Photo of people outside Melbourne Town Hall for Save Our ABC rally 15/07/2018

Photo: Julie Clarke (c) 2018

I walked from Church Street, Richmond into the city yesterday. It was bitterly cold. After walking through air conditioned shops I proceeded down Swanston Street and noticed hundreds of people lining up to get into the Save our ABC rally. I took this photograph with long shadows outside the Melbourne Town Hall early afternoon.

More about an old knitter of black wool

I had an enjoyable conversation yesterday with Peter Murphy and Leonie Osowski in the Member's lounge of the NGV at Federation Square. Peter pointed out the death references in my recent project, especially the predominant use of black. I maintain that death is always there in an artist's work, however, my intent was to draw attention to the aging female body and the fragility of advancing years by using the knitted length against my body in an aesthetic way. I didn't cover my face in order to hide my identity, I already declared that the photographs were self-portraits. In fact, I suggested instead the absence of identity for aging women and the invisibility that appears to walk side by side with a woman no longer considered young or attractive. I ask you: When was the last time you saw a mature female presenter on television?

I was happy to see that The Drum (ABC TV) was addressing the difficulties that women over 50 years were likely to encounter, especially if they had no husband or partner, was divorced, or had recently lost a long time partner due to illness. They discussed the poverty that many would encounter, homelessness, loneliness, the loss of friends (not only those who die but those who do not want to associate with women who are alone and are possibly disabled). They also spoke of the ailing body and the women who would become more and more dependent on others. But the single most interesting point made was that women, who have cared for children and perhaps even ailing parents, who have gone without in favor of doing for another, are, at a certain age, no longer cared for because they can't perform the roles they had during their lives. It's a sad situation. We could certainly learn from other cultures in regards to the way they treat older folk.

This morning I made a short video ~ A close up of my hands air knitting against a spoken word performance I was involved in, in 1980, which included reading an excerpt from Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and another from Samuel Beckett's play Not I. David Powell overlaid the spoken words over one another along with a percussion piece he composed.

My intention in the video was to present the younger me alongside the older me. The repetitive actions of my hands (mainly fingers) mirror the repetition we experience in day to day activities. The work also engages with the stereotype of considering older women as knitters, as if no other age group knits, which is a fallacy.

Unfortunately this blog would not allow me to post the video. I tried several times and can only add, that tomorrow or Friday I may be able to upload it to YouTube and then provide a link on the blog. Wish me luck.
OK. Click on here for the link

Beauty, and of course, its opposite

Everyone who lives in Melbourne would know how hot it was on Thursday and Friday (temperatures ranged between 37.5C one day and 41C the next). Thankfully it was cooler yesterday, which allowed me to engage domestic duties without feeling totally washed out. The best thing about the hot weather was that it gave me an opportunity to take photographs of some of the flowers in the garden and to finish reading The Harp in the South, Ruth Park 1948, which is beautifully written and reveals the strength of many poor people in post-war Australia. Ruth Park manages in her writing to make the ordinary seem so extra-ordinary.

Last night I watched the documentary on Kirstie Mills Tancock, a twenty one year old who was born with cystic fibrosis and nearly died before receiving a lung transplant. She displayed such courage and her plight must certainly put any minor health problems that we have into perspective!

As I look at these flowers above I wish that everything could be as beautiful. I wish that women in India weren't being gang raped and murdered. I wish that young girls in South Africa could live without being systematically sexually abused from a young age in a rape culture that is considered the norm! Unfortunately desiring change won't make anything happen! Sorry to end on such a negative note, but with all recognition of beauty there must be an equal recognition of the ugliness in our world.

Angry Old White Men

I read somewhere that I am an angry old white male. That's because I subscribe to The Australian. I've been reading The Australian since the 1970's, so it seems that I've been old and angry all my life. I read somewhere else that I'm an inner city Latte drinking pinko green watermelon because I read Green Left Weekly. Must have read that in The Australian newspaper. 

Elsewhere I am congratulated for my commitment to independent media by subscribing to New Matilda, excoriated as a climate change denier because I read the Herald-Sun,  exposed as a climate change alarmist because I raised a mild criticism about Andrew Bolt's  TV talk show,  reviled as anti Catholic because I support a Royal Commission on Child Abuse, a coconut because I read Tracker, a communist because I support community owned and operated Melbourne Community TV broadcaster Channel 31, a liberal pansy because I watch ABC TV,  a conservative hard liner because I write in support of broadcaster Alan Jones right to speak freely.

What can be labelled can be hated. But doesn't hating something only make it stronger?

This was on my mind as I read the latest spat between The Australian and the ABC. Andrew McIntyre, in an article for The Australian  titled  For Normal Viewing Lean Left, writes:

...so many educated, generally mildly apolitical, well thinking middle class people with a regular diet of the ABC and Fairfax, simply are not aware that, for instance, the world has stopped warming for the past 16 years, that hurricanes and extreme weather events have declined and are not related to global warming, that Doha was a dismal failure, that the NBN has never had a cost benefit analysis, that Green jobs cost money ... and jobs, that growing the economic pie is not the same as redistributing tax revenue...

