Curling Through Comfort

We had to make it worth something, that was the assignment. Looks at things, the gusts that he thought had meant something, walking down the lane, the turmoil of everything, the magic mushrooms, the Aquarius Festival, the crowds coming out of the darkness and falling away, the muffled sounds of the campfires across the fields, these had seemed like pinpoints of excitement that would change the world forever, while Janis Joplin belted out her Southern Comfort saturated lyrics and we stumbled further down the lane, always, always, searching for that something just out of reach. Pai brought all these things back, because it was the first time he had seen hippies on holiday for a very long time. The Mr and Mrs Its hobbling down the street, sitting on their verandahs practising yoga, swapping notes about the cheapest places and the cheapest ways to do things.

I don't know why I wanted to be helpful, just this wierd amiable urge to be kind to strangers, but if I could see they had just got off the bus and were clearly lost, as I had been only a few days before, I would say: hey, there's a few half decent guesthouses down that way, or even, if they could be bothered listening rather than reading from their Lonely Planet guide, I could give them a precis of the entire accommodation situation in the entire area. Having investigated thoroughly in my search to house both myself and my two teenage children. But in the times when nobody was listening, when the shrieking that had become part of normal city life, the gronks crowding into the newsagents to by their lottos and their scratchies, having long pointless chats because going down the shopping centre was their only human interaction for the day; I just shook my head and thought my god, these people are completely useless. Maybe their lives should be full of optimism, hope, determination; but instead their mealy mouthed little anus mouths couldn't take a postive for anything.

The irritation factor was high in Sydney. People were just fed up. Let them jump from the Towers of Despair, see if I care where they land, said one social worker, Pru, who once upon a time would have bleated over the fate of the dispossessed and now was fed up with people imposing their problems on everyone else. It was a cruelty; but who was being cruel to whom? Someone had to work hard in a factory to pay the taxes to support all this crap, and John Howard, supposedly a conservative Prime Minister, had stolen all of the oppposition's welfare policies and spread the stranglehold of the bureaucrats deep into the hearts of almost all Australian famlies. More than 90% of the nation's families now fell into an income bracket which entitled them to claim benefits for their children, which many of them did. Why knock back money just for the sake of a form. Everyone was fed up, no one knew the solution. We stood up and went to work; and the pride and dignity of working, it dribbled away with all the old certainties and the blatant double crosses of the ruling elite.

THE BIGGEST STORY:

David Braithwaite

February 23, 2007 - 11:09AM

Anti-war protesters today rallied outside a Sydney police station where three activists were being questioned following a rowdy demonstration against United States Vice-President Dick Cheney.
Police on foot and horseback provided an escort as the protesters waved anti-war banners and chanted "No racism, no war'' during the two kilometre march to the police station from The Rocks.
Outside the police station, about 60 officers formed two rows as protesters chanted and banged drums.
Around 100 anti-war protesters chanting "Chain up Cheney, free David Hicks," had earlier faced off with police who were blocking their path towards the Shangri-la Hotel.About nine o'clock, police flooded the street with reinforcements, moved their horse line forward and put extra police at the rear of the protest group. Within the group, police arrested three protesters, including two costumed protesters known as The Tranny Cops.Dale Mills, an organiser for the Stop the War Coalition, said the two female protesters satirised police officers with a dance routine wearing blue overalls and false moustaches.A 70-year-old woman has been taken to Sydney Hospital with unknown injuries after being knocked over during the arrests.Marie McKern said ``I just got pushed into the ground and it was terrifying - there were bodies everywhere''.