Long Time No Write

I have forgotten.
I have forgotten how to write privately without any concern for those who might read.
I must get back into it.

I have been going to counselling...(such an American thing to do I know, but we in Australia are finally catching up to those things that really matter and it has nothing to do with Psychiatry....it has to do with Mental health).

So here I sit...late at night on a different medium from my usual old clunky and ancient computer, set in the bowels of my home, away from my loved ones and away from the warmth of my lover and our pup.

I sit being with my man, who is watching a foreign movie, I think from Spain this time. He loves 'other' cultures and we in our poorness have tried to embark on infecting this on our children. It seems to have worked thus far.

Our son is still in South Korea.
Our eldest daughter who turns 32 tomorrow, is ensconced in her beloved theatre in Sydney.
Our youngest has just married for the second time to (this time) the man of her dreams. She has just returned from a 'honeymoon' to die for.
Well we would have.

When we went on our 'honey moon' we went with a few dollars in our pockets and a pocket full of sand in a mini minor to the small settlement (it is not even a hamlet) west of here. He was scalded by a sick radiator of the little mouse car and we spent our three day 'honeymoon' having sex careful of his burnt side.

Our baby went on a months tour of Europe.

She sent back photos and updates and even rang me from Paris.

She said; "Europeans are filthy animals. They cough, spit, and wipe snot and leave toilets unflushed. They have no 'rules' ( "Rules"  I queried?) about roads and etiquette and dog shit. Parisians and Romans leave dog shit everywhere. They, she said complain about Asians...I have travelled around SE Asia ( Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos) and I expect the poverty to be dirty...but Europeans think they are superior...THEY AREN'T "..she said.

She saw London and Bath, Bristol and Oxford, Dublin, Cork ( where her paternal ancestry began) and Paris, Rome and Dubai.

She has been the eyes of our dreams.

She said;
"Mum. Dad would be disgusted. You know more than anyone else and you don't need to have travelled. I am grateful for all you have taught me...how to eat in 'foreign ' restaurants..how the tables are set and the wine glasses are used. I didn't know that some people, no matter the private schooling they were given, were not taught these basics".

She told us how we did good.

My baby travelled and saw and cried and took photos...she did it for her and her new husband and her parents...her poor and travel poor parents.

(J and A...Guess where?)

She reassured us we were fine...we 'knew' without having had travelled.

BUT:

I wish
I wish for him
I wish for me
Those beautiful sights and sounds and being theres.

I wanted for me to learn and experience and be.
I wanted for him to be reassured, uplifted, soared on the wings of 'I knew it, I knew it'...Nothing but sadness and melancholy remains for us..;.

But for her
And for all our babies....
They are doing it for us..music, education, travel and living.

One thing that is left for all of them...

The getting and giving of babies......

Now there is a thing.......

Lest We Forget

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_Iraq_War


Enough!

Enough!

Tis the end....I rest my case.

HURT

It has been many a month since I posted on blogger. I have been busy with hubby's health, new pup training, counselling, and keeping nose above water, or the wolf from the door, or living on the smell of an oily rag.

Have been ensconced in my ancestry research and have 'met' some nice people and actually some who are in the flesh, cousins, I never knew existed.

Our daughter is getting married ( again..this time NOT to a religious nutta) in August and is coming 'home' to do so on our lovely headland. THIS time she has a lovely man, who adores her, who is intelligent and we know will look after her.

She has travelled to South Korea to visit her brother along with her new fiance and has reported back that all is well and no longer do I need to 'worry' about the son.

Our PM has upset me, leaving me without a rudder or even a compass which to steer my trust and belief in the basics of her party's tenets.

I have been keeping an eye on Yankee-land, watching the new President wend his way around the flunkies and the stupidity of the GOP, and the blocking of caring and inclusive ideas that would help the least of those in that mighty land.

I have seen the cynics who expected him to be an almost christ like leader, feel childish spoilt disappointment that 'santa isn't real'...but in fact THIS President is the most real in many a decade America has ever had.

Then came...bin Laden.

I was shocked, not by the USA finally shooting the shit out of him, I expected that, but by the outlandish, embarrassing and shameful way the citizenry behaved..dancing on the body of another human.

Then came the biggest shock of all.

I was hurt.
I was accused of 'not understanding' of 'it not being your country' of being way off centre in my shock and awe at the reaction of a people who I had grown once again to admire.
It hurt.
It hurt to be told that it wasn't within my MY graps to 'get' how important this was to USA.
What a fucking thing to say.

Looking back to the history since September Eleventh you can study and examine the manipulation, the lies, the stupidity of the then "President" and with all the information out there..as to why it happened, as to who were these people and what was their gripe et al, the thing that stood out was....A small section of the worlds population who felt 'hard done by' by the yankees.
The fact that bin Laden and his family were friends of the highest echelon of US politics and corporation leaders, that they were a rich, powerful family with connections and had an insiders understanding of US politics and power mongering...never occurred to those who were told that the family were flown out by private aircraft in the wake of the horrific event in New York and Washington.

