Quick Romp down Memory Lane

Thought I would resurrect some of my older posts, probably still crap though!

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

darfur watch

If ever there was a case for better regulation of the international arms trade it is the fun and games in Darfur. Found this site today.

Otherwise, track down this documentary. Produced for the Dispatches series by Mark Thomas, shouty comedian, activist and Anti-Dams campaigner. You will, I predict, be amazed, angered and dismayed that a group of teenagers in the UK seeking to point out the loopholes in UK arms control laws were able to legitimately acquire a range of torture implements and somewhat lethal weapons.

Monday, October 23, 2006

on natasha leaving

As a long time supporter of both the party, and the legislator herself, I am not sure what to feel at Natasha Stott Despoja's announcement that she won't recontest her Senate seat at the next federal election (due next year).(Update- Held November 24th 2007 where an overdue and massive spanking was administered to the forces of darkness!)

Read her reasons here.

Nat has been the highest profile member of the party since the days of Chipp and Haynes, a voice of sanity amidst some very fractious MP's (my perspective from the outside looking inward) and has earned a formidable reputation in recent years for her legislative work. Yet, she still endures the slightly backhanded compliments of the likes of Michelle Grattan on the ABC this morning who opined that she "had too much too young" and "was never really able to fulfil her potential". Of all people Alexander Downer, not exactly the most free thinking liberal politician in the history of the world gave her a glowing revue for her work this morning.

Why is she going?

Citing worklife balance, health issues and a new perspective, she sounded committed, strong and passionate on the ABC this morning. This is where the mixed feelings enter into the equation. The party needs people of her calibre, with the possible exception of Andrew Bartlett the party is not blessed with extremely high profile figures at the moment. Natasha is a face and a name that even the average Australian Footie Fan can identify, especially after the period at the turn of the millenium where she was virtually ubiquitous in the media.
Electorally things maybe are not that good for the Democrats.

On the other hand, and yes I know it was biased, having read "The Natasha Factor" it is amazing she has stuck it out so long. There have been times where it has seemed that there was a collective will to punish her for having the temerity to be young, female and accomplished. No doubt there will be people who carry on about Natasha's decision to prioritise family as a "cop out" but frankly, if that is your thought process, GET A LIFE.

It will be sad to see her go, it means one less of us, and in all probability one more of what Chaplin called "Machine Men with Machine Minds", but she seems happy and certain!

Watch this space, she will be back though!

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

The Secret Shame of Bibliophilia

Or,what is the thing with book buying?

Or, why do I live in the garage?

K the Tea Drinker and I spend way too much time wandering through second hand bookshops in some weird low intensity buying frenzy.Do we have a copy of this, or that or the other? Do we really need a second dog eared paperback copy of "And Quiet Flows the Don" when we haven't found the time to read the first?

New books or old books it doesn't seem to really matter. Whether it is the smell of an old Penguin Paperback, or the wonderful design of the old Purple and White covers, or the bold design and packaging of the latest Greg Palast Political tract it doesn't seem to matter!

One hell of a run on sentence up there eh?

One of life's great pleasures is to switch off from the world for an hour or two with a book, it can be high brow lit or trash (I have an inordinate fondness for the MASH novels ghost written in the 70's) and a soothing glass of something single malted. Lose yourself in whatever you are reading and detox from the world and you end up looking at things in a better way. But, is that the attraction? I really don't know. Is it the mental image of living in a house with walls lined with books? The reality is more of the "have to live in the garage because the house is full of piles of books" kind of thing. In a similar vein I once knew a guy with the largest collection of Blues records in this hemisphere, what was the attraction?

Is it the opportunity to have access to so much that is great about the human race? Are we seduced by design, packaging and marketing? Go on, admit it, you have stood in a bookshop and looked avariciously at the newly released Penguin Classics! Must have the new 1984, so that it can sit on the shelf next to the other three copies I seem to have acquired along the way. What about the never ending parade of Richard Gordon novels, or the way I keep buying worthy tomes by Politicians that I never get the time to read.

Could the bibliophilia thing, the secret shame, be some outer manifestation of an inner urge to possess one particular thing? God, does that mean I am a collector! Should I buy a nice Cardy and start to cultivate a weird smell? Am I like those odd individuals who collect the Condensors off of light poles, or old bottles,shoes or other bits of human detritus!!

