THE MALICE OF MEN

The South Coast, NSW, Australis

Where he had thought he would be safe, he was not safe at all. Where he hoped to find friend, he found nothing but new gangs of thieves. The Royal Thai Tourist Police joined in the malicious hunt of the Bangkok mafia as if born to it, and whoever he spent time with robbed him with malicious glee. On and on it went, as he thrashed and grew more miserable by the day, more isolated, more distressed. More open to be feasted upon by the malignant. He had thought Chiang Mai would be a haven, somewhere in the Thailand he liked so much where the mafia and their corrupt friends in the local police would not reach out to get him. But they couldn't leave him alone. They just circled and circled. At first he thought Laurie, who owned the guest house and did volunteer work for the Royal Thai Tourist Police, would be helpful. But he turned out to be just as dishonest, just as unpleasant, as everybody else. And so his mood sank further and further. He might be 60 years old, and frail and disturbed from the decades of work, the physical pain that wracked his body, and the psychological torment he had endured, but that wasn't going to stop any of them. The Bangkok mafia were out to get him; and the police were more than happy to assist.

And so, obsessively, he had kept his thoughts to himself. Watched their antics. Got pissed when he could bear his head no longer. Slept with prostitutes who invariably robbed him. Made ancient moves on an ancient chess board. Could hear the mocking in the distance, as he wasi meant to. Could not believe that even here they were malicious enough to set up blinds, to keep up their mocking, to alienate the local population. To encourage them to join the queues of those who had robbed him during his time in Thailand. That country which he had hoped would offer peace, and had turned into a nightmare. As it had for so many other foreigners who, in their so-called sunset years, sought peace and refuge, deluded by the advertising slogan, The Land of Smiles, or deluded, as he had been, by fond memories of the country 40 years before.

But if the friendliness of 40 years before had been even remotely sincere, it was no longer. He braved his way through another step. He kept time and emminence at bay. He made the point that the mafia, employing their little armies of thieves and liars, tricky boys and tricky girls, should clean up their act to interact with tourists, rather than just blatently and routinely robbing them at every opportunity. That it was bad for the counbtry and bad for their industry, bad for the reputation of the police and the reputation of the country itself, to so systemically steal from people who were, after all, customers. But any criticism incensed the Thais. It was a common saying amongst themselves, Bangkok police same same Bangkok mafia, but for an outsider to say it was considered a disgrace. And so they kept up their haunting, crossing every boundary of reason, decency, good taste. They just kept planting their cameras, and in their vicious haste, made fools of themselves as much as they made a fool of him.

That they had come back into his life more than a year after he had left the wretched circumstance, indeed for what he could be forgiven for thinking was a wretched place, showed their arrogance, stupidity and the remorseless nature of their group hatred just like that. He had loved Thailand, the ravishing beauty of their music, the superb food, the fascinating vistas, the colour and movement of their peoples, the fascinations of their customs, their different ways of thinking about the world, the way, once upon a time, he had been able to relax. But when he had objected to being robbed by one nasty little rent boy, it was as if he had accused them all of being thieves. If the hat fits, wear it, and they wore it in throngs. But who was a foreigner to say such things, to make such objections, to dare to speak out. So they followed him everywhere, not just within Thailand, but across borders. In their endless pursuit. In their endless lies. In the end, caught in their own ridiculous traps, because they had to prove a journalist with decades of experience didn't know what he was talking about; and had no right to say what anyone could so easily observed. And what, in different ways, so many others had already said. Instead, by the day, the howling of the hunt had just grown louder, whether it was in Chiang Mai, where he had first spent a month in 1975, when there had been virtually no hotels and no tourists, and it had just been an idyllic town full of flowers and the sound of rickshaw bells, or wherever else he went. But even if he had been the ugly, unpleasant person they claimed him to be, how did that justify robbing him? How did that justify turning themselves into thieves. Discobeying the precepts of the Buddha. That, he never understood.

THE BIGGER STORY:

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/labor-had-chance-if-kevin-rudd-had-called-early-20131029-2we77.html#ixzz2jEFhFGTK

Kevin Rudd could have pulled off an unlikely election win if he had quickly gone to the people after regaining the leadership in June, says the man armed with the polling data at the time, Labor's campaign director George Wright.

He said with hindsight Mr Rudd should have pulled the election trigger sooner after replacing the unpopular Julia Gillard, because there had been a moment shortly after the changeover when Labor's polling suggested it had a chance.

But the factionally unaligned Mr Wright also acknowledged something of the chaos within Labor's re-election push, revealing for the first time the dumping of Ms Gillard in late June had crippled his internal campaign machinery with as many as 110 of 150 head-office campaign staff quitting in protest.

Delivering the traditional post-election campaign analysis to the National Press Club in Canberra, Mr Wright paid tribute to the much greater discipline of the Coalition's campaign, describing it as, if not brilliant, then ''brilliantly disciplined''.

He said by contrast Labor had made itself the story.

''Labor didn't so much lose the election as lose government,'' he said, ''and we lost it because of a lack of unity and too much infighting.

