- - - T IJ e ------r\; l E I" I~ () l ~ It N E The Christian Research ------Association ' .. . ' serving Christian organi sations "The wond erful collegial ity of Vati can II has of all denominations since 1985 . almost gone . .. Where once the stress was on the team, now the stress is on the capta in ; History, beli efs, orga nisa ti on, stati sti cs, it is now a rubber stamp and the whole biographies of 170 religious groups with 70 mins of videos, 1200 photos and grap hi cs question of trust has broken down." and many interactive features - all on one John Wilkins, editor of international Catholic conve ni ent CO-Rom . monthly The Tablet, on the Roman Curia Th e best one-stop shop for all you ever wa nted to know about religion in "If we can all ow people to be released on Australia. bail fo r criminal offences ... why not people Rev Prof Gary Bouma, Monash University whose on ly crime is to have come here Available from the CRA & bookshops: without joining some non-existent queue in Australia's Religious Communities: some war-ravaged part of the world?" A Multimedia Exploration The Anglican Primate, Dr Peter Carnley, on the The CRA conducts Government's asylum seeker policy general projects Locked Bag 23, investigating re ligious fa ith Kew, VIC, 310 1; in the Australi an context. tel (03)98 16-9468; The Melbourne Anglican fax (03)9816-9617; 1998 winner of the Gutenberg Award for Specific contracted projects Email : admin@cra. org .au Excellence in Rel ig ious Communication assist churc hes and schools: See the CRA website: Mention this ad for a free sample copy of TMA evaluations Phone: (03) 9653 4221 strategic planni ng www.cra.org.au II or email: tma@m elbourne.anglican.com.au customised reports. ~,_____I I
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The Facing Island AuABRsTRALIAN BooK REVI EW A Jf" SONAL I TC f v Jan Bassett US and Them? September 11 One Year On This is the writing of a sensitive woman gifted with imagination Leading writers and publ ic f igures contribute to and skilled as a scholar. I found that pro;ect of writing life into a forum on Austra lia n perceptions of the US death immensely moving. response to last year's te rrorist attacks and to the Lucy Frost ' new worl d order' Contributors incl ude Denn is A ltman, In 1916 a young man ca lled Wilson Tong enlisted in New Zealand . Soon after his troop ship sailed for Egypt, Signaller Tong placed a John Carroll , Gareth Evans, Morag Fraser message in a bottle and dropped it into the sea. The bottle washed and Robert Manne up on a beach on Phillip Islan d, where a young woman called Edie Harris-Jan Bassett's maternal gran dmoth er- picked it up. Thus began a correspondence that Edie treasured for the rest of her life. Other features: John Rickard on the Anglicans After Edie's death in 1966, Jan Bassett discovered the box containing Wilson Tong's brave an d eager letters from the battlefields of France. Nell y Lahoud on Islam and Society At a time of devastating personal crisis, she used th em as a springboard for this imaginative and moving memoir. Ri chard Freadman on Marti n Flanagan's Memoir 0-522-85029-4 • Paperback • $34.95 • To be published October 2002 Subscribers save 20 % M ELBOURNE UNIVERSITY PRESS Subscribe now! $63.50 for ten issues (incl. GST) • I n· r 11~1 tlo yl•m·~ !f Ph: (03) 9429 6700 or E-mail: [email protected] Jim· pufJlishi11~1 • Also available at select bookstores and newsagents EUREKA STREE h ~ :~....., z ~ 0 5:-n g;~ "'"'" !::: "'n ~~ -1-n ~~ m"'~- :>:J-1 ...., I om 8 ~ -1 V> )> COMMENT z ~~ :~ 0 4 Morag Fraser N ew season .... -1 I 5 Andrew Hamilton Morality in a spin ' 0 • L ·-~- 5 Cl COVER STORY -< SNAPSHOT 6 Blood sport, high fi nance, history of 20 Tampa high finance, and courting ironies. Paul Va lent escaped from war-ravaged Slovakia. Many in his fa mily died in the camps of World War II . From that LETTERS perspective, he examines Australia's 8 John F. Haughey, Anna Holmes scapegoating of refu gees.
THE MONTH'S TRAFF IC SPRING BO OKS 12 Anthony Ham No man's island 32 Th e short li st 1 4 Kristie Dunn In the beginnings Reviews of Reflections on a Mountain Publisher Andrew Hamilton 51 Lake: A Western Nun Tall< s on Pra cti Editor Morag Fraser 1 5 Margaret Rice Meeting wom en Assistant editor Kate Manton 1 6 Juliette Hughes The quiet one cal Buddhism; The Mal
INBR>SBAN,, people '" he.ding into 'pdng by reading Peter Carey's novel, True History of the Kelly Gang, as part of a city-wide exercise. It's an idea adopted from Chicago. And no, Chicago wasn't put on a crash course in Ned-rhetoric- the book Chicago chose was Harper Lee's American perennial To Kill a Mockingbird. Lee's lawyer-hero Atticus Finch upright, determined, dignified (and forever Gregory Peck)- is a very different agent of justice from our iron-icon Irish rebel. And Chicago will have its own windswept way of reading collectively, as, no doubt, will sunny Brisbane. But what a marvellous thing to do, to have a whole city reading, thinking and talking together. One journalist was sceptical. Wasn't it a bit anti-dem ocratic, he asked, to make a whole city read the same book? Well, not if there weren't any electrodes being applied, responded Carey. Invitation and compulsion are different. But yes, he was very pleased it was his book and in future years it will be another book, another author. Profit is nice but not the point. The point is that a city might well celebrate by putting its h ead in a book and not, for a moment, have to fear machines that fall out of the sky. As September 11 approaches, I've been reading Jubilation old interviews with Primo Levi, looking, I suppose, for At th e 2002 Australasian Ca th olic Press Association and guidance from a man who was once in the worst place imaginable and yet was able to translate that experi Australasian Rel igious Press Association conferences, ence into something scrutable, into words that don't Eureka Street won an awa rd for best social justice cov fuse human experience into an unassimilable mass. era ge (Frank Brennan SJ and Mark Raper SJ, 'A Better It was not, finally, in his writing or conversa Way', the jesu it Lenten Seminar, photographs by Gran t tions about Auschwitz that I found a cast of mind Somers, April 2002). It also won best magazine report that helped. Instead, it was in his stringent, honest, ing (Peter Mares, 'A Pacific Solution', November 2001 ), critical concern for Israel, and for justice-for Pales best ed itorial (Andrew Hamilton, 'Taking the Hi gh tinian and Israeli alike-that the consolation lay (if Road', june 2001), best magazine cover (December consolation is the word for an encounter with wis 2001, photograph by Mathias Heng, design by Siobhan dom wrung out of appalling experience). jackson ) and was highly commended for Meg Gurry's Levi was an Italian Jew to whom Israel mat series on il lness and recovery, 'The Heart of th e Matter', tered profoundly, even though he lived his life deter Apri l 2001 and 'Recovery ', March 2002. We shou ld add minedly in Turin. His gift (a nd ours from him) was a that Meg Gurry's articles have also received extensive yen to get to the truth and to tell it. Fate didn't allow media coverage, republication and ra dio analys is, and him the luxury of an equivocating tongue. He is no have been a fo cus for discussion at the Austral ian Ca th o longer alive to make judgment on what passes for lic Hea lth conference in 2002 and in health circles gen international or domestic politics these days, but his era ll y. Congratulations to al l. books are there. I don't suggest that a whole city read them, but you might. -Morag Fraser
4 EUREKA STREET SEPTEMBER 2002 COMMENT: 2 ANDREW HAMILTON Morality 1n• a sp1n•
I N juLY, AusTRAL SEPTEMBE R 2002 EUREKA STREET 5 to a separate person, but only four had the place of honour. She was less happy to been paid for, how would Albert and Jack find that it was being offered as first prize rule on which ticket was to be omitted in the raffle. Perturbed, she told the parish from the raffle? priest she had loaned the piano, not given Jack and Albert were not confused by it to the church. N othing to worry about, such Jesuitry. They watched the Staff sepa she was assured. First prize in the raffle Soak it rate the tickets, put them into a large laun would, of course, be hers. to him dry basket (deem ed in accordance with the spirit of the Act), shake them vigorously, Nathan Buckley, the captain of Colling pour them into another laundry basket wood, recently became the first player in and back again. Down to the floor went the AFL to be had up on the charge of wip Manager and Publisher to ensure that no ing blood on an opponent's jumper. This tickets had escaped. Down to the floor must be the equivalent in Aussie Rules went Albert and Jack to countercheck and, of handling the ball in cricket. Buckley no doubt, to look for trapdoors and other Seven was contrite and apologised. But he needs infernal devices in the laundry basket. a side a better scriptwriter. He said he hoped the Then into the laundry basket went the whole thing would come out in the wash. Publisher's head, shoulders and fingers John Howard's dream s of a High Court in which scrabbled for a ticket, hoping that it his own image came tumbling clown on cam e within the meaning of the Act, and 8 August 2002. First the court (including would not announce to Ja ck and Albert all three of his appointees) blew the pro that its owner (unnamed) was the same cedures of the Refugee Review Tribunal as the one named on ticket no. 34,567. out of the water, bringing into question Eyes screwed shut to suggest total impar more than 7000 decisions that would have tiality, the Publisher handed the ticket to been