I'm not going to join in and contribute my own content analysis, a formal, often formulaic and sometimes fatuous and definitely old fashioned, quaint even, methodology for analysing mass media texts I have roundly criticised on these pages before. I have been especially critical of the so-called revelations of  bias in The Australian newspaper by media academics. 

McIntyre is basically calling for greater scrutiny and regulation of the ABC to eliminate bias. If we are not careful Australians are going to, quite scientifically and forensically and with the best of intentions, regulate free speech out of existence. Surely, if the market of ideas is truly robust and, as McIntyre writes:

...in the US the population would, without the omnipresent media bias, score fully 20 percentage points further to the Right. If correct, this is very troubling...

then why doesn't the market  itself correct  bias? As it is, the ABC audience is as big as it ever has been. 

It just might be that Australia is a nation of individuals thinking for themselves and making up their own minds, free from the chafing yolk of censorship and state sponsored interference in the production and consumption of mass media objects. Watching, reading, and listening are all passive acts which precede the active and onerous business of forming an opinion.  Heaven help us if  we ever only allow those things that are agreeable to us, only read what accords with our prejudices, or only speak what we believe  is agreeable to others.

Happy Christmas to everyone, hope all your dreams come true. Whichever way you lean.

The Malaysian Solution not to be confused with the Final Solution.

I watched with interest last night the ABC TV coverage of the House of Representative debate on the bill proposed by Mr Rob Oakeshott in regard to asylum seekers/refugees/boat people being pushed through parliament in the wake of Monday's boat disaster off the Australian coast. The Bill allows asylum seekers to be sent to the 46 countries for offshore processing as part of the Bali process on people smuggling, and includes Malaysia. After many hours of debating, which included an impassioned plea by Joe Hockey that no child should be sent unaccompanied to Malaysia because of possible maltreatment, Tony Abbott's plea for an amendment to the bill to include 20,000 more refugees over three years and Bob Katter's endorsement of the *Malaysian solution* because it would be a deterrent to refugees who at the moment are drawn to Australian because compared to where they currently live, Australia is perceived as paradise. His rationale is that of instead of people smugglers enticing refugees with the possibility of being able to eventually live in Australia that instead they would be living in oppressive conditions and have long waits before being considered. After about six hours of debate the bill was amended to include a sunset clause, meaning that the government could proceed with their *Malaysian solution* for one year and then it would be reassessed. The bill, as amended was passed through the House of Representatives and will be debated in the Senate today.  The Malaysian solution is basically that Malaysia accepts 800 “boat people” from Australia, Australia takes 4,000 “genuine refugees” from Malaysia and resettles them into the community. If, as Katter suggests Australia has vasts amount of land and refugees could be housed there would this not form a kind of ghetto in which 'undesirables' would be kept separate from 'us' so as not to threaten our life and liberty?

The Malaysian Solution, should not to be confused with Germany's Final Solution (1939-42), which included geographical separation so that those considered diseased were separated from pure Aryans, and is a way for us to deal with people who arrive on our shores by boat rather than potential 'refugees' who come here by aircraft on tourist, student or business visas. It is generally agreed that those who come by boat are genuine refugees, so why are we so afraid of them and why is there so much hatred?

In 2009 this was the breakdown of the top seven countries where refugees to Australia emanated from: China (1,186), Afghanistan (940), Sri Lanka (553), Zimbabwe (344), Iran (303), Iraq (288) and Pakistan (256). Is it simply that 9/11 and the horrors associated with it are still firmly planted in the minds of many afraid of terrorism, afraid of anything that challenges christian ideology?

The program that followed the televised debate in the House of Reps was called Dumb, Drunk and Racist, which partially charted whether or not Australians lived up to this stereotype and unfortunately with the inclusion of footage from the Cronulla riots (Cronulla beach near Sydney)  in 2005 in which members of the *white* community inflicted violence and abuse on non white people encouraged by radio personalities such as Alan Jones who called the people responsible for the attack on the lifesavers 'Middle Eastern grubs' this stereotype appeared to ring true for it displayed the nastier side of Australians - a hatred of anyone not white, not a true (whatever that means) Australian. I remember when I was a child that it was Italians and Greeks that were under suspicion, and later 'we' thought that Asians were taking our jobs, now our fear and loathing is directed towards Muslims or others from the middle east.

Having said all that, I'll just add that I totally support Australia being humanitarian and mindful of the human rights of those who seek shelter in our country, however, I would like to see Australians and in particular the Australian government be more humanitarian to the people already living here. Approximately 105,000 are homeless and  about 622,000 are unemployed, living off a meager 'new start' allowance and or disability support pension or other pension, doled out by a government and a basically well off nation of people who really do not give a damn about anyone else.
See also other opinions of mine on this topic and this.

How will science shape the human?

