mark lawrence

Essendon by 45 points

2008-07-26T17:15:00.001+10:00

My cheer is dampened by post footy grief from my Pies supporter son. He couldn't stand to watch to the bitter end.

Essendon v Collingwood at the 'G

2008-07-26T15:07:00.001+10:00

Live footy blog post. Will the Bombers squander their 20 point lead from the first minutes?

Support the campaign to end mandatory immigration detention in Australia

2008-07-21T15:51:00.002+10:00

GetUp! is saying that the federal government has unexpectedly announced an inquiry into Australia's immigration detention regime, and is calling an people to support their online petition to end mandatory immigration detention.

~~It appears to have been just announced, as I have yet to find~~ I have had great difficulty in finding mention of this on the online MSM (mainstream media).

This is something that so many have been waiting for: after the apology to the Stolen Generations, and the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, I began to wonder if the Rudd government would avoid moving on the remaining festering sore from the key triumvirate of the Howard government's sins.

So I am pleased to have just signed the petition calling for an end to mandatory immigration detention and for a humane immigration system. I have also added some comments in my online petition, which I trust will get sent to Kevin Rudd and Immigration Minister Chris Evans as part of the Get Up 'submission'.

I would urge you to do something similar, and also consider preparing and sending your own individual submission to the inquiry once all the inquiry's wheels are in motion.

Here are my additional comments I added to my support of the petition:

End Mandatory Immigration Detention!

It is important that a just and honourable immigration system recognise the principle that children should never be in detention.

Australia must develop a fair and humane approach to handling asylum seekers' applications for asylum, and in dealing with those in breech of immigration rules. This can and should involve a community-based system for caring for asylum seekers while processing refugee applications and immigration issues.

Australia must abolish temporary protection visas, and give full residential rights and status to those who have found to be refugees. This must include welfare, medical and other residential rights. If it is unsafe for someone to return to their home country, they should be allowed the decency of finding security and attachment here in Australia, and not the constant fear that their temporary visa will be revoked.

It is time that Australia corrects the great wrong in how we treat asylum seekers and close the immigration concentration camps!

Do no harm. The principles upon which Australia processes applications for asylum must be based on securing the safety of the asylum seeker, not on some misshapen foreign or domestic policy emphasis on quarantining Australia from the world or the movement of people fleeing violence, war, terror and harm.

It is time to raise our heads and take our rightful place in the world in looking after those fleeing persecution and harm.
--

You can find the GetUp Campaign petition here:
www.getup.org.au/campaign/EndMandatoryDetention

Other people working on this issue include the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, A Just Australia, and the Human Rights Law Resource Centre.

[Update: I have found an ABC news item from June this year where Immigration Minister Chris Evans announced that "Federal Parliament's Joint Standing Committee on Migration has been asked to investigate the criteria for detention, length of time in detention, and accountability and transparency in immigration detention processes." I am wondering how and why things have been so quiet on this for so long. What did I miss? Unfortunately, the report suggests the ALP are going with a 'business as usual' approach to detention on Christmas Island, but this is no reason to give up on the campaign! Updated Monday 21 July, 4:23 pm]

Thought-quote for the day

2008-07-16T16:53:00.001+10:00

Alex Steffen, in his recent WorldChanging post The Apocalypse Makes Us Dumb writes, "Disasters … are all about bad food and wet feet and sick babies and pointless pain."

There is much to reflect on in this very good post that questions the millennial assumptions of the 'end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it' thinking, particularly that related to global warming.

My other favourite idea/quote is "The Apocalypse will be an adventure." As he says, it won't. Well worth mulling over.

A good post to read in tandem with his post on who the heroes in a climate-changed world would be, which I've responded to in my Twitter updates (see 'Twitter updates' section in the column on the right).

Pain on a push-bike

2008-07-15T17:05:00.003+10:00

I am amazed at the resilience of someone like Cadel Evans. Not only has the amazing strength and endurance to race the Tour de France, but he has the amazing capacity to bounce back from a bad accident and win the yellow jersey in the latest leg of the Tour.

I can remember what a wuss I was the couple of times I had a significant bingle while riding my bike. On one occasion, I was blown sideways by one of Melbourne's infamous massive wind tunnel crosswinds, pushed into parked cars and hence over my handlebars.

Besides some bruises and sore hands, the worst I had was a graze on my chest near my collarbone, which I luckily didn't break. I was shaken, but picked myself up in daze, thankful that there was no car behind me to crash into me. I limped, almost shell-shocked, into work later that morning. But like I said, I was a it of a wuss about it. Though shaken up, I was pretty right to ride home later that evening – very cautiously and slowly. I am not being conceited in comparing my petty little bingle in my little bike-commuting history. I just couldn't imagine doing a grueling mountain bike race in that condition.

