someone would call and tell me. Anyway, to get to my title, unlike in 2006 I am unable to devote my blog to the World Cup or anything else right now. I'm frantically trying to write my portfolio to prove I can be a good youth worker...once that's done, I've so much I'm dying to share with you all but for now, I need to devote what little brain energy I have to the writing I have to do, not the writing I want to do!

Sunday Arts - Mark Ryden

2010-06-06T20:27:00.002+10:00

I do more than just launch half-assed ramblings about how things ought to be. So today I'd like to share with you the work of one of my favourite artists, Mark Ryden.

I just really dig the awesome combination of nursery rhyme cute and creepy. The guy's done more than just this stuff though - he actually designed the album art for Michael Jackson's Dangerous, along with art for the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Ringo Starr and Jack Off Jill (so he doesn't have a "type"). For more, I enthusiastically refer you to Mr Ryden's website. Next week - Victoria Frances (who else?!)

Tenants' Rights, By God!

2010-06-03T11:50:00.005+10:00

I'm a big fan of "Modern Guru" in the Good Weekend, where dilemmas of modern manners ("What's the appropriate response if a friend invites you over for an exquisite dinner...then requests $50 a head for the meal?") are explored. 2010 is a confusing, crazy place. We need help. But there was one correspondent recently who made my well-mannered blood boil. She asked was it okay, since her household no longer received delivery of the local paper, for her to help herself to copies from the letter boxes of rented homes? It's not as if those who rent care about the local community.

This was in contrast to the tears of envy I felt when reading of five-year leases in Europe. One third of NSW households are now rented, up from one quarter ten years ago, but there's still a sense that renters are the scum of the Earth. Everyone wants to own their own home, surely; it's the great Australian dream, so the only people who rent must be young or poor.

New changes to tenancy laws have been proposed, the first major changes in twenty years. There's still very little to protect tenants, apart from an increase in the number of days a landlord has to evict a tenant from 60 to 90. There are not the changes we need.

What we need is a new culture when it comes to tenancy. There are many reasons why people choose to rent. As someone who has lived in seperate rental properties for five and seven years respectively, a great start would be long leases, along with the rights to make minor changes to the property. Not all tenants are transient. Long leases, available to tenants who choose to take them up and with fair provisions for rent increases, would benefit everyone - less work for agents, less cost for landlords, more security for tenants. With such a high proportion of tenants in the population, We're not all just renting because we're too poor to buy - as for my family, we think that we can give our children a better life without a mortgage; we may move interstate in the next few years; and what with rising interest rates, the inevitable property crash, or both, you'd have to be an imbecile to contemplate entering the property market right now. (We don't want to be these people - whom I'm sure thought everything would work out for them. I wonder whatever happened to them in the GFC?).

Anyway, we're staying put. And caring deeply about the local community while we're here - more so than most McMansion owners who are to busy struggling with the mortgage to plant trees, volunteer, petition for local services or anything else. I just wish I could paint the bedroom.

Oh, Israel

2010-06-01T11:55:00.003+10:00

Imagine having a friend who has had, let's be frank, a whole heap of shit happen to them in their life. They, for the main, haven't let it overwhelm them. In fact, they've triumphed in spite of the obstacles. They've gone on to achieve amazing things, more so than many others with fewer resources. You're really proud.

But sometimes, just sometimes, what they've suffered gets the better of them. They act out. They behave in a way you find reprehensible. You can sort of understand, you can try to forgive. But when it gets too much, you can only shake their head and hope they'll snap out of it.

So it is with Israel. They've done it again. They're unrepentant...so far. You don't understand. They have problems. You're not always there. They did what they had to do. They're sorry you're upset, but not sorry they did it.

It's nothing new for Israel, as I wrote last year. There's a sense in sections of the international community that Israel is a special case, to whom the normal rules don't apply. Are they? Two wrongs don't make a right. But saying so never gets us anywhere. Australia, unlike NZ and most of Europe, has not criticised the Israeli assault. Maybe the tide is turning; once Israel was seen as a beacon of socialist hope, whom it was fun for lefties to like. Now, well, just because you've been picked on doesn't make lashing out okay. The world will not forget Rachel Corrie (one of the ships in the blockade was named in her honour). Israel, if you are a special case, then we really expect more of you than this.

Why Christians Are Wrong

2010-05-28T18:15:00.002+10:00

Christian cultural commentators seem very alarmed by the rise in prominence of atheism in recent years. Alarmed perhaps inevitably, because it's obvious they have no clue what it's all about.

Christians speak of a rejection of God; in this review of The Rage Against God, Peter Hitchens (brother of Christopher) story of his re-embrace of Christianity after a period of secular humanism, the reviwer writes that Hitchens' generation "...came to see God as a nuisance and religion as an embarrassment." It's not an uncommon sentiment. Christians, seeing their god as an absolute rather than one of many gods that a person can choose to believe in or not, seem to think that atheists believe in God, but have deliberately choosen to ignore him/her/it because it's all too hard.

It's not true. Atheist do not reject God. They don't rage against God. They simply do not believe in any god - they don't reject yours, Christians. But the Christians don't understand this. They think of their god like we think of the sun - "Well, it's just there. No need to believe it will rise tomorrow, it just will." They know their god is there, and if other people can't accept it, well they must be atheist because they don't like God's rules or something.

Of course, Christians are wrong about many things. But boy, they sure missed the mark on this one.

Ten Things Wrong With The New Liberal Party Ad

2010-05-09T10:50:00.004+10:00

So Tony Abbott has kicked off the 2010 election campaign with a nice shiny new campaign ad. He is to be admired, I guess, for packing so many weasel words, mistruths and scare tactics into a mere thirty seconds. Here are just some of the fundamental flaws the seep from every pore of this man's being (it may not be exactly ten - at least I can admit when things aren't quite right).

Strong action to reduce Australia's massive debt - Australia's debt as a percentage of GDP is the lowest in the OECD. What debt we do have is a result of the fiscal stimulus that kept Australia well shielded from harsh effects of the GFC. Kevin Rudd has taken a decisive step to reduce this debt - the tax on mining profits. Tony Abbott and his ilk are jumping up and down screaming about this. Okay Mr Abbott, what measures do you want to take? Would they by any chance involve the slashing of services and untold misery for Australian families - as per the early days of the Howard government perhaps? (You were reducing Labor's debt then, you say - by causing pain to the most vulnerable in our society, rather than raising taxes on business and industry.)

Real Action on Illegal Immigration - a picture says so many words about how wrong Abbott (and Rudd, pandering to fear) is; just look at this thing. For a start, it is NOT illegal to come to Australia seeking asylum. This graphic shows hordes of arrows sweeping onto Australian shores (drawing the connection in the public's mind with boat people, as the arrows all arrive on the north west coast). "We've got to take strong measures now" intones Abbott. Why? By world standards, a tiny number of asylum seekers head for Australia each year. We could afford to do much more, in all senses of the word. The journey here by boat is so uncomfortable and hazardous, only the most desperate and determined would ever attempt it. The vast majority of people in Australia illegally are tourists who have overstayed their visas. (For more on asylum seeker myths, I enthusiastically refer you here).

And please take one more close look at that graphic. Among the points of origin suggested for these terrifying illegal hordes is...Iraq. Iraq? Where, Mr Abbott, your party enthusiastically joined the invasion against the express wishes of the majority of the Australian people? Iraq, where the ongoing war your idol John Howard devotedly supported has caused at least 100,000 civilian deaths? You are now pledging action on asylum seekers from Iraq? Excuse the language, but are you fucking kidding me?

Local Hospital boards - Abbott first floated this proposal at the 2007 Federal election. If it's such a great idea, why not at least try to implement it during the 12 previous years the Liberals were in government? Maybe because it's not such a great idea. If you think "anonymous, faceless bureaucracies" were bad, just wait till your local hospital is run by a locally appointed hospital board, where local business interests and local government power-players are running the show. Do you want the decision of whether your mother should receive experimental cancer surgery in the hands of Jim Bloggs of Jim Bloggs Fine Motors? Welcome to cronyism, nepotism and time wasting. In any case, these local boards cannot be truly independent - where will they get their funding from and who will they be accountable to?

I am a man who believes in getting things done - well physically no one can deny this. Completing an iron man triathlon is an achievement to be admired. Heavy exercise can induce a euphoric state - which in Tony Abbott's case has lead him to make proposals with no connection to reality whatsoever - such as, oh, that poverty cannot be abolished because of base instincts of human nature, that Bernie Banton's attempt to present Abbott with a petition to include a mesothelioma drug on the PBS was a stunt, that homosexuality makes him feel "a little bit threatened" (could Abbott be displaying the new gay stereotype?) that climate change is "absolute crap", that...you just pick your favourite Abbott statement taken out of context/misstatement/off-the-planet nonsense! There are lots to choose from.

Much was made in the press last week of Labor's slump in popularity in the latest Newspoll survey, the Liberals enjoying a gain on a two-party preferred basis. But for all the talk of dissatisfaction with Rudd, Abbott still received a 32% nod as preferred Prime Minister! I don't join with those who think having Abbott as Liberal leader is a blessing that guarantees a Labor victory in this year's election. If the man could get on message, he might do some real damage. At the moment though, he is just amusing, if you can ignore the very dark heart beneath his words.

Feminsim Goes Again

2010-05-05T18:55:00.003+10:00

Last Saturday's Good Weekend was the annual "women's issue". These things have thankfully moved on from the days of glossy fashion spreads and beauty tips - interviews with women in power on the status of women today, and a lengthy article on feminism, specifically women in the workplace. Or more specifically, how women are obstructed from the career fast track in the corporate world.

Can the mainstream media talk about something else please? Yes, it is good to see feminism at least being discussed. And yes, the way that the structure of the corporate/business world prevents women from achieving positions of power is an important issue; I would be bitterly frustrated if I were one of these women. But yet again, feminism risks alienating many women through it's elitism. Most women aren't on a corporate fast track, usually through choice - there are many other fulfilling careers which women pursue than chasing corporate success. Yet these career women are the ones we focus on, possibly because they make more rich, powerful and outrageous copy.

One hears little in the media about the less "sexy" issues affecting women - particularly the millions of women who work in retail or clerical work, or whom rely on government benefits. The Henry tax review recommended several changes to the tax system to reduce the tax rates for women with children who work part time whilst their partners are in full time work - these were ignored, and there's not enough childcare places if they do go back to work.

The inherent sexism and prudery of the Centrelink system isn't spoken of much either. A woman receiving the sole parents benefit who has a partner stay the night more than once or twice is liable to be investigated and have their benefits cut off. It's irrelevant whether said partner contributes financially to the household; you cannot have a partner and receive parenting payment. Centrelink argues that financially, they must assess people as couples; assessing individuals would place too great a burden on the system. There's some truth to this, but the policies also hark back to the days of church based welfare - a woman must be chaste, deserving of her subsistence payments. A hussy with a live-in boyfriend doesn't meet these criteria. Of course these laws apply equally to hetero and homosexual couples of both genders, but women are overwhelmingly the ones disadvantaged as the prime recipients of the sole parent's benefit. Women end up having to choose between greater poverty, and living in fear of being caught - mostly going with the latter. When, whilst briefly unemployed last year, I informed Centrelink my partner had moved in with me, more than one staff member was surprised I would actually admit to this.

Feminism rarely touches these issues - sometimes, sadly, the movement seems so caught up in the rush to be inclusive it overlooks the statistical majority. A correspondent wrote, and I include with permission:

Feminism, as a movement, is having problems because it stopped being about .. feminism.

It's a popular cause - supported by the majority of the sane population. Everyone can get behind equal rights, equal pay, right to vote and all the basic feminist issues.

The problem is the Left Movement latching on and trying to bolt as many transient issues onto the side as possible. Everything from immigration laws to legalization of weed to capital punishment to tax reform.

Worse, the dialog gets drowned in rhetoric. It starts with "Some women are black, so racism is a feminist issue". Inevitability, somebody follows up with "But some men are black too, so it's not a feminist issue". And the stock reply is "Stop being an egocentric man; stop being 'that guy'; etc, etc". At which point anyone who's not invested in all the current activist causes tunes out and walks away.

I think it's less the academic side that loses people and more the activism at all costs - when activists (for example, the Candy Bowers you mentioned) conflagrate the issues, people walk away.

As for the insular nature of the movement, that appears to be by design. When women comment without using the correct jargon, they're told to go away and educate themselves before speaking. When men comment, they're told that they can't hold an opinion on the issue. When transgender persons comment on the issues, they're usually either ignored or asked to stop hijacking the movement.

I would rate feminism as something relevant to everyone, just part of being human. But the feminist movement in Australia in 2010 is really giving me the irrits right now. I've had a look at a few feminist blogs recently, and I just end up feeling depressed and overwhelmed; I don't understand the language and subtleties, but get the feeling that everything I do and say is wrong. Feminism will never get anywhere at this rate, whilst bogged down in a student activist mentality. Maybe we need to start again - a new dialogue, focusing on the big issues, making feminism a mainstream electoral issue. Then we can start analysing gender neutral frameworks. But for now can we get feminism out of the lecture theatres and into the ballot boxes?

Future Schlock

2010-04-16T12:25:00.003+10:00

Recently I imagined how it would be if my eleven year old self could travel through time and visit me to see what life is like in 2010. Frankly I don't think she would be very impressed. The glorious technological future we were promised never arrived.

Consider commercial air travel. With the execption of personal entertainment, air travel hasn't really changed in forty years - the planes are the same, the airports are the same, the delays are the same. (Security screening takes longer). It takes pretty much the same amount of time to fly from Sydney to London now as it did in 1970 when the 747 came into widespread use. Every few years you see a news story about how in five years or so, there will be aircraft that can fly to London in four hours, but nothing ever comes of it (in fact, I think I remember seeing the first of these stories when I was about eleven).

It's not just air travel. Nothing predicted by The Jetsons, or our imaginations, came to pass. We never went back to the moon and now lack the technology to get humans out of the Earth's orbit. Car still drive on roads, using petrol - instead of flying, or a mag-lev system, or any other futuristic delights. Our houses don't have Holly style computers, let alone robot maids (I really want a robot maid!). It now takes longer to travel between Sydney and Newcastle by train than it did in the 1930s. Some of changes that failed to eventuate have been a blessing - we still eat actual food rather than taking nutrition in pill form, and wear clothes instead of silver jumpsuits. and I am eternally grateful that we shower instead of using any sonic cleaning booth system. But still - I think we should lift our game here. It will be embarrassing when time travellers from the past arrive expecting the First Mall of the Moon and all we can offer them is an iPad. (Wasn't time travel supposed to be a reality by now as well?)

F Club

2010-04-12T17:05:00.005+10:00

Over the weekend, I attended the F Conference, the first major feminist conference held in Australia in many years (no one seemed to agree just how many). It was enriching and inspiring. It was also confusing, perplexing and briefly infuriating. I consider myself a feminist but good grief, half the time I had no idea what these people were talking about. The conference seemed to divide between the older, second wave feminists active through the 1960s, 70s and 80s (who received a deserved round of applause in the opening session) and the fresh young feminists leading the charge now. I felt quite out of touch - someone in between age-wise, who considers herself a feminist but has mostly been in the corporate world for the past many years and has done something between very little and bugger all for the feminist movement.

So I spent much of the conference struggling to comprehend the language, the vocabulary, the nuances. There was the usual mix of panels and workshops that these events offer. The panels featured some well-known and not-so-known but fascinating and inspiring speakers, such as Catherine Lumby, Eva Cox, Anne Summers and Larissa Behrendt. In general, I found the ever so slightly older feminists ideas presented in a more accessible way. It was the younger feminists who left me rather bewildered - being so caught in nuance, so fearful of anything they say possibly giving offence to anyone, that left their words with little to offer a mainstream audience. The problem with some of these women is they operate in a closed system. They attend meetings with other feminists; read works by other feminists; then they write papers and blog posts on feminism which are read and commented on by other feminists.

There was some discussion on the weekend of the (ridiculous) idea that feminism is "dead", but I think the problem may not be one of relevance but accessibility. I was thinking of some friends of mine, lovely strong women, who haven't been to university, don't live in inner Sydney, don't read leftist works. Although the changes proposed at the feminist conference, and the work done by feminists past and present, is to their benefit, I'm not sure if they'd see any relevance in discussions of "the patriarchy and gender-neutral frameworks". How can feminism engage with these women? If feminism has an image problem it may well be of elitism rather than irrelevance. There was much anguished discussion of the history of feminism as a white movement, and how that can be remedied in the future. That is vital and all to the good. But feminism also needs to lose its status as an academic movement.

Much is being done to make feminism more inclusive of Indigenous Australians and women from more ethnically diverse backgrounds. The conference opened with a panel discussion of Indigenous women sharing their knowledge and how it applies to feminism. It was informative and inspiring. Sadly it wasn't all so uplifting. One panel featured a woman named Candy Bowers, a self described "Blasian" (Black and Asian) woman who is a poet, comedian, hip hop artist and co-ordinator for the Sydney Theatre company. At first I was really enjoying what she had to say about the lack of ethnic diversity in the Australian arts scene and growing up in Campbelltown. Then she stated "To Indigenous people I respect and admire you; to non-white people I support you; and to white people, I am here to challenge you". I felt my face grow red. How dare she suggest because I, or anyone else, am white, I am somehow complacent, or powerful, or wealthy? For a start I am Irish, and I think the Irish people can say a little something about oppression (my great-grandmother may have been arrested during the 1916 uprising -the family history is fuzzy). But even if I am not claiming any special status - which is often where the problems start - such sweeping assumptions as Ms Bowers made don't help anyone.

The workshops were more enjoyable. There was several mentions at the conference of modern feminism being consumed by the rise of raunch culture, so perhaps as a deliberate decision raunch culture was not a workshop topic. I can't otherwise fault the diversity of workshop topics, from Sex Work, Children's Services and Poverty, along with the more expected topics such as Domestic Violence, Consent, FGM and Plastic Surgery. Among others I attended a wonderful supportive discussion on home birth and birthrape - the unnecessary medicalisation of normal birth. All else being equal, an epidural automatically turns a low-risk into a high-risk birth yet it is presented as safe, and Nicola Roxon has made homebirth in Australia almost impossible to obtain (eerily similar to difficulties obtaining abortion in previous years- you have to go underground and it can be very expensive). I think I'll get involved with this, as well as with the ASU's Fair Pay case - but that is for another post!