removed from all judicial scrutiny if The litter the IT Manager, who solemnly read out they'd been made post-Tampa. of law the name and address, passed it on to the Then two of his own appointees Manager for verification, and on to the (including Chief Justice Gleeson) joined Raffles are a ceremonious business. So, as Editor (Madonna) to be written clown. Edi with members of the Wik majority to rule the Act requires, we nominated ll.OOam tor (Eureka Street) and Editor (Australian that Wik had survived the Howard surgery. as the time fo r the Jesuit Publications raf Catholics) had presciently taken them Chief Justice Gleeson and Justice Hayne fle to be drawn. But subverting the solem selves out of town for the da y. These proce joined with Justices Gaudron and Gum nity, we also ordered a celebratory cake. dures were repeated till all winning tickets mow to rule that native title could still Providentially, because this was the year were drawn and Jack and Albert expressed exist on pastoral leases in Western Aus the raffle police came to the draw. themselves satisfied within the meaning tralia. As ever, Justice Kirby wrote on his Albert looked like the accountant of of the Act. The Staff settled clown to what own, reaching the same conclusion. The the Untouchables, Jack like one of their Albert and Jack and the Act had left of the only capital'C' conservative who delivered operatives. They found us ga thered like cake. Thus ended the Raffle, and thus did according to Tim Fischer's mantra was Jus the witches from Macbeth around the the Regulators of Chance rule it fair. tice Callinan who was joined in vigorous ticket vat, ensuring that all entries were dissent by Justice McHugh, who had been separated and enjoyed the equal and part of the original Mabo majority. McHugh undiscriminatory chance of winning that lamented that 'the deck is stacked against the Act demands. Albert and Jack were the native-title holders' and 'the chief ben plied with cake. The Staff plied them too eficiaries of the system are the legal repre with crafty questions designed to elicit sentatives of the parties'. just what the Act provides, and with sto Much of the National Party's post-Wik ries of great Catholi c raffles that the Act Fine concern had centred on the plight of farm was instituted to stamp out. Undistracted, tuning ers in the NSW Western Lands Division. Albert and Jack asked their own deadly In 1998, it was a tinder box back of Bourke questions, establishing exactly who was Contrary to popular opinion, 'raffle' is not and no legal assurances that native title responsible for the raffle, how we could derived from Raffles, Hornung's gentle had been extinguished would satisfy the prove that the winning tickets were paid man thief. But that the two concepts do farmers, whose fears had been fed by their for, as the Act stipulated, and so on. The exercise a mutual attraction is recognised representatives and politicians. Staff tried to propitiate these Gods of by those experienced in church raffles. One In the third decision of the day, all Chance with the casuistry card, asking country parish priest, also rumoured to seven justices of the High Court showed Albert and Jack for advice about the hypo have fixed a horse race or two to augment these fea rs to have been baseless. It did not thetical book of five tickets for which ten parish funds, once invited the doctor's wife require capital 'C' conservatives to deliver dollars were due, but only eight had been to lend her grand piano for the parish fete. that result. N ext day, the Daily Telegraph paid. Given that each ticket was made out She acceded, and was delighted to see it in didn't even mention it. 6 EU REKA STR EET SE PTEMBER 2002 Labor •1n va1n• B OB HAwn •nd N eville Wmn "Y thor L•bm need, another context, labels such as 'left' and 'right' are by now an attractive, inclusive and participatory organisation with quite out of date. The factions are not organised around a battle som ething to believe in. It needs to get rid of factionalism of ideas but around personalities and the spoils of power. and branch-stacking, and involve ordinary m embers more in Labor, like the Liberal Party, is still essentially state-based, devising policies. even if its federal council now has final control. The federal A tick for all of the above, as aspirations at least, but you model is important when one remembers both that Labor is in have to ask whether the Hawke-Wran report on the future of power in every state and territory jurisdiction, and that it is at the party delivers any of it, even on paper. No doubt the fac that level that the highest proportion of perks are available and tions and the real power brokers will continue making ritual distributed. It may be by having upper houses in which m ember squeals to give the impression that they are being dragged kick ship is virtually by appointm ent. It may be in the hundreds of ing and screaming away from the levers. No doubt Simon Crean boards, agencies and statutory positions to which the spouses, will emerge, slightly bloodied from the disputation, clutching mistresses, children and cronies of the power brokers can be endorsement of the proposals as proof that he is a real leader appointed. It may be in the scores of jobs in ministerial offices, who can take on the heavies and win. N o doubt the new party many of which will be occupied by apprentice apparatchiks chieftains (looking amazingly like the old ones) will spend a occupied full-time on factional affairs. Or in the consultancies fortune marketing the party as transformed for the new millen that will be dished out to the mates, or in the favour processes nium. Essentially, however, it looks like a public-relations con at local and state government level for developers and urgers. So fection. An appearance of broadening the party cannot mask much more to enjoy, and, at the state level, so much easier to the fact that the centres of power will not change much . enjoy it without the scrutiny and the protests that occur when The big debate is not really about whether unions have 60 it happens at the Commonwealth Government level. or SO per cent of the delegates at a party conference, or even Little wonder, then, that many of the factional chieftains about whether unions have delegates at all. This is a labour do not quite share the sense of keen disappointment that Labor, party, not just a party of social dem ocrats, and even if a m odern at the national level, is a failure, that people who need to be party of its nature must form new alliances with women, with inspired are deterred or discouraged from joining, or that critics professionals, and with som e key minorities to gain power, its complain about the party's incapacity to articulate ideals and roots in the industrial labour movem ent are still, or should still new ideas. There's the risk, after all, that idealists might not be, critical to its success. What the debate is really about is how like what they see when the party is exerc1smg power and decision-making is shared, and whether attempts to power-might even upset the apple cart. broaden and deepen the appeal of the party are intended to let new people, even unionists, sup at the table. N viLLE WRAN and Bob Hawke, however steeped in the Alas, rhetoric to the contrary notwithstanding, an party, never really had to roll up their sleeves in party affairs. implemented Hawke-Wran report will not much influence the N either had to do much personal knife-wielding. Neither spent power balances. Even the proposed 50-50 rule is a bit of a fraud, more than a term in opposition, and both left office (Hawke because it is fundamental to the proposal that unions will have kicking and screaming, of course) while the party was still in a new power of nomination of 50 per cent of delegates to the power. In their time, both were tremendously popular, but enlarged party conferences. And will these delegates be a repre neither left much in the way of monuments to their rule. Win sentative sample of the best and the brightest m en and women ners, yes; achievers and visionaries, no. from a particular union, involving a wide range of views about From the Hawke-Wran report, then, it is hard to see Simon the best policies for the modern day? Not on your life. Gen Crean, or his mentors, em erging in the style of Whitlam as he erally, they will be the henchmen and cronies of the faction took on his party in the 1970s, the Whitlam who actually in charge of the particular union. As the report suggests, 'the argued about policies that mattered, who changed people's selection process for delegations should ... remain the preroga minds on fundamental issues, or who inspired a generation tive of affiliated trade unions'. of younger people. That all came a cropper too, of course, but And don't expect more than ritual complaint from left sometimes it seems that crashing in such a cause is almost as wing unions, because their own practices of manipulating noble as crashing through . • union numbers are at least as corrupt as those of the right wing. Indeed, as Messrs Hawke and Wran themselves comment, in Jack Waterford is editor-in-chief of The Canberra Times. SEPTEMBER 2002 EUREKA STR EET 7 LETTER S Eureka Street welcomes flict and distress in the local church. This Incorporating faith letters from our readers. Short occurs when the appointed bishop is at lellers are more likely to he odds with the local church and attempts to To save all of us in the Catholic Church publ ished, and all letters may impose his vision of church. from our present shame and to restore our be edited. Letters musl be In the church in New Zealand, we faith in ourselves as pilgrim