But Cadel Evans is a different beast. He suffered bad grazes and bruises in the bad accident he had a couple of days ago, and was quite fearful that he would not be able to finish the race if the injuries were worse that was known at the time. I was quite shocked when I read the news of the accident yesterday morning, as I have been really hoping that Cadel will win this year's race. But, not only did he pick himself up, but he kept on racing, and kept himself in a good position in the race.

All that was reported yesterday morning is that he was racing again, and had received medical attention from the Tour doctor – leaning out of a moving convertible. It turns out the injuries were not 'serious' – whatever his team representatives mean by that – and though still in pain and bruised, he started again the next (yesterday) morning, and ran an excellent race to win the latest leg. He is now leading the race. The ABC has video footage of Cadel getting the yellow jersey online.

Good on you, Cadel. You're amazing, and I wish you all the best for the rest of the race.

Ten things I know now that I didn't ten years ago

2008-07-14T23:10:00.000+10:00

Something or other jogged my memory tonight of a postcard a friend of mine sent me some 15-odd years ago when I was a Uni student.

It was an HIV/AIDS education postcard asking what was the leading cause of the highest rates of HIV/AIDS infections (in the world), with three (that I can remember) multiple choice answers to select from:

a) unprotected homos-xual s-x (sorry, don't want this blog to get blocked by any nanny-net filters)
b) unprotected hetros-xual s-x
c) intravenous drug-users sharing needles

After a little hesitation, I picked 'b', mainly because I thought it was a trick question designed to challenge my inner-homophobe, but also because I was sure I had learned somewhere that rates of HIV/AIDS infections were skyrocketing throughout all population groups in Asia and Africa, and that AIDS couldn't really be called the 'gay disease' anymore as it was known in the 80s. Remember, this 1992 or 1993 and such things were just filtering through into the awareness of Australians.

Of course, the answer 'b' was correct, but little did I realise the extent of the infection rates amongst the wider hetros-xual population (I don't remember the stats from the back of the postcard, but it was high). If I were asked this question today, I wouldn't hesitate with the same answer, as the devastation that AIDS has wrought throughout Africa has become so prevalent and has so entered our consciousness. If anything, I'm sure today's younger generation may think that AIDS is the 'African diseases', rather than the 'gay disease'.

But (and here is the point of this rather long introduction to the main purpose of this post) the key thing is this little memory, in that strange Proustian way, got me reflecting on the things that I know now that I didn't know 10 years ago, and wondering if I could list 10 of them.

If anything, this is as much a reflection of what I was ignorant of – or naive about – 10 years ago, as what I have learned in the intervening years, so bear with me if my naiveté is slipping. Here is what I came up with (and by no means is this exhaustive. I just wanted to see if I could list 10 things that stand out for me):

Ten things I know now that I didn't know 10 years ago

That the woman I was starting to date (10 years ago this month) - rather nonchalantly, but was somewhat smitten with – is the woman I still love and am spending my life with and raising children with.
That the earth's climate is drastically warming because of our greenhouse gas emissions, and this is leading to dangerous climate change and throwing our ecology out of balance.
That I don't want to be an anthropologist specialising in Southeast Asia's emerging working class, or a sociologist researching forms of working class resistance to capitalist control of work in Australia (despite 10 years ago having started a postgraduate research degree in the former and switching to the later).
That having children could be so bloody exhilirating, frustrating, difficult, rewarding and life-changing. Oh, and that your children will yell – loudly and repeatedly – for you from another room the way you did to your parents.
That Pauline Hanson and her brand of racism has become just a blip on the political landscape, and that her xenophobia and racism was so insidiously appropriated and institutionalised by John Howard's (now former) government.
That a geeky, spectacles-wearing, Chinese-speaking, former bureaucrat and diplomat can become Prime Minister of Australia.
That the Greens could become a successful (minor) political party that cares about social justice, rather than remaining a fringe, narrow-interest political lobby group/small, state-based party, and that the Democrats go down the gurgler.
That the internet has become so much more than a bunch of really boring, static web pages whose information is limited, out of date or somewhat suspect, or a collection of email-list discussion groups, or hand-crafted 'Home' pages with 'under construction' animated GIFs.
That I can be a writer and enjoy it, and break down some of my big hang-ups about writing and procrastination – albeit just. (Though I'm not getting paid for writing my own stuff, mind you.)
That water, rather than oil, could be shaping up as the key resource over which so much struggle, death and destruction could emerge – if we don't do something about how our industrialised and industrialising economies are destabilising the earth's climate and undermining our water security.

As I reflect further on this, I realise I can come up with many more than 10, and then I would struggle to pick my top ten (though some are clearly and obviously there). So I'm stopping while the going is good. Perhaps there'll be a part two. For a while, I also toyed with the idea of listing 10 things that I don't know now that I knew 10 years ago, but that started to do my head in so I gave up.