''We put the Liberals 10 goals up when the political year started. The crucial thing that [federal Liberal Party director] Brian [Loughnane] and his team had in spades, and ruthlessly drove home their advantage with, was the biggest thing that Labor's team lacked - discipline.''

He said by the time the election was called, the ALP's market research was identifying it was not just the carbon tax or even the long-running asylum-seeker problem hammering Labor's standing with voters, it was the then government's bitter internal squabbles.

Among the most telling revelations was Mr Wright's certainty that while the switch to Mr Rudd had not saved the government, it saved as many as 25 Labor seats.

He said the ALP had faced the prospect of retaining as few as 30 seats in the lower house rather than the 55 it came through with.

''In the second quarter of 2013, our polling was telling us Labor was looking at being reduced to as few as 30 House of Representatives seats,'' he said. ''Western Sydney looked like it would become a Liberal heartland.''

Instead, Mr Wright said, the party got away with ''a solid loss'', likening it to the Dunkirk landing. ''We pulled off Dunkirk, suffering a major defeat, but managing to escape with our army intact.''

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-obama-healthcare-website-20131030,0,1315422.story

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius apologized today for the botched rollout of the government's healthcare website, acknowledging it was a "debacle", while also blaming insurers for cancelling coverage for hundreds of thousands of people.

Sebelius, testifying at a congressional hearing on the troubled website at the heart of Obama's healthcare overhaul, vowed to win back the confidence of millions of disappointed Americans.

"Hold me accountable for the debacle. I'm responsible," Sebelius said in response to questions from Marsha Blackburn, the Republican U.S. Representative of Tennessee, about who was responsible for problems that have prevented people from signing up for healthcare insurance plans.

Two weeks was not enough time to test healthcare.gov that launched on October 1, Sebelius said.
She said while all the various components of the website were tested and verified, they were not put together until late September.

"We did not adequately do end-to-end testing," she testified.

Sebelius also said "everyone" was concerned that there were risks associated with launching a complex, integrated website.

Sebelius said she will not ask for the resignation of a top official at the agency overseeing the implementation of the health insurance exchange. Asked if she would call for the resignation of Gary Cohen, the deputy administrator and director at the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight, Sebelius said: "I will not."

Technical glitches have dogged healthcare.gov since its launch, preventing many people from signing up for insurance plans. But critics of Obamacare have seized on the hundreds of thousands of Americans due to lose their current plans because they fail to include essential benefits required by the law and are asking whether Obama misrepresented the law.

Sebelius, the cabinet official spearheading the implementation of the 2010 Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, drew intense criticism from Republicans including Fred Upton, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Upton accused Obama of breaking a 2009 promise that people with insurance could keep their current plans.

"They are now receiving termination notices, and for those who lose the coverage they like, they may also be losing faith in their government," the Michigan Republican said.

Sebelius defended the administration by describing hundreds of thousands who have received cancellation notices as the victims of a market long known for discriminating against the sick, cancelling policies and selling inadequate insurance.

"The individual market ... anywhere in the country has never had consumer protections. People are on their own. They can be locked out, priced out, dumped out," by insurers, Sebelius said.

Sebelius said Obama had not broken his promise because plans that have existed since the law was signed have had the option of remaining unchanged.

Democrats on the committee rallied to the administration's position by pointing out that insurance policies being canceled would be replaced by better plans that meet higher standards under Obamacare, many of them at lower costs.

"I would urge my colleagues to stop hyperventilating," said Representative Henry Waxman of California, the committee's top Democrat.

Sebelius has become a political punching bag for Republicans who have repeatedly called on her to resign over the flawed rollout of the website. The White House continues to support her.

"I am as frustrated and angry as anyone with the flawed launch of Healthcare.gov," Sebelius testified. "So let me say directly to these Americans: You deserve better. I apologize.

"I'm accountable to you for fixing these problems. And I'm committed to earning your confidence back by fixing the site."

THE COMMANDO

NSW, Australia

TheCommando was just another of those who queued up to rob him during his sojourn in Thailand. Tasked by the Royal Thai Tourist police to monitor his case, driven by the howling of the corrupt Bangkok police and those they had managed to agitate into hate, he inveigled his way into Michael's life by saying he wanted to tell his story. Ghost writing it was called. The man was barely literate, a terrible speller, wouldn't have known what the word syntax meant, but had some interesting stories to tell. Including that of training to be a Marine Commando, the story which would later become the short book, The Confessions of a Royal Marine Commando. The verbal agreement between them had been a 50:50 royalty split, which of course was never adhered to. The "commando", a figure of fun amongst those who followed the case, suggested they work on his story, and so they did. In the end the commando told so many lies, he didn't know whether a word in the book was true, although it had seemed so at the time..