people of God, signed, and shou ld include a note with sadness that similar behaviour our cardinals and bishops must accept ulti contact phone number and occurs. Local bishops sometimes m ove mate, collective accountability for what the writer's name and Jddress. Se nd to : priests without consulting the parishes to has happened, confess openly their failure eu rcka©)jespub.jcsuit.org.au or which they will go, or the ones they will of stewardship and consider resigning their PO Box 55 3, Richmond VIC ll2 I leave. This exactly reflects the Roman offices. model above. It is sinful to appoint a priest To many, this suggestion will seem to a parish where he then dismantles a absurd. But it should not. It will seem this and fe el unsupported by their bishop. well-functioning church community and absurd only because the Catholic Church They face the deep anger and hurt of com imposes his limited vision of church. This is commonly perceived, even by Catholics, munities who have been abused. damages the community and the priest. to be an international religious corporation It is no use focusing on the past and It does not reflect the image of church as run by a board of directors, and boards of introducing draconian punishments for the People of God. Another ongoing issue directors in general do not behave like that. abusers without at the same time trying for women in the church is the deliberate But the church is not a corporation, to ensure this will not happen again. Other use of exclusive male language in liturgy or at any rate, it was not intended to be professions have very clear written stand and the failure of bishops to address this one. It was intended surely to be unique: ards of accountability and behaviour. They practice. a community whose leaders would see also undergo regular professional super The church is in a process of radical themselves as servants, not masters; or as vision and auditing of their work. We think change. This demands a painful letting go shepherds who would not think it absurd this is essential for all pastoral workers. We of past certainties, safety and power. That only painful- to sacrifice themselves for understand this is a radical proposal, as the is the real challenge of the Second Vatican their flocks. work of clerics has always been left to their Council. This age calls for a stepping out in The board of directors of a m ere reli consciences. Unfortunately the present faith, a walking on water, with full knowl gious corporation, on the other hand, outcome shows this is not enough to safe edge of our weakness and fallibility. would put itself first. It would close ranks; guard the innocent. A dysfunctional church wounds us all. it would refuse to come clean; it would be Two underlying factors contribute to We pray for a true People of God, a church tight-lipped about its own accountability abusive behaviour. On the one hand there where the truth can be spoken in love and but apologise loudly and repeatedly for the is an unreal expectation that because the be heard. We pray that you might have the sins of others; and it might even come to institutional church represents God in the faith and hope to help it come to birth. believe that in protecting itself it was pro world, it must appear perfect. To acknowl Dr Anna Holmes tecting its fl ock. edge publicly the sinfulness of clergy and New Zealand What our cardinals and bishops do now religious is therefore impossible. Not wish will show whether the church is what it ing to scandalise the faithful was the excuse was intended to be or an international of those who hid abuse. On the other hand Congratulations to our winners! religious corporation run by a board of there is unchecked, oppressive power at all directors. levels of the church that reflects its inter Raffle We are delighted to announce th e w inners in John F. Haughey nal hierarchical and clerical structure. This th e jesuit Publica tions Raff le. Th e magni fice nt Carlton, VIC leads to a profound deafness, a failure to first pri ze of a $7500 shopping voucher goes to listen and be accountable. a long- time Madonna subsc riber, V. Coghlan, of In the Vatican, abuse of power is visible Bri ghton, Vi ctori a. Th e oth er w inners are: 2nd For consultation in two important areas. First, its Congre pri ze : C. Quinn, Armidale, NSW, a subsc riber gations refuse to listen to the pastoral to Eureka Street; 3rd prize: another lv/ac/onna The following was sent as an open letter to concerns of bishops. Local bishops at subscriber, C. Dale, Warradale, SA; 4th prize: A. Osborne, Charters Towers, QLD; 5th prize: the bishops of New Zealand. A s the issue the synods of Africa, Oceania and Asia M. & R. Cramer, Golden Squ are, VIC- also is of such m om ent, we republish it here. tried with passion to address urgent pas lv/aclonna subscribers. M any th anks to all who Thank you for your recent letter on sex toral concerns about marriage, women supported the raffl e; it is of immense importa nce ual abuse in the church in New Zealand. in the church, married priests and more. to our survival. M ay it be your turn nex t time! Sexual abuse hurts the whole People of The problem of sexual abuse of women June 2002 Book Offer God; most of all it damages victims and by priests was raised at all these synods. M . Cass idy, Springvale, VIC; T.W. Curran, their families. None of their final documents deals with Elan ora, QLD; j. East, Greenslopes, Q LD; M . We are very conscious of priests and these issues. All were written in Rome and Fl ynn , Cowra, NSW; K. Gonzales, Oatl an ds, religious fe eling alienated, by the actions of anything contentious was edited out. Sec NSW; V. Hersey, Ali ce Springs, NT; G. Hughes, Hamlyn Terrace, NSW; G.B . Muston, Duncraig, abusers, from those they minister to. When ond, the current method of appointment WA; T. Round, Salisbury, Q LD; M . Sulliva n, East priests arc moved to parishes where abuse of bishops by the Vatican, with minimal Kew, VI C. has occurred they may not be informed of local consultation, sometimes causes con- 8 EUREKA STR EET SEI>TEMBER 2002 Australian Universities International Alumni Convention N ewman College Students' Club 'NETWORKING INTHE KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY' presents the annual S-7 September 2002 Daniel Mannix Memorial Lecture Sofitel, Melbourne Alumni from all Australian universities are eligible to attend the Hon. John Button convention. former Senate Leader and Among the delegates will be a large contingent of Asian graduates of Industry Minister, Australian universities who in their current work-in government, the will speak on professions and business-act as goodwill ambassadors for Australia. Under the umbrella title 'Networking in the Knowledge Economy', the 'Imagining Leadership' convention will address issues including 'Cities and Urban Environments Free admission in the 21st Century' and 'Challenges of the Global Community'. Speakers include renowned architect Julie Eizenberg; William Mitchell, Dean of Wednesday 11th September 2002 Architecture, MIT; and Jan Gehl, Senior Lecturer of Urban Design, Danish Academy at 8pm, in the Copland Theatre, of Fine Art. Speaking on global challenges will be Chandra Muzaffar, pr ominent Economics and Commerce Building, Malaysian Muslim intellectual and president of the International Movement for a Just University of Melbourne. World. Enquiries: Paola Wisniak, Project Officer (03) 9820 881 0; For further information or 'The Meeting Planners' (03) 9417 0888; or www.auiac2002.com please telephone (03) 9342 1672. Master of Social Science (International Development) Master of Social Science (International Urban and Environmental Management) These Masters of Social Scie nce degrees are for cu rrent and aspiring Environment and Planning. Wide elective choices exist for all postgraduate international development and environme ntal management professiona ls students in the Schoo l. working in NGOs an d official agencies and as cons ultants. Contact: Postgraduate Administration Tel: +61 3 9925 2163 The programs are designed to equip students with the concepts. skills and Fax: +61 3 9925 1855 E-mail: internationaldev@ rmit.edu.au Post al address: School of Social Scie nce and Planning tools re quired to work on urban, environmental and soc ial problems in the RM IT University, PO Box 2476V, Melbourne Australia 300 1. developing world and to lay the framework for the sustainability of human settlements into the future. Applications are invited from people with a recognised university qualification and/or appropriate professional experience. The International Urban and Environmental Ma nagement program More information is available at the School of Social Science incorporates a Graduate Diploma. The International Development program and Planning Postgraduate Information Evening, incorporates a Graduate Diploma and a Grad uate Certificat e. Thursday 10 October 6pm, Storey Hall Auditorium, The School of Social Science and Planning offers two other Master RMIT University, City Campus. of Social Science programs in Po licy and Human Se rvices, and Visit www.rmit.edu.au/tce/ssp SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SC IENCE & P L ANN I NG 99311 THE CHUR CH Vatican II: from pause to forward The great issues sti ll to be resolved are sex and power, argues Bishop Geoffrey Robinson . WNB> I 0 EUREKA STR EET SEPTEMBER 2002 abuse or contribute to the covering up of abuse. I would like to see an insistence that obligatory celibacy, attitudes to sex 1 a e and sexuality and all the ways in which power is understood and exercised within the church at every level be part of this study. I would, however, want a truly seri ous