Craig --
I'm about to head to Grant Park to talk to everyone gathered there, but I wanted to write to you first.
We just made history.
And I don't want you to forget how we did it.
You made history every single day during this campaign -- every day you knocked on doors, made a donation, or talked to your family, friends, and neighbors about why you believe it's time for change.
I want to thank all of you who gave your time, talent, and passion to this campaign.
We have a lot of work to do to get our country back on track, and I'll be in touch soon about what comes next.
But I want to be very clear about one thing...
All of this happened because of you.
Thank you,
Barack
I just did what I could Brother Barack. (I should point out there was STILL a DONATE BUTTON at the end of his thank you letter!)
I don't know about you but Grant Park was probably the most moving speech since King's I Have A Dream (still hate mentioning him and Rev King - tempting fate.) But what an astonishing bit of oratory - and his 'Imperfect Union' speech in March was just as good. When you see the cringe making efforts of the incumbent every night on Letterman's 'Great Moments In Presidential Speeches' It makes you shiver. If we couldn't have GORE in 2000 - it should have been McCain... He wouldn't have diverted resources from finding Bin Laden and taken over Iraq. But he was sandbagged by Karl Rove smear campaign and we got W (for Who?) instead.
Obama truly is a 'game changer' - his appearance on The Daily Show the other day when John Stewart asked isn't he worried that being half white he might not vote for himself - Obama's effortless laughter was amazing.
The truth is the Republicans have clever/cynically played the attack games of class and culture and race warfare for 28 years. And as Friedmanomics is now so disgraced and it's debased children Thatcherism and Right Wing Religious nut jobs and Bush's Doctrine of Pre-emptive Stupidity proven to be the frauds they are I hope his first job of business is to ask the Pentagon about the GET THIS 2 TRILLION BUCKS THEY CAN'T ACCOUNT FOR! I kid you not.
Eisenhower warned us all about the 'growth of influence of the military-industrial complex but it was too late...
Quite an astonishing day... Mandela walking free from jail's the only thing that comes close to comparison.
Monday, November 3, 2008
Thursday, October 23, 2008
The Politics Essay I Got 'D' For Last Year - How Do You Get A Recount?
I mentioned in a previous blog about getting a 'D' in a politics essay last November, that's kind of made me gun-shy of academic essays since. Basically I argued against the 'conventional' wisdom and got 'caned' for it. Well I got a D. I look forward to your opinions - if there's anyone still interested.
_____________________________________________________________________
POL 2 AAW – QUESTION 4.
Do you agree that the alliance with the United States is an indispensable element of Australia’s foreign policy?
INTRODUCTION : Ever since Curtin’s decision to overrule Churchill in 1942, diverting troops home to defend Australia and to turn our gaze eastward instead of our 150 year gaze to England, the alliance with the United States has been Holy Writ. With only New Guinea standing between Australia and the Japanese Army and Churchill’s high handed attitude to use of Australian troops, Curtin had no choice. History shows that when we made the call, the U.S. answered - in the form of General Douglas MacArthur and American troops. One can only ponder what the reply would have been if MacArthur’s “valiant delaying action in the Philippines” had been more successful. We’ll never know.
Australia, like much of the world, has always had an ambivalent attitude to America. For example whilst we admire many of their democratic principles and institutions, we abhor the money spent on American electoral politics . Most of us love their movies and music – Nashville, Motown, and Hollywood’s ‘dream machines’ have for a century been the most potent exercise of ‘soft power’ the world has seen. On the other hand my grandfather and his RSL mates believed that the Yanks got into the two world wars after the hard work was done and after they’d made a packet supplying arms, the long held suspicions of Americans slick predatory ways: ‘never get between a Yank and a pile of money’ - “overpaid oversexed and over here”. Of course back then they were infinitely preferable to the Japanese. Many survivors of Changi considered their behaviour less than human – many Nanking survivors and ‘comfort women’ would probably agree. (If something was very bad Grandad would say – You wouldn’t give that to a Jap on Anzac Day. Tinny shoddy merchandise was universally disparaged as Jap Crap until the mid 70s.)
And our dichotomous attitudes to America continue according to the just released Sydney University’s U.S. Studies Centre survey of Australian views of our security relationship with the US (and other foreign policy issues). Of the 1,200 people polled, more than three-quarters viewed the security alliance as important, and believe the US will defend Australia if threatened. However, nearly half wanted more independence within the alliance, nearly double the numbers expressing the view back in 1975. Consistent with previous polls, nearly two-thirds of respondents oppose Australian and US military involvement in Iraq, and half oppose the commitment in Afghanistan. The view of President Bush himself is largely unfavourable, and there's been a dramatic fall in confidence in America's ability to deal responsibly with world problems. Only 37% expressed 'a great deal' or 'a fair amount' of confidence compared with 66% in 2001. Asked which was the bigger world problem, around three-quarters of respondents saw climate change as a threat at least equally great as Islamic fundamentalism. China almost rates at the same level as the US (59%), and Japan trumps both of them. 75% of Australians are well disposed, or have a favourable view, of Japan, a very significant turnaround in Australian attitudes to the region. (Interesting signs of the gradual ‘Asianization of Australia’ – two recent ads featuring Asian interracial couples –a gay couple for Delfin, an Asian male/ caucasian female in a new ANZ Home Loan ad.)
I do not believe our alliance with the US is indispensable –like the previous 150 year old alliance with the British Empire, our 50 year old asymmetrical alliance with the American Empire is illusory at best and past its usefulness as we continue to concentrate our gaze north to the ‘Eastern Hemisphere’. However, I’m not naïve enough to believe we will ever cut strategic ties with the U.S.
And don’t get me wrong – I’m not a knee jerk anti-American. I happily lived in America as an exchange student (1975-6). . American civilization has given the world innumerable wonderful people of genius –Benjamin and Aretha Franklin, Thomases Jefferson and Edison, Abrahams Lincoln and Simpson, the brothers Gershwin and Marx, two Ray Charles Robinsons, Teddy, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt to name but a few. Back in the US in 75-76, the humiliations of Vietnam and Watergate were still fresh – in retrospect it was probably the best time to have been there: deep down they still believed they were the greatest people on earth but they didn’t bellow or gloat about it.. A return in the early 80s saw the growth of Moral Majority influence and ‘Reaganomics’ bellicose triumphalism . Returning 20 years later post Sep 11, 2001 I was staggered at how oversized and vulgar everything was – endless miles of strip malls, billboards and restaurant chains: so many morbidly obese people, living on mountains of junk food and watching junk TV (On Oct 1, CNN gave Britney Spears’ child custody case three times more airtime than the Iraq War) . The ‘Land Of The Free’ now organizes secret rendition for torture sessions , The ‘Home Of The Brave’ passes such draconian authoritarian laws as The PATRIOT Act without debate .
