Head First

There's a million things to do and I only have a few minutes to pound out the stray thoughts of a crowded day, crowded life. Still have to do a "meditation" on war artist George Lambert, have to fix up Suzy's proposals; have to do stuff for the radio show. My fingers hurt and the brain flips from one subject to another; narrative structure decaying.

We live in fear; after the Stalinist purges that sweep through the office time and again, until there is almost no one left. Just before he died Stalin was preparing for the purge of purges, a Russian word, "pushta", or something like that; but simply put, the purge of purges. That is what it is like; living in fear; hiding behind columns, slumping down into the chair; the computer light and the dry airconditioned air making us sick in an oh so modern way.

We were moved, occasionally, by the condtion of others, as the fingers flew across the keyboards; they opened their doors and peered out; I'm sorry to bother you at a time like this. I'm from.... I'm from a naive era that believed there was more than self-interest; that there were deeper reasons for being; that in some elusive way fighting for the common man, for the betterment of humanity, was something worth doing. That is why climate change has gripped the entire country like a new religion. Six months ago it was passe to be green; now you're a criminal if you leave the kitchen light on unnecessarily. We snuggled into our own comforts and certainties, but here, delivered in one delicious package, is a noble cause worth fighting for. And you really don't have to do anything but state that you believe. You can't doubt, not for a minute; because to doubt is to be evil. Rudd has accused Howard of being a climate change sceptic, as if being a sceptic was a bad thing to be; and I swear, the whole country caught religion almost overnight. The Herald ran their green tinted issue the other day; and campaigned unashamedly for Earth Hour, where everyone turned off their lights. We looked out the front door and couldn't see any difference. Turned off most of the lights, and watched television anyway. It was easy to feel you had made a contribution without doing much at all; which of course was the wonder and enchantment of climate change. It requires almost nothing but the statement of belief.

THE BIGGER STORY:

HONIARA, Solomon Islands Apr 3, 2007 (AP)— Survivors scavenged for food and drinking water in towns hammered by a tsunami on the Solomon Islands' west coast, while officials said the death toll was 28 and would rise as they struggled to reach remote communities.
The first television footage of the devastated region taken by helicopter after Monday's double disaster a huge undersea earthquake followed minutes later by a surging wall of water showed building after tin-and-thatched-roof building collapsed along a muddy foreshore.
Men, some shirtless and wearing shorts, picked through the debris. Some buildings leaned awkwardly on broken stilts.
Many of the homeless spent Monday night sleeping under tarpaulins or the stars on a hill behind worst-hit town of Gizo after the magnitude 8.1 quake hit under the sea about 25 miles off the town. Walls of water up to 16 feet high plowed into the coast five minutes later.
Three medical teams six doctors and 13 nurses were to fly to the region Wednesday morning from the capital Honiara to treat an unknown number of survivors, National Disaster Management Office spokesman Julian Makaa said Tuesday.