Malcolm was “a one-man communist spy ring”

That was The Empress’s summation of our friend Malcolm “Lord Malcolm” Gleeson at yesterday’s memorial service. Needless to say he was not referring to Malcolm’s politics, which in some respects were to the right of Genghis Khan, but never without compassion. He was saying that Malcolm wore many hats, and kept them very much separate: Malcolm the sailor, Malcolm the flyer, Malcolm the ground controller at the Air Shows, Malcolm the flying instructor, Malcolm the reader, thinker and writer, Malcolm the web designer and creator of databases and networks, Malcolm the jazz musician, Malcolm the gay activist, Malcolm the administrator, Malcolm the foodie, Malcolm the HIV activist… And a chance for conversation I have missed just lately: Malcolm the deeply and personally knowledgeable bridge to the Aboriginal and Islander cultures. And possibly more, as yesterday’s service very much revealed a person whose still waters ran very deep indeed.

Legal Eagle on the Indigenous crisis

When I get time I will give Legal Eagle’s excellent post careful attention. I agree entirely that the word “crisis” is odd for a situation of such long standing. You may gather from my page on the subject that I am far from adopting a reflex left position on this one, much as I regret the line the Howard government has taken on such things as land rights and the Stolen Children Report. Like her, I hope that despite “a giant dollop of political opportunism” there may be good outcomes. I differ on reconciliation, and commend what Jackie Huggins had to say on that: see Some thoughts on the events of June 2007. I don’t think what you might term the spiritual dimensions of the issue will cause all the practical issues to go away, but I believe they profoundly affect how solutions are framed and how they are received.

I do hope the states and the Commonwealth stop beating each other up on these matters and really sit down and work together.

Maps

I love maps. Always have. You’ll notice that I now have a map as my masthead, and yes my place is in there somewhere, so there you see my little everyday world.

Last April I referred to a marvellous blog called Strange Maps, which is often one of the top blogs here on WordPress.

Here are smaller versions of a couple of recent ones. You must visit Strange Maps to see them bigger, read about them, and start exploring the other maps.

First, 130 - A Ten-State Australia, which should interest Jim Belshaw and horrify John Howard, I suspect.

Second, 131 - US States Renamed For Countries With Similar GDPs.

Fascinating site.

Our local MP makes some sensible remarks

Tanya Plibersek, the Labor MP for Sydney, does a good job in her Sydney Morning Herald column today: By all means act, but know it is for the long haul.

Over the past decade, up to 14 significant reports have exposed the crisis of child abuse and neglect in indigenous communities. The release last week by the Northern Territory Government of Little Children Are Sacred is the last in a long list.

It is a national shame that despite all these reports no government of any political persuasion has done enough to protect indigenous children. Labor will support any proposals from the Federal Government that will stop child abuse and neglect. There are no excuses for abuse or neglect.

Move over Margaret and David…

… Thomas may not have appeared on your radar, but he may before long. Could there be a career in this?

Just a shame I have seen only one of the movies he’s talking about, and then, come to think of it, I only saw that because I read about it earlier on his blog. By the way, we are told the entry will be finished tomorrow, so I may have to revise the link…

A couple of years ago when Thomas had another persona Mr Rabbit had alerted me to this intelligent person he knew who could write really well. Unfortunately I tended to disagree at the time, as that persona and some of his subject matter brought out the grumpy old man in me in quite a big way. (Marcel was rather similarly affected, as I recall, and he can’t yet be accused of being a grumpy old man, even if he has a rather alarming cat.*) But it seems The Rabbit was a better spotter than I. (Still makes the odd spelling mistake though… fantasiced, tsk!)

I look forward to reading the rest, and may even track down the other movie, though my movie watching does tend to be governed by what I can get at Surry Hills Library — free, you see. Mind you, I don’t have quite the same fixation on the persons of Ms Portman and Ms Tautou, but I guess that is understandable. I’m a big fan of how the camera is used in films. Me too, and oddly enough I taught Photography at one stage as well as English. Handy that, nowadays.

* Don’t try to discern any logic whatsoever in that segue…

Julie Bishop’s reference group may be a joke…

… but so is NSW Minister for Education John Della Bosca’s response to it. See Expert barred from history panel.

A NSW bureaucrat has been barred from helping recommend what year 9 and 10 school students should be taught about Australian history.

Jennifer Lawless, a Board of Studies inspector who has taught history for 20 years, was named by the federal Minister for Education, Julie Bishop, yesterday as one of several experts who would help overhaul the history curriculum.

Quick review catch-up

Redemption — Robert Daley (2006). UK crime fiction. “A subtle story that underplays the seedier, more gruesome elements of crime fiction without ever detracting from its power … an author who is rapidly becoming more accomplished.” This proved somewhat too melodramatic for my taste.

Nature of Australia — is just beautiful (1991/2003). (DVD) ABC TV — digitally remastered. And yes, it really is great. Creationists should be forced to watch it: Australia is a living contradiction of Ken Ham. Perhaps that’s why he left.