Generally though, I left the conference with a sense of being unsure what to do with all this. There were times over the weekend when I felt like I had no voice, although I understand that with 400+ participants it would be fairly impossible to let everyone have a say. There were hopeful messages and things to grow on, but I truly believe feminism the movement (not just feminist principles) needs to reach out to women from all walks of life if it is to capture their passion.

I'll leave you here with some quotes from the weekend. These were scribbled in my notebook on the spot so may not be verbatim, but the spirit is there.

"You can't use one experience to paint the whole story" - Dixie Link Gordon

"Feminism - you think you don't need it, until youneed it; when you bang your head up against the patriarchy" - unrecorded

"Without the ability to be economically independent and control our fertility,we have nothing" - Anne Summers

"A woman is not sad, or lesser, or missing out, if she doesn't have children" - Anne Summers

"While women are excluded from positions of economic power in this country they will be excluded everywhere" - Elizabeth Broderick

"We think if we are nice to the bastards they will let us into their club" - Eva Cox, exhorting feminists not to play nice

"Grassroots work won't change the basic policies that are screwing women" - Eva Cox

and finally...

"When women are taught to have orgasms, they are empowered to change the world" - Pat, an 89 year old feminist.

Who could argue?

A Thing Of The Past?

2010-04-06T11:40:00.004+10:00

Back in 2004, when I heard of the death of Thomas "TJ" Hickey, the young Aboriginal man who died after crashing his bike and being impaled on a fence following a police chase through Redfern, I thought it was just an accident, and anyway why was he running if he hadn't done anything wrong?

I'm ashamed of my ignorance when I look back now. But I thought police racism and brutality were things of the past. I was really, really wrong. There was an outstanding warrant for TJ's arrest at the time of his death, and when he saw a police car in the area, he assumed it was seeking him. (Police later admitted they were in fact chasing him). So he fled. I'm not making any statements as to Mr Hickey's innocence or guilt, for either way he had good reason to run; the continuing harassment of Aboriginal people - especially young men - in inner Sydney.

The general public has no idea; I know I didn't. The allegations here, of police behaviour immediately following TJ's death, are truly horrifying. The stories abound; kids in Glebe threatened with arrest for being on the streets at night, even if they were returning home from visiting their grandmother; a group of fifteen year old girls stopped and searched for drugs three times by three separate police patrols during a short walk to a party in Waterloo; children who have their bicycles confiscated until they can go the the police station with proof their bikes weren't stolen. (It's not just the police, either. One couple successfully settled with the Broadway shopping centre for harassment after they were repeatedly questioned, then followed, by security guards when they were unable to produce proof that the pram they were pushing their baby in was not stolen. How many people carry the receipt for their baby's pram months after purchase?!?).

And of course it doesn't end with mere harassment. Punches are thrown, arrests are made without cause, evidence is planted. So no wonder TJ Hickey had something to fear. As his aunt said after his death, "If you are black and you see the cops, you run". We have a culture in the police that says if a person is black, they're likely up to no good, and an uniformed public who thinks that if the police take action, the Aboriginal person must have done something wrong - thanks to a media which is silent on this issue and right wing commentators who seem to think being Aboriginal today is a ticket to easy street.

Meanwhile, six years after his death and still without the answers she needs, TJ's mother Gail Hickey has lodged a Submission of Communication to the UN's Human Rights Committee seeking a fresh inquiry into the death of her son. She shouldn't have to - it's terribly sad that she cannot trust the Australian justice system for the truth. After all, if the police have nothing to hide, why wouldn't they welcome a full judicial inquiry into the death of TJ Hickey, to finally uncover the truth after all these years?

Have You Ever Wondered...

2010-03-30T20:40:00.010+11:00

Ever wondered who if anyone clicks on spam emails? This graphic gives an interesting snapshot. Of a spambot that sent 35 million emails in 2008...

8 million were received (the rest were bouncebacks or sent to non-existent email addresses).
10,500 people clicked on the link in the email.
28 bought products.

That's a conversion rate of 0.000008% - roughly the same level of success I had in my dating days.

~~~~~

Ever wondered how to get a letter published in the newspaper - particularly News Ltd publications? Try any of these handy templates:

“When is _____ going to do something about _____? This is an outrage and _____ has lost my vote!”

“I’ve never voted ______ before, but after ______ you can be sure I’ll be voting _____ at the next election!”

“Once again _____ has proven that all ______ are _______. When are ordinary _______ going to stand up and do something about this?”

“The recent actions/decision/ruling by _______ is PC gone mad!”

"______ are causing all the problems in this country."

Mention how hardworking you (and hopefully your family) are for bonus points. Use anecdotes in favour of any actual facts. Disparage anyone who has ever set foot on a university campus.

Good luck!

Trapped In The Noise

2010-03-26T12:10:00.004+11:00

It's hard to think of an issue that creates as much division and furore as post-abortion grief (or post-abortion stress syndrome - PASS), nor one that deserves such lack of compassion less.

Recently I was enjoying reading Princesses and Pornstars, Emily Maguire's exploration of modern female culture and how feminism has lost it's way, replaced by meaningless "empowerment" that sees women thinking they gain esteem by pole dancing. I've written about this myself, so the book was really singing to the choir. Until that is, I reached the following passages, which I read with a heavy sigh of familiar disappointment:

"In 2005, Liberal backbencher Danna Vale, calling for a national enquiry into abortion, said that while she believed 'in a woman's right to choice', she worried that women don't understand 'the tragedy of post-abortion depression'. This sounds like she is concerned with women's well-being. If so, she can rest easy: a sizable body of research exists to show that abortion in no more prevalent in women who have had abortions than in the general population. And perhaps one of the reasons there isn't endemic post-abortion depression is that every woman in Australia who requests an abortion receives counselling about her choices and their respective risks."

All you need to know about the debate surrounding PASS is right there. Right-wingers use PASS in an attempt to restrict women's access to abortion; the left and feminists, fearing any such restrictions, hotly deny that such a thing exists. In the middle are a lot of grieving, hurt women who are made to feel like they don't exist.

It's hard to trust Danna Vale's motives in these statements. This is after all the woman who said Australians are in danger of aborting themselves out of existence, leading to a Muslim majority population here. It's hard in fact to trust anyone who speaks out about PASS, because moderates are too scared to do so, for fear of being shouted down by the pro-choice movement. PASS ends up being used as a weapon by those who seek to curtail women's sexual freedom. Sadly, it's these fears that lead some feminists to equal levels of shrill rhetoric. Emily Maguire is just plain wrong in some of her assertions. If levels of depression are no higher in women who have had abortions than the population at large - is that not just to dismiss the pain of those women who suffer from both? There is evidence that women who suffer from pre-existing depression are more likely to suffer post abortion depression.

And the statement that "every woman in Australia who requests an abortion receives counselling about her choices and their respective risks" would be laughable if it wasn't so tragic. Most abortions in Australia are carried out in privately clinics. Abortion is a business to them. The counsellors are there to sell abortions. I hate to put it so bluntly, but it's true. Anecdotal evidence abounds of stories of women who arrived at the clinic unsure what to do, and felt pressured into abortion from the moment they arrived.

As for the depression - whilst it is illegal in this country to coerce someone into intercourse, there are no laws against forcing someone to have an abortion. From the 14 year old girl whose parents force her to have an abortion or they will kick her out, to the married woman whose husband says he will leave if she doesn't abort, these women are trapped and helpless with no legal recourse. We speak of a right to choose - but there is no legal right to not choose an abortion for many women. The grief experienced by a woman forced to abort a pregnancy she wanted is scarcely imaginable.

I really don't want to pick on Ms Maguire here - she has only spoken out on the truth as she sees it. Because the voices of women who are suffering from PASS are unheard, lost in the din from the opposing forces of the abortion war. I would urge her, or anyone else seeking to learn who PASS really means, to read Giving Sorrow Words, which without opinion or politics tells the stories of 18 Australian women who have suffered from PASS. Some underwent recent abortions; for others, their terminations were many years ago. All are deeply moving and would hopefully change thinking on this issue. Also, please read the FAQ here at the PASS site - written with medical advice by women who hve suffered from PASS, it's an objective, factual look at PASS itself and many of this issues that have led to the silence surrounding women with the condition.

For it would be my greatest wish to see feminists take up the cause of PASS; that without restricting a women's right to choose, to give women the right to choose not to abort by making coercing someone to do so illegal. To provide more societal support to mothers so women didn't feel pressured by society to abort if they did not want that. And above all to acknowledge and provide support for those suffering from PASS, so we don't have to suffer in fearful silence anymore.

Cynical Tuesday

2010-03-23T20:00:00.003+11:00

Are there any easy solutions regarding police pursuits?

Of course, we can't just let any speeding crook get away with it and all. But according to this article, 13% of pursuits end in crashes. Over half of fatal pursuits involve stolen cars and traffic offenses. Are these crimes worth risking people's lives for? No one hates a reckless driver more than I, and I don't buy the "these are just scared kids" reasoning. They may not know how to control a car at speed, but they must know that what they are doing is stupid and wrong. But what about others on the roads? Unless police are chasing a prison escapee or suspect fleeing from a serious crime, it's hard to see that police chases are worth it.

~~~~~

So, Google has finally upped and pulled out of China, rather than imposing self-censorship in order to continue operations there with Chinese government approval. Is this Google standing up for what's right, and abandoning the world's largest internet audience on principle?

Or is it that they only had a tiny share of the Chinese search engine market and felt it was more expedient to pull out and protect their reputation in the West, where they reign supreme?

Pizza Lovers

2010-03-20T14:10:00.003+11:00

Whenever I hear someone say something about how they had pizza a week ago, and therefore don't want it that day, I am perplexed. To me, there is no such thing as too much pizza. It's bread, it's melted cheese (usually), it's an ever-changing multitude of toppings. What more could you want in a food? I was always a latent pizza addict, but whilst living in Newcastle my choices were pretty much limited to the major chains. I didn't miss what I'd never had, but my true inner pizza aficionado wasn't awakened till I moved to Sydney, specifically Leichhardt where I fetched up on first moving to the city. On my first night I was introduced to the independent pizza parlour, and the range on offer - prosciutto, chorizo, bocconcini - and the joy of the thin, handspun crust. It was a moment of deep happiness, and as I moved around the inner west I fully explored the range of pizza on offer.

This cost me a fortune. It was time to upgrade to that essential piece of equipment: the pizza stone. If you haven't bought one, run out and do so now. I'll wait. Those electric pizza ovens are merely a pizza stone with a heating element underneath and rather a waste of money, but for the cost of a takeaway pizza a pizza stone will allow you to create endless pizzeria style pizzas at home. For many people, "home made pizza" conjures up images of tinned pineapple, sliced cheese and ham steaks. None of that. After some enjoyable trial and error, I'd now rate my pizzas with some of the best I have tried in Sydney, especially as I have an extra ingredient: the loving hands of someone who truly appreciates the art.

So, to share all I know about making the perfect pizza. Here's the dough recipe we use:

In a small jug, combine 1 cup warm water, 8g sachet dried yeast and 1 teaspoon white sugar. Stand in a warm place for 10 minutes until mixture is frothy.
Sift 2½ cups plain flour and ½ teaspoon salt into a large bowl. Blend in yeast mixture to form a soft, sticky dough. Knead dough on a lightly floured surface for 5-10 minutes, until it is smooth and elastic.
Place dough in a large, oiled bowl. Cover with plastic wrap. Leave to rise in a warm place for 1 hour, until dough doubles in size. Knock down dough to remove air. Knead into a smooth ball.

At this stage, you can roll out half the dough to make one pizza - but I usually make a double batch and freeze the dough, divided into four portions each individually wrapped first in baking paper then plastic wrap. Defrosted frozen dough tastes better and bakes into a crisper pizza than fresh dough - and it means a quick dinner if you can just grab a dough ball from the freezer and top it. A word of warning though - take the dough from the freezer about 3-4 hours before required and defrost at room temperature. You cannot defrost the dough in the microwave - it will precook and be useless. Meanwhile, about an hour before cooking, place the pizza stone in the oven and heat to 250°C. Fifteen minutes before cooking, roll out your dough still on it's baking paper (which will go into the oven. It's hard to place pizza directly on the stone - the stone is too hot to touch, pizza is difficult to move, and the dough tends to stick). Use your clean, floured hands to gently stretch it to shape. Just before placing the pizza in the oven, top it. Go nuts here, but can I recommend using the best mozzarella cheese you can afford. Then, it's showtime. Holding the edges of the baking paper taut (having a friend help so you can each hold one side is a good idea), open the oven, slide out the stone on the rack, and place the pizza on the stone as fast as you can - the idea is to avoid losing heat. Cook the pizza for 15 minutes or so - it's done when the edges of the crust are turning golden brown. Now to sample the fruits of your labour! When you divide the pizza, leave any you won't be eating immediately on the stone - the pizza left on the stone will stay hot to the last slice. Sorry this post may have been a little self indulgent but if anyone gives this all a try, please let me know how you get on.

I Don't Get It

2010-03-14T20:05:00.003+11:00

You'd think paid parental leave would be a no-brainer. Surely most people would think it's a good idea to receive at least some financial support whilst giving birth to and caring for new babies?

No. Singles don't want it, which is understandable in a selfish sort of way - why should you keep working to pay for others' failure to remember a condom? Business groups don't want it - it means having to pay for two employees at once, the regular worker on parental leave and also their replacement.