I watched with interest How will science shape what it means to be human on ABC2 last night, with various panelists from the fields of psychology, ethics, technology, physics, medicine and business.  Paul Davies was the only person to use the term 'post-human' but grappled with the notion and this might be, because in my mind at least, it is only by freezing a point in time - like now, that we can label the moment of change as something definitive, whereas in fact the humanimal has and always will be a potential to be something other than, or different to its present state of being.  Peter Singer thought it would be more fruitful to ask questions other than what it is to be human and that we might consider instead how future science might develop strategies to make us more ethical & less aggressive. One can only presume that he meant using genetic tampering to rid us of undesirable genetic traits and diseases, but he did not discuss whether this might be an ethical endeavor. The panelists did agree that future developments to physically and mentally enhance the human, would most likely be accessed by those who could afford it, creating a divide. The suggestion that access to enhancing medicines or technology would be equitable was just outrageous, since millions of people world wide live in poverty and that $1,000 fee to have your own personal genome sequenced for designer drugs, stem cells or gene modification to cure your current or future disease, would be out of reach for many people in the western world. I couldn't help but think of the film GATTACA whilst watching these well paid academics speak of a future in which science and technology will change our current notion of what it means to be human. On the point of desirable or undesirable human qualities, Liesl Capper-Beilby who has been developing 'conversational agents' (a computer system designed to converse with a human) for older or less mobile individuals, noted that if the conversational agent, as companion, was too amiable (that is, not aggressive enough) then individuals were less like to see the 'machine' as human and therefore not likely to interact with it. It seems that rightly or wrongly what made us human may have been our aggressive streak, our ability to fight for what we wanted and instigate change. She spoke of a future scenario in which those who were housebound or confined to a wheelchair could deploy virtual avatars to complete some of their social and business duties. However, I'm wondering if we are already, as Paul Virilio has said,the equivalent of the equipped disabled, since we rely so heavily on the internet and our communications technologies. Almost gone are the days when we would write a letter and go down to the post office to post it, or look forward eagerly to receiving correspondence in our letter box. Luckily, I don't fall into that category for I still have friends who send little things in the mail. Nostalgia is definitely human and I suppose that as the years go on there will be more nostalgia for the past?

Joe Hockey comments on Q&A

I think it is absolutely disgusting that Joe Hockey can be on national television (on Q&A, ABCTV) and say in front of Finance Minister, Penny Wong who is in a same-sex marriage and rearing a child, that having gay parents is not the best outcome for a child. For starters, having heterosexual parents doesn't guarantee you love, or a happy childhood, and secondly, the definition of nurturing is not confined to any particular gender, so on what does Hocking base his opinion about parenting? Could the fact that Hockey, who knows that we live in a society in which so much prejudice is directed towards gay people, be part of the reason why he believes that being reared by same-sex parents will result in an un-favourable outcome? If he thinks that children need male and female role-models as they are growing up, why doesn't he just say so. I think it is because he knows that you don't have to have heterosexual parents in order to be exposed to ideal and not so ideal qualities of both genders, so this kind of logic just doesn't wash! Is he relying on that old idea that if you are raised by gay parents you will become gay yourself? How then is it that heterosexual couples produce gay children? Again, no logic in this way of thinking. There is documented evidence that of those surveyed in a Women’s Safety Australia study, 23% of women who had ever been married or in a de-facto relationship, experienced violence by a partner at some time during the relationship (ABS 1996, p. 50) and that, 42% of women who had been in a previous relationship reported violence by a previous partner (ABS 1996, p. 51). So much for heterosexual partnership bliss (I think not)! What of the psychological impact on the child or children of parents who abuse each other? And what of child abuse and neglect? According to the Australian government 'The most recent national figures from the AIHW indicate that in Australia, during 2009-10, there were 286,437 reports of suspected child abuse and neglect made to state and territory authorities' including child death. So, Mr Hockey, please tell us about 'best outcomes' for many children based on these statistics!

ANZAC DAY 2012

My thoughts about ANZAC Day are well documented on this blog under the label on the right hand side. My only addition at this point in time is to add that I suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder after being attacked by two men in 2002, so I can only wonder at the psychological terrors that those young soldiers currently serving (and those who have served) must be experiencing and I feel for them. I'm glad that more will be done for returning soldiers suffering from PTSD because many take their own lives, unable to integrate back into 'normal' society, because after being in combat and witnessing violence nothing can ever be normal again!  Many appear to be able to return to civilian life, only to self medicate in order to cope with their symptoms of anxiety and consequently their friends and family members are greatly affected by their behavior. I watched Restrepo (2010 documentary by journalist Sebastian Junger and British/American photojournalist Tim Hetherington) on ABC the other night and it certainly gave a valuable insight into the feelings of American soldiers deployed in Afghanistan. People who say 'forget what'? in the statement 'Lest We Forget' on social media sites are not only un-Australian but must be hiding their heads in some black hole not to know what ANZAC Day means to the countless people who have been affected by war. It's raining in Melbourne at the moment so we can only hope that it stops long enough for the march to proceed along Swanston Street as it usually does.

I survive only as code?

Clone - Julie Clarke - Exogenous, Public Office, Stairwell Gallery, West Melbourne, 1999

 

Last night I was having a discussion with Shaun about the Pell and Dawkins Q & A session a few days ago; about matter and anti-matter, the visible and unseen world, quantum theory (not that I know much about that) and spirituality. At one stage we went outside to look at the evening sky and it was clear and full of small bright stars. I told Shaun the story of how Erin and I had seen last year, quite by accident a comet racing across the sky. This made me think of the Heaven's Gate cult and how members believed that a space-craft that would take them away to a higher level of existence was trailing the Hale Bop comet that passed over the Earth in 1997.  According to Wiki, the Hale Bop comet was the most seen or observed comet of the 20th century and it was also the brightest. I actually wrote part of this blog post in 2009, so thought that I would revisit and re-post it this morning since it deals in part with  some of what Shaun and I were discussing. We both agreed that not knowing was probably a healthier state of mind, rather than the position of knowing, which can engender dogmatic viewpoints.