and scientific study, far deeper than anything I have so far seen in newspapers or heard around a table. As a second example, I would like to Play on hold see a massive request/demand that the collegiality the Vatican Council spoke of be used to the full in responding to this INA SPLEN DIDLY TOUGH-MINDED account of university Catholic life in the crisis. If collegiality is not fully used in 1950s and '60s, Patrick O'Farrell (Australasian Catholic Record, April 2002) an issue so important, so down-to-earth remarks how the tradition of intellectual interest in the faith dissipated in the and so crucial to the effectiveness of the 1960s after the Vatican Council. Not for the first time, I wondered why the church, then the Vatican Council is truly 1960s so often appear as a Bermuda Triangle in which Catholic and other ships unfinished business. This surely means set fair in sail go down or are spun off into another dimension of reality. the Vatican listening to the needs of each O'Farrell records the loss of something precious and distinctive, which country and not imposing solutions. may be of more than Catholic interest. I believe that what was lost was play As a third example, I would like to see fulness: the '60s brought conditions under which it could not flourish. Playful the 32 diocesan bishops and 150 leaders of ness implies that there is time and space to play seriously with ideas. Time and religious institutes in Australia give up space in turn are provided by a solid and large tradition in which authorities some of their independence for the sake are set securely. But their pretensions can be subverted and freedom found by of all of us acting as one on this issue. exploring other parts of a tradition that turns out to be expansive. Living in However, I realise that in the Catholic such a solid community, fed by scholars like Rahner and Von Balthasar, people Church people treasure any independence found room to play seriously with ideas because they counted. they do have and are slow to surrender The conditions that support playfulness are vulnerable to cultural change, it. I also know that in the 19th century as the end of Manna, the journal that Patrick O'Farrell edited, testifies. The bishops rode roughshod over the rights of religious, especially women religious, so civility required for leisurely argument had already been eroded by the bitter some religious can today be resistant to ness of the Split. The 1960s were corrosive of all solids, especially the solidity any suggestion that comes from a bishop. of authority, while at the Council the previously subversive interpretations of As I said, the issues can be complex and the Catholic tradition were taken into the mainstream. The theme of much sensitive. subsequent debate was about who had power over the tradition. In such conver My thesis is simple. The Second Vati sation, where tradition is handed over to exploitation and not to exploration, can Council was the greatest event in the playfulness dies. church in my lifetime. It has inspired my The loss of intellectual playfulness in contemporary teaching institutions life over the last 40 years. But because its affects more than theology. Few groups dedicated to conversation about ideas theology was frequently far from clear, flourish, and much discussion that takes place is about which group possesses it is unfinished business, and two of the historical, theological or economic truth rather than about what is true. This areas that demand further work are sex should not be surprising. It reflects a general suspicion of authorities and the and power. For these two issues the crisis fragility of communities. of sexual abuse alone gives the enormous All of this might make us ask if there is any room now for theological energy that is needed for further change to playfulness, and what forms it might take. Certainly, many young adults are occur. We should respond to the crisis of interested in theology, and many are engaged in formal theological studies. But abuse for its own sake and the sake of the they are not usually drawn by the desire to explore and to find room in a solid victims, but we should also seek to use its tradition, but by the desire to find a tradition that offers meaning and an affec energy creatively, sensitively and intelli tive home. They also often seek a way to subvert the brutal and vacuous ways gently in order to take further the unfin in which they see power exercised in public affairs. ished business of the Council. • If a theology that is fed by such hungers is to be playful, it requires the kind of community that could once be taken for granted. That might suggest that Geoffrey Robinson is Auxiliary Bishop of small magazines now play a different role. Whereas Manna offered a forum in Sydney. This text was his panel speech which an existing community could express itself, its successors may need to on the opening night of the Catalyst for help create a community within which young Christians can encourage each Renewal Forum, 'Vatican II: Unfinished other to reflect playfully on the large matters of faith and m eaning. • Business', held at St Joseph's College, Hunters Hill, Sydney, in July 2002. Andrew Hamilton SJ teaches at the United Faculty of Theology, Melbourne. SEPTEMBER 2002 EUREKA STREET 11 THE MONTH,S TRAFFIC Leila/Perejil was a wedding present to King handed over in 1956 when the Spanish No man's island Mohammed VI. colonial protectorate ended. The vigilant Spain's tabloid newspapers expressed Moroccans also successfully flushed out a PARSLEY WARS dark fears of 'intercontinental conflict' Spanish attempt to incorporate Leila into and of wars between Islam and the West the Ceuta municipal chart in 1987. ON11 JuLY, 12 Moroccan gendarmes at their closest geographical meeting place. According to the Spanish, Perejil and bearing two Moroccan flags and two tents Morocco called Spain's occupation of Leila Ceuta were conquered by Portugal in 1415 occupied the island the Moroccans call a 'declaration of war'. For a time, Spanish and subsequently handed over to Spain in Leila, or Toura. flags flew provocatively over Perejil (they 1581. Spanish troops occupied Perejil in Spain reacted furiously, dispatching a could be seen from the Moroccan main 1746 and Spain built a lighthouse there flotilla of five warships to Perejil (Spanish land) in a triumphalist assertion of what in 1878 and a permanent military post in for 'parsley', and the Spanish name for the one Spanish politician called 'Spain's first 1912. The troops remained on the island same island). military victory for decades'. Hinting per until 1960, a full four years after the ending On 17 July, 28 soldiers of the elite Span haps at the embarrassment potential of the of the Spanish protectorate of Morocco. ish Special Forces, backed by helicopter whole tawdry affair, the Spanish defence From the time of Moroccan independ gunships, ejected the six remaining Moroc minister allowed that 'Spain had been ence in 1956 until 10 July 2002, no-one cans without a shot being fired. attacked in a sensitive point of its geogra really bothered with Perejil/Leila. It existed On 22 July, the enlarged Spanish occu phy'. Sensitive? Parsley is the only thing in a strange no man's land, a rare patch pation force of 75 soldiers abandoned their that grows on the island. Never has Jorge of stateless territory, owned by no-onc newly constructed defences in accordance Luis Borges' description of war 'as two bald and not worth fighting over. But the with a deal brokered by US secretary of men fighting over a comb' seemed so apt. recent change in the island's suspended state Colin Powell whereby neither side The legal status of Leila/Perejil is neutrality speaks of larger issues facing may henceforth occupy the island or raise ambiguous. It lies just 180 metres off the the region. It's an intriguing instruction any flag of sovereignty on its shores. coast of Morocco, five kilometres from in international diplomacy and national Rarely has such farce prevailed in inter Ceuta and around 11 kilometres from aspirations as they relate to the principle of national diplomacy, or exposed so much the Spanish mainland. According to the self-determination. hypocrisy. Moroccans, the 1860 Spanish- Moroccan Spain has recently been involved in For six days, the goats of Perejil/ Leila peace treaty that dealt with Ceuta did not negotiations with the UK over the status (the island's only inhabitants) had become mention Leila, and in 18 78, the Moroccan of Gibraltar (surrounded as it is by Spanish temporary citizens of the European Union. army prevented the Spanish from building territory). Spain claims Gibraltar in large For the duration of the conflict, conserva a lighthouse on the island. At the end of part to preserve the concept of geographical tive newspapers and politicians in Spain the 19th century, Moroccan forces rebuffed unity-and to remove the anomaly of Brit spoke of a 'reconquista' of Africa by Spain, three Spanish attempts to occupy the out ish sovereignty on the Iberian Peninsula. shamelessly voicing fears of yet another post. In 1949, Spain declared Ceuta (but not Then there is the issue of its strategic posi Islamic invasion. The last such 'inva Leila) to be sovereign Spanish land. The tion overlooking the Strait of Gibraltar. A sion' took place in 711 AD. A resident of Moroccans argue that Leila was effectively pact of shared sovereignty is currently on the Spanish enclave of Ceuta (one the table, much to the disgust of of two small parcels of land under Gibraltarians, who in a 1967 refer Spanish sovereignty on the African endum voted 12,000 votes to 44 in mainland) gave vent to the fears of favour