Bizarrely enough though, older people are crying foul here as well. We didn't have parental leave, they moan; we had to raise our kids on one income and bread and dripping so why should today's parents have it any easier? There are a lot of people out there feeling very hard done by.

~~~~~

You'd think smacking would be a no-brainer as well. Surely in this day and age, no decent parent would want to hit their kids? I don't know about the decent part, but there are a lot of people out there who are very passionate about their "right" to hurt and humiliate their children. The cover story in Saturday's Good Weekend was devoted to the issue, and some of the views expressed were rather horrific. David Copeland, a Christian, believes children should be hit because they are innately sinful. Well, whatever, you nut job, maybe you could have a chat to the execrable Claire Davidson, who was threatened with assault charges after her nine year old daughter reported to a school counsellor that she was hit with a wooden spoon.
Davidson describes her daughter as a liar, unruly and headstrong, who acts "oh so sophisticated" and talks back.

Lady, if you dislike your nine year old child that much, the problem is on your end believe me. Get some help now before your daughter becomes a teenager, otherwise what's the next step if she misbehaves? Whipping?

On Being Retrenched - One Year Later

2010-03-09T18:35:00.003+11:00

Approximately 100,000 Australians lost their job during the Global Financial Crisis. I was one of them.

Tomorrow marks a year to the day since I arrived at the office, the one with a great view of Circular Quay where I'd worked as an advertising account exec for just under two years, on an ordinary Tuesday with little more pressing on my mind than wondering what I would have for lunch, and found myself two hours later clutching a cardboard box laden with my possessions, wandering blindly around Wynyard station trying to find a taxi and wondering what the hell just happened?

The GFC never really hit Australia, we have been told. Certainly I never thought it would hit me. I knew job losses were coming but thought, as one of the longer serving members of the team, I would be safe; failing to take into account that I was also one of the best paid. Who knows? Anyway the shock was pretty much total. I managed to keep it together at the office while I was being told...and as I packed my desk, with my head swirling with thoughts such as "how will I pay the rent?" (redundancy payout) and "I bet my new relationship never survives this level of stress" (we were married last month). Finally when I was alone I let all the tears and pain come out.

Nonetheless, I did actually believe I would find another good job pretty soon. It took me some weeks to realise that that wasn't going to happen; there just weren't any jobs like that available. I was cut off, alienated from the life I had proudly created for myself. And I grieved! For so many years I had aspired to a corporate career in the Sydney CBD, and it was all gone so suddenly. Although it wasn't something I especially yearned for during my waking hours, I had a series of dreams whereby the company asked me to come in and offered me my job back. I had equated the life with success, and now it was gone. I wondered, why me? With the recession turning out to be a lot less severe than expected, obviously most people were going to keep their jobs. Why did I have to lose what I worked so hard for? And I had loved my job, and I missed it.

Okay, so my corporate career was over, now where to go? First to Centrelink. In my misspent youth I had many more dealings with that organisation than I would have liked, and when I finally got my life together around age 25 I vowed I would never need anything from them again. Having to walk into the office to claim Newstart was one of the lowest moments I have ever had. I thought I was past all this, really. I hated the thought I might be mistaken for one of "them" - the long term Centrelink clients. I wanted to shout at the others in the queue "I'm not like you people! I used to lunch on corporate accounts and travel on cabcharges! The company sent us jetboating! We were given champagne!". But of course I said nothing. The staff were remarkably kind when they learned I was there through no fault of my own. But the fact remained: I was back on the dole.

I needed a new career. Around this time, the idea of Community Work came up. I was thinking maybe website design, or becoming a librarian? But my (by now) fiancé told me I had a lot to offer. I'd always thought of myself as a rather spoiled, selfish creature but I decided it was time to go for it; devote my life to helping people instead of fleecing them (and being rude about them at Centrelink). So I applied, waited ages, got in to study Youth Work, and that was that.

It really was what I had been looking for, without knowing. I discovered a passion for social justice for young people which had been lying dormant all along, and which I hope to turn into a lifelong career; got to volunteer at the NSW Youth Work conference and hear some inspiring speakers (Eva Cox!) and most of all got to meet and study with some of the loveliest people I've ever met.

So some good comes from everything. If I hadn't been retrenched, I'd probably still be at the same desk doing the same old thing tomorrow, tracing the path of middling corporate jobs until retirement. And contrary to my fears, the loads of extra time I had to spend with my then boyfriend in the early days - and the bonding we shared in comforting one another - brought us closer much faster than otherwise would have happened. I've no doubt we would have gotten married eventually, but we had a unique opportunity at a unique time. It hasn't always been easy - financially it blows, I haven't really bought myself any new clothes in a year, had a brief but unpleasant stint as a housewife, and ended up taking a back-killing job selling Manchester to help pay the bills until I graduate. But overall it turned out to be one of the best things that has happened to me, giving me a career and a husband... so a very heavy cloud had a lovely white gold lining.

EDIT, JUNE 2010: Apparently, about a week after I wrote this post, the company went belly-up. I always resisted the temptation to say anything negative about the company or the people there; turns out I needn't have. Seems kind of mean now, though - the corporate world seems a bit shallow and pointless.

My Wedding Rules

2010-03-06T17:16:00.003+11:00

So, recently I got married, as I believe I may have mentioned once or twice. Those of you who may have read this blog in previous years will know something of my disastrous relationship history, so to get married was a minor miracle in itself.

In order to get married one generally has to have a wedding, and this led to my months of battle with the monster that is the Bridal industry. There's nothing like the mention of a wedding for supplier's eyes to start rolling with dollar signs in the manner of a poker machine. Although I managed to get married without ever setting foot in a bridal shop, I still had to do battle with wedding suppliers, and apparently I did it all wrong.

You have never run into so many rules in your life as when organising a wedding. I've never had much time for the Way Things Should Be Done, though I did actually buy one bridal magazine during the lead up. It really had little of relevance to our wedding, though every newsagent I visited seemed to have sold out of all their copies of Plus Size Goth Bride.

Anyway, Sydney Conformist Wedding was full of rules. Every single section advised the bride-to-be not to risk using friends and relatives for anything - flowers, video, cars - but to hire professionals. This advice I mostly took and it turned out to be a mistake in some cases. There were also timetables on when to book everything. Here I failed completely. Apparently one is meant to book a photographer up to two years in advance; this I found rather tricky as the groom and I hadn't actually met yet two years out. The bulk of our wedding was organised in the final four months, and I was constantly berated for leaving it to the last minute when I rang for quotes. A florist I visited actually told me two weeks wasn't enough time to prepare a bouquet. It wasn't a churchful of flowers I wanted, just a single simple bouquet for myself. Such a request so soon was laughable to the florist, apparently. Maybe they would have grown the flowers specially?

There's something about the mention of the word wedding that sends people a bit crazy. Trying to buy a black veil from ebay, I asked a seller of the exact sort of veils I wanted (marketed as "hen's night veils") if she could send one in time for the wedding. She told me she didn't do wedding veils. Not what I asked, but fine, you don't need my money. The hairdressers berated me for not making a "wedding hair appointment" - I had told them that I wanted my hair styled, but apparently the weddingness of it all required a special kind of appointment. I'd kept quiet because other hairdressers actually refused to see me for a wedding because it was just me, not a bunch of bridesmaids and family. It's as though "wedding" requires a special class of service all it's own. (Don't get me started on the make up artist who assumed I wanted to look tanned, despite me bringing in a photo of Liz Vicious - face only! - to work from).

Most irritating of all was the car. I hired a car to transport my sister and I from home to the venue, only, without mentioning the W word. After all was confirmed I asked could we maybe have a ribbon on the car?

The only way this was possible, I was informed, was to book the car for a two hour wedding package, with carpet, ribbon and champagne. This would cost $350, $200 more than the first quote. I tried in vain to explain I just wanted a ribbon, not the package, but they were adamant - if they weren't fleecing me for the wedding package, the bare minimum was all I was getting (and it was - I should have gone for another car company).

Look, it's hardly one of the great injustices of our society, and I'm aware many brides bring it on themselves through their demanding behaviour. It's hard to see it changing anytime soon - I was a member of a wedding forum in the lead up, and most brides cling to the prevailing wedding fashions like pitbulls. The idea of what a wedding "should" be isn't going to change easily. EDIT: summed up brilliantly here on Things Bogans Like - and it's not just bogans! ALL white, "traditional weddings" are like this!

Okay, you've read the rant, now here's what you came for:

'Cause for all that, it really was pretty awesome.

Justice Still No Blinder

2010-03-03T16:45:00.006+11:00

There's been the predictable outrage over the release of Phillip Choon Tee Lim, who served 18 years of a 24 year sentence for the 1991 murder of Dr Victor Chang. The feeling seems to be that, for killing such a "great bloke", Lim ought never be released.

Notwithstanding that this was a heinous crime, murder is always heinous. The average sentence served for murder in NSW is between 12 and 15 years - several years less than Lim served. The argument in the tabloids and on talkback radio runs that Lim should have been kept in jail, circumstance such as good behaviour aside, because of who his victim was. Barring special circumstances such as the murders of children and police officers in the line of duty, should penalties be harsher depending on the identity of the victim? Are some victims more deserving of our, and the justice system's, sympathy (and wrath) than others?

Imagine if death scene pictures of Anita Cobby were shown on TV. There would be outrage whipped to new levels by the talkback and tabloid set, calls for the resignation of everyone in any way involved. It would be an undignified and unnecessary thing. So why does Viviane Ruiz deserve any differently? Photos of Ms Ruiz's decomposing body were shown on a 2005 episode of Crime Investigation Australia and no one, as far as I can tell, complained or cared. If you've never heard of Viviane Ruiz, that's okay, pretty much no one has. Her name is forgotten by even the few people who ever knew it - in fact she was more famous for having no name at all, making headlines at the time of her murder as a Jane Doe who lay unidentified in the morgue for four months after death.

The difference is that Ms Cobby was a former beauty queen, charity fundraiser, and nurse, whilst Ms Ruiz was a prostitute who worked the streets of Kings Cross. Both were brutally murdered - Ms Cobby by a gang of local men, Ms Ruiz by her drug-addicted boyfriend. Ms Ruiz's killer received a lesser sentence than the members of the gang which killed Ms Cobby, which is usual in "domestic" killings. However, is she less deserving of dignity after death due to her profession? Should Phillip Lim have served a longer jail sentence for killing Victor Chang than if he'd shot a drug dealer in otherwise identical circumstances - a failed extortion attempt?

If the answer to these questions is yes, than we can hardly claim justice is blind. As Richard Ackland wryly puts it here (highly recommended reading on this issue), "Political intervention on the basis of 'community' outrage leads to distortions in what should be the administration of an objective parole process.". True, and also true that we should not have a special category of murder for important people - or less outrage when one young female victim is exploited after death and another is deemed too "good" for such treatment.

There's Something Fishy Going On Around Here...

2010-03-01T11:45:00.003+11:00

Where are all the Scientologists?

Scientology claims to have over 100,000 members in Australia. Where are they? Between myself, my husband and friends I have asked, spread across several cities, having attended several universities and worked for assorted companies and large organisations, one would assume in all that time, if there were 100,000 Scientologists out there, someone would have met one of them. No one has. Maybe because the actual number of Scientologists in Australia, according to the 2006 Census, is more like this:

South Australia - 124
Victoria - 626
New South Wales - 1089
ACT - 51
Queensland - 301
Northern Territory - 8
Western Australia - 284
Tasmania - 25

Total - 2508

(And I sure hope the Scientologists in the NT all get along, or it would be pretty lonely for those on the outer). Even those numbers are an exaggeration; people who list their children's religion as "Scientology" even though young children cannot have any real religious conviction at all.

Curious, recently I picked up a copy of Clear Body, Clear Mind, Scientology's guide to ridding yourself of toxins. I tend to avoid toxins - heck, I've replaced chemical cleansers in our house with a vinegar-and-bicarb regime - but who knows? According to Scientology, the whole damn world is toxic.

Well, the regime is very simple; run half an hour a day, then sit in a sauna for another four and a half hours. If that sounds useless (not to mention dangerous) well it is - as the book itself states, "The Purification program cannot be construed as a recommendation of medical treatment...it is not professed to be physical or medical treatment". It's a spiritual thing, and the book should not occupy the position I found it in, the health care section of my local library. I suppose I should be careful what I say, as I've heard Scientologists can be a bit snippy towards those who speak against them. If there are any Scientologists reading this blog, can I just assure you, no one else does?

~~~~~

Now I'm not one to complain about Big Government (actually, this line of complaint hasn't really taken off in Australia at all). There are many things a government can do better than private companies ever could, let alone if we were all left to our own devices. However it's hard to deny that Australia has too much damn government; the point is often made, but consider this. Singleton Council, in the upper Hunter, placed a large ad in Saturday's Sydney Morning Herald seeking candidates for Directors of Planning and Regulated Services; Assets and Facilities; Organisation Performance; and Business Support. Four roles, each earning salaries drifting into six-figure territory I'll warrant. All this to service a population of 21,500. What the hell do they need a Director of Organisation Performance for? Performance measured against what? If I was a ratepayer in Singleton I'd be planning to storm the next Council meeting with some fairly pointed questions, unless there was something better on TV that night.

Capital Shitty

2010-02-21T14:18:00.008+11:00

The following things happened during our visit to Canberra:

Our train to Canberra was stuck at a place called Tarago, NSW, for over an hour due to an obstruction on the tracks (at one stage we were told we would have to get off the train and wait for a road coach).
Upon arrival at the hotel, over an hour after check-in time, we had to wait for our room due to a system failure.
The air-conditioning in the room was stuck on Arctic, and could not be repaired. The hotel had no spare rooms, despite it being midweek, out of season, and parliament not sitting, so we had to make do with a blow heater, which was full of dust and smelt funny.
At least the paintings were good.
We waited at a taxi rank in the busiest part of the Canberra CBD for nearly 45 minutes from 4pm. No taxis. It's not that there was a queue for cabs; there were simply no vehicles at all.
Having missed our train because of this, and unable to arrange coach travel, we went to the airport. The good folk at Virgin Blue were able to arrange flights to Sydney that evening for us at a not extortionate sum...
...however, our flight was delayed by an hour. DH actually ran into a sympathiser from the taxi rank on the plane. As we took off, we vowed never to return to Canberra.

It's hard not to think that this may be the best sight you'll see in Canberra...

The diminishing sight of the place as you return to Sydney or Melbourne

I've heard normal people describe Canberra as boring, but as a political wonk who enjoys museums and galleries, I was prepared to quite like the place. Upon arrival though, I could see the validity of all the criticism...it's far flung (a cyclist's paradise, with bike racks on every bus, but an appalling nightmare in which to walk, with great whacking distances between everything), expensive, lacking in culture and lacking in decent bars. It's not just a question of it being a smaller place than Sydney. Newcastle is a small city too, but it has an organic feel; DH, not ever a Novocastrian by residence but a frequent visitor, points out you may turn a corner and find yourself at a row of terrace houses, or at a little local shopping area with a dsecent cafe and second hand bookshop, or even an interesting old abandoned warehouse. Canberra has none of that - it just feels sort of plonked.That's the problem with urban development strategies, even for established cities like Sydney. Urban renewal can seem the answer when an area is run down, but compare the Rocks with Darling Harbour. One was planned, the other wasn't. Cities need to evolve organically to be interesting, and that means taking the good with the bad.

Walk This Way

2010-02-01T17:03:00.004+11:00

I've never understood people who would disdain walking 500 meters to their local shops in favour of driving for 15 minutes to walk 500 meters across a featureless carpark to a shopping centre. DF and I walk everywhere, and what we can walk to nearby is the major factor in choosing where we live. (I also don't understand people who state that they have to drive because of poor public transport in their area - did they end up living there by accident?)

Anyway that's why I'm so excited by Walk Score. You can rate the walkability of anywhere to live based on proximity to essential services, as well as those that aren't essential but nice to have nonetheless, like bars. The site isn't perfect - trees make a huge difference to how pleasant a place is to walk around, but trees are difficult to quantify in this sort of project. Of more concern is the grocery store purported to be 120 meters from us not actually exisiting, and a nearby school actually being a driving school, which rather defeats the point. But still, residents of walk-friendly suburbs earn more and weigh less than the average resident of a McMansioned cartrap. It's always nice to have your choices validated.

Once and for all, proof Piers Akerman is Insane

2010-01-31T17:16:00.005+11:00

"[I]n the lead-up to this week’s parliamentary session, the Labor Government, led by Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard, has chosen to focus on the sex lives of teenage girls.

The new Opposition leader Tony Abbott has a smorgasbord of issues with which to confront the Rudd Government, which is a master of spin and obfuscation. Like a good editor, Abbott and his team must cut through the verbiage.

It is important he does not get distracted by the frippery with which elements of the media are obsessed, but concentrates on the matters that are important to Australians."

Yes, he actually said this, whilst slamming Kevin Rudd for not mentioning climate change lately (proof Rudd knows he defeated, according to Akerman).

At least Ann Coulter is mildly amusing from rare time to time.

Seaside Rest

2009-12-09T21:00:00.003+11:00

It's only now as we're about to leave the Eastern Suburbs that we're exploring it a little. Recently we visited Waverley Cememtery, possibly one of the best photo opporunities I've ever seen. Although I didn't do the place justice, please enjoy the small fruits of my labours...

The headland above

A-ha, there it is (after our long walk!)

Rock fishers, waiting to be swept off. I have no idea how they got there.

So muh money once spent on monuments now neglected...

Not a bad view for all eternity

Suburban conformity can last forever

Or the vaults - the Eastern Suburbs' finest real estate for the deceased

An unexpected, and unexpectedly touching, memorial to the 1981 Irish Hunger Strikers

Sorry to end on that melancholy note. Wine anyone?

NSW: Let's Keep Things In Perspective

2009-12-07T08:45:00.001+11:00

Like many in NSW, I could only roll my eyes and groan last week as the Sate Labor leadership spill took place. This, I thought, is just getting ridiculous. Nathan Rees finishing out the term was the best prospect Labor had. In different circumstances, he could have been wildly popular; a garbage collector from the Western Suburbs who also has a degree in English literature. I wasn't a raving fan - the damn Metro is foolhardy and unnecessary, and this coming from someone who loves the inner west and trains - but he was trying to clean up the factional system, and for this he gets the toss. When will this bunch of clowns get their act together, I wondered.

Then I saw this cartoon in the Daily Telegraph, and I had to wonder some more:

What can anyone have suffered at the hands of the NSW government which would possibly justify that sort of reaction? I too have had to wait hours for hospital treatment, been stuck on the train, despaired that the train journey from Sydney to Newcastle now takes longer than it did in the 1930s, been inconvenienced by World Youth Day, seen DF (and all other nurses) earn the lowest penalty rates in Australia, been harrassed by the transit police over tickets, glowered over the electricity privitisation proposal, been frightened on the train at night when there were no transit police to be found, watched freeways get built, rail lines get cancelled, my old high school yet to be rebuilt nearly six years after it burnt down, and been glared at in State parliament for kissing (okay, maybe the last one was understandable).

So, okay I'm mad. But to want to boil people in oil and tie them to the rack? Can't we just send 100,000 letters to the Governor asking for an early election? Torture isn't a joke. I think people are just getting a little bit precious here. I've heard the NSW government decribed as the worst and most incompetent on Earth, which would surely come as a surprise to the people of Burma. Can we all get a little perspective here? We all still live in a warm, peaceful state with a low crime rate, plentiful attractions and a soft stand on sedition. This Government which we all hate so much will be gone in sixteen months regardless. But some of us are never happy. Richard Glover points out that there's nothing Sydneysiders love more than a whinge. People don't complain about the Gvoernment in Newcastle as much as they do in Sydney, I've noticed. Maybe when Labor is finally gone - then we'll really know what it is to be unhappy.

In Praise of St Erma

2009-12-05T17:49:00.006+11:00

Today I tracked down two Erma Bombeck books I'd not read before in a Newtown bookshop, and my squeals of delight were such that DF insisited on purchasing both for me.

I've read and enjoyed Bombeck before, but read her work with a special poignancy now I'm about to be married and start a family myself. It's a different era now. Ms Bombeck was born the year after my grandmothers, her children are the same age as my parents, so how come so much of what she writes hits home to this feminist in 2009? Bombeck has been attacked by feminists before. A supporter said "Did these women think, come the revolution, that husbands would stop watching football, or that socks would stop getting lost in the machine?"

It's Ms Bombeck's - Erma's (I want to call her that, she feels like a friend) - ability to poke fun at all this that points to why she is still relevant. It can be hard to laugh sometimes. Around our place, DF pays the bills and I run the place. "Housework is a treadmill from futility to oblivion with stop-offs at tedium and counter-productivity." In our house it's mostly my treadmill. Not because I'm a woman and he's a man, but it's just the way things are.

Growing up, I'd hear of women despairing how little housework their husbands did and I thought "Not me, I'll marry a man who takes on things as an equal". But then...I left home very young, so I had years to get the empty-pizza-boxes and sink-full-of-cups urges out of my system before I realised I like a clean house. When DF came to join the Xander and Nico crew, he'd never really run a house before. He's a bit messy as well. Nothing too bad.

But his mind just doesn't work like that. The man is a health professional, with a degree and all, which is more than I have. He devises instant systems to solve any puzzle or game. He's a tremendous wit. But if I'm going out and he's following later, I have to remind him three or four times to lock the windows. It's dicey as to whether it gets done or not. He gets worried he won't do the laundry "right". It's not an excuse - he will do it, but asks me for a quick refresher on washing machine settings each time.

So yeah...it is easier, much of the time, to just do it myself. Should I complain? DF works full time so I can study what I love. He budgets, because I cannot face it. But sometimes it all gets a bit much, and I turn to St Erma for wisdom.

There's plenty to be found. Erma said it's okay to not be perfect. She said of motherhood: "I've always felt uncomfortable about the articles that eulogised me as a nurse, chauffer, cook, housekeeper, financier, counsellor, philosopher, mistress, teacher, and hostess. It seemed like I always read an article like this on the day when my kid was in the school play and I ironed only the leg of the pants that faced the audience, knitted all morning, napped all afternoon, bought a pizza for dinner and had a headache by 10:30." As I hang DF's shirts in the shower so the steam means I don't have to iron them, I laugh in recognition.

Yep, she was two generations removed and had some views I really don't agree with. So what? She also devoted herself to fighting for the Equal Rights Amendment. And none of it alters the warmth, love and humour of her writing. Please go enjoy some of her quotes. I'm off to cook dinner. DF can wash up - I'll talk him through it.

Looking for a New Feminism

2009-11-22T16:20:00.000+11:00

According to the "Things You Should Know By Now" column in today's Sunday Life magazine, "you'll never catch a husband" if, as a young lady, you cannot hem a skirt.

I asked my husband-to-be-in-two-months if he loved me any less because I can't hem a skirt. (I don't even iron). The answer was no, he couldn't possibly love me any less. Seriously though, the question was demeaning to both of us. Where the hell did this new conservatism and desire to return to traditional gender roles come from?

There's been a creepy anti-feminism backlash going on for a few years now. Lady Gaga shared this gem withv the world: "There's a stigma around feminism that's a little bit man-hating. And I don't promote hatred, ever". She doesn't want to be known as a feminist, you see. She's all about the empowerment, in this case by writhing around half naked, singing about taking a ride on a disco stick.

Seems today you can iron your man's shirt or you can pose for FHM but the one thing you can't do is claim your rights as an equal member of society, independent of male approval. It seems not to occur to Lady Gaga that she could in any way reclaim feminism. Feminism = bad. Where did it all go wrong? My guess is with the idea that women already have everything they need and the women still bleating about feminism just want to get rid of men all together. It's not true...everything in this post is as current today as when I wrote/copy and pasted it nearly six years ago. We still need feminism and we still need to say what that feminism really means.