In 1999 I was gathering thoughts and began to think about life and death, the visible and unseen in relation to cyberspace, however I was drawn into thinking about The Sixth Sense (M. Night Shyamalan, 1999). Within the narrative, spirits who carry the inscription of the cause of their death are phantoms that inhabit and haunt the psyche of Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment). In traditional horror genre, revulsion is derived by the representation of body mutilation; disease and deterioration of bodily flesh; and the visceral presence which inscribe these phantoms, confront the viewer with their own mortality and fear of an untimely and traumatic death. In this film it is not only the frightening representations of damaged bodies that is confronting to the child, but the fact that death has somehow entered his space, and he see these apparitions and simultaneously hears the messages they transmit.

After thinking about this I wrote - Cyberspace is like this, a site of death where the undead roam the space of non-forms within text which moves forever and ever, receding into a soft hiss in a cool void. There is no real passion in cyberspace and so the non-body, the electric body (and we all desire to be electric bodies) is stimulated by the screen – soliciting a strange knowledge and intimacy with the other, as the non-space of ourselves.

In both these examples the human body is perceived as colonized by an unseen energy. I was also reminded of the rhetoric deployed by those involved with the Heaven’s Gate cult who believed that aliens from the Evolutionary Level Above Human (HALE backwards), incarnated and took over human bodies. This cult solicited much interest after the bodies of 39 men and women were found after they committed suicide. The cult members, some of which had been castrated were found dressed in black jeans and tee shirts. The web-site was closed down and the CIA declared it a crime site, inscribing the video images as abject.
The unseen controller is a theme that runs through the history of humankind and continues in contemporary discourse.
In his beautifully illustrated and poetic text Angels, A Modern Myth (1988) Michel Serres uses angels as a metaphor of all things carried or transmitted and finds a magical quality in this bridge between the physical and non-physical world. It is interesting to note that as carriers and transmitters, Serres does not associate angels with viruses because this would afford them negative connotations. Although Angels inhabit space, they do not enter human bodies.
According to Serres angels are responsible for almost everything 'they send jailers to sleep and set prisoners free' and 'can pass through windows.' (1998:.84) Angels are the bridge, the essence contained in all things and all events. Almost everything may be explained by the existence of these angels. Somewhere in Serres description of angels as metaphors there is a fundamental notion that humanity is not responsible for its actions and the writer’s desire for lightness and flight is symptomatic of a fear of corporeality and its legacy of disease, liminality and alienation.

 Later in 1999 I held an exhibition entitled Exogenous; I included a digital image of a hybrid face (a combination of a photograph of my Auntie before she drowned at twelve years of age and my own face, cloned and distorted). Not only did the faces become alien, but in making the image an 'alien' face appeared in the middle of the dark section. On the image I wrote the words: 'I survive only as code'. I was thinking about how this image could be circulated throughout media and that in fact my Auntie who died too soon would somehow be 'resurrected' as electronic information or digital code. When I consider my own websites and the citations of my writing and other work on the Internet I realize that in many ways, not only do we live much of our lives being electric bodies of text based communication, but that evidence of mind, if not mind itself, continues as electronic information.

DAWKINS AND PELL + Q&A + ABC TV

At no point in the Q &A (ABC TV) session last night between evolutionary biologist, author and militant atheist Richard Dawkins and Cardinal George Pell did I hear the word faith and yet it seemed to me that an individual either has faith in God or one doesn't. Faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen and it appeared to me that in one way or another both Dawkins in his attempt to come to terms with the notion of the Big Bang theory and anti-matter - in other words matter arising from unseen negative matter to explain the creation of the world, and Pell's perhaps inarticulate explanation of an unseen God as the clockmaker of a mechanistic universe, that they were both grappling with this notion of faith or trust, both trying to use reason to explain their belief in a system of thought that guides their lives. Minor points perhaps, but Pell dumbed down whilst discussing the concept of Holy Communion and the fact that Catholics believe that when they ingest the Eucharist,  it is transubstantiation - a process in which the host changes into Christ's body and blood (not physically) but substantively that occurs when they receive and swallow a small round of bread at Mass. Why does the Archbishop of Sydney seem incapable of effectively articulating doctrine? It seems to me that the primary differences between Dawkins and Pell is that the former is an empiricist and the latter not - one only believes in what can be witnessed and proved, the other happy to be involved in speculation, faith and hope.  However, it also occurred to me that Dawkins, unlike Pell, was keeping an open mind when it came to his investigation of things unseen and as yet unknown, such as the particle physics theory of anti-matter, whereas Pell was fixed and rather dogmatic in his viewpoint. No one in the audience asked why we had two men discussing the issue of God and why God is always referred to as masculine. Yes, yes, I know that it is because God the Father and his son Jesus Christ were male (as told in the Bible), but what of the Holy Ghost - a non-gendered spirit? I'd like to see two female members of our community discuss God - one who emanates from the sciences and one from religion and not necessarily from the Catholic persuasion, maybe then we would have a different outcome and a more interesting discussion?

