Silent In Intent

*

Well the moon is broken
And the sky is cracked
Come on up to the house
The only things that you can see
Is all that you lack
Come on up to the house

All your cryin don't do no good
Come on up to the house
Come down off the cross
We can use the wood
Come on up to the house

CHORUS
Come on up to the house
Come on up to the house
The world is not my home
I'm just a passin' thru
Come on up to the house

There's no light in the tunnel
No irons in the fire
Come on up to the house
And your singin lead soprano
In a junkman's choir
You gotta come on up to the house

Does life seem nasty, brutish and short
Come on up to the house
The seas are stormy
And you can't find no port
Come on up to the house
There's nothin in the world

(Chorus)
there's nothin in the world
that you can do
you gotta come on up to the house
and you been whipped by the forces
that are inside you
come on up to the house
well you're high on top
of your mountain of woe
come on up to the house
well you know you should surrender
but you can't let go
you gotta come on up to the house

Tom Waits, Come On Up To The House.

Collapsed, in the sequence of things, he had been to the same meeting every week since he came back from Pnom Penh, and marched each week as a gathering disaster; or as they would put it the road to recovery. Forty days and nights in the desert, he quipped, getting a short laugh before they knew they were appalled when he failed to follow the party line. Sometimes I just go and let it all wash over me, he said. Sometimes I think, my god what a crock of shit, I can't believe the garbage coming out of people's mouths. But whatever the solution, whatever the time, whatever the diatribe, these things marched in unison like demented toy soldiers, up and down the sois, up and down his spine, marching to some infernal tune aimed to destroy in one hysterical laugh. I worry about mortality, each one of them said in turn, and he thought, I don't. I'll slip behind another curtain and that will be that. There were so many solutions. There were so many problems. So many promises. He listened to them, full of themselves, as if they had anything to offer, anything at all. And as always, he was drawn to appalling queens, including Jack the lawyer from Washington, who was as pompous and precise and as long winded as any lawyer could be. It was eight, ten years ago, no nine, I think, he would say. Yes nine. I'm sure it was nine. You clearly need to be taken out, he said.

There was a range of solutions on offer, but not here. He fought for peace, and found a new disturbance in his failing heart. How unfair is this, he thought, stalking his upmarket apartment, everything was free and yet here he was, like everybody else, imprisoned by the flesh, paying for the past. Present sainthood did not always reap immediate rewards. They all talked the same talk: life is short. He tossed and turned fitfully and slept more hours than he had ever slept. And couldn't be sure: what was going wrong? How dare life threaten his perfect presence. Some things were coming home to roost, both good and bad. Work was on offer. He was characterised by plain disaster. There were catastrophes beckoning, all in the future, plane crashes, landslides, earthquakes, tsunamis. They would all provide opportunity for someone such as himself. If you see me coming you're having the worst day of your life, he would sometimes quip; and sometimes it was true, the courts, the riots, the funerals, the day of death. He rang the father of that handsome boy the second after the Federal Police had informed him his son had died in the Bali bombing. Everything fell softly to earth. The exigencies of the flesh seemed far away.

When the pleasure dome ceased functioning, when they sat in silence in the restaurant, their mutual English and mutual Thai thoroughly exhausted, he knew it was all a waste of curdled time; "stranger stranger strange how you listen to the river of my curdled song"; "you been whipped by the forces inside you, come on up to the house" quoted the lanky academic; all sensitive and gooey, cloying almost. The academic who was always giving up cigarettes. He was passionately concerned, as if it would make any difference, and he fought, fought to make a difference, fought against the shadows and the flesh and the past and the future, and settled here in an over-heated present, with the time on their side, not his, and he thought: I just want one happy year in Bangkok. Which, incidentally, has just been named the number one city in the world by Travel and Leisure, despite the problems of the red shirts, despite the traffic, despite everything. Because of course in so many ways it is the number one city in the world, it attracts money from everywhere, it is fascinating in all its corners and its ancient spread, and it attracts people from not just around the world but all over Thailand, the poor from Issan come to work in every trade imaginable, and contemptuous little shits asking his boy: are you from Issan? Are you a poor boy? Eff off, he felt like shouting, and instead they jerked monkey like across a frozen landscape; eerie in intensity, silent in intent.

THE BIGGER STORY:

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-election/leaking-labor-is-a-shambles-abbott-20100729-10wix.html

Opposition leader Tony Abbott said today the Gillard government was a "shambles" with a series of damaging leaks showing a party divided.

The coalition's renewed attack came after the Deputy Prime Minister, Wayne Swan, admitted last night Labor was powerless to stop the leaks.

Mr Abbott said the government had deteriorated under Julia Gillard's watch.

''Since Julia Gillard took over, we've gone from incompetence to incompetence, chaos to chaos, shambles to shambles,'' he told reporters.

''It's extraordinary how Kevin Rudd's government looks disciplined compared to Julia Gillard's government.''

Mr Swan rejected the criticism saying the government had ''the runs on the board'', especially on economic management.

''We've got a big story to tell,'' he told ABC radio.

Paid parental leave continues to be part of the election campaign story as both Ms Gillard and Mr Abbott campaign in Melbourne. Both sides are trading blows on the issue with the coalition continuing to question Ms Gillard's belief in paid parental leave.

''What's now been revealed by this series of leaks from within the government is that Julia Gillard is not a true believer in paid parental leave,'' opposition frontbencher Joe Hockey told ABC Radio.

The coalition has flagged it will announce another change to its business-funded scheme in the next few days.

Earlier in the week it announced carer fathers would be paid only the working wage of the child's mother.

Mr Swan said these changes - and a decision to cut the company tax rate to 28.5 per cent from 2013 - were an indication the coalition was in ''policy chaos''.

''They are out of control behind the scenes,'' he said.

http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/Plane-Crash-in-Pakistan-Kills-152-99466739.html

Authorities said the Airblue jet was traveling from the southern port city of Karachi to Islamabad when it crashed into the Margalla Hills while attempting to land in rainy and cloudy conditions.

Rescue teams and army helicopters were sent to the crash site, but search and recovery efforts were hampered by difficult terrain and bad weather.

Pakistan's Federal Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira said rescuers had so far recovered 115 bodies and were searching for the plane's flight data recorder to determine the cause of the crash..

Witnesses said the plane was flying very low just before the crash, while an Airblue spokesman (Raheel Ahmad) said the pilots did not send any emergency signals.

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani expressed grief over the "tragic incident." The government declared Thursday a national day of mourning.

U.S. President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton offered condolences to the families of victims including two U.S. citizens. They said the American people stand with the people of Pakistan at this difficult time.

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon said he was deeply saddened by the tragic air crash and extended his heartfelt condolences to the people and government of Pakistan. A U.N. statement said Mr. Ban wrote to Prime Minister Gilani to express the sincere sympathy of the United Nations with Pakistan at this painful time.

Promotional picture: Tasmania.