of remaining under British escalation: 'If they let the moras sovereignty. [Moors] get away with this, there'll Spain opposes the use of a ref be no stopping them.' erendum to determine Gibraltar's At the same tirne, 14 Islamist future, fearing that the aspirations deputies in the Moroccan parlia of Basque, Catalan and Galician ment urged Moroccans to re-enact separatists would be emboldened by the 'Green March' of 1975 (during such a concession to self-determi which 350,000 people marched into nation. Writing in The Guardian on the Western Sahara in a national ' 19 July, Martin Woollacott explained rcassertion of Moroccan sover why US diplomats newly arrived in eignty). There is also every reason Madrid are advised not to seek an to believe that the occupation of explanation from the Spanish Foreign 12 EUREKA STREET SEPTEMBER 2002 Ministry of the difference between Gibral tar and Spain's African enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla: 'You will not get out of his [the official's] office for hours, and your brain will not recover for days-' Not surprisingly, the Moroccan govern ment interpreted Spain's vigorous pursuit archimedes of Gibraltar as an opportunity to follow the Spanish arguments to their logical end. That Morocco's invasion of Leila was a clumsy effort to bring other issues to the Good connections fore was highlighted on 30 July when King Mohammed VI used the third anniversary of his ascension to power to call for 'an end ToDISPARATE PIECES OF INFORMATION implanted themselves in the arcane to the Spanish occupation' of Ceuta and Archimedean mind during the past fortnight. But once there, they came Melilla. The king described the enclaves together powerfully. as centres that bleed the national economy The first was a series of comments from the House of Commons Science and which serve as platforms for clandes and Technology Committee on the standard of secondary-school science edu tine emigration. cation in the UK. The words 'boring', 'tedious', 'dull' and 'pointless' cropped A spokesman for the Ceuta govern up a lot. The second was a report from the US that doctors have detected the ment, Emilio Carreira, said the king first strain of the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus (golden staph) that is highly 'should ask for Disneyland' instead, while resistant to the antibiotic vancomycin (the 'last resort' antibiotic). Golden staph the Spanish foreign minister, Ana Palacio, is now potentially unaffected by all antibiotics commonly used in hospitals. claimed that Ceuta and Melilla, which are It's hard to think of life without antibiotics, yet they have only been around surrounded by Moroccan soil, are as Span since World War II. Before then, bacterial infection was a life-and-death matter. ish as Sevilla or Cadiz. We are close to returning to those times, having now squandered the advantage Morocco's claims to the two enclaves, antibiotics gave us over our bacterial foes. and to a number of other disputed islands in The basic mechanism of resistance is simple, and an obvious consequence Moroccan waters (even, according to some of natural selection. When you set out to poison such variable beasts as bacteria, sources, the Canary Islands), have negligi there are always going to be some individuals that are less susceptible and that ble chance of success. Whatever the his torical rights and wrongs, the populations will survive. These hardy souls will pass their genes on to the next generation. of Ceuta and Melilla are overwhelmingly And if what made them resistant is genetically based, you have just started to Spanish, patriotic to the core, and the mili create a problem. tarily superior Spanish state would defend Given this, it is clear that resistance is inevitable. The speed of its advent, their right to be Spanish to the death. however, can be controlled by careful management. The more often antibiotics Morocco's precipitous actions on Leila are used, the quicker they become obsolete. Every unnecessary prescription for were fuelled by a lingering and understand antibiotics-about half of them, some experts estimate-isn't just a waste of time able resentment over the brutal history of and money for doctor and patient. As soon as a population of bacteria becomes Spanish colonialism in Morocco. Thumb resistant, the battle against infection becomes just that much harder. And it's now ing the national nose at a former colonial becoming evident that resistance can be passed on between bacterial species. oppressor was, if nothing more, a hugely But there are further complications. About two-thirds of antibiotic use popular and symbolic act of defiance. in Australia is in agriculture-and most of that is not for veterinary purposes But Morocco's position, like Spain's, but as 'growth promoters' in feed for livestock. Some of these antibiotics will has its own double standards. eventually be ingested by humans and the bacteria living in their digestive sys In 1975, Morocco, Mauritania and tems. Despite this widespread use, there is very little evidence that antibiotics Spain formally agreed to divide the former promote growth or reduce animals' food intake. Spanish colony of Western Sahara between But when countries seek to limit the level of antibiotics in food produc the two African states, with Morocco tion, as happened in Scandinavia, they are often slapped with legal action from getting the mineral-rich northern two drug companies, and World Trade Organisation orders from other countries still thirds. The Polisario Front then launched using antibiotics and claiming restriction of trade. a guerrilla war to oust both Morocco and So where is the link with the House of Commons committee7 It has sug Mauritania from the area. In 1978, Mauri gested that science courses should be the avenue for discussing contemporary tania renounced all claims to the Western issues such as the benefits and risks of antibiotics. The committee believes Sahara, after which Morocco occupied the that this would not only make science more interesting, but would stimulate remainder of Western Saharan territory. A students to think about complex issues and to weigh competing claims. How bitter civil war ensued when the indige else can we hope to make wise decisions in our technology-rich world? • nous Western Saharans, led by the Polisario Front, opposed the notion that their future Tim Thwaites is a freelance science writer. SEPTEMBER 2002 EUREKA STREET 13 could be decided by foreign powers with no oppressive military rule of what they con but the rest of the world is desperate to see consultation with the people concerned. sider to be a foreign power. her before the start of the rest of her life, Hopes for the principle of self-determi After the weeks of heightened tensions, and the inconceivable changes that this nation were raised a decade ago when the the disputed island remained Perejil to the m uch-anticipated baby will bring. UN announced a referendum as its pre Spanish, Leila to the Moroccans and the Beth has always had an overdevel ferred solution to the problem . Spain con parsley was left in peace. oped sense of guilt: she still pretends she tinues (disingenuously) to support the idea Meanwhile, one journalist tracked down doesn't screen her calls, despite having of a referendum-at least in the Western the owner of the island's livestock, an old done so for years. Whenever I ring I talk Sahara- despite the fact that the driving woman nam ed Rajma Lachili who lives in to the answering machine, and within presumption of its colonial history in the a nearby Moroccan hamlet. Asked who she seconds she is there. She tells m e that region is that the local people cannot be thought owned the island, she laughed and she was hanging out the washing or at trusted to govern themselves. reduced the issue to its barest absurdity: the other end of the house. I tell h er that In April this year, the UN's special 'My goats.' -Anthony Ham screening calls is a healthy management envoy, former US secretary of state Jam es tool. Now we laugh every time she picks Baker, rewarded Moroccan stonewalling up the phone. As usual, she is quick to ask over electoral rolls and the question of In the beginnings me h ow I am-'how are you ?'-but these who should be allowed to vote in the ref days I have taken to mumbling som ething erendum by announcing a new UN plan. GR[;\T EXPECTATIONS vague and then saying 'but I want to know Under the plan, favoured by the US, France about you'. There is so much about this and the UK, Western Sahara would be ITrs AN ODD PLACE to wait for a baby stage of her life that I want to know, and granted autonomy but it would remain to be born-a sheep stud in the middle of that she wants to tell. So we spend the under Moroccan sovereignty. The Polisario lambing time. My oldest friend-that is, rest of the conversation talking about her Front's UN representative, Ahmed Bujari, the friend I have had since I was a small and her baby and her partner and her dogs greeted the news with a stark assessment: child- is a week overdue with her first and her life in this strange period of calm the proposal was 'delivering Western Saha child. She's in the city. We are all waiting, before the storm. ran citizens and territory to a colonial wherever we are. Beth, like all expectant I am fascinated by pregnancy, and by power'. mothers, is inundated with calls. 