Climate Change Forum Geelong 2011 - very few questions answered!

I watched most, if not all of the Climate Change Forum chaired by Professor Tim Flannery in Geelong yesterday (telecast on the ABC) and I can tell you, I'm none the wiser. Although it was stated that 90% of climate scientists agreed with the notion of global warming, climate change skeptics were often the one's given the most media attention. Are they? I've rarely seen a climate change expert referred to in the Australian media, however there is a list of them on Wikipedia if anyone is interested.

Experts at the forum suggested that 'real' climate change experts were either too busy undertaking their research, or too frustrated with having to defend their position to actually want to front up to the media to explain their side of the argument. I still think that we need to know what the skeptics are saying, even if, as one member of the forum said 'It's difficult to understand the science, if you are not a scientist'. If that's so, and I've no doubt it is, then perhaps scientists have a responsibility to explain science to members of the general public in a language that is accessible and understandable to them. No wonder people are up in arms about a carbon tax and confused about the whole issue. Is the planet warming or cooling who knows?!

One of the questions posed to the panel surrounded the fact that it may not be anthropogenic sources, but the ocean that contributes most to CO2 concentration. After what may only be called a protracted response the panel member agreed that ocean warming did contribute greatly to CO2 emission, however it was a feed-back loop: ocean warming = CO2 and more CO2 leads to more ocean warming. Nobody put the El Nina and El Nino phenomenon into the equation. One of the members did admit that he was a member of a group that was in ongoing discussions about whether global warming was a natural occurrence NOT caused by non-anthropogenic intervention. Roy Spencer, PhD, climatologist, author and former NASA scientist addresses the issue of ocean and COs and provides some interesting models on his website.

If it is discovered that global warming has more to do with non-anthropogenic events, then perhaps, as suggested, we should do something to assist nature so that she can get on with what she does. In the 70s the depletion of the ozone and subsequent banning of harmful chlorofluorocarbons resulted in healing of the ozone layer, which should be largely restored by mid century.

Another audience member suggested that deforestation in Australia contributed to CO2, since it contributes to warming through loss of cooling affect of trees and he asked the panel what Australia was doing to combat this. The answer given was more about international trends, rather than local and the panel member suggested that villagers in countries such as Thailand, Borneo, Indonesian etc who garner a living from deforestation should be compensated for loss of income if this source is removed from them. Fact is that Australia, along with 50 other countries is playing a leading role in international efforts to reduce deforestation, which causes approximately 18 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Partial answers are just NOT good enough! When a panel member, who is supposed to be an expert responds to the question: 'What happens when the earth has a 5 degree warming.' With a 'it's too scary to think about', rather than giving an expert answer, then what hope have we of gaining any information?

My own research on the Internet this morning reveals that total warming in the past century is 0.8C or 1.4 F, and although Most of the scientists believed that global warming was occurring and appropriate policy action should be taken, but there was wide disagreement about the likely effects on society and almost all agreed that the predictive ability of currently existing models was limited.

Fact is, no one knows or can accurately predict how long it will take for the planet to warm up to such an extent that it will create dangerous weather situations, and given that natural occurrences such as tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, drought, flooding as well as anthropogenic events, such as war, human greed, plundering of earth's natural resources already occurs on a regular basis and devastate humanity beyond belief, it's no wonder that most don't have the mind space to worry about global warming that may happen one day - according to scientists.
Having said all of this, one of the most interesting documents I've found to date is from the Council of Europe, Steering Committee for Human Rights, which addresses at length issues surrounding global warming, but even it states:

it is virtually impossible to disentangle the complex causal relationship linking historical greenhouse gas emissions of a particular country with a specific climate change-related effect, let alone with the range of direct and indirect implications for human rights, and  global warming is often only one of several contributing factors to climate change related effects, such as hurricanes, environmental degradation and water shortage.

Garnaut, Minchin - warming or cooling, the earth does its own thing

Senator Ross Garnaut has a PhD in economics from ANU and Senator Nick Minchin has a BA in Law and Economics, neither appear to have the qualifications to talk about whether or not the world is cooling or warming. Ross Garnaut has worked with Profs Frank Jotzo and Stephen Howes  from ANU and Professor Peter Sheenan from Victoria University on various reports for the Garnaut Climate Change Review.  They're all economists, none are climate scientists and yet so much store is put in their words.  ABC TV reports yesterday (Internet and short tweets ) that Nick Minchin said the globe is more likely to be cooling appeared (as Steve said in his post below), rather divisive placed as they were underneath dramatic televised images of the Japanese earthquake. What was intended. That we read the earthquake as yet another example of global warming or cooling? I wish the media would stop treating viewers like they are idiots. However, having said this there is much speculation over the Internet and on Twitter as to whether the HAARP facility is responsible for causing the recent earthquake in Japan, even though Japanese people and the world are aware that Tectonic plates and fault lines have been responsible for all recordable earthquakes that have occurred in their region. I tire of all this speculation. I believe, as others do that the organic world has its own ebbs and flows, it is powerful and sometimes extremely frightening as it goes about doing what it does. I like this short descriptive piece of text I found on the Internet this morning, written by B.E. Mahall and F.H. Bormann on the Physorg website

The Earth has its own set of rules, solidly grounded in laws of physics and chemistry and emergent principles of geology and biology. Unlike our economic model, these are not artificial constructs. They are real, and they govern. Earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, hurricanes, tornadoes, 100-year floods, massive wildfires and disease epidemics are dramatic examples of parts of nature, neither all service nor all harm, creating and destroying, and governed by rules that are indifferent to humans. Our anthropocentric economic model for interacting with the world ignores and is proving to be incompatible with Earth's rules, and is therefore on a direct collision course with them.