That at the time only 3000 members existed of this pathetic, backward and misguided group professing responsibility.

And the ships sailed.

Instead of leadership in a time of trouble, instead of calmness and reassurance in a time of horror, what did the people get instead? A mad war mongering idiot who had 'other' reasons to let loose the dogs of war....and my oh my I am saying now...IT HURT US/ME.

My little land DU,  was whipped up by a thoughtless, career mongering, selfish, narcissitic, politician who was 'good mates' with the idiot from Yankeeland.

Our whole calm, sweet, free, honest, larconic and larrikin way of life changed FOREVER!

My neighbours said they were frightened we were going to be bombed...no not the land DU...'we' meaning MY NEIGHBOURHOOD..this little insignificant unknown village in NSW. How fucked up was that!!!!
Then people started 'hating'. They hated our local Seik community whose women wore saris and covered their hair loosely with beautiful silk swathes of material.
They started hating those who 'were NOT of the Judeo/Christian' faith.'
They started being suspicious of anyone who looked like 'middle eastern' people and took them all ALL to be card carrying practising followers of Islam.
How fucked up was that.
Then we were told to be 'alert not alarmed'. Guess what? The whole fucking country became ALARMED!
Then we were told; We are taking away your freedoms, your rights to protect you!
How fucked up is that?
Then we were told we would have to be searched going through airports for the first time in our history!!!
My man was stipped of his belt, shoes and dignity because he sets off the alarms because he has had hip replacements.
How fucked up is that!

What happened in USA..no not Ireland, South Africa, Rwanda, Bosnia, Russia, Chetchnya, Argentina, Central America, Fiji, Samoa, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Crete, Israel, Palestine and all the other areas in the world where the most HORRIFIC acts of TERROR have occurred in the past hundred years...changed Australian law and lives FOREVER!

So you HURT me when you said 'it was not my country who was damaged or attacked'. You hurt me to the quick..also because I am a kind, caring , loving, highly sensitive person to anyone who is in pain, who has felt any kind of hurt, fear or horror in their lives.
You HURT me, you who have 'known' me through these pages and through the vilification I have personally experienced when all I wanted was America to be mindful of why 'IT' happened in the first place to to LEARN FROM HISTORY..coz you are now going to fucking repeat it...and we along with you....

You hurt me and I will forgive you. I would like a 'sorry' but won't get it yet.

I will wait and try to heal.

Tim Minchen

Tim speaks for me.

I Miss Him

This is why I believed in Kevin as my PM.
Even though he was a Christian, even though he was a workaholic and expected his fellow government workers to equal him, even though he was a 'right winger, left side of politics' and even though he spoke words that some could not understand or comprehend, he had a vision.

I miss his drive and vision for Australia and the world.

Public Enemies

Just saw "Public Enemies" with Johnny Depp.

I will watch anything  he does even if the story line does not appeal.

Did some research on John Dillinger and point directly at his upbringing and the incident where he was gaoled for 20 years for a robbery as a young chap. As he said he was going to get out of prison being the hardest darnest man alive. That is what prison does/did.

Now....the movie was fine...Depp as usual did a stellar job. Christopher Bale was very good too and I like the costumes and the look of the times.

I did not like:

Firstly the use of the camera!

Horrible horrible, distracting and made me feel like I was the actual camera person! I was looking at a movie being made down a lense so it broke the sense of place and pace for me.

Secondly the editing!

Shocking, sloppy, psuedo neauvo claptrap. Out of focus and preemptive on some entrances by characters. Bad stuff.

Thirdly ( and hence because of the first two) the directing.

Not the direction of the actors, but direction of the camera movement, focus, preemptive sight lines.
Not good.

However Johnny is always worth watching.

The blurb from the director Michael Mann saying that Dillinger was a complex character was pure bullshit.
He was not. He was a damaged person trying to be someone else. He had a dream and he wanted to live in the moment. Full stop.

I don't care if you watch it or not. I am not recommending nor not recommending it. Watch it for Johnny Depp. Full stop.

Australia's Fickleness

What a fickle and pathetic place Australia is becoming. Like a popularity contest, or a celebrity tv show, we Australians expect our Prime Minister, Premiers, Ministers of State to be attractive, sporty, easy to work for and desirable.

Instead of finally relishing in a hardworking, bi-lingual, compassionate and visionary leader, a true LEADER, we punished him for being a tough boss.

Here is his list of accomplishments in TWO AND A HALF YEARS! Which one would you rather he did not do so he could remain 'popular'?

Here is his final speech  as PM, found as a transcript on the THIRD page of Google. How pathetic a country..so quick to forget the horrors of the Coalitions rule.

 "I was elected by the Australian people as Prime Minister of this country to bring back a fair go for all Australians and I have given my absolute best to do that, I've given it my absolute all. In that spirit I am proud of the achievements that we have delivered to make this country fairer.