Instead we have girls decking themselves out in Playboy merchandise, and brides still being given away by their fathers, completing the transfer of ownership from one man to another while decked out in faux-virginal finery. Feminism isn't about the middle ground here - it's about forging a new path entirely. But how do we get it back?

Parking with Kevin Rudd

2009-11-13T14:50:00.002+11:00

So, the Rudd government looks set to veto the ACT same sex civil union legislation passed in the ACT parliament yesterday because it is contravenes Australia's heterosexist Marriage Act. Still, not quite as bad as the Governor of Rhode Island, U.S., who has vetoed the right of gay couples to be buried together.

It's just what we've come to expect from the Rudd Government. Over the last year or so, I've had numerous people say to me "You must be really disappointed by how Rudd has gone in government". Not really. I've lost the innocence and optimism I had at 20 when I believed every word Michael Moore said. I no longer expect that politicians will try to change public opinion rather than respond to it. Especially not a media tart (let's not deny it) like Rudd - who's always keen to take the most populist, knee jerk position he can manage. No, Kevin, Bill Henson is a bit creepy, not absolutely revolting. And as has been pointed out, Moses and Oskar Schindler were people smugglers, those "scum of the Earth" as you labelled them. At first he wanted to look tough about the passengers on the Oceanic Viking, now that some people are voicing concerns, Rudd is offering them a resettlement deal. God help us if there's ever a jihadist terrorist attack in Australia - everyone who's ever eaten a felafel will be boiled alive if talkback radio callers like the idea.

~~~~~

Meanwhile, good to see the guy who attacked a parking ranger in Sydney has been refused bail. Let him not turn into a folk hero. Parking violations are crimes, not brave acts of sticking it to bureaucratic councils - witness all the idiots who park across driveways, or on the corner, or in a bus stop with their hazard lights on so they can go into the 7 Eleven for a bottle of coke (I saw this last week). Me I'd love to be a parking ranger - I love rules and hate cars. So why have I never done it? Fear of attack.

Please Don't Diet

2009-11-10T14:55:00.004+11:00

It's ridiculous. It's heartbreaking. It's a joke. After weeks of extremely careful, no-fat, 1000 calorie a day dieting and an hour's exercise five times a week, I had lost 2Kg. Over the weekend, I ate two hamburgers and a big plate of spaghetti and gained a kilo.

It's karma.

There's a photo of me when I was twenty five. You could hang fine art on my stomach. A strong breeze would have swept me to Victoria. I had no discernable bosoms to speak of. All this required no effort whatsoever; in fact, I didn't like it and tried to eat more to gain weight.

Okay, since then I've turned thirty, quit smoking and quit treating my body like a receptacle for hazardous chemicals. But how did I end up being nearly twice the woman I used to be, by weight? Oh, I love my food. But I always did, and it never turned on me like this before.

So what with getting married in a minute, I decided to lose some weight so I don't need to pay a surplus on my wedding dress for excess fabric. But it's not going so well. I already knew what's been proven - moderate levels of exercise do little for weight gain. I could walk for hours in comfort before I started dieting - apart from my thighs rubbing together of course - and I was still fat. It was going to take tougher measures. No bread, no fat, no red meat, no pasta, no chocolate, no lollies, no chips, no reason for living and no way you haven't gotten the point by now. The first few days are okay. You feel sort of good, even. Then you find yourself sending your dinner guests out on a post-meal walk so you can eat their pizza crusts in secret*.

None of it has worked. I'm starting to wonder what to do now. Meal replacements? They are expensive, but no more so than anything else these days (if you've ever wondered how you pay for a wedding, it's easy; just drain your bank account each fortnight on payday and walk down the street handing gobs of money to every person you pass. You'll never see anything for it, but the wedding feels the same way). I can't wait till I'm actually married, and I can let myself go, and also make the long awaited switch to "married hair" - the famous phenomenon where off come the long locks and wash and wear is the word of the day. Don't tell me about keeping the spice in my marriage. Lord knows there's little enough spice in my diet right now.

* I really did this.

Sydney vs Melbourne

2009-10-26T12:50:00.004+11:00

Those of you with disturbingly long memories may remember this post from a few years ago, when I wrote of how desperately I needed a holiday. Earlier this month, I finally got away.

It was just three days, and DF and I only made it to Melbourne, but after waiting so long anything would have been an epic journey. Anyway whenever anyone from Sydney or Melbourne visits the "other" city, they're obliged to make comparisons. Sydney-Melbourne rivalry is the national sport. Just today this article from the SMH website posited that Sydney comes up short to Melbourne in terms of intellectual vibrancy.

Truth be told we found very little difference between the cities. Being in Melbourne's CBD felt no different to Sydney's, tram tracks and sunshine aside. Where in the city you live has more to do with it; a resident of Fitzroy would have more in common with the lifestyle of a resident of Newtown than either person would have with people who lived in the outer suburbs of their own cities.

That said, there was one thing. Many attractions in Melbourne announce that they are Australia's Most Superlative. You see a lot of this as a Novocastrian, too - everything in Newcastle is Regional Australia's most superlative, just as things in Australia trump themselves as the biggest/best/most ostentatious in the Southern Hemisphere. It does rather come across as needy and desperate for validation. You don't see it much in Sydney. Sydney has more of a sense of "Fuck you, we're Number 1 and no need to prove it".

Why can't they be satisfied with being Australia's best Sydney and Melbourne?

Down In The Park

2009-10-02T14:05:00.004+10:00

Now that we've all made it to Friday, I think we deserve a trip to Centennial Park.

Just a few of the many black swans

In the Column Garden

The infamous, though very pretty, Busbys Pond

Unable to find any clues in the recent murder, we staged our own re-creation

See? I don't hate all birds

In fact, I got up close with the geese

Sunset studies, that slightly melancholy time and never a better way to finish

Child Protection - Let's Think Again

2009-09-30T16:06:00.002+10:00

NSW has just banned smoking in cars with child passengers, several years after smoking was banned in pubs. That should tell you everything about the importance we place on children's safety - at least at the hands of their parents.
The Department of Community Services (DOCS) mandatory reporting line, where those dealing with children on a professional basis are required to report suspicions of abuse, receives over 1,000 calls a day. To deal with this, rather than hiring more workers, mandatory reporting has been changed from "children at risk of harm" to "children at serious risk of harm". Can we try a third way? Can we make it clear to parents that they have to stop abusing their children?

Government intervention is never resented so much as when it involves one's own family. Even the UN Declaration of Human Rights declares that "Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children." We live in an age of strict safety standards and child protection laws for every other aspect of a child's life, yet parents have the right to do more or less anything they want to their children. Parents are only rarely prosecuted for the horrible or risky things they do to their children - it never seems to cross anyone's mind; witness this father being posthumously recommended for a bravery award when he should rather have been charged with manslaughter had he lived. As I said, a health professional or teacher who witnesses signs of abuse on a child is legally required to report it - a parent has no such requirement to report if their partner is abusing their child.

It's often said "the majority of parents want the best for their kids". True as far as it goes, but a lot of those parents think dangerous or just plain bad things are okay. They drink regularly in front of their kids, put them in the car and drive on the Pacific Highway, feed them Happy Meals, smack them, leave them unattended infront of space heaters and take them fishing on jetties at night. All legal,and all these parents would no doubt then sue if their child, say, broke their wrist at school. Maybe it's time we told parents they need to look after their chilren, too. By law if need be. Starting by actually prosecuting parents each and every time they abuse their children is a good start in a community mind shift.

News of the Friday Follies

2009-09-25T13:55:00.002+10:00

In jubillant mood today because of the end of my first term at TAFE, I bring you the unawaited return of the Friday follies. This week: Follies in the news.

A robot computer to mark English essays. What happens when the artificial intelligence is greater than the actual intelligence in the essays?

Lily Allen quits music over illegal file sharing? Let's see how long this lasts... (I hope she changes her mind, I like her stuff. I own a copy of It's Not Me, It's You on CD. You cannot rip the tracks to MP3s, forcing you to either buy her music twice, or use illegal sites in order to listen to "22" on the bus to work. May want to rethink that policy, Ms Allen?)

Fox News attacks Obama's safe schools Czar (their term) as a radical, calling him unsafe for schools. Fox thinks children should remain safe to express their homophobia.

Just how far will one man go to avoid paying for an ambulance? (Seventy kilometres).

Of all the reasons a nation migght have to ban Family Guy, Venezuela picked pot smoking? (C'mon, Chavez. You used to be cool).

Finally, and it's just a coincidence that this came straight after the pot topic. Next time you're wearing a new outfit you feel especially smart in, just remember, so did Brynne Gordon.

Just make sure you have a wizened old Gollum next to you to complete the look...

What's Wrong With Marriage? What's Wrong With Weddings!

2009-09-22T11:45:00.004+10:00

I'm getting married because I'm needy, insecure, and have abandonment issues. There, I said it.

This article in the SMH created quite a bit of controversy. The writer, Catherine Deveny, labels weddings and marriage as antiquated, conservative traditions, "the reinforcement of unrealistic expectations, outdated gender stereotypes and proof we're still being sucked in to happily-ever-after endings. It's also a scathing indictment of our lack of cultural maturity and spiritual imagination. And proof we're emotionally medieval." Well, okay. Marriage is Ms Deveny's bugbear, I understand. I've got mine - circumcision and people who drive cars, and I'll happily see everyone who practices either slowly put to death. Marriage though? Well it doesn't really hurt anyone, as long as two parties go into it equally and willingly. I used to hold similar views to Ms Deveny, and in a way still do. I'm not going to use my personal situation to prove her wrong - a particularly right-wing arguing technique that, for example, turns every parent into an expert on the behaviour of paedophiles.

So I don't have a bugbear about marriage, but I do have one for weddings. "Every bride" spends months dreaming of, and planning, her big day. She plans all the little touches that will make it reflect her and her husband. So why does every bridal couple these days look like they've been churned out of a factory?

These are actual wedding photos of real couples, printed in Australian newspapers in 2009

I've not been to many weddings, but just one would suffice. Living in the city, every weekend you see couples having their wedding photos taken, and each couple is staggeringly the same as the last. We recently caught a ferry across the harbour from Milson's Point (Luna Park) to Circular Quay. There were seperate couples taking photos at either end of the journey; if not for the fact that it was possible to view both parties at once from the boat, I'd have been convinced it was one couple who teleported over the water.

Brides: try a blue dress occasionally. Seriously, you might as well all have a big Moonie wedding together. Anyway, the more "modern" you look now, the more you'll wonder "What was I thinking?!?" when you look back over your wedding photos in twenty years time. (If you've lost your wedding photos by then, just about anyone else's will suffice).

Die, Badman, Die!

2009-09-15T08:45:00.001+10:00

There can be few issues in our society which whip people to the same level of frenzy as paedophilia. We're reminded of this every time Dennis Ferguson does anything at all.

Okay, Ferguson is a horrible sort. He's been convicted of ghastly crimes.
However, the issue now is that it's come out that Ferguson, freed after serving his prison terms, has been living in Ryde, in north west Sydney, for the past few weeks. The residents are not happy, and as continually happens with Ferguson, they've vowed not to rest until he leaves their suburb. As usual, all rational thought has gone, long before Ferguson will.

One resident has described the neighbourhood as being "like a candy shop", for Ferguson. It's as if paedophilia was some sort of virus; merely having a paedophile nearby is enough to infect all the local children. Even Hetty Johnson, head of child sexual abuse support group Bravehearts, has come out saying paedophiles just don't work that way: "This man has only been dangerous to families that he befriends, so just don't befriend him and don't let your children befriend him, and you'll be as safe as you can be I guess".

Where the hell is Ferguson supposed to go? There's much made of the fact that his new flat is near a primary school. Most people in built up areas would live within a kilometre of a primary school. Ryde has been described as a "family neighbourhood" - how many neighbourhoods have no children living or visitng? I think what people really want here is revealed in this comment by local resident "Sean" - "He doesn't deserve to live in society - he deserves to be outcast for the rest of his life. His relaxation as an elderly gentleman is over - he needs to start serving the community in the right way and that's by disappearing". Or, as another young woman living nearby put it, "I'm sixteen years old and I'm terrified" she said (of what?!?). "I just want him to die".

Well at least someone came out and said it. They don't want Ferguson anywhere - they just want him to commit suicide.

Everyone who wants Ferguson gone, as usual in these situations, is a pains to emphasise that they have children (usually of the "small" variety). A TV news reporter actually said that "none of Ferguson's supporters actually has children", as though having children made you an expert on the behaviour of paedophiles. DF and I plan to have children in the next few years. How would I feel if Ferguson moved in to our street? Not really comfortable, but knowing that I wouldn't be leaving my children alone with strangers anyway - especially since the chances are we'd be living near child sex offenders wherever we were.

Meanwhile, it looks like the NSW government, for all it's bluster, can't actually legally move Ferguson. Residents in Ryde say they may have been more understanding if they'd been told in advance Ferguson was coming. But as long as the media whips up these ridiculous moral panics, that was never going to happen.

Friday Grab Bag

2009-09-11T14:30:00.003+10:00

Jockeys have gone on strike over new rules which restrict them to using padded whips, and also limit the number of times per race they can beat the horse. They're not happy. Racing figures have claimed that whips don't actually hurt the horse (then what's the point?) and that whipping is actually for the horse's benefit: "Whipping is just to encourage a horse at the peak of it's fitness to perform it's best". Oh yes, I'm sure the horses love it. In fact, why not whip Usain Bolt to see if he can run a bit faster? No one should be allowed to race, train or attend horse races until they have submitted to being hit with a horsewhip to see for themselves how much it hurts. (Alcohol consumption, and the numbing effects of such, on race day notwithstanding. Actually, living near a racecourse and seeing the behaviour of some racegoers, a whipping is just what they need regardless).

