Another self indulgent naval pondering excuse for a blog post.
I have been wondering for some time about the purpose and reason for this blog. It's not specific, often full of personal rants with no real objectives and little to no research of subject matter prior to publishing.
It doesn't contain any useful information about how to make money, fix your car, pick up chicks, catch fish, grow your own vegetables or cook a souffle!
It does not provide inside information about corrupt political or business entities, have any suggestions for achieving Buddha consciousness, Nirvana, or reaching heaven or even describe personal encounters with any of these things.
Mostly it's so eclectic and vague and the over abundance of opinionated clap trap does nothing to entice the reader's attention or inspire further reading... So what is it for?
Well I have thought long and hard... (Well for about half an hour) and I am now sure that I do not know!
I've been at it for nearly 6 years now so I suppose a brief deconstruction is in order.
Title - THROUGH BALANDA EYES
The purpose of this title is to let the reader know that the author of the blog views his world through the eyes of a Balanda. The word Balanda is a Yolngu word that is used generically by many indigenous people in the Top End of the Northern Territory to name non indigenous people... particularly Anglo. It is a word that was introduced by Macassan traders long before Yolngu ever set eyes on a White Man.
I like to use the word Balanda because it implies that there were important cross-cultural interactions between Indigenous people and those from other parts of the world long before Europeans arrived in Australia. It forces me to be consider my dominant culture experience of the world as only one perspective among many other world views. So Through Balanda Eyes means to me that although I am living here on Larakia Land I am not necessarily seeing things in a way that is natural for this place. Ultimately I am only a newcomer and have much to learn.
The Sub Text - 'A collection of thoughts and images usually scattered and disorganized that have now found a home... '
This pretty much explains the nature of the blog and I expect warns the reader not to look for form or any kind of reliable format to my writing... It's a mess!
Further Sub Text in Brackets - (Commentary from somewhere near the center of THE EMPIRE!)
This bit might be a little more cryptic. It is something I added after having listened to Eleine Pulos of Uniting Justice speaking about the bubble of contented ignorance that we live in here in Australia. Assuring ourselves that the world is becoming a fairer and better place to live, while our affluent lifestyles starve a growing portion of the worlds population into inescapable poverty, deplete the world of precious resources and create unprecedented environmental disasters and extinctions... I suppose it's a fairly standard Marxist perspective but these days we seem not to hear too much that really challenges the sense of capitalist, entitlement that allows us to justify any crimes for the sake of preserving our current way of life.... At the Center of the Empire.
Blog Format
Well I've basically used a standard template but added a repeated background of bicycle sculpture... because I'm into bicycles. I have a list of blogs and stuff in the right hand column that I don't remember updating for a long long time. There is also some political, environmental widgets, and my flickr widget and some other stuff.
Blog Content
This is what it's all about and now I'm getting too tired to write about it. This is where I am stuck! I'm thinking of trying to take a more organized approach to my blogging but balk at the idea!
I could refine my subject matter and focus on particular subjects, but I have realized that some of the subjects I am most passionate about I never write about on this blog! They seem to be too serious for me to do justice so I just tend to leave them un-written! What is that all about? What should I do about it? I'm not sure yet.
I'm wondering if I should just choose only one subject per week and try to post about that at least once in the week. That might help me to focus. Maybe I could focus on the title of my blog and keep everything contained to the perspective of a non indigenous person... in order to prompt the reader to wonder how an Indigenous person might feel about the same thing... (I think that was the point of the title after all!) and how might we act if we cared about that?
One big problem I am concerned about is that by writing on too many subjects I risk appearing like a smartass pretentious know it all! I'll have to watch out for that one. It's not a good look for someone with as little knowledge as I have!
I'm still not sure where I'm going with this but it's too late in the day now to be interested.
Hoo Roo.
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