'Is it here the way my friends cope with it. The past Morocco's justifiable anger against its yet ? When is it coming? How are you feel year or two seem to have been fi lled with former colonial masters must therefore ring ing? We must catch up before it's born pregnant friends, and now their babies. hollow among the people of the Western how about lunch or dim1er or drinks-juice I have always liked babies and known Sahara, who continue to live under the for you of course!' She just wants to nest, vaguely how to look after them-at least enough to keep them fed, dry and warm but it is something else entirely to be m eet ing the children of my friends, people my WU.L, 1 HAD NO IDE.A 1Hf, age, whom I hope to know in 20 years, and whose children will be forevermore a part 1l<.H3UNAL COUL.I> AWARP ~OTII of my relationship with them. A IWO GAM£, SU.)PE.NS\~ 1/Jil> I now understand why my mother's \H& DEA1~ Pf-NALTV/ friends ask after me, and seem delighted to see m e. Their interest always seem ed slightly odd, almost invasive. Now I under stand that they feel some strange sense of ownership of me. They remember me when I was just born, and even before, when I was the as yet unknown source of sickness and anticipation. They have watched me grow and change. For the first time, I understand that those stories they tell about my first birthday or my tendency to bite their children are not just about me- they are about them too. Those sto ries form part of their past, and their own struggles to maintain their friendships and establish a relationship with this new little person in their midst. Now I am one of those friends, trying desperately to know all these new babies. For the first few months I know them predominantly by the amount of trauma 14 EUREKA STREET SEPTEMBE R 2002 they cause their parents. One screamed liquid poured out around my aunt's arm though, I am happy just to hold her and after feeds, and in the car, and whenever and on to her jeans. She kept up a steady take her in. There will be time for all that she was put to bed, and in between times, stream of commentary as she fished around later. -Kristie Dunn until finally a nurse realised that her mum trying to turn the lamb. did not have enough milk and that she was I couldn't help thinking of Beth, whose hungry. Within days of being put on to baby had until recently been standing up, Meeting women formula she was calm and happy and her ready to emerge feet first. Beth had been passion for screaming had turned into an told that they no longer attempted to turn TEA AND EMIJATHY incredible curiosity for life. Last time I saw breech babies as it was too risky, and that her she was toddling around a park kicking no doctor would attempt a normal delivery L ECOMMISSION for Australian Catho a soccer ball, with a strawberry in one hand of a footling breech, as they call them. She lic Women has pressed more flesh than any and a piece of bread in the other. She will had no choice but to book in a caesar. On party of electioneering politicians, and, be an amazing person. But no matter what the day they came to Melbourne for the since it was first set up in February 2001 , else she does, I will never forget those early caesar they discovered that the baby had its team has drunk more tea than the Eng months when her two mums were driven turned around. We have been waiting ever lish gentry. almost to despair. since. But it hasn't produced any outcome Then there are the two little half-broth It seemed to take a long time for the remarkable enough for a newspaper to run ers who are growing up together down the lamb to get into the right position, with on its news pages, let alone across a banner road from each other. My friend was the the ewe moaning and kicking occasion headline. donor father for one, and is the devoted ally and my aunt swearing and pressing dad of the other. They are only two months her head against the sheep's flank. Finally apart, and they are as different as can be. she grabbed the front feet, and pulled. One is like a baby in a Kleenex ad-chubby, There was a crack. 'Shit,' she said, 'I think complacent and channing-while the other I've broken its leg.' With another pull the is lean and fast and curious. He has a per lamb came out like a body surfer riding a petual frown of concentration on his face, wave-front legs stretched out first, then so when he smiles his whole face changes the head and body, and the back legs out and yo u find yourself smiling idiotically at straight behind. My aunt cleared its mouth When I put this observation to Therese him even though he has long m oved on to and eyes and then picked it up by the back Vassarotti, Executive Officer of the Com other things. Their parents share a ga rden legs and slapped it hard in the chest as it mission, she protested that the Com and the clothes of the older one are passed dangled there head down, slick and yellow mission's task was to create connections on to the younger. N ow their tiny singlets and unmoving. 'Come on lamby,' she said, between Australia's Catholic bishops and and jumpsuits are being passed on again to slapping it again, and finally it jerked and lay women, not necessarily to generate this unborn child for whom we all wait. shook its head and took its first breath. publicity. So I am here, on this fa rm where I spent Lying it down next to its mother's head, Bernice Moore, a leader of Women and many holidays as a child, waiting for Beth's she reached inside her again to feel for a the Australian Church IWATAC), a group baby to come, when I will dash back to second lamb. This one was back to front. committed to the spiritual development Melbourne to meet him or her. It is the She pulled it out by the back legs with one of Catholic wom en, would be the first middle of the lambing season, and I am sur sm ooth pull. But no matter how much she to condemn the Commission's achieve rounded by fertility and birth. They even slapped it, it was dead. m ents if she felt they deserved it. But she's practice artificial insemination here-just I was back in Melbourne when I got impressed. like my friends! The only difference is that the call. I drove to the hospital with that 'Credit where credit's due. The Com it is legal to artificially inseminate a sheep. fluttering excitement that I had had before mission has very quickly managed to And the midwives definitely run the show meeting all the other babies. As with preg engage female representative from nearly here. nancy, and labour, and parenthood, the every diocese in Australia and they have The other night my aunt and I were fact that other people have done it before the potential to create real links between cooking dinner when my uncle appeared doesn't make birth any easier, or any less women at the grassroots and the bish at the window in his muddy boots carry exciting. I was itching to see Beth and her ops,' she said. 'In Church terms that's ing a torch. He called out to my aunt that new daughter. A new person to know and spectacular.' she was needed in the paddock. We drove a whole new relationship to establish. This However, it is a bishop's commission, so down on the bike and there was the ewe, child of my childhood friend is someone it's not women who will set the agenda but a tiny pink nose poking out below her tail. I will know for the rest of my life. She will the bishops themselves. So the Commis I thought that was a good sign until I dis know me as a friend of her parents, a regu sion must constantly raise women's issues covered that, unlike humans, sheep are lar visitor, a bearer of gifts and an asker of and hope the bishops won't lose interest. born feet first. My aunt grabbed the ewe's inappropriately personal questions. If I am This is a tough call at a time when women's leg and pulled her on to her side. I held her lucky she will know m e as an old lady. I am concerns are easily displaced. Child abuse watch for her while she plunged her hand desperate for her to love m e as I know I will by clergy, for example, has recently gripped into the ewe, who moaned softly as my love her. Such weighty demands on som e the churchgoing public's imagination much aunt's forearm disappeared. Thin bloody one who has only just been born. For now more than any specific issues of recognition SEPTEMBER 2002 EUREKA STREET 15 of or injustice towards women-even Pope' and loyal to the spirit of the Pope's though the two are in many ways related. letter, 0Tdinatio saceTdotalis, and its dec The quiet one But the fa ct that Australia even has the laration that the church does not have the Commission (t he end result of a 1996 deci authority to ordain women. But even when R LI )R I ~ I NC CEORGE sion by the Australian bishops to research research from an inherently conserva tive the church's relationship with women) base (answers to questionnaires coll ected THEPINK VI NYL COAT was a bone of con is remarkable. Whether they quite knew from women who were attending church) tention, if a coat can be a bone. Between what they were getting into or not, the was included, it showed that 68 per cent my younger sisters and me it was far more bishops did commission a report into the of the women wanted more discussion on accurate to talk about coats of contention, participation of women in the Australian ordination for women. socks, blouses, skirts and school hats of Catholic Church. And when Woman and This cam e at a time when the Catho contention, for when there are five sisters Man : One in Christ Jesus-all 560 pages lic Church in every other liberal Western in a household that is not a beneficiary of of it- was released in 1999, it was widely democracy was silencing those agitating major white-collar crime, then there will acknowledged as the largest, m ost compre for an inclusive female voice. The Austral inevitably be clothes of contention. hensive report into women and the church ian Catholic Church 's decision to seek it Kathleen and I were going to the Bcatles published anywhere in the world. publicly