What is?

Listening to Jed McKenna again, again, and here's the pressing statement that seems to pop up continuously in my life like a slap in the face to remind me I waste my days in Maya.

The darling and beautiful Maya... Who would ever want to look the other way? (with thanks)

 Here's the words from the beginning of tape 3 (Spiritual Enlightenment the damnedest thing)

“Truth exists my mind was shrieking, it doesn’t matter what it is or where it is. Somewhere somehow there is truth. I don’t care if it’s in Christianity or Judaism or Islam or the most despised cult in the deepest bowels of depravity. It exists and I will not spend another minute of my life flailing blindly around in the filth or miasma of the universe for any other reason than to find it.

The universe isn’t vague and ignorant, I am vague and ignorant.

Something is true and it doesn’t matter what it is. I am not going to be false any more. I have not even the slightest trace of the slightest reservation about the fact that I would rather suffer and die figuring out what is true than continue this life as a slave to lies and ignorance” 

Whew! Oh Yeh! What got this ball rolling again? Surrounded by lies, myth, deluded rationalization if only I could shut my eyes and enjoy the luxury of being white and living in a wealthy comfortable country. Damn!

What got me listening to that damned fool... so called Jed McKenna (a myth himself) Oh yeh that's right! I had to go and watch Apocalypse Now, again, again! 

Frustrated by dealings with politicians, hypocritical religios, business magnates, sellout, money grubbers and wasters of life and limb I felt compelled to watch that film again!

And 

Captain Willard said:

 "...It's a way we had over here of living with ourselves. We cut 'em in half with a machine gun and give 'em a Band-Aid. It was a lie. And the more I saw them, the more I hated lies."

And Walter E. Kurtz said:

"We train young men to drop fire on people, but their commanders won't allow them to write "fuck" on their airplanes because it's obscene."

"...And if I were to be killed, Willard, I would want someone to go to my home and tell my son everything. Everything I did, everything you saw, because there's nothing that I detest more than the stench of lies. And if you understand me, Willard, you will do this for me." 

And I got a glimpse, through a crack in the curtains, of truth; and Maya whispered in my ear... "Don't look there dear there's nothing for you in that, come back to me, be comfortable and in peace, don't trouble yourself with the lines that flicker across the screen, enjoy the show and relax."....


 But still the babies are crying and imprisoned in gulags on sinking islands in the pacific

Painting of " Ghulam Sakhi Hazara " Hazara artist .

Still the ancient burial grounds and remnant sanctuaries of green are bulldozed while politicians announce "Oh the cleverness of ME!"

The destruction of land preserved for conservation back in the 70s. Who knows what fate the graves

Hard fought for but easily lost (Land set aside for conservation and recognized site of a burial ground)

And still the oil companies fracture and poison the sacred ground under our feet

http://www.ecnt.org/campaigns/dont-frack-territory

Oh Maya darling... Morpheus if you were to offer me the blue pill now how tempted I would be!

Family drama reveals detention contortions - Eureka Street

Over the past few months I've been attending a weekly vigil at the Darwin Airport Lodge Detention Centre.

The Darwin Airport Lodge is listed as an 'Alternative Place of Detention'. There has been a lot of criticism about locking children up in detention centres so the government swapped a few words around and now everyone's happy. The dumb ass Australian public who want to punish people for seeking safety but don't want to be seen to hate children are satisfied that an 'Alternative place of detention' is far more caring and humane than a detention centre. The government invents some crap about creating a deterrent in order to prevent drowning at sea and the Australian public are overjoyed. We get to condemn the evil people smugglers, punish, confuse, condemn and antagonize asylum seekers who risk their lives to find safety simply because the last mode available to them is by sea and continue to feel righteous about ourselves because we are doing all this so that we can assist the refugees who go through the appropriate channels first. What a joke!

Meanwhile there are real human beings who had the misconception that Australia is a safe place with laws that could protect refugees from persecution. When they get here and realize the bitter truth they are crushed! They are completely confused by the lack of humanity in the way they are treated, the lies they are told and the brutal way they are herded up without being told what is happening and shoved around like cattle! We condemn them for not following rules that don't actually exist and then place them in a system that arbitrarily creates and dismantles it's own rules on a whim and expects them to be aware of every policy change being applied to their lives. Reality is continually altered and readjusted by an authority they have very little access to, time is warped by waiting and disappointment, justice is overridden by the incapacity for detention facilities to hold the numbers that are being held for artificially long periods in order to create the illusion of an appropriate length of time one might wait in a queue that never existed and people never know where they will be moved to next. Maybe Melbourne, maybe Sydney maybe Nauro or Manus Island... Maybe sent back to danger because there's no space in the waiting room and nobody wants to asses your claim! 