I am curious, what do you know now that you didn't know ten years ago? Drop me a comment, or write your own blog post (if you do the later, drop me a comment, please, to share a link to the post).

Happy birthday Shelley!

2008-07-14T16:00:00.003+10:00

It was my partner Shelley's birthday on Saturday. Happy belated birthday, Shelley!

I took her indoor rock climbing as one of her birthday presents, and we had a great time! It was the first time either of us had done it, and we enjoyed ourselves tremendously, though I admit it was pretty tough going for someone as out of shape as me.

We didn't have heaps of time, but once we covered the safety and skills introductory training, we managed to fit in two climbs each. And I thought I had a fear of heights...

Of course, yours truly took the prohibition on taking photos and video in the indoor rock-climbing 'gym' in the city seriously (unlike many others there) and so there are no photos of the event to share. But that wouldn't have mattered as I had forgotten to charge the batteries for the digital camera, so there aren't even any photos of the lovely afternoon tea we had for her birthday yesterday. But I can assure you that she had a great birthday weekend!

Blogging Resumes as Winter Woes Subside

2008-07-09T13:37:00.004+10:00

Apologies for the sparse blogging lately. I've been laid low by a bad cold and cough for two weeks. In fact, the cold has hit the kids as well, the youngest one the hardest (you don't want to know how bad it is when three people in one household have colds – you could build a wall with the empty boxes of tissues in our house).

I was off work last week, (but couldn't bring myself to face the blog for longer than that) and I'm shredding my fingernails trying to claw myself back to some normality and gettting back into the swing of things at work this week.

Blogging activity is now hopefully back to normal. Whatever that means.

Instances of Hypocrisy - part 356

2008-06-26T17:53:00.000+10:00

An advertising honcho has complained that the viewer created content spoofing TV advertisements, generated via ABC1's program taking apart the advertising industry, The Gruen Transfer, "'demeaned and trivialised' a $12 billion industry".

Well, it's a bit rich coming from the advertising industry, considering how many people feel demeaned and trivialised by advertising. It's nice to see the shoe on the other foot for a change.

Apparently, the show's call for viewers to download segments of audio, video and other raw material and 'mash' them up into new spoof ads has generated over 600 uploaded film clips!

Page 123, sentence 5

2008-06-26T11:00:00.000+10:00

I'm home with my older son who's home sick from school, so I finally have time to do this book meme thing Kirsty of Galaxy tagged me for.

The meme works this way: you pick up a book closest to you (in this case, my bedside as Kirsty has stipulated), turn to page 123, and blog the fifth sentence.

If I had done this meme earlier this week, I would have been blogging Stephen Jay Gould's Dinosaur in a Haystack, but as it is, this is now on top of my pile (because I'm actually reading it): Orhan Pamuk's My Name is Red.

Page 123, sentence 5:

A city's intellect ought to be measured not by its scholars, libraries, miniaturists, calligraphers and schools, but by the number of crimes insidiously committed on its dark streets over thousands of years.

If so, Melbourne's doing pretty well, then.

Oh, and I really am enjoying the book.

Should I tag or not? Or take a leaf out of Ampersand Duck's book (heh heh) and not "do the tag thing" and say, "Follow your dreams".

Hmm. I'm going to tag unique_stephen from Emunctory, Helen of Blogger on the Cast Iron Balcony, Gen from reeling and writhing, Tim from Sterne, and Ariel from Jabberwocky after all because I'm curious about what books they've got near them.

I would like to tag Mike from The Peasants are Revolting, but his wife has just had a baby, so I doubt there's much time for reading in his house at the moment, and the last thing he needs is a meme to do. Congratulations and all the best to you and your family, Mike!

Bingo!

2008-06-20T12:21:00.001+10:00

As part of her practice of the fine arts of procrastination (and very productive and useful procrastination, I might say), Kirsty at Galaxy has linked to this great collection of corporate jargon and cant on the BBC website – 'Fifty office-speak phrases you love to hate'. I love it.

My favourite ones to hate are real viruses in Australia – 'going forward' (number 20) and 'at the end of the day' (number 30). Both make my skin crawl, and the later makes me wonder if they really mean at sunset. (As in, when the sun goes down, I will turn into a word-wolf and tear out the throats out of language zombies.)

But I shuddered at another one that's new to me: number 39, 'cascading'; or for the tautologically compulsive, number 40, 'cascading down'. What?

It supposedly means "to communicate or disseminate information, usually downwards". For me, it's the beer under that brand name, and the stuff that comes out the other side an hour later.