To achieve a more accurate model of our relation to nature, we need to see ourselves as part of nature, governed by nature (not economics), beholden to nature for ecosystem services and subject to nature's disturbances.

We need to view our existence in nature as dependent on numerous functions we are unable to perform ourselves, and without which we couldn't survive. And we need to recognize that we now have the power and the reckless inclination, driven by shortsighted anthropocentrism, to disrupt these functions to the degree that Earth will become uninhabitable for us.

Cyclone Yasi/Queensland Floods/Protests in Cairo

Recent storms, flooding, as well as Cyclone Yasi in Australia have spurned some to think that these 'unusual' weather patterns are due to climate change. The primary reason may be due to the scale of the event  and its presentation, rather than the event itself. Almost instant televised news accounts that lead up to the pending catastrophe, such as ABC24's constant coverage of the Queensland Floods, Anna Bligh's almost hourly updates of the impending disaster and then following that, the prelude to and persistent reportage of the anticipated impact of Cyclone Yasi as the worst event that individuals in Queensland would  ever experience - in other words the unfolding event(s) as they occur, gives a remote audience a sense of being there - a presence in their absence; anticipation, anxiety and feelings of sympathy for those caught within the occurrence and its destructive aftermath. In fact, the high drama inflicted on the viewing public prior to Cyclone Yasi far outweighed the actual event!

Constant media saturation depicting loss and devastation as well as  interviews with people who have endured hardship because of the happening, lead us to believe that these events are worse than those previously experienced by individuals in our country. I would argue that it is due to the fact that we are drawn so easily into the drama via ubiquitous communications technologies that we experience local as well as world events as all encompassing, frightening, life threatening and catastrophic. Note the outpouring of sympathy and solidarity from people world-wide for protesters in Egypt. Would this have occurred without media intervention and  up-to-date reportage of the unfolding event? Indeed, the heightened sense of being there (participation via  virtual means), seeing things as they unfold, engenders a relationship between the viewer, others and world events, one unprecedented in world history, however this does not necessarily mean that the events themselves are essentially different from events from the past, or that people did not experience high levels of hardship and pain, it's just that these recent occurrences are experienced and perceived in divergent ways. The 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center is probably the best example here, not only because of its impact on the social and economic life, the number of deaths that occurred but on the psychology of people throughout the world. Indeed, footage of the United Airlines Flight 175 as it impacted on the south tower of the World Trade Center may possibly be the most iconic image of the 21st century, transmitted repeatedly until it infiltrated the world psyche.

Before the Internet (blogs, twitter, Facebook, etc), mobile phones, i-phones, televisual link-up to other states and countries, there was only telephone, radio and newspapers and although the radio provided regular news it certainly could not convey the immediateness that our advanced communications technologies engender. However, the reader here may find it interesting in light of the recent extreme weather  in Australia that in 1934 in Melbourne 36 deaths were attributed to a flood that occurred in November of that year. The remainder of that summer, and also autumn 1935, was noteworthy for several other unusually heavy rain events in Victoria, a departure from the otherwise generally dry decade of the 1930s.

According to the Bureau of Meteorology 'floods are a fact of life in a Queensland Summer'. The benchmark was set by one in 1870 when, legend has it, men drank in the hotel while up to their chests in water.
After a cyclone in Queensland in 1916, 61 people died. In 1963 I experienced the flooding in Melbourne and in 1974 I remember what the BOM refers to as 'The Big Wet'. The year 1973 was one of the wettest known over much of Australia, and in keeping with the strong La Niña event that prevailed, the 1973/74 northern wet season started early. By the end of 1973 large areas of the country were saturated. Then came January 1974, which featured probably the biggest continent-wide drenching since European settlement, inundating vast areas of the country.
It seems to me that Australia is a country of extreme weather patterns and that at least once per decade, perhaps more often, we experience floods, fire, tornadoes, flash flooding, hail storms and drought. 
I'm not saying that we shouldn't reduce our carbon emissions, of course we should try to reduce the amount of pollution in the air and its obvious impact upon our environment, but what I am saying is that whether or not we do this or not, it's not going to change the fact that 'weather' is a fact of life and that the media plays a big part in the way we view events and their disastrous consequences. Around about this time two years ago (actually 7 February 2009) Victoria experienced 47 degree heat and the Black Saturday bush fires were responsible for 173 deaths, 400 injuries and the destruction of thousands of homes.
Images slow-burnt into our memories somehow fade in recent media accounts of the deluge that continues to cover our land and I'm sure that unfortunately even these memories will fade, only to be usurped by media images that seize us in more compelling ways.

