Today we continue with another 2 poems from Ali Cobby Eckermann’s award winning novel Ruby Moonlight, following on from Harmony published back in April.

Morning
ribbons of campfire smoke
drift to a sunrise sky
as people begin to rise

the spear maker squats by the fire
his weapons hardened over coals
he stands to stretch

his eyes turn to the hillside where
earthen thighs hide a sacred spring
three crows circle nearby

he can see the women hurrying
back from the hidden pathway
their movements clumsy in haste

he can see his brother running
from the ochre cliffs signalling
get the spears ready!

fear in their eyes
the women whisper
there is danger here

in gesture language
the old man signals sshhh!
the air is wrong!

Warning
the old man and his wife
hold parliament with magpies

within the meeting circle
chatter is warbled with worry

the remainder of the tribe
wait in the shadows

their trust in tribal ways
is absolute

they watch in silence
ready to flee

the meeting erupts
in a bird storm

strange animals and pale men
burst from the river

Ambush
               hack
hack
hack
hands
heads
hearts
the clan slaughtered
dying
dying
dead

Silence

the ambience of the morning is ruined
the stench of death fills the air
love will exist here no more

a young woman sits like rock
staring at her husband and mother
their bodies turned tombstone

arid eyes silt with sand
tears will no longer flow
life is doomed to drought

scrap the images from your eyes
scrape emotion from your heart
never tell a soul

on the setting sun
she turns to the shadows
oh kumuna oh kumunari

kumuna – bereavement names for deceased male family members
kumunari – bereavement names for deceased female family members

Ali Cobby Eckermann
Ruby Moonlight 
Magdala 2012

Meaning.  Originally dispatched on 20 June 2014

Qu’est-ce que cela veut dire mes amis ?

That someone can put symbols on paper and several centuries later someone else half a world away can decipher the symbols and burst out laughing or crying, is nothing short of miraculous.

Much has been discussed about the comparative merits of books and films. The main advantage of books it is often asserted is that readers can use their own imagination when ‘visualising’ and interpreting what is written on the page. Readers can deduce their own meaning which may not always be what the writer intended.

One of the most impressive books I’ve read, has to be ‘Catch 22’. The book’s delicious irony of what is a rather dark and depressive subject is rarely surpassed. It is not surprising that the phrase ‘catch twenty two’ has been incorporated into colloquial English. I was thoroughly disappointed when I subsequently saw the movie. The script writers seemed obsessed with blood and gore, which in my opinion seriously missed the point of what is a very funny yet deeply meaningful book.

Carl Zuckmayer’s play ‘Der Hauptmann von Köpenick’ was first staged in 1931. As I remember it (having read the publication) the protagonist Wilhelm Voigt, on being released from gaol, can’t get a place to stay because he hasn’t got a job, and can’t get a job because he hasn’t a place to stay. Catch 22.

Several movies have been made about Der Hauptmann. I didn’t see any of these.

Joseph Heller’s ‘Catch 22’ was published 30 years later.

A Warlpiri friend of mine having reached an age greater than 65 applied to have his accumulated Superannuation funds reimbursed. A message for him to phone the Super Fund about his application was prompted by the fact that the Driver’s Licence he’d lodged a certified copy of, to prove his identity, had expired. I fail to see how the Super Fund can conclude that the expiry of my friend’s right to drive a car means that his identity has also expired.

One of the most impressive films I’ve seen, has to be ‘Babette’s Feast’ based on Karen Blixen (Isak Dinesen)’s novel. I didn’t read the book and don’t feel a need to.

As for Gabriel García Márquez’s surrealistic metaphorical novel ‘Cien Años de Soledad’, set in the oppressive tropical climate of Macondo, should a film be made of it, I wouldn’t feel a need to see it.

When I read Yann Martel’s allegorical Life of Pi, I could never have imagined that it could be rendered on film. Yet director Ang Lee’s cinematographic triumph is nothing short of miraculous. In the film nothing of the book’s deep meaning is lost.

The words in Bob Dylan’s songs are deceptively ‘simple’, yet are imbued with deep meaning.

…and he hands you a dime
And he asks you with a grin
If you’re having a good time
Then he fines you every time
You slam the door….