I'm looking forward to playing my first game of meeting jargon bingo next week, though my colleagues don't tend to use such crap jargon – the benefits, I guess, of working outside the corporate sector.

'Go forward' and poke fun at the pinstripe suits.

It's nice to know good culture jamming is alive

2008-06-13T08:58:00.001+10:00

It's nice to know good culture jamming is alive, originally uploaded by Mark Lawrence.

How true. I saw this on a tram stop on the way to work yesterday.

On a winter's night…

2008-06-12T14:45:00.000+10:00

Winter is doing strange things in Melbourne currently. One day, it is all foggy mornings and grounded or detoured aeroplanes, the next it's sunny afternoons followed by rain clouds chased over the ranges. All the same, there is something quite lovely about they way this city faces winter. Lots of people get into the winter mood around here, and incorporate its features into not just their dress and cooking, but into art, writing, and more.

I took this photo of a hand-drawn leaf a couple of weeks ago. It is part of an extended artwork on the glass wall of the local municipal library near my work. It is a lovely meditation on plane trees and the way they lose their leaves for the cold weather, if a bit melancholic.

Winter's melancholy can play havoc with many of us, but then there is always something to cheer us up. Like the sun breaking through the clouds, or burrowing into bed with something lovely to read, such as the latest issue of Meanjin – the first under the stewardship of their new editor Sophie Cunningham. It's worth reading, from all reports, and not just because it features work by the wonderful bloggers Ampersand Duck, and Laura Caroll, who are also behind Sarsaparilla.

Winter is also a great time for a big hearty stew or soup, or maybe a curry, and a nice glass of red. I know what I'm picking up from the shop on the way home.

Winter – Wordless Wednesday (No. 5)

2008-06-04T16:22:00.001+10:00

It has been a while since I've done a Wordless Wednesday, but it thought I'd try again, seeing that I actually liked some of the photos I took at a family outing to a park in Brunswick on the weekend. It has been cold here this last week. Winter has truly set in.

Last night I went to the forum 'Growing up Asian in Australia' last night, held to mark the launch of the new anthology of writing by writers of Asian descent – about growing up Asian in Australia – edited by Alice Pung, and I've had Hanif Kureishi on my mind .

Wouldn't you know it, his website has a story with a tree, children, an 'Asian' father and a park. Oh, and an errant ball. I recommend you read his story 'Hullabaloo in the Tree' to go along with the photo. I will blog on last night's panel when I have some time later this week.

This morning our car got towed – on purpose!

2008-06-03T16:25:00.000+10:00

It is not everyday that you actually get your car towed on purpose! No, it didn't break down – our ever reliable Mazda 121 has served us very well this past few years – nor did we park it illegally, nor did we have an accident. For some reason, the fuel pump is gone.

The dodgy fuel ticker didn't didn't get picked up in the last tune up. It refused to start over the weekend, and on Sunday morning the RACV mechanic deduced that it was the fuel pump. He thumped the fuel tank and got it going, but when I tried to start the car later that afternoon, I had no luck – tank thumping and all.

This morning, we had to get the RACV to tow it to our mechanic down the road. I had to document the event, of course.

It struck me as a very delicate operation, as the tow-truck driver carefully manouvered the car into position, and carefully adjusted the steering as the car was winched onto the truck's tilted tray.

I was left in wonder at the feat of engineering involved as the hydraulics were left to effortlessly shift the tray of the truck back onto its horizontal position.

For the record, this is the first time our car has ever been towed. Hopefully, the mechanics will have it up and running in time to ferry the kids around later this week. Otherwise…

On how to dump a king

2008-05-29T16:05:00.000+10:00

Strangely, the South-Asian continent comes into my view today, as the news breaks that Nepal has abolished its monarchy. After a long period of internecine fighting between the Maoist rebels and government forces, the now Maoist dominated elected assembly has democratically abolished the 240-year-old Hindu monarchy in favour of a secular parliamentary democracy. They have asked the latest, unpopular manifestation of the Hindu dynasty, King Gyanendra, to pack his bags and leave his palace within a week.

They plan to turn the palace into a museum.

And ten years ago today, Pakistan tested a nuclear device – in effect, a bomb – in an underground explosion. It's hard to believe that the two South-Asian continent nuclear powers, India and Pakistan, have nearly come to war at various times, particularly over Kashmir, and are now in a somewhat less than troubled détente.

Perhaps its is because Pakistan has been too busy chewing through its democratic opposition to try picking fights with its neighbour.

It is worth remembering that the previous Australian government wanted to sell uranium to India, despite the fact they have a nuclear weapons program and have not signed the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. I wonder if the Rudd government is game to try that as well.