I'm proud of the fact that we kept Australia out of the global


economic recession. I'm proud of the fact that had we not done so we

would have had a half a million Australians out there out of work,

because that's what happened around the rest of the world.



I'm proud of the fact that we got rid of Workchoices and restored


decency to the workplace.



I'm proud of the fact that we started to build the nation's


infrastructure including a National Broadband Network which I

fundamentally believe will transform this economy in ways which we

have yet to conceive, fundamentally transform our businesses and the

way in which Governments operate, health services are delivered and

the way in which education is delivered in our classrooms. The missing

piece of 21st century kit for our country.



I'm proud of the fact that we have begun the education revolution.


300,000 extra computers in classrooms; that's a pretty big thing for a

kid in a classroom who has never seen a computer on their desk before.



I'm proud of the fact that we now have Trades Training Centres built


to service every one of our nation's secondary schools.




I'm proud of the fact that new libraries are springing up right across


the country, often in schools which have never had a library before in

their lives, or in some places, have never had a new building built in

their schools since the War.



I'm proud of the fact that we now have nationwide early childhood education.






I'm proud of the fact that we now have a national curriculum for our


schools, for every State of our nation and the Territories.



I'm proud of the fact that we now have 50,000 more university places


and the fact that we have invested so much more in our universities,

in our research.



I'm really proud of the fact that we've reformed the health system; a


National Health and Hospitals network. When we look back on this in a

decade's time, and the fact that we've made the Australian Government,

for the first time in our history, the dominant funder of our nation's

public hospital system. This will be seen as a very, very deep reform.



I'm proud of the fact that we are building 20 regional cancer centres


right across our country. You know if you go out there and people are

suffering from cancer, it does alter your priorities. Many of those

folk have never had decent cancers services before, never, and I was

always stunned by the fact that people out there are three times more

likely to die in the first years of their diagnosis through the lack

of services. We've done something to change that, and it's big. It's

the biggest investment in cancer services our nation has ever seen.



I'm proud of the fact, and some people have probably never heard of


this one, that we have a National Organ Transplant Authority. As

somebody who borrowed someone else's aortic valve I feel a particular

responsibility for that. There's nothing like having a bit of somebody

else in you, it focuses the mind and in my case also focuses the

heart. What I'm really pleased about in the last two months is the

organ donation rates for the first time have started to rise. People

now are getting transplants because we chose to make a difference.

That's the funny thing about health isn't it, has an effect on you.



I'm proud of the fact that we've restored decency to the aged pension,


it's pretty important, making sure that people on the aged pension

have some capacity for human dignity. An extra $100 is the biggest

increase in the pension's history.



I'm proud of the fact that we now have paid parental leave, it's been

a long time coming.



I'm proud of what we've done on homelessness. I'm proud of the fact

that we're on track to halve homelessness in this country through work

like common ground in which Therese is directly involved.



I'm proud of the fact that we're adding 20,000 additional units of


social housing. I can't stand it when you go to places and there is

literally no place at the inn.



I'm proud of the fact that the first thing we did in Government was


ratify the Kyoto protocol. I'm also proud of the fact that we boosted

the renewable energy target to 20 per cent. I'm proud of the fact that

we tried three times to get an emissions trading scheme through this

parliament, although we failed. And, if I had one point of future

policy it must be our ambition to pass a Carbon Pollution Reduction

Scheme within this parliament, the one that follows, I mean, so that

we can make a difference, a real difference, to climate change.



I'm proud of the fact that we now have, for the first time in the


country's history, a Murray-Darling Basin Authority, and for the first

time in our history a basin-wide plan and a basin-wide cap on water.



Also proud of the fact that on the global stage Australia is now at


the table of the G20. This is big for the country. When we look back

on that in 10 years' time, having a place at the table when stuff goes

wrong around the world is pretty useful. We lobbied hard and long for

that. It is a good achievement for Australia for the future.



I'm proud of the fact that we are closing the gap between Indigenous


and non-Indigenous Australians. Little things and big things: putting

hundreds of Indigenous kids with scholarships into our nation's

leading boarding schools; backing such things as the Clontarf Academy,

now 22 of them we fund around the nation, to get kids to school and

boost their attendance by providing AFL training. I'm proud of the

fact that we're behind a commitment to create 50,000 additional jobs

for Indigenous Australians with the private sector, and I'm most proud


of the fact that about here, we greeted the stolen generations.




As Therese reminded me, that was a big day. What I remember most about

it, for those of you who weren't here, was as the stolen generations

came in from over there, they were frightened. Our job was to make

them welcome.



The Apology was unfinished business for our nation. It is the


beginning of new business for our nation.




What I'm less proud of is the fact that I have now blubbered.



I hope I've been able to demonstrate to you that this has been a very

busy two and a half years. We have thrown our absolute all at this and

I believe when we look back at this these reforms will endure into the


future and make Australia, I believe, a fairer and better place than


it would otherwise have been."



Poor Fellow My Counrty INDEED!