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ti6Te-exY4Q

Recently on TV, I saw David Suchet’s retrospective on his 25 years of portraying Agatha Christie’s Poirot. David Suchet kept switching from himself to his Poirot persona. At one point he quotes Poirot in his Belgian/French accent: “I hear what you say, I listen to what you mean”

If only the multitude that have descended on remote Aboriginal Australia to impose Stronger Futures and Close the Gap would follow Poirot’s example. They come and organise endless meetings at which they push their agendas. If only they didn’t just hear what is being said, but listened to what is meant.

…..Ich weiß nicht, was soll es bedeuten,
Daß ich so traurig bin…..
(I don’t know the meaning of my sadness)
(Je ne connais pas le sens de ma tristesse)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0_PtHwbCiY

When a Warlpiri child continues to do something they have been told repeatedly not to do, the parents say that “He can’t listen, he can’t learn”. In other words he takes no notice.

The Warlpiri verb ‘purda-nyanyi’ means both to hear and to understand.

I’ve often heard Warlpiri people say of those that come and organise meetings and workshops and farcical so called ‘consultations’ that “they couldn’t listen”.

Listen to your heart…..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktRsl2hAPhY

In other words they took no notice.
For this they are highly paid.
It is an important part of their job… to take no notice.

(I don’t know the meaning of their meanness)

(Je ne connais pas le sens de leur méchanceté)

All my people right here, right now
D’You Know What I Mean? Yeah Yeah 

All my people right here, right now
They Know What I Mean? Yeah Yeah
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltf4sgmBU2w

A bientot 

François

Donald knows that “happiness is a warm gun”

Glad Donald has sorted out the gun control issue in the U.S. He’s in serious talks with the NRA. (not to be confused with the NRMA) They’ve been working on a plan. The plan is simple and deadly effective. If you buy a gun and are a terrorist you will not be served.

Mae West. Inventor of the Safety vest. Reputedly her partner had a gun in his pocket.

Also, and this is the clincher, even if you stump up the cash you possibly wont be able to buy that assault rifle. This will really put the kibosh, (love that old term) on nasty terrorists. You may be able to buy a knife, knuckle dusters, and some really lethal bottles of metho but submachine guns and assault rifles are out of bounds. Also Donald was quite right in suggesting that if everyone at the Pulse night club had a gun, the atrocity would never have happened. And he’s quite right. I find it most reassuring to jive at my acid house funk techno doof doof rave and know that with my Glock safely tucked into my undies I’m ready for action. My partner prefers the Smith and Wesson, but then, I’l admit she always likes to be on top.

Dear reader, though not strictly relevant to THIS article, we have (due to unprecedented demand) included this image of Gerry Gee, and the Uncle Norman Party. Uncle and Joffa were to be running on a joint ticket, but lost preselection to Kelly O Dwyer. The Liberals will pay for this!!

There’s lot of talk about what happened to motivate this nutter, and why he chose Islam as his motivation. Could be a hangup about gays, perhaps he was gay himself and just had to kill everyone to get it out of his system. Or perhaps he just found out what we all know, that you can walk into any gunshop, ask for an assault rifle and you’ll get one. What are you going to do with an assault rifle if you’re not a soldier? Shoot paper planes? Go rabbit shooting? Scare starlings? Or just plain ol shoot people? I think you’ll know the answer. And perhaps it has something to do with the culture?. Nup, that’s a long bow, and as the NRA says , been saying it for years, ‘Guns keep us SAFE’.

Ninjas can be very very dangerous also.

Other talk on the pulse shootings has ranged far and wide. Marco Rubio suggested that if the “shooter”, (we prefer gunman as the correct term) hadn’t had an assault rifle there’d be half a dozen other ways he could’ve killed so many people. It’s wrong to blame guns and their proliferation on disrupting civil society. Rubio suggested almost the same could be achieved by a car bomb, a fire-storm, poisonous gas, or just plain ol arson. I don’t think Rubio went far enough, he forgot to mention meteorite shower, tsunami, nuclear powerplant explosion, tornado, and civilian airliner crash. I suggest that a truck load of Ninjas with star knives could’ve knocked off a whole lot of people, even an angry, underpaid mexican contractor with a very large and customised ride on lawn mower, with wing sickle bar mower blades would create absolute carnage if applied with sufficient vigor. Yet I haven’t heard a call to ban them, nor knives, knuckledusters and nun-chuckers. Nuns are not as common as they used to be, but I believe before the fall of Acre, they were used to deadly effect in stemming the tide of Islam.

Don’t be silly, it’s a toy gun.