Are They Ancient Rome?
David Walker, US Comptroller General of the non-partisan Government Accounting Office recently made the comparison in an interview with the Financial Times. Drawing parallels with the end of the Roman empire, Mr Walker warned there were “striking similarities” between America’s current situation and the factors that brought down Rome, including “declining moral values and political civility at home, an over-confident and over-extended military in foreign lands and fiscal irresponsibility by the central government”.
“Sound familiar?” Mr Walker said. “In my view, it’s time to learn from history and take steps to ensure the American Republic is the first to stand the test of time.”
In his book and website, Are We Rome? Cullen Murphy also reflects on the many similarities – beyond the obvious like the American Legion and the eagle regalia to things like privatizing former government responsibilities, privatizing/contracting the Army (Blackwater) , gaols etc
Or Fascist Rome?
When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross” – Sinclair Lewis .
Left wing writer Naomi Wolf’s recently released book ‘The End Of America’ discusses the many similarities between the Bush administration and historically fascist governments... According to Wolf there are 10 common steps for fascist/totalitarian regimes…The use of a terrifying external threat to justify repression (the unending global war on terror), establishment of secret prisons and military tribunals operating outside the law (Guantanamo, renditions, the Military Commission Act ), ability to arbitrarily declare anyone an enemy of the state and imprison them for years without trial (Juan Padillo), paramilitary force (Blackwater, United Resources Group) surveillance of citizenry (16 different spy agencies with levels of technical sophistication beyond Orwell’s worst nightmare ), infiltration of citizens groups with government agents, targeting key individuals (Joe Wilson /Valerie Plame), restriction of dissent by equating it with treason (villifaction of The Dixie Chicks , any FOX news broadcast) , co-opting/repressing the mainstream media (embedding journalists with troops, gaoling of journalists who refuse to reveal sources), subversion of federal and international law by the Executive branch.(PATRIOT Act, non recognition of International Criminal Court, repudiation of the Geneva Conventions)
What have the bloody Romans ever done for us?
It would be hard to argue that the British Empire didn’t provide some benefits to its far flung penal colony for 150 years. Rule of law, property rights (for free white men), mostly able administrators (for free white men) and when duty called Australian sons always answered Mother England - South Africa and the two world wars and the 12 year Malayan Emergency. But as great a maritime military empire as Britain was in the 18-19th centuries, what could it have realistically done if Australia had been attacked?. If a ‘Yellow Peril’ had indeed ever descended upon Australia in the numbers always bruited - the chance of England ever coming to our rescue were realistically zero. It would have taken months for them to react with any appropriate force to ‘liberate’ the colonies.
And like the British Empire before it, what could our US ally do tomorrow if Indonesia or China (regularly considered our most likely threats) launched an invasion of Australia? America is currently bogged down in Iraq and Afghanistan, and is unable to reliably meet recruitment targets . In a conventional war Indonesia or China could lose a million soldiers and call up 2 million more. In a nuclear exchange no-one would win.
As former PM Malcolm Fraser said at the 2000 Asialink Sir Edward Dunlop lecture ‘When there have been concerns in our region, the United States has made it plain they didn’t really want to be involved, and that includes East Timor. But going back over the years, whether in relation to West Irian, whether in relation to attitudes to Indonesia itself, or to the spread of Communism in Malaya or to confrontation between Malaysia and Indonesia, the United States adopted a studied policy of distance and of relative disinterest. ANZUS was a deterrent to Communist attack but that is not on the cards.’
The recent Sydney University USSC study also found our dissonant attitudes to America as a trade partner. The vast majority of respondents (88%) expected the US to remain a 'very close' or 'fairly close' economic partner and few (15%) were against US investment in Australia. On the other hand, more than two-thirds (69%) were 'very worried' or 'somewhat worried' about US trade subsidies, and almost as many (63%) said the US was likely to do better than Australia out of the Free Trade Agreement.
“There is no instance of a nation benefiting from prolonged warfare” – Sun Tzu
Our ally is on a permanent war footing . Given Jimmy Carter’s interview on PBS’s Newshour with Jim Lehr on Friday, pointing out that America’s presidents had authorized use of force over 100 times since he left office in 1980 one could argue the announcement was redundant. Our alliance with America has now led us into two of the worst foreign policy disasters of the last 50 years (not counting the possibility of bombing Iran) - Vietnam and Iraq,. In the case of Vietnam at least the Sth Vietnamese government invited military advisers in. No such courtesy applied in Iraq’s case. Close to 3 million people (mostly Vietnamese) died – innumerable other Vietnamese have suffered from Agent Orange expose without US compensation. Roughly another 3 million became refugees . It’s impossible to know accurately how many Iraqis have died in the 4+ years of the American invasion as the US is apparently only concerned about its own death toll though the estimates range from 60,000 to The Lancet’s 600,000+ . (Thanks to recent testimony before Congress from Blackwater CEO Erik Prince we now know that an Iraqi’s life is worth $15,000. More than that would only encourage them to get themselves killed for money.. The US could have paid the 25 million Iraqis $15,000 each up front to depose Saddam Hussein in 2003 and saved over 400 billion and counting). Instead up to 3.7 million Iraqis are estimated to be refugees – approx 14% of the population according to the UN. The repercussions will be felt throughout the region for decades - given the use of depleted uranium ammunition who knows what other long term damage a la Agent Orange will be uncovered.
IT’S THE ECOLOGY STUPID!
Despite ‘globalization’ being the buzzword of the last 20 years, globalization was a fact from Marco Polo, Sir Walter Raleigh, Columbus, the conquistadors to the Opium Wars. Centuries of exploration led and fed the unbridled development of resources creating the Western World’s astonishing wealth. Trade and Foreign Affairs and Defence issues have always been interwoven for maximum advantage – but if the planet is to survive the days of unbridled Western development are over.
The most important issue of the next 10 years is how our Eastern Hemisphere – China, Japan, Indonesia, Vietnam can develop without doing the enormous damage that the Western Hemisphere has already done : with clean energy before we reach global warming’s tipping point – if we haven’t already . (Thousands of walruses have appeared on Alaska's north-west coast in what conservationists are calling a dramatic consequence of global warming, melting the Arctic sea ice. The lowest summer ice cap on record put sea ice far north of the outer continental shelf, the shallow, life-rich shelf of ocean bottom in the Bering and Chukchi seas in which they normally feed.)