m ade it look like a dancer lurching concert at Festival Hall that chilly night Not surprisingly, it pointed to a lot of to the left of the stage when all the other and the loser would have to wear some hurt. ballerinas were moving to the right. thing warm and sensible. It was pre Many respondents were older tradi Sr Myra Poole, English author of Prayel', Carnaby 1964: Rolling Stone was three tionalists who were nonetheless sick of Pmtest and Power, and a well-known Eng years away, Menzies was still prime min being given subservient jobs- ironing altar lish advocate of ordination for women, ister and though JFK was dead, he had two cloths, arranging flowers. Another cluster finds this aspect of the Commission and brothers who were going to sort out organ were women with active careers who felt its development 'extraordinary'. Sh e is ised crime and abolish racism. We had marginalised within the church; others well placed to comment on the mood of saved for months in one of those cuboid tin were young women who see the church as the church in relation to women. She was Commonwealth Bank money boxes that increasingly irrelevant to their lives. an organiser of the Dublin Wom en's Ordi looked like a little bank building. It was The editors were careful to avoid any nation Worldwide Conference held in June worth it. It was Melbourne in June, almost appearance of heterodoxy, and declared, 2001, and both she and Sr Joan Chittister, exactly a year since we had arrived in Aus up front, their intention to be 'loyal to the an American Benedictine, had 'formal obe tralia, and now England was coming back dience' imposed on them by Rome for their to us. The Old Dart had metamorphosed role in organising the conference. into fabness in the short time we had been As the Commission m eets women away. We could never go home because throughout Australia, the most notice home was already gone, had faded even as able feature of its gatherings is that most we left. But the Bea tlcs, bringers and har participants arc over 60. WATAC's Bernice bingers of the newness, still looked like Moore says this reflects today's reality. your friends' older brothers. 'Surveys show that, 18 months after We all had our favourite Beatle. Cool, leaving school, 92 per cent of young Aus rebellious people chose John. Roman tralians educated in Catholic schools no tics chose Paul. Ringo was chosen by longer attend Mass. the fans of rock-steady drumming or by 'Except for the ultra-conservatives, girls who thought he was cute. George many younger women have walked from was chosen by guitar freaks and girls who the church as an institution, though they thought he looked Byronic and intense. Invest with Au stralia n Ethical Investment oft en have well-formed Christian values,' That is until he opened his mouth and she said. said something flat and uncompromising -your savings wi ll benefit the env ironment It's a problem the Commission's Chair, in that Scouse accent, with its slurred Ts but the returns wiII be yours. Geraldine Hawkes, acknowledges. 'I've and Ds, its guttural As. His singing was been asked on many occasions, "Why curiously unlilting, matter-of-fact; no Contact Au stra lia's speciali st ethica l fund aren't young women at church? " But really, Paul-sweetness, no John-fire, no Ringo manager to profit from your principles. it's the wrong question. The more appro avuncular-for-the-kiddies. Yet we saw and priate question is, "How can we journey heard him that night in Festival Hall amid with them ?" Unfortunately, in the past, creaming that would have shattered win Australian Ethical Investment the church has really sidestepped the lived dows if there'd been any, singing bang in phonel 800 02l 22 7 nowfor a prospectus experience of m any of these women.' tune, imperturbable. or vis it our websi te www.a ustethi ca l. com.au The Commission has a way to go. In the George was the quiet Beatle, the under long term it will either provide a credible rated youngest one. His talent was often Ap pli cations for investment ca n only be made on t11e form contained in the current offer document (lodged with ASIC) women's voice to which the bishops listen, swamped by Lennon and McCartney. whicl1 is ava ilable from Austra li an Ethica l Investment Ltd. or it will be ignored and collapse. At this As they tussled for control, he doggedly AEI does not guarantee future perform ance or return of capital. stage, the jury is still out. -Margaret Rice went on playing. All this is documented 16 EUREKA STREET SEPTEMBER 2002 in Harrison, a large hardback of almost ten we are still in an intelligent space. haze of dust. The atmosphere was electric. coffee-table size (by the editors of Rolling Mikal Gilmore's 'The Mystery Inside With the eyes of the world upon him, Jose Stone, Simon & Schuster, 2002). It is pretty George' is an example. Discussing the Ramos Horta, MC of the event, escorted much an anthology of new essays, photo 19 70s, he writes: Megawati on to the stage, hand-in-hand graphs and reprinted Rolling Stone articles with the newly elected East Timorese presi along with some purpose-written tributes The two movements that most changed dent, Xanana Gusmao. An overwhelming from colleagues such as Mick Jagger, Keith pop music during this time-punk and cheer from the audience broke the tension. Richards, Paul Simon, Elton John et al. disco, both of which Harrison hated- I felt relief that the international com munity was witnessing such a spirit of gen erosity from the East Timorcse people, and some amazem ent that people had been able to respond in this way. If I had been in their shoes I might have screamed abuse at the Indonesian president. But it is perhaps too easy to read a desire for 'reconciliation' into the response of the crowd. The next da y I met my neighbour, Tiu 'uncle' Joao, at the Taibessi market, and asked what he thought of it all. Like many of his neighbours, Joao lived for years near the notorious Indonesian 744 Battalion and was routinely terrorised by them . Now that Taibessi is transformed into a fruit-and vegetable market, and full of life, it is hard There are some outstanding essays such spoke for changing social realities and to believe it was once a place of terror; hard as Ben Fong-Torres' clear-eyed reminis class conditions that the Beatles seemed to believe no taxi driver would pass by it at cences of George's troubled 1974 tour of unaware of, even though they had grown night, and no schoolchildren would go near the US. The book includes articles about up in a time and place of similar depriva it. There were stories of young boys disap his guitars (that 12-string Rickenbacker tions and uncertainties. pearing, of women raped. Now, the charred that brushes up your spine at the begin ruins of the barracks have been torn down ning of 'A Hard Day's Night'!); analysis of This recirculates the received old saw and the restored market sits in the shade his few but often excellent contributions to about those two highly artificial musical of the old Banyan trees planted long ago by the Beatles ('Something', 'While My Guitar styles, puffing them as som e sort of grass the Portuguese army. Gently Weeps', 'Within You Without You '); roots reaction against rock. In reality they Tiu Joao spoke of Megawati's visit: 'We a complete discography; and, because we were packaged and intensely marketed cre are happy because the Indonesian president are now benighted nostalgics, an overview ations of record company executives who came to learn about the real situation in of Beatles collectibles. If you had a Beatles were threatened by the artistic freedoms East Timor. It was good that she came to lunch box or portable record player that you enjoyed by the musical revolutionaries see with her own eyes the truth of what allowed the children to destroy in the '70s of the '60s. But still, Harrison as a whole happened in 1999 .' and '80s, weep now because US collectors is a reminder of high-quality rock report 'So it does not mean people are ready to are offering thousands in hard currency for age and analysis. It is not hagiography, and reconcile with Indonesia ?' I ask. such ephem era. rakes no muck. I'm going to give it to my 'What does reconciliation m ean until Yet the book has another kind of poign sister in memory of the pink vinyl coat. there is justice?' ancy for those who not only loved George -Juliette Hughes By justice, Tiu Joao clearly m eans the but Rolling Stone too. In June this year its court trial of those responsible for serious publisher and founder, Jann Wenner, hired human rights crimes. And crimes commit the British editor of FHM, Ed Needham, as Xanana's justice ted not only in 1999, but also throughout managing editor. Needham, a 37-year-old, the entire Indonesian occupation. is going to chase the 15-to-29 demographic WHICH WAY EAST TIMOR? I have heard views similar to Tiu Joao's and has talked of catering to shorter atten expressed frequently over the last two years. tion spans. From 1967 Rolling Stone has ITWAS A extraordinary moment: wit At a national forum organised recently by been a heavy in popular culture, unafraid nessing Indonesian president Megawati Yayasan Hak, a prominent East Timorese of making connections with politics and Sukarnoputri step on to the stage at East human rights non-government organisa history, making history of its own. Now Timor's independence celebrations earlier tion, urvivors and families of victims of presumably it will become Ralph with CD this year. the violence gathered in Dili to ask ques promotions. Sad. In the hot, humid night, with thou tions of the Serious Crimes Investiga tions Harrison, however, is still old-Stone; sands of others, I had crowded