Donald should look into this. Why pick on guns then? It just doesn’t stack up. Guns are freely available to protect all of us, and as Bob Katter clearly demonstrates, it keeps foreigners at bay.

Gerry Gee. More animated than Bill, and barracks for Richmond. Knows about suffering and the human condition.

This election is so boring. Why should Malcolm win? He gave us this overlong election campaign. Why should Bill win? He’s boring. More boring than Malcolm. He makes Gerry Gee look animated, and that’s not all, intelligent too!! Malcolm is an utter bore, excuse me this indulgence, but it’s true, Malcolm is Thurston Howell beefsteak, pinot and perfect teeth. Bill is a cardboard cut-out, with velcro tabs. That’s the truth plain and simple.

Jerry with his political minder. Could drink anyone under the table.

The Greens are annoying. They’re right about climate, industry, society and globalism, but they’re so shrill, sanctimonious and pure it makes me puke. Puritans wore black, now they are green. It’s almost makes me yearn for the good old networks of big business, Parakeelia, and artful Arty. And the likes of Uncle Eddie, the odd bit of thuggery and the principled stand of those former glories, R.J.Hawke, and his stunt that; ‘No child should live in poverty’.

Christ I can’t bear it any longer. Incidentally in case you hadn’t noticed, the environment is fucked and no one cares.

Morbius trialling Shorten robot Mk. 1.

Elsewhere politics is much more interesting. In the U,S they’re stark raving bonkers. Even a shooting by another hung up, sexual-religious disfunctive is cause for fascination. As everyone points to the cause, but not the root cause. The root of
fear. Of God.  And punishment. And finding, as society always does, a scapegoat. Thank God for the Muslims. Without them we might have to look to ourselves, and that would broach the yawning abyss.
Like Morbius in ‘Forbidden Planet’, our world is captive to our fear, our inner id, the neurosis of a people who historically have everything, but have nothing.

Lest we forget. War is PROFITABLE!

Sex, fun and laughter. Who wouldn’t??

And in the U.K, they’re junking the E.U. That’s what you get with half a century of ‘On the Buses’, ‘Dad’s Army’, ‘Coronation Street’ and ‘Neighbours’. A yearning, nostalgic at best, for the good ol days. ‘During the War” when poor people were buggered, we forelock tugged to oblivion, and gave ourselves up in rivers of blood on the Somme valley so that the chinless wonders could good mannerdly posture and pillage. The Twenty-first century is looking terribly like the eighteenth century, but there aint an enlightenment. It’s a Russian sort of enlightenment. Vladimir likes Donald, cos like Vladimir he’s a big leader, strong on breast-beating and that low grade brand of nationalism. And like all good oligarchs it points to a future, codified since the Third Reich. This one aint against jews, gypsies and gays, but the rest of the humanity. Look out, future schlock never looked so scary. Gone the puritanism, here forever, the hell that Dante could only have dreamed of. On a plate, bought to you by Rupert, and the cheer squad of the neo cons. Sad thing they just don’t know what they play with. And with anzackery almost running its course there’s nowhere else for us to go but a war. A bigger one.

‘And they stopped those old bastards from harassing young women outside the abortion clinic’

That’s why i’m voting the Sex Party. Buggered if I know what they stand for. But sex is pretty good, that sends a message to the puritans. And they wanna tax the filthy rich fairly, make offshore companies pay tax, and wait for it, reckon that churches should not be tax exempt. Might even curb the Parakeelia, scam. We can only hope. And they stopped those old bastards from harassing young women outside the abortion clinic.  And the thing that really gets me excited about the Sex Party, no puritanism, just a commitment for more sex and a good laugh.  ‘Fornicate to the future’, albeit a four word slogan, but one we can all enjoy. Cheers

John Pilger as a younger man. Unimpressed with the state of public toilets in the nations’ capital.

Dear reader, another excellent piece from Ira, in which he casts a light fully upon the things that make John Pilger thoroughly ‘Un-Australian’. We must add a note of caution to the infirm, the faint-hearted, the emotionally taut and the hysterically minded, that things said in this piece may be quite true. And during an election year that is cause enough for deep shock… read on…

Re: (Guardian Weekly, 03.05.13. Page 20, Comment & Debate.‘Australia’s boom won’t help all of its people.’ A piece by John Pilger.)

