There is nothing that man fears more than the touch of the unknown. He wants to see what is reaching towards him, and to be able to recognise or at least classify it. Man always tends to avoid physical contact with anything strange. In the dark, the fear of an unexpected touch can mount to panic. Even clothes give insufficient security; it is easy to tear them and pierce through to the smooth, defenceless flesh of the victim.
All the distances which men create round themselves are dictated by this fear. They shut themselves in houses which no-one may enter, and only there feel some measure of security. The fear of burglars is not only the fear of being robbed, but also the fear of a sudden and unexpected clutch out of the darkness.
Elias Caneti
If we were disconnected, if the massive force that led us, that swept us across fields in torrents of unexpected water, there would be another place. There would be another time. We would be surrounded. Our own chaos would harken into our hearts; and these disconnections, these disturbances, would be left alone. The internet is not working properly. An Optic fibre cable is down in Queensland, causing chaos, and is probably the reason for this local disturbance.
I'm out of Sydney for World Youth Day, when the city is swept with youth and enthusiasm and religious fervour, and the elderly, tired, old, cynical, were swept aside in a rush of fresh . Being young is fun, my son said tentatively, glancing sideways in the car. Wondering what it meant. That his friend was keeping him happy. I'm sure, I said, and smiled, distracted by the traffic. And later I thought I should have said: make the most of it, because growing old is a y bore.
The world was full of aging women claiming it was the richest, most fulfilling, happiest period of their life, as they networked and gossiped, travelled and read. And their men folk, if they were still surviving, grew grumpier and more anti-social by the day. All was lost, all was infinitely profound, all was made of darkness and pain, as the dysfunctional windscreen wiper shrieked rhythmically across the glass and the storm clouds churned high above.
If only, if only, amidst everything and nothing, amidst a world of declining embrace, amidst chaos and sickness and poor health, ruled by a government that cared not for us, in an era no longer theirs. It's my life and it's my wife, the song went, and all that time ago, when they were making breakthroughs every minute and Keith kept us laughing from morn till night, when people came visiting regularly and he mixed well with everybody, popular, well liked, physically attractive. They don't queue at the door like they used to, he said, and shrugged.
He was covered with paint from painting the shack, and everything that was brutal, everything that was meant to make them powerful and strong, everything that was meant to give reason in this fragile life, that was meant to provide them with wisdom and God's grace, with power and meaning, with all that was good and purposeful. But that wasn't the way things had worked out. Complicated scenarios, disturbances of the heart, the cluck of the chooks as they settled in for the evening.
It had been the most exciting day of his entire childhood. They had been up north, at Murwullumbah, in that beautiful rambling humble but large old house where his grandmother had lived, and there had been nothing better than scratching in the dirt and watching the chooks, because they didn't have chooks in the city where his parents lived. It was the year of the flods, and they had travelled across many a swollen river to get there. And he made a nest of hay for the chooks, and placed it in the chook pen. And loh and behold, the next day there was a brand new egg sitting in the hay; and he had been so proud, and had told everyone, although the s hadn't seemed so excited by it all.
And now, half a century later, he had bought chooks in another place, in Tambar Springs, and they were scratching in the grass and finding paradise where the sheets of corrugated iron had lain in the grass until recently. And they pecked boldly in the grass; and he found, too, his own escape. For all was not lost, it had simply changed. And that is all we can manage, with the optic fibre cut, and chaos spreading in a world almost entirely dependent on the internet.
THE BIGGER STORY:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world-youth-day/sydney-invaded-by-joy/2008/07/15/1215887592062.html
The Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell, will evoke dramatic old Testament biblical images that recall drought devastated Australia to call pilgrims to a life of redemption, love and resurrection.
On the opening day of World Youth Day celebrations, coordinator Bishop Fisher, declared Sydney had been "invaded by joy''.
"You look at the streets of Sydney at the moment, it has never been like this. People are recalling the Olympics but we've never had this many young people full of faith, of idealism, of enthusiasm for Jesus Christ, his church and the future of the world.''
Today's opening Mass at Barangaroo will be attended by 140,000 pilgrims, 26 cardinals, 400 bishops and up to 4000 priests, making it the biggest Catholic Mass ever celebrated under Australian skies.
The turnout will eclipse that of the three previous Papal visits to Australia.
Cardinal Pell will celebrate the opening Mass, the biggest of his lifetime.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/15/asia/15afghan.php
The Taliban insurgents who attacked a remote American-run outpost near the Pakistan border on Sunday numbered nearly 200 fighters, almost three times the size of the allied force, and some breached the NATO compound in a coordinated assault that took the defenders by surprise, Western officials said Monday.
The attackers were driven back in a pitched four-hour battle, and appeared to suffer scores of and wounded of their own, but the toll they inflicted was sobering. The base and a nearby observation post were manned by just 45 American troops and 25 Afghan soldiers, two senior allied officials said, asking for anonymity while an investigation is under way.
With 9 Americans and at least 15 injured, that means that one in five of the American defenders was killed and nearly half the remainder were wounded. Four Afghan soldiers were also injured.
http://www.theage.com.au/national/cut-cable-throws-queensland-into-chaos-20080715-3fdo.html
A severed fibre optic cable on the Gold Coast is wreaking havoc across Queensland, shutting down Brisbane Airport operations and leaving hundreds of thousands of Optus phone and internet customers without service.
The systems failure has halted electronic baggage and check-in procedures at the airport's domestic and international terminals, forcing airlines to use manual systems for passengers.
Security has not been affected, however.
An airport spokeswoman said all phone and communications services were down, causing delays of up to an hour.
The problem is also said to have affected the state's hospitals.
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