In the midst of all this there are children! My daughter recently asked " If the people that I go to visit love Australia, why doesn't Australia love them? Why don't we adopt them they could do nice things for Australia?" 

Over the past few months I have met many lovely people, many people who have far greater respect for our country than most of the citizens I have met but they are broken... first by the horrors they have fled but now even worse their sense of hope for any kind of future is being stolen from the by us! No amount of rationalization  can mask the injustices we are perpetrating against these people and the to subject innocent children to these conditions is inexcusable!

If you have any sense of justice you might like to read the story below about Ranjini and her family. How have we come to this place where we as a nation are prepared to rob children of their childhood and their potential to flourish and grow? We are poisoning the roots of our own future!

Here's a story from Eureka Street... food for thought.

Family drama reveals detention contortions - Eureka Street

"...Ranjini's story is another indictment of a collective failure or refusal to imagine the injustice endured by others. We allow ourselves to be distracted by endless abstractions peddled by politicians and the media because if ever we acknowledge the humanity we share with refugees, then we may be compelled to treat them accordingly.
Still, sometimes, despite our best efforts, a name surfaces, photos of a smiling woman emerge. A baby arrives."

 (Author. Fatima Measham)

Emotional

Bleary eyes aren't great lenses for reading but after a full 7 hours sleep I was awake, the house was quiet and I had a great book. After a coffee and a wander around the garden I fell into a comfy lounge chair and picked up that big fat book by Paul Kelly 'How to make gravy'!

HAPPY Drawing by the boy

A chapter for every song in his A - Z kit, every story a slightly different angle, and I'm connecting with every word! The writing is pure! Clear.... A thousand lies couldn't be more true. When I reached a really interesting chapter, Emotional, I heard the bedroom door creak and eldest child came out of her room. Also bleary eyed but keen to chat... It often happens like this, just when I think I've got some time to myself... This chapter surprised me. Paul Kelly's writing can do that. Shifting from amazing introspection to compassionate empathy.

As I read Emotional' I realized that I had misunderstood the lyrics of his song. It was not about what I thought it was. Kelly recounted the intense experience of visiting people in the Baxter detention Centre and the disgraceful treatment of those stuck in the Woomera hell hole! The scenarios are quite familiar to me since they started converting Darwin into a giant emigration detention centre! The sad and horrific stories are not uncommon among people I've met who have been transferred from Christmas Island or those who dread being sent out to Nauru. Living in limbo, having their hopes and spirits crushed at the whim of the Immigration Department who consider punishing them as parto fo some master plan to deter others from seeking safety in Australia. 

As I tried to read this unexpected chapter, which I found particularly interesting, on account of there being at least four detention centres within half an hour drive. my daughter decided it was time for a meaningful conversation about the nature of dragons and unicorns.... I persisted with the book and tried to answer her questions along the way, luckily the chapter was quite short, Kelly got his message across loud and clear, didn't waste any words and told it like it is!

I am so glad he has taken the time to tell this story and that he felt it was worth including in his book. So many Australians couldn't give a flying f-ck about the way Refugees are treated! It seems all the country is now against these people but here's one of our national heros openly declaring his compassion for them, he even wrote a song about it!

My head is swimming with emotion! Love for my kids, connection to the legendary song writer and mostly thoughts of the people I've been meeting at the DAL just down the road from where I live. The latest arrivals are from Iran. They shared their stories with me about the terrible journey across the sea from Indonesia. They all have hopes to see their children grow up in a peaceful place and to learn English and to be happy. It's nearly Christmas and a group of local people I'm involved with are trying to get Christmas presents for the kids.... nearly 180 of them (kids)! We've only got $10 to spend per kid and there's just 9 sleeps until Christmas so the next few days will be busy.

When I'd finished the chapter I put the book down, my was swimming with ideas and emotions. Thinking about the gifts I've got to find with a very limited budget I jumped up to grab the discount store brochure from the dining table... maybe something there. As I strode forward I kicked over my coffe cup! "NOoooooooo!"

Coffee cup with a crack

My favorite coffee cup! I smashed it! The cup I got from the Op Shop two years ago. That one I love with the romantic 1950s Hawaiian scene, with the girls dancing and the colonial American tourists and the flying boat.... Oh... Bleary eyes and foggy mind! Why do you mock me!