Giordano Bruno, before he was burnt by a light sabre malfunction working as a stand-in for Obi Wan Kenobi, (Image courtesy Lucas Films)

If John Pilger had lived during the Renaissance, he, like Giordano Bruno, would surely have been burned at the stake. He would have been burned, not for his anti-establishment viewpoint, or being the Anti-Christ, or in league with the devil, but for simply telling the truth.

Giordano Bruno. No relation to Carla Bruni.

To tell the truth, in all of it’s unvarnished horror, is probably the greatest heresy of all. Some of the most reviled people in our communities nowadays are not, as you would expect, paedophiles, rapists and bombers. Extraordinarily, they are people who tell the truth. We call them ‘whistleblowers’.The Australian John Pilger has been telling the truth for a long time. Truth telling invites opprobrium and Mr Pilger has had lots of it. A lesser man would have packed up and gone home. Luckily he has remained, a talented thorn in the side of our rampant hypocrisy.

Rottnest Island Prison. c. 1893.

More Sunsets. More Dreaming, More Peace, and murder, rape and the occassional well -meant genocide.

In May he was in Perth to visit Rottnest Island, a ‘popular tourist destination’, a ten mile ferrytrip trip from the city. Through advertising, ‘five awesome reasons to visit’, As Pilger points out, the past is papered over, the sins of our fathers scrubbed clean. The truth is that for decades of the 19th century, troublesome Aborigines, including very young children, were taken by boat to Rottnest where they were commonly tortured, raped and murdered. According to Pilger this was still going on well into the 20th Century. What appalls Pilger is the massive blind eye we turn on all this.

Here in NE Victoria the same blindness prevails. There is absolutely no doubt we hunted Aborigines for sport here, riding them down ruthlessly and murdering them. It was something to do on your day off. It was fun. We also invited them to dinner and poisoned them. We commonly pack-raped their women and murdered their children.

We believed in evolution, in ‘the survival of the fittest’. The natives were a Stone Age people, a people who’d failed to evolve, who were doomed, because of this failure, to eventual extinction. White European scientific minds absolutely believed this to be true. Cynics might say that this belief system too curiously coincided with the needs of white settlers at the time. It certainly provided them, all over the world, with something to salve their conscience whilst they butchered the locals. If the natives were doomed,what did it matter if we hurried the process a little?.

When Truth really mattered! And politicians were prepared to make noble sacrifices!

The Pilger article quotes two eminent Australian historians from his (1960’s?) student days;‘It was quite useless to treat them fairly, since they were completely amoral, and incapable of sincere and prolonged gratitude’. Stephen Roberts, historian, on Australian Aborigines.‘We are civilised today, and they are not.’ Russel Ward, historian, on Australian Aborigines. Finally, if anything is to be rescued from this, we must begin by taking some responsibility for the horror we have inflicted on our original inhabitants. John Pilger is here to remind us ofthis duty. Only by accepting our white, Anglo-Saxon role in this butchery and doing something collectively decent and honourable by way of reparation, can we even begin to live with what we’ve done. Most certainly, without this, we will remain a hopelessly immature country, ridiculously touting ourselves as a ‘sporting nation’. I think it’s time we grew up.

Dear reader, share with us another penetrating piece from Ira Maine, as he takes a snapshot at another piece of Abbott/Turnbull policy. ‘What policy you say’?. The policy you have when you don’t want anything to change policy we say. Read on…

Not all bleaching is bad. Shown here Mrs Coral Barrier at work on bleaching and sterilising her house with cleaning products to keep her family safe from GERMS!! ( Ed.)

The further north you go, the worse the bleaching gets. According to a UN/UNESCO joint report, published a week ago, 93% of the 2,300 km long Great Barrier Reef has been affected, to a greater or lesser degree by bleaching, the worst sections being those in the warmer waters of the north.

This report, ‘World Heritage and Tourism in a Changing Climate’, which included a report not only on the Reef but sections on Kakadu and the old growth forests of Tasmania, was published in tandem with the internationally respected Union of Concerned Scientists, which gives the document considerable scientific clout. Prior to publication, a draft report of this document was forwarded to every concerned continent, including Australia.

Of all of the countries involved in this report, only Australia objected. The Turnbull government insisted that all references to Australia be expunged before the document’s publication. Our Department of the Environment had objected to the fact that certain Australian World Heritage sites were included in a section entitled ‘Destinations at Risk’. The DoE had objected to their inclusion, not because the UNESCO report was wrong, but because they believed that this adverse publicity could affect tourism. These sites included the Great Barrier Reef, Kakadu and the old growth forests of Tasmania. UNESCO sadly did Turnbull’sbidding and all reference to Australia was dutifully expunged.