Carbon sequestration and other ‘clean coal’ technology is John Howard’s dream: a far off one given the World Coal Council admits that only 9 coal power plants with carbon capture and storage plants will be online by 2020 . Our industrial policy should be dedicated to creating the most cost effective clean car technology – and selling half a billion of them to China, Indonesia, India etc.
Capitalism’s ‘perfect storm’?
Despite the hubris of the neoconservatives at Project For A New American Century , the 21st century will not be another American one. Whilst English remains the lingua franca for the foreseeable future, the fastest growing language classes in the world are for Mandarin. Marx’s theory of capitalist ‘self-destruction’ could come to past at the hands of a new kind of economy : a command-supply & demand economy with an endless supply of cheap labour, and the biggest market on earth, allowing for previously undreamt of economies of scale. The formerly devastated Europe has arisen, initially with help through the Marshall Plan, united and economically powerful. Only 18 years after the West danced on the grave of Communism at the Berlin Wall, Russia (no Marshall Plan there) is now strong again thanks to enormous petroleum and gas revenues . As America loses blood and potentially trillions in treasure, killing countless others in Iraq, China is building up huge trade surpluses. As America comes to terms with the speculative greed of their $US 1.3 trillion sub prime nightmare China has the world lining up to invest with them or requesting aid.
Conclusion
Just as Rome wasn’t built in a day – it wasn’t destroyed in a sudden cataclysm either. It took centuries to rot – Cullen Murphy posits that it actually melted – the centre couldn’t hold and it was dispersed . For the last 50 years (and especially the last 7) we have been shackled to an American imperium that is much more Roman than British and ‘puts us completely out of step with most of our neighbours and most of the region of strategic and economic interest in Asia’. It is a bloated, corrupt quasi-fascist/authoritarian military-industrial petroleum addict state , voraciously wasteful of its own and the world’s resources, amoral at best (793.2 billion for Iraq so far, as Bush vetoes health insurance for 10 million poor children, along with 40 million adults) . It is a hegemony religiously convinced of its own righteousness and centrality to the world, armed to the teeth, arming half of everyone else and paranoid about the other half.
Of course I might be taking a very short sighted and unnecessarily pessimistic view. Perhaps Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore will be drafted by Democrats and win the presidency (with Hillary as VP? Probably not – maybe Obama) and, despite the immense power of the Oil lobby, he will actually do something to stop America’s destructive addiction. Perhaps real verifiable global warming targets will be set at Bali in December. Perhaps the six permanent members of the UN Security Council, coincidentally the world’s six biggest producers of armaments, will ban all future weapons sales to bankrupt nations and mankind will all join hands as one.
I guess anything is possible.
_____________________________________________________________________
POL 2 AAW – QUESTION 4.
Do you agree that the alliance with the United States is an indispensable element of Australia’s foreign policy?
INTRODUCTION : Ever since Curtin’s decision to overrule Churchill in 1942, diverting troops home to defend Australia and to turn our gaze eastward instead of our 150 year gaze to England, the alliance with the United States has been Holy Writ. With only New Guinea standing between Australia and the Japanese Army and Churchill’s high handed attitude to use of Australian troops, Curtin had no choice. History shows that when we made the call, the U.S. answered - in the form of General Douglas MacArthur and American troops. One can only ponder what the reply would have been if MacArthur’s “valiant delaying action in the Philippines” had been more successful. We’ll never know.
Australia, like much of the world, has always had an ambivalent attitude to America. For example whilst we admire many of their democratic principles and institutions, we abhor the money spent on American electoral politics . Most of us love their movies and music – Nashville, Motown, and Hollywood’s ‘dream machines’ have for a century been the most potent exercise of ‘soft power’ the world has seen. On the other hand my grandfather and his RSL mates believed that the Yanks got into the two world wars after the hard work was done and after they’d made a packet supplying arms, the long held suspicions of Americans slick predatory ways: ‘never get between a Yank and a pile of money’ - “overpaid oversexed and over here”. Of course back then they were infinitely preferable to the Japanese. Many survivors of Changi considered their behaviour less than human – many Nanking survivors and ‘comfort women’ would probably agree. (If something was very bad Grandad would say – You wouldn’t give that to a Jap on Anzac Day. Tinny shoddy merchandise was universally disparaged as Jap Crap until the mid 70s.)
And our dichotomous attitudes to America continue according to the just released Sydney University’s U.S. Studies Centre survey of Australian views of our security relationship with the US (and other foreign policy issues). Of the 1,200 people polled, more than three-quarters viewed the security alliance as important, and believe the US will defend Australia if threatened. However, nearly half wanted more independence within the alliance, nearly double the numbers expressing the view back in 1975. Consistent with previous polls, nearly two-thirds of respondents oppose Australian and US military involvement in Iraq, and half oppose the commitment in Afghanistan. The view of President Bush himself is largely unfavourable, and there's been a dramatic fall in confidence in America's ability to deal responsibly with world problems. Only 37% expressed 'a great deal' or 'a fair amount' of confidence compared with 66% in 2001. Asked which was the bigger world problem, around three-quarters of respondents saw climate change as a threat at least equally great as Islamic fundamentalism. China almost rates at the same level as the US (59%), and Japan trumps both of them. 75% of Australians are well disposed, or have a favourable view, of Japan, a very significant turnaround in Australian attitudes to the region. (Interesting signs of the gradual ‘Asianization of Australia’ – two recent ads featuring Asian interracial couples –a gay couple for Delfin, an Asian male/ caucasian female in a new ANZ Home Loan ad.)
I do not believe our alliance with the US is indispensable –like the previous 150 year old alliance with the British Empire, our 50 year old asymmetrical alliance with the American Empire is illusory at best and past its usefulness as we continue to concentrate our gaze north to the ‘Eastern Hemisphere’. However, I’m not naïve enough to believe we will ever cut strategic ties with the U.S.
And don’t get me wrong – I’m not a knee jerk anti-American. I happily lived in America as an exchange student (1975-6). . American civilization has given the world innumerable wonderful people of genius –Benjamin and Aretha Franklin, Thomases Jefferson and Edison, Abrahams Lincoln and Simpson, the brothers Gershwin and Marx, two Ray Charles Robinsons, Teddy, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt to name but a few. Back in the US in 75-76, the humiliations of Vietnam and Watergate were still fresh – in retrospect it was probably the best time to have been there: deep down they still believed they were the greatest people on earth but they didn’t bellow or gloat about it.. A return in the early 80s saw the growth of Moral Majority influence and ‘Reaganomics’ bellicose triumphalism . Returning 20 years later post Sep 11, 2001 I was staggered at how oversized and vulgar everything was – endless miles of strip malls, billboards and restaurant chains: so many morbidly obese people, living on mountains of junk food and watching junk TV (On Oct 1, CNN gave Britney Spears’ child custody case three times more airtime than the Iraq War) . The ‘Land Of The Free’ now organizes secret rendition for torture sessions , The ‘Home Of The Brave’ passes such draconian authoritarian laws as The PATRIOT Act without debate .