With the howling never stopping, not even here in Chiang Mai where he had briefly thought he would be safe, Michael had simply become lonelier and lonelier, more disconsolate, disoriented, and confused. No one would show him the fabricated material for which he was hated, if indeed it even existed and wasn't just more garbage flying in the wind, and so he continued to be pursued for, as far as he could see, being stupid enough to fall for the lies of a rent boy; at a vulnerable time of his life. They preyed on the weak and the vulnerable, the elderly and the lost. That was their job, their modus operandi, the rent boys. And well over a year later, traces, trails from this dismal episode still kept popping up, this time in the form of an email, demanding he remove Confessions from sale. Amazon, for whatever reason, had fallen for the Commando's lies, he probably used his position and the name of the Royal Thai Tourist Police to give him credibility where none lay, and so the money and the time was wasted. On yet another horrid little man.

Life is a war against the malice of other men. Once again the adage fitted. Michael should have realised when the "commando" kept saying he was a friend and he would never lie to him, that the exact opposite was true. "They really want him," the manager of the guesthouse where he had briefly stayed, or returned to, commented. A former bodyguard for the Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating, they had, for a time, been on reasonable terms, swapping stories about PK. But it was not to last. What he had thought would be a haven became just another treacherous trap. As he thrashed and thrashed, and wished once again he had never met the poisonous piece of work at the origin of these travails. Had never ventured up the steps of X-Size in Bangkok. Had never heard of Soi Twilight. Had never ventured there with his mate Ian, after Ian had been unable to settle on a girl at Soi Cowboy. Had never met either Baw or Aek.

But the commando, with three children and the usual voracious Thai wife, was money hungry and could see no reason not to join in the festival. Rounded in their certainty, grasping at straws, they could not leave him alone. It was not in their nature. Bullies determined to harass, the poisonous circle of the chorus of voices that climbed up around yet another house, his spirit dived into a terminal, appalled isolation. He should have chosen another country, but knew they would pursue him wherever he went. Corrupt Thai government officers. Corrupt Thai government pollice. A stirred, hysterical mob. A poisonous swathe, as he sat at morning meetings in a nearby park, and even there, they followed him. And went around the neighbours, poisoning their heads. So his spirit dived still further, downwards and downwards as he thrashed against the enveloping lines, the image of Moby Dick having lodged in his brain, as in so many others. The Royal Thai Tourist police were estalished because the corruption of the local police was so endemic there was little hope of redemption, or of them not attempting to bribe, bully, intimidate and harass tourists. They should have been investigating the corruption in the system, not joining in harassing a foreigner. But that's exactly what they did.

THE BIGGER STORY:

Long war ends with hope, says Tony Abbott

Date

October 29, 2013

• Comments 177

Phillip Coorey

Tony Abbott came to Afghanistan on Monday to signal the end of the 12-year mission there and declare Australia's longest war had failed to secure victory.

But he declared it a job well done and that it was time for the troops to come home.

Bipartisan visit: Tony Abbott and Bill Shorten chat aboard the aircraft on their way to attend the ceremony in Tarin Kowt. Photo: Andrew Meares

Accompanied by Labor leader Bill Shorten, in what is the only bipartisan visit since Australia first sent troops 12 years ago, the Prime Minister did not believe victory could be claimed but felt a positive difference was made.

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''Australia's longest war is ending, not with victory, not with defeat, but with, we hope, an Afghanistan that is better for our presence here,'' he told assembled troops at the Tarin Kowt base.

''Our armed forces and our officials have done their duty. That duty never ends, although our duty here has.''

The Abbott government is also likely to adopt a hard line towards aid for Afghanistan after the last Australians leave next month.

While the previous Labor government declared Australia would maintain a strong aid presence beyond the withdrawal, Fairfax Media understands the Abbott government is not so keen.

There will be some assistance but a portion of the more than $4 billion in cuts to the aid budget the Coalition promised before the election would be at the expense of Afghanistan. It is in recognition that with the Western forces gone, the country will resort to its centuries-old practice of being controlled by warlords.

One condition the government is keen to place on the spending of aid money is that it at least has some say in its disbursement. In post-occupation Afghanistan, where the Taliban is expected to assume a dominant role, that is not considered a reality.

Mr Abbott visited Afghanistan three times as Opposition Leader, the most of any person in that position. This visit, conducted with the now customary surprise and secrecy, will be his last and the last of any Australian prime minister, ending a tradition that began in 2005.

Australia's commitment to Afghanistan has lasted four prime ministers and six opposition leaders, and has come at a price: 40 men killed, more than 200 wounded, and close to $8 billion spent.

More than 26,000 service personnel have rotated through the country.

Mr Abbott told the troops the withdrawal would be ''bitter sweet''.

''Sweet because hundreds of soldiers will be home for Christmas, bitter because not all Australian families have had their sons, and fathers and partners return,'' he said.

Australia still has about 1000 personnel at Tarin Kowt, the base in the Oruzgan province, who are due to be home by Christmas. Beyond that, an undefined number of special forces will remain. They will relocate to Kandahar and Kabul, and act as ''trainers''.

During the visit, Mr Abbott and Mr Shorten laid wreaths during a ceremony to mark the imminent withdrawal and the lead role Australia has had since 2010 in looking after Oruzgan.

Mr Shorten also addressed the troops. ''The troops have taken the vow of absence and risk, and of distance from families,'' he said.

''There are no words to thank you for the sacrifice and the ordinariness of the life we take for granted.