~~~~~

A 19 year old woman In Queensland has been charged with procuring a miscarriage after taking the abortion drugs Milofian and Misoprostol at her home. It is still technically illegal to procure an abortion in Queensland - as well as here in NSW. Keep an eye on this one - whichever way it goes, the consequences will be far-reaching. It does look like the Bligh Labor government in Qld is moving to at least place chemical abortion on the same legal footing as surgical abortion, possibly as a result of this case. If only they'd just decriminalise abortion and have done with it.

~~~~~

Whoa! Heavy stuff for a Friday. On a lighter note, literally. In a fit of turning-30 inspired pique a couple of months back, I decided to bleach my hair and dye it dark pink. It turned out... well, it's been an interesting experience. I bleached my hair way more times than was necessary and completely killed it (hint: can I recommend against doing this a few months out from your own wedding? I'm probably going to have to wear a wig for the occasion, my hair is that fried). On the other hand, if you want people to think you're younger than you are, I highly recommend it. I've been mistaken for a teenager so many times lately, at least until the observer gets close enough to see the crows feet and look of defeat. But overall, there have been fewer reactions than I expected. It seems to affect women at either ends of the age spectrum - old women give me death stares, while little girls are invariably fascinated (you can see them working up the courage to ask their mothers is they can have pink hair, too).

But the regrowth has come marching in and so have the bills. It's time for me to get a job and that means dyeing my hair a "normal" colour again. It will be nice to look like a thirty year old, almost married woman who can wear pearls without looking ridiculous, but on the other hand I'll miss wearing a tracksuit and still being able to look interesting.

When Love Dies

2009-09-08T11:45:00.002+10:00

It's always gruelling to watch the sad, slow death of a loved one. I'm dealing with the trauma at the moment - the sad demise of my beloved Sichuan chicken.

The Dixon House food court in Sydney's Chinatown isn't much to look at. It was almost, but not quite, enough to put me off on my first visit, but I was hungry, and decided to order the Sichuan chicken from Joy Luck Cuisine. I'd only ever had Sichuan Chicken from a packet mix before, and thought I'd see what it was like cooked fresh.

Well, I was stunned. I simply could not believe I'd lived more than a quarter of a century without this delight in my life. A huge, sizzling platter piled with tender breast chicken meat and onion in the most devine spicy sauce you can imagine, for a mere $7.50 (it went up to $8.90 over time). I wanted to weep with pleasure. (In fact it was so spicy I did weep a little). At the time, I was new to Sydney and homesick for Newcastle, but this dish on its own made living here worthwhile.

In the years that followed, I'd go to Dixon House for my Sichuan chicken at least once a fortnight. The lady who ran the stall long since stopped warning me it was a very spicy dish. I tried other Sichuan chickens, but they were pale imitations of perfection. Over time, I think I brought everyone I knew who lived in Sydney along with me to share the joy. It was the perfect pick-me-up, hangover cure, indulgence, cheap lunch and feast. I wanted to ask them to cater my wedding. Joy Luck was by far the best of the stalls in the food court and always had a long wait on the weekend, but it was worth it for that chicken. Sometimes, I'd vaugely worry that they would shut down, but figured the place was too popular and anywaty, surely nothing that bad could happen to me?

The end, when it came, was gradual. It took me a couple of visits to realise the lady who ran it (and worked there taking orders 72 hours a week) wasn't just away, but that there'd been a change of ownership. Nonetheless, I continued to order the chicken. The lure of the sauce was too strong. Strange vegetables began appearing. I don't like many vegetables; it's what puts me off most Asian food, and one of the reasons I liked this chicken dish so much. Then the sauce acquired a funny , smoky taste. Okay, I figured, part of love is accepting the good with the bad. I even tried to be forgiving when mushrooms were added to the mix. Now, I like mushrooms about as much as I like Piers Akerman - they're both damp, icky and raised on bull shit - but I was willing to push them out of the way as I ate. DF begged me to let go. I couldn't.

But then came the final insult. The breast meat chicken was tossed in favour of mystery brown meat. I gagged. I cried. I left my dish mostly full and knew it was over.

What does one do when everything you hoped for is gone? There's been a grieving process. But I think I'm ready to love again. I need a dish to live for. One that will get me out of bed, cheer me up, keep me satiated. I'm looking. There was some initial promise from the duck and rice at BBQ King, but it didn't work out. Things are going well with the pork larb at Crocodile Thai, but it's early days. We'll see how we go.

Never Before Seen Outtakes!

2009-09-05T14:25:00.003+10:00

In deciding to post every day, I've had to think of things to post about. Most ideas seem to be sound, but not quite weighty enough to sustain a whole post. Here are some Xander and Nico posts that never quite made it:

It was Legacy day this week. Schoolkids swarming the city to sell Legacy badges - 16 years ago, I was one of them. It's a noble idea, Legacy; to support the families of deceased veterans. But how many deceased veterans are there these days? There have been less than 20 Australian soldiers killed in combat in the past 20 years. And most of those men had partners with their own careers. We've already gotten rid of the widow's pension. Maybe it's time to admit that Legacy is a cause who's time has passed.

Would those people who whinge about the extra benefits Aboriginal people receive want to be Aboriginal themselves? Would they, for that matter, tell Holocuast victims to "get over it"? (The answers are probably no and yes).

There is a new call for Australia to join every other civilised nation and adopt a bill of rights. As usual the right, led by John Howard, have come out against it. "Decisions on human rights should be made by elected politicians", they say, "not unelected judges". That would mark the first time conservatives have ever shown respect for politicians, then...

Thanks for dropping by for my late blogging revival.

Why The Sex Diaries are a BOBS

2009-09-03T14:00:00.003+10:00

Oh dear, and I didn't want to think about it at all. More and more salacious details of the affairs of former NSW Health Minister John Della Bosca have been revealed in the Daily Telegraph. (No wait, that headline refers to something else. Two affairs! I can barely find energy for one engagement. Anyway, according to blogger Sam de Brito, it was never about the sex; Della Bosca just wanted to be wanted. Maybe he's one of the poor dears whining their penises off in The Sex Diaries.

I'm a few months late here, but I recently read Bettina Arndt's tome of marital woe, in which ordinary Australian couples relate how differing sex drives are damaging their relationships. Or as Ardnt puts it, "different libidos [are] creating a generation of men who were "miserable, angry and really disappointed" that their need for sex was "being totally disregarded in their relationship". Man after man in this book complains that they don't get all the sex they would like.

A need? A NEED?!? Not from the men I know, but there's an underlying assumption from the men in this book that they somehow require or are entitled to sex. No. You need food, water and sleep. You don't NEED sex any more that you need a new DVD player. And if you do, the answer is attached to your wrist.

Arndt doesn't take this into account. Nor does she look at why all these women are rejecting their husbands' advances, or what can be done to fix any related relationship problems. Instead, she blames it all on the "fragile female libido". Solution? In order to meet their husbands' "needs", women should have sex even when they're not in the mood, to make their men happy.

Well this has generated the expected amount of controversy, which Ardnt has dealt with by twisting the debate along ideological lines. With Miranda Devine on her side, Ardnt accuses those who oppose the idea of being "feminists", apparently of the old man-hating, hairy legged variety. There's no justification for women denying sex (according to Devine, women and men do about the same amount of work per week - I'm just an amateur but that seems way off to me). But heed this: "Arndt is not suggesting women have sex against their will, but to heed new research that shows they may still enjoy sex even if they didn't crave it in the first place." Last time I checked, doing something you didn't want to do, for whatever reason, is against your will (that's why you get paid to go to work when you'd rather sleep in). These women are advocating marital rape.

The whining from the men in question has to be read to be believed. I wonder if Belinda Neal - as unpleasant as she apparently is - had to listen to twenty years of such plaints from John. But the real issue here is these women of the right, who come out swinging on the side of some fairly unpleasant men. They must need something to write about; they surely haven't come up with a workable solution everyone can live with.

Smack Addicts

2009-09-02T13:55:00.002+10:00

There are many people I'll never understand. People who enjoyed the single "All Summer Long." People who leave the gherkins on Big Macs. Men who wear shorts with socks. Women who wear otherwise elegant outfits with thongs.

And the people who think it is their right, or even somehow helpful, to "physically discipline" their children.

Society pretends to be deeply concerned with the welfare of children. But really, in terms of attitudes to child abuse, we're at the stage now that we were with domestic violence thirty years ago - that it's a family matter, a parent's right, that we shouldn't get involved.

It baffles logic that if an older child hits a younger one, this is "bullying", but if an adult hits a child, this is acceptable. And only if that adult is the child's parent - if smacking is such an effective form of discipline, why is it only parents - not babysitters, teachers, childcare workers, other family members, or anyone else looking after the child - who are allowed to carry smacking out?

Smacking is rarely perfomed in a thoughtful, considered way. Most smacking is performed by a stressed parent lashing out in the heat of the moment. Not having children yet myself, I can't understand that stress and can't guarantee I'll never smack myself and regret it straight away. But that's the difference - I know it's not okay, and I sincerely hope I never actually smack my kids.

Most "right to smack"ers say "I was smacked, and I turned out okay." Well, if you think it's okay for you in turn to hit a child, then no you didn't turn out okay. Smacking is horribly demeaning to a child - and threats are even worse. Children acquire discipline through respect for their parents, not fear. Many people I know who were smacked have never learnt resepct for authority (as opposed to fear of authority) and have learnt, not to do well, but rather to not get caught. My fiancé wasn't smakced as a child, and I can tell you he's far more respectful and less illegal than I am.

Smacking sends the message that might is right. As a civilised society, we should ban this barbaric relic of a bullying past. Smacking will still go on - but we need to stand up and say, it's not okay anymore.

Shopping for Introverts

2009-09-01T15:23:00.002+10:00

In a perfect world, I'd never eat at McDonalds again. I loathe everything they stand for. Same with any anonymous commerical enterprise.

But in this world, I'm shopping at chain stores like there's no tomorrow. Why? Because I'm shy.

I love the idea of supporting independent businesses. But when I walk into a tiny shop and the sales assistant wants to be my new BFF, I'm tempted to run away. There's no easy solution to this for timid people - except to patronise massive, uncaring corporations because by not caring about you, they leave you alone. I'm not altogether sure that small business owners realise the, effect they have when, for instance, you linger a moment at a cafe blackboard and they come running over, squawking "Can I help you?" It's pretty offputting to the shy. Small clothes shops are even worse. "I just came in for a look. Yes it's a lovely day and I'm feeling fine, but following me around making irrelevant comments won't persuade me to buy your overpiced ugly ass trousers".

So I'm afraid I'll keep doing my shopping where no one wants to know my name.

Gay Marriage for Dummies

2009-08-18T11:20:00.004+10:00

It's often amusing to see the excuses contrived in an attempt to defend the morally indefensible. In the case of the opposition to gay marriage, however, the convoluted arguments aren't funny. A lot of people are being hurt and denied their human rights. Me, I'm getting kinda pissed off about living in a country with such a sizeable minority of intolerant dickwads and even more disappointed with Kevin Rudd. The delightful Ann Coulter opines that leftists are way more intolerant than any conservative (which is why you so often hear of Christian bashings in San Francisco). Well, today I'm going to be tolerant, so here is a simple rebuttal of some of the stupid "arguments" against gay marriage:

If we let a man marry a man, next he'll be allowed to marry a dog.
And while we're at it, why not then let that dog vote, drive a car and buy beer? The man can't legally have sex with the dog either, and he can with another man (as long as, you know, everyone wants to). This is about people...whom the right historically don't care much about.

Marriage is defined as being between a man and a woman.
It's just a pity this doesn't specify which man and woman, or what the rest of us are supposed to do. Seriously though, Piers Akerman has been spewing forth this nonsense lately. Technically it's true under current law (which is the whole problem!) but so what? Historically the definition of marriage was "man and wife" - the wife was her husband's possession, she promised to obey him, and had few rights in the marriage. Now that's changed, all but a few accept marriage as the joining of equal partners; so it is possible to change the definition of marriage. Akerman and his ilk just don't want to.

Gay Marriage is a threat to straight marriage/the traditional family
I think Al Franken (married for 34 years) said it best: " I never figured out how gay marriage is a threat to heterosexual marriage. I look at a gay male couple, for example, and I don't go, 'Boy, that looks good,' ". Seriously, find me one hetero couple in Australia whose marriage would be threatened if gays were allowed to marry. (If it's a sham marriage to cover up the homosexuality of one or both parties anyway, that doesn't count). You know what's a threat to straight marriage? Umm...DIVORCE!

Gay marriage is forbidden by the Bible.
Okay, let's suppose we should allow the laws of Australia to be dictated by a book most of the population would never have looked at. It's true that Leviticus 18:22 states "Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable." (so either the Bible should not be read by women, or all women should be lesbians). I'll allow religious conservatives this point if they agree to stop praying if they need glasses or a rash: "For no one who has a blemish shall draw near, a man blind or lame, or one who has a mutilated face or a limb too long, or a man who has an injured foot or an injured hand, or a hunchback, or a dwarf, or a man with a defect in his sight or an itching disease or scabs or crushed testicles; no man of the descendants of Aaron the priest who has a blemish shall come near to offer The Lord's offerings by fire; since he has a blemish, he shall not come near to offer the bread of his God." (Leviticus 21:18-21) (for more on Homosexuality and the Bible, see here).

It's all pretty ridiculous. In fact if my fiancee and I have a civil marriage ceremony, by law the celebrant is required to say: “Marriage, according to law in Australia, is the union of a man and a woman to the exclusion of all others, voluntarily entered into for life.”. I'm not standing in front of the people I dearly love who are denied their civil rights, whilst someone says those words. So we're considering not getting legally married until those words are gone. So gay marriage is turning into a threat to straight marriage, though not the way the conservatives intended.

Justice and Punishment

2009-08-11T13:55:00.002+10:00

What with the recent fortieth anniversary of the Manson family murders, it's worth asking - why are the Manson women still in prison?

They are now all in their early sixties, serving time for crimes they committed while only just old enough to vote. They've expressed remorse for what they've done. They are highly unlikely to re offend and are little danger to society. But there's no likelihood they will be released in the near future. So - what purpose does society fulfill keeping them in jail? Are some crimes simply too monstrous to forgive?

The overwhelming reason the Manson women are likely to die in jail is, of course, that no politician wants to be known as the person that freed the Manson girls; it would cause community outrage. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger knows he'd be eaten alive by Fox News if it happened. But what about the feelings of the victims' families? Whilst I have great compassion for their sufferings, it's important to note we have a justice system for many reasons - and one is to represent all involved with fairness. A fairness that, as a grieving relative, it is understandably difficult to display. Susan Atkins is dying of brain cancer, having lost a leg and with months left to live. However, Sharon Tate's sister Debra opposed Atkins' release on compassionate grounds, saying "She will be set free when judged by God. It's important that she die in incarceration." Such a view is understandable but should Debra Tate be the one making the decision?

Surely justice has been served already with regard to the Manson women. They have served 40 years each in prison - longer than most convicted murderers. The chance for them to do anything meaningful with their post-prison lives is over; they cannot have children or pursue careers. Their continued incarceration serves no purpose other than to fulfill our desire as a society for punishment, for revenge. But is that, in this case, okay?

Diatribe of a Temporary Housewife

2009-07-31T12:50:00.001+10:00

All my life, I believed that women who chose home duties as a vocation were somehow "letting the side down". But that was before I was made redundant from my stressful if underpaid advertising career, moved in with DF, and found myself temporarily living as a housewife in all but name.

According to reports such as this one on Sixty Minutes, being a housewife is the new black. Watching that story made me intimidated, and depressed. Domestic arts? Hell, I was a domestic sataness. I appreciate a basic level of cleanliness. I like to cook. But tupperware parties, padded hangers and time-release air fresheners are not me. Once the house was cleanish, I didn't know what to do with my days. And I don't know where they all went. If there is a Hell for housewives the first thing they'll say when you get there - and every day for the rest of eternity - is "What did you do all day?"

It was a huge comedown from the Harbour view office, after work cocktails and shopping to fill the enormous void in my life. We could have become a reality TV show, but the problem with that is you need a stable situation and a catchy title. When things go wrong, it can get messy - Kate Plus 8 is still fine, but Jon Plus 8 sounds like a bunch of people gathered in a toilet, probably for nefarious purposes.

Anyway, the experience is now over - I'm training to be a youth worker - and it's given me some empathy, if not a lot of sympathy, for those women who choose a life of baking, housekeeping and one day sales. I'm looking forward to working again, though.

I Only Steal Hearts

2009-07-26T17:00:00.004+10:00

If I may get personal for a moment...

...will you all please stop calling me a cradle snatcher?

My Darling Finacé (DF) is everything I've ever wanted in a man...and eighteen months younger than me. He graduated high school just one year after I did. Not an age gap that would count among adults, you would think...and yet I'm continually called a cradle snatcher. Because he is the guy and supposed to be older than me.

In Australia, grooms are on average 2.8 years older than brides in first marriages. The average age gap has declined over time, but still, in a majority of marriages the groom is older than the bride (taller, too). We equate age with power (in this context) so the guy is supposed to be older and more powerful. For all my jokes about being a woman in my thirties with a twenty-something lover, the truth is it's pretty grating, sexist and offensive.

Thanks! I feel better.

In Due Season: A Tribute To The Chaser

2009-07-17T13:50:00.002+10:00

Like many of you, I was alarmed on Wednesday night to learn that The Chaser's War On Everything is coming to an end in two weeks. Did the evil forces of talkback radio get them in the end? Was it all over? Fear not. According to the show website, the truth is:

"As I've mentioned before, this series was always going to end at the end of July, and contain ten episodes. The ABC's decision to suspend the show had the effect of reducing that to eight (which means there will be a lot of stuff on the DVD!)

But yeah, at this stage, we feel like we've done our dash with the War On Everything, and that's what Chris was referring to – not necessarily future Chaser projects, but this particular show. For one thing, it's become increasingly difficult to film the stunts we like to include in Australia because the guys are more recognisable. But more broadly, it feels like time to try something new."

It would be a damn shame if it was the end for the Chaser. I understand the guys are getting older, and may be losing their taste for this sort of humour, but still... I can't help but feel a little proprietary and protective of the Chaser guys because I've been watching them since 2001, and I still do. According to Chas, that makes me something of a rarity, and many people who liked their early stuff hate them now. I hunted down their newspaper back when I lived in Newcastle and only one newsagent stocked it, and then not often. I've been to tapings at the ABC and their live show. I feel like I practically know them by now.

And if you're still wetting your knickers over the "Make a Realisitic Wish" sketch (They were. Not. Making fun of. Sick children. But the arbitrariness of charity) then I'm sorry to have to tell you've met them, or a few of them, and they're some of the nicest people I've ever met. Living in inner Sydney you see "noted people" (if you wouldn't call them celebrities) all the time - Alannah Hill and Kim Beazley in the last week alone in my case. I don't talk to them often (what could one possibly say to Kim Beazley that wouldn't sound like condolences?) but when I have, they're usually polite but distant. But Chas happily talked to me for some time after a show - signing autographs, posing for pictures, and generally just being an awesome guy in the middle of a very long national tour.

So sure, the Chaser guys may have wandered off course with their humour from time to time. But the alternative looked too much like the Glasshouse. We need them to point out the absurdity of our times, and I hope to see them back soon.

Enviro-Nutsies

2009-07-14T13:40:00.001+10:00

Recently I visited a large, well-known hardware chain where no plastic bags are provided to customers. It's part of their feel-good drive to help the environment. I wouldn't mind, except that the only way to reach the place on foot, or from the buses, was walk around three sides of the warehouse-like building and pick my way through a huge car park. I asked the sales assistant if this was hypocritical, but all I got was a surly look and a threat to not sell me really cheap light bulbs, so I let it go.

It's not like they were the nice, old fashioned flattering incandescent light bulbs either. All you can buy these days from many retailers is those awful energy saving things, which look like spare parts from the Tardis and give the whole room an awful greyish glow, as if you have the flu, but worse.

Yet this week, some of these same damn retailers who are nannying to us about the environment and what we can and can't buy are offering huge discounts on petrol if you spend sufficient sums at their condescending stores.

Can we stop this lunacy please? Driving a car and using green bags is environmentally useless. Worse than useless in fact, because it allows the driver to reduce their guilt and not look at making any real changes. But I'm not sure if we can blame the individual here - the Government deserves some blame for poor public transport, of course (though around where I live, with a continual stream of buses to the City, people still love their damn cars). But the main blame lies with these businesses - maintaining a car culture, wasting energy, stocking overpackaged products with high carbon footprints and god knows what environmental safety standards in manufacture - whilst they absolve themselves and their customers of all blame.

I'm depressing myself here. Let's strike a deal - you offer people incentives to get the train to the shops occasionally, let me have waterproof bags which I can re-use as bag liners and flattering light bulbs, and we'll all be happy.

In the meantime, I'm shopping at Aldi. But since they don't offer any plastic bags either, I'm bringing cling wrap to the store to wrap my purchases for the trip home.

This Blog Now Pre-Pay Only

2009-07-02T12:02:00.001+10:00

We've recently moved from an area of Sydney serviced by trains, to a neighbourhood that isn't. This has forced us onto the buses, coinciding with buses in the CBD going prepay only. As usually in NSW, cashless bus services are a great idea in theory, but on the ground it doesn't actually work. (When things get desperate, Troy McLure would call all his suprise witnesses again; the NSW government simply announces a new metro that will never be built).

Anyway, you're usually at the bus stop before you remember you can't buy a ticket on the bus anymore, so you check the list of nearby ticket vendors and set off to obtain one. The first shop you visit is out of the tickets you need. The second is inexplicably closed at 1pm on a weekday. The third seller don't sell no bus tickets and they never did. By now you're 2km away from the bus route, fractious and willing to buy an overpriced ticket valid for a much longer distance than you require, just because it's the only kind the "convenince store" you're fetched up at has left and you're too tired to search anymore.

It's not like prepay actually saves any time. Maybe for commuter services at peak hour, but during the day in Sydney there's at least one set of tourists on every bus who ask the driver questions, holding things up. Tourists I actually don't mind much; what really annoys me is locals who get off the bus through the front doors, holding up the boarding passengers, and who really should know better.

In fact you can probably gather I don't like the bus much, comapred to the train. Trains have been my primary mode of transport for the past two years, which has pleased me greatly; at any rate, I've not whinged about them much here, which is a good way to tell.

Lots of Excuses

2009-06-28T14:20:00.003+10:00

Well hey everyone. It's been a pretty hectic few months for Xander and Nico (well, talking about yourself in the third person is okay on Facebook!) starting with the fact that we're not just Xander and Nico anymore. Yep, I'm getting hitched. I've also given up on the corporate world to study to be a Youth Worker, moved house (ugh) and had a fairly serious chest infection requiring hospitalisation - not that I actually did go into hospital...anyway I've gone from single advertising executive to living as a housewife (temporarily!) in five monhs.

So what I'm saying is, there's been a bunch of stuff going on and the past few weeks of current events have missed the Xander and Nico touch. Fear not though, life is getting to something approximating normal-ish, so we hope to be back with our over opinionated, ill-informed posts on the state of the world in early July...

Futility Free Friday (A Bunch of Stuff to Think About)

2009-05-22T11:30:00.001+10:00

So the NRL is in trouble, yet again, for the attitudes of the football players towards women. Endless words have been written on this and I'll not rehash the whole saga. Respect for women is certainly needed. I'm speaking as a feminist here, so let me wade in...

...I'm not entirely sure that portraying women as delicate little flowers in need of protection is helpful to us.

There are witnesses to the Christchurch incident who say the woman was a willing participant, including coworkers who report her bragging about it for days after. We run a risk when we allow regret to become rape after the fact. No means no, we shouldn't need to debate that, but now yes can become no. The issue of coercion at the time of the sex act is often raised. The problem with this is that coercion (as distinct from direct threats) implies that men are mentally and emotionally, as well as (usually) physically, stronger than women. It's dangerous territory all around. And by claiming coercion, this is perpetuated. We should teach young girls that men can't force you into doing anything you don't want, they don't have that ability, you can, must walk away. Better that than being the victim after.