Are They Ancient Rome?
David Walker, US Comptroller General of the non-partisan Government Accounting Office recently made the comparison in an interview with the Financial Times. Drawing parallels with the end of the Roman empire, Mr Walker warned there were “striking similarities” between America’s current situation and the factors that brought down Rome, including “declining moral values and political civility at home, an over-confident and over-extended military in foreign lands and fiscal irresponsibility by the central government”.
“Sound familiar?” Mr Walker said. “In my view, it’s time to learn from history and take steps to ensure the American Republic is the first to stand the test of time.”
In his book and website, Are We Rome? Cullen Murphy also reflects on the many similarities – beyond the obvious like the American Legion and the eagle regalia to things like privatizing former government responsibilities, privatizing/contracting the Army (Blackwater) , gaols etc
Or Fascist Rome?
When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross” – Sinclair Lewis .
Left wing writer Naomi Wolf’s recently released book ‘The End Of America’ discusses the many similarities between the Bush administration and historically fascist governments... According to Wolf there are 10 common steps for fascist/totalitarian regimes…The use of a terrifying external threat to justify repression (the unending global war on terror), establishment of secret prisons and military tribunals operating outside the law (Guantanamo, renditions, the Military Commission Act ), ability to arbitrarily declare anyone an enemy of the state and imprison them for years without trial (Juan Padillo), paramilitary force (Blackwater, United Resources Group) surveillance of citizenry (16 different spy agencies with levels of technical sophistication beyond Orwell’s worst nightmare ), infiltration of citizens groups with government agents, targeting key individuals (Joe Wilson /Valerie Plame), restriction of dissent by equating it with treason (villifaction of The Dixie Chicks , any FOX news broadcast) , co-opting/repressing the mainstream media (embedding journalists with troops, gaoling of journalists who refuse to reveal sources), subversion of federal and international law by the Executive branch.(PATRIOT Act, non recognition of International Criminal Court, repudiation of the Geneva Conventions)
What have the bloody Romans ever done for us?
It would be hard to argue that the British Empire didn’t provide some benefits to its far flung penal colony for 150 years. Rule of law, property rights (for free white men), mostly able administrators (for free white men) and when duty called Australian sons always answered Mother England - South Africa and the two world wars and the 12 year Malayan Emergency. But as great a maritime military empire as Britain was in the 18-19th centuries, what could it have realistically done if Australia had been attacked?. If a ‘Yellow Peril’ had indeed ever descended upon Australia in the numbers always bruited - the chance of England ever coming to our rescue were realistically zero. It would have taken months for them to react with any appropriate force to ‘liberate’ the colonies.
And like the British Empire before it, what could our US ally do tomorrow if Indonesia or China (regularly considered our most likely threats) launched an invasion of Australia? America is currently bogged down in Iraq and Afghanistan, and is unable to reliably meet recruitment targets . In a conventional war Indonesia or China could lose a million soldiers and call up 2 million more. In a nuclear exchange no-one would win.
As former PM Malcolm Fraser said at the 2000 Asialink Sir Edward Dunlop lecture ‘When there have been concerns in our region, the United States has made it plain they didn’t really want to be involved, and that includes East Timor. But going back over the years, whether in relation to West Irian, whether in relation to attitudes to Indonesia itself, or to the spread of Communism in Malaya or to confrontation between Malaysia and Indonesia, the United States adopted a studied policy of distance and of relative disinterest. ANZUS was a deterrent to Communist attack but that is not on the cards.’
The recent Sydney University USSC study also found our dissonant attitudes to America as a trade partner. The vast majority of respondents (88%) expected the US to remain a 'very close' or 'fairly close' economic partner and few (15%) were against US investment in Australia. On the other hand, more than two-thirds (69%) were 'very worried' or 'somewhat worried' about US trade subsidies, and almost as many (63%) said the US was likely to do better than Australia out of the Free Trade Agreement.
“There is no instance of a nation benefiting from prolonged warfare” – Sun Tzu
Our ally is on a permanent war footing . Given Jimmy Carter’s interview on PBS’s Newshour with Jim Lehr on Friday, pointing out that America’s presidents had authorized use of force over 100 times since he left office in 1980 one could argue the announcement was redundant. Our alliance with America has now led us into two of the worst foreign policy disasters of the last 50 years (not counting the possibility of bombing Iran) - Vietnam and Iraq,. In the case of Vietnam at least the Sth Vietnamese government invited military advisers in. No such courtesy applied in Iraq’s case. Close to 3 million people (mostly Vietnamese) died – innumerable other Vietnamese have suffered from Agent Orange expose without US compensation. Roughly another 3 million became refugees . It’s impossible to know accurately how many Iraqis have died in the 4+ years of the American invasion as the US is apparently only concerned about its own death toll though the estimates range from 60,000 to The Lancet’s 600,000+ . (Thanks to recent testimony before Congress from Blackwater CEO Erik Prince we now know that an Iraqi’s life is worth $15,000. More than that would only encourage them to get themselves killed for money.. The US could have paid the 25 million Iraqis $15,000 each up front to depose Saddam Hussein in 2003 and saved over 400 billion and counting). Instead up to 3.7 million Iraqis are estimated to be refugees – approx 14% of the population according to the UN. The repercussions will be felt throughout the region for decades - given the use of depleted uranium ammunition who knows what other long term damage a la Agent Orange will be uncovered.
IT’S THE ECOLOGY STUPID!
Despite ‘globalization’ being the buzzword of the last 20 years, globalization was a fact from Marco Polo, Sir Walter Raleigh, Columbus, the conquistadors to the Opium Wars. Centuries of exploration led and fed the unbridled development of resources creating the Western World’s astonishing wealth. Trade and Foreign Affairs and Defence issues have always been interwoven for maximum advantage – but if the planet is to survive the days of unbridled Western development are over.
