Always the bridesmaid, poor Pete Costello had his smug smile wiped off this week when his boss decided to stay on until he’s wrecked the country properly.
But after a couple of tense days, the two seem to have ironed out their differences, heading off what looked like it might have been a major scrag fight. Howard, being the astute political operator he is, knows how to keep the parliamentary party under control.
Two months on from the end of the war and still no weapons of mass destruction paraded victoriously before the cameras. Are we surprised? Well, yes. I for one expected that the Americans would have planted something by now.
In the US, there’s apparently little talk of missing WMDs; the Americans, being American (bless ‘em), aren’t especially concerned with such trivia now that the war has been won by the Forces of Good™. But here in Australia and in the UK, things are not so simple: not everyone here is as convinced of the goodness of America’s intentions.
The crisis surrounding our embattled Governor-General continues to descend, somewhat predictably, into a nauseating mixture of tragedy, comedy and farce.
Like a lot of people, I was pretty stunned by last night’s bombshell TV performance by "Dr" Hollingworth (he has about as much claim to the title "Doctor" as I have to "Pope", but that’s the least of his failings) in which he told us that he has been accused in court of raping a woman almost 40 years ago, that he had the allegations hushed up, and that his accuser is now dead: she appears to have committed suicide a couple of weeks ago. Continue reading
What fun it is to be a citizen of one of the few morally bankrupt countries despicable enough to sign on for George Bush’s sordid ‘Coalition of the Willing’.
As an Australian, you get used to third-rate ‘leadership’. You get used to politicians who cheat, lie and swindle for their personal gain and who perpetuate their positions by sowing hatred and division while spouting fatuous platitudes about ‘Aussie mums and dads’, ‘battlers’ and ‘ordinary folk doing it tough in the bush’. It’s par for the course here in Godzone. It’s the Australian way. Continue reading
(Letter published in the Sydney Morning Herald)
Once, no so long ago, Australia was a place that welcomed "boat people" — refugees from countries torn apart by war, those seeking asylum from totalitarian regimes, the huddled masses yearning to break free, etc. It made us proud to be living in such a tolerant, humane, decent country and it so enriched our culture to have had repeated influxes of people from many cultures.
But, no more. So I’m trying to do something about it.
Our current government treats refugees – "illegal immigrants" in the official propaganda – as criminals. After a long and often dangerous voyage fleeing inhumane treatment in their homeland, we welcome these victims of opression by locking them in "detention centres" – more like concentration camps – in some of the most remote and inhospitable parts of the country while they are "processed" and eventually sent back to the countries from which they escaped. Our immigration minister is proud of the fact that he acts as jailer to thousands of men, women and children whose only crime has been to seek a better life in Australia. He sees immigration policy as a means to keep people out of Australia. Continue reading
(Recycled from the House of Love)
I won’t take any credit for predicting with such pinpoint accuracy the outcome of the Supreme Court case and the American Presidency. It was, after all, the same outcome predicted by just about everyone. So congratulations to President Dickhead — we’re all looking forward to four years every bit as inspiring and entertaining as your father’s incumbency.
(Recycled from the House of Love)
Dear America,
Please consider the following:
- democracy: noun
- a system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives. (Late 16th cent.: from French démocratie, via late Latin from Greek dêmokratia, from dêmos ‘the people’, + -kratia ‘power, rule’).
[New Oxford Dictionary of English, 1998 edition.]
(Recycled from the House of Love)
It’s been more than a month, I know. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.
Time and motion being the scarce commodities they are, there just hasn’t been the critical mass of opportunity it takes — these days — to stir me into words. So, sorry. Continue reading
(Recycled from the House of Love)
Yesterday: the Biennale, the once-every-two-years feast of contemporary art that has thrilled, shocked, entertained and nonplussed Sydney since 1973, with (dark malevo-) Lance. And it’s surprisingly good, at least to my eyes. The MCA, we agreed, has the best work, although the AGNSW is worth a look too, mostly for Tracey Moffat and of course Yoko Ono’s coffins. Continue reading