The view from Redfern

No doubt you will be able to read much more in The South Sydney Herald July edition which should be available to locals in two weeks time and online a few weeks later. In the June edition you may read:

The June 2007 SSH (3.2Mb PDF) reports the DoH redevelopment of the area bounded by Elizabeth, Phillip, Morehead and Kettle streets in Housing redevelopment commences, still seeking private partner. In Trevor Davies’ “Have You Heard” column, he seeks to correct the claims in a leaflet distributed by Standup around the Waterloo towers, which misinterpreted earlier suggestions that the towers were targeted for demolition in Matavi and Tarunga residents bothered by ‘Stand Up’. In the aftermath of the CUB site approval the SSH reports Get Out!- Foster’s to evict Kensington Street tenants. The SSH also looks at the issue of late opening pubs in Open all hours – at what cost? and at APEC: like Sydney during the Olympics, but in a bad mood. RWA CEO Robert Domm interviews Val Hinton and Ray Vincent about Cecil Hinton’s experience as a Changi Aboriginal veteran in An old digger’s black experience and in ’67 Referendum remembered Bobby Perry reflects on the referendum 40 years ago. Other articles of interest to the area include Green light for Green Square pool? and a piece about Juliette Kumari Indian Queen in Waterloo. On the cultural and events side, the SSH reports on Indigenous artists dream together at Performance Space (a mix of shows centred around the theme Ngalaringi Nangami Dyaralang (‘Our Dreaming’)) and a profile on Wire MC. Wire MC will perform at the Support Independent Media! Concert for the South Sydney Herald to be held on Sunday 8th July at the ATP (for details see Poster 623Kb PDF)

– Summary from RedWatch.

Bookmarks while you wait — expanded

The need to re-embrace TRUE RECONCILIATION has never been stronger than it is today.

The issue I and many other Australians are wrestling with right now is best thought about after reading The Board of Inquiry into the Protection of Aboriginal Children from Sexual Abuse. The complete Northern Territory Government Report can be downloaded there. That should precede any considerations, whatever your views might be. I would also urge you to revisit without the damaging attitude that came via Quadrant and Keith Windschuttle Bringing them home: The ‘Stolen Children’ report.

The most significant event in Aboriginal policy in over a decade

I will come back to this after careful thought, and when my download allowance has been renewed. My starting point is still much as I indicate on my Indigenous Australians page. That is: 1) the present government took a serious wrong turn in Aboriginal and Islander Policy from Day One in 1996, but 2) it isn’t enough to say that. Eleven years of “practical reconciliation” have delivered some good outcomes, but the situation could have been a whole lot better if not for 1) above.

Meanwhile, read last night’s 7.30 Report. See also Men’s Business on Message Stick.

Update

Page now done. See here.

Spotted in Chinatown?

Yesterday during my tutoring hour I saw someone who looked rather like Mr Potations (aka Mr Rabbit) in the Gloria Jean’s near Central. I may have been dreaming, or committing mistaken identity, but then maybe not… He, or the look-alike, appeared to be doing a bit of marking.

This particular coachee goes back to Shanghai for three weeks starting next week. So do two others. Coaching is in for a bit of a downturn for a month…

This made me smile. Thanks, Kevin. A shame Malcolm isn’t here to see it… He’d have loved it.

Enjoyed The Chaser tonight…

… because in this last episode for a while of The Chaser’s War on Everything they excelled. I thought the ex-gay skit not only funny but very apt. Well done!

More seriously, go to How Not to Make Me Ex-Gay from Positive Liberty.

The cyclonic winds have been postponed…

For now at least.

Yesterday the Bureau of Meteorology was warning that overnight Sydney could be hit by winds of up to 100 kilometres per hour, but it hasn’t happened. Sure the winds are there, but something called an inversion layer has kept them several hundred metres above our heads, apparently.

See Sydney escapes storm battering.

However, it has been a wild and chilly night, especially in the Blue Mountains, as the picture above from the Sydney Morning Herald shows.

The knighting of Salman Rushdie and the benighted reaction

Here in Australia we were much more interested in the fact Dame Edna Everage may now really be a Dame, in that Barry Humphries is now a Sir, but the knighthood that has had the usual suspects up in arms — from Iran to Pakistan to the predictable counter-fury in the West — is Salman Rushdie’s. It so happens I was saved from being corrupted by The Satanic Verses because it put me to sleep and I never finished it, but I was enthralled by Shalimar the Clown, whose message of tolerance is precisely what we all need to hear. I commend too “Defend the right to be offended” by the same Sir Salman.

Well said, Julia Gillard…

… but the penguins may come back to haunt you, I’m afraid…

See End the culture wars and make way for a renaissance.

You might think I’m pulling a long bow in drawing conclusions from an animated film about a dancing penguin named Mumble. But Mumble is a man - or should I say, a penguin - for our times. He won’t conform. Instead of singing like everyone else, he dances. And along the way he uncovers some important truths about the need to change our ways.

Australians are a bit like Mumble. In terms of world culture, we’re unique: young, unusual, at times exotic and usually undermining authority. We can choose our path. We shouldn’t feel we have to sing along in harmony with the rest of the world to have a positive effect on it. But we can dance like no one else. The last thing we need is culture warriors trying to force us to conform.

It’s by doing things our way and by continuing to nurture and celebrate our own culture that Australia will best confront our challenges and go from strength to strength.

But you’re not wrong.

And did you see Media Watch last night as it trawled the culture wars sewers? Interesting implications for bloggers too.