The most important issue of the next 10 years is how our Eastern Hemisphere – China, Japan, Indonesia, Vietnam can develop without doing the enormous damage that the Western Hemisphere has already done : with clean energy before we reach global warming’s tipping point – if we haven’t already . (Thousands of walruses have appeared on Alaska's north-west coast in what conservationists are calling a dramatic consequence of global warming, melting the Arctic sea ice. The lowest summer ice cap on record put sea ice far north of the outer continental shelf, the shallow, life-rich shelf of ocean bottom in the Bering and Chukchi seas in which they normally feed.)
Carbon sequestration and other ‘clean coal’ technology is John Howard’s dream: a far off one given the World Coal Council admits that only 9 coal power plants with carbon capture and storage plants will be online by 2020 . Our industrial policy should be dedicated to creating the most cost effective clean car technology – and selling half a billion of them to China, Indonesia, India etc.
Capitalism’s ‘perfect storm’?
Despite the hubris of the neoconservatives at Project For A New American Century , the 21st century will not be another American one. Whilst English remains the lingua franca for the foreseeable future, the fastest growing language classes in the world are for Mandarin. Marx’s theory of capitalist ‘self-destruction’ could come to past at the hands of a new kind of economy : a command-supply & demand economy with an endless supply of cheap labour, and the biggest market on earth, allowing for previously undreamt of economies of scale. The formerly devastated Europe has arisen, initially with help through the Marshall Plan, united and economically powerful. Only 18 years after the West danced on the grave of Communism at the Berlin Wall, Russia (no Marshall Plan there) is now strong again thanks to enormous petroleum and gas revenues . As America loses blood and potentially trillions in treasure, killing countless others in Iraq, China is building up huge trade surpluses. As America comes to terms with the speculative greed of their $US 1.3 trillion sub prime nightmare China has the world lining up to invest with them or requesting aid.
Conclusion
Just as Rome wasn’t built in a day – it wasn’t destroyed in a sudden cataclysm either. It took centuries to rot – Cullen Murphy posits that it actually melted – the centre couldn’t hold and it was dispersed . For the last 50 years (and especially the last 7) we have been shackled to an American imperium that is much more Roman than British and ‘puts us completely out of step with most of our neighbours and most of the region of strategic and economic interest in Asia’. It is a bloated, corrupt quasi-fascist/authoritarian military-industrial petroleum addict state , voraciously wasteful of its own and the world’s resources, amoral at best (793.2 billion for Iraq so far, as Bush vetoes health insurance for 10 million poor children, along with 40 million adults) . It is a hegemony religiously convinced of its own righteousness and centrality to the world, armed to the teeth, arming half of everyone else and paranoid about the other half.
Of course I might be taking a very short sighted and unnecessarily pessimistic view. Perhaps Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore will be drafted by Democrats and win the presidency (with Hillary as VP? Probably not – maybe Obama) and, despite the immense power of the Oil lobby, he will actually do something to stop America’s destructive addiction. Perhaps real verifiable global warming targets will be set at Bali in December. Perhaps the six permanent members of the UN Security Council, coincidentally the world’s six biggest producers of armaments, will ban all future weapons sales to bankrupt nations and mankind will all join hands as one.
I guess anything is possible.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
If Obama becomes President Will He Stop Cyber Stalking Me?
It all started innocently enough... but like someone said the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Early in the Democratic primaries I emailed Senator Obama's website to point out that Senat0r Hillary Clinton's claim that Obama was 'too young and inexperienced' made no sense given that he would be the same age as Slick Willie was when he got into the White House. Oh sure Clinton had been a two term governor of Arkansas - but trust me, I've been to Arkansas: it's literally where 'Deliverance' and 'The Beverley Hillbillies' originated - before they loaded up the truck and they moved to Beverly... Hills, that is! I think Arkansas ranked 49th in terms of education spending and its biggest industry is/was chickens (I'm not making this up). Arkansas makes Missouri look like an orgy of effete sophisticates. (Missouri makes hillbilly jokes about Arkansas). It's hard to imagine a less likely place to originate a president - until Sarah Palin slimed onto the world stage. (Incidentally you've GOT to read Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi's riff on Sarah Palin - 'Mad Dog Palin'. What a classic piece of righteous political rant. P.J. O'Rourke would be green with envy. Dr Hunter S. Thompson would've bought the man a drink or a hit of ether or both).
And because I didn't want to tempt fate I didn't mention it to Obama, but all these media comparisons with Kennedy have always been extremely dicey if you ask me - and not just because of the whole assassination thing (though it's hardly a small thing). Read Seymour Hersh's awesome book on JFK - The Dark Side of Camelot and you come away with the realisation that Kennedy was a handsome, charismatic disgrace: not because he had the sexual proclivities of an alley cat on crystal meth - but because he had the chance to get America out of the Vietnam War in early 63 but turned the North Vietnamese down till he'd won a second term (JFK couldn't look 'soft' with the Commies) and that disastrous lack of intestinal fortitude cost 50,000 American lives and who knows how many Vietnamese!
And it was here that you can pinpoint the 'end of the American dream'. 3 years earlier Eisenhower as he was leaving office got on television and warned the Americans (and the world) about the threat from the influence of 'the military - industrial complex.' The sums of money that have been lost in the various financial 'catastrophes' over the last 50+ years are nothing compared to what's been pissed away by the Pentagon. What a country America could have been, should have been with all that wasted treasure. And what a world we would have had without their paranoia!
Anyway back to the Hillary's mendacity ... By the way, I don't dislike Hillary cos she's a woman - I dislike her cos she's yet another overpriced liar in an overpriced suit (pant suit in her case). The fib about her being named after Edmund Hillary was fab enough but claiming to be instrumental in the Irish peace agreement! Puh - leese! Then the real topper of 'flying into sniper fire in Bosnia!' Sweet Jeebus! ]
Anyhow since then Obama's emailed me constantly asking for money! I kept replying explaining that I was a poor student: monetarily and literally . Even $5 was going to help according to their cyber panhandlers! (What's an Aussie version? Cyberbotters? Cyber suckups?) I told them I was Australian and I think it's against their law to accept foreign money (and knowing what hardball playing pricks the Repugnicans are my little $5 could likely see his campaign stuck in the Supreme Court while Bush declared martial law).
