Picture of the Week (Let pointer linger over picture for description)
Caesar. Slickly Engineered. Smooth As.
I'm a Filipino-Aussie in Sydney. I'm enjoying this, for the multi-cultural perspective it's offering me. I believe there's one world, but it could do with some change. This is my personal, and consequently political, statement as well.
Hello visitor. The tagboard is there for you to put comments in. I would appreciate it if you'd make your visit felt.
A fitting finale, finally saw ‘Australia’, the movie, at the same place where it world-premiered. It’s the love story of Lady Ashey (Nicole Kidman) and the Drover (Hugh Jackman). It’s also about Aboriginal customs, including the Dreamtime and Walkabout (Sometimes when you get lost, you find yourself). In the movie, the Drover and Nullah, the half-caste boy, mention that when you die, you leave everything but your story.
The intro also mentions the ‘lost generation’, when half-breed children (between white Australians and Aboriginal women) were forced to serve white communities, schooled by the churches, with science used as justification for genetic cleansing ‘to breed out the black’. According to PM Kevin Rudd in his apology to the Aborigines this year, the complex problems of post-reformation theology were resolved this way. Children were told to stand up in lines. Line 1: Methodist; Line 2: Baptist; Line 3: Catholic. (Some of the dialogues in the party scene were taken verbatim from the PM’s speech).
Some nitpicking:
- Perhaps the greatest ironic movie death: Nullah’s mother dies in a very dry place - nearly a desert - by, among other things, drowning, in a water tank several feet in the air. This is while trying to save her son from being taken by the coppers who would take him to the missions to be ‘civilised.’
- Too many deaths of the supporting characters.
- I thought the movie peaked when the cattle were taken to the ship’s hold, but then the movie drags on just to show the Japanese bombing Darwin.
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The apology was one of the greatest events I have witnessed. It counts as one score victory for progressive forces. Having imbibed an ethnic identity myself makes it significant, and I am proud to have been at the same time and place when it was sincerely offered. It is, of course, a product of the marches of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people fighting for recognition of rights, and is a testament to the power of collective struggle to change things. It gives hope that change can be achieved if people raise their voices enough. As said in the movie, just because it is, doesn’t mean it should be.
Some other world-shaking events I have witnessed and participated in.
- EDSA II for obvious reasons.
- This economic nosedive at present confirms”ED’s” we had about booms and busts during college days. Then, it was just abstract, but now they come into realisation makes you wake up. That theory comes alive, and the conclusions from them are not only true, but imperative. If this is the best economic system we can have, woe to us indeed. If this is the optimal way we can organise society, at the immiseration of millions, while the rich few (who also caused the financial crisis) get suckled with public money, then stuff it. We can create a new way. The latest events offer a glimpse of other possibilities.
Stop Australian Government's planned Net Censorship!
The Australian government's plan to censor the Internet is absurd and irrational. The Australian Electronic Frontier Group (EFA) has come up with the following points:
1. The Government has failed to identify a need for this policy. 2. Even if there was a need, the Government has failed to demonstrate that its solution is wanted by the public. 3. Even if the public wanted this solution, it won't work. 4. Even if it could work, it's too expensive. 5. Even if it wasn't too expensive, it'll be implemented poorly. 6. In the unlikely event that it's implemented perfectly, it will enable child abuse.
The last point is predicated on Newton's assertion that a leak of the blacklist itself is inevitable, and once that happens it will spread among pedophile groups helping unscrupulous individuals locate child pornography web sites that are up and online.
The filter technology has also been shown to slow down Internet speeds.
If you're Aussie, sign the petition against Net censorship: here
Alright, it's time to prepare for another round of market panic. Here are a few warning signs: - Despite a $25Bn bailout on the way from the US House of Representatives spearheaded by Nancy Pelosi, General Motors needs another $50Bn. This, inspite of the company admitting cash reserves bleeding at $2.5 Bn a month. - AIG's total rescue package is a walloping $150 Bn - Despite $100Bn in bailouts, Fannie Mae lost $29 Bn in the third quarter. - Other bailouts.
Take note, the financial crisis was preceded by a hit in the real economy. The bailout in the automotive sector might have some value, as the jobs of 1.4 million auto workers are in line, in contrast to the financial sector where traders are just shuffling papers around. But again, this could be a losing proposition in the long-run, it is unsustainable.
In light of these, one question needs to be asked: Where will Washington get at least $2 Trillion to fund the bailouts? Answer: They will borrow that money. Just recently, the US Treasury announced borrowings of $550 Bn - which is more than the 2008 fiscal deficit. What this means: This would mean plunging bond prices. Previously, traders weren't allowed to sell bonds short. But now, vultures in the form of speculators would be waiting to profit from this fallout, so the entire outcome would be interesting to see. Now the empire is really taking a hit.
In another system where social needs dictate the economy, bailouts might have worked, but in a system dominated by capital and markets, the bailouts only lead to further speculation and panic. As noted by Ibon economist Rose Guzman, it is not profit that is taking a hit, it is the rate of profit, unacceptable to the capitalists. Productive capacity is still the same, the technologies are there, but because it is profit-motivated, a crisis erupts.