Will Steffen. Stubbornly resisting the fact that Science is less important than REAL ESTATE in making Australia GREATER than the Lesser Barrier Reef.

Will Steffen, Emeritus Professor at ANU and the head of Australia’s Climate Council finds this action grotesque. He has reviewed the deleted sections and finds their omission ‘astounding’.‘…perhaps in the old Soviet Union you would see this sort of thing…where governments quash information…but not in western democracies…’Less than a year ago, the Australian government lobbied successfully to have the Great Barrier Reef removed from UNESCO’s ‘World Heritage Sites in Danger’ list by offering something called ‘The Reef 2050 Plan’ which presumably persuaded UNESCO of our good intentions’.

Worlds Best Environment Minister.

Larry Marshall CEO of CSIRO. Another documented sign of depletion.

The Australian government’s argument today seems to be that if the Reef was removed from the endangered list last year, how can it possibly be endangered now? This is precisely what George Orwell meant when he spoke about man’s capacity to hold two totally opposed views in his head at the same time and to believe absolutely in both of them. Orwell famously called this ‘double-think’. The logic involved here is of a type to gladden the hearts of both the legendary Sir Humphrey Appleby and perhaps even Franz Kafka. Simply get rid the paperwork detailing the problem and the problem itself automatically disappears. Oh joy…It matters not one whit how much paper-shuffling and lobbying we do, how many conferences and cabinets are convened, or how many international Heads of State meetings are attended, the fact remains that there is not will enough amongst our political masters to radically take up the cudgels to protect the Earth against our own shamefully comprehensible failure of courage. And as if to demonstrate our present government’s contempt for the very idea of global warming, earlier this year our Liberal government blithely sacked one hundred climate scientists from the CSIRO. offering ‘budget cuts’ by way of explanation.

We are all in the end, responsible and must begin to take that responsibility seriously.

This stupidity must stop, simply because the alternative is too horrifying to contemplate.

Malcolm, the poor kiddie who came fom a broken home.

Poor Malcolm, you may think he is a popular stereotype of the Thurston-Howell the third plutocrat, but there’s a raft of ads on social media describing his humble roots. Malcolm knows all about struggle and did it tough as a little kiddie. You see, he was bought up in a broken home, his mum walked out on them, and Malcolm had to grow up fast. This makes him more human, he gets how hard it must be for those at the bottom.

Malcolm, a precursor to politics, performing Shakespeare with cast at Sydney Grammar.

He was well and truly at the bottom of the ladder of social opportunity as a little kiddie, before his poor ol dad took him along to Sydney Grammar. At Grammar he got to hang around with a lot of other really really destitute, impoverished kiddies. Some of them also from broken homes. Malcolm did it tough, and learnt to persevere over the willful bullying of the prefects in the upper twelth, it was a test of character and Malcolm triumphed. At Sydney Grammar, Malcolm became the school captain, that’s before he went on to get his Rhodes, scholarship, (now seriously diminished since Tony Abbott got one, via Dyson Heydon), a tour de force for a kiddie from a broken home who’s dad had to send him to Sydney Grammar to learn about poverty.

Poor Malcolm gradutating from Law.

Poor Malcolm, another recipient of the Rhodes Scholarship.

After graduating from law, Malcolm became a barrister, another haven for outcasts and the impoverished in society. He  became famous for the Spy-catcher case, defending an ex Mi 5 operative from telling a whole load of rubbish. Malcolm won, against the might of a seriously depleted British Empire. It demonstrated once again Malcolm’s cause to fight for the underdog.

Major setbacks in a hard life. Malcolm, pushing the republic.

That’s why he got involved in the republican movement. It took a lot of guts from people right across the political spectrum who just happened to be rich and influential to push for a republic. That wily little thug Johnnie Howard, who had the most deplorably middle of the road lower working class childhood in suburban sydney out-witted all these clever, innovative, forward thinking people. Perhaps through that process Malcolm learnt something. It’s dangerous to think big, talk big instead, and act upon those words with an over-arching ambition, to think irrepressively small. It worked for John E Howard. It should work for Malcolm also.