Ellsberg and Assange

I couldn't help drawing comparisons between University of Melbourne Alma mater, Julian Assange who founded WikiLeaks and whistle-blower extraordinaire Daniel Ellsberg whilst I was watching The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers (Erlich & Goldsmith, 2009) screened on ABC TV last night.

Daniel Ellsberg created international controversy in 1971 when he smuggled a top-secret Pentagon study to the New York Times that revealed how five American Presidents consistently lied to the world about America's involvement in the Vietnam War. Ellsberg's actions led directly to Watergate and the downfall of President Nixon.

Julian Assange has published classified details, including secret US diplomatic cables about American involvement in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and like Ellsberg was arrested for leaking US secret documents.

Although 79 years old, Daniel Ellsberg is still actively fighting for freedom of information and is an avid supporter of Assange. Indeed, in October 2009, on the eve of what has been called 'the biggest leak of classified documents in US history', Ellsberg declared in his Democracy Now interview: I've been waiting forty years for a release of documents of this scale.

The more I researched Ellsberg I realised his effort in serving as a Marine in the Vietnam War and his determination to photocopy 7,000 pages of a secret report can't really be compared to the actions of Assange, who, unlike Ellsberg has an entourage of protectors and supporters in his endeavour to uncover truth.

However, a comparison can be made, because the Ellsberg leak revealed that American Presidents were lying about the Vietnam War and WikiLeaks have proved beyond a doubt that America is lying about Iraq. But it appears that nobody really cares! I don't know about you, but I tire of living in a world in which prominent leaders fabricate information.

Generation Kill

Last night I watched Episode 1 of Generation Kill (2008) a seven part mini-series being televised on ABC2. It chronicles the experiences of a journalist who went on a tour of duty with the First Reconnaissance Battalion Marine assault on Baghdad in 2003.

As much as I can't abide the thought of war or of sending young men and women to fight and die, this account, which is a precise re-telling of the early weeks of the military campaign from the point of view of the guys on the ground: the non-commissioned officers and platoon-level commanders was a real eye opener and incredibly entertaining.

There's dialogue that you'd expect from men, who, let's face it don't have to be politically correct given they are putting their lives on the line and may not return home. But there's also a good deal of down to earth philosophy and insight, such as the words of Sgt. Antonio 'Poke' Espera who said, People been fighting over this bitch since ancient times, Dog. How many graves we standing on? Think about all the wisdom and science and money and civilization it took to build these machines, and the courage of all the men who came here, and the love of their wives and children that was in their hearts. And all that hate, Dog. All the hate it took to blow these motherfuckers away.

After receiving a letter of support from a young child. Cpl. Ray Pearson (showing off to his fellow marines about how he might respond) ironically states: Dear Frederick, thank you for your nice letter, but I am actually a US Marine who was born to kill, whereas clearly you seam to have mistaken me for some sort of wine sipping, communist dick suck. And although peace probably appeals to tree hugging bi-sexuals like you and your parents, I happen to be a death-dealing, blood-crazed warrior who wakes up every day just hoping for the chance to dismember my enemies and defile their civilizations. Peace sucks a hairy asshole, Freddy. War is the mother-fucking answer.

If you saw Deadwood (2004) screened on ABC television last year and loved it then you love Generation Kill. Both depict dramatic down to earth reality complete with expletives and behaviour you would expect from people living on the edge, inculcated in masculine stereotypes and involved in warrior culture.

Arizona shootings...

I was a little perplexed early this afternoon whilst watching ABC 24's report on the shootings that had occurred earlier in Tuscon, Arizona. A gunman opened fire on congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and those listening to her talk outside a shopping centre. Gifford, as well as 19 other people were shot. Six died, including a nine year old girl and a Federal Judge.
The sheriff, Clarence Dupnik, pointed to the vitriolic political rhetoric that has consumed the country as he denounced the shooting that claimed several of his friends as victims. He announced that the perpetrator, Jared Loughner suffered from a 'mental illness' and went on to say: When you look at unbalanced people, how they respond to the vitriol that comes out of certain mouths about tearing down the government. The anger, the hatred, the bigotry that goes on in this country is getting to be outrageous...people "poo poo" the danger of vitriolic speech. That may be free speech but it's not without consequences.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40978517/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/

Some of that free speech was related to issue surrounding immigration laws, however, I suspect that this an underhanded way of commenting on the recent controversy surrounding WikiLeaks and it's right to exercise free speech on line. I may be wrong.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-creamer/evidence-arizona-immigrat_b_623790.html

I was troubled not only because innocent people had died and the white, male, perpetrator of the crime was only 22 years old, but the Sheriff who chose to focus upon the consequences of free speech, at no point brought up the issue of gun control and the fact that access to firearms in America is pervasive. Too many people are using guns in an attempt to solve their problems!

I've just turned on the television again and now ABC 24 are discussing the Voluntary Euthanasia Bill after previously screening a program on assisted suicide. All I can say is, if I have intolerable pain and little quality of life due to terminal illness, I hope that legislation is in place so that I can end my life with dignity. Shouldn't it be a Human Rights Issue, to have choice and control about how to end our days?