''It will be a great homecoming for a tremendous job.''

The ceremony was held around the Camp Holland memorial wall, which features the names of the 40 Australians, who along with another 74 US, Dutch and French troops, died in Oruzgan.

Controversially, the withdrawal plans include painting over the names, and the three large concrete panels on which they are inscribed will be broken up and buried.

There were suggestions the wall could be replicated in Australia and an announcement was expected later on Monday.

One claim of success from the visiting delegation was that the Australians had overseen the construction of more than 200 schools in Oruzgan, of which 26 were for girls, but questions remained as to how many were still functioning.

Afghan Interior Minister Mohammed Omer Daudzai told the ceremony the Australians "have been the best" of all who had served in the country. ''Whatever they have been doing here . . . they have always put the Afghan people first.''

Oruzgan governor Amir Mohammad Akhundzada said security had improved a lot but ''some threats still exist''.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/long-war-ends-with-hope-says-tony-abbott-20131028-2wc4j.html#ixzz2j8mDg3AF

THE PLACES FLED XV

NSW, Australia

The mockers were always there, the talentless, the malicious, the nasty little worms wriggling at his feet. Thieves who thought they could get away with anything, because he was not the same. A man's life is a war against other men's malice. They circled and they sprang. And he didn't care. They could be as nusty, as mundane, as they wanted to be. If he was angry, he had every right to be. Not that it was a useful emotion. His mind kept running back to Lumbini, where he thought he would be safe, and even there they had pursued him. All things kept running, as they always would, faster, more profound, more competent. They could lie and they could steal, but they couldn't clean up their own back yard. He struggled for peace. He wanted to go back to Lumbini. The shame spread every way, and hit them in the face. Every agreement was in ruins. Walk tall, they said, and walk tall they did.

In the inconvenient summaries of all that had happened, he worked hard and shrugged off the cramping pain and kept smiling: for every time they threw mud it came back to hit them in the face. They hadn't heard of boomerangs. Nasty, bullish, dishonest little farang police could threaten him as much as they like, no one should ever believe them. He had never met so many dishonest people in all his life as during his tour of Thailand, either farang or Thai, had never been robbed so repeatedly, maligned by savage people trying to protect themselves. And when it all came down to it, who looked bad for harassing an old man, for stealing from him, ridiculing him? Why couldn't they have just left him alone?

But of course they all had to join in their mafia orchestrated dance. Had to play the fool. Had to cast their poisonous sneers wherever they went, and leave him bereft. Savages. Born to be slime. Vicious bitches in the comfort of their own slimey networks. Oh how comfortable they looked. He settled onto a bar stool and knew they all knew. They could not leave him in peace. It was not in their nature. They would prod and circle and sneer and thieve; and think they were what, heroes, for doing it? They were scud on his shoe; and he just kept going. He didn't care anymore what any of them thought. They had done too much. They had danced on his grave too hard. And they had lied and lied and lied to get to where they got, and so had sullied their own souls.

Yes, there were days when melancholy wreathed him like some dank storm. But on others, he could see the tremendous potential in everything, beauty sparking through the sky, in the trees, on the ground. In the various tableaus he observed, criminal or otherwise. And when he spotted a corrupt policeman, the beauty was even more intense, their demise even trickier and harder. They had no idea the shallows he sitirred as he walked. And like the birds picking at birds in the wake of an elephant in the bush, they could have swooped at any time, but did not. Because the information was too valuable. And they didn't know which way the information went, why it was being provided for free. Who was doing what to whom, who were the connections. And above all, why. They didn't know, and the entrails, the paths laid out at his feet, showed just how corrupt some of the bastards were. And that's why he replied in a flash of anger sometimes, and then let it lie. He would rather go back to Lumbini.

THE BIGGER STORY:

It took just one word from former attorney-general Nicola Roxon to question not only the character of Kevin Rudd but his leadership.

Delivering the John Button Memorial Lecture this month, Roxon called her former boss a “bastard”. The party never addressed his management problems or explained properly why he was dumped in favour of Julia Gillard, she said.

“The best companies are run from the bottom up. Rudd never recognised that. That was his mistake." 

“We didn't explain the dysfunctional decision making and lack of strategy . . . we didn't talk about his rudeness or contempt for staff or disrespect for public servants.”

In short, Roxon gave Rudd's leadership short shrift.

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Is it possible to make the leap between running a company and running a country? If Rudd was chief executive of Australia, that would make the Labor Party his employees, his cabinet the board of directors and the rest of us minority shareholders.

Can managers and leaders learn how not to be a boss like Rudd?

The word "bastard" is not such a dirty work in the corporate world. Indeed, in some parts it is expected. Alex Hamill, former chief executive of George Patterson, at one time Australia's biggest advertising agency, says a lot of the people running companies are, for want of a better word, "bastards".

“To be successful in anything – whether it be sports, business or politics – you have to be ruthless. You have to understand what you're doing and why,” Hamill says.

The former prime minister surrounded himself with a first XV and forgot about the second and third graders, he says.