He buried that idea in his subconscious. The public all cheered, Malcolm for the underdog. He’s such an underdog, he’s made a fortune out of selling pubic assets, pocketing squillions and allowing some of his mates to climb the ladder of opportunity. That’s what he learnt as a little single dad kiddie, at Sydney Grammar. Then, cos we all liked the resolute, articulate man of vision and reform, we rejoiced when he replace the snide, insular negative man of the three word slogan, ‘Tony Machiavelli Boxer Abbott’. And then shorter than it took to say ‘hedge fund’ or ‘collateral synthetic derivative options’, Malcolm changed. He became the snide, insular negative man of the two word slogan.

Mr and Mrs Thurston Howell 111. Done it hard to represent ordinary Australians.

Allegedly held in sway by the same school bullies in the upper sixth. It was a test of character and Malcolm retreated. Into a box , a much smaller box marked, ‘Two word slogan’.

What happened to the articulate, reformist visionary?? Nothing, he was always there, and now he’s letting us know that to talk big, you’ve gotta think impressively and irretrievably small.

There is something strange about our Poetry Editor, Mr Ira Maine esq.

He forwarded this week’s offering with this missive attached.

Ngurrju-nya?

In 1994 IAD Press published ‘Aboriginal Languages in Education’

Nangala Baarda contributed a ten page article to this compendium titled: ‘The impact of the bilingual program at Yuendumu, 1974 to 1993’

Nangala didn’t shy away from mentioning some of the problems faced by the school in delivering education to Warlpiri children, but overall presented a very positive scenario, because it was. Under the sub-title ‘Benefits of the bilingual program’ there is this: “…The status of the Warlpiri language has improved greatly in the community, in the eyes of both white people and Warlpiri people. It is not ignored or put down by anyone. Lots of meetings are conducted in Warlpiri these days, with the decisions being related to the white people afterwards. And the language has gained in respect, so have the people. The bilingual program, together with the much less racist treatment of Aboriginal people, seems to be producing young people who are more sure of their identity and more satisfied with it…”

Back then meetings were well attended. A long period of not being listened to and gradually increasing control by what are effectively foreigners (non-Warlpiri people) has resulted in ‘meeting fatigue’ and mostly poor attendance at meetings. In recent times I’ve witnessed authority figures (politicians, bureaucrats, welfare officers, police etc.) speak to Warlpiri people in a patronising authoritative way. I’ve even seen groups of Warlpiri people being admonished and lambasted by such as the Minister for Indigenous Affairs, who should know better. Needless to say all of this ethnocentric lack of respect is delivered in English.

I recall Jampijimpa Robertson (who sadly is no longer with us) and Jakamarra Nelson acting as interpreters at meetings. It was then that the difference between translation and interpretation was driven home to me. I had learned enough Warlpiri to realize that the English words spoken by say a political candidate, didn’t match the Warlpiri words being rendered by Jakamarra or Jampijimpa. When every now and then I would grasp a snippet of Warlpiri meaning I’d find that it was identical to the English meaning.

By way of illustration of what I’m talking about, the Spanish expression ‘tomarle el pelo’ (taking one’s hair) is identical in meaning to the English ‘pulling one’s leg’.

I could only marvel at Jampijimpa and Jakamarra’s linguistic agility.

I had always admired those people who do simultaneous interpretation at the U.N. In 2011 I attended the IX International Rangeland Congress in Rosario (Argentina). Why I would bother to go, is another story. The papers were presented in English or Spanish so I got to put on a pair of headphones and listen to those Babel-fish people. Like the film sub-titles on television, the interpretation ranged from excellent pure genius to rather piss poor. It has made me wonder how many manmade disasters (colloquially known as fuck-ups) are the result of misinterpretations.

Tower of Babel

In the last Dispatch I was guilty of ambiguity. When I said that I would make an exception and judge Kieran Finnane’s Book ‘TROUBLE: on trial in Central Australia’ by its cover and then juxtaposed the ‘glass midden’ with …the ethnocentric assimilationist interventionists see only broken glass…. I left out that I thought the description of scattered broken glass as a ‘glass midden’ was very clever and evocative. As a result of this omission some would have misinterpreted and understood that I disapproved of the book. Quite the opposite, I think it is a must read for anyone interested in the complexity of Central Australian societies and the manmade disaster that is the NT justice system.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMuzFQTpjDE …..Trouble in mind- Lightnin’Hopkins.

So when a Dispatch written in English (a language in which I consider myself reasonably competent) for a predominantly English speaking audience is open to misinterpretation, it doesn’t take much imagination to realize what Warlpiri people are up against when they apply an entirely different weltanschauung (world view) to expressing themselves in English.

