Pain and Life

"You will meet your destiny on the road you take to avoid it."
Anon


He was escorted unceremoniously outside the police tape and given a stern warning along with threats of complaints to his employers. All in a day's work, he thought, as he turned his phone back on. They could see he didn't care what they said, and this infuriated them more. He saw the patterns forming on the phone screen, took in the bedlam that was the scene in front of him.
And dialed his boss.
Nothing was ever easy with that woman.
I couldn't answer you, I was inside the building, he said. Austin's dead, or badly wounded.
Chief Personal Conduct Officer Austin?
The one.
Jesus. And you saw him?
Yes.
Jesus.
For once the contempt was blown out of her voice.
I'll send someone else down to help. A photographer's on their way. Stay where you are.
The click told him she couldn't be happier.
She was never happier than when she could settle into her chair and declare: this looks like the day from hell.
The death or injury, even just the explosion, meant there would be no agonising over what was going on the front page the next day.
Other media were arriving now; radio, television, the news crews. He recognised most of them; and the police media officer was already doing her best to corral them safely out of the way.
There was still smoke coming from the top of the building; and in some strange way he couldn't be happier. Destiny had placed him here; to tell the stories that weren't being told; to show that things were not the way they seemed; that beneath the democratic surface of their country, all had been lost.

THE BIGGER STORY:

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Sydney Morning Herald
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Howard not afraid of electorate: Vaile
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The Age
Three strikes against the polls, or the Govt is out
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Try to look like you care, academic tells Howard
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A LEADING indigenous academic has challenged John Howard to show genuine concern for Aboriginal children instead of appearing scared he would "catch a ...

Ruination

"...who rode with such nonchalance on the high beam of uncertainty, whose life was crammed with dangers he seemed to find necessary, emerging, as if they were the fuel that made him a phoenix, ever reborn, calmly emerging from the flames."
Richard Rayner


The phone went off again, his boss, again. This time he turned the phone right off, but it was too late. Even as a security man approached him, he looked around the uniform, watched transfixed as Warren Gabriel Austin was loaded on to a stretcher; on to a trolley and towards the lifts. This man who laid claim to being the most hated man in the country; who's sonorious, comfortable, well fed tones had filled the airways while hundreds of thousands struggled to survive.

The government had never admitted fault, never changed course; as the line of darkness moved deeper into the population.

Who are you, this is a secure area, the policeman demanded. Can I see your identification please, now.

He fumbled for his wallet, said nothing. He wished he had dressed better for the day. It might have helped.

The Sergeant looked at his media identification in a funk somewhere between astonishment, outrage and anger; took down his name and the name of the company.

"Get out of this building now; stay behind the crime tape."

He put up absolutely no resistance, he had learnt that much.


THE BIGGER STORY:

Time:

On Friday Burma began to go dark. After days of the largest street protests since 1988, the ruling military junta cracked down, confronting and firing on civilians, reportedly sealing thousands of monks inside their monasteries. Lines of communication into the country were apparently being cut, with Internet cafes closed and web sites shut down, leaving Burmese exile groups and reporters starving for information...

:But while the junta can control the street, the monasteries and even the web, they can't control the sky...For the first time in Burma, scientists were able to use orbital satellites to confirm on-the-ground reports of burned villages and forced relocations of civilians by the military."

Turbulent Gifts

"Evolution had shaped language to convey many concepts, but going from a single to a networked topology of self was not amongst them. But if he could not convey the core of the experience, he could at least skirt its essence with metaphor. It was like standing on the shore of an ocean, being engulfed by a wave taller than himself. For a moment he sought the surface; tried to keep the water from his lungs. But there happened not to be a surface. What had consumed him extended infinitely in all directions."
Alastair Reynolds.

As if anything was ever going to change. He could smell the explosives in the air. Ambulance officers crouched around the famous figure. His phone started ringing; at just the wrong moment, bringing attention to him in the midst of being invisible. Time was of a sequence and had left him entirely bankrupt. He clicked the busy button; and wished he could busy the woman right out of his life. Only one person noticed his phone ring; and they were too busy attempting to save the man's life to worry about who he was or why he was there.

There had been a complete breakdown in the practice of power. The media sang along with it; or was destroyed. But he had been around long enough to know the media had been complicit long before. Complicit or dead. But he could remember a time when he could write anything he wanted and it would be published much as he wrote it. Bar the ever present twiddling by the sub-editors, the subs, the living dead as they were sometimes called; who didn't feel they were doing their jobs unless the copy was thoroughly massaged; from silken finesse to mashed potato half the time.

None of it mattered; but this was one death where the reporting would be thoroughly scrutinised. And no doubt altered to protect the guilty. It wasn't exactly hate he felt for the man; well maybe it was. He was certainly appalled by his behaviour; by the callous and brutal disregard he had shown to so many thousands of people; the lives he had destroyed. There was movement now. A group of them heaved the body on to a stretcher. He couldn't tell from the odd angle of his head whether he was dead or just nearly. There was certainly plenty of blood. And his phone started up again; and this time a police officer fixed him with a piercing stare?

Do you have a right to be here? he asked.


THE BIGGER STORY:

NZ Herald

Xue finished stop-violence programme before killing
5:00AM Thursday September 27, 2007
By Elizabeth Binning

Nai Yin Xue completed a court-approved "Stopping Violence" programme just three months before he is believed to have murdered his wife and callously dumped her body in the boot of his car.

The 54-year-old fugitive was ordered by the courts to attend the programme in November after his wife, An An Liu, sought a protection order after a violent knife incident at their New Lynn home.

In January the programme co-ordinator suggested Xue change to another course due to language difficulties and in February he was referred to a programme especially for Asian men.

That programme was completed by the middle of June, by which time the Herald understands Xue had participated fully in the programme and completed all the tasks set in it.

Despite his successful completion of the course, the tai chi master's wife ended up in the boot of a car after what police described as a "violent death" two weeks ago.

Freeze Frames

What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow
Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man,
You cannot say, or guess, for you know only
A heap of broken images, where the sun beats,
And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief...

And I will show you something different from either
Your shadow at morning striding behind you
Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you;
I will show you fear in a handful of dust.

TS Elliot, The Waste Land.

Some parts of life were conducted in freeze frames. This was one of them. He would remember every last frame, the lurching reality. The lift door opened and he took in the scene immediately. Briefly the tableau of ambulance officers and police looked him back. Someone looked like they were going to ask him what he was doing there. He did his disappearing act; blending into the walls, hoping it would work even in these exposed circumstances. They seemed to forget him as soon as they had noticed him.

He was shocked by the extent of the damage. He could see holes through several walls, there were broken bricks everywhere and furniture lying haphazard on its side. The phone went off, blowing his cover, and he clicked busy as quickly as he could. It was work, it was her, hounding him as always. He couldn't go through all this without support. He felt completely abandoned. For a moment he caught sight of the man on the floor. It was one of the most famous faces in the country.

His brain lurched into overdrive. Now he really did have reason to ring the office. Right now that was impossible. Without a photographer and without authority to be there, sooner or later he would have to extricate himself. The ruddy cheeks and well fed frame of a government employee. They were now intensely sought after jobs; the only guarantee of comfort and wealth. And this man had been at the pinnacle; his own personal fiefdom of power and wealth while all around the streets turned into chaos and hell; the people hungrier and more desperate every day since he economy collapsed.

THE BIGGER STORY:

Iranians Condemn US Reception of Leader


Tuesday September 25, 2007 8:01 PM

By NASSER KARIMI

Associated Press Writer

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iranians on Tuesday called the combative introduction of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad by the head of Columbia University ``shameful'' and said the harsh words only added to their image of the United States as a bully.

In a region where the tradition of hospitality outweighs personal opinions about people, many here thought Columbia University President Lee Bollinger's aggressive tone - including telling Ahmadinejad that he exhibited the signs of a ``petty and cruel dictator'' - was over the top.

``The surprising point of the last night meeting is the behavior of the university president,'' state-run radio reported, describing Bollinger's introduction as ``full of insult, which was mostly Zionists' propaganda against Iran.''

The chancellors of seven Iranian universities issued a letter on Tuesday to Bollinger saying his statements were ``deeply shameful'' and invited him to Iran.