~~~~~

Friends of mine often express amazement that despite the seemingly endless spate of gun massacres in the U.S., there's no nationwide call there to ban private gun ownership. They can't believe the deaths are just accepted. "Why not?" I say. "We just accept the road toll here. No one is giving up their cars".

The road toll is just seen as a fact of life. People rush to vaccinate their children, something I don't personally agree with, but regardless, they're putting them in greatest danger by driving them to the clinic. People teach their teenagers to drive so they'll be safe travelling to and from work, but when you consider the youth road toll versus the number of assaults and murders on public transport at night, it's the most dangerous thing parents can do.*

Today has been designated fatality free Friday in the hope of shaking the nation out of it's complacency by encouraging them to drive more safely. Can I go further - be safer still. Take the bus.

~~~~~

Whew! On a slightly lighter note than all that, recently my better half and I were watching TV, and an ad for shampoo appeared, in which the main actor was of Asian appearance. We discussed how it's not something you see much, even in multi cultural Australia today - the point was not that he was an Asian guy, but just that he was a guy.

But I got to thinking, how often do you see ads for anything cooking or cleaning related where it's Dad giving the kids a snack, Dad serving up dinner, Dad telling the kids how soft the fabric softener has made their jammies?

Maybe not so light after all. Anything resembling real gender equality is still a long, long way off.

* And adding to the irony is the children's cancer charity that raffles off cars. I've always wanted to ask them whether that isn't hypocritical and/or ridiculous, considering car exhausts are carcinogenic. When I get up the nerve I'll let you know how it goes.

Yet Another Ill-Informed Budget Analysis

2009-05-13T13:10:00.001+10:00

Well, the 2009 Australian budget is a triumph for Wayne Swan and the Rudd Government. They've managed to save $150 billion. Wow.

Yes, there is a budget deficit of $58 billion, an Australian record. But Treasury recieved $200 billion less in revenues this year due to the GFC. To make up that gap is remarkable. Well done to all involved.

And yet. What's that I hear? Whingeing. The endless parade of people claiming there's "nothing in it for them". Another legacy of the Howard years: everyday people who see the budget not as the national economic plan, but as a hand out of goodies. (And oh, the clamour from the right wingnuts today! They claim to support unfetterred free markets, but try to shove their noses out of the trough, and woe is you). One particular man interviewed on Nine News last night claimed that as there were no perks for small business in the budget, he had no incentive to hire new people, and would have to work longer hours. Um, that's how the market works. Pay someone to work for you, or do the work yourself. Next you'll be complaining you have to clean your own house as you can't afford a lady who does.

Seriously, the Budget, and the Australian people, right now are reminding me of a homeowner who notices their house on fire and reacts by frantically ringing the post office to get them to hold their mail. We're not focussing on the real issue here. (Thank you Ross Gittins). There's a whole lot of recession to get through and we've barely even started - this is not the time to be worrying about how long it will take to pay off the deficit.

Anyway, there's no increase in Austudy, so the Budget isn't helping me. Stupid Rudd.

Good News, Bad News

2009-05-07T12:45:00.002+10:00

Those on the right are very fond of saying that the Rudd Government's stimulus package, which was intended to create 75,000 new jobs, "has not created a single new job".

I wonder what they'll be saying now, as the suprise news comes thrrough that during April, the unemployment rate fell from 5.7% to 5.4%, with 49,100 net new full time jobs.

As I've said before, thank God Kevin Rudd is PM right now. The stimulus package has worked. The economic policies the Coalition are so fond of brought the world the GFC and if they were in office now, Australia would be in the midst of a deep recession rather than a slow down. Now let's see how Rudd and Swan handle the budget. Deficit? Oh yes, there will be. Hopefully they'll shoulder some of that by winding back some of the middle class welfare that gouged $80+ billion out of the budget annually during the final Howard years.

~~~~~

Back here in the ~~nanny~~ premier state, the NSW police have floated a policy to move on "noticeably" drunk persons in public places (a step on from the current policy, which allows them to move on "seriously" drunk people). Some of the criteria they'll use to judge a person's level of intoxication is slurred speech and staggered gait.

What good will that do anyone? I have disabled friends who need to carry medical documentation of their condition with them when they go to bars, to prove that ttheir lack of coordination and speech difficulties are due to medical reasons, not overindulgence in alcohol. Are disabled people now to fear being accosted by the police for walking (if they can) down the street? What about those of us who are just plain clumsy? I fell down the stairs in the train station this morning and I haven't had a drink in days. Goddammit, I think I need one now though.

The Real Climate Changers

2009-05-05T15:00:00.001+10:00

Malcolm Turnbull has refused to allow the Government's emissions trading scheme through Federal Parliament, thereby raising the possibility of a double dissolution election on the issue of climate change.

This will no doubt delight the right wingnuts. They're very confused on the issue of climate change; they just know they don't like it. Their opinion ranges from:

There is no such thing as global warming;

Okay, global warming is happening, but it's a natural event and not due to human activity;

Fine, global warming is caused by human activity, but Australia is too insignificant a contributor to worry about taking action;

And even if we should take action, we can't afford it.
(I've seen Piers Akerman take all four positions in a single column, and still find time to heartily disparage Kevin Rudd. Considering all the energy he burns, it's hard to understand why he's so fat).

Myself, I don't understand the argument that protecting jobs is more important than reducing carbon emissions. For a start, these are the very jobs and industries which are creating the emissions in the first place. Anyway, if we applied this argument universally, we'd avoid all progress to save jobs. There would be no phones to keep messenger boys in work. Australia would still have a productive whaling industry. So what's so special about, say, the car manufacturing industry or coal production today? Yeah, I know first hand how tough things are right now. Which, if you think about it, the right wingnuts don't.

The Pigs Flew

2009-05-01T16:11:00.003+10:00

"If as many people had swine flu as those that are covering swine flu then it would be a pandemic to reckon with"

Finally, some sense on the swine flu issue! I dunno. All the confirmed swine flu victims I've seen on TV seem more bemused than anything.

As I believe I may have said before, I'm not a people person. Today I took the remaining aspect of my flu, the awful cough, shopping. Unfortunatley I was unable to induce panic in anyone.

Everyone's A Top Bloke After Death

2009-04-30T14:30:00.002+10:00

During the Channel 9 bushfire appeal earlier this year, it was reported that Richard Pratt donated $250,000 to the victims. My reaction was, "Do you think he can spare it?"

Mr Pratt, Australia's 4th richest man, died on Tuesday as a result of prostate cancer. Despite that he was facing charges of lying over allegations he was involved in price fixing - to which he admitted and for which his company was fined $36 million - Pratt is being eulogised as a hero, with many commentators pointing out that the charges were dropped the day before Pratt passed away. That is true, but only because the CDPP acknowledged his death was imminent. The Commonwealth Prosecutor Mark Dean believes the charges would have succeeded had they gone to trial.

But according to large sections of the media, Richard Pratt died innocent; he was vindicated of all charges and should only be remembered as a great man. He did do much good, but the "price fixing scandal" was an appalling abuse of corporate power which sent many small businesses broke, and the victims will now never recieve justice.

As the guys from the Chaser pointed out, everyone's a top bloke after death.

~~~~~

Your humble blogger is suffering from flu this very moment. My mother asked me if I've been in contact with anyone who could have swine flu, and I replied "I'm in the Sydney CBD most days, mingling with people from all over the world, so who can say?"

When you consider the actual number of cases, I'm left shaking my head at the mass panic. It's the flu, people. All the actual swine flu sufferers I've seen interviewed on TV seem bemused by the whole thing. Still, it's a nice change from hearing about "illegals" (actually you right-wing nuts, it's not illegal to seek asylum in a foreign country) and the GFC.

Building A Better Nico

2009-04-06T12:02:00.004+10:00

Yesterday morning - Sunday - someone started vacuuming their car right outside my bedroom window, therefore waking me. I checked the clock. 9am. No, hang on, daylight saving was over; it was 8am. It was a late night Saturday. This called for immediate action. I stuck my head out the window and said..."Can you do that somewhere else, please?"

What is happening to me? A few months ago such behaviour would have unleashed a stream of such profanity that they keyboard would now melt if I tried to type it. But I'm the highly suggestible type, and am now under the influence of a better half so saintly, paediatric-nurse like that I am vaguely ashamed of a lot of my behaviour. I have quite a temper, that is clear, and far too little regard for my fellow humans.

So these days I'm trying to be a better person. I no longer stomp on the feet of people who won't get up to let me past on the train. (I do still hit them with my bag a little, though).

There They Go Again

2009-04-02T12:30:00.002+11:00

I ended up donating more money to the RSPCA Bushfire appeal than to the human ones. Yes, it was an appalling tragedy, but after hearing about the fifth plaint from the Victorian bushfire victims that "We don't need any inner-city greenies telling us how to run things" I thought, well it doesn't seem to stop you taking the inner-city greenies' money. You can do without mine.

It's still got me beat why these people hate us so. Along with smokers, we're the only group remaining in society it is perfectly fine to say anything about.

Sure, many of the bushfire victims were no doubt lovely people who didn't discriminate by postcode and realised everyone drinks lattés. But to the whingers, I'll say - apparently you do need some advice. Even the most cossetted of apartment dwellers knows that when there's big fires coming, you get the hell out.

In Theory...

2009-04-01T13:30:00.001+11:00

There's nothing wrong with people with Asperger's syndrome; they could in fact even be consdiered as superior. Aspies could be said to be the first humans to evolve beyond the pack mentality.

This is the stuff I come up with when I have too much time on my hands. (Why I have too much time on my hands but haven't been posting is something I'll get to this week). Anyway, I've both lived with and dated men with Asperger's syndrome (not at the same time - they weren't the same person). My ex actually suggested at the time we were dating I may have the condition myself, but I strenuously denied this, and didn't know much of the condition until recently when I got to reading about it.

It's fascinating stuff. Myself, I've been wondering if perhaps Aspies have evolved beyond meaningless social interaction in order to persue higher goals.

In the early days of human evolution, humans had to live as part of a pack/tribe/group to survive. A "yay, team!" mentality was required from all, or early people would be cast out on their own, unable to hunt, reproduce, or defend themselves.

But in today's society, this is no longer necessary. Sure, social skills are nice and can make life easier, for example when job hunting. But we can survive on our own. Maybe in Aspies, the part of the brain which gives a shit that your colleague is about to become a grandparent again is shut off, in order to achieve something more long lasting than small talk at a party you were only dragged to by your much more social partner.

Snort, Distort

2009-03-23T13:40:00.001+11:00

As I've said before, we've veered into hysteria when it comes to child protection. Well, here we go again...

...A friend of mine is a primary school teacher, and was recently involved in an incident where two girls in his late-primary class reported an attempted abuction; claiming a man in a white van had called to them in the playground, telling them to get in. There were doubts over the story from the first, and it transpired that the white van was a government worker on legitimate business in the area. No attempted abduction.

But naturally the school reported the incident to the police immediatley, and then the frenzy began. Parents descended on the school, verbalising teachers for not keeping their children safe. The children became hysterical, each reporting their own white van horror story.

All this is understandable, but then the media circus started. The story caused a local frenzy, including detailed descriptions of the suspected abductor, venues, the van...none of which was ever reported to police (mostly because it never happened, and the children involved did not report these details). My friend was gobsmacked, asking "Where on Earth are they getting this stuff from?". But he was unable to contact the media to refute the stories to report the inaccuracies, in order to protect his own privacy (the same reason I can't elaborate anymore on the details here).

We all knew this stuff already - how the media distorts and just plain makes stuff up to get a story. But to see it second hand is an eye opener. (I am kind of disappointed that those Pauline Hanson photos are fakes).

Old Numbers, Fresh Thinking

2009-03-03T12:07:00.004+11:00

If you're nostalgic for the heady days of the 1990s, this really is your time. The Dow Jones is now at it's lowest level since 1997. Last time it was below 7000, Princess Diana was still alive, Chumbawumba still seemed like a fun song and I was still wearing a school uniform*.

We could go into a detailed analysis of why this is happening, or alternatively just blame AIG. American Insurance Group reported the largest quarterly loss in U.S. corporate history, despite receiving $150 billion as part of the corporate bailout.

Who the hell is the CEO at AIG, and can I have their job? I've absolutely no experience in insurance or managing anything more serious that asking the juniors to help with my paperwork. But I'm sure I could lose $62 billion in three months. Heck, I could even lose it in a more fun way. There are 116,000 AIG employees worldwide, so that's over $50,000 each for them all to take luxury vacations.

Maybe it is time to look at how CEOs are nurtured and rise through the ranks. Something has gone very wrong. Maybe we could try elevating ordinary workers to senior corporate positions, a six month trial perhaps. Us schlubs could hardly do worse than what we have at the moment.

* For practical purposes not titillation.

Right Wing Reasoning

2009-02-20T12:05:00.002+11:00

If you're not eating, hungover, or otherwise at risk of nausea, go read this article by Ann Coulter.

Stopped screaming?

Ann Coulter is not famed for her logic. But let me just blow her entire "argument" apart very simply...

Most single mothers are not single by choice. Their poverty - which is the main risk to their children - is not their choice.

And as for the college-educated single mothers by choice, there is no evidence that their children are harmed (and are likely to do well by having a committed, caring, older and better educated parent, and also likely a parental support network; having put this much thought into parenthood, these women are likely to make sure they get things right).

There no doubt are women who irresponsibly enter into single parenthood without the resources to adequately support their children, but they would be a tiny minority of single mothers.

Let's just thank heaven that Coulter has never met the right man for her and is so against single motherhood. At least we know the line ends here.

The Definition of Bogans

2009-02-16T14:23:00.003+11:00

I came across this on a Biggest Loser forum, and it was so apt, and amusing, I just had to share...

"Live in the outer western suburbs and have low education levels. Usually work in low paid and menial jobs i.e. factories and supermarkets. Give BBQs where everyone brings their own meat, hamburger patties, cheap breakfast sausages and massive lumps of blade steak. If lucky, the host will provide a catering pack of nasty pre-prepared potato salad, half a wilted lettuce and a few tomatoes cut into chunks with a tin of beetroot and a couple of fried onions. There will be plenty of bottled but cheap brand BBQ sauce and tomato sauce. The hostess will also graciously provide a slab of semi frozen cheesecake, again in a caterer's pack.

For the men, they will be seen entering the BBQ with a slab of beer on their shoulders (not their favourite brand, but the cheapest). They will attempt to leave with a slab of beer on their shoulders (their favourite brand). The women will arrive with a couple of bottles of fruity lexia and think they are upmarket because it is in a bottle, not in a cask. They will drink half a bottle and be totally shickered.

The men will wear tshirts and jeans with either a cheap knock off pair of sneakers from Target which attempts to copy a pair of more expensive sneakers or a pair of cheap rubber thongs. The tshirt should feature a heavy metal 80's band. The women will wear cheap knockoffs resembling something Paris wore in the women's mag photo last week.

They will drive what is normally classified as a 'hoon' car and will owe more than the car is worth to a finance company. It's generally acceptable to heavily decorate the car with fringed rear windows and a set of dice hanging from the rear view mirror. The more metallic and hideous the colour of the car, the better. The sound system in the car will cost more than it will cost them to educate their 4 children from kindergarten to legal school leaving age.

General topics of conversation will be celebrities, pop music, TV programmes, local sporting teams and motor sports. If they get really into a conversation, they may stretch themselves and make a small statement about the price of food.

They will own a rottweiler or a 'pig dog' for 'protection', but the kids will be living in mortal fear of the dogs who will receive better food and attention than the children."

They don't always live in the Western Suburbs, either. I have been to that barbecue. Many times.

Problems With Kevin's Package

2009-02-11T16:45:00.002+11:00

As other events in the world slowly seep back in to news bulletins, Kevin Rudd is now relying on all seven of the cross bench senators to get his fiscal stimulus package passed. I dearly hope he succeeds. Of course I do - I want my $950!

I promise I'll use it wisely. And I will be generous, if not quite as generous as the victims of the Ingham floods in Queensland who, having their homes and businesses themselves, donated their flood relief assistance payments to the Victorian bushfire victims. I'm staggered in the face of such altruism and heart.

But us childless middle-income earners never, ever get any goodies from the Government. So you can imagine our excitement at being included. Let us do good with the money, but please don't take it away from us.

Some are doing well from the downturn. JB Hi Fi have reported that their profits increased 40% in the second half of 2008 (due in no small part to myself) and McDonalds have reported increased takings as well. Too poor or afraid to splash out on restaurant meals and holidays, we're turning into a nation of even fatter, lazier couch potatoes.

~~~~~

Here we go again

Tonight is the Socceroos World Cup qualifier against Japan. If we win tonight, then on the numbers we're almost guaranteed qualification to next year's tournament. It seems wrong to celebrate at a time like this, but if we win, tomorrow I'm wearing my Socceroos T shirt to Kinokinuya and running around the Japanese language section shouting "We won! Suckers!"

I can't imagine why I don't have a boyfriend.

The Victorian Bushfires

2009-02-09T16:21:00.002+11:00

If I may attempt a moment of levity, Nathan Rees has offered Victoria the help of the NSW Government. John Brumby replied "Thanks, but things are enough of a disaster down here already."

But in all seriousness, disaster doesn't even seem to cover it. Catastrophe perhaps. I don't know.

There were warnings this would be worse than Ash Wedesday, but I thought that was the hyperbole used to make people take the threat seriously and make preparations. Then When I first woke on Sunday the death toll was reported at 25. How the hell do 25 people die in a bush fire in this day and age? I wondered. I was thinking of isolated deaths, people fleeing in cars. Not whole towns being destroyed, with residents in them.