[Image: photo of the Royal palace in Kathmandu is by germeister (cc) ]

Flowers for your day

2008-05-29T12:12:00.000+10:00

On the tram coming to work this morning, I gave up my seat so that a young child who had just got on could have it. It was no big deal – I was only three stops away from work, and I've been trying to get off a stop early to stretch my legs, so it wasn't heroic at all. But it didn't quite work out as I intended.

Within moments of the mother and child getting on the tram, I had heard this little piping voice calling, "Sit dowwwwnn…" (as they do), and the mother saying, "No, you can't sit down, it's busy," (it was, very). I know what it's like to keep a young child standing upright on a busy, crowded tram, so I wanted to be helpful and considerate to the child. After all, other people had done the same for my children at various occasions.

I got up from my seat and stepped toward the mother, passed a couple of people in the way, and said – loudly enough for others to hear as well – "she can have my seat if you like." She smiled and thanked me, but as she negotiated her child passed me and a couple of other passengers, she saw that someone else had sat down in my seat!

A large man in trendoid clothes, sunglasses, and a pair of headphones clamped to his head had taken the seat I had offered for the child.

How rude! The twit. He seemed oblivious to the few glares thrown at him by various people around us who realised what happened, but, then again, he struck me as particularly self-absorbed and lost to the little things, and little people, going on around him. By that point, I was too far away to say anything to him. Thankfully. Perhaps I'm being unkind, but I never really liked mirror-style aviator sunglasses.

Instead of letting this incident chew on me today, I considered how things – whether acts of kindness or utter selfishness – have a tendency to come around to you again in the long term. Including for Mr Aviator-Sunnies.

Luckily, for the little child, a woman sitting across the aisle from where I was gave up her seat for her – without fuss.

I've added the lovely flowers (above) I photographed off Block Arcade in Melbourne on Monday as an offering for all you nice and considerate people out there – especially all of my readers – as a fillip for the day. Along with my hopes that you have a lovely day.

"We've come home, now"

2008-05-26T22:16:00.002+10:00

Today was Sorry Day – the tenth anniversary of the first Sorry Day, in fact. Part of Melbourne Aboriginal community's commemorations this day was observing this anniversary and reminder of what they have been through.

It also served as a reminder to the non-Indigenous community that despite the federal government's national apology to the Stolen Generations, there is much that needs to be done to address Indigenous disadvantage in this country – not the least of which is financial compensation for members of the Stolen Generations, as part of the full reparations to them recommended by the Bringing Them Home report.

Archie Roach and Ruby Hunter, with their band, performed at Federation Square in the late afternoon as part of the commemorations, and as usual their performance was powerful.

When Archie started to sing 'Took the children away', all those present went up to the foot of the stage to place a white flower on the wreath that was placed there to commemorate all those who had suffered the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families – those stolen passed and present, and their families who suffered unbearable loss. It was powerful moment. And not one I wanted to spoil by taking photos of.

Archie also spoke about how important being a father and being part of a family is to him now, particularly in light of his experience of being a member of the Stolen Generation. I'm uncertain if the lyrics were in the original version of his song, but Archie now finishes the song by singing "We've come home, now", from which the title of this post is taken. The roar of approval and applause from the crowd sent a chill down my spine.

Art and censorship – not a good mix

2008-05-23T17:48:00.001+10:00

Early this morning, I was going to join in the chorus of those decrying the censorship of photographic artist Bill Henson, some of whose work has been seized today by New South Wales police from an exhibition about to open in Sydney. (Hey, I just did.)

I think Henson's persecution by politicians, the media and various self-appointed guardians of our propriety and moral rectitude is appalling. This instance of censorship in art has the stink of moral panic about it. I was even going to link to this image to make a point about nudity in art and context. But I've been watching this debate brew online, and the response in the 'art community', as it has been so billed, and I think others, especially the crew at Sarsaparilla, are doing a sterling job of highlighting this case.

Instead, I've decided it is as important to highlight the case of political censorship of an artist here in Melbourne, revealed in this morning's Age.

Van Thanh Rudd's painting has been pulled by the Melbourne City Council from its intended inclusion in an art/artist exchange with Vietnam. Due to be exhibited in Ho Chih Minh City next month, the painting depicts Ronald McDonald bearing the Beijing Olympics torch running past a self-immolating monk from that infamous incident in the nascent period of revolutionary upheaval in Vietnam.

Not that the case of Van Thanh Rudd's artwork being censored has not received attention – perhaps being the nephew of the Prime Minister can get you the front page of The Age. However, there hasn't been much reaction in the online arts community about this case, from what I can see. (Perhaps because Henson has a greater arts-profile, and the severity of the issue in Sydney has caught everyone's attention and earned Henson more online coverage.)