“The best companies are not run from the top down but from the bottom up. The girl or guy running the lower divisions is as important to the company as the vice-captain of first grade. Rudd never recognised that. That was his mistake,” Hamill says.

Executive coach and mentor Anthony Howard, who heads the Confidere Group, says the most striking thing was that Roxon spoke about leadership 101 – stay focused, do what matters, promote purpose and vision, bring people with you, be strategic, make decisions and that Rudd was lacking in almost all of these.

“No CEO would survive long without these competencies but Labor allowed Kevin Rudd to fail in the basics, and then gave him another chance. This is perhaps a greater indictment of Labor than Mr Rudd.”

Howard says Rudd's greatest leadership gift was that he demonstrated what not to do: don't micromanage or constantly change your mind, don't pander to polls or surround yourself with those who agree with you. Don't avoid the hard thinking and hard conversations. Don't insult those who have a different point of view.

“Choose purpose before popularity, principle before pragmatism, strategy before detail, and implementation before endless committees. Establish and nurture deep relationships, put others first and give them the glory while you take any blame, surround yourself with smart people who are brighter than you and give them freedom to get on with the job,” Howard says.

Of all the core competencies required for high-level leadership, Rudd demonstrated only the ability to tell a compelling story. “He spoke and wrote about strongly held values, and great moral challenges, yet readily abandoned these for political purpose,” Howard adds.

Peter Fuda, principal of Sydney management consultancy the Alignment Partnership and author of Leadership Transformed: How Ordinary Managers Become Extraordinary Leaders, says that on Rudd's return to office, many of his colleagues chose to resign rather than work with him.

"It's hard to get anything important done unless you bring people along with you, no matter how smart you are,” Fuda says.

Fuda felt Rudd was “overly scripted”, referring to the use of buzz words and the choreographed hand gestures. “It was all a bit inauthentic. I would have encouraged him to drop the mask and be himself, warts and all.”

Roy Green, professor of management and dean of business at the University of Technology, Sydney, says Rudd failed to provide a consistent, clear and well-grounded strategic narrative. He also failed in the execution of his plans.

“The elements were there but never drawn together and articulated in a compelling way,” Green says.

Rudd never adopted an inclusive approach to policy design and delivery, did not draw on talent and innovation in the organisation and lacked attention to execution of his strategy.

“As Jeffrey Garten, former dean of Yale management school and adviser to President Clinton once said: 'Vision without execution is hallucination'.”

Would Roxon have delivered this speech if Labor had won the election? Hamill laughs at the idea and returns to the sporting analogy.

The minute a team starts losing, he says, it blames the coach: “If they had had a pick-up in the polls, Roxon would have said Kevin was a darling and I love working with him. They'd still be supporting him if he was the biggest bastard in the world. It's really as simple as that.”

Read more: http://www.canberratimes.com.au/small-business/finance/how-not-to-be-a-boss-like-kevin-rudd-20131024-2w49x.html#ixzz2j3AlfoZt 

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DEATH OF THE WORKER'S PARADISE

Death of the Worker's Paradise, South Coast, NSW Australia

If he couldn't detect the sound of his surveilance anymore; if they had, indeed, gone away at last, then a kind of unharassed peace could open up, he could relax. Or begin to taunt himself more openly. But he still heard them sometimes, or could detect their influence in the behaviour of others, alhtough now he wasn't sure enough to really know. "He's right," a voice said one afternoon, during one of his final displays of angst over the duration of it all. For what had been meant to be a sunny retirement; a wandering on. Palm trees and infinite gratitude in the arms of others. All hell could erupt, or he could grasp the mantle quietly. Or he could use, in the end what were quite powerful tools, to achieve good. To feather his own nest. To fulfil social justice agendas. To embarrass the powerful. To ensure he was never harassed by a corrupt pack of bastards ever again. To write and facilitate fascinating books which could become the arrows and poems of the time. To the heart. To the knee. A stumble into a warm and welcoming dark.

Nohing was simple, of that he was certain  He still liked the rough. They made him laugh; they were so different to the coated, disinfected, deracinated, defanged, Stepford Wives world the left and the right had colluded to create; here at the end of time, at the death of heart, at a place where all was nothing. The hoovering of money off the populace and their subsequent disempowerment had been a progressive thing; so that the younger demographic didn't notice, didn't realise. There were the smart c...ts with smart cars, and there were the rest. Days passed. Men gathered outside the front of houses. Small trades went on into the dismal light. Every pub had one, every suburb had one; the alphas in a sea of mediocrity. "I wouldn't fuck the slut with your dick," his friend said, and Michael laughed. All would take place. All would be revealed. But in all the rivulets of imagination, let me trace my finger down your leg, the primary motivation was laughter; the inverse of the postcard world that was meant to be.

THE BIGGER STORY:

http://www.news.com.au/national/former-pm-kevin-rudd-could-help-ease-indonesian-spy-row-says-deputy-opposition-leader-tanya-plibersek/story-fncynjr2-1226767177150

Deputy Opposition leader Tanya Plibersek says Kevin Rudd could play a part in easing diplomatic tensions with Indonesia. Source: News Corp Australia

DEPUTY Opposition leader Tanya Plibersek says Kevin Rudd could play a part in easing diplomatic tensions with Indonesia.