Aaaaahhh!!!!

Sunday, April 30, 2006

The Uberswedes and the burgeoning of the Marxist!

Went to the newly opened Super-Hyper-Uber-Sweder-Furniture-arama today, wonderful experience.

To begin with, the place is set out as some weird sort of sociological experiment, to navigate the showroom, you need to work your way through a strange maze of cheap furniture, stacks of handy books, bought in bulk because they are in Swedish, hordes of tape measure wielding psychopaths and stacks of packets of Swedish Potato Crisps )that little known example of Sweden's Cultural grant to the world)

I swear that somewhere there is a Swedish guy in a fetching sweater laughing hysterically and saying "So you thought the Swedish Chef was funny! Take that Anglo's!"

The overwhelming thought that occurred to both myself and the navigator and tea drinker was something along the lines that maybe Marx was right after all. The emporium is newly opened, and was apparently the cause of a traffic jam stretching at least two kilometers, on a Sunday afternoon in one of the quieter parts of the city. The local TV news were so desperate for stories that they had a camera crew on the median strip filming the lemmings being funneled into the carpark.

Inside was this ridiculous human porridge, all involved in some sad consumer fetish. I cannot believe that there is some weird shortage of furniture in this town that needed to be rectified on this specific Sunday afternoon. Nor do I believe that the product represents some sort of bargain, somewhat overpriced, probably made in a Sweat Shop(The company in question don't identify the country of origin of their products, only their "Brand"in the full Naomi Klein, Globalised sense of the word.

Seriously, do we need to buy Potato Chips called Ellinor to fully appreciate the act of buying furniture?

Thought not.

So why were we all there?

Curiosity on our part, the media have invested a somewhat ridiculous amount of time and energy plugging the arrival of this particular consumer opportunity in our fair burrough.We thought, let's go, have a look, see if it truly is the second coming or if it is just a pile of furniture in non recycled cardboard boxes next to an airport.

It's just a pile of furniture next to an airport.

But it does represent something a little more than that he says getting all profound.

Consider the amount of wealth, resources and energy consumed for a bunch of people to buy stuff that they don't need, that will probably fall apart in a few years, and to sit in queues in traffic looking for a carpark, the way in or out and the last vestiges of their sanity.

30 000 people die per day needlessly in Africa, remember the whole make poverty history, live 8 thing?.

Thought you might, the big groovy concert with Pink Floyd, Paul McCartney and all them, U2 even sang!

They were highlighting that sobering fact, 30 000 per day, every day, from causes that are conquerable.

Yet we all sit in our little noise boxes in the traffic jam, burning hydrocarbons and watching the conspicuous consumption meter ticking over. Then we cruise inside to a wonderland of earthly consumer delights!

How about, we do the Adbusters thing and have our own little buy nothing day instead?

How about we then take the money we waste sitting in our little traffic jam and divert it soemwhere else.

To donate a Goat to a family in Africa costs about $50 Australian. Lets break it down a bit. $50, lets see, fuel for the car at $1.40 a litre, allow ten litres to get there and back (assuming we don't all run on Biodiesel or have a Prius)That's about $15 to start with. Then the packaging on the furniture, probably another $5 (guessing here)$20 already and we haven't really done a lot. Packets of Ellinors for 2, guessing another $6, Cokeapepsifantas times 2 another $5.

That makes?

$31, or half a goat.

Electricity to run the building, or a value on power to run the aircon in the car,(don't want to get too hot do we?) and we are getting up there.

What is the average conscience worth?

Mine is pretty cheap, but I reckon the balance of $15 to $20 should cover it?

So instead of shuffling along in a column like Belsen inmates, or eating processed crap from a cardboard plate, do something productive with your wealth. Yes that is you, the nice educated middleclass blog reader who should be working, but who like me is having a nice little procrastinate.

What's that?

You need furniture?

That's fine, find a craftsman, an independent, patronise a small business.

The stuff will last longer anyway!

Back again.

Had a blog, a while back. Readership was me, the wife and our cats. I started the whole process as an experiment in the wacky world of living on-line, but with the slight feedback I got discouraged and eventually couldn't force myself to keep going. New year coming up he thought, new start?

Lets see how I do this time.

What is this little blog going be about, blowed if I know, politics mainly, but I could indulge other interests, music, sport, ranting and raving who knows.

Let's see what my resolve is like this time!