The City of Melbourne claims they pulled the artwork because it does not "fit in with the purpose of the arts grant program, which was to show the lives of young artists in Ho Chi Minh City", and that "legal assessment had also indicated it might infringe trademark and copyright provisions". The main criticism of the Council's interference and censorship in art was that the Council, under Mayor John So, is very sensitive of criticisms of China and actively stifles criticism of China's human rights record, and is sensitive to highly political art in the first place. There is some merit to this argument, based on the Council's track record, and this is cause enough to criticise the Council's political censorship of art.

What I can't help but wonder, though, is how on earth the Council assumed that Van Thanh Rudd's work would not be political, when his whole reputation as an 'activist artist' and his previous works speak for itself.

However, what really galls me is the assumptions the Council seems to have made about what an artist of Asian descent – Van Thanh's mother is Vietnamese – will or won't make art about. Reading between the lines, I think the council expected some insipid 'Joy Luck Club' inspired story of growing up Vietnamese in Australia, or 'returning to the mother country and seeing how my contemporaries live - culture clash' type experience being recorded in paint, and that just gets my goat.

It makes me sick that arts administrators, grant bodies, publishers and others still expect artists and writers of Asian descent to churn out such material for their own cultural expectations and market demands.

Artists and writers of Asian descent have just as much chance of creating highly political art works – or not – as any other culture workers from whatever backgrounds. Just as they are likely to continue memoirising their cross-cultural experiences, and tapping the rich political veins in Australia's migrant experience.

The City of Melbourne stands condemned for its political censorship of art, as well as its other recent censorship of art – whether because of public nudity or because the artist criticised one side or another in Middle-East conflicts.

If you wish to show Van Thanh your support, you can write to him, as i did this morning, via his website. You could also criticise the Council for its decision. And don't let this issue go away just because Henson's predicament as grabbed all the attention for now.

Big bank pulls funding for Tasmianan pulp mill

2008-05-23T12:14:00.000+10:00

The ANZ bank has pulled out its funding for the Gunns pulp mill to be built in Tasmania, according to the Finance Sector Union.

As yet, I haven't seen anything else on the online news sources confirming this, only earlier growing speculation. But if it's true, this is a huge success for the campaign against this debacle of a pulp mill, and a big step in forcing corporations to face their ecological and social responsibilities. If only they didn't keep hiking up borrowing interest rates.

It was cold this morning

2008-05-22T09:21:00.003+10:00

It was cold this morning, originally uploaded by Mark Lawrence.

How cold? There was ice on the roof and windscreen of our car! This hardly happens. I had to chuck a bucket of water onto the windscreen to get the ice off. At school, Jacob wanted to walk to the Before School Care building through the school field so that he could see more closely the icy frost on the grass. If this carries on, we'll have to dig out the kids gloves and mittens...

Men and the myths of mid-life accomplishment

2008-05-18T22:45:00.004+10:00

This is an edited version of an early form of an essay I'm currently working on tackling men about to or entering their forties, and the social expectations and myths about male achievement. Part of this project involves a photo essay, but more on that later. I'd appreciate any feedback you have to share.

As I start the quickening slide toward 40, I can't help but look at the images and expectations of men in their forties all around me and wonder how my own life looks nothing like this picturebook story. This has sparked a lot of reflection and even doubt on my part in figuring out what it is I should have accomplished, if anything, by the time I reach my mid-life.

If your thirties are meant to be the age of tribulation in your life, then your forties, the received social wisdom suggests, are meant to be the moment you ‘arrive’ – where you reap the hard work of your sowing, and enjoy the fruits of your labor. For men, this is supposed to mean the well-paid job and career advancement, a lovely wife, a house and mortgage, a great car (maybe two), private school kids, annual holidays, great clothes and a whole lot of grown-up’s toys that your job affords you.

Of course that assumes that you’ve been able to survive the tumult of a busy life – if your marriage has braved any threat of separation or divorce, you didn’t stuff things up by having an affair with your colleague over those late nights you were ‘finishing’ that all-important, promotion-guranteeing project, your kids haven’t forgotten who you are because you’ve spent all your time at work or at golf, and you haven’t stuffed your knees, or back, at the gym fighting off the specter of your father’s heart disease and those greasy steak sandwiches you rammed down your gullet over those hurried lunch breaks.

And there you have it, the two great clichés of mid-life masculinity. On the one hand, you so reek of accomplishment and success that you’re the new pin-up for a Johnny Walker advertisement – no, not Red Label, that’s for Mr 30-something-no kids, but Black label, the sign of good taste, maturity, success, refinement and the credit card bill to match. On the other hand, you are sifting through the wreckage wondering how your life ended up like that other great cliché of mid-life masculinity – the Raymond Carver story, with a nameless man and woman yelling at each other one night over a half-packed suitcase, you can cut the dread and resentment with a knife, and the man has no idea how he got there.

