Response to my sister

My sister just sent me this message:


An interesting article by Paul Gray in the Australian today. I like his point about the need for grounding in metaphysical and historical awareness to interpret the signs of the times.


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My response:

Dear L,

Whilst i agree that middle class intellectual culture is somewhat empty, I don't believe that the ABC has much bias in that way, and if anything, is an antidote to that. (Think Geraldine Doogue and Father Bob, and the excellent content on Radio National).

I think it is dangerous to be passive or to endorse the agenda by Howard and News Limited etc to water down the critical content of our media. I think the most important programs that the ABC airs are those that encourage thought outside the box, especially those programs that expose Australian government policy, when it is causing injustice.

There is a strong tradition within journalism, especially investigative journalism, to side with the underdog and to encourage empathy within the general public for the cause of oppressed people. Think about the journalists who were murdered in East Timor, for their heroic work in alerting the Australian people to the injustices of the Indonesian military, that Australia was complicit in, by training soldiers and giving political support to Indonesia and to the US.

If there is no critical thinking in this area, where will it be?

-In the history lessons? Oh no- that's a 'black armband view of history'.

-In English lessons? Oh no - that's the 'postmodern menace'.

-Through universities and student protests? Oh no- student organisations have lost most of their funding, because they use
student funds to campaign against government policy, and pull down fences at Woomera Detention Centre.

-In Non-Government Organisations such as Greenpeace? Oh no- due to recent legislation, they get their 'charity status' revoked if they are 'political' and disagree with the government.

-In other media outlets? Oh no the cross media ownership laws will further concentrate Australia's media ownership (it is already the most concentrated in the world). See Friends of the ABC submission to the cross media ownership Inquiry.

If you don't usually notice the agenda by Howard and Co to remove the critical infrastructure of Australian society, then you will not understand the urgency with which I approach life, and the grave responsibility of our generation to take action.

Can we win against global warming if we have an uncritical media like FOX/ Murdoch that is favourable to the agendas of oil companies?

Can we free the refugees from indefinite detention on Lombok, Manus Island, Christmas Island, etc when our ABC is silenced?

Can we revoke the Work Choices legislation if the media is a cheerleader for it?

x,
A.

Spectator culture and the internet

I think we all need to give up our addictions to the internet.

Until around eight years ago, I successfully resisted all aspects of 'spectator culture': I never watched TV (and campaigned against my siblings watching TV); I rarely went to sports games or theatre: I prefered to spend my time participating rather than watching. The internet has changed this.

The internet is 'interactive' to a small degree, however I believe it is overwhelmingly passive.

Since I gained my first hotmail address in 1998, I have been glued to the computer screen. Early on, I subscribed myself to email lists that sent voluminous tracts of mail to my slow computer, occupying me sometimes for eight hours at a time. The Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator List was the worst, sending many threads exploring idiosyncratic commonalities between us INFP's, spread across continents and mainly in North America. Since then, being on many different activist lists has sometimes felt like I was taking action, when in reality I wasn't doing much.

In its most recent issue, The Ecologist explores this phenomenon, describing the gadgets that surround us as "Electric Cabaret", allowing easy access for marketers to make their presence known in our spare time, and enabling us to take refuge from the problems of everyday life. The author writes of the role of Cabaret in Weimar Germany, when 'Cabarets provided refuge from social ills fomenting in the streets, at home and at work, where the bourgeoisie could escape the apocalyptic horsemen on the horizon.'

Such is the state of denial in our world today. (to be continued)

A PALESTINIAN VIEW OF JIMMY CARTER'S BOOK
Ali Abunimah, The Wall Street Journal, 26 December 2006

here (electronic intifada)


Ali Abunimah is co-founder of The Electronic Intifada and
author of "One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the
Israeli-Palestinian Impasse" (Metropolitan Books, 2006).

George Monbiot and air travel

In response to the vicious comments slamming George Monbiot for his air travel:

In these times, the cynical couch commentator has arisen to claim his place as the premier judge of right and wrong.

HYPOCRITE!!! is his gleeful cry, slamming yet another person who advocates principles and holds people accountable to them.

Such people take great pleasure in trampling 'tall poppies', especially those who state inconvenient facts, making people uncomfortable.

Yet a hypocrite is hardly the worst thing you can be.

If you dare to have ANY principles in this world, you are a hypocrite, since as citizens, we are all complicit through our insufficient action, in massive, unprecedented injustice.

(hence, the equation goes, you should not publicly advocate any principles if you don't want to be a hypocrite).

Renowned cancer scientist was paid by chemical firm for 20 years

From The Guardian::

Sarah Boseley, health editor
Friday December 8, 2006
The Guardian

A world-famous British scientist failed to disclose that he held a paid consultancy with a chemical company for more than 20 years while investigating cancer risks in the industry, the Guardian can reveal.

Sir Richard Doll, the celebrated epidemiologist who established that smoking causes lung cancer, was receiving a consultancy fee of $1,500 a day in the mid-1980s from Monsanto, then a major chemical company and now better known for its GM crops business.

While he was being paid by Monsanto, Sir Richard wrote to a royal Australian commission investigating the potential cancer-causing properties of Agent Orange, made by Monsanto and used by the US in the Vietnam war. Sir Richard said there was no evidence that the chemical caused cancer.
continued....

zinc mine

.