Soon Michelle Obama was also on my case about handing over some dosh, then his campaign manager - somebody called David Plouffe (Could you invent a woosier name?) kept updating me ad infinitum, ad nauseum and asking for more moolah. Then Joe Biden started spamming me! I do wish Obama and Biden all the best - I really do : but my good wishes and a little email advice is all I've got for them . And it's not like they are strapped for cash! They raised $200 million last month! They could do a 'Scrooge McDuck' swimming in an Olympic pools of greenbacks. Sure the greenback ain't what it used to be but come on! These guys would make televangelists embarrassed!*
(I do have a terrible feeling at the back of my mind that despite all the polling saying otherwise we'll wake up on Nov 6 with raging hangovers from the Melbourne Cup and see McCain grinning maniacally holding up the front page of a paper that says 'OBAMA WINS!' like Democrat Harry S Truman did exactly 60 years ago with Chicago Tribune proclaiming his opponent Thomas E Dewey had beaten 'Give 'Em Hell' Harry. I also highly recommend Rollings Stone's piece on John McCain... The biggest difference between W and John McCain? Bush was a much better pilot!)
God Speed the US election - hopefully THEN these cyber beggars will leave me the hell alone!
*Yes I'm not a complete technotard... I realise there's such a thing as an unsubscribe thingamejig but then I couldn't indulge my Blog given right to bitch about something.
Early in the Democratic primaries I emailed Senator Obama's website to point out that Senat0r Hillary Clinton's claim that Obama was 'too young and inexperienced' made no sense given that he would be the same age as Slick Willie was when he got into the White House. Oh sure Clinton had been a two term governor of Arkansas - but trust me, I've been to Arkansas: it's literally where 'Deliverance' and 'The Beverley Hillbillies' originated - before they loaded up the truck and they moved to Beverly... Hills, that is! I think Arkansas ranked 49th in terms of education spending and its biggest industry is/was chickens (I'm not making this up). Arkansas makes Missouri look like an orgy of effete sophisticates. (Missouri makes hillbilly jokes about Arkansas). It's hard to imagine a less likely place to originate a president - until Sarah Palin slimed onto the world stage. (Incidentally you've GOT to read Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi's riff on Sarah Palin - 'Mad Dog Palin'. What a classic piece of righteous political rant. P.J. O'Rourke would be green with envy. Dr Hunter S. Thompson would've bought the man a drink or a hit of ether or both).
And because I didn't want to tempt fate I didn't mention it to Obama, but all these media comparisons with Kennedy have always been extremely dicey if you ask me - and not just because of the whole assassination thing (though it's hardly a small thing). Read Seymour Hersh's awesome book on JFK - The Dark Side of Camelot and you come away with the realisation that Kennedy was a handsome, charismatic disgrace: not because he had the sexual proclivities of an alley cat on crystal meth - but because he had the chance to get America out of the Vietnam War in early 63 but turned the North Vietnamese down till he'd won a second term (JFK couldn't look 'soft' with the Commies) and that disastrous lack of intestinal fortitude cost 50,000 American lives and who knows how many Vietnamese!
And it was here that you can pinpoint the 'end of the American dream'. 3 years earlier Eisenhower as he was leaving office got on television and warned the Americans (and the world) about the threat from the influence of 'the military - industrial complex.' The sums of money that have been lost in the various financial 'catastrophes' over the last 50+ years are nothing compared to what's been pissed away by the Pentagon. What a country America could have been, should have been with all that wasted treasure. And what a world we would have had without their paranoia!
Anyway back to the Hillary's mendacity ... By the way, I don't dislike Hillary cos she's a woman - I dislike her cos she's yet another overpriced liar in an overpriced suit (pant suit in her case). The fib about her being named after Edmund Hillary was fab enough but claiming to be instrumental in the Irish peace agreement! Puh - leese! Then the real topper of 'flying into sniper fire in Bosnia!' Sweet Jeebus! ]
Anyhow since then Obama's emailed me constantly asking for money! I kept replying explaining that I was a poor student: monetarily and literally . Even $5 was going to help according to their cyber panhandlers! (What's an Aussie version? Cyberbotters? Cyber suckups?) I told them I was Australian and I think it's against their law to accept foreign money (and knowing what hardball playing pricks the Repugnicans are my little $5 could likely see his campaign stuck in the Supreme Court while Bush declared martial law).
Soon Michelle Obama was also on my case about handing over some dosh, then his campaign manager - somebody called David Plouffe (Could you invent a woosier name?) kept updating me ad infinitum, ad nauseum and asking for more moolah. Then Joe Biden started spamming me! I do wish Obama and Biden all the best - I really do : but my good wishes and a little email advice is all I've got for them . And it's not like they are strapped for cash! They raised $200 million last month! They could do a 'Scrooge McDuck' swimming in an Olympic pools of greenbacks. Sure the greenback ain't what it used to be but come on! These guys would make televangelists embarrassed!*
(I do have a terrible feeling at the back of my mind that despite all the polling saying otherwise we'll wake up on Nov 6 with raging hangovers from the Melbourne Cup and see McCain grinning maniacally holding up the front page of a paper that says 'OBAMA WINS!' like Democrat Harry S Truman did exactly 60 years ago with Chicago Tribune proclaiming his opponent Thomas E Dewey had beaten 'Give 'Em Hell' Harry. I also highly recommend Rollings Stone's piece on John McCain... The biggest difference between W and John McCain? Bush was a much better pilot!)
God Speed the US election - hopefully THEN these cyber beggars will leave me the hell alone!
*Yes I'm not a complete technotard... I realise there's such a thing as an unsubscribe thingamejig but then I couldn't indulge my Blog given right to bitch about something.
Friday, October 10, 2008
Second Life - or Armageddon outta here!
The girls did a very good presentation on Second Life - the latest and arguably most successful attempt at an 'immersive' virtual 3D world. It's easy to sneer at people getting 'hooked' into this sort of deep fantasy projection but as our 'real world' seems day by day to be disintegrating - our 'free markets' have gone into free fall and if you believe the latest environmental disaster on our doorstep : due to global warming trapped sub sea methane will be released via a gigantic marine 'belch' that will pretty much wipe us all out like the dinosaurs before us, then escape into 'Second Life' doesn't seem so weird or ridiculous... and you also realise how prescient Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World" and George Orwell's "1984" really were.
I actually saw the SBS documentary they sampled in their 'Second Life' presentation and I have to confess I did sneer at the people involved which was quite dishonest of me cos I've had an 'on-line' relationship that became a real relationship. Through an on-line trivia quiz network, I met an American woman which culminated in me visiting her in America for a couple of months and she came to Australia for about a year.