But it is no secret that life rarely, if ever, follows the path that social expectations and stereotypes dictate. Most men closely approaching forty or chipping tentative toeholds into that new age of middle-life, are in fact wedging ourselves somewhere in between the myths and expectations of our society.

Looking around me at the men who are my age or in their early forties, I know that the story of accomplishment for men in their forties is a highly embellished one, and that, if anything, the paths of our lives are far more torturous, twisted and unpredictable than we are asked to believe.

For some of us, the road into our forties is a lot less smooth than we are led to believe, or achieve, with various unexpected changes in career, often with resulting loss in income or sacrifices in financial security, where we make job and careers choices out of personal satisfaction or necessity.

Sometimes, the reasons behind some of our choices are clear, deliberate, albeit unconventional. Other times, they are partially thought out combinations of gut instinct, sheer desperation and that certainty that if you'd kept going the way you were, you'd lose your health, or your marriage, and never see your kids growing up. And no amount of career accomplishment is worth that.

US aid plane lands in Burma

2008-05-12T22:22:00.001+10:00

BBC Online reports that the first US plane carrying emergency aid has landed in Burma – nine days after Cyclone Nargis!

The plane was carrying over 12,000 kgs of supplies, including mosquito nets, blankets and water. According to the BBC, "The US spent days negotiating with Burma's military government to gain permission for the aircraft to land."

This is a significant development in this emergency, as in the early days the Burmese had refused to allow US planes to land, and all commentators were saying that any aid worker with a US passport wouldn't be allowed into the country.

The BBC also reports that three Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF) planes are due to be allowed into Burma soon.

The biggest worry is that although the military is showing signs that it is softening its hardline stance against foreign aid intervention and help in the disaster, the pace of their cooperation with international relief agencies, the UN and leading western aid donor countries is too slow and this natural disaster is going to turn into a humanitarian disaster

Over 1 million people are still very much at risk from the aftermath of this cyclone, and the reports indicate that there are still many, many dead bodies unretrieved from the disaster areas.

It is still important to exert pressure on the Burmese military junta to allow the smooth flow of the international relief effort into cyclone ravaged Burma – especially via putting pressure on the junta's international supporters: China mainly, but also their Asean supporters and neighbours including Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia.

Burma disaster roundup

2008-05-09T17:58:00.001+10:00

I trawled through a number of websites to find sources of information and insight into what is happening in Burma post the Cyclone Nargis disaster, and I made an effort to find out what other blogs and Burmese voices, especially from the region, are saying.

Also bearing in mind that the crucial issue now is how quickly the international emergency disaster relief can get into Burma and to the areas most in need, and the military's reluctance to ease their entry, I've also found some information from the aid and relief agencies.

The Burma Campaign (UK) have called for concerted international effort to force the Burmese junta to accept international aid. They are lobbying the British government, for one, to take a strong approach. They say:

"The United Nations has the power to authorise aid shipments to Burma even though the regime has not given permission. Yesterday the French government tried to secure a discussion on this at the Security Council, but it is believed to have been blocked by China and Russia.

“Every day of delay is costing lives,” said Mark Farmaner, Director of Burma Campaign UK. “If the regime won’t give permission for aid, the international community must deliver it anyway. We can’t stand by and let thousands more die.”

However the level of concern, verging on panic, over the junta's refusal to allow the free flow of aid, most sane international aid and Burmese democracy groups are, however, stopping short of calling for an all-out 'humanitarian' invasion of Burma a-la Somalia, if only just. Reason will prevail in this matter, I hope.

The Democratic Voice of Burma has an amazing gallery of photos of the damage in Rangoon, from which the photo above has been lifted. The level of damage in Rangoon is pretty bad, but Tim Costello of World Vision has reported on ABC Online that the city is beginning to put itself back together, as its citizens pick up the pieces.

However, columnist and blogger Awzar Thi, writing in Rule of Lords, reports that 90 per cent of the large trees in Rangoon are gone – uprooted or split and cracked. Besides the damage this has done to power lines, buildings and roads, this does not bode well for the future urban ecology of this major city. Awzar Thi has extensive coverage of the cyclone's devastation.

I found Rule of Lords via web correspondent Mong Palatino, who is blogging on the disaster at Global Voices Online, the online aggregator of political and social blogging of the non-Western world. He has been tracking many more bloggers and websites reporting from either within Burma or from its neighbours. The region has many political bloggers, it seems. He has found a number of eyewitness reports as well, including this quite representative one:

In our house we were trapped when tress around the house fell over after 11 hours of strong winds at 200-240 knots. The mess is terrible everywhere, with all electricity down and no water for days.

With one million homeless and facing terrible conditions, hunger, thirst, exposure to the elements and risk of disease are the major challenges, and the aid efforts must reach them as soon as possible.

