Still Old and Feisty

Wikileaks for Democracy.

2010-11-30T17:12:00.000-08:00

Wikileaks is providing a valuable service to those who support democracy and our right to know. Many decisions are made without the public knowing the truth such as the war in Iraq, Vietnam and probably Afghanistan. Governments can hid behind the 30 year limit on releasing information by that time a whole generation is dead who were at the time concerned about these decisions. As western governments become more secretive and decsison making less transparent we depend now on the internet to provide us with a balanced view of the world. As media empires are now in the hands of so few and interfere in the political process to the point of making and breaking the election results we must have other sources of information to make up our own minds. The team at Wikileaks are brave and courageous I also hope they are well guarded and watch their backs. I think they are doing a service to society as media outlets dumb down news and current affairs. We can so easily be manipulated as we see attitudes to assylum seekers, mining taxes and climate change being distorted by vested interest groups. I would be fascinated to know who is leaking public servants at times find it so frustrating when they hear political leaders telling porkies that the urge to leak would be irresistable. Of course hackers are also skilled in getting information right from the source.Good luck guys I am most interested in what else is coming.

Get Well Christopher Hitchens.

2010-11-22T14:57:00.000-08:00

I was so sad to see the interview with Mr Hitchens where he talked about his current illness. Here is one of our greatest minds that stands out in the sea of stupidity that denies climate change, takes us into unwinnable wars and so on. To read his books is a challenge the words and thoughts are dense with ideas. His life is fascinating and the envy of anyone forced to mix with and listen to the mediocrity that flourishes in the world today. I have just finished reading Hitch 22 and will have to reread several times there is so much to think about and absorb. My fascination is always what sort of influences created such a man, the book in some way answers these questions.
I am deeply offended by those of faith who feel the need to hope for his conversion to religion. Are their beliefs so shaky that they must convert every last one of us? I can quite happily face death without wanting the world to see it as I do. I am always puzzled by their ambivalence toward the heaven that waits after death. None of them seem to be in any hurry to get there. Is there some doubt in their minds? I can pray.
I wish Mr Hitchens a recovery so I van go feeling that I am not alone. There are others out there who think and challenge the mainstream party line. I don't always agree with him but so what I enjoy the fact he can change his mind. This is a quality many of us could adopt.

Have we been lied to again.

2010-11-02T20:19:00.000-07:00

Isn't it convenient as the war in Afghanistan is now so unpopular that we even have members of the Liberal Party saying we should get out that we now have a new terrorist threat? It may be true but how can we trust this story. The footage across the television screen could be of anything. Hijab clad women, a Fed ex truck, the guts of a printer and a plane taking off. We have been mislead so many times children overboard and weapons of mass destruction are just a few. I am highly suspicious. In order to keep the troops in Afghanistan we must feel that terrorism is a real possibility so the threats have to keep coming. Is the invasion of Yemen now imminent as Al Queda has now set up base here? I don't think so.

Pornography and young women

2010-10-31T20:19:00.000-07:00

I was recently challenged as an older woman taking a stance against pornography. As an old feminist I remain committed to we can't be equal if we are selling our bodies like any other kind of commodity. A group of young women recently challenged me at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas saying that they use porn and they have no problems with it. I was curious. Of course they are safe in Australia with good jobs and choices about how they earn a living. They are not poor women in developing countries who have limited choices and are often lured into offers for a better life by unscrupulous people operating human trafficking networks. Many children disappear from countries that have been affected by disasters. They are whisked away in the mayhem and unable to be traced. Some end up in the sex industry.
There are many questions to be answered about what porn does to realtionships between people as the expectations around sex are altered. Many young women are now being pressured to have plastic surgery because their partners have had a steady diet of women online who look a particular way. I know of marriages in trouble as one partner spends time sitting in a dark room alone looking at porn. And what happens to the women involved in making porn? I don't know but come back to how women are regarded and treated and we still have a long way to go in this area. Misogyny is still rife, attitudes to women are still not what we would want and the sexualistion of young girls is of great concern. I must of course hand over to younger feminists to decide the future but we don't even seem to be having the debate. Most women are again silent.

Travelling to Bali

2010-10-13T21:07:00.000-07:00

I have resisted to date travelling to Bali but won a trip so thought it churlish not to go. I was worried about hordes of Australians crowding the island out. It was the taking over of the place to make it just like home that shocked me the shopping malls, the fast food places and the disregard for dressing in accordance with local sensitivities. The sight of young Balinese sitting in endless shops waiting for tourists to come in and buy more stuff, they looked bored and miserable. Even at 2.00 am in the departure mall at Denpasar Airport the shops were still open with bleary eyed young people still working. I know it is a poor country and depends on tourist dollars for income but what a price to pay. Thong wearing aussies putting their dirty feet up for a maasage by young women is a truly cringe worthy sight. Surely we go overseas to observe other cultures through meeting locals, eating the food and enjoying music, dancing and theatre not demanding Starbucks coffee and chips and hamburgers.
The countryside is still beautiful and I enjoyed myself but felt sorry for the next developing country tempted to look to tourism for its economic survival. Perhaps we could just send the money and go to Byron Bay.

Climate Change

2010-04-05T20:17:00.000-07:00

I went to a talk given by Clive Hamilton on climate change. He gave this talk in Newcastle where climate change is a joke. The third coal loader is nearly complete so this town can become the biggest exporter in the Southern Hemisphere. There are so many ships waiting to get in to load up you can't even begin to count them so anything the government comes up with is a nonsense when you look at this. Clive raised however a more disturbing issue that we are now entering a new era of McCarthyism. Scientists are now being put in the position of losing their jobs and credibility if they support the science that affirms climate change. Their computers are hacked into and their research is discredited. How can we have any sensible debate when this sort of behaviour goes on? We know who the sceptics are backed by Andrew Bolte, Piers Ackerman et al. The Liberal Party is now lead by a man who thinks it is all crap and he has support within the party for these views that's why he was elevated. Coal will continue to be the major source of fuel while we have an abundance of cheap supplies. I can't see how we are going to win this one. Australia is now in the position of digging up everything that we can sell no matter what the environmental impact.

CD Launch

2010-03-24T19:24:00.000-07:00

I was very fortunate to win the Australian Slam Poetry last year and with the prize money I am producing a CD of my work. It has been a very interesting journey for a slam poet. We exist outside the world of agents, managers and publishers. I had a job finding someone to record, one person wouldn't because of the content and the next person didn't turn up to three appointments. I was beginning to think it wasn't ever going to happen. I then managed to get the recording done and needed to have it classified as it contains some language which if you walk down the street you will hear every second soemone speaks and it contained correct names for genitalia which apparently is offensive. This has been a shock and I think where have I been for the last twenty years that I am so out of touch. The lables have now arrived after some difficulties in finding out how you get a CD classified. I then went to book a venue and shock horror I was knocked back by one due to the content of some of the poetry. I couldn't believe it. I can turn on the television or internet and watch as much degrading of women and children's bodies as I like, as many murders and incidents of violence as I can cope with and we are at war slaughtering people who pose no threat to us but I am offensive. It is a funny society we have it is like being back in the fifties all over again.

The Food We Eat

2010-03-22T18:01:00.000-07:00

We have truly lost the plot on food now Cheerios has been introduced to Australia. American novels have people consuming vast quatities of this cereal in every book published. I wondered what it was. Now it is here it is another sugar drenched food for our children to consume. No wonder people have so much trouble controlling weight. I was in Melbourne recently and found it impossible to find a fresh piece of fruit or some fresh vegetables. Everything was supersize and covered in a batter, sauce , dressing or mountains of other food. We no longer want to taste the essence of food with its natural flavour. I nearly starved. I walked miles to find a banana and a tub of soggy fruit salad costing $8. If I know I am eating at a particular restaurant I go and order fresh food but inevitably the chef feels sorry for me and covers it with something to change the flavour. Every second person I know now suffers from some digestive disorder making the consuming of each meal a nightmare. Once our gut is damaged there is no cure. It tends to get worse as we get older reducing any variety. Bread now contains up to 16 different ingredients making it impossible to decide what you can't tolerate. Milk is the next culprit we don't need to drink it once we are weaned, no one in Asia does and they survive. We need to think about why we eat it is to provide nutrition first and pleasure second. I usde to love to eat now I dream of being able to give up completely as to many others I know some of them only children who can't tolerate gluten, lactose and sugar.

International Atheists Convention

2010-03-18T23:31:00.000-07:00

I have just returned from a weekend of communing with the greatest minds of our time no wonder the believers were so threatened and took the web site down. If their belief is so strong why are they bothered by a couple of thousand atheists? Where is tolerance, turn the other cheek and respect for others beliefs? I am happy for anyone to believe what they like but would like the same respect. I don't know if there is a god or not but have no need to have this influence to lead a good and ethical life. Bill Gates and Warren Buffett are the two greatest philanthropists of our time both atheists.
I came away concerned about the blurring of religion with state matters as more and more politicians come out with their religious beliefs even though no one has asked them to. It is always the white middle class belief system they belong to even though we have many beliefs in Australia. Only 9% of us go to church why do they feel this pressure? The school chaplaincy program receives 55 million this should cease. Religious teaching is for the family to decide and this program is a desperate attempt by the churches to gather a new flock. I have no problem with religion being taught as history, lieterature and music, it is essential but not as a way of frightening young children into obedience.
The sainthood of Mary Mckillop raises the question if she had the power to cure cancer why didn't she cure everyone? I am sure many people prayed but are now dead. This is a diversion for the church as the latest round of allegations of abuse sweep Europe.
Our society surely has need for a philosphy by which we can all live together in peace religious institutions fail us as some believers fail to walk the talk.

International Women's Day

2010-03-08T18:44:00.001-08:00

I just attended the dinner to celebrate one hundred years of the women's movement. It was terrific but I sat watching the end of an era. All the women who marched and rallied with me over so many causes are now so old. We won't probably see the kind of activism we participated in ever again and society probably thinks its all solve and done with so what would you complain about. I watched a table of young women and no doubt they have a very different way of going about ensuring their place in the world. The battles are not over. Women still don't have equal pay, political ignorance in Australia is entrenched so alot of voting is wasted and I read many young people don't bother, abortion rights are at the wim of political parties, and women are so easily manipulated into self loathing and worrying about their looks. The new plastic surgery for everything from breasts to labias is sad. Women in developing countries still have enormous hurdles to overcome as they suffer under religious teachings and oppression by regimes who hold power. Though my life is forever better due to feminism many still miss out.

Home Insulation Mess

2010-03-01T22:06:00.000-08:00

If Peter Garrett is responsible for the stuff up in his portfolio and the deaths of four people then who in the opposition is going to take responsiblity for taking us into a war on false pretences that killed hundreds of thousands of people. A war that had nothing to do with us, in a country that posed no threat to us and hasn't reduced the threat of terrorism one bit. The instigators are still plotting and planning from a variety of countries. The Liberal Party are wallowing in hypocricy to say the least. It is a worry that this Labour Party program is a mess but why don't politicians ever consult with people in the know. I am sure someone in the insulation industry could have predicted what would happen. I remember when I was working in childcare and ABC Learning came on the scene any one of us could have warned the government what would happen to millions of dollars of taxpayers money. What we knew is exactly what occured. Politicians seem to lose sight of the fact that they are using public money that comes from hard working Australians it isn't monoploy cash. The waste is mind boggling with little accountability. I for one am worried about the mounting debt and what else they are going to mismanage.

Liberal Party Men.

2010-02-23T19:56:00.000-08:00

Liberal Party Men are obsessed by sex what with Tony Abbott talking about giving up for lent, Barnaby Joyce announcing he wasn't having any with Tony Abbott something is deeply amiss in this kingdom. I have always wondered why they are obsessed by what women are doing with their bodies. I have some theories what are yours? It maybe starts in childhood where they get those twisted messages from religious sources that make small children guilty about any body exploration giving them hang ups that stay with them for life. They always seem to be men who are physically unattractive probably rejected by some women warping their attitudes to us forever. They persuade some woman to marry them and are eternally grateful. As lovers one would have to wonder what the quality was like. In my experience a good lover is one who is totally comfortable with their own body and truly loves women. They have healthy attitudes toward sex and you feel wonderful in their company. I am always suspicious of men who want to comment on abortion but give no support for sex education or for men taking responsibility for where their sperm end up. Maybe I'm wrong but I do ponder.

Tony Abbott says virginity is a gift.

2010-02-16T16:58:00.000-08:00

I have been rather busy with poetry slamming and have neglected my blog. Tony Abbott's comments on virginity have drawn me back. While I appreciate he was talking to his daughter this kind of attitude raises many issues. It is always female virginity that is prized why is this? It goes back to ancient times when men had to be sure offspring were theirs for reasons of inheritance. With the tsunami of baby boomers about to bleed the country dry the government will be digging into inheritance so we won't have to worry. The more worrying aspect is the notion that some men prize a virgin as some pathetic rite of passage. This causes the travelling to other shores to partake of young girls a practice that is abhorrent. Virginity is really no big deal in the overall scheme of our lives what is far more important is the quality of the relationships we have throughout our lives. We all want to be loved and valued for the unique human beings we are, to have sexual relationships that reinforce this value and make us feel worthy. This is a far better mesasge to give our sons and our daughters and ultimately they will makw choices in their best interest. It is however a constant battle as sex is still used to make lots of money.

Kevin Rudd's Climate Change

2009-11-17T14:52:00.000-08:00

Anyone listening to the politicans would believe that they are single handedly going to bring about change all on their own. It involves all of us to change our wastefull practices. Christmas is coming a good time to reasses what do we really need. Our children have everything a beautiful country to live in, freedom of speech and movement, access to education and health care and hopefully parents who love them. This is a time to spend with the people we love there is no need for gluttony greed and waste. If you are a Christian then you have other things to celebrate rather than the god of shopping and excess.
We can no longer enjoy our high standard of living while expecting other countries to starve and live in poverty. Bucket loads of money doesn't make us any happier it is the relationships we form, the expression of our creativity, the nuturing of our minds with music, books and interesting conversations. Nobody needs a house with five bathrooms and what happens to children who grow up in such houses. They are new wave of narcissists unable to share, wait see someone else's point of view and realise they live in a community where others have to be considered and think of the water and airconditioning. So have a happy festive season but think before you buy. The planet needs your support.

Beautiful Kate Australian Film Industry

2009-10-27T21:54:00.000-07:00

What has happened to the Australian Film Industry? I have seen four films over the last few months and found them essentially depressing telling stories of dysfunctional and miserable human beings. Having been to the Dungog Film Festival where we were treated to a feast of wonderful, funny films such as Three Blind Mice, Girl Clock and Stone Bros plus the film made about Joe Cinque's murder and lots of others that will never appear in the cinema. Something is drastically wrong. It was wonderful to see Racheal Griffiths and Ben Mendelshon but Australia appears as a place full of sad people with horrific stories to tell. Surely there are other stories to be told. I am thrilled to hear that The Slap is to be made into a film and where is Shantaram? I loved Cedar Boys as it introduced the audience to a viewpoint we would not otherwise know about. Mao's Last Dancer likewise. Australian writers are producing some of the most wonderful books crying out to be seen on the big screen. Tim Winton, Susan Varga, Cooking with Baz I could go on. Why do our films seem to get stuck in themes such as drug addiction it is very dull? And if I see one more film where a young boy finds himself through football I'll scream. We have young people from all over the world who are now Australians can't we see some of their stories. Growing up Asian by Alice Pung rich stories. Please no more dark themes.

Festival of Dangerous Ideas Soapbox Winner

2009-10-16T18:49:00.000-07:00

I miraculously won this event but there seems to be a complete blackout of any reporting, could this be due to the subject matter. So I will blow my own trumpet. It was not the moment in the spotlight that blew me away but the overwhelming warmth and support I received from all you lovely people at the festival. Both young and old came to shake my hand and to tell harrowing stories of watching elderly relatives and friends die a miserable death while they stood by helplessly. I am not sick but like to plan ahead and be in control. The experience is not as one might imagine depressing it is very empowering. I know if a doctor is to tell me some awful illness is lurking I can be out of here. I have discussed this openly with my family and have their support though I am sure they are tired of hearing about this subject. In order to make such a decision you need to be clear about what it is to be alive and for each of us this will be very different. For me it is living independantly, being able to read and see films, to travel to festivals of writing, films and ideas and being able to live with dignity. When any of these activities are no longer possible what on earth would I do? The loss would be too great to bear equivalent to losing a much loved partner a growing group of people making this decision to go together.
I also want the right to be treated by a vet. I jest but with a serious note. The first words out of his or her mouth will be 'I will not let her suffer' you won't hear that from a medico they will offer drugs, more tests, an operation or chemotherapy up until you drop. I have no interest.
A good article on this issue in SMH 10/10 by Susan Varga I wrote a response but it was not published instead a letter disputing the very sensible argument she put forward. Of course we are to be silenced on this topic by the internet filtering proposed to stop pornography, anti terrorism laws and rules about who can associate with so don't expect any change in the law soon despite 75% of the population supporting a change. See you at next years festival I have another speech planned. I haven't had so much fun in a long time and to be in the presence of thinkers was a treat.

Dianne Brimble Trial.

2009-09-28T20:18:00.000-07:00

I hope the women who live in the same city as the men who accompanied Dianne on her fated cruise keep the faces clear on their radars. The attitude to women coming out of their evidence and scuttling to blame each other should be fair warning of the treatment you are likely to get. I have been truly sickened. Women are simply a receptacle for their manhood isn't it a pity they can't confine themselves to their own bodies. They are well spoken good looking men why do they need to behave with such loathing and disgust toward women? I would love to see their parents interviewed especially their mothers. I would deeply ashamed to have produced a son with such hatred and disgust in his vocabulary when describing a woman. As a feminist we think we changed so much sadly we didn't. Women are more willing than ever to be regarded as objects in their rush to consume beauty products and have their bodies sculpted with a scalpel. I heard Phillip Adams interviewing a man who builds robots forcasting their availability to have sex this will spare alot of women from degradation and humiliation. Bring it on!

Breeding Pedigree Dogs to Death.

2009-09-21T00:17:00.000-07:00

This BBC documentary screened on our ABC shows our ability to be cruel to animals for our own amusement has no limits. To see a dog bred with a small face but inadequate space to accommodate its brain, a Pekingese whose nose is so flat it cannot breath and has to sit on an icepack or it will overheat and a German Shepard dog with back legs that barely support it. This is so a human can run them around a show ring and receive a ribbon to put on their wall. I am unable to connect to this practice in any way. The breeding of animals within families is condoned to achieve these features. Something banned in humans for sound reasons.
We in the same week had jockeys asking to be allowed to whip a horse as often as they feel is necessary and the issue of jumps racing still goes on. These people say they love their animals. I find that hard to believe. It seems that the more leisure and the greater access we have to money the more grotesque these kinds of activities become. We are looking for happiness outside of ourselves and confirmation of our status within society. Many domestic pets now lead lives so remote from their ancestors and are required to take on human characteristics to keep their owners amused. They are overfed leading to many conditions that shorten their lives. Dogs probably spend as much time in the beauty parlour as women do.

Girl sixteen sails solo around the world.

2009-09-14T20:56:00.000-07:00

I am getting tired of the Sunday night news. Solo yachtsman rescued from jaws of death, woman falls from Mt Everest leaving two toddlers, bush walker missing for a week, adventurers lost in snow. We all want something in our lives but should we necessarily have it or do it. The self indulgence now associated with adrenaline sports and adventures has grown tiresome. They depend on a group of willing volunteers to get them out of trouble and the deep pockets of the taxpayer.The true adventurers must set off without any means of communication. The time has come for bonds to be paid prior to these trips. This may make people think twice and reassess. The saddest image I have is the little boy holding his mother's hand as his father sets off on a solo canoe voyage never to return. Was the trip really necessary or worth it? What does this child feel about himself as he grows up without his father? I cannot believe that people with small children undertake these risky pursuits. It seems the height of selfishness.
Breaking records is a meaningless activity. How fast can humans run in the end and does it matter?
Or is it now so important to be noticed, to be famous, to be on television? I cannot understand parents giving in and encouraging her. Or has she already been given everything?Will they scream if something goes wrong and demand that the government do something? I wish her a safe journey and I hope nobody has to risk their life to go to her aid but wonder what will satisfy her beyond this.

John Della Bosca Has resigned. Why?

2009-09-07T20:16:00.000-07:00

Are we really a modern educated sophisticated society or still a conservative backwater? I would hope the former so why has this man felt the need to resign because of an affair. It is not illegal many of us out here have done it and there are politicans I wish would have one. People who occupy the high moral ground, it would be such a relief for them to come down and join us in the messy business of being human. Though some may not learn anything going by Tony Abbott's lack of enlightenment after the mystery child episode. No one I have spoken to believes John should go. This is his private life and of no concern to the public. If every politician who had some unwise sex resigned there'd be few left. I did think however that on hearing her name was Harmony he maybe should have had a flicker in the brain that perhaps this was going to give more pain than pleasure.
I am really tired of the victim women like Miss Harmony. You would have to live under a rock, never watched any television or never have read a book to not know that the chances of a man leaving his wife and family for a bit of exciting but taudry sex is the equivalent of winning Lotto. To cry foul is putting the cause of women backwards. We are in control of our own lives, we have affairs with men because we want to no one forced her. The media have really got to stop accepting this line from women unless charges are to be laid or the police involved.
The chances are that he has been set up. She may want money, she may be writing a book, she may get off on men with power, the motives are endless but to run the line that he promised her things and now she is a poor thing abandoned by the man she loves is hard to swallow.
What women need to learn is that affairs are marvellous things, you get the best of them, wives lose interest in sex after a while and are probably happy for someone else to be taking over and you are free to live an independant life. I read a lovely saying about marriage A year of flames and a lifetime of ashes!

AGOG Foreign Film Festival 2009

2009-09-07T00:09:00.000-07:00

Where was everyone on September 5th? In the picturesque little town of Dungog nestled at the foot of the Barrington Ranges a film festival took place. What a feast of films! Starting with Up the Yangtze showing the environmental damage being done to this magnificent river and the relocation of thousands of people from rural life where they are able to feed themselves. Fat unattractive foreigners go on cruise boats to see this disaster and listen to the propaganda. The ugly side of tourism. Lars and the Real Girl very funny but tender and sad at the same time one man's quest to come to terms with death. The Band's Visit a simply told story of an Egyptian bands visit to Israel and their encounters with the locals. Another tender story. Un Secret about the horrors of WW 2 for a family of jews. Beautifully told through the eyes of a boy who had been sheilded from this information but pushed aside by his father still grieving another child who died in the gas chambers. Tulpan finished the night. Set in the wild countryside of Pakistan about a nomadic family and one man's search for a suitable wife. Enchanting children and a look at a life lived so simply. The richness of the family's bonds was amazing.
Being in the country we were treated to unique hospitality. A home cooked supper was provided with delicious cakes for dessert and local wine for tasting. The back of the cinema was set up with tables so we could sit and talk to fellow film buffs. Amazing the number of people who have moved from around Australia to live in this little town. It is a treat to stay in a pub for $35 per night and have service that is so friendly. Put this date in your calendar for next year it may run over two days.

Bob Carr bans the salt and the transfats.

2009-08-31T21:01:00.000-07:00

Bob Carr's new obssesion is what we eat. We need a whole new discussion around food. If you take a tour of the supermarket shelves most of what you see is no longer food. Food is the thing we eat to nourish our bodies to provide us with the correct vitamins, minerals,fats and general nutrition to keep us healthy and happy. Breakfast cereals that look like something from a meccano set are not food. Yes you can eat it but it will not provide any kind of nutrition. Every second person you speak to now has some problems digesting most of the products masquerading as food. Even young people I know rush for the bathroom after consuming Maccas. Something is seriously wrong and what is going to be done about it as the population grow fatter, more depressed and generally unwell. If my grandmother didn't eat it then it is better for us not to. Fruit, vegetables, meat and fish are the only true foods eaten without being adulterated by chemical additives. I wish Bob well in his campaign to rid us of trans fats and to reduce salt. He will be up against a powerful industry, an ignorant population bent on eating itself to death and relentless advertising. We have lost the plot where eating is concerned.
A gluten intolerance is the bodies violent reaction to gluten. So what does the food industry do wheat is now pumped with more gluten and the gluten free products are pumped full of chemicals. They are ineadible as the body then reacts against the chemicals.
If we took wheat, lactose, sugar and salt out of our diets we would all be better off. Middle age people get their pot bellies from wheat consumption. Western humans are the only people who consume milk after being weaned. No animal does nor do people in developing countries or Asia. All this nonsense about calcium is just that.
I despair whenever I try to eat out. To order a plate of steamed vegetables without any butter poured all over it or some sauce is impossible. To ask for a piece of fish grilled all on its own is like asking for the moon. These foods are delicious and guarranteed to keep you healthy and happy. I will be following Bob's campaign with interest but not holding my breath.

Mean Girls Jenny Brockie Insight

2009-08-25T19:57:00.000-07:00

As an old feminist I was deeply shocked by these young women. They must be the most narcissistic generation since forever. Such deep unhappiness is the cause of such nasty and horrid behaviour and the result of a complete vacuum of thought going on in their heads. Girls now only have value for what they can spend and what they look like. Education is a complete waste of time as their brains have been sucked out by technology. This constant attention to the screen of a mobile phone or a laptop desperate to fill the space with their vacuous and meaningless conversations. Feminism has failed miserably. The advent of women working has rapidly been taken up by what can be sold to them with all this cash. They spend their lives shopping, at the hairdressers and in the hands of plastic surgeons. There is no childhood younger and younger girls are now obssessed by their image. They are depressed and who wouldn't be. All aided and abetted by their mothers. The vision of those thirteen year old girls dressed as whores climbing into a stretch limo for a party all paid for by parents was mindblowing. I could feel only relief that my daughter is all grown up and has a rich inner life to sustain her.
We have failed to provide any meaning to life. They think you can buy it and what hope is there for the planet. These young things use enough product on their hair and bodies to pollute the entire waterways of the world. And they have no interest in changing. The saddest thing is they all look the same anyone who tries to be an individual will be crucified by their vitriolic little tongues. I only hope that all this technology will settle into some kind of perspective and free our children to just be, to daydream to find meaning in life that will sustain them. Why did that woman go to her school reunion? And the one who wrote such bitchiness for a living I was so glad to see her on the receiving end.

The right to refuse medical intervention.

2009-08-24T22:03:00.000-07:00

Christian Rossiter's win in the West Australian courts to refuse food and treatment that will prolong his life which in his words no longer has any purpose. It is a step toward giving us the right to choose around the issues of dying. You can be sure that he won't be allowed to suffer. The debate needs to hot up again as more choices now become available. An enduring guardianship gives you the option to refuse resuscitation and medical treatment but if an ambulance is called they will ignore these wishes. You have to inform your friends and family to call a doctor who will respect this wish. This needs to change. If you are not revived in a hospital your chances of coming back as before are greatly reduced. My sympathy goes to Mr Rossiter and I support the doctors who are saying perhaps it is time they evaluated their decisions to save people with limited quality of life. All these decisions need to be made before we find ourselves in this situation. If you want to kept alive that wish will be respected but for those of us who do not please see these decisions as part of a robust democracy. Thirty percent of Australians now have no religious beliefs a significant number whose voices are not being heard while the Christian lobby have the ears of policy makers. If they want the option to have a slow painful miserable death that is up to them.
Euthanasia is like abortion it has seventy five percent support in the community. Both have always gone on and will continue to go on but whilst quality of dying options are pushed underground alot of needless suffering happens. People botch their attempts and have to do it alone. Family and friends have to have water tight alibis the courts are vicious and merciless as we saw with the Carin Jennings case.

Bettina Arndt can't cum.

2009-08-17T20:09:00.000-07:00

I have just returned from the Byron Bay Writer's Festival. A new and wicked joke was created over the weekend. We were all waiting with baited breath for the sex guru to appear so we could query her over her latest advice to women. We are all sure we got it wrong and she didn't really mean to put sexual politics back five hundred years. It was announced at one of the very first sessions that she was unable to cum. Though disappointed for her the joke continued. It gave me serious concern for where had I been for the last ten years as women who read and supposedly think have become so conservative. There were not many guffaws heard to this wonderful piece of humour. I turned and mischievously said to some women who looked like they came from the north shore of some capital city. The feminists had made a wax doll of her and stuck pins in it and were waiting to watch her squirm. They turned from me with absolute disgust.
Another idea put forward for this piece of incredible advice was that you can say lovely things about sex when you are not having any. Once you are back in the full reality of regular penetration you suddenly remember about headaches and gushing menstruation as good excuses. So perhaps our Bettina is in a dry spell and can sustain a rich fantasy of what it would be like to lie back and have a canoe inserted into her.
The festival was terrific. Bob Ellis was in good form putting forward what sort of ABC we want and argued well for the lack of diversity. We want to hear about our own culture there is always SBS. He looks even more crumpled and grumpy.
It was a joy to hear young writers like Craig Silvey and Karen Foxlee. To discover new ones like Susan Varga and biographies I am busting to read by Robert Grey and Imran Ahmed.
Men came under a fair attack and seemed to take it lying down have they surrenndered?Though the men who were still trying to reinvent themselves made me feel exhausted. One had solved the problem by having a relationship with a relationship counsellor. Make sense if you want your car fixed you go to a mechanic and if you want your relationship fixed you get an expert.
I did come away however feeling that the planet is doomed. Climate change sessions were packed out by people carrying take away coffee containers and drinking out of designer label water bottles. Mountains of rubbish left the site each day. If this well read and supposedly thinking portion of the population can't change their ways what hope is there.

Dog Flu

2009-08-14T19:53:00.000-07:00

As afluenza spreads through the suburbs we need a good outbreak of dog flu. I have nothing against dogs they are lovely faithful gentle creatures but there are now too many of them in cities particularly in wealthy suburbs. The houses have got bigger the yards have got smaller and the number of dogs being kept has increased. The more you want to have on show your status the bigger the dog. I often walk past these premises and the stench of dog shit is overpowering. On entering these luxurious abodes I am gobsmacked to see the amount of damage these pooches have been allowed to do. Expensive carpets are covered in dog hair and the odour of wet dog seeps from the pile. Leather lounges costing thousands of dollars have been chewed to pieces and the legs of tables and chairs mauled to matchsticks. I have to close my ears when the humans talk about having the dogs sleeping in the bed with them and kissing them good night. A dog spends its day licking its arse I have no desire for it to then lick any part of me. No child would ever be allowed to behave in such a way. They would be sold off.
Our parks and beaches despite prominent signs talking about the responsibilties of dog owners no ranger would dare confront Mr Steroid and his three rotweillers for fear of dying. So dog do covers every walk way, piece of sand and in and out of children's play areas. I especially love the ones who pick up but then dump the plastic bag. I suppose they have a point though have you tried to put rubbish in a public bin lately the smell of shit will knock you unconscious.
Surely all this close contact with dogs and their excretia can't be good for us. We have seen the outbreak of avian flu and now swine flu where a disesase because of the close contact with an animal has caused the mutation of the flu virus. I don't want dogs to suffer in any way but let's get back to some rational thinking around canines. The cross breeding of the poodle and the labradour to create for fashion an insane large dog must be the height of human stupidity. I am thinking of taking up shitting in public places to make a point and see how quickly something is done to stop me!

Modern Slavery.

2009-08-10T20:30:00.000-07:00

Slavery has modernised and evolved like anything else. Visit any nursing home, disability unit or look at who is cleaning your hotel room and you'll find the majority of the workers are from another country and usually a poor country. I was horrified to learn that the army in Iraq imports people form Pakistan to do their shit work for a dollar a day. This is slave labour!People say to me when I raise this that they are surely grateful to be here and any job is better than no job. But this leaves me feeling very uneasy. While we have disadvantaged housing estates full of disenfranchised young people who are generational welfare dependant we are importing people to do the shit work we no longer want to do. This was highlighted for me in the recent complaints by students from India. They are being brought here in droves to gain qualifications in all the low paid jobs we won't do, hospitality, aged care and so on. They rightly feel they are being ripped off. Given a poor level of education and then going into poorly paid employment. We end up with two angry groups of people, the underemployed Australian and the slave.The people across the road from me recently brought a girl from India to be their nanny. When Mum walks with the pram down the street this girl walks behind her. They do not speak and she looks totally miserable.
Of course the sex industry both prostitution and child pornography have grown as the most successful industries of capitalist economies because of the enslaving of women and children. Women are brought to Australia illegally and then told that they will be deported if they complain. They are also made to pay back large sums of money for their passage here. As for children they have no power in the arrangements that see them used for pornography.
Affluence has become an ugly human phenomena. Once you have so much money you no longer know what to do with these kinds of problems arise. The exploitation of others to show your standing and status. Wealthy women no longer want to clean their houses or look after their children it can be outsourced to poorer women but not other white women.

Malcolm Turnbull.

2009-08-03T20:08:00.000-07:00

Well what did anyone think of the performance on Australian Story last night? If I was looking for a lawyer I don't think I would be hiring him. The checking and rechecking of evidence would surely be the first and most critical part of his job. He doesn't seem to think that this is important when it comes to emails with which he hopes to topple a Prime Minister. What he doesn't realise is that all of us out here in normal land know these sorts of deals for mates go, on look at Queensland. The footage shot in his humble little holiday house, was that the most down market of his residences? just shows how remote he is from us plebs who would be excited to have a photo of such a property to look at in a magazine and daydream for a moment.
Lucy came across as a girl who believes in the right to rule and she seems quite amazed that all this fuss is being made. He should be simply given the job that is rightfully his. I am gobsmacked to see how much time the family spend in his office advising him. All with their newly whitened teeth glowing brightly whilst most of us can only go to the dentist when in unbearable pain and unable to do the extracation ourselves with a pair of pliers!
While the story of his early childhood is tragic I feel done over by the tears and the telling of it. I feel he is trying to con me into believing he has feelings like you and me. It is time all this crying by grown ups on television stops. It no longer rings true.
The assertion that if he doesn't manage to convince us that he can lead will be the first time he has failed in life I say bring it on, it is way overdue. He has left it too late to be told that he may have some flaws of character that all of us have had to incorporate as we get knocked around by life. This kind of protected view he has of himself can lead to incredible arrogance and an inability to take on board others perceptions. Meglomania comes to mind. I would however be interested in others opinions.

Making One's Final Exit.

2009-07-29T17:05:00.000-07:00

At my age I would be a fool not to contemplate death. Not in a morbid way but as a way of thinking through some of the issues. I have put alot of effort into having a quality life and I intend to do the same for my demise. I am a strong supporter of euthansia but while the uncaring Christian lobby has highjacked this debate and got the ears of the policy makers I am forced to make some alternate decisions.
I am cultivating heart disease. I have taken a good hard look at the options and this is the one I have chosen. A few minutes of intense pain and then the ecstasy a bit like loosing one's virginity! I am back into the salt, eating double cream and consuming slabs of thick butter. I am ignoring the racing heart in the night and the slight breathlessness trying to walk uphill. I have my Living Will and my Enduring Guardian in place and have told my friends if I collapse they are to walk around the block and then call a doctor not an ambulanace who will resusitate me.
I have had to have the difficult conversations with my children but they do understand after seeing their grandmother ravaged by dementia end up in the Dante's Inferno we call aged care. She hated every minute of it and pleaded for us to get her out of there.
While some may find these musings depressing I am empowered by them. No doctor is going to dictate to me how and when I will depart this earth and I have no desire to spend these valuable and happy years sitting in a doctor's surgery. They would have to be the most depressing places on earth.
You can also live too long and I have many people I am looking forward to catching up with in the next journey wherever it may be.

Could the next literary hoax please stand up!

2009-07-27T19:49:00.000-07:00

The literary and publsihing world continue to set the scene for the next hoax.Nothing has been learnt from as far back as the Ern Malley affair, the Helen Darville scandal and the more recent fiasco created by Norma Khouri. I am sure there are many others that haven' t been outed yet. Amongst the million books on the misery of a Chinese childhood there will be more than a few fabrications.
The Western world seems to have a never ending appetite for consuming tales of suffering and despair in the developing world. The film Stolen has shown us that if no horror is found it may be tempting to make it up. Cynically even this may have been set up. 'Here come some white faced cameramen let's see what yarn we can spin for them', is alledgedly planned.
Any one keen to be noticed need onlt to see who is being hailed at the moment and get busy on the laptop. I am almost tempted myself!
Each of these now famous fraudsters would have looked on as the latest god of literature was fawned over by reviewers and book show hosts and thought "I can do that'
At the base of the Ern Malley prank was the desire to expose the mafia that exsisted within literary circles and had as a result set themselves as the elite.
Helen Darville might have surmised that anything from an ethnic source with one of the wars enmeshed within the story would be a winner. The award of a prestigious prize must have been beyond her wildest dreams.
Ms Khouri merely saw an opportunity too good to resist. The west was saturated with tales of the brutal treatment of Muslim women. Another could easily be added whether it was true or not. It would have been interesting in that climate to try and write about a woman happy and fulfilled by Islam. I am almost sure it would have been rejected.
I know our culture appears so bereft of anything interesting as we are swamped by all things sport and consumed by the ugly shenanigans of what footballers get up to in hotel rooms. My own city has just lost the funding for a new art gallery while the local footy stadium has received millions of dollars!
We do believe it or not have a culture that has its own unique, wonderful and funny qualities. I recently attended the Dungog Film Festival to see twenty five feature films and a hundred or so short films that had to be Australian. A few New Zealand ones were thrown in, close enough!
To be immersed like this made me delighted and deeply satisfied but also angry. These films will mostly never be seen by the majority of Australians. Our cinemas are instead filled with offerings from alien places that we can never fully understand or feel a connection to. If I see one more dreadful film from France I will scream!. They don't tell our stories of adolescence, The Year My Voice Broke the language the setting and the characters I could watch it forever. Tales of mad drinkers in pubs, indigenous thinking, finding love and dying all incorporating our glorious laconic humour that takes the piss like no other. Real stories about where we have been and where we are going.
As we struggle to understand the plight of our indigenous people their stories are the way in. Not just the tragedy of Samson and Delilah but the hilarity of The Stone Bros, one of the funniest films with a clever way of turning racism on its head. Every Australian should have access to these delights. We would be richer for it and may be able to have the debates and discussions that are long overdue and stop searching elsewhere to the exotic for what is worth saying.
Sadly the cultural cringe is alive and well. To be white now it seems is very dull and totally without any interest as a subject to write about. So off we go on the literary tourist route with all our gullibility and potential to be mislead. We don't learn.
A budding fraudster would watch in fascination as the latest author of a book about the mutilation and or religious persecution of women and children is courted by the publishers, hailed in women's magazines and think how hard can that be to write. They would be amazed to see the sycophantic fawnings as western literary figureheads speak in hushed tones as they interview these authors. They would be gobsmacked at the sheer nervous trembling in their voices as they stumble to pronounce the unfamiliar name correctly and then ask the most banal questions terrified that what they may say could be misconstrued as racism. There is no critical analysis of these books because of the terror of being politacally incorrect a concept that doesn't exsist outside the west. Can you imagine an Australian author being treated like this in another country?
We have no ethnicity is that why we are so easily deceived so ripe for the taking so taken in by anyone whose culture is different to our own? Could it be our entrenced Christinaity that believes the way to heaven is through pain, other people's? So we lap it up by the bucketfull. These writers are treated as if they could be the next messiah people fall at their feet and hang off every word! I am sure they suffer acute embarassement or are simply puzzled by the odd behaviour. It sells alot of books so they would be fools to say anything.
We have much suffering in our own country 100,000 children abused each year by their parents. These children live lives of unbearable suffering. The aged forced to live beyond any quality of life by modern medicine and then confined to the horrors of nursing homes to keep them alive even longer. If anyone wrote about this it would be dismissed. Not exotic enough.
Middle aged western women sit in audiences all over the country at Writer's Festivals listening to hours of human misery while plenty goes on around them. They queue for hours to get the books autographed but are too frightened to engage in any meaningful conversation in case they say the wrong thing.
I am not for one minute denying that publication of books form all over the world and across a range of subjects is other than a good thing. But I am appalled by the adulation for the latest fashion in publishing. They are elevated to cringe worthy heights and there is reverse racsim at play as no one knows how to treat them and would never say other than wonderful things about their work. It also makes me cross to pick up one of these books from the same part of the world where someone else has jumped on the bandwagon and it is no good. I have then been duped.
I am not all that bothered by whether a book is real or fiction as long as it is a good read. But I am truly nauseated by our tiptoeing around people of other cultures. Their books should be put under the same scrutiny as any other. If they are no good let's say so without fear and treat each title on its merit. More books like the Slap please I will know whether it is ridgee didge in an instant and I absolutely want to hear what is being said about modern day Australia. They will also be treated like any one else as they do the literary rounds not elevated to heights that encourage others to contemplate deception.

Sex and old women.

2009-07-24T20:57:00.000-07:00

I need a week's notice to have sex why wasn't I warned! If I'd known I'd have been greedier had less headcahes and stayed awake more often during the performance.When the earnest climatologists are informing us of the devastating consequences of drought on the waterways they need to slip in the message to women over 55 that it isn't only rivers that dry up. As I recover from the shock I realise there must be a solution. Billboards loudly scream Sex wherever I look. Men have been catered for so what's available for me. They have the choice of a little blue pill or a cocktail of chemical squirted up both nostrils. Surely they also need a woman when it starts to work unless all those guys drinking endlessly with their mates at the pub have started inviting them home to bed. I think in those circles homophobia is alive and well.
I sit in the doctor's surgery praying that a grandmotherly medic is on duty today but no my name is called by a young man who if he decides he hates medicine could model for Vogue Men. He can see my discomfort and rushes quickly through the age appropriate complaints. High blood pressure, dementia, piles, incontinence, indigestion no, no, no. I simply want to fall into the arms of a man a few more times before I depart this earth. He blushes and says I have only two words for you oral or vaginal and scribbles out a script.
Now I might be old but I know how to do a Google search. What are these creams and pills going to do to me? Hormones are extracted from the urine of pregnant horses. God that can't be good for me! This is an animal five times my size has four legs and is covered in fur. I have got this far I can't start feeling sorry for a horse who has to stand all day in stable with a leather bucket over her genitals and pee. Surely she's not harmed and the stable is pleasantly warm
I massage the cream into my nether regions the sensation so pleasurable that maybe its enough. The labia responds by swelling and blossoming and I can only imagine it waiting for pollination like a lovely flower. I get out the old cushion I used when I had piles to support the tender labia. Now to meet the man.
RSVP here I come! What a smorgasboard of talent. The first three forgot to turn on the flash for the photo, the next can only fit half of himself on the screen I imagine we'll be eating under the golden arches, the next is making a statement in ugg boots and a blue singlet. What it is I'm not sure. Leave it here for a minute I have to put my own photo up. Now which will I choose the one from 1970, my latest breast scan or steal one of Angelina Jolie on a bad hair day. I think I'll have a cup of tea and a lie down and leave this for another day. Any one out there have a similar experience?