In the letter, they asked him to respond to 10 questions ranging from: ``Why did the U.S. support the bloodthirsty dictator Saddam Hussein during the 1980-88 Iraqi-imposed war on Iran?'' to ``Why has the U.S. military failed to find al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden even with all its advanced equipment?''

Ahmadinejad's visit to New York to attend the U.N. General Assembly has created a stir and thousands have protested his appearance there.

Google John Howard:

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Lanes

 

"As poor as my young family was when I drove to the recruiting centre in Oklahoma in March of 2002, I would never have signed up if I knew that I would be blasting into Iraqis' homes, terrorising women and children and detaining every man we could find - and all that, for $1200 a month as a private first class. One's first obligation is to the moral truth buried deep inside our own souls... I had to sign a paper... "Desertion in the time of war means death by a firing squad'. That just about sums it up."
Joshua Key, The Deserter's Tale

Nothing could fix the sinking depths, nothing. I was out of the taxi and heading towards the chaos of the building. Already a police woman was putting up crime scene tape; trying to control the crowds. Several people were sitting on the pavement. He walked right in. He had always had an uncanny knack of being able to walk in anywhere; becoming almost invisible or appearing as if he belonged.

Whatever it was, he could walk past almost any security; and had done so. Already he was in the foyer. There was smoke everywhere; chaos and dust; pain and confusion. On the spur, he pressed the lift button. He couldn't deny he hadn't pressed the button before; in one of the gloomiest stages of his life. Frantic registrars and normally stitched up office women; usually stomping around with sheaves of paperwork, looking important; holding people's lives in their arrogant, self-righteous hands; tumbled out of the lift. He hesitated a micro-second and stepped in.

He could see a policeman heading towards him. He had woken up, obviously, to the fact that he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He pressed Floor Five and the doors slid shut. Suddenly he was alone; and like all the madness in his life it could only have happened to him, alone in the lift in a bombed building; while sirens and chaos enveloped the area for a kilometre around. The lift wasn't its normal self; and groaned and creaked as it ascended.

God, this place of all places; the place tens of thousands of its victims hated more than any other place; while millions of dollars of government propaganda made the pretense that what happened here was worthy; the cheap dark corrupt bastardy and the the gloating self-satisfaction of the victors in the charade that was this place's reality never made it into the public mind. He had done his best to expose the sick psycho-pathology of the place; and had failed. And now here he was. Even in the lift he could smell the dust and the flames.

THE BIGGER STORY:

NY Times blogs:

Columbia University was the scene today of speeches, rallies and protests related to a speech by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, which began at 1:30 p.m. (We live-blogged the speech.) The school’s campus in Morningside Heights was off-limits to the public for much of the day; a university identification was required to enter through the main gates on Broadway at 116th Street.

In his most pointed arguments yet, Mr. Ahmadinejad said that science and research had been used in the West as tools of oppression.

“They even violate individual and social freedoms in their own nations under that pretext,” he said. “They do not respect the privacy of their own people. They tap telephone calls … They create an insecure psychological atmosphere, in order to justify their war-mongering acts in different parts of the world.”

He added: “By using precise scientific methods and planning, they begin their onslaught on the domestic cultures of nations, which are the result of thousands of years of interaction, creativity and artistic activity. They try to eliminate these cultures in order to strip people of their identity.”

The Age:

A new online voter poll shows federal Labor would trounce the coalition if an election were held now.

The Herald/Nielsen poll, conducted for Fairfax newspapers, is the first online national survey of voters conducted before the election.

Wedded To The City Two

"I was to offer my soul to the soul-mate
The Beloved outsmarted me: I got burnt
There's nothing left of my blood or flesh
but ash."
Attard

All the time now, doors kept opening, each revealing dank grey pockets of an altered world. He himself was altered, defective; and each day was a crisis to be got through, and that was all. It was happening again, as he stood waiting for the cabcharge at the front desk; pockets of different places. The revolving front door was moving, and someone he knew vaguely breezed past. Lovely day, she said, healthily; and he could only grunt in amazement. These were the times he fought for, just to stay sane. He could see the dank maw of the outside world, and was already frightened. Already the phone was ringing. Are you there yet?

The colours were all wrong; in a turbulent world. He could hear the buildings around him groaning as he waited for a taxi. There wasn't one disaster that had led him here, but a million failed adventures. You could trip and a taxi would stop some days, but just when you needed one... And then inside; an Asian taxi driver. He gave the address and went to give an explanation; but thought better of it. How cruel could these currents be; that had washed so many people here, struggling to survive. He could hear the sirens in the distance, above the increasing noise of the buildings.

The Partnership Centres had been the most Orwellian of the government's creations; but only a short step into tyranny from where the country had been. The complete control of every body's private lives; the abolition of family; the eradication of romantic love; how noble these goals had once seemed. Around the world they fought controversial wars against tyranny; the definition of tyranny turning on a coin spin. Everything he had ever believed in had been proven wrong. His faith in government; in doing the right thing; had all been betrayed. He could see lights flashing; pandemonium in the distance. Here, in these concrete bunkers, had been the greatest betrayals.

THE BIGGER STORY:

AFP:

Australia is poised for its most bruising election clash in a decade as Prime Minister John Howard battles the toughest opponent to emerge since he won power, analysts say.

Howard's conservative coalition and the opposition Labor Party set the tone for the upcoming campaign last week when they accused each other in parliament of smear campaigns and mud-slinging.

AP:

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Sunday the shooting deaths of civilians allegedly at the hands of Blackwater USA guards and other prior incidents involving the company pose "serious challenges to the sovereignty of Iraq" and cannot be accepted.

"The Iraqi government is responsible for its citizens and it cannot be accepted for a security company to carry out a killing," he told The Associated Press, speaking in his New York hotel suite ahead of his appearance at the U.N. General Assembly.
Top International stories

Noting that Blackwater has been linked to at least seven incidents involving gunfire on Iraqi civilians, he added: "There are serious challenges to the sovereignty of Iraq."

If In The Distance

"They threw mortars and grenades our way, and we never even saw them running away. My fellow combatants and I never once put an armed enemy in our gunsights. They were on the run and gone while we were still diving for cover against flying shrapnel. We fought back by lashing out at civilians who had no means to defend themselves. It was the only way we could fight back - but it was wrong."
Joshua Key, The Deserter's Tale.

I heard there was a new start on offer. Another fresh beginning. To smote us all; laughing in triumph. The day, that day when it all began, was just another day in an appalling life; his own sea green depression having eaten so totally the person he had once been. The office was quiet when he got there. The only person around was his nightmare chief of staff, who was screaming at him before he sat down. There's been an explosion down the city, she yelled. Get down there now. Now.

Where have you been? What's wrong with your phone?

It's not working, he said, as if everything was his fault. In fact it was, he'd dropped it in the bath.

She gave him the address with all her usual contempt; and he remembered yet again why he hated her so much. So much.

He stood at the front counter; getting his cab charges filled out; and could feel the drama in the distance; heard a siren passing by Central. In this city of hatred, who was hated the most? Who was worth the effort?

He wasn't surprised by the address.

THE BIGGER STORY:

BAGHDAD (AP) - Iraqi investigators have a videotape that shows Blackwater USA guards opened fire against civilians without provocation in an incident last week in which 11 people died, a senior Iraqi official said Saturday. He said the case had been referred to the Iraqi judiciary.

Iraq's president, meanwhile, demanded that the Americans release an Iranian arrested this week on suspicion of smuggling weapons to Shiite militias. The demand adds new strains to U.S.-Iraqi relations only days before a meeting between President Bush and Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

The Carnivale's Tale

"I wasn't the only one who let up on the beatings and the stealing as my conscience returned. For most of us, setting off C-4 explosives, ransacking houses and zipcuffing teenagers and men provided a boost of adrenaline and excitement for a month or two at the most. As time went on, we found no weapons of mass destruction. We found no signs of terrorism. We found nothing but people whose lives would deteriorate, or end, simply for having met us face to face in their cars and their homes."
Joshua Key. The Deserter's Tale.


This is Elizabeth Street, Paddington, where John Bygate lived. These houses loomed so large; and all the players are dead now. I met John Bygate through my first dark mentor; Harry Godolphin; who was one of those strange brigade of marginals who take an interest in delinquent boys. Except he wasn't like the others. He always wore sun glasses, some eye thing; and longish dark hair. And was basically a strange person. I remember the day he died. I was on a tour of the countryside for the Sydney Morning Herald. It was this yearly bus trip through the bush sponsored in those days by the Royal Agricultural Society and Shell petrol; so no expense was spared. We always stayed in the best places available; and were treated with great respect.