One of the most heartbreaking things I've learned is how the children and babies have been affected. According to a Save the Children media statement I found, 40 per cent of the dead are children. The young are at the highest risk of water borne diseases, and most feel the cold, thirst and hunger.

Save the Children's Burma director, who I mentioned in my previous post, is quoted in that statement saying:

“We know that some areas are still completely under salt water – some people have no drinking water or food. Unless assistance gets into those kinds of areas very soon, the death toll will keep rising. It is a race against time and now our priority has to be those who are left - we urgently need help to be able to reach the surviving children and families and deliver what we know they need.”

Medisans Sans Frontier's Australian division has set up a page on their website to provide updated information on what is happening in Burma and what they are doing as part of the efforts. Thankfully, MSF has had workers in Burma for many years now who could respond quickly to the disaster, but they are running out of human energy, resources and supplies, and are desperately waiting for the planes carrying relief supplies to be allowed into the country.

I trust MSF to do the right thing in terms of their aid efforts, their capacity to look after people, and how they use the money they raise through fundraising for their emergency efforts. They proved themselves many times over, including in responding to the Boxing Day Tsunami in the West Sumatra region.

You can find out more about what MSF are doing, inlcuding a video, here.

The Burmese people need the help and generosity of the international community. And out continued attention to ensure the military regime don't keep stifling the aid efforts. Leave me a comment if you know of other ways to help.

Cyclone devastation and the aid crisis in Burma

2008-05-08T15:30:00.001+10:00

It is growing increasingly apparent that the extent of the death toll and damage in Burma from Cyclone Nargis is getting much worse – horrendous, in fact. It is certainly far worse that the Burmese military dictatorship can either handle or is prepare to admit.

So far, Burma's official death toll has jumped from 15,000-odd to about 22,000, but aid agencies are predicting it may reach 100,000, and at least 40,000 people are thought to be missing. Hundreds of thousands are thought to be homeless as a result of the devastation. Exacerbating the problem is the military's refusal to allow international aid agencies to freely enter the politically and socially isolated country to both assess the crisis and get aid to those who have been hurt, made homeless or otherwise affected by the storm.

The unpleasant but terribly urgent job of retrieving dead bodies – especially from the extensive river system of the Irrawaddy delta – must be done quickly if they are to prevent a massive outbreak of cholera and typhoid and other water-borne diseases – one of the big risks now, besides starvation and thirst. Electricity failure has compromised fresh food storage and there isn't enough clean drinking water going around. I heard on the news last night than aid deliveries of rice had begun arriving yesterday, but I couldn't help but wonder how the hungry were going to cook the rice when there wasn't clean water and precious little in the way of dry fuel.

This is where the infrastructure expertise and equipment of international aid and disaster relief agencies – especially the Red Cross – come into play: besides medical equipment and food, they have the water purifiers, electricity generators, portable cooking stoves, canvas and plastic for tents and shelters and, as importantly, sanitation equipment (so the already contaminated water doesn't get worse). What is troubling is that the Burmese military is dragging its heels in letting them in.

I cannot understand such a callous regime with so little regard for the lives of its own people and is so hell-bent on defending its own pride and power – and insisting with continuing with its charade of a constitutional referendum.

What is heartening is news that the Burmese people are throwing their energies into the job of helping each other, especially in the clean-up. One report on the radio this morning spoke of Burmese Red Cross volunteers, themselves victims of the devastation, are putting on the Red Cross vests and going out to help. They need to be congratulated and supported. They need help.

I have found that BBC Online's coverage of the turmoil in Burma far more effective, extensive and thorough than ABC Online's – despite Burma's proximity to us, and the large number of Burmese refugees now settled here in Australia, the ABC hasn't managed to make such a major humanitarian disaster a priority for its online coverage (it is heavily reliant on audio and video pulled from the rest of the broadcaster's coverage, compared to the specially developed text content on the BBC's site). Pity.

If you want to keep track of the relief effort, the BBC Online is publishing the diary of Andrew Kirkwood, Save the Children's 'man in Burma'. They are also publishing eyewitness reports of the devastation (Warning, the reports are quite disturbing), and background analysis of the cyclone and whether the military are responding adequately to it.

In the aftermath of the Boxing Day Tsunami, as with a number of other recent disasters in the region, there were a large number of blogs and websites set up to track, report, and pool news of developments in the relief efforts, and to help channel people's desire to help. I'm going to look out for these in relation to Burma's tragedy and I would appreciate any tips or links for these in the comments. I will keep following this as closely as I can.

Meanwhile, flickrites MaiNaSukhumvit, luisrene and Azmil77 have photos of Cyclone Nargis's trail of destruction.

[The image above is of the peak of the storm in Yangon, witnessed by Azmil77.]