But she's not sure whether the former prime minister, who has now left politics, would want to help.

"Any senior Australian like Kevin Rudd, who as former prime minister and former foreign minister, if they've got personal relationships with senior Indonesians, it does no harm to be talking in that personal context to them,'' she told ABC television.

Mr Rudd was prime minister in 2009 when it's alleged Australian intelligence monitored the phone calls of Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, his wife and some of his closest confidants.

In the escalating diplomatic row, Indonesia has stopped joint defence activities and threatened further retaliation.

Ms Plibersek says it all depends now on the letter from Prime Minister Tony Abbott to President Yudhoyono, who is demanding a formal apology and a full explanation of the phone-tapping charges.

She says she doesn't know what's in the letter.

"The proof will obviously be in the pudding. If co-operation is restored to its normal settings, then we will know that the letter has been successful,'' she said.

Mr Abbott hadn't helped the situation with his addresses to parliament, Ms Plibersek said.

Neither had the coalition's election policies of turning back asylum seeker boats and its failure to consult Indonesia.

"I am sure that we will get the relationship back on track but we need to do it quickly,'' she said.

    

THE PLACES FLED XXI

 South Coast, NSW, Australia

In the far North, in these reaches, came the words from The Fatal Englishman:

"Nevertheless it looks as though he will end up a journalist... he will sell his soul for less than its real price, or go away thinking that there is nothing for him to do but harden himself into a mercy-bullet for the sick conscience of the age."

Which was all very well, except first Jeremy Wolfenden had to get there:

"On mature consideration it is a good thing. It forces me to do what I had long lacked the courage for - to distil what I want..., abandon the rest, and proceeed deracinated. And since at the time he has heavily undermined my home life, I am more of an emotional nomad, a nationless, mercenary intelligence, than ever. So be it."

There wasn't any way out but through, as he had said at so many different times in his life. 

But here, now, against a grinding, merciless nature and a kind of abject abnegation, a loneliness of the soul, he couldn't find any clear way to come back. To sort through all that had been. To know, in confidence, what the next step would be. To walk into open arms. To have someone happy to see you. To shrug off the lingering impacts of bullying, be free of the past, bold of the future, confident of heart and limb. Romantic notions. "I want a certificate for random lust in an aging frame," he said to the senior politician's wife, as they discussed gay marriage, the latest attempt by the hounds of conservatism to corale gays into images of themselves.

Just as once the most conservative of all, the most passionately royal, were aging queens who in reality had been marginalised at and jeered at by the culture they so roundly, so conspicuously championed; so the left had decided to make gays into orthodox little couples living out their lives on ordinary, orthodox little streets. 

What did the state have to do with any of it?

Why were politicians in people's lives and people's bedrooms in the first place?

Deracinate, debug, get the hell out of our lives. Just stay away and let people be whatever they are.

But they couldn't leave any one alone.

The dead hand of socialism, the Tory whip, corporate greed, bureaucratic expansionism, political correctness and whatever else you could think of had combined in a perfect storm to destroy what used to be a worker's paradise, and a reasonably fun place to be...

THE BIGGER STORY:

KEVIN Rudd's final departure from parliament will intensify the revisionism and rewriting of history already under way about who is to blame for the failed and toxic Rudd-Gillard leadership and the destruction of the Labor government.

With two former prime ministers and serried ranks of supporters free to churn out speeches, books, documentaries, newspaper articles and even a movie or two, the battle to create competing truths about the seven years of the partnership of Rudd and Julia Gillard will rival the achievement of the film Gallipoli in establishing myths about Australia's history.

At the heart of the competing versions is the question of who is to blame for the self-destruction of the ALP's grand achievement, following a remarkable return to government after more than 11 years in opposition.

Gillard's early argument is that she didn't plot to bring down Rudd and was a victim of misogyny.

In the argument there is one agreed fact: the destruction of the Labor governments of 2007 and 2010 lies with the removal of Rudd as a popular first-term PM without explanation to the people of Australia.

It is here Gillard's argument is at its most ingenious; she argues she didn't actively move to replace Rudd and was simply the right person in the right place at the right time.

But Gillard, like someone watching a man drown but failing to act to save the floundering colleague, is as culpable as those who threw the man overboard.

Gillard can argue until the cows come home that she did not actively work against Rudd, but her problem is she ensured she was in the right place as others shifted him into the killing zone.

Gillard did not act to defend or save her leader when she knew others were working to destroy him, even when his self-declared most treacherous colleague, Wayne Swan, was working to protect him.

There is no defence, be it misogyny or incompetence, that excuses Gillard as a deputy prime minister working, actively or passively, against her leader; nor can she be excused for failing to declare the obvious truth, from very early on, that the Rudd government was dysfunctional.

Gillard ensured she was - without blood on her hands - the only alternative to Rudd in 2010.

Rudd, of course, points to the removal of a prime minister "elected by the people" at the hands of factional leaders, union bosses and the "faceless men", as the singular moment in Labor's destruction.