Through the day the death toll mounted - 35, 49, 66, 84. And then you couldn't take it in any more. The sight of the Victorian Premier and hardened newspeople breaking down. The stories of unimaginable horror.

As I write this, the death toll from the Victorian bush fires is 130, and still rising over the hours. It may go over 250. 750 homes have been destroyed. There are whole districts rescuers have yet to visit. Firefighters have battled blazes on two hours sleep, themselved battling burns. Some have lost their families as they tried to fight the fires.

It's the worst natural disaster in Australian history. And I've run out of words. I don't want to watch and read updates, but I can't make myself stop.

Please go here to make donations to help the fire victims.

It Never Gets Any Better

2009-02-01T12:34:00.003+11:00

Forgive me if this post is slightly incoherent. You see, I'm still bereft. Yesterday I had a horrible hair cut.

If you look through the archives for 2005, you'll see many posts complaining about bad hair cuts. I had short hair back then, and fell a frequent victim. Eventually I grew my hair out and only needed the occasional trim for the next few years. But now I'm back on the short hair wagon, and am vulnerable to disasters like yesterday...

Recently I read that the boop-boop sound in the song Tainted Love "sounds like the car horn in a clown car". I don't know about you, but to me that's comedic genius. So when I was sitting in the chair at the hairdresser's yesterday and Tainted Love came on, I immediatley burst out laughing.

I couldn't think of a way to explain to the hairdresser. She evidently thought I was laughing at her, and therefore punished me with a Betty-Rubble-Helmet thing.

Don't laugh at the hairdressers.

White Australian Pride

2009-01-29T15:04:00.004+11:00

A few years ago, I actually gave serious consideration to getting a Southern Cross tattooed on my shoulder.

Thank god I didn't. At the time I just thought of it as a cool design, a constellation I liked to look at. It didn't mean then what it does now. Now it means "Hi! I'm a racist thug. Kiss the flag or get bashed".

It's the great Let's Not talk About It: that Australia is a racist country, and it getting worse. At Circular Quay on Australia Day the blogger witnessed crowds of drunken teenagers, draped in the Australian flag (isn't wearing the flag illegal?) yelling about the country being full and loving Australia or leaving it. There were police everywhere but none did anything to stop any of this although most of the offenders were clearly intoxicated and underage.

Things got even worse over at Manly, where crowds went on a rampage, jumping on cars with "ethnic" occupants, smashing shop windows and generally acting like little shits. But perhaps the worst aspect of this was hearing figures such as the Manly Mayor, denying the riot was rascist!

So here then is the Howard government's legacy to Australia's youth: thuggery, fear, intolerance and mistrust. These sorts of incidents were unthinkable even five years ago, but we now have a generation on our hands who can't remember life before the Howard government and think this sort of behaviour is fine - they grew up seeing the goverment do it on a grander scale. They've turned the Southern Cross in 2009 into what the Union Jack was in the U.K. in 1985, and turned Australian pride into something all thinking Australians should be vaugely ashamed of.

For once, the Telegraph actually published a thoughtful piece on this issue. Well worth the read and no offensive comments.

Five Years Later: An Anniversary Post

2009-01-21T09:10:00.001+11:00

There's little to celebrate about me. I'm dull, pedantic and not much fun on long trips. But today, the Xander and Nico Pod marks a milestone few blogs reach (at least so far): our fifth anniversary. So forgive me if I crow a little.

I've told the story of how we began in previous anniversary posts (see links on the left) but I've not much considered what came from this. No publishing deal, obviously. And I haven't met anyone interesting, although there was that stalker a few years ago, which was a brief if disconcerting thrill.

But the blog has given me an outlet for what I've loved the most - evolving over time, through the personal, then the political, and on to photography, with lots of stops along the way to rant about whatever was irking me most at the time. I now look back at starting the blog as the beginning of my second life - after a traumatic 2003, it marked my return to the real world. (Not that it was much of a world - Howard was PM, Bush was the U.S. President, and both would win elections later that year. At least it provided me with plenty of fodder).

So here we are, five years later. I never dreamed it would last this long, not in my worst nightmares. As has happened so many times over the years, I've no idea how to end this post. Which seems the most fitting way of all to finish.

Say...What?

2009-01-19T16:00:00.005+11:00

Have you ever sat down and considered what TV advertising is actually saying?

Recently I saw an ad for a well-known brand of shampoo, boasting that it contained the "smallest ever polymers to repair hair strands".

What are these polymers, and why is their being small a good thing? When you go to get your car fixed, do you ask for the mechanic who is 140cm tall, because he'll be the best at repairing your car?

Though it does sound like a great premise for a sitcom - the Littlest Mechanic in the Whole Wide World. If you steal the idea I want a producer's credit.

~~~~~

Reading a blog post furthering the argument that Ann Coulter is a man, based an analysis of her writings at Gender Guesser, I decided to test my own writings. I ran a few posts, from various times over the years, through the tool.

The result? My writings tested, time and again, as MALE. In fact I never got a female reading - weak male was the "best" I could do.

I have three theories as to why this is:

I grew up and lived most of my adult life in a tough place, and most of my friends are guys;

I'm left handed/right brained, and;

Most of the political/humorous writing I've read, and therefore the styles I've subconciously tried to imitate, has been by male writers - P.J. O'Rourke, Al Franken et al. The only female writer who had an impact on what I do - and it was a huge impact - was Molly Ivins. (And I wonder how her writings would test? I'll give them a whirl sometime).

Oh yes, Man Coulter? I despise your childish name calling, but for you - who called Molly Ivins ugly when she was dying of cancer - I'll make an exception.

Goodbye Friend

2009-01-13T14:10:00.001+11:00

It's hard to believe that in a few short days, George W. Bush will be no more than a foot (in mouth) note of history.

Like all outgoing presidents, he's determined to stake out his legacy. In his final press conference, Bush has described the regrets of his presidency, which include not finding WMDs in Iraq.

Really? You're sorry that Saddam didn't have chemical, biological and nuclear weapons lying around? Makes me think that, as so often with The Onion, this isn't a joke. (Except to Bush).

~~~~~

Back in Sydney, from the "well, duh" files: publicans are reporting that the new alcohol lockdowns are causing an increase in violence. When people are turned out of hotels early, and/or refused entry when they may be perfectly acceptable by RSA laws just because of the time, they're not going to go straight home. All those people on the streets at once will cause trouble. Other ridiculous laws include only serving alcohol in disposable plastic cups (hello drink spiking!) and - this would be my favourite if it wasn't so condescending - not serving alcohol for ten minutes an hour, every hour. If anyone can explain the logic behind this to me in a way that makes sense, I'll buy you all you can drink in a venue of your choice, between 1:00 and 1:50am one night.

Terror In Palestine

2009-01-09T11:20:00.005+11:00

Oh, Israel. When the Red Cross is all but accusing you of War Crimes (the Red Cross; we're not talking Amnesty International), then you're doing something pretty damn wrong - not that you, so far, appear to care.

First a brief recap of the situation, as near as I can make out (sourced from Wikipedia - this is a blog post, not a Master's thesis). On 27 December, Israel launched Operation Cast Lead, a series of bombings designed to bring down Hamas, the ruling party of Palestine. Israel claims it wants to limit civilian casualties; however, they have been bombing infrastructure such as schools, mosques and housing, claiming Hamas operatives are hiding in such places. Either way, on 3 January Israel launched the ground invasion of the Gaza Strip, and this is where things really start getting nasty.

Israeli forces shelled a U.N. school in northern Gaza, killing more than forty civilians, many of them children. Israel claims Hamas was using the compound to fire shells on Israel, a claim the U.N. strenuously denies. The U.N. has now suspended aid operations into Gaza following hits from Israeli forces, including the death of an a worker on an aid mission killed by Israeli tanker fire. According to Palestinian officials, at least 350 civilians, including 130 children, have been killed since hostilities began on December 27.

Okay, it's horrible. So what can be done about it? There's the usual rounds of international condemnation, including our own acting PM Julia Gillard, who has said "While recognising Israel’s right to defend itself from such indiscriminate attacks, the Australian Government supports the United Nations Security Council’s call for an immediate halt to all violence." Worthy sentiments (I do believe Israel has a right to defend itself. But just because you have a right to protect yourself in your own home doesn't mean you can go around destroying your neighbours' houses in case they attack you). Bush has just flat out blamed Hamas for the whole thing. Xander and Nico say Israel is being a barbaric bully. But what about an actual resolution?

The best hope at the moment seems to be the Egyptian-French led ceasefire negotiation which is taking place in Cairo as we speak; Israel, Hamas and the Palestinian president have all sent delegations. Explicit details of the ceasefire proposal have not been released, but the fact that all parties are willing to attend (despite the fact Israel is refusing to sit at the table with Hamas) is a good sign. Best case scenario is a cessation of hostilities, then a joint European-Arab peacekeeping force to administer the agreement. If it works, it will show that the U.S. does not play the lone role as "World Policeman".

Speaking of which, I know Barack Obama has a lot on his plate right now. And he's not actually the U.S. President yet. But still, his lack of reaction to the conflict has been disappointing. He says he will have more to say following his inauguration. I hope that is the case. We're all hoping for the U.S. to play a more positive, less aggressive role in global politics under the Obama administration. Former President Clinton has stated that his greatest regret in his Presidency is failure to act over the Rwandan massacre. Let's hope Gaza does not become President Obama's Rwanda.

New Year, Same Old Problems Issues

2009-01-06T09:05:00.004+11:00

Aren't CityRail good sports? First day back at work for most people (though not for me - this little trooper worked through) and they announce a fare increase, along with the news that train crowding - or crush loading, a wonderfully apt term - is only going to get worse and there's nothing they can do about it. The Tokyo subway system carries 13 million people a day. CityRail can barely cope with one.

Some are speculating whether Jett Travolta's life was put at risk through the Scientology beliefs of his parents, causing them to refuse treatment. I rather think the greatest danger for the children of celebrities is being in the Bahamas.

There's been a mixed reaction to the mobile phone ban being implemented in some Sydney shops. Most people interviewed on TV last night were in favour, but one tradesman-type said "When your phone rings, you have to answer it, that's why you have a phone." Does he take the same attitude to public masturbation, I wonder? If so I wouldn't want to be sitting next to him on a bus.

Ann Coulter has nominated Sarah Palin as 2008 Conservative of the Year. I wonder if Coulter is being that funny on purpose? It's hard to believe anyone takes either woman seriously.

Have you noticed, no one reads anything before signing it anymore?. I recently returned a piece of equipment for repair. The guy at the shop printed off a repair docket and handed it to me. I flicked my eyes over it and he's said "See? just sign there".
No, I don't sign anything unless I read it or someone gives me the gist of it! For all I knew, I was agreeing to be a surrogate mother for his girlfriend's children (so her pole dancing career didn't have to be interrupted).

John Howard will next week receive the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom for "[B]ring[ing] hope and freedom to people around the globe." He did? Oh well, thus inspired, I'm going to nominate Ehud Barak and Mahmud Zahar for the Nobel Peace Prize, then I'm going to audition for Australia's Next Top Model.

Now That's Behind Us...

2009-01-02T10:53:00.004+11:00

Economic woes aside, there's much to look forward to in 2009, starting with Obama's inauguaration. And in a happy coincidence, the Pod celebrates it's firth birthday on the same day. And then...okay, looking at the year ahead, there's not a hell of a lot to get excited about. But still, what are you looking forward to in 2009?

Summer Blogging

2008-12-29T14:20:00.001+11:00

We've been very quiet lately. That's because I've been pretending I'm a real writer. Most newspaper columnists, exhausted by the strain of churning out 500 words a week, are on leave now for up to six weeks, replaced by summer stand-ins. Ditto TV hosts, newsreaders and radio DJs. Most of us will have been back at work for weeks by the time Adam Spencer returns to brighten Sydney's mornings.

Xander and Nico (the blog, not us as people, or as person and cat) should have done the same. Maybe the apathy and plummeting readership around here could have perked up if we had a younger, lesser known but actually better guest blogger for the summer. But as always I didn't bother organising anything in time, so now you're stuck with a Xmas-leftover-and-wine bloated Nico until 2009 rolls around to improve my enthusiasm.

~~~~~

How many times have you heard it said, 2008 was a shitty year for just about everyone? The aforementioned disasters, no end to the conflict in Iraq, Rudd starting out with so much promise but turning out to be dull and (for many of us) useless, the financial crisis... then in our personal lives, just about everyone I know has had Something Shitty happen to this year. Health problems, break ups, financial worries (I had all three!). Despite the fact that it means here comes thirty, I've never looked forward to a new year more than 2009. Not the celebrations but the year itself. You have to love the Chinese Year of the Cow.

Carbon Cutless

2008-12-15T15:10:00.002+11:00

PM Rudd has just announced Australia's climate change targets, and no one is very happy. Environmentalists have rightly pointed out that the actual targets are far too low. The climate change denial brigade have declared global warming doesn't exist anyway. As usual, the most lively "debate" is to be found on the Daily Telegraph website. Witness this cherishable missive from "Benny Hill of Cessnock":

ITS A MYTH!!. The planet is cooling not heating and has been since at least 2000. Carbon dioxide is NOT a greenhouse gas, but an essential gas for plant growth. The more CO2 there is; the more plants grow. If KRudd was able to remove every skerrick of CO2 from the atmosphere - all plant life would cease. The biggest cause of heating in the atmosphere is water vapour; not CO2.

(Does he lie awake at night worrying people will try to steal his water by drinking it all from his garden hose?)

This blogger is not happy because, as usual, as a childless middle income earner I'll be having to pay more. I wouldn't mind doing so if it actually achieved some good, but the package includes $4 billion of subsidies to the coal industry. I don't understand these subsidisations. Did the government of the day subsidise the whaling industry when it was being phased out in this country? Why can't coal miners, and loggers, steel workers etc go get other jobs? Oh, I know there's an economic crisis and all, but this seems like a particularly poor argument, unless people think at least if the sea levels do rise they'll have more time to enjoy their newly waterfront homes.

A five percent cut in carbon emissions is ridiculous. It's weak. It helps nothing. Europe is aiming for a 20% cut by 2020 and surely U.S. President Obama will be similarly ambitious. Once the initial euphoria had passed, the Rudd Government have done little to impress in 2008; and they seem determined to doom us all.

Poor Weather at Circular Quay

2008-12-08T15:45:00.001+11:00

Even The Best Of Us Go Broke

2008-12-03T16:40:00.002+11:00

Remember the days when you would have to ask your parents for an emergency loan, "just to tide you over" till pay or dole day? You'd offer immediate repayment, and attendance at your niece's school play, and anything else you could think of to convince them to fork over the cash. It was for many of us a necessary evil of our student/just starting out days, but you always felt kind of shitty making that call.

Well, you needn't have felt bad. The great General Motors is now doing the same thing. They've reached the corporate equivalent of being five days from payday with 3 cigarettes and a packet of two minute noodles that's past it's expiry date. These people who would have raised an unholy snit if their taxes had been raised, are now counting on the government to bail them out. So don't feel too bad about the cumulative $6800 you borrowed from your parents in your early twenties ($210 of which was ever repaid). It happened to GM as well, and you didn't have a team of accountants on staff (unless you did, which is probably why you were always going broke).

~~~~~

Overheard at Town Hall Station:

Announcer: The train on platform five is going to Bondi Junction. First stop Martin Place, then Kings Cross...

Teenage boy: Kings Cross? I thought that was just on Monopoly, I didn't know it was a real place.

For Xander

2008-12-02T16:27:00.003+11:00

Cat Macros - by Tom Smith

I is a kitty and I has good fun
I is entertaining everyone
Dint used to be an internet icon
Till my mom got a digital Nikon
Now she stalks me round the house
Interrupt when Ize chasin a mouse
Waitin for me to make a silly pose,
Stickin that camera up my nose
Goes to compooter, she starts playin
Makes up something I might be sayin
Upload the pic for all to see,
All her online friends go SQUEEEEE
Cat macros.

So I go cuddlin wit a stuffed bear
Gettin peanut butter all over my hair
Sprawled in a sunbeam, swattin at flies
Trapped in the laundry wit big sad eyes
Lickin at toesies, scratchin at fleas
“I Can Has Cheezburger, peese?” — [chz. FTW!]
Mom still doin her photo shoot,
Good thing my little furry butt is cute
Stickin my nose in an empty dish
Lookin for an invisible fish
I has no idea what you just said
So here’s me with a pancake on my head
Cat macros.

Now I is songcat singin this bridge
From my stage on top o’ da fridge
I is only two years of age
But I got my own MySpace page
Da silly pictures people wants
But only wit impact fonts
I keep dis up, but for how long?
Oh hi, I transpozed yur song

So I has lyric all my own
Can I has leftover to take home?
I is Emo Kitty, I has angst
I gots yur breakfast, k, thx
Invisible Walrus step on you
No, I has mighty feline fu
Yur full o’ win - Yur full o’ lose
Last Verse Kitty is not amused
I’m in yur Thai food, nibblin’ ginger
I is stealth kitty, bein a ninja
I’m in yur spookhouse, bein a haunt
I’m in yur limburger — DO NOT WANT!

(Click on pic to vote - we get on mayne page mayb? kthx)

Just Not Cricket

2008-12-01T10:59:00.002+11:00

A coworker of mine is a big cricket fan, so the TV in the office is tuned to whatever Beverage Cup is on during that given day. Now, I'm Irish, so I just don't get the cricket. No one in my family ever watched it and I have no idea how it is scored, or why. But it all seems very strange to me. How many other sports incorporate tea brakes, matttresses strapped to legs, or an audience who are considerably more physically active than the players?

And it goes on for days. It all seems such a gentlemanly game, yet the players - how do I put this nicely - tend to behave in a decidedly ungentlemanlike manner. And no wonder - they're bored. If my job consisted of standing around all day with zinced lips, interspersed with lavish meals, I'd be planning escapades at night too.

So the solution is to make the game faster. Take away the safety gear, switch to metal bats and stop taking the day off if it rains (how delicate do the players think they are?). The occasional scrum wouldn't go astray either. If Shane Warne had actually been properly worn out at the end of the day, I'm sure he and Simone would still be together.

"Children are Sacred" - Let's Be Sensible

2008-11-27T12:22:00.002+11:00

Nick Hornby wrote in recent years that if Jaws was made today, the movie wouldn't be about the shark, but the little boy it eats early on in the film; his death, the community's reaction to it. That's how much times have changed, to place children at the very pinnacle of society.