Whether or not to 'enter the void'

I've been up since 5 am this morning, but only because I went to bed early last night. I've been recording sounds of birds calling to each other in the quiet morning air. Just beautiful. It's barely light ~ the sun will not rise until 5.51. I'm still thinking about the Sir David Attenborough narrated documentary Birds of Paradise screened on ABC TV last night, which focused upon the exquisite courtship dances of the colorful male, who seduce and mesmerise the female of its species by engaging in delicate and intricate footwork, head bobbing and feather displays. It's difficult whilst watching not to acknowledge the complexity of the animal world. I was also fascinated by the fact that many New Guineans where the Bird of Paradise is found, not only wear the feathers of this bird on their head dress, but actually mimic bird movements in their ritual dances. It's horrible to think that some of the species is under threat of extinction! Whilst I've been writing this, sunrise has bled across the sky. Actually, bled is probably the wrong word, although the sky did sport a beautiful red glow just before dawn. Speaking about red glows, I remember being really annoyed with the persistent color of red that permeated the film Irreversible (Gaspar Noé, France, 2003) and made it difficult for me to see what was happening although who could forget the horrific rape scene. I mention this because I'm contemplating whether to see Noés latest film Enter the Void (2009) in which he employs visual affects to disturb consciousness. The film runs for 2.75 hours, which means that I'll probably need a break midway from all that sitting. 7.22 am now, still plenty of time to decide.

The following was actually included in my blog post in October, 2009, but I thought I'd repost it because it links in with what I was talking about this morning and I quote from myself:

'Last night I attended a lecture delivered by Barbara Creed, in which she contextualised sexual displays and rituals by various bird species (footage gleaned from David Attenborough) alongside similar displays by women in Hollywood films of the 30s and 40s. Barbara argued that not only were women portrayed as beautiful, fecund and essential for propagating the human species (showing the influence of Darwinian thought on cinema), but were purposefully dressed or displayed (often in flower shapes, holding or wearing fruit, or as part of a interwoven pattern) so as to be perceived as part of the complexity of nature. I was interested in how in a number of instances women were augmented in such a way that they became icons of excess that bordered on the grotesque. Barbara Creed's new book is entitled: Darwin's Screens: Evolutionary Aesthetics, Time and Sexual Display in the Cinema (MUP Academic Monographs, 2009)'.

Victoria Votes

ABC FM folk outside Cinema Nova 26/10/2010. Photo: Julie Clarke

I had an absolute ball with Karen and Mark at JW's this afternoon. Not even the sudden downpour could dampen our spirits. We simply moved from Lygon Street into Courtyard where we sheltered from the rain underneath huge umbrellas. In no time the sun was shinning again. A bit of déjà vu really because it also rained when we were there on my birthday in April. Only difference was this time Moira was absent. Later, Karen and I indulged in a cake and coffee at Brunetti's. Earlier in the day I was in Lygon Court just outside the Cinema Nova listening to the guys from ABC FM 774 radio, who were broadcasting a live discussion with audience members and each other about tomorrow's election. The only person I recognised was Russell Howcroft, Chairman and Managing Director of George Patterson's Y&R who is one of the regulars on the ABC television program The Gruen Transfer. Well, I think it was him! It's always interesting to see TV personalities in the flesh. On looking at this photo I realise it's advertising not only the ABC, Cinema Nova and Borders bookshop, but Ripcurl also got a look in. I wonder what media moguls would make of this? At the moment I'm at home waiting for the baby Magpies to turn up as they generally do at around 7.30pm. And contrary to public opinion, I'm sure that the bread with seeds & grains I feed them is really nutritious and eating a little bread doesn't stop them from also devouring worms and insects they find in the garden. Time to go I think they've arrived.

Happiness

This is one of the glorious, long stemmed roses growing in the garden outside my kitchen window. It has a distinct odor of Turkish Delight! I'm so lucky to be living amongst such beauty, and to think I lived for so many years without a garden to look at. I was watching an ABC program last night about a group of psychologists who are working with eight volunteers from Sydney who scored lower on the happiness test than the general population who score around 70 out of 100. I took the test this morning and scored 76, which means, at least at the moment I am marginally happier than many. Of course I'm sure that on some days we are happier than others. You can take the test and pursue suggested activities to make you feel happier at:

http://makingaustraliahappy.abc.net.au/index.php

Alzheimer's

Alzheimer's disease must be an incredibly frustrating event in a person's life for themselves as well as the people around them. Having such an excellent memory, I couldn't think of anything worse than not being able to remember loved one's faces and life's experiences. Last night ABC 2 screened the documentary Alzheimer's: The Musical about dementia and Alzheimer sufferers from Bristol who are part of the 'Singing for the Brain' Group, which meets once a week. It was both sad and uplifting to see these people who had trouble remembering what they had previously said, which room they slept in, or in identifying a photo of their spouse, however, had little difficulty in recalling song words. Apparently singing unlocks the brain of the Alzheimer sufferer and this is excellent news for those who otherwise are caught in a process in which their brain cells are dying at an accelerated rate. It's well known that singing releases endorphins - the feel good chemical in the brain, so perhaps we should all make a note to ourselves to sing at least once a day, by ourselves or with others. Remembering to do so may be the hardest part.