I'll try to fix it, no big deal really. What's a broken cup? I heard a fella got charged for smashing up some plates and shit in one of the detention centres! If you fuck up in detention and smash something they can charge you with destruction of property. I reckon if I was in there I'd break every frigging cup I had. What good is a favorite cup!

CROSS Drawing by the boy

Friends

Feeling lonely?

Make some friends!

My kids whipped these little beauties out the other morning, they're sitting on the wall right beside the computer desk...
Not sure where this is going... Gratitude I guess.
Few things are as precious as happy kids!

They're all precious!

Art vs Border Worship

Remember when the last census was held and a bunch of people listed Jedi as their religion?

It was kind of funny but also kind of a mockery of our political system not to mention legitimate religions (on account of I assume many of those who registered as Jedi Knits don't actually adhere to any of the principals that such an order might require... if it actually existed).

Anyway with the very real Humanitarian crises our country appears committed to contributing to I happened to be reading an article the other day that referred to current attitudes toward immigration and providing asylum to those in need. The article written by Elenie Poulos referred to a social condition that the author has labeled 'Border Worship'. It is a scary situation which has already caused our leaders to condemn many people to a fate we should all be ashamed of. Maybe in this years Census, in the interests of producing a more accurate national profile, I wonder how many of us would qualify to register our religion as Xenophobe, Border Worshipers of the, media hyped justification, paranoid variety?

I was just wondering... that's all.

If you're into participating in the propaganda machine there's no end to the Government Spin, media manipulation, Scape Goat Politics and Downright Bastardry.... in the media.The truth, as I see it, is that as a Nation we are supporting policies that contribute to the unnecessary perpetuation of misery anguish and suffering of our fellow human beings and what is worse we are committing children to a future that is dominated by fear and uncertainty. God help them.

If you'd prefer to get to know just who it is that we're Locking up or having 'detained' in prison camps across Northern Australia, and now Malaysia, soon PNG, then head down to the Supreme Court in Darwin over the next week and check out the Exhibition 'Footprints of my heart' which features works of art created by Asylum Seekers who have been detained in the Darwin Detention Center. However if you attend please be on guard. You may be exposed to Works of Art that express Humanity, Love and true feeling. These are not qualities that those who would like to repel asylum seekers from our borders want you to know about!

Book of the week

WE ARE ALL BORN FREE

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Pictures
(Amnesty International UK section 2008)

 (We Are All Born Free)

Yep... just as the title suggests, it is a pictorial presentation of the UN Declaration of Human Rights.
This is a Children's book which presents a 'Simplified Version' of Thirty Human Rights Articles, The book is full of great drawing paintings and various other forms of cool images produced by 22 esteemed illustrators and artists.

Human Rights are not complicated. They are basic... Fundamental expectations that we would hope could be applied to all people regardless of where they are from, regardless of ethnicity, religion etc... etc...

Having attended the Federal Government’s round table discussion on human rights last year I was dismayed to learn that the overwhelmingly supported recommendation for an Australian Bill of Rights has been completely sidestepped.

Here in the NT most people are acutely aware of the fact that the Federal Government suspended the Racial Discrimination Act in order to impose their “Northern Territory National Emergency Response” better known as “The Intervention”.


We have also witnessed the arbitrary axing of Bilingual Education for Indigenous children which, if the decision referred to any actual evidence at all, it was based on erroneous data and nonsense.

Article 26 (part of) “...Our parents have the right to choose how and what we learn...”

Of course if our country has such little regard for the rights of it’s own citizens it should be expected that we would have little concern for the welfare of Asylum seekers or refugees! For those unfortunate enough to have had to flee their own country they may find insult and contempt added to their list of injuries when seek refuge in this Country!

Although most asylum seekers will be granted refugee status and be allowed to stay once they have endured the interminable wait for processing. They’ll enjoy very few basic rights while they are waiting! Here in Darwin Children have been detained for months with very little opportunity or space for play. Although it had been intended for children under 16 to attend school, it has taken months for them to actually have the opportunity. Now we hear that children will be released from detention while awaiting acceptance, but they’ll likely be a year older before that happens... Apparently they may finally taste freedom in June next year!

Article 14 “If we are frightened of being badly treated in our own country, we all have the right to run away to another country to be safe”

A couple of months ago I drove by some Asylum seekers who'd jumped the razor wire fence of the detention center, just so they could stand by the road and hold signs begging for justice and compassion... They cried as drivers abused them for slowing the traffic and making them late for work... I heard that they were taken away soon after that... Who knows where they are now.



Additional Links related to this book

http://www.franelessac.com/docs/teachersnotes/We%20Are%20All%20Born%20Free.pdf