In fact, things have gone too far, leading to a sort of mass hysteria regarding the welfare of children. The latest beat-up, led - do I even have to say it? - by the Daily Telegraph is the DOCS mix up. A DOCS worker arrived at a primary school to take a child to a medical appointment. A staff member at the school office confused the child with another girl with the same first name and similar surnames,and fetched that child by mistake instead. The "wrong" child questioned what was going on, the DOCS worker realised the error, and the whole thing was soon sorted out. No harm done and that should have been an end to the matter, right?

No. Apparently the parents of the "mistaken" child are "distraught". (Once distraught used to mean something truly horrendous had occurred. It would be an understandable reaction if your child had been injured in a car crash, say, but over a simple and rapidly resolved mix up?).

The parents in this case are just starting to make a fuss. Already in full swing are the parents of Uriah Vollmer, who was locked in his childcare centre alone after staff went home for the evening. The staff attributed it to a mix up. A regrettable incident to be sure, but no harm was done.

Except that the boy's father, Tim Vollmer, is a journalist at the venerable Telegraph. Again, the term distraught is being thrown around. Once there was a time when the parents would have been annoyed, then come to laugh it off - perhaps shared the story at dinner parties. But Mr Vollmer wants heads to roll. He's demanded to know why DOCS did not immediatley return his calls - this for a child not in any present danger! - and
is calling for judicial reviews. Over a mix up? Have you ever made a mistake at work, Mr vollmer? And I'm sure you're not as overworked and grossly underpaid as a childcare worker.

The pendulum seems to swing the other way though when it comes to parents placing their own children in danger. Cases of parents propping the pool gate open and placing their toddlers at the end of an unprotected wharf at night leading to the deaths of children (and in the latter case, also the father who jumped in to save them) are occasions for "outpourings of community grief", not judicial enquiries. Apparently anything parents do to their own children is okay, but no one else is ever allowed to slip up. Just look at "corporal punishment". In Australia, parents - and only parents - are allowed to use "reasonable force" in disciplining their children. If smacking is such effective punishment, why aren't carers, babysitters, teachers etc allowed to use it?

We expect other people to take better care of our children than we do ourselves. A sign of that lack of responsibility in modern society? It's all very strange. But surely some sense is in order here. Things go wrong. Even parents don't have to become "distraught" about it all.

Serious Blog Fail

2008-11-24T11:20:00.004+11:00

You know you're in trouble with the serious blog stuff when you come to reflect on Kevin Rudd's first year in office and all you can think is, "Did Michael Jackson convert to Islam because he thought his 72 virgins would be young boys?"

So George W. Bush plans to open his Presidential library. Could this be the first presidential library to feature pop-up books?

Watching the Australian Idol final last night made me realise how bad the economic situation is. They couldn't even afford the fee to get inside the Opera House. I had been going to wander down and see the show, but I've been putting off organising my teatowels for so long, I tackled that last night instead.

Speaking of Rudd, the general consensus from Daily Telegraph readers is that Rudd is doing a bad job. Of course, these are people who think interest cuts are wonderful news, not a sign the economy is in bad shape. They also fail to understand that huge budget surpluses are bad economic policy - the Government is not meant to be a national saving bank. I'll reserve my opinion on Rudd for now.

I'm forced to do so because I've been on a diet. My brain, deprived of the usual nutrients of Tim Tams, cheese, pizza, fries with aioli dip (I must stop now), has not been working at full capacity. I've forgotten why I started this stupid enterprise and every time I see my lunch I lose a little more of the will to live, but goddammit I'm sticking at something for once and I've lost 8kg and that's all that matters.

Eye on Sydney

2008-11-18T14:10:00.002+11:00

Newtown Festival

Fountain, CBD

Fake Bus Stop

This last one is in the grounds, not of a pre-school, but of a nursing home. I found that inexplicably sad.

What are they Doing at McDonalds?

2008-11-12T12:40:00.004+11:00

Recently re-reading Morgan Spurlock's Don't Eat This Book, I was left with a horrified feeling of "Wow, McDonalds is even more evil than I thought". Because even reading about the disgusting things that go into McDonalds food, the terrible effects it has on the body, and the fact that there's now a McDonalds restaurant at Dachau, I couldn't stop thinking, "I'd really like a Big Mac".

On the face of it, I'd be the last person you'd expect to eat McDonalds. I love good food, and I love cooking. My idea of a great dinner is oven roasted salmon with a delicate sauce. I've eaten at great restaurants. I love the artistry of cooking a risotto, or carefully flavouring a recipe I'm making up as I go along. I also worry about what goes into my body, and know that McDonalds is about the worst thing possible. It's not just that it's high in fat - it's dehydrated, frozen, reheated Frankenfood - the stuff doesn't even rot! What is it doing inside your system?

Then, of course, I'm opposed to big multinational corporations that do all those horribly evil things we hear about, like destroying the rainforest, swamping local culture, exploiting workers, and creating a bland McWorld of conformity.

So why then do I regularly get urges for McDonalds food? Before I went on a recent diet, I'd give in about once a fortnight. I'd always hate myself afterwards (I'm now at an age where food repeats on me) but I can't deny I would enjoy it while I was eating it. Even now, enjoying salads and fruits - and I really am - I get cravings for Big Macs. I actually enjoyed Burger King burgers more, but I never developed the cravings I get for McDonalds.

My theory? McDonalds lace their food with addictive chemicals. Why wouldn't they? Think about it. 70% percent of McDonalds patrons are what they themselves define as "heavy users" - people who visit the store once a week or more. There are another 22% of "super heavy users", who eat McDonalds food 4-5 times a week. They're hooked. I once didn't eat McDonalds for two years. Whatever I was hooked on was after a while completely out of my system. I'd rather have rummaged through a garbage bin for food than obtained it from the Golden Arches. Then a coworker, unasked for, bought me a chicken caesar deli choices roll for lunch. I ate it (the alternative was throwing the thing away), and sure enough, the bastards had me once more.

Now I must live with the consequences of my addiction. I'm going cold turkey - if I break my diet, I'm determined it won't be over McDonalds. Damn them though.

Obamagasm

2008-11-05T15:10:00.002+11:00

Thirteen years of hell*, all forgotten

* Combined Howard/Bush years

Sunday in Sydney

2008-11-03T14:05:00.004+11:00

Iberian Plaza

The Chinese female swim team wants to know what steroids this guy is on.

I wish this was still in style - this outfit would be very flattering to my figure.

From the Art Gallery of NSW

No Obeject Implies the Existence Of Any Other - Except for Xander and I.

Polaris

Hyde Park

Doomed to spend eternity vomiting into a fountain. I said I wanted to come back as a turtle; maybe this is to be my fate.

Woolloomooloo

Around The City

2008-10-31T15:00:00.001+11:00

Martin Place, 2pm

Good point

Interesting urban renewal

Play Mobil Man

This Is Not A Plea For Sympathy For The Bali Bombers

2008-10-31T10:05:00.003+11:00

The Bali bombers are set to be executed very shortly. The temptation is to say "good riddance". But when one ponders the attitudes of some of the families of the victims, it all starts to seem a bit creepy and disturbing to call for blood.

In this case, it would seem to be absolutely justified to call for the death penalty. The Bali bombings were horrific, a crime, cowardly. No sympathy should be extended to those who carried them out.

But there's that word - justified. The bombers believed that they were absolutely justified in what they were doing. The belief that another human ever deserves to die is what caused all this in the first place. And if it wasn't for that belief, the families of the victims would still have their children with them - how can they share the love of death and revenge?

Unlike my feelings regarding the execution of Nguyen Tuong Van, I don't have any sympathy for the bombers. I certainly won't be sad when they are executed - but that doesn't shake my belief that it's the wrong thing to do. Lock them up in fetid hell holes for the next sixty years with gruel and whippings, for all I care. But believing that the death of another person is ever justified is wrong. I don't care what side you're on.

Latté In The Suburbs

2008-10-27T11:50:00.002+11:00

I'm not normally a big fan of the NSW Liberal leader Barry O'Farrell. But when he described the State Government as "making it up as they go along" following the announcement of the Metro line to Rozelle, I had to agree. What next, I wondered; was Nathan Rees going to call all his surprise witnesses again?

But it was the Daily Telegraph who really stuck the boot in, describing how residents of Sydney's west would be funding a rail line for "latté sipping inner west residents". Hold it, I thought - can't you get lattés at McDonalds these days?

In the article Why Campbelltown needs Newtown from the SMH, writer Kim Huynh states that Newtown residents hate the westies. But I believe that they hate us far more. And it's far more acceptable for them to state it - encouraged by papers such as the Telegraph (just check out the comments on their website).

But what do we in the inner west do for them? We're more likely to be single and/or childless, therefore paying higher taxes to support the schools, hospitals and baby bonuses they need. We give money to charity, support the arts (and the taxpayer contributions to those are far less than the aforementioned middle class welfare) and contribute less to global warming. If it wasn't for inner city residents willing to be tolerant of other cultures, we'd all be eating grey lamb chops and over boiled vegetables for dinner every night.

Also, westies often carry on as if it's an accident that they came to live where they did. Well, I work hard to afford my home. I planned to live somewhere with good public transport. How much rent would the cost of running your SUV cover?

But it's still acceptable for them to hate us; we're elitists if we object. Latté sipping leftists, as if there wasn't a Gloria Jeans in Penrith, thanks to us popularising "good" coffee in the first place.

Scenes from Circular Quay

2008-10-22T11:05:00.006+11:00

Public art is rubbish

No talking at all

Nice while it lasts

The standard touristy shot

From the Royal Botanical Gardens

2008-10-20T09:50:00.002+11:00

(I think The Satyr bears an uncanny resemblence to F. Scott Fitzgerald. Spooky.)

Disquieting Muses

2008-10-17T11:45:00.003+11:00

Some of you may have been a little confused by my last post. Where were the disparaging references to Piers Akerman? The sarcastic observations? It was just a mediocre painting.

The answer is, I'm thinking of taking this blog in a whole new direction. I've been doing this politics thing for a while now. And after a while, you just lose your mojo. It's worse than that - I've lost my muse. The muse is the person who inspires your passions, fuelling your creativity, taking you to greater heights of expression.

And it was with a sense of horror that I realised my muse was John Howard.

The man was an endless source of inspiration. And he certainly inspired my passions, mostly grim rage. Now he is gone. I blogged through the trauma of the 2004 Federal Election, the last of the dark days, the unravelling of the Howard government, the euphoria of the Rudd victory. But once that was over, what do we blog about? Be careful what you wish for...

Of course, I would not for a second wish Australia back under the control of that malevolent little weasel. But I feel I've little to write about anymore. Kevin Rudd is...not bad. But he's not that great either. It hardly makes for scintillating prose: "Rudd made a few good points though there are aspects of the policy I disagree with". As for the rest, writing about the sad sick state of NSW limits the potential audience, as well as being too repetitive and depressing to believe. Sure I'm excited about the upcoming US presidential election, but I'm too far away to be able to blog as well as the many better bloggers who are actually involved with things.

So inspired by some wonderful work I've seen lately (here and here for instance), I've decided to focus on posting, and posting about, photos and art for a while. I do after all live surrounded by both natural and man made beauty, and hope I can find inspiration in a whole new area. If not, then hang on a few weeks; I'm sure I'll abandon this as quickly as I abandon all my other whims.

Solace

2008-10-14T14:35:00.001+11:00

Watercolour and acrylic on paper

A Plea For Fairness In These Difficult Times

2008-10-14T10:00:00.002+11:00

The key to understanding the current global financial crisis is knowing that merchant bakers trade derivatives, which are commodoties based on the value of I'm making this up.

I'm yet to find any thorough yet understandable explanation of what's been going on lately. But I can certainly understand the Rudd government's solution - spend the surplus! The government has decided that the rainy day has arrived - the surplus, which had been earnmarked for major infrastructure projects, will be doled out to families, low income earners and pensioners, in the hope that the extra spending money will be spent, going straight back into the economy.

Theres two points that can be made from this. First, just a few months ago we were being told to stop spending money, as excessive spending was driving up inflation. Now we need to spend to keep the economy ticking. We're used to government spin, but it rarely involves their entire heads.

There's also the sinking feeling that once again, there's nothing in this resuce package for people like me, not falling into any of the categories who stand to benefit. Due to the dizzying array of bonuses and tax breaks available to breeders, half of all Australian families pay no net tax. Someone has to chip in to fund their procreation. This surplus was built off the work of industrious, childless people. We should be entitled to some of it back. I promise to plow it straight back into the economy through my favourite retailers. (Anyway, call me harsh, but I think the solution to pensioners' demands for more money is this).

Musings for the Weekend

2008-10-03T13:40:00.002+10:00

Whilst returning from Newcastle on the train last week, my pleasant journey was interrupted by wails and screams. Two heinously ugly children had missed their stop. I thought, well at least their parents will be releaved not to have to see the little trolls. I mean, these kids were not only obese, not only whiny, but possessed of faces that made you a firm believer in creationism - how could natural selection have led to this?
Parental bonding is primarily a biological reaction to protect the young. That's why baby animals are cute - so we want to look after them. We've all heard the phrase "a face only a mother could love". But are there faces that are so cretinous, they would lead to complete maternal rejection?

Scott Adams recently wrote that he's optimistic about the current financial crisis. He's formed "Adams' Rule of Obvious Calamities. It states that any calamity that is foreseeable by the public at large won't turn out so bad after all. The best recent example was the Y2K problem, where computers worldwide were expected to fail. It seemed impossible that those issues could be resolved in time, but they were."
It's certainly true. Menawhile, look at all the disasters which came out of the blue - the Asian tsunami, 9/11 (no, really! No one could have forseen 9/11). The lesson learned here is don't waste your time worrying - everything will be fine, unless it isn't, in which case you won't know till it's too late anyway.

It's Pink Ribbon day soon, and as usual work is trying to guilt us all in to handing money over for shoddy pens. I have to wonder, though - do they really need my money? Sure, breast cancer is a major health issue. But has their ever been a cause as well publicised or supported as breat cancer? On my desk right now sit a pink ribbon bottle of water and jar of coffee, both purchased without regard to causes - they just happened to be two of the many brands that get behind the campaign. It all comes to seem a bit cynical - until scenarios such as this seem like less of a joke. Where's the money going? Uusually to raise awareness - I think we must be at saturation point for breast cancer awareness by now.

Well, I'm taking a well deserved break for a while. I know I haven't been posting much lately, but that just shows how hard I've been working. Anyway, I won't be posting much till about the 13th, so in the meantime read some good books, read some good blogs and remember I'll be back, ready to plagirise books I've read as blog posts soon. And I'll be Twittering in the meantime.

Reasons To Be Thankful In A Dark Financial Time

2008-10-01T09:50:00.003+10:00

Now I know squat-all about economics - at uni, my economics lectures were ususally on around the time the bar opened, and even when I bothered to show up all I could think was "If the lecturer is an expert in money, why does he dress like a flood victim?" But it's apparent to all that the world is getting into pretty deep financial doo-doo. I overheard a colleague yesterday calling her mother and telling her to take all her money out of her superannuation, then realised it was not a joke. Last night (AEST) George Bush made an address to - well, I guess to everybody, as he referred to "citizens of all nations" - assuring us all would be well, and he hoped the bailout would go through after all. He was looking grave and standing in front of more books than he's ever read, so I knew things are grim.

Meanwhile back home, all I could think was "thank goodness Kevin Rudd won the last election".

The mantra of the conservatives is that economies should be allowed to do their thing unimpeded. The market is all. The market is the best judge. The market always get is right. But now the spinning plates of the market are falling down around them, and the emperor of the free economy has been caught without clothes, if I may draw a doubly dodgy analogy.

We're likely to escape relatively unscathed by this recession/depression/panic in Australia, for two reasons. The first is in the past - a strongly regulated financial sector (that government intervention that conservatives hate). The second is for the present and the future: what we need now is tarriffs and economic protectionism, and would we have gotten that under Howard? He'd probably have donated $AU500 million towards the bailout. He relentlessly sold off as many government assets as possible, the futility and brainlessness of which is now being shown as government around the world nationalise banks and whatever else they can in an attempt to prop up the financial house of cards. But they haven't learnt anything. Dubya was even speaking of making a profit by selling the yet-to-be nationalised assets in the future, even though it was speculation that got everyone into this mess in the first place.

Conservatives never learn. We were right in the first place. But, you know, we won't expect a thank you.

~~~~~

If you think "women's rights" seem to be exclusively focussed on the rights of mothers these days, then this is the best article I can ever remember reading on the subject. I'l try to post on this later, but for now please read the thing!

Newcastle: The Nanny State

2008-09-29T12:35:00.004+10:00

We're constantly hearing about the epidemic of violent drunken behaviour of today's youth. No one could deny that the problem was especially bad in Newcastle. So the authortities have taken drastic action - and the cure is worse than the disease.

There's been demands for a curfew for years - I had my first letter to the Newcastle Herald arguing against the idea printed in 2002. But in recent years, more retirees are moving in to the city and the violence has worsened. Something Had To Be Done. so the authorities have gone for the most drastic course of action, and subsequently destroyed a whole drinking culture.

The culture was this: in Newcastle, because there are a great many drinking establishments close together, people tended not to stay in one place all night, but rather move between several venues through the night. Of course, having drunk people on the streets can cause problems, but 90% of the people out never caused any trouble.

Anyway, all that is over now. The new rules: no drinks with greater than 5% alcohol content can be sold after 10p.m. You can't get into any venues after 1a.m., and closing time is 3a.m. No exceptions.

And it's killed nights out as I knew them. Over the weekend, I returned to the fetid swamp that spawned me for a visit, and was keen to recapture the memories of good nights of the past. We passed many venues you'd normally expect to be packed on a Saturday night, people merrily spilling onto the footpath, and they were all either shut altogether or half-empty. The streets were deserted apart from a few lost, hopeless and out-of-town souls like myself who didn't know what was going on.

Lots and lots of people have lost their jobs, and Newcastle has deteriorated even further since I was last there - even the few businesses sustained by the late night crowd have shut up shop. Oh, and the curfew doesn't work. Still, at least the retirees who've moved into the luxury apartments in the city can have a good night's sleep, and that is the most important thing.

~~~~~

In the "You people make me sick" category: today's front page of the Daily Terrorgraph is a blaring sensationalist headline about corrupt cops still serving in the force.

A story in the public interest normally, yes. But today is Police Rememberance day. Couldn't they have exercised a little restraint for one day only?