I could reasonably argue that there were vast differences between us and them: for a start we didn't pretend to be extravagantly disproportioned warrior/poet/sex machines. We also didn't sit at a screen 14 hours a day neglecting our spouse and kids. (The husband in that doco: I still can't work out if he was a hero or a doormat. On the one hand he was heroically there for his kids: on the other, why was he allowing his wife's behavior to go on unchallenged.) We talked about the whole issue of fantasy/role play in relationships : we all play roles: some more successfully than others. Thank God we didn't get into 'what liars men are': women also lie in all sorts of ways: make-up is a lie, perfume is a lie, hair dye is a lie. And trust me - until you've divorced one, you've got no idea how dishonest a woman can be. Sorry, I just wandered off into 'bitter and twisted old fart' territory.
We also did some work on essay writing which I dread. It' s not that I can't write - I know I can write. I just don't have much faith in my ability to write an 'academic' essay. Much of it stems from the D I got last year for a Politics essay. I argued against the conventional wisdom of the Australian-American alliance - correctly predicting by a year the beginning of the end of the American Empire. I've had a fear and loathing of 'academic' essays ever since. I don't really understand how we're supposed to read/cite widely yet make our own arguments without plagiarism.
I actually saw the SBS documentary they sampled in their 'Second Life' presentation and I have to confess I did sneer at the people involved which was quite dishonest of me cos I've had an 'on-line' relationship that became a real relationship. Through an on-line trivia quiz network, I met an American woman which culminated in me visiting her in America for a couple of months and she came to Australia for about a year.
I could reasonably argue that there were vast differences between us and them: for a start we didn't pretend to be extravagantly disproportioned warrior/poet/sex machines. We also didn't sit at a screen 14 hours a day neglecting our spouse and kids. (The husband in that doco: I still can't work out if he was a hero or a doormat. On the one hand he was heroically there for his kids: on the other, why was he allowing his wife's behavior to go on unchallenged.) We talked about the whole issue of fantasy/role play in relationships : we all play roles: some more successfully than others. Thank God we didn't get into 'what liars men are': women also lie in all sorts of ways: make-up is a lie, perfume is a lie, hair dye is a lie. And trust me - until you've divorced one, you've got no idea how dishonest a woman can be. Sorry, I just wandered off into 'bitter and twisted old fart' territory.
We also did some work on essay writing which I dread. It' s not that I can't write - I know I can write. I just don't have much faith in my ability to write an 'academic' essay. Much of it stems from the D I got last year for a Politics essay. I argued against the conventional wisdom of the Australian-American alliance - correctly predicting by a year the beginning of the end of the American Empire. I've had a fear and loathing of 'academic' essays ever since. I don't really understand how we're supposed to read/cite widely yet make our own arguments without plagiarism.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Living in Interesting Times - or - Apocalypse Now?
Damn where did the time - and all the money - go?
It only feels like a couple of weeks since I last blogged but the timeline doesn't lie apparently.
Seems like yesterday we were digesting the 16 day Chinese feast of the lucky 08-08-08 Beijing Olympics, reaching for the collective Alka Seltzer... Don't the Chinese have a curse "May you live in interesting times"...
I know schadenfreude is wrong and thanks to globalization we may all be boiling stones for soup soon but I'm sorry there is something delicious about watching Shrub at the wheel of the car crash of the American Empire... Not that he can really be blamed for the economic disaster - he's too dumb to be responsible for this catastrophe ... but his hero Ronald Reagan certainly is: (I actually have a theory that W is the love child of Reagan and Bonzo The Chimp: there's a definite resemblance there: but I digress). Actually it's not even fair to blame just Reagan - who also wasn't the sharpest knife in the draw. It was Maggie Thatcher who first signed on as head cheerleader for Milton Friedman's 'economic rationalism' - "Let The Markets Have Their Way", 'Deregulation is the only way' ad infinitum ad nauseum etc etc. Reagan's dead and Maggie's completely gaga now so we don't even get the satisfaction of rubbing their faces in the faeces we are in now.
And whilst any thinking person can't cheer for totalitarianism of any stripe, the unseemly way the West danced on the grave of the Soviet Union and then left the Russian people to the 'shock treatment' of market forces : i.e gangsters stole everything they could and pimped everything else our triumphalism looks decidedly premature and plain dumb.
Who knows? Perhaps this is just the disaster the planet needs to survive us. Because the disconnect between endless consumerism and concerns about the environment really needed to be put down, hard and fast.
Interesting times indeed.
It only feels like a couple of weeks since I last blogged but the timeline doesn't lie apparently.
Seems like yesterday we were digesting the 16 day Chinese feast of the lucky 08-08-08 Beijing Olympics, reaching for the collective Alka Seltzer... Don't the Chinese have a curse "May you live in interesting times"...
I know schadenfreude is wrong and thanks to globalization we may all be boiling stones for soup soon but I'm sorry there is something delicious about watching Shrub at the wheel of the car crash of the American Empire... Not that he can really be blamed for the economic disaster - he's too dumb to be responsible for this catastrophe ... but his hero Ronald Reagan certainly is: (I actually have a theory that W is the love child of Reagan and Bonzo The Chimp: there's a definite resemblance there: but I digress). Actually it's not even fair to blame just Reagan - who also wasn't the sharpest knife in the draw. It was Maggie Thatcher who first signed on as head cheerleader for Milton Friedman's 'economic rationalism' - "Let The Markets Have Their Way", 'Deregulation is the only way' ad infinitum ad nauseum etc etc. Reagan's dead and Maggie's completely gaga now so we don't even get the satisfaction of rubbing their faces in the faeces we are in now.
And whilst any thinking person can't cheer for totalitarianism of any stripe, the unseemly way the West danced on the grave of the Soviet Union and then left the Russian people to the 'shock treatment' of market forces : i.e gangsters stole everything they could and pimped everything else our triumphalism looks decidedly premature and plain dumb.
Who knows? Perhaps this is just the disaster the planet needs to survive us. Because the disconnect between endless consumerism and concerns about the environment really needed to be put down, hard and fast.
Interesting times indeed.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
the rights and wrongs of copyright & left
'Never worry about someone stealing your idea...
If it's original you're going to have to ram it down the world's throat!'
Howard H. Aiken, IBM Computer Pioneer.
While much of DMC leaves me feeling like a backward 5 year old suddenly asked to do calculus... (especially sitting next to Tech Uberlord Gav) copyright is something that I think I have some understanding of. Or I thought I did - then along comes copyleft.