So, are we trading the Rainbow Serpent Dreaming for sunscreen?

Well, a zinc mine to be more specific...

Seems so, in relation to the expansion of the McArthur River zinc and lead mine in the NT, operated by Xstrata, one of the biggest mining companies in the world, based in Switzerland.

My task at the moment, is to tell the story of the Traditional Owners and to motivate you to act to stop such environmentally preposterous decisions.

The mine violates the Traditional Owners wishes, destroying sites and ecosystems that are sacred. The Native title situation is as follows:

While Traditional Owners have a Native Title claim over the mine site, they still have no formal veto rights over the new project. On meeting with many of the traditional owners in Borroloola it was clear that there were many concerns about the possible impacts of the project. In 2003, Harry Lansen, a senior traditional owner for the mine site opposed the expansion on ABC television's Stateline program saying "It is no good. I will be sick if they cut the place, because my spirit is there. All my songs are across the river.I don't want to see that thing happen in the McArthur River." (Environment Centre Northern Territory website).

Here is a picture of locals who travelled 1000 km to Darwin, to take their protest to NT's parliament:

.

.

And here is a map showing where the site is in relation to Darwin:

I remember looking at that region on Google Earth last year (when i was overseas), and marvelling at the beautiful winding rivers in the Gulf of Carpentaria- you should look!!.

As the open-cut pit will be located at the current site of the river bed, there are big problems for the functioning of the watercourse. Here is a diagram of the proposed location of the mine:

One of the reasons why this crazy expansion decision was approved, was that John Howard put pressure on Claire Martin (the NT chief minister) in a letter that was leaked to Lateline (I think- i need to find more about this).

So, go to the Environment Centre NT's website, and take action, OR if there is an Xstrata office near you, take your complaints directly to them.

from Joseph Toscano, whose Anarchist Age is sometimes interesting:


STOP PRESS

OVERFISHED

It is hard to believe that Australian fisheries are in danger of
being wiped out. How can a country with the third largest
fishing zone in the world, covering nearly 9 million square
kilometres, extending 200 kilometres from the coastline, find
itself in such a parlous situation? Australia has currently
allocated 1200 commercial fishing licenses. They catch about
72,000 tonnes of fish a year to generate a $500 million income.
Things have become so bad, commercial fishing licenses will be
decreased from 1,200 to 600 during the next 12 moths, through
license buy back schemes that will cost about $150 million.

It seems that both Federal and State governments have taken
little notice of the lessons of the past. Within a decade of
the beginning of white colonisation, Australia's abundant seal
supplies disappeared. Commercial whaling had the same effect on
the country's whaling stock. The problem is not just a local
problem; it is a world wide problem. The world's fisheries
have come under sustained attack from commercial interests over
the past few decades. Larger ships that are able to stay out
longer and refrigerate larger catches have depleted the world's
fisheries stocks.

The tragedy about the coastal fishing industry is that the
situation has arisen because governments have done little to
ensure that fishing stocks are rested. Resting coastal
fisheries and allowing the fish to breed, can overcome the
severe pressure many find themselves in today. Like any
renewable resource, management is the key to maintaining
adequate supplies of fish. Water, the forests and now
fisheries find themselves in this situation because State
governments have over allocated licenses, believing there is no
tomorrow.

The fate of the country's fisheries in an indictment on an
economic system that forces people to stay in jobs that do
damage to the environment because their livelihood is tied up
in that industry. It makes little sense to continue to pursue
economic initiatives that have caused so much irreparable damage
in such a short time.



Joseph TOSCANO / Libertarian Workers For A Self-Managed Society.

I've been thinking about middle-class angst, what makes it middle class, whether it is socially useful, etc.

I was talking to Rachel (i forget her last name) today in the food coop about how 'existential crisis' is a sign of privilege, of the fact that you actually have options with your life (rather than working class people who feel like they don't have many options.

Also, i notice how many privileged people have 'issues'.


Middle Class Angst/ existential crisis:

WHAT IS IT RELATED TO?
lack of social solidarity, competitive environments, urban alienation, productive alienation (cannot see tangible results from work), overwork, underwork, narcissism, 'the figure of the artist', peer groups, high expectations, a lack of 'meaning', a lack of a narrative structure (such as a struggle for survival) giving order to ones' life, the inability to express freedom in meaningful ways.


anyways- something to think about...

Here is a short film on You Tube about the Anvil Hill campaign to stop an open cut coal mine near Wybong in the Upper Hunter Valley.

Christine Phelps, an amazing community advocate, is featured in the film. I was lucky enough to meet her and interview her for my thesis- she spoke to me about the efforts she has made over the years to try to keep coal companies accountable to local people.

Also, today, Kevin Rudd was elected as leader of the opposition. I'm actually really excited about this. He recently gave an excellent speech critiquing Hayek's neoliberal ideas at that bastion of neoliberal thought, the Centre for Independent Studies.

My grandma (my mum's mum) died this morning. We just got back from the Nursing home, where we said a few decades of the Rosary (Hail Marys) around the bed. She was clutching her wooden rosary beads. It was also my parents' 35th wedding anniversary, and my youngest brother (John)'s birthday.