When the Intervention rolled into Yuendumu in 2007 on the coattails of a politically opportunist stigmatising propaganda barrage (our very own ‘Children Overboard’ and ‘Weapons of Mass Destruction’ scenario) a public meeting was called. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLbHihaXvyo  The entirely English language meeting consisted mainly of the community being lectured on a new tougher paradigm which would deal with everything which they alleged was wrong with our community. It was all a bit much for Jungarrayi Sims- he got up and forcefully told the occupation forces : “You should go after the perpetrators, the perpetrators are who you should go after”. We all knew exactly what Jungarrayi meant and agreed with him.

He’d left out…. Why don’t you all piss off, leave us alone and instead go after the alleged paedophile rings somewhere else, because you won’t find any here….

The authorities interpreted Jungarrayi’s call to “go after the perpetrators” as an endorsement of their policies.

…..Still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXIBB0QjkQU …The boxer- Simon and Garfunkel

Ngaka-nanyarra nyanyi

Jungarrayi Baarda

The sun gonna  shine…..
Chippie Hill, Louis Armstrong – Trouble in Mind (1926)… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C42fstnucac

Aretha FRANKLIN – “Trouble In Mind [Live]” (1965)….. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEWCLL5eR2s

Australian Business Council Chair. Imagination personified.

The Grattan Institute reckons that there’ll be a 0.6 per cent trickle down effect to the public after they’ve, (the Federal Government) spent the fifty billion in propping up Big Business. The secretary to the head of the Australian Business Council Will Rent-seeker, explained the process; ‘this fifty billion is a once in a lifetime opportunity for us to divert public funding away from silly things such as research, innovation and education.This fifty billion will restore confidence to the share-holders, and divert what’s left of the ” Common-wealth” into proven wealth creators; Bonuses to middle management. Tax breaks to Chevron.  High level executive scoping teams, and the corps of chief executives who’ve proven, (as the banks did, when given trillions by the U.S) that government is hell-bent on saving us from democracy.

Supporting Big Business. Maurice Newman, former chair of Australian Stock Exchange. Business visionary.

In Australia, we can learn from what happened to the U.S banking sector during the financial crisis. Because  most of our companies are offshore we can invest a paltry local amount, some ten percent into lobbying, and the rest can go on yachts, smart cars, luxury properties and a right to sit at Davos, where the gymnasium and swimming pool are really world class. It’s onerous. Occasionally we have to front the G20, and tell the world that Coal is good for humanity. When we’re not doing the hard yards, and ensuring that nothing ever ever changes, we’ve got to keep abreast of the latest trends and technologies, so that we can shelve them. And if locally owned, buy them and then close them down. And there’s the favoured option; sell them offshore, where whatever has been invented can be made cheaper. It can then be shipped back to us and bought by the public at Bunnings.  Innovation is all very well, but it’s dangerous.

‘The printing press put lots of scribes outta work. Do you want to see the same happen to Coal mining?. In actual fact, Peabody who employs quite a few people here in Australia, wouldn’t mind some of that fifty billion, cos they’re in crisis. Same goes for the motor industries, though nothings’ made here, there’s an awful lot of vehicle makers who have offices here in the innovative realm of car sales. And there’s always room to help the two major supermarkets. They’re actually Australian owned, and with Aldi and other foreigners getting in on the duopoly they’re facing stiff competition. And that leads to further flow on effects to the consumer. It’s bad enough with Seven-Eleven, but the way we’re heading four dollars an hour will cost a fortune. There’s no guarantee we can afford to pay four dollars an hour, it’s generous as it is. As Gina said, in Africa, ‘they’ll work for two dollars a day’. So there’s still significant economies to be met, and we’ll need every cent of that fifty billion to get there.

Worlds Best Practice. When banks go broke make the public pay.

The Barrier Reef may be cactus, but lets think of the real pioneers who make this country great. Big Business. Look what they’ve done to Australia? Made housing un-affordable and captured the public imagination for the one thing that really counts, Real Estate! And that’s just the beginning, there’s so much more that can be sold off, and the public must be proud to know that as each day passes we’re finding new ways to get an income out of them. Don’t risk it, a vote for Labor and the smaller parties will decimate this core sector that has done so much to make us innovative, forward thinking, bold and mature in our approach to technology, society, the betterment of humanity and everything.