--- In other news, China introduced a $586bn economic stimulus. Would be interesting where that goes.
That's it. Barack Obama wins to become the first black president of
the United States, breaking one of the most brittle glass ceilings-
race.
Now he has to handle a nosediving economy and two wars.
Now,
on to the greater tasks of Change. Next on the agenda should include
class, women, indigenous people, community and the environment. This
opens a new opportunity, as nations around the world are going
centre-left in protest of right-wing policies that have damaged our
very core as people of the world. The key is more lobbying and pressure
from progressive groups and to remove all other right-wing governments,
especially the murderous ones.
On a lighter note, kasalanan ito nina Morgan Freeman and shows like 24 na may mga African-American presidents.
Defying the crunch, Melbourne Cup bets was the biggest this year. All that hoopla for one race. Viewed won, with Bauer coming second and C'est La Guerre 3rd.
T.S. Eliot once penned a poem called 'The Hollow Men.'
Eliot wrote: Between the desire And the spasm Between the potency And the existence Between the essence And the descent Falls the Shadow
Ladies and gentlemen, 79 years after the last Great Depression*, we are now glimmering at the shadow. We have the choice between the spasm of an old world that has shown the sickening sight of vast wealth amidst the misery of millions of people, where the rich and powerful get salvaged while the rest continue to drown. Where $700 Bn can easily be thrown to float the very speculators that dragged down a financial pyramid, but $72 billion that can greatly reduce poverty in Africa cannot be spared.
This is the way the world ends This is the way the world ends This is the way the world ends Not with a bang but a whimper.
The news today has been headlined by a slight rise in the markets, about how investors who have been looking for a bargain are buying assets for gain. It is never about the people who have lost their jobs, or those stressed by their mortgages. The spotlight is rarely beamed on the struggles of ordinary folks. They are raised to the pulpit only to be cannon fodder, as when New York's firemen are hailed as heroes, when the memories of the dead are dredged up to drum up a war and occupation that's dragged far longer than the Second World War.
If no alternative is dreamed of, the sycophants would only let us chew this story: it was just greed, we can reform the system. Never mind that it was always coming, when overproduction brought on the crises, but looking for new markets and sources of profit would temporarily stave them off, always at the expense of millions of people.
Between the conception And the creation Between the emotion And the response Falls the Shadow
We can choose that world, or we can act on a better dream. Of social justice and social equality. Where wealth is redistributed, not for its own sake (as despised by one presidential candidate), but to create more opportunities for everyone, to be more productive and appreciative of their community, and of their world.
We should hammer the coffin on a despicable system that breeds on and fosters greed. A scythe can forge a new path towards the new land. There is "sunlight on a broken column," and the view is breathtaking.
In a time of darkness, the eye begins to see.
* The Great Depression officially started on October 29, 1929, and was ended with a war.
There are a few ways that a government or ruling elite can do to make people subjugated, and thus, to undermine democracy.
One of them is to frighten them. An enemy has to be produced, real or fabricated, so that the the public will stand behind the backs of their rulers. So, for example, the GMA Administration can drum up the chaos supposedly started by the MILF. And being forceful, the Arroyo government can present itself as a gallant defender of the people, effectively distracting the people to the real enemy, namely, itself.
It helps that the mass organisations of the very critics have been decimated or at least crippled to a certain degree. So the political killings of leftists and journalists had their use - and though the benefits may just be tactical and may not be viable in the long run - it buys time. It also helps that enough of the intelligentsia, which helps shape opinion, tacitly or by silence, supports the atrocities.
The more people are atomised, the less they act in a collective manner, then 'strong leaders' can have their way. It is hard to govern people when there is a real working democracy. People usually protest when their fundamental interests are threatened. Ask the French, for example, when their social benefits are being scrapped.
Another way to undermine democracy is to make people demoralised. So when an attempt is made to impeach an unpopular leader like Arroyo, it can be quelled by her allies. Thus, a legal way to fix a fault in a democracy is effectively blocked. Those who attempted the impeachment can be reviled as idiots, and can be accused of 'politicking' in a time of economic crisis.
It helps that people are demoralised or too weak to take action, by the simple fact that the confidence they need to speak out is overwhelmed by the need to survive on a daily basis, when the living wage is so low, when prices are high, when fees for health and education are nearly unaffordable, due to the fact of economic policies that socialise the rich while keeping the population just alive enough to be in line.
The government can again present itself as an economic saviour, even though it is its own policies that have contributed to increasing the people's misery and also increasing the social gap. It is never mentioned that especially when the fundamental evil remains to be the prolongation of GMA's misrule, it is precisely in politics where people have their only chance of removing a great and horrible mistake.
To paraphrase Alexis de Tocqueville, the greatness of a nation lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation, but rather her ability to repair her faults. It is time for the Philippines to correct its fault.
Mornings suddenly seemed brighter, as you awaken thinking it's midday. The sun smiles earlier, except this weekend with the cloudy sky, laughing at the relaxers on their long weekend.
It's daylight savings time adjustment once again. We are now 3 hours ahead of Phil time.