The only time a journalist is ever treated with respect is out on the road; in the office forget it. We're not always called vultures. Sometimes people think we have a view to a wider, more informed world; like who's going to win the election. The dry countryside flashed by; and I knew he was in the hospital at Mullumbimby; the laid back north coast town, along with Nimbin the unofficial dope capital of Australia. I spoke to him; how are you? I'm dying, he said. You were always a big help to me; I said; and thanked him. He had always encouraged me to write when I was a 16 year old very troubled delinquent drug fiend hanging around the Cross partying into an early grave and crashing at his place; the only other choice being to rent ourselves out.

And John; beyond our circuit, was the person to know. He had a house; provided by a sugar daddy. And he was handsome enough to stop traffic; almost literally. He was one of those few genuinely charismatic people; who are impossible not to watch. And one day Harry took me up there, from our aerie over-looking Woolloomoolloo. And thus it began; that friendship; from the days when I just thought he was the bee's knees; everything I wanted to be; creative; fabulous; briliantly whacked; a coruscating humour that just left us cracked up in the trendy bars of the day; one we particularly loved; the bar draped around the coloured internal ceiling; potted plants.

Fabulous; not well but fabulous; he'd say; and I could see him laughing at the other side of the bar; higher than anybody else in the room. And he too, died, of a brain hemorrhage; the fabulous days long gone; when he was proud to know me; and not the other way around; and I brought him gifts that only he appreciated. And the wine turned cheap and everything dissolved. And I would return from some part of the world; and from the airport head straight to Elizabeth Street, Paddington, where I was greeted with enormous amusement; the fully qualified international junkie; and we settled in to party party party; cloaked in myth.


THE BIGGER STORY:

Time:

"Still, the fact is security contractors are a daily reminder for Iraqis that their country is occupied, and they are second-class citizens. The insult is not just that security contractors are allowed to use lethal force and not worry about going to jail; a Western security contractor will make in a week what an Iraqi might make in a year. Private security contractors are a humiliation equal to the humiliations that provoked the Boxer Rebellion in China or drove Iranians to overthrow the Shah. Security contractors may be keeping our officials alive, but they are not winning the hearts and minds of the Iraqis."

Candy From The Frame

"The point I urge ...is that all the efforts towards securing the rights and freedoms we enjoy today, still enjoy, almost, although they are beginning to fray and diminish) cost blood, and took centuries. It dishonours those who fought for them to forget that fact now, and it does us no credit to be careless of what was thus won. My hope is that understanding what it cost — seeing our last five centuries as a continuously unfolding series of struggles to make ourselves free, to make us lords of ourselves — will summon resolve not to allow the erosion of our liberties in the spurious name of security, for as Benjamin Franklin said, 'he who would put security before liberty deserves neither'."
AC Growling, Towards The Light.

This is the intersection just up the road from our house; proving the point, perhaps, that there are moments of beauty in even the most appalling days. They cascade some vertiginous days; while at others barely move through the fog; when we are only remotely conscious of the physical world at all. He's drifting now, into eternity, away from the fabric of things. This was such a critical moment. A story amongst stories, he couldn't explain it any other way.

What was destined for marginal release; blown in desert storms; everyone talking about the coming election; waiting for Howard to call the date while they are behind in every state but WA; but are showing signs of recovery in Queensland; as time forces the issue; Rudd's operatives everywhere, leaving nothing to chance; doing what they do best; campaign; you can be anywhere; the central west of NSW today; and he'll pop up. The everywhere man; attracting as little negativity as he can manage.

Meanwhile Howard, ever peripatetic, is also, astonishingly, in many places. But still no election has been called; and the whole thing has gone on too long. Have Labor peaked too early, is that the master plan? They could have just done a good job in the first place, been genuinely for small government and enterprise and individual effort, and everyone would have supported them; applauded them. You cannot forever betray your own constituents; but what would I know. But the Kevin and Johnnie show run is on; and everyone wants to swap notes. Of thus we were made, gamblers and gossips.



THE BIGGER STORY:

AFP:


In an audio recording released Thursday, bin Laden said Al-Qaeda intended to retaliate for the blood spilled by "champions of Islam."

"It is obligatory on the Muslims in Pakistan to carry out jihad (holy war) and fighting to remove Pervez, his government, his army and those who help him," said the voice in the tape, produced by the terror network's media arm As-Sahab and monitored by the US-based SITE Intelligence Group.

Earlier this month, a bin Laden video was released to coincide with the sixth anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the United States in which nearly 3,000 people were killed.

ABC:

Outgoing federal independent MP Peter Andren says the Federal Opposition has allowed the Howard Government to rob Australia of its "fair go" character.

The popular Member for the central New South Wales seat of Calare had planned to run for the Senate until he was diagnosed with inoperable pancreatic cancer last month.

Fleeting

"We were terrorising Iraqis. Intimidating them. Beating them. Destroying their homes. Probably raping them. The ones we didn't kill had all the reasons in the world to become terrorists. Given what we were doing to them, who could blame them for wanting to kill us, and all Americans? This sick realisation lodged like a cancer in my gut. It grew, and festered, and troubled me with every passing day. We, the Americans, had become the terrorists in Iraq."

Joshua Key, The Deserter's Tale.

Our time was sandwiched between so much else; there wasn't anyway these people could survive financially. For sale signs dotted the suburban streets. The government went on and on and on about the booming economy and what great economic managers they were; and your average dude out there was completely stuffed. It's been boom time at the top; the rich have gotten richer; but the actual flow of money, that was going nowhere near the pockets of the poor; or even just your average worker.

John Howard's adoration of George Bush and everything American has led to a similar mistreatment of the working poor; and they couldn't care less. They've lined their own well tailored pockets. Hands comforted in silk in the wintry mornings of the capital. Just go, everyone wants you to go; they shouted, a silent scream; and the polls bounce about. Howard is back in the running; everything is up in the air.

So much has been ripped off these people; they have been so totally taken for granted and so contemptuously treated; that he is shocked when he actually meets them; in the car parks of suburban shopping malls; knocking on their doors. These were just horrific days. The kids kept squirming; and it didn't matter how hard they worked they couldn't get on top of things. I used to love Sydney, it's become impossible to live in; I say, trying to establish contact. Every one's getting out, going to Queensland, you wouldn't believe the number, even in our street; they say. And we nod in agreement; the place has gone to the dogs.


THE BIGGER STORY:

WASHINGTON (AP) — The fog of war keeps getting thicker. The Iraqi government's decision to temporarily ban the security company Blackwater USA after a fatal shooting of civilians in Baghdad reveals a growing web of rules governing weapons-bearing private contractors but few signs U.S. agencies are aggressively enforcing them.

Nearly a year after a law was passed holding contracted employees to the same code of justice as military personnel, the Bush administration has not published guidance on how military lawyers should do that, according to Peter Singer, a security industry expert at the Brookings Institution in Washington.

The Age:
Our taxes at work:

Howard denies Rudd smear campaign


Prime Minister John Howard has denied mounting a smear campaign against Kevin Rudd, saying government attacks on the Labor leader's substance are legitimate.

Senior ministers have attacked Mr Rudd this week, labelling him a phony, while Nationals senator Barnaby Joyce has tried to reopen a case involving shredded state government documents from 1990 when Mr Rudd was a senior Queensland public servant.

Mr Rudd has predicted the government will resort to increasingly negative fear and smear campaigns as the federal election draws closer.

But Mr Howard defended the government's tactics and accused Mr Rudd of engaging in stunts and slogans.

"If Mr Rudd regards a criticism of him as a smear campaign then he's got a very thin skin," Mr Howard told reporters in Queanbeyan, in the marginal NSW seat of Eden-Monaro.

Mr Howard said a smear campaign involved targeting someone's private life.

"But it is not smearing somebody to say that they have no policy," he said.

"It is not smearing somebody to attack their policy when they do have one.

"It's not smearing somebody to say all you ever announce is committees, all you ever promise to do is react to a review that you might get some time in the future if you are elected and after a process of consultation."