'There is nothing new under the sun'... [Ecclesiastes 1 v 9]
'If I have seen further it is by standing on ye shoulders of giants' [Sir Isaac Newton] (no pygmy himself)
There are countless examples of creativity being 'inspired' by other creativity. In 'Teach Yourself Screenwriting', Raymond G. Frensham talks about 8 basic stories that all other stories are based on, then updated, given a new twist etc:
Achilles - the fatal flaw
Candide - the innocent abroad
Cinderella - the dream come true
Circe - the chase
Faust - the debt that must be repaid
Orpheus - the gift taken away
Romeo & Juliet - boy meets girl, (it goes pear shaped and they kill themselves)
Tristan & Isolde - the eternal triangle, (one boy or girl too many)
(Interestingly enough when you look up Frensham in imdb.com he doesn't actually have any screenwriting credits)
In music there have been countless examples of shameless rip-offs. The Beach Boys 'Surfin' USA' was so close to Chuck Berry's much older 'Sweet Little Sixteen' that they eventually had to give him a co-writing credit. Even those considered to be true originators like Ray Charles acknowledged predecessors like Louis Jordan, Nat King Cole and Charles Brown (Ray's early years were spent as virtually a Nat King Cole impersonator) And ever since 'sampling' became standard operating procedure, originality seems as rare as rocking horse crap.
So is there really anything new under the sun and why should people 'own' ideas?
I've tended to side with the 'creatives' in the past... It is hard, lonely work to stare at an empty page and find something new to say. (Saying this I also acknowledge that bands generally waste have ridiculous amounts of time and money on producing music - getting an advance from a record company used to be considered a license for partying with the label's money. And it is also true that record and film companies own the best accountants this side of the Mafia ).
I have often wondered how relaxed the 'Napster generation' of 'rip it/burn it/we're just stealing from the obscenely wealthy record/film companies who can afford it' would feel about something they've sweated bullets over being taken out of their hands and distributed without them having any control or reward. Then again this just may date me as part of the pre 'gift economy' generation.
If it's original you're going to have to ram it down the world's throat!'
Howard H. Aiken, IBM Computer Pioneer.
While much of DMC leaves me feeling like a backward 5 year old suddenly asked to do calculus... (especially sitting next to Tech Uberlord Gav) copyright is something that I think I have some understanding of. Or I thought I did - then along comes copyleft.
'There is nothing new under the sun'... [Ecclesiastes 1 v 9]
'If I have seen further it is by standing on ye shoulders of giants' [Sir Isaac Newton] (no pygmy himself)
There are countless examples of creativity being 'inspired' by other creativity. In 'Teach Yourself Screenwriting', Raymond G. Frensham talks about 8 basic stories that all other stories are based on, then updated, given a new twist etc:
Achilles - the fatal flaw
Candide - the innocent abroad
Cinderella - the dream come true
Circe - the chase
Faust - the debt that must be repaid
Orpheus - the gift taken away
Romeo & Juliet - boy meets girl, (it goes pear shaped and they kill themselves)
Tristan & Isolde - the eternal triangle, (one boy or girl too many)
(Interestingly enough when you look up Frensham in imdb.com he doesn't actually have any screenwriting credits)
In music there have been countless examples of shameless rip-offs. The Beach Boys 'Surfin' USA' was so close to Chuck Berry's much older 'Sweet Little Sixteen' that they eventually had to give him a co-writing credit. Even those considered to be true originators like Ray Charles acknowledged predecessors like Louis Jordan, Nat King Cole and Charles Brown (Ray's early years were spent as virtually a Nat King Cole impersonator) And ever since 'sampling' became standard operating procedure, originality seems as rare as rocking horse crap.
So is there really anything new under the sun and why should people 'own' ideas?
I've tended to side with the 'creatives' in the past... It is hard, lonely work to stare at an empty page and find something new to say. (Saying this I also acknowledge that bands generally waste have ridiculous amounts of time and money on producing music - getting an advance from a record company used to be considered a license for partying with the label's money. And it is also true that record and film companies own the best accountants this side of the Mafia ).
I have often wondered how relaxed the 'Napster generation' of 'rip it/burn it/we're just stealing from the obscenely wealthy record/film companies who can afford it' would feel about something they've sweated bullets over being taken out of their hands and distributed without them having any control or reward. Then again this just may date me as part of the pre 'gift economy' generation.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Me, Myself, I - Why ?
After today's DMC session I looked back on my first blog and was pretty dissatisfied - the luddite grumblings of a disappointed old fart. It's all been said before and said better. But I do find it a bit of a worry that these 'social networks' are keeping us 'in touch with each other' yet we're becoming more and more isolated, stressed. A fascinating statistic... in the 1970s the average Australian house was about 14sqs and housed 4 to 5 people (min). 30 years later the average house is well over double that size and usually houses half that number people! And on top of that , much of the inner city factory space has been converted into warehouse living and extra storage space! Exactly how much room and junk do we really need? Sorry - more reminiscence... The playground of the decrepit.
but rather than change the blog I changed the profile photo instead! It's probably hard to make out as a thumbnail - but an awesome shot enlarged from when I was an exchange student, 16 years old at the Grand Canyon...My God what a beautiful place, if you ever want a sense of your own insignificance go to the Grand Canyon... My host brother and I dared each other to climb over a safety fence at a place called quite fittingly THE ABYSS and sit on this tiny outcrop of rock with that awesome background behind us to take a photo. My host Mum would've had a heart attack if she'd known. It was a mile straight down - but how cool's this - you could still hear the Colorado river from a mile away!
We looked over out essay topics today... Was greatly relieved to see the relatively distant deadline... Hopefully I will have caught on and caught up by Nov.
Talking about identity today... How we see ourselves, how we present ourselves - is there an unchanging observer - a true authentic soul, or are we just the sum of many personas? Deep and interesting stuff. Luckily I'd just done a series of 'Introduction to Philosophy' lectures at the Royal Society of Victoria so I wasn't completely head scratchingly dense.
but rather than change the blog I changed the profile photo instead! It's probably hard to make out as a thumbnail - but an awesome shot enlarged from when I was an exchange student, 16 years old at the Grand Canyon...My God what a beautiful place, if you ever want a sense of your own insignificance go to the Grand Canyon... My host brother and I dared each other to climb over a safety fence at a place called quite fittingly THE ABYSS and sit on this tiny outcrop of rock with that awesome background behind us to take a photo. My host Mum would've had a heart attack if she'd known. It was a mile straight down - but how cool's this - you could still hear the Colorado river from a mile away!
We looked over out essay topics today... Was greatly relieved to see the relatively distant deadline... Hopefully I will have caught on and caught up by Nov.
Talking about identity today... How we see ourselves, how we present ourselves - is there an unchanging observer - a true authentic soul, or are we just the sum of many personas? Deep and interesting stuff. Luckily I'd just done a series of 'Introduction to Philosophy' lectures at the Royal Society of Victoria so I wasn't completely head scratchingly dense.
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