The facts are that Gillard was watching the polling at the time more closely than previously acknowledged, she was prepared to be drafted if Rudd fell over, and did nothing to defend her leader from mutineers. Even Swan, maligned as he has been, sought to head off the removal of Rudd in the last sitting week of June.

On Wednesday an emotional Rudd conceded he had failed in some areas but, in defiance of criticism from colleagues about his arrogance in declaring he had been elected PM "by the people", continued to make the point:

"I would also like to thank the people of Australia for electing me as their prime minister. To have served as prime minister of Australia has been a great honour afforded to very few in our country's history," he told the "friend and foe ... spread equally across both sides of the chamber".

- See more at: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/columnists/how-julia-gillards-ambition-destroyed-kevin-rudd-and-alp/story-e6frg75f-1226761414074#sthash.jFTVB2Ak.dpuf

THE PLACES FLED XV

A bench by Lake Illawara, NSW, Australia

Yes, he still felt haunted, but not driven, which was strange for him. All the torment of the soul had evaporated in sleep. He didn't understand why. There was no way out but through, all the old slogans came true in time. When in crisis, deal with what's in front of your face. Instead, he slept, heavy, formulaic dreams which went over and over old ground as if it would never end. Why do that to yourself? Because he had been haunted. Harassed, abused, bullied, but it wasn't up to him to claim victim status. Everything else just went south. But easy does it, closed nights, fervent, fervent hope, as if all was going to come crashing down. He was so sad at what had happened. But the biggest mistake had been the stupidest of all, to believe the world had not changed, that the smiling faces and welcoming attitudes of the 1970s would somehow have lasted into the 21st Century. To not understand that you were despised. To think you could find friends in a place which got more than 20 million tourists a year.

These mistakes were made by many other than himself. Thailand was the single most dangerous destination on Earth for foreigners. Yes, it was taking a while for him to recover; because his brain was filled with coagulated dreams. Because he didn't like being robbed any more than the next person. Because bullies, thiefs and mafia networks should not be foisted on tourists. Because the Land of Smiles was a lie. Because he had been personally hurt, and then jeered at for being hurt. And then here he was, bereft, perhaps, not his own person, a highway nearby. The truck drivers heading down the highway at all hours, radios on, their heads preoccupied with mundane things. In the sweep of everyhing, these were the quietest days. If there was any way out, he did not know what it was. And so he coalesced in a kind of wooden charm, making slow reparation. Against all that had been stolen, against his own mistakes. He smiled woodenly. There was no way out.

In the fragments of what had been, he stood and worked. I couldn't see any doom and gloom in this wooden place. These thoughts, unexpected, strange, as they had always been, he kept to himself. There wasn't any use saying what was really going on. Coaelescing in a brain storm. Carrying past acreage. Flapping at ghosts, as if they were persistent summer flies. Still these dreams kept recycling, although their origins were far gone. So that's therapy? they thought, and laughed. "You crazy." How often had they called him that. No respect. There had been no respect. So he had given them an eyefull, looked terrible, given them a record. These pointless, useless, stupid things; as the Thais scurried to cover their own thieving, their own stupidity. Their own calow, shallow, nasty stealing. How much they had cost, for so little. But that was them, they were always scamming.

That tourists should be protected from tourist scams was an obvious thing. But no action was taken. The police were corrupt. The politicians tainted with the same stupid bravado that infested everything else. They would come to meaning, they would come to dawn. Forgive him, oh Lord, he know not what he say. And equally lost, equally treacherous, swimmling like that famous Australian fish the flathead, in the estuaries, his skin almost perfectly camouflaged, the sun dappling through the shallow water, lighting up the sand. You had to peer very closely, just to see the old monster. Perhaps he spewed forth diatribes when disturbed, but they were mental loops retaining to old flesh, not wise but crafty. It did no good to be wise down here. Sometimes giants walked through the playground, wading in the shallows by the side of the lake. Very occasionally, a few times a year, he would have to swim out of the way. The rest of the time he lay there, watching the antics of his ancestors. There could be no wiser, quieter path, than to stay hidden. That he knew above all. And then, one day, after he had been sleeping, he woke to see a giant standing over him, and could see a net pushing through the water towards him. And he wasn't invisible anymore.

THE BIGGER STORY:

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/no-end-to-the-bill-shock-for-shorten/story-e6frf7jo-1226747830640

TO celebrate his 50 days since winning the election, Tony Abbott made a special meal - of "Electricity Bill" Shorten.

What the Prime Minister did last weekend to the Opposition Leader in just one sentence should terrify Labor. He put a label on Shorten that will stick like Tarzan's Grip, reminding voters Shorten is keeping power bills too high by stopping Abbott in the Senate from scrapping the carbon tax.

"That's what people will be thinking every time their power bill comes in until the carbon tax goes - that's Electricity Bill who's responsible," Abbott said.

Labor's fantasy then shattered.

Since the election, Shorten and Labor have kidded themselves that they lost government just by being bastards to each other - that whole Rudd and Gillard thing.

Otherwise, they'd done a great job.

Truly.