Wedded To The City Part One

"I had already seen more blood and death than I cared for, and I felt we were wrong to be dishing out such violence against civilians. Still, I thought our military presence was justified in Iraq. I still believed that we were there to eradicate terrorism, but that the villains had simply not yet shown their faces. Sooner or later, I thought, we would catch them... I did what I was told and kept my mouth shut."
Joshua Key, The Deserter's Tale.


Amazing what you can do on a mobile phone.


She could make a shopping list sing; and explored the everyday. His interest in biography was long gone. The merging confusions of the city were all that mattered now. Wedded to the city, married to its fabric; he had become the crumbling pathway in an inner-city corner, the comfortable drift of paper and the fences offering poor security; it being unclear what purpose they served.

The towers of despair were only blocks away; an unclear distance. Jesus they're all fucked up; he thought, staring at a fat girl who had picked her face to pieces; hanging with her junky boyfriend outside the station; arguing, waiting for something; suddenly heading off in a hurry; their self-contained drama leaving them oblivious to the scornful eyes of others in the crowd.

But next to them. And next to them. The whole city had suddenly rotted in its fabric and everyone was off their scones; diseased and dissembling; they were all falling apart. Health had terminally declined.
They laughed and their teeth were missing. No one could afford the dentist. And the politicians kept on boasting of an economic boom. And wondered why the world was angry with them.


THE BIGGER STORY:

The airline was One To Go; which we used to get to Phuket in January. i thought they were great; and cheap. You can fly anywhere in Thailand for $70.00.

ABC:

A total of 55 foreigners, including one Australian, have been confirmed among the 88 people killed after a budget Thai airliner crashed whilst attempting to land on the resort island of Phuket yesterday.

The family of a Queensland man killed in the crash has been notified of his death.

A Perth man who lives in Thailand is currently recovering from injuries and burns after surviving the horrific incident

According to the airline president two black boxes have been located at the scene of the crash, which occurred at about 4:00pm local time on Sunday during torrential rain.

Continued Passage

"One of the things that disturbed me the most in the house raids was having to run into bedrooms and round up sleeping Iraqi children. I couldn't help imagining how my own children would react if armed soldiers from another country burst into their rooms and tore them from bed... I would tap them gently on the shoulder and the poor kids would leap from bed, petrified, screaming like the world was ending. And outside they would go, as their brothers and fathers were being zipcuffed and shoved onto the backs of trucks and sent out to who knows where."

Joshua Key, The Deserter's Tale.


The distant drum beat has begun; taking him he knew not where; on these dizzying journeys. Threshed into the mundane are myriad other tales. Couldn't be condemned. Obsessions strung out into chains of failure or success. Pools of discord, stray wires, odd pieces of metal sticking at angles into the gloom. We didn't really mean to hurt you. It couldn't be stolen from us, it wasn't ours to give. We were given free passage on a great ocean liner; and were here simply to observe the saga, wind whipped gulls and cries snatched in the wind.

It was cold and salty and we were at death's door. I had always looked into the comfortable back yards of other people; and wished to be them, to live their lives. To be ordinary. Caught there; in the deep reality of things, the morning light on the party still going at dawn. I wanted to be them, the latest crop; to party like they partied, to be loved like they were loved. The dog next door continues to bark pointlessly throughout the day. A pack animal alone; a bit like us.


THE BIGGER STORY:


The Canberra Times:

Prime Minister John Howard and Treasurer Peter Costello have denied persistent rumours of a last-minute change in the leadership, even if this week's polls show the Government in even more electoral trouble. Workplace Relations Minister Joe Hockey predicted the results would be "the same or if not worse for the Government, given what happened last week", but rejected talk of Mr Howard standing down tomorrow.
"It's complete rubbish, absolute rubbish," he said on Meet the Press.

In Terms of Hope

All I have is a voice
To undo the folded lie,
The romantic lie in the brain
Of the sensual man-in-the-street
And the lie of Authority
Whose buildings grope the sky:
There is no such thing as the State
And no one exists alone;
Hunger allows no choice
To the citizen or the police;
We must love one another or die.

Defenceless under the night
Our world in stupor lies;
Yet, dotted everywhere,
Ironic points of light
Flash out wherever the Just
Exchange their messages:
May I, composed like them
Of Eros and of dust,
Beleaguered by the same
Negation and despair,
Show an affirming flame.

WH Auden, 1 September, 1939.


We sank when we should have flared up; and were assaulted by faith, lost teeth, a narrow gain. This is the time of year when fate assaults the blessed; when everything goes wrong in order to test and strengthen us; where it's best to stay inside and avoid disaster. But disaster gets to us anyway, no matter how much we try to hide. There were times of evil indulgence; when the boys with their ill gotten gains were plundering the working girls of Bangkok and I listened to their gloating stories; while my own body fell apart and although working, poverty meant we could never triumph; never be the big man about town; never go out with several girls on my arms and order up enormous feasts in local restaurants. Like the lads were doing in Bangkok right this minute. This growing old business is for the birds.

Kevin Rudd is already displaying all the triumphalism of a new Prime Minister. While the incumbent John Howard thrashes around in an ever more embarrassing crisis. He forgot the blue collar workers who make up the backbone of this place; and is now paying the price. He used our money to indulge in his own grandiosity; and is now as deeply hated as any Prime Minister we've ever had. He boasted, time and time again, on and on and on, about the booming economy. But the boiling masses, having been treated with contempt, turned their backs. It was increasingly difficult, if not impossible, to survive on the working wage.

They boasted; their flash cars were everywhere. Anyone without their grand suburban mansion; without their sterling incomes and share portfolios just didn't register. He never went to the opening of a play; and Howard's plea that he hasn't lost his enthusiasm for the job falls on death ears. The working family has had no better friend than John Howard; declare the signs; and it's all baloney. The rich have never had a better friend than John Howard; the rest of us; drowning in debt and living on credit; look at our futures in dismay. It's boom time at the top and struggle town beneath. Between the state, federal and local governments, between the GST and the tolls and the banks; interest on interest; every last spare cent has been hoovered from us. No wonder we resent you; the smug faces of your "team". Every now and then the plundered fight back.


THE BIGGER STORY:

On John Howard:

Andrew Bolt:

Most of his own ministers are sure he's leading them to utter ruin. Yet Howard so radiates an implacable will that those ministers to a man, or mouse, just shrivelled in its fierce heat. Whatever you say, boss. Right behind you, after all. No hard feelings. Baa, baa, or whatever sound lemmings make before the splash.

Glenn Milne:

THE attempt by Howard to suddenly embrace Costello in a bizarre team leadership is a concession of fundamental personal and political weakness, most likely doomed to failure. And if it does fail, John Howard's legacy to the Liberal Party will be the sacrifice of a generation of future leaders.

Matt Price:

The alternative view has Howard selfishly obliterating the Liberals' dwindling prospects by stubbornly staying put, irrevocably tainting his successor in the process. We'll find out soon enough. What we do know is that, like Shakespeare's Lear, Howard is thrashing about near the end of his marathon career going faintly mad.

Michelle Grattan:

Many Coalition members will be reflecting that these could be their last days together in Parliament. The grim reaper of politics - otherwise known as discontented voters - is after them.

John Howard:

The opinion polls do indicate that my level of personal popularity is quite high. Given I've been prime minister for 11 1/2 years, it really is. In fact, my level of personal support is significantly higher than that of the party. If the party's level of support in the opinion polls was as high as mine is, well, we'd be a different story.

Reverse Order

"The past is smoke. When necessary, blow it away."
Ralph Binyen


"Most of our perceptions were forged in a fire that is now history. A fire long gone cold. We are the ones who must decide whether the power of the past will grow or go."
Larson & Hegarty

Collapsing tunnels, accordians of effect; where the mushy vistas of the day are impressed on other voices. And we go and we go. Stuck in tin cans miles high with the smells of other people making him sick. The clouds of events boiled far below; and it was all a part of being here. We couldn't blow it away; we couoldn't even start to understand it.

The undertow was present again; and he fought to stay sane. We lived on the cusp of ever greater madness. And the concrete, vigorous colours of the harbour city, they never matched. There are hundreds of handsome faces in the crowd; this year's crop ever more beautiful than the last, although he could remember thinking the same last year. His head jerked around; trying to drape itself in the lives of others; other stories, other events; and his own sad condolences were met with laughter.