into the Tasi Unit (SCIU). SCIU is the unit mandated by whether or not we agree with what's writ- Tolu site to watch the festivities through a UNTAET (United N ations Transitional SEPTEMBER 2002 EUREKA STREET 17 Administration in East Tim or) to investi I encountered many angry and cynical peo gate crimes against humanity, war crimes, ple who told me they didn't see the point of and genocide. co-operating with investigators and giving Amid all the fervour of 'nation build their statemen ts when no-one had come ing' the forum was a reminder of the raw back to tell them anything about the status ness and anger that still surrounds the of th eir cases. experiences of September 1999. More than The few community information ses 100 people crowded into the Canossian sions that have been conducted in Dili Sisters' Hall to have their say. For most of have been m ore in th e vein of public rela those from the districts, this was their first tions exercises, emphasising the UN's opportunity to talk with the SCIU. commitm ent to the justice process rather One by one, people rose to speak. A than making any real attempt to listen mother from Emera talked of the anguish and engage with people's experiences. of not yet recovering the bones of her son. Perpetuating the myth that the process is A young man with a faded machete scar running smoothly does not do justice to told of watching bodies being dismembered people's real experiences. Nor does it ease and piled into the back of a car. An older their anger and frustration. In the end, man and community leader from Aileu was a more palatable response would be one concerned about militia leaders returning that engaged with survivors as equals and to his village and walking around freely: acknowledged that in the area of justice 'If the police are not going to arrest them there are no easy solu tions. then shouldn't we arrest them ourselves With East Timor's independence, a new to protect them from retaliation from the twist has been introduced into the process. community?' While the SCIU continues its work, the big The question, 'Why is justice taking so decisions on justice and the prosecution of long?' was repeated again and again. serious crimes have now passed from the The SCIU has no easy answers. The UN to the independent East Tim orese gov familiar refrain is that people should be ernment. There are many tough decisions patien t and have faith in the justice proc to be faced and the jury is still out on which ess. But for how long? And how honest is it way things will go. President Xanana Gus to continue raising expectations and claim mao has begun speaking out strongly in that all is going smoothly when the main favour of a policy of reconciliation and for constraints are not practical or legal but an amnesty for those w ho committed seri political? ous crimes. He has emphasised the need to In the prosecu tion of serious crim es, forget the past and m ove on. On occasion UNTAET 's track record is not very good. he has also ridiculed human-rights groups The SCIU's progress has been painfully for dwelling in the past. slow and it has been plagu ed with prob Back in Taibessi, the 744 Barracks have lems, including poor managem ent plus a been reclaimed. Taxis now line the street lack of resources and institutional support. in front of the market. By day, vegetable The Special Crim es Panels of the Dili Dis sellers arrive on crowded m orning buses trict Court, set up specifically to hear cases from the districts; stalls sell Indonesian of serious crimes, have convicted very few noodles and cheap Indonesian rice and suspects. In no case has an Indonesian beauty products; schoolchildren play and officer been present for a trial. The politi tethered goats graze on the grass. But the cal constraints on extra diting suspects m emories of Tiu Joao and other Taibessi res from Indonesia, particularly m embers of idents will not fade so quickly. And as any the military (TNI), mean that this goal may one will tell you, 'Rai N ains' (spirits) live in never be achieved. And after only two years those big old Banyan trees. If you walk too of operating, the SCIU will be winding up close to them at night, their limbs reach its investigative work in 2003. out to drag you inside. Those Rai N ains Even less forgivable has been the failure will not so easily be exorcised. -Lia Kent of the SCIU to develop a community edu cation and outreach program . Earlier this This month 's contributors: Anthony Ham year the SCIU decided to locate its inves is a Eureka Street correspondent; Kristie tigators out in the districts rather than in Dunn is a freelance writer; Margaret Rice Dili- to facilitate better access to info rma is a freelance journalist; Juliette Hughes is tion and contact with the community. In a freelance writer; Lia Kent worked with my own work as a human-rights educator the United N ations in East Tim or. 18 EUREKA ST REET SE PTEMBER 2002 ORIG INS MORAG FRASER Talking writers Meeting Eureka Street's fellowship writers, John Harding and Tracey Rigney. ITALL BECAN m A mom" tht Unive< to disregard her. Lillian commands space Indigenous drama, called 'Blak Inside', sity of Melbourne. Not in one of the hal and attention. at the Playbox. His writing is confronta lowed old halls near the law quad but in a But my look of disbelief was a con tional and broad. He has been long enough squarish building down one of the streets centrated rejection of Aboriginal history around arts and public-service bureaus to that leads into town. There was an Aborig since white settlement, and both women know how complex racial and political inal flag on the front, its colours a political were quick to tell me so. Or remind me. conflicts are and how much personality, flash in the decorous old Victorian street Sometimes you need to be reminded as well as politics/ contributes to the mix. (this was just before Parkville was trans because it's possible to carry two sets Politics and human folly bring out the formed into an education 'precinct' ). of beliefs simultaneously. One is about satirist, so when John visits, what we do We were talking about being white, the now that seems also to be the norm most is laugh. Sometimes the laugh is des about whiteness, about being black and (Lillian talking in this room, surrounded perate. Mostly it is the survivor's release being invisible. The woman speaking was by institutional and personal artefacts, into hilarity-something to be shared. Lillian Holt, Director of the University's the paintings/ the filing cabinets, and us Tracey is a very different kind of Centre for Indigenous Education. She'd listening). The other derives from what writer. Quieter, less overtly political, she just finished a trip through southern Vic you think you know1 from what you have has been an actor, student and playwright toria with lawyer Liz Curran, who at the read or heard (in my case, Aboriginal writ (her Belonging was also part of the 1Blak time was executive officer of the Catholic ing, Henry Reynolds' histories, the stories Inside' season). A Wotjobaluk and Ngar Commission for Justice, Development Lillian and Liz were telling me). But we rindjeri woman, Tracey grew up in west and Peace. They were two women with are so welded to our contexts that it takes ern Victoria, and it is to there that she has responsibilities. Political duties, leader a sharp kick up the imagination to get now returned. In talking about home and ship obligations. Heavy stuff. mind and memory operating on both sets country and the wellsprings of her writ Yet it wasn't like that. On that day of belief. Lillian delivers a fine ing, Tracey goes back, time and again, to these were just two women, one black, sharp kick. her grandfather. She has done the city-cre one white, one Irish-Australian, one Abo ative-arts, education-acting-drama stint, riginal, telling me about an experience 0 IT WAS TO Lillian that I went when so now, she says it's time to go back, put S 1 they'd had together. They/d been driving Eureka Street was looking to set up a fel back, trace the sources, look more closely around Victoria as friends, as companions. lowship for two Aboriginal writers. And it at her family and what they have made, The pair of them. But in many places was Lillian who introduced us to Tracey and made of her. She wants, eventually, to they were not treated as a pair. In pubs, Rigney and John Harding. There they teach, but in the meantime she wants to cafes and motels Liz was acknowledged, are, opposite, in my office this time, sur learn language and culture and her grand served, looked after. Often as not, Lillian rounded by the artefacts of yet another father, all over again. was neither acknowledged nor served. world, but both of them talking about how Our first few months with John Hard Sometimes she was rebuffed (we were not they write their world. And how our vari ing and Tracey Rigney have made it clear talking decades ago: this was late 1990s). ous worlds interweave, conflict, reflect that 1 Aboriginal writer' is a catch-all term/ Sometimes, when Liz would insist on Lil and refract. useful perhaps for solidarity, identity poli lian's being served, the pair of them would John is a seasoned playwright. He is tics maybe1 or for bureaucratic identifica be rebuffed together, as though colour also a man with cultural responsibilities tion on grant forms. But it is of no use at were contagious-black rubbing off on to and a far-flung family. He comes from all when one works with them as writers, white, making it ineligible for whatever Darnley Island in the Torres Strait, a or simply as people who, like Lillian Holt, privilege whiteness customarily attracts. descendant of the Ