Wrong way going down the one-way road

They come they take
It’s never enough because they can’t relate
To the real world
Thinking that the oyster is just for the pearl
They start those wars
They want to own the land, sea and all the stars
And right those wrongs
They change their history with their poison forked tongues.

All right, who’s they?
A Maybe it’s the government of today
Or B for the big business man who thinks the whole world revolves around him
Or C for the corrupt official for A and B he be the man in the middle
Or D for discoverer, for Cook and Columbus and the pirate plunderers.

-John Butler Trio, One way Road

Nueva Sevilla beaches

They put on their swimming things under their clothes and went down to the sea. The shore was covered in Coca-Cola and Pepsi cans, empty Marlboro and Kent packets, and all the eternally indestructible plastic flotsam of United States economic expansion. Dioniso held up a Coca-cola can and said, 'It would not have been so bad if they still called it Inca-cola.'
Chapter 36; Nueva Sevilla

Louis de Bernieres
Senor Vivo and the Coca Lord

Carnations

There is a disease that affects carnations. It lies dormant in the soil for decades, and then suddenly erupts and destroys all the carnation crop over the area it infests. When this happens, there is nothing to be done but burn the crops, abandon the greenhouses, and desert the land forever. Ambush is ever the way in which ugliness destroys beauty.
On the vast plain outside the capital were countless carnation greenhouses, where workers travailed in appalling humidity amidst clouds of carcinogenic chemical fertilisers and insecticides, producing perfect white flowers to adorn the lapels of wedding guests all over Europe, to grace the statues of saints in churches, to decorate the corpses of the freshly dead, and to fill out the bouquets of hopeful lovers.
The two assassins took Anica to a derelict greenhouse long abandoned because of the disease. El Chiquitin jabbed into her neck the submachine gun that her own father had sold to El Jararca, and marched her into the building while El Guacamayo got out from the capacious trunk of the Ford Falcon his comprehensive bag of tools. Because it was growing dark he also brought in a lantern for them to work by.

Chapter 49, Another Statistic
Louis de Bernieres
Senor Vivo and the Coca Lord
How many authors go thro that much research to explain the background setup of a scene, instead of just saying they drove down to an abandoned warehouse, so much explanation has been put into describing why it was abandoned, and can even be interpreted as a metaphor for what will take place there.

In Love and War

Where does it all begin? History has no beginnings, for everything that happens becomes the cause or pretext for what occurs afterwards, and this chain of cause and pretext stretches back to the palaeolithic age, when the first Cain of one tribe murdered the first Abel of another. all war is fratricide, and there is there-fore an infiniate chain of blame that winds its circuitous route back and forth across the path and under the feet of every people and every nation, so that a people who are the victims of one time become the victimisers a generation later, and newly liberated nations resort immediatly to the means of their former oppressors. The triple contagions of nationalism, utopianism and religious absolutism effervesce together into an acid that corrodes the moral metal of a race, and it shamelessly and even proudly performs deeds that it would deem vile if they were done by any other.

Chapter 50
Louis de Bernieres
Birds Without Wings

Poor Them

Here, in a state whose economy and mindset are bound up in an endless war against nature, private citizens have beheld the paralysis of government agencies and began taking conservation into their own hands.

If all this sounds a little bleak and dramatic, remember that Australia has the worst record of mammal extinction in the world. Since European settlement twenty seven species have disapeared entirely and 1500 birds, reptiles, plants, amphibians and mammals are currently vulnerable or endangered. marsupials, the creatures unique to the continent, are in perilous decline and many of the smaller species are gone for good.

Tim Winton
Silent Country: Travels through a Recovering Landscape

Fireflies

I'd like to make myself believe
That planet Earth turns slowly.
It's hard to say that I'd rather stay
Awake when I'm asleep
Cos everything is never as it seems.

Leave my door open just a crack
Cos i feel like such an insomniac
Why do i tire of counting sheep
When im far too tired to fall asleep

I'd like to make myself believe
That planet Earth turns slowly.
It's hard to say that I'd rather stay
Awake when I'm asleep
Because my dreams are bursting at the seams


-Owl City, Fireflies

Page {110}

All is dark but for the greenish glow
Of the bedside clock radio
It's 3a.m. - here they come again
Just like they've done before
First there's one and then a couple more
Like little birds perching on a wire
And soon there's a gathering
A crooning, restless choir
Of thoughts in the middle of the night

...

Paul Kelly

Diversity

May I paraphrase the wisdom of famous political prisoner and convict John Mitchel, born to the son of a Unitarian Presbyterian minister on the Ulster border, transported to Tasmania, escaped to the U.S.
"Australia has two kinds of people and they are not Christians and Muslim. They are those who profiit by Australia's diversions and those who suffer for them"
Flattened By A Falafel
Tom Keneally

I am Philothei (7)

My mother had been making recel, and I was a little sick from eating so much of it. She used more grapes than most people, and extra sugar, and I’d put a lot of it on to bread, because that day there was new baking, and that’s why I was queasy.

I went outside to breathe away the sickness and it was getting dark, and it was just about to rain so that everyone else had gone indoors and was wondering whether or not it was dark enough to warrant lighting the lamps, and the nightingales were starting to sing, and there were only cats in the street, when suddenly Ibrahim arrived at my side, and I was very surprised, and he said , ‘Quick let me kiss your hand,’ and I said, ‘Its got jam on it,’ and so he looked swiftly to all sides, and the he took my hand and licked the jam from my fingers with his tongue, and afterwards I was trembling and I wasn’t normal for hours, and I couldn’t wash my hands because I couldn’t bear to wash away the traces of his tongue.

chapter 35
Louis de Bernieres
Birds Without Wings

Tonio Treschi's Past

Guido was alone looking at the objects which Tonio had left open for anyone to see.
And Guido examining those things carefully, was filled with such a sense of desolation that he could not speak.

The trunk contained many things.
There was music, mostly the work of Vivaldi, in old volumes bearing Marianna Treschi’s name in a girlish script. And there were books, French fairy tales, and stories of the Greek gods and heroes of the sort one might read to a child.
But those objects which most surely chilled Guido and caused him to feel the keenest misery were the clothing and effects of a small boy.
Here was a white christening gown, most likely Tonio’s, and half a dozen little suits of clothing, all lovingly kept. There were tiny shoes, there were even little gloves.
And finally there were the portraits, enamelled miniatures and one very lifelike painting of the exquisite dark-eyed little boy that Tonio had once been.

As Guido looked at these things, he realized they were all relics of one’s life that are treasured by others, but rarely kept by one’s self.
And they had been cleared out, packaged up, and sent away to Rome in perfect evidence that no one now remained in the house of Treshi who loved this young man who had once lived there. It was as if Tonio and all those who had once shared his life were dead.

Part 6, chapter 4
Anne Rice
Cry To Heaven

A Circassian Mistress

Rustem Bey told no one why he was going. This was not the kind of world where men unveiled their hearts to anyone, and in any case the aga had no one in whom he could confide, but the truth was that Rustem bey was looking for a woman. His brief time with Tamara had provided him with inklings of what might be between a man and a woman, and his heart, his stomach, his loins and his throat yearned for something that he could not articulate even to himself. He needed someone to meld with. He knew himself to be something like a garden where the only flowers were those of potatoes, ragweed and neglected onions, butwhere a true gardener would have been able to drape the trellises with vines, and coax up tulips from the earth. It would be too simple to say that Rustem Bey was looking for romantic love, because in reality he was looking for the missing part of himself, and these are not often the same quest, even though we sometimes think that they are. Rustem bey had conceived the idea that if only he could find himself a Circassian mistress, amusing in demeanour, accomplished in music, red-lipped and fair of skin, excellent and enthusiastic in the techniques of physical love, then his life would be transformed.

chapter 25
Tales from the Journey to Smyrna
Louis de Bernieres
Birds Without Wings

A Feel Good Song

Take all of your wasted honor
Every little past frustration
Take all of your so-called problems,
Better put ‘em in quotations
Say what you need to say

Walking like a one man army
Fighting with the shadows in your head
Living out the same old moment
Knowing you’d be better off instead,
If you could only . . .
Say what you need to say

Have no fear for giving in
Have no fear for giving over
You’d better know that in the end
Its better to say too much
Then never say what you need to say again

Even if your hands are shaking
And your faith is broken
Even as the eyes are closing
Do it with a heart wide open
Say what you need to say

Say - By John Mayer

Real and Hyperreal

"The very definition of the real has become: that of which it is possible to give an equivalent reproduction...The real is not only what can be reproduced, but that which is always already reproduced: that is, the hyperreal...which is entirely in simulation."

Simulations
Jean Baudrillard

Cruelty thro Live Export

To The Hon Kevin Andrews,

I am writing to you about the live export of millions of Australian sheep for slaughter to the Middle East.
In 2008 alone, over 35,000 sheep died on sea voyages from Australia to the Middle East.

They'll spend weeks at sea in a crowded and poorly lit pens, vulnerable to injury, heat stress and disease. For sheep that have enjoyed space and have had little human contact, the long and gruelling road and sea journey can be terrifying. Tens of thousands of sheep die during the journey every year because they fail to recognise the unfamiliar pellets as food.

Live exports is jeopardising Australia’s international reputation as a country with high standards of animal welfare. Our animals deserve better. Australia is a nation with generally high animal welfare standards but the only way to truly protect the welfare of Australian animals is to end live exports.

Humanely killing sheep as close to the farm as possible will benefit both the animals and Australia. The cruelty of live export is unnecessary, with Australia already having a significant and growing export trade in chilled and frozen meat from animals that have been humanely transported and slaughtered in Australia. More emphasis on chilled meat export will increase trade growth in this area and create more Australian jobs.

I am calling on the Australian Government to end live exports, and I urge you to do everything in your power to bring an end to this cruel and unnecessary trade, for our economy, our jobs and for the safety and wellbeing of our animals.

Attach your name and send in a similar letter now, by clicking on this banner.

It will only take a few minutes and all u need to do is choose the sentence order and enter your area code.

"Ive lived in the Middle East, and i use to choose Australian lamb while over there, there is a viable alternative, which shouldnt raise any concerns from their side regarding the slaughtering, there do exist slaughter houses which function according to the islamic way in Australia, why not get that part of the job done here? Even Islam is against the torture of these animals, so its a win win win situation on behalf of Australia, the Sheep, and the Middle East."(mbf)

Capitalist Nuclear Family

"The gender roles associated with the capitalist family – strong, aggressive male and nurturing, passive female - pervade all of society through the education system, the mass media, entertainment and so on. No individual can escape them, even if they do not live in the so called nuclear family, whether they marry and have children or not. It is the inequality between men and women, the contradiction between the ideal life of happiness and bliss the family seems to hold out and the reality of long hours of work, the struggle to make ends meet, the constraints on social life because the lack of decent child care facilities and son on which make the family a site of frustration and oppression. The use of women’s bodies as sex objects reinforce old ideas of women’s responsibility to satisfy men’s needs. And it is not just men who view women this way. All studies of attitudes show how women internalize this view of their role, causing feelings of guilt and inadequacy if they do not come up to their husband’s demands."

Rape, Sexual Violence and capitalism
by Sandra Bloomworth
(intro)

Triggered a thought in my head;

The family unit in islam, is not a precise point cornered brick room either, by that i mean not defined by the mum, dad and kid(s). The concept of a family has more fluidity and flexibility than that, ie a family could consist of a mum, n dad, kids, grandparent(s), or in the case of divorcee or a widower, a single parent, kid(s), aunty, aunty’s husband and grandparents. It would still be considered a family unit. This is in place as a social support structure so that there is always family to rely on, in case of old age, financial difficulties, baby sitting etc..That why even in marriage, whole families get adopted into this social support network, and this becomes a basis of the community. Its not a pre-requisite of religion, but it seems to exist where this religion is.

And as i was told recently, the nuclear family is a relatively new concept that arose after WWII thanks to capitalism...ill need to research that further tho.

The Meaning of Art

According to Trotsky, "art, it is said, is not a mirror, but a hammer: it does not reflect, it shapes. But at present even the handling of a hammer is taught with the help of a mirror, a sensitive film which records all the movement... The deeper literature is, and the more it is imbued with the desire to shape life, the more significantly and dynamically will it be able to 'picture life..."

This Life Of Mine lyrics

Don't you ever wonder what might be if you lived life free?
Don't you ever wonder what it's like to fly off the high dive?
Don't you think the dreams in you are meant to ever come true?
Don't you know that hopes are slaves 'till you free them and see them thru?

Can you find a little life in you and make your days and nights worth living?
I swear there's more for us to do; there's more for the taking and the giving
Want to build a kingdom of Heaven, so it's time to lay the foundation
Want to know my neighbors in the world and finally lay down idle speculation

This life of mine, this life of mine ain't the life I had in mind
But if I'm bold enough, wise enough, then I can make this life worthwhile
I can make this life worth a smile

Kareem Salama.
This Life of Mine

A word about the Jury

Whispered by the public prosecutor to Pappilon in court before the hearing.

"Prisoner at the bar, just you keep quiet, and above all don't you attempt to defend yourself. I'll send you down the drain, all right. And i trust you've no faith in the jury? Don't kid yourself. Those twelve men know nothing whatsoever about life. Look at them, lined up there opposite you. Twelve bastards brought up to Paris from some perishing village in the country: can you see them clearly? Small shopkeepers, pensioners, tradesmen. It's not worth describing them to you in detail. Surely you don't expect them to understand the life you lead in Montmartre or what it's like to be twenty-five? As far as they're concerned Pigalle and the Place Blanche are exactly the same as hell and all night-birds are natural enemies of society. They are all unspeakably proud of being jurymen at the Seine Assizes.

And what's more, I can tell you that they loathe their status - they loathe belonging to the pinched, dreary lower middle class. And now you make your appearance here, all young and handsome. Do you really suppose for a moment that I'm not going to make them see you as a night- prowling Montmatre Don Juan? That will put them dead against you right away. You're too well dressed: you ought to have come in something modest indeed. That was a huge tactical error of yours. Cant you see how jealous of your suit they are? They all buy their clothes off the peg - they've never even dreamt of having a suit made to measure by a tailor."

First Exercise Book, Down the Drain
The Assizes
Papillon by Henri Charriere

Papillon

I really enjoy reading fiction, i had assumed that non fiction was too close too reality and therefore boring, not able to hold my interest for long, focussing too much on inter-human relationships and menial day to day things...if i was going to invest time from my day to put into reading a book, i had always wanted it to exciting and daring; the opposite of how i see my own life, that way i could use it as a welcome escape to long boring weekends, between tedious chores.
Then some guy came along and requested that i read this specific book, an autobiography...damn i wasnt welcoming the task, and put it off for a few days before deciding to give it a chance...now im on page 45 out of 560, so thats almost 1/11 th...and so far im hooked, and i was impressed with the Translator's Introduction, a piece of which i will quote here;

"The new world in question is of course the underworld, seen from within and described with extraordinary natural talent by one who knows it through and through and who accepts it's values, which include among others courage, loyalty and fortitude. But this is the real underworld, as different from the underworld of fiction as the act of love is different from adolescent imaginings, a world the french have scarcely seen except here and there in the works of Jean Genet and Albertine Sarrazin, or the English before Defoe; and it's startling fierce uncompromising reality, savagely contemptuous of the Establishment, has shocked and distressed many a worthy bourgeois. Indeed we have a minister's word for it (a minister, no less) that the present hopeless moral decline of france is due to the wearing of miniskirts and to the reading of Papillon.

Nevertheless all properly equipped young women are still wearing miniskirts, in spite of the cold, and even greater numbers of Frenchmen with properly equipped minds are still reading Papillon, in spite of the uncomfortable feelings it must arouse form time to time. And this is one of the most striking things about the phenomenone Papillon: the book makes an immense appeal to the whole range of men of good will, from the Academie francaise to the cheerful young mason who is working on my house. "

Page 11, Translator's Introduction
Papillon by Henri Charriere
translated from French by Patrick O'Brian

After Sorry

I just recently read an article by Jon van Tiggelen and i am speechless about the information portrayed in it. basically how the "white" just totally wrecked an aboriginal community to a degree beyond reproach. The children do not fear being sent away and the parents are drunks who gamble away any income or government support money. Here's a few exerpts;

'Incidently, among the kids are also several of the six boys who, along with three young men, were let off with a warning after pleading guilty to the statuatory rapes of a ten year old girl. In words that were to resound around the world, the persecuter had submitted that the act was 'a form of childish experimentaion' and 'consensual in the non legal sense.' Arukun kids are 'very naughty' he'd said to the judge, as if with a wink. 'she probably agreed to have sex with all of [them],' Judge Sarah bradley acknowledged, before releasing them back into the community.'

'One or two males face the circuit cort for rape every month, but mostly it goes on drunk, stoned and ignored. A non-indigenous Wik Mungkan speaker told me how a few years ago she was flown into a Cairns court to interpret for a girl who'd been dragged around the community and raped multiple times. In court the girl clammed up, the case was dismissed, and the girl and her assailant flew home to Aurukun on the same plane. 'So much goes unreported because of the threats, the price you pay if you tell. There is real fear.'

The parents might receive First-world welfare handouts, but the kids get Third-world parenting.

After Sorry
by John van Tiggelen

how do you define israel?

These are snipets of an article written by Israeli/American peace activist Jeff Halper for the Australian Jewish News but the paper refused to run the piece...

Why should discussing such important issues for Israel be the cause of such distress for you? Because, I venture to say, you have a stake in preserving Israel’s idealized image that trumps dealing with the real country. In my view, Israel is being used as the lynchpin of your ethnic identity in Australia; mobilizing around a beleaguered Israel is essential for keeping your kids Jewish. I would go so far as to accuse you of needing an Israel in conflict, which is why you seem so threatened by an Israel at peace, why you deny that peace is even possible, why a peaceful Israel that is neither threatened nor “Jewish” cannot fulfill the role you have cast for it, and thus why you characterize my message as “vile lies.”

full article here

Wet Sponge

" Every vessel, every container, will only pour out what is contained in it, and that’ s very obvious. And so, your tongue, is your ability to express what lies in your spirit. Television, movies, the friends you hang out with, the music you listen too, everything around you is environmental forces that shape how your being is and how your heart is, and when you open your mouth to speak, it’s like like your heart is a sponge that absorbs all of this material from around you.


Essentially, what you’re doing is squeezing what is in you, and what comes out is going to be what has been compiled in your mind and in your memory. Obviously you can only express what in your heart what has been placed in it. And so in order for the outcome and the output from the tongue to be positive, the input in that needs to be positive; in spirit, in silence, in talking, and throughout our lives "

Thoughts from an Elderly Person

There comes a point in life where each one of us who survives begins to feel like a ghost that has forgotten to die at the right time, and certainly most of us were more amusing when we were young. It seems that age folds the heart in on itself. Some of us walk detached, dreaming on the past, and some of us realize that we have lost the trick of standing in the sun. For many of us the thought of the future is a cause for irritaion rather than optimism, as if we have had enough of new things, and wish only for the long sleep that rounds the edges of our lives.

Louis de Bernieres
Birds without wings

The Alchemist

It's what you have always wanted to accomplish. Everyone, when they are young, knows what their personal legend is.
At that point in their lives, everything is clear, and everything is possible. They are not afraid to dream, and to yearn for everything they would like to see happen to them in their lives.
But, as time passes, a mysterious force begins to convince them that it will be impossible for them to realize their personal Legend.
...
There was no need to imprison them: the arabs simply confiscated their horses. So, once again, the world had demonstrated its many languages: the desert only moments ago had been endless and free, and now it was an impenetratable wall.

The Alchemist

Paulo Coelho

Lyrics: Creepy Crawling

Echo of light fingers, Cold comfort blankets, Steeped in creeping anger, Flatfoot comes poking, Compounding my misery, Grinding pestle and mortar, Adding insult to injury.
If only this, if only that,If only in my guts -Creepy crawling, All the creeps go creepy crawling, Same thing every night. How can stealing candy from a baby Seem alright? Corvino, carrion crow, Skulking with his mobile, Slippery peat-bog eyes, Stick-on smiley smile, Small print like quicksand, Not a wooden leg to stand on, Sinking through my stomach, The ground beneath me gone, Free-fall, call Ophelia, Clutching at straw, Mixed with bloody feathers, From scruff of neck of crow. Johnny go! Johnny gone! Too much to drink in your tum-tum-tum. See this finger, see this thumb -See this fist and watch it come!

-Chumbawamba

Got tagged by Mass

Hmm i dont usually share much personal info on my blog, but i guess im breaking the rules here;
Favorite Colour; Green is calming
Favorite Perfume (guys); DKNY Be Delicious
Favorite Perfume (girls); Femme by Hugo Boss. Intense pleasures by Estee Lauder
Clothing wear brand; The same mainstream, Just Jeans, Supre, Forever 21, sometimes Katies, i like Glassons recently.
Favorite Person in the entire world!; thats living today? My Dad.
Favorite Country; Australia
Favorite car; a horse and buggy..otherwise a light blue jag!
Sport; Gardening...is that counted?
Animal; Iguanas and Lizards...oh and frogs!
Movie; A Devil's Own
Singer; Imogen heap, she's very original. Joshua Radin. Matt Nathanson.
Day in the week; Thursday, its almost the end..but not quite.
Time in the day; When i arrive early at work, in time to have a coffee and a good read.
Holiday season; Easter, its so refressing, not to mention the cadbury creme eggs!
Number: 2 and 6
Food; We recently made rattatoullie- was good!
Cartoon: Family Guy. Does anyone remember Agro's cartoon connection? Ice cream flavor; Coconut and Cherry swirl from Dairy bell..Bubblegum Bill!!
Favorite chocolate; Kinder beuno and Cherry Ripe..
Blogger; the list is on my profile
Favorite hobby; Observing, Listening, Thinking, Analyzing
Fruit: Star Fruit. Granny Smith Apples
Room in the house: The living room, i enjoy company
Book: i cant decide on just one.
Momment: When im just about to indulge in an extravagant, sickly sweet dessert.
whats your favorite dessert: Orange flavoured konafa at LeBlanch and walnut/cinamon/apple pancakes with icecream from Pancake parlour.

aright done, whoever reads this next is tagged lol,

A reason to oppose the WTO.

4- The WTO Would Privatize Essential Services

The WTO is seeking to privatize essential public services such as education, health care, energy and water. Privatization means the selling off of public assets - such as radio airwaves or schools - to private (usually foreign) corporations, to run for profit rather than the public good. The WTO's General Agreement on Trade in Services, or GATS, includes a list of about 160 threatened services including elder and child care, sewage, garbage, park maintenance, telecommunications, construction, banking, insurance, transportation, shipping, postal services, and tourism. In some countries, privatization is already occurring.

Those least able to pay for vital services - working class communities and communities of color - are the ones who suffer the most.

For the Rest of the Top 10 Reasons:
Globalexchange.org