How could you? they asked, a grimy old man, coated in the past. When it truly did seem all the good times were gone and there was nothing to look forward to. Jolting himself into the beauty of the day; that wasn't so easy. These collapsing stands of images; these vigorous story lines, all he could do was watch. Say goodbye to mummy, the father ordered, as three kids swarmed all over him and she strode with a friend to the plane. Have a good time girls. He was fit, he was handsome, his wife kissed him and the kids affectionately; and these were time warp narratives he would never be able to grasp, or live, again.

THE BIGGER STORY:
Monsters and Critics:

Seven Iraqi policemen were killed in a suicide attack Friday on an Iraqi checkpoint in Bayji, pan-Arab al-Arabiya news broadcaster reported.

Bayji, 180 kilometres north of Baghdad, had repeatedly been attacked, mostly by al-Qaeda terrorist network in Iraq.

Sunni tribal leader Abdul-Sattar Abu-Risha, who had joined forces with other tribes in western Iraq to fight al-Qaeda, was meanwhile buried, a day after being killed by a bomb.

Two Iraqi government ministers and National Security Adviser Muwaffak al-Rubai attended the funeral in Ramadi in the western province of Anbar, al-Arabiya television reported.

Abu-Risha's brother Ahmed was chosen to replace him as head of the Anbar Salvation Council.

Abu-Risha, who met US President George W Bush 10 days before his death, had formed the council last year to coordinate fighting by local tribes against al-Qaeda militants in Anbar after the Sunni locals turned against the brutality of the Sunni militants.

Jojo:

I believe that the troop splurge is succeeding. According to the president over 1500 hundred enemy are killed each month. That is a
kill ratio of at least 10 to 1 in favor of the US. At that rate
total military victory is at hand a few years or so from now, as long
as we continue to kill enemy. After the mission is accomplished
in Iraq, we can take over Afghanistan from the taliban once again,
and destroy the narco-terrorist state they have created there in recent
years. Right now we can overlook the fact that Afghanistan is producing
records amounts of opium and refined heroin with the help of Pakistan.
After military victory in Iraq in a few more years, we can then hunt
for osama bin laden, even though it doesn't matter that he is hiding
under the protection of Pakistan and laughing at us, and taunting us with
porographic videos he is produing in his multi-media recoding studio.

Muffled Footsteps

"As we stabbed the dummies with our bayonets, one of our commanders stood on a podium and shouted from a microphone: "Kill! Killl! Kill the sand niggers." We, too, were made to shout out "Kill the sand niggers!" as we stabbed the heads, then the hearts, and then slashed the throats of our imaginary victims."
Joshua Key, The Deserter's Tale.

In the quietness of these times; when we were no longer at the centre; the city enveloped us like garbage; hardened faces on the street making their way to work. Just another face; eyes that are pinpricks into a greater consciousness; all this was just our daily life and dying despair.

Have to fly to Griffith today. Another airport sequence; another hire car; another job. Beetle into the country. There wasn't any backlog; any defining moments; we were just sent here to record the zeitgeist; and we didn't do that very well.

I dream of being in the country; and continue to slave on in a city of corrupt dreams. Passing houses full of old stories; and feeling the grip with the physical world lessen even further. We are barely held in place.


THE BIGGER STORY

WASHINGTON — President Bush is expected to say in a national address from the Oval Office Thursday that the troop surge he ordered in January has helped protect the Iraqi people from vicious attacks and is tamping down the worst of the sectarian violence seeking to tear the country apart.

Bush also is expected to endorse a plan outlined earlier this week by his top military commander in Iraq. The plan would bring home about 2,000 troops by the end of this year, and about 30,000 troops by mid-July 2008.

Shooting Stars

 

Everything except language
knows the meaning of existence
Trees, planets, rivers, time
know nothing else. They express it
moment by moment as the universe.

Even this fool of a body
lives it in part, and would
have full dignity within it
Except for the ignorant freedom
of my talking mind.

Les Murray.


The pictures haven't been working all morning; which threw me. I like putting up stuff I just take around town. Not all of them work, but some of them do. This is the ceiling at the Darling Harbour Convention Centre. Beneath it was the impressive sight of the media centre; with journalists from all over the world; computers everywhere, large screens scattered across the floor; all the time, while I was there, playing George Bush delivering his APEC speech, telling us they will win in Iraq. We were encouraged to be anonymous. A courageous step that couldn't be true. I know him, it's alright. Unsettled in extremis. All very APEC...

That was yesterday. I ran out of time and the only thing I could get to work was a picture of a ceiling. Go figure, says the phrase, which is much like our politics. Howard continues to thrash around after APEC has left town. $330 million they said it cost; but that doesn't include the hundreds of millions lost to businesses across the city who had a lousy week; with turnover down by at least half; sometimes virtually total.

Faces loom out of the day; all their own story. We exchange pleasantries and move on. There wasn't a lot to consider. They were lifetimes away; in sunlit bars and joyful times. Now, he didn't participate. Affection took them all by surprise. On that glorious drunken day. Ecstatic recall; remembering the best times only. They were still there in the streets; all this time later. He could feel them. All the leaders have left now; powerful men watching fireworks on the harbour; a collision of circumstance. Normal activity folds back over the city as if it had never been; and our own muffled stories come back into play.


THE BIGGER STORY:



Howard's way restored, but at what cost to party?
New Zealand Herald, New Zealand - 52 minutes ago
By Maria Hawthorne Australian Prime Minister John Howard has clung on to the Liberal Party leadership, but at what cost? Senior ministers tried to portray ...
Janette's ruling the roost ~ and that's untenable
Melbourne Herald Sun, Australia - 3 hours ago
AT the start of the week, the entire Federal Liberal parliamentary team - front and backbenchers alike - was sleepwalking to a train wreck otherwise known ...
Howard stares at wipe-out
Melbourne Herald Sun, Australia - 4 hours ago
The Prime Minister found himself fighting for his future for the simple reason that his MPs are petrified about the polls. ...
John Howard: I'll quit within three years
Melbourne Herald Sun, Australia - 4 hours ago
JOHN Howard last night declared he would step down in favour of Peter Costello within the next three years if re-elected. The Prime Minister conceded for ...

Australia's Howard says he will step down early if he wins poll
AFP - 4 hours ago
SYDNEY (AFP) — Australian Prime Minister John Howard, struggling in polls ahead of a looming election, said Wednesday he would step down before the end of ...

I won't serve a full term,says Howard
Sydney Morning Herald, Australia - 4 hours ago
JOHN HOWARD has announced he will retire well into the next term if re-elected and hand the leadership to Peter Costello. Speaking last night after his ...
Costello to be PM next term if Coalition wins: Howard
ABC Online, Australia - 4 hours ago
Prime Minister John Howard has acknowledged that a vote for the Coalition at this year's election will effectively be a vote for two prime ministers - him ...
Ideas start to go to jelly
The Age, Australia - 5 hours ago
For a moment it seemed we were going to be briefed on the latest developments in the Liberal leadership by a startled man from Victoria's Socialist Left. ...
Judgement shot, stature diminished
The Age, Australia - 5 hours ago
JOHN Howard could have done it ages ago — in the manner of Tony Blair. He could have spelt out a timetable for his retirement. It would have been sensible. ...

Bizarre scenes but all normal on Planet Canberra
The Age, Australia - 5 hours ago
Treasurer Peter Costello gives a press conference following yesterday's Liberal Party meeting at Parliament House. ON A day when leadership questions hung ...

PM flags retirement date
The Age, Australia - 5 hours ago
JOHN Howard last night sought to shore up his still embattled leadership by declaring for the first time that he would retire "well into" a fifth term, ...
Howard sets retirement deadline
Melbourne Herald Sun, Australia - 5 hours ago
By Maria Hawthorne and Peter Williams PRIME Minister John Howard has made a dramatic plea to voters to re-elect his government by pledging to retire during ...
Howard flags retirement if he wins election
ABC Online, Australia - 8 hours ago
Mr Howard he expects Peter Costello to takeover as Prime Minister at some point during his next term. (AAP: Andrew Sheargold) The Prime Minister says if he ...

Australian PM moves to silence leadership rumblings
AFP - 11 hours ago
CANBERRA (AFP) — Australian Prime Minister John Howard on Wednesday said no one in his party wanted to challenge for the leadership despite low opinion ...

Condolences

"The battle is not merely to arrest our addiction, but to arrest our fear of all the repressed truths and hurts that were always there. After the addiction has been broken, we have to face our feelings."