You'd think politicians couldn't be in such denial after such a hiding - Labor winning just 55 seats to the Coalition's 90.

But hear it from Labor Senate leader Penny Wong: "We did not lose government because we didn't manage the economy well ... We have been held to account for our disunity."

Hear this same magic mushroom talk from Senator Doug Cameron: ''I think we lost the election through disunity". Same from Anthony Albanese, who ran against Shorten for the leadership: "You do get marked down when there's a perception or reality of disunity".

And Shorten, when he beat Albanese, kept feeding that folly. He spelled out not one change he'd make to Labor other than this: he'd have "zero tolerance for disunity".

It's all madness, of course. Rudd was not sacked by his colleagues in 2010 because they were suddenly disloyal. He was sacked because of what had made them disloyal - his chaotic leadership and dud policies that had Labor support in free fall.

The public had suddenly seen through this monstrously vain man who'd squandered so much money and trust. (Remember Grocery Watch, Fuel Watch, "the greatest moral challenge", the boats, the school halls?)

Same with Gillard. If she'd been a good leader, there would have been no disloyalty. No Rudd.

In fact, she was catastrophically bad and politically poisonous. She broke promises, wasted even more billions, blew the Budget, and bungled everything from border policy to cattle exports.

And of all her policies, none cost her more than the carbon tax - both a needless cost and a broken promise. A symbol of Labor's green extremism and its deceit.

Disloyalty didn't kill Labor. Bad leadership and bad policies did.

But Labor is now so arrogant, so bloated with moral self-importance, that it refuses to admit it's selling what few voters want to buy.

True, Shorten, on winning the leadership at least conceded Labor had made mistakes. But he spelled out none and embraced the worst.

He praised the National Broadband Network, which the Coalition will soon expose as a financial disaster worse than most critics warned.

He also stuck by the national disability insurance scheme, which threatens to become a bank-breaking bureaucratic and welfare nightmare.

Worst of all, Shorten insisted "it's important to maintain a price on carbon pollution". I know Shorten is stuck. If he drops the carbon tax, either as a fixed or floating price, many green-worshipping Labor voters will have his guts for garters.

That wouldn't matter so much if Labor's idiotic new leadership rules didn't now give members half the say in who leads them.

But if Shorten sticks by a carbon price he will be savaged at the next election. Abbott's blast on Saturday was just the first salvo.

How could Shorten possibly go to an election promising to bring back a tax that Abbott will by then have scrapped with the help of next year's new Senate?

Vote for Electricity Bill.

Did Abbott help fool Labor into thinking it could get away with this?

In his first 50 days, Abbott has done comparatively little media, and kept his ministers fairly mute. He's not been overtly political, preferring to send voters the message he's too busy getting on with running things.

Labor might have hoped it could then be the hound and Abbott the hare. It would attack, Abbott defend.

But last weekend something changed. Abbott savaged Shorten for the first time since the election, revealing he still can be the damaging streetfighter he was in Opposition.

Labor must now know it cannot dodge the debate it's refused to have since its defeat. How can it drop the carbon tax and walk from the green faith that ruined two prime ministers and made Labor seem dictatorial?

What new causes should it take up to prove it's still the party for idealists? This is serious work, and Shorten, a smart man, can do it. Electricity Bill cannot.  

Velvet Underground rocker Lou Reed dies at 71

Updated 7 minutes ago

PHOTO: Lou Reed was considered one of the most influential people in rock music. (AFP: Jose Jordan)

RELATED STORY: Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson to curate Vivid

MAP: United States

American rock pioneer Lou Reed, whose band the Velvet Underground became one of the most influential in rock by fusing art and music in collaboration with artist Andy Warhol in 1960s New York, has died aged 71.

The singer-songwriter, whose best-known hits included Perfect Day and Walk On The Wild Side, was considered one of the most influential people in rock music.

Music magazine Rolling Stone describes the Velvet Underground as the most influential American rock band of all time.

The band rose to prominence by fusing art and music in 1960s' New York through its collaboration with artist Andy Warhol.

The Velvet Underground never achieved much commercial success, but revolutionised rock in the 1960s and 70s with a mixture of thrashing guitar licks and smooth melodies sung by Reed or the sultry German model Nico, who briefly collaborated with the band at Warhol's insistence.

The band has long been recognised as a major musical influence on punk and art rock, as reflected in a quote often attributed to musician Brian Eno that, "The first Velvet Underground album only sold 10,000 copies, but everyone who bought it formed a band."

An admitted hard drinker and drug user for many years, Reed underwent a liver transplant earlier this year at the Cleveland Mayo Clinic, his wife, Laurie Anderson, told The Times of London, after he had cancelled five California concert dates scheduled in April.

"I am a triumph of modern medicine," Reed posted on his website on June 1, 2013, without directly acknowledging the transplant.

"I look forward to being on stage performing, and writing more songs to connect with your hearts and spirits and the universe well into the future."

Reed's cause of death has not been released.

Online tributes have been pouring in on social media after a message sent earlier in the day on Reed's twitter and Facebook pages read simply "The Door."

More to follow.

ABC/Reuters