For Lou Micallef

Louise,

You were alway curious,
but i never thought you would find out what lay that side of death
until many years hence.

so it feels peculiar to talk about you as one lost
from this moment, this world, this biosphere

i know that you meditated often, but you were always present here in the 'now'.
it feels so wrong to speak about you in the past tense.

Can't we meet up again?
I want to see you. and talk.

I want you to come, and we can watch the ducks
and marvel at the blades of grass
and the coincidences of life.

I want you to embody that joy that i see in you everywhere you go
closing your eyes, holding the precious moment in your embrace of the world.

You died, a sheet of metal wrapped around a tree. A victim of that which you love, and the drudgery of long country roads.

That image is too much one of cruel finality. i can't leave it there- I can't accept that to be true.
You left your trace- spreading your spirit like glitter everywhere you went.
I'll retrace those steps, and try to spread it all further, so that the world glints like wet pavements in the sun.


---------------------------
I have a story.

Last month, I sat in the Fair Trade Cafe in Glebe with Lou, - we were wet from rain and had taken shelter from a thunderstorm that had evicted us from sitting beside the pond in Victoria Park.

Lou was telling me a story about their work with farmers in the Hunter bioregion (as the BeansTalk co-operative obtains regional fresh food.)

Bek Spies and Monique Wicks came in to the cafe, so I asked Lou to repeat the story to them.
It goes like this:

The BeansTalk food co-op has established such strong links with farmers, that they know when farmers are in distress.

With the drought, there was an organic strawberry farm in the Hunter that was in crisis, to such an extent that they could not afford to employ strawberry pickers to take the crop.

So what did the BeansTalk co-op people do? They piled in a minibus and brought everyone up to the farm. They picked the strawberries themselves, and paid the farmers for them.

The farmers were soooo grateful.


isn't that beautiful???

(maybe someone else knows the details of the story better, so fill in the blanks!)

If you wanted any evidence that the unrestrained market is forcing us to sleepwalk to the edge of a cliff (like that crazy drug stillnox), this photo on the front page of The Australian is it.

action alert

Dear Global Solidaridadders,

URGENT ACTION ALERT: Write to Tony Burke and Kevin Rudd!

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
LABOR KEEPS CHRISTMAS ISLAND GUANTANAMO
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

In just two weeks time, the Labor Party will have its National Policy
Conference at the Darling Harbour Convention Centre in Sydney, and while
many good policies will be promoted and hopefully endorsed during that
weekend, Labor will maintain the horrendous Christmas Island Detention
Centre and the Orwellian Excision Zone amongst its policies, because it
supports a policy of "stopping the boats" - as if this is the "normal state
of affairs".

Australia, in signing the UN Refugee Convention, has promised to keep its
borders open to unannounced asylum seekers, also those arriving by boat.

See http://www.safecom.org.au/alcatraz-downunder.htm

+++++++++++++++++++++++++
LABOR KEEPS EXCISION ZONE
+++++++++++++++++++++++++

By maintaining the Excision Zone, people who land on one of the 4,600
islands inside the zone, do not have to be treated in accordance with the
obligations Australia has under the Refugee Convention. They do not have to
be provided with independent lawyers to help them with their refugee claim.
They can be deported by Australia to "anywhere", such as Nauru, Manus
Island, Indonesia, or any other country that does Australia's bidding.

See http://www.safecom.org.au/alcatraz-downunder.htm

Even while Labor promises not to do that, and says that they will process
everyone on Christmas Island, we should not feel too relaxed about this. The
new Christmas Island detention centre is a maximum-security Guantanamo-style
prison, microwave controlled, with doors and compounds remotely lockable -
wait for it - from Canberra!

See http://www.safecom.org.au/alcatraz-downunder.htm

This is the reason we at Project SafeCom have launched our biggest ever
e-campaign from our website. Through one of our familiar "form pages" you
can now compose your own letter to the Opposition leader Mr Kevin Rudd and
Immigration spokesman Tony Burke MP.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++
500 LETTERS within 36 HOURS
+++++++++++++++++++++++++

Since our campaign started 36 hours ago, almost 500 people sent their letter
to the ALP via KEvin Rudd and Tony Burke - please join them!

Several paragraphs have already been written, and while we recommend you
include all these paragraphs also in your letter, you can preclude them from
being added to your own writing. For both MP's you can add your own
additional paragraphs in the two boxes provided. We have provided a
background page also to inform you why it's so important to write your
letter.

See http://www.safecom.org.au/alcatraz-downunder.htm

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
LABOR WANTS TO "STOP THE BOATS" - WE SAY "THEY MUST COME"
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

We embarked on this campaign to help Labor see that mandatory detention
seriously undermines several International conventions, and to help them
undo the horrors we created during "the Howard years" when we punished
"boat-arrivals" for the way they come to our country.

Australia, in signing the UN Refugee Convention, has promised to keep its
borders open to unannounced asylum seekers, also those arriving by boat.

See http://www.safecom.org.au/alcatraz-downunder.htm

This e-campaign is the largest one we at Project SafeCom have launched in
our 5½ year history, and by participating you can help it grow even more. At
Project SafeCom we are fully prepared for this fight, and we cannot stop our
work before Australian social justice policies and asylum seeker policies
are fully compliant with the United Nations Refugee Convention and all other
conventions.

http://www.safecom.org.au/alcatraz-downunder.htm

Please help us to end these shocking laws. Since the 2001 "Tampa stand-off"
we have seen, heard and read thousands of awful stories of the suffering of
asylum seekers and refugees on TV, Radio and in newspapers, magazines, and
even at the movies. We do not want this kind of Australia any longer.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
No more Horror Stories of the Howard Years under Kevin Rudd!!
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Australia, in signing the UN Refugee Convention, has promised to keep its
borders open to unannounced asylum seekers, also those arriving by boat.

Please visit this web page and click on the red button to write your letter:

http://www.safecom.org.au/alcatraz-downunder.htm

best regards

Jack H Smit
Project SafeCom Inc.
http://www.safecom.org.au/
P.O. Box 364
Narrogin WA 6312