Larsen & Hegarty


That was all there was, the sinking. The city drifts away to another place. Russel Crowe's latest movie is a success in the US. The empires, kings, have all departed. All the news says the same: the city is returning to normal. What happens to these voices? Why do we compromise so totally? Some of the sharpest minds in the business came together. They could see no way forward. The government was transfixed; caught; no way forward no way back. There was movement from the morning bodies; not the same expensive stretches of the leaders; but significant to us.

The cluttered collections of material; the pointless facades; all that we had access to; stale breath, sweat. They heard at the last minute a voice: help! They lined up for the assassination. The cruelty of the soldiers was not concealed. I'll save this one for myself. They wanted to hurt. They were proud of their accomplishments. And the prisoners fell in a muffled heap. There was no way forward; the pain had already been inflicted. There was no redemption.

We were compromised. These people were killers. There was Guantanamo Bay; there were the dead soldiers in Iraq. There were people who fled from the army, people who pointed out the brutality. And we, as a nation, compromised all the way. The world's biggest criminals; no one was pretending these were nice guys. They were powerful men; and with that power came crushing brutality. Supposedly we had gone into Iraq to spread freedom; but many of these other places were as bad or worse. We compromised, deeply, while the flow of events rolled over us; leaving us morally bereft and dazed, as if whacked over the head; entirely without purpose. The truth was not simple enough to provide bold motivation.

THE BIGGER STORY:

The Age:

HAILED as "the face of Queensland" by his South Australian counterpart, Mike Rann, Premier Peter Beattie self-deprecatingly referred to his wife's description of a "tired, exhausted man with bags under his eyes" when he confirmed his retirement yesterday. His expressed desire to spend time with his family after nine years in the job sounded familiar to Victorians, whose premier of eight years, Steve Bracks, went out on a similar note less than two months ago. Both built so successfully on their first terms as leaders of minority governments that each has left at a time of their choosing, still in command of their political game, while giving their successors — Queensland is set to get its first female premier in Anna Bligh — ample time to settle in before the next election.


Fox:

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Nine American soldiers were killed in Iraq on Monday, including eight who died in vehicle accidents that also claimed the lives of two detainees, the military said.

The deadliest of the vehicle accidents, in western Baghdad, killed seven Multi-National Division — Baghdad soldiers and wounded 11, and left two detainees dead and a third injured. The cause of the accident was under investigation, the military said.

In a separate accident, east of Baghdad, an American soldier was killed and two injured when their vehicle flipped and caught fire. A ninth soldier died of injuries sustained Sunday while on patrol in the Kirkuk area of northern Iraq.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told lawmakers Monday that Iraqi forces were not ready to take over security from the U.S. military across the country.

If Only Peace Could Come Our Way

"I'm sorry you've been inconvenienced - it's not the fault of our visitors. It's not the fault of either the New South Wales Government or the Federal Government. Rather it's the fault of those people who would threaten to resort to violence in order to disrupt gatherings of this kind. You have been very patient.
John Howard, Prime Minister, Australia.

"Martial law still runs in NSW. The great are gone. The fences are coming down. John Howard is off to Canberra to face his political fate. But the power of the police to decide who goes where in APEC city won't end until midnight on Wednesday... Though the show is over, the police refuse to say what protocols governed the snipers in APEC city. Were there really circumstances in which unarmed citizens might have been shot in the streets? They cite "operational reasons" for refusing to say. Let's pray it was fear-mongering. Sydney was never more John Howard's city than it was last week as he marshalled its fears."
David Marr, SMH Journalist.


Suddenly it's all over and the skies are quiet. Only a few of the 21 leaders remain; most left yesterday, Bush on Saturday night. All the talk is of over-kill. But what if just one of those people had been assassinated. What if only one thing had gone wrong? What if there hadn't just been less than 20 arrests and there had been breaches into any of the inner-sanctums. They put the cost at $330 million; but that doesn't include all the losses of all the hundreds, thousands of businesses; as everything ground to a halt and the streets were deserted.

Everything is returning to normal quickly. The placards, "Stop Bush", "Stand For Peace", "China Is A Tyranny", have left the streets. Almost all the motorcades are gone. It's amazing to think that they were all here; Vladimir Putin, George Bush, Hu, the heads of Indonesia, Japan. There's been the Sydney declaration on climate change; but the huge scepticism that has sunk in around the cult like aspects of climate change belittle what the pollies broadcast as an historic achievements and advocates and sceptics deride alike. The polls uniformly predict annihilation for the Howard government at the coming poll; and they seemingly thrash in their death throws. Few but the zealots have faith in a Rudd government; but many have lost faith in the present incumbent.

Personally I think Howard would have been better off as a true conservative; rather than as a captive of the bureaucracy on so many issues; particularly social issues. The role of Centrelink and therefore the government; has expanded its reach into Australian families. The great churn of the tax dollar has increased. Saunders at CIS has it right; when he asks why Australian's are more addicted to welfare than ever; that ever greater numbers of Australian citizens are reliant on welfare.

While the government boasts relentlessly of Australia's economic boom; it has boom time at the top. It hasn't filtered down in the way it should have; and people on average incomes struggle under mountainous bills. Drowning in debt while the top five per cent, maybe even two per cent; have never had it so good. The booming economy is only booming for some. Why are we forever forecast in this mire. He has betrayed his natural constituency; and in that he has lost. Money has been taken off us in ever greater dollops; hoovered not just through income tax but the ever - reaching GST; and everything costs more. Tolls and credit cards capture us; drowning in debt and living on credit is much of the populace. It's jumbled and drawing to a close. Things are in calamity; disgrace; turbulent ends to powerful discourses. These are the times we face; and nothing will stay the same.

THE BIGGER STORY:


Turkish Press
APEC charts paths for sustainable development
China Daily, China - 1 hour ago
The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders' Declaration on Climate Change, Energy Security and Clean Development was issued at the 15th Economic ...
Canada declares APEC success, developing countries say they were ... National Post
APEC Aims at Future Climate Change Talks The Associated Press
APEC claims progress on climate, trade Globe and Mail
Financial Times - The Age
all 1,456 news articles »
APEC leaders push global trade talks to final phase
Inquirer.net, Philippines - 6 hours ago
APEC leaders said the overall success of the World Trade Organization negotiations would depend on early progress in bridging gaps in those two critical ...
Key advances elude Apec leaders Financial Times
APEC meeting fizzles to inconclusive end International Herald Tribune
APEC stresses on need to get Doha Round of trade talks to early end Channel News Asia
Wall Street Journal - Euronews.net
all 329 news articles »

Sydney Morning Herald
APEC 'mission accomplished', says Iemma
Melbourne Herald Sun, Australia - 2 hours ago
NSW Premier Morris Iemma has summed up the APEC summit with a reference to US President George W. Bush's politically embarrassing announcement of "Mission ...
Howard says sorry for APEC security crackdown ABC Online
Commissioner defends APEC arrest of 52yo dad ABC Online
Lucky we all got out alive in Fear City Sydney Morning Herald
Sydney Morning Herald - NEWS.com.au
all 180 news articles »

Turkish Press
APEC not for expansion
Hindu, India - 2 hours ago
SINGAPORE: The Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum has decided against expanding its membership for now. The issue will be discussed afresh in ...
India to remain excluded from APEC until at least 2010 Business Standard
India to remain outside APEC until at least 2010 AFP
Hawke reflects on 18 years of APEC ABC Online
Sify - SBS - World News Australia
all 158 news articles »

Boston Globe
APEC Leaders Disagree on Trade, Climate Change (Update4)
Bloomberg - 16 hours ago
Some of the 21 members attending the summit, criticized in the past for being a yearly talking shop about contemporary crises, said APEC was straying from ...
Raincoats hide a host of problems Sydney Morning Herald
APEC leaders agree on climate change pact Euronews.net
Bush urges Beijing to ease up on political, religious dissent San Francisco Chronicle
International Herald Tribune - CNN International
all 332 news articles »

CBC.ca
Bin Laden and bums at OPEC, oops APEC, summit
AFP - 16 hours ago
SYDNEY (AFP) — Trade and climate change jostled for prominence with everything from brothels to pandas to bare bottoms at this year's APEC summit in Sydney, ...
Bush heads home from APEC ABC Online
APEC Leaders Ready to Set Measurable Energy Efficiency Goal Environment News Service
Leaders leave today's APEC talks Melbourne Herald Sun
Reuters India - AFP
all 357 news articles »

They're All Here Now

As usual after any triumph, I was
of course, inconsolable.
Les Murray

Free Love Not Free Trade
APEC Protester placard


They're all here now; and that's an amazing thing in itself. Russian leader Vladimir Putin arrived yesterday morning, George Bush earlier in the week, three planes and an entourage of 700, Chinese leader Hu Jintao. I find myself transfixed, watching these people on screens. They really are very powerful people; which sounds corny; but all we see now are motorcades cutting through the city and helicopters overhead. The streets are almost deserted. There is little traffic. The words they utter are for the consumption of millions.

The biggest news has been the Chasers team from their War On Everything ABC program getting through security; one of them dressed as Bin Laden. Everyone said it had gone too far; the police and others saying they were lucky not to be shot by snipers. But they can't help smiling at the same time.

Here they are; the most powerful men on earth. I try to imagine what it is like to be them and can't. The surface drama continues. Climate Change is expected to dominate the agenda; the news just declared. But didn't the scientists acknowledge last month that we had just been through one of the coolest decades for a century. It just doesn't connect. The experts can't agree so how can the layman possibly know. It turned into a cult, but why don't the figures stack up? You can only agree with the last person you spoke to; well sometimes it is like that. Who knows the truth in this welter: in a Godless age we have to believe in something.

Silence encroached on everything; nothing but the thrombing of helicopters overhead; as the powerful cut their swathes of influence through the day. We were tiny voices, tiny consciousness, laid out on snail trails imposed on the city's multitude of stories, through chaotic days. "They're the world's biggest criminals," said one taxi-driver. "Howard invited them here, what can we do?" asked another; suggesting that APEC would be over soon enough. The empty streets would come back to their crowded, jangling life, and greed in all it's primary colours would return to dominate a hedonistic extravagance on the edge of a great ocean.


THE BIGGER STORY:

APEC leaders meet to consider climate change; protesters march in Sydney
The Associated Press
Published: September 7, 2007
SYDNEY, Australia: Pacific Rim leaders gathered Saturday to consider a proposal to set nonbinding goals on fighting global warming, as thousands of demonstrators rallied to demand the governments act faster.

The presidents of the United States, China, Russia and leaders of other Asia-Pacific economies entered the Sydney Opera House for the first session of their annual summit, after officials late Friday struck a compromise on a draft statement on climate change — the top agenda item.

A dozen blocks away — on the other side of a 3-meter (10-ft.) metal fence fortified by concrete barriers and a police cordon — thousands gathered outside Sydney's Town Hall for a protest rally on a grab-bag of issues from the stopping the Iraq war to reducing poverty and ending global warming.

AFP

Bush, Putin focus on missile defence in talks

12 hours ago

SYDNEY (AFP) — US proposals to site an anti-missile defence shield in Europe dominated face-to-face talks here Friday between US President George W. Bush and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

Putin said their meeting of around an hour at a Sydney hotel "above all was related to missile defence," but neither men gave details...

Putin also told reporters in a brief joint appearance afterwards that he and Bush had agreed to go fishing together in Siberia.

Bush described their talks as "both cordial and constructive".

Helicopters overhead

 

Only the whirl
of thousands of blades slicing my dreams
like screams, splattered guts, stinking burns
like the same roaring scene played over and over
on thousands of nights, even days, even when
cool silence calms memories, buries visions
like a simple traffic helicopter overhead
wakes the dead over and over.

Judith Cody

"The war he found himself participating in was not the campaign against terrorists and evildoers he had expected. Key tells of the human rights abuses he saw: Iraqi civilians beaten and shot, killed or maimed for little or maimed for little or no justification; the casual desecration of bodies of the dead. He tells the heart-rending story of a seven-year-old girl he saw killed while attempting to scrounge leftover army rations for her family. After seven months in Iraq, Kay went home on leave, and knew he could not return, knew he could no longer serve his country."
The Deserter's Tale.


The strong and the powerful are all here; the most obvious sign the helicopters hovering overhead. Motorcades slice across the almost empty city. Today is a public holiday and with the heads of some of the world's most powerful economies, including Russia, China and the US in town, every body's been encouraged to stay out of town. The politicians have all grabbed on to climate change as something to make them feel busy and important; yet recent figures show that the last decade was the coolest since the 1930s. Go figure. Is it real or not? Welcome to our wagon; I've always found it hard to believe.

The helicopters throb in the distance; carrion birds. We sentence you; we double cross in the policy rivers and care only for our own backsides. These are fragile weeds in the murky pond; the secruity helicopters making their way purposefully across the sky while others hover over the city's luxury hotels. Particularly the Intercontinental; where Bush is staying. This is one for me, they shout. I couldn't breathe life into lost causes, I wanted to be free.

We should make the move. The targets are ready. The protesters are locked out. Nothing can go wrong. Only a few more days and it will all be over. Howard is desperate for some platitudinous cover-all statement about climate change; but why should so much money be poured into something which not even the scientists can confirm is real? I'm not sure that I spoke positively about you; they certainly didn't speak positively about me. These strange disembodied thoughts rising into the thromb of the helicopter blades; as the caravans of the powerful, surrounded by intense security; kept in their privileged positions by the taxes of hundreds of millions; thread through the city. All hope of compassionate, equitable outcomes, are smashed to pieces by the swirling, frightening machines.

THE BIGGER STORY:

USA Today

SYDNEY — Australia's natural wonders — the Great Barrier Reef, the vast Outback, Tasmanian rain forests — disguise a dirty fact: The country known for kangaroos and crocodile wrestlers is one of the world's worst polluters, at least on a per-capita basis.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard has put the environment at the top of the agenda at the annual Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting of 21 Pacific Rim countries that he is hosting this week in Sydney.

At APEC, Howard is promoting a new approach to fighting global warming, one to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which will expire in 2012. He and President Bush released a joint statement Wednesday calling for a long-term program to reduce emissions "consistent with economic growth, poverty alleviation and improvements in living standards." They emphasized the use of technology and nuclear power and didn't mention energy taxes or mandates on industry.

Bush said China and other developing countries have to do their part to cut emissions. "China needs to be at the table," he said.

Curling Waves Flying Insects

 

Time that is moved by little fidget wheels
Is not my time, the flood that does not flow.
Between the double and the single bell
Of a ship's hour, between a round of bells
From the dark warship riding there below,
I have lived many lives, and this one life
Of Joe, long dead, who lives between five bells.

Deep and dissolving verticals of light
Ferry the falls of moonshine down. Five bells
Coldly rung out in a machine's voice. Night and water
Pour to one rip of darkness, the Harbour floats
In the air, the Cross hangs upside-down in water.

Why do I think of you, dead man, why thieve
These profitless lodgings from the flukes of thought
Anchored in Time? You have gone from earth,
Gone even from the meaning of a name;
Yet something's there, yet something forms its lips
And hits and cries against the ports of space,
Beating their sides to make its fury heard.

Are you shouting at me, dead man, squeezing your face
In agonies of speech on speechless panes?
Cry louder, beat the windows, bawl your name!

Kenneth Slessor, Five Bells
Perhaps the most famous poems set on Sydney Harbour.

A police helicopter flying low over the Interncontinental Hotel was all I saw of APEC yesterday; passing on the crowded expressway to the Hunter. That; the traffic jams and the blizzard of news on the radio. Bush has arrived with three airplanes full of 700 staff and supporters; imperial in its size and cost. He had dinner with our Prime Minsiter John Howard last night. There are a thousand momenets when we could be lauded for our efforts; watching the traffic flow; the rooms of his own home looking new; as if he was seeing them for the first time; as if someone had been here while he was out; planting bugs, monitoring him as always, his paranoia deepening with each passing day.

But head down and go through the motions; nothing would change. The crazy ineptness of his own laughter would come back to haunt him. Coming fast on one another; the time was his unless he handed it over. His conscience would be there grating. There was so much that could be done. His death in Calcutta, with a chronic heroin habit, didn't have to happen. The stomach thudding slump into which he had fallen didn't have to be his life.

I haven't seen the wall yet; or the fence as some put it. Steel and concrete. Patrolled. The leader of Russia, China and America will all be here; the greatest number of world leaders ever to be in Sydney at one time. Wounded with the reconstrcution; the fence, the traffic corridors, the thousands of police, the short sharp competition for our attention was over. The city seethed. Through the Supreme Court the police have managed to block the proposed march of the Stop Bush Coalition on Saturday; but a number of other, police approved, protests have gone ahead. Waving placards and letting off steam; that's a democratic right. In the insane reaches of our heart; breached by the cold steel of our harsh reality days; the days of ferment and change; when all he could do was act invisible, knuckle down and keep working, only glancing sideways to see if he was watched. These days were upon us.


THE BIGGER STORY:

www.nzherald.co.nz

Traffic jams, road blocks and police checkpoints tested Sydney's patience yesterday as tight security for the first day of President George W. Bush's visit to the Apec summit brought much of the city to a standstill.

Morning commuters were hit by extensive traffic delays as Bush travelled in an 18-vehicle motorcade from his hotel, the InterContinental, to nearby government offices, where he held his first meeting with Prime Minister John Howard.

Hundreds of bus commuters were delayed entering the central business district across the Harbour Bridge, as police road blocks and vehicle checks caused traffic chaos.

The afternoon rush hour was also affected, when the Chinese President, Hu Jintao, and a large entourage were whisked from Sydney Airport to their hotel on roads cleared of traffic.

There will be more delays today when Russian President Vladimir Putin flies in on his first visit to Australia, and Bush travels from his hotel to Darling Harbour for an official Apec event.

At a joint press conference with Howard, Bush apologised for the inconvenience he had caused, blaming it on the threat of violent protests. But that was scant consolation for many Sydneysiders, who have questioned the expense and inconvenience of hosting Apec and the stringent security which has turned the city into Fortress Sydney.

A Million Eyes

"The Twin Squirrel helicopter rattled over southern England, its shadow printed on the autumnal fields like an ominous ever-present harbinger of potential disaster. The uncertain and unseasonable weather of the past week was continuing. From time to time the black clouds curdled above them, then dropped their load with such concentrated force that the helicopter seemed to be bumping through a wall of water."

"This body had at least left a memorial to its existence, but even that rich legacy of imagination and verbal felicities seemed a childish bagatelle in the face of this ultimate negativity."

PD James, The Lighthouse.


Time traced a finger across our own dawns; introverted, quivering inside; all those natural states, irritable, restless, discontent; while the soldiers checked their equipment and there were police everywhere. They boasted of their own prosperity; but he wasn't part of it. Things couldn't be explained. A teasing solution was no solution at all. He could only pass through the circumstances of the day; and emerge as intact as possible out the other side.

President George Bush is now in our city; and security is no doubt extraordinary. The people who live here; thousands of us; caught in cubicles; stuck in traffic; all of this was gratifying? We were all taxed within an inch of our lives; the country celebrated success and narrowed its focus; those eyes were more about peaking out of a cave, a protective hole, rather than surveying the domain. Looking for danger; hoping not to be seen.

It was such a gift; their certainty. The filthy passing of our own uncertainties were not for them; tall, handsome, fit, their guns in clear view. I hoped for renovation; revelation; to be transformed in the clear planes of the city's architecture; the harbour light adding confidence to our many traits; these disembodied eyes; the cold calculation; the observation; as each hour passed disaster grew closer; and we were all here, simply to watch. That's what it felt like; how was it possible for all these people to come here and for nothing to go wrong? Or was it just going to be like the Olympics; suddenly this chaotic city in which we all labour; and sometimes have fun; will work like it's meant to work; there will be no major incidents; the rioters will make their point and depart peacefully; and the concrete wall dividing the city won't be necessary at all.


THE BIGGER STORY:

Stuff.co.nz

Sydney police want to ban a planned protest march as fears of violence escalate during the Apec leaders' summit.

Water cannon and armed police will be on standby if Saturday's protest by anti-war and climate change groups gets out of hand.

But police want an urgent Supreme Court order to stop protesters marching through a declared security no-go zone.

The arrival of United States President George W Bush for the summit is a rallying cry for protesters. He was due to fly into Sydney late last night from Iraq.

His entourage occupies three 747 planes. US secret service agents have a special exemption to carry weapons into Australia.

His 20-vehicle convoy is expected to cause traffic gridlock this morning and tomorrow. He has a military helicopter, and US fighter jets are in Australia on standby.

Sydney went into lockdown on Monday, when Apec week started, though fears of widespread disruption have yet to eventuate.

Armed police patrol city streets emptied of tourists and residents.

Protesters and civil liberty groups say tough new powers of arrest brought in for the summit and a 2.8-metre-high vehicle-proof steel fence encircling part of the central business district go too far.

Australia will not say if it has received a specific security threat. But the symbolism of a strike against Mr Bush while visiting one of his most loyal allies, Australian Prime Minister John Howard, means nothing has been left to chance.

The summit comes as Mr Howard is under increasing pressure over his commitment of Australian soldiers in Iraq, and domestic issues.

A poll issued yesterday had more bad news for the Australian leader, who might have hoped a showcase event such as Apec would revive his flagging fortunes. It showed the gap between Mr Howard and his Labor rival Kevin Rudd has widened.

When New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark, also polling poorly at home, flies in on Friday, it could be one of their last official meetings as prime ministers.



Google: Tuesday morning 5 September 2007:

Apec tension grows with arrival of Bush
Stuff.co.nz, New Zealand - 23 minutes ago
Sydney went into lockdown on Monday, when Apec week started, though fears of widespread disruption have yet to eventuate. Armed police patrol city streets ...
Bush arrives in Australia for APEC summit Euronews.net
Bush's APEC challenge to China The Australian
APEC protest fizzles out Melbourne Herald Sun
Melbourne Herald Sun - Xinhua
all 756 news articles »

Cay Compass
Apec seeks climate change consensus
Bangkok Post, Thailand - 6 hours ago
by Sid Astbury Sydney (dpa) - Before Apec leaders began arriving in Sydney, Australian Prime Minister John Howard was being pilloried for promising that the ...
Australia: APEC should agree to long-term emissions goal International Herald Tribune
Australian FM backs India joining APEC AFP
APEC to review corruption progress Economic Times
Bloomberg - AFP
all 827 news articles »
Where are the APEC demonstrators?
Melbourne Herald Sun, Australia - 5 hours ago
In the first sign of APEC action, barely 50 people turned out for an anti-Bush, anti-Iraq war rally in Railway Square, outside Sydney's Central Station. ...
Sydney protest peaceful ahead of Bush's APEC visit Reuters South Africa
Anti-APEC demonstration in central Sydney NEWS.com.au
Police to target APEC truant protesters The Age
Melbourne Herald Sun - ABC Online
all 140 news articles »

Xinhua
The APEC forum lacks a meaningful role
International Herald Tribune, France - 4 hours ago
But APEC as a grouping has scant competence on any of these issues. The participating leaders have their own agendas, which have nothing to do with the ...
Walker's World: APEC's golden eggs United Press International
China's Hu departs for Australian state visit, APEC summit Economic Times
APEC can prove its global value The Canberra Times
China Daily - Xinhua
all 62 news articles »

Servihoo
APEC on track to promote clean, efficient energy
Xinhua, China - 14 hours ago
The Secretariat, in a report on climate change, said APEC has launched initiatives to promote clean and efficient energy production and use. ...
ABAC leaders slam Doha inertia The Australian
Romulo: RP growth ready for competitive world trade INQ7.net
Business lines up for APEC Melbourne Herald Sun
Voice of America - The Age
all 130 news articles »

Earthtimes.org
Russian businesses seek resource deals at APEC
ABC Online, Australia - 9 hours ago
Russia joined APEC 11 years ago but still does a smaller proportion of global trade within the group than any of the other 20 member nations. ...
Bush, Putin urged to talk nukes at APEC ABC Online
Australia wants India to join APEC; seeks consensus on climate plan domain-B
India fails to win seat at APEC Radio Australia
The Age - ABC Online
all 75 news articles »

Brisbane Times
Roads close as APEC gets into gear
The Age, Australia - 11 hours ago
The city's Macquarie Street off-ramp from the Cahill Expressway has also been closed on Tuesday until the end of APEC on Sunday. ...
Police in APEC truancy blitz Sydney Morning Herald
Chaos descends as APEC leaders land Daily Telegraph
Traffic snarls expected during APEC The Age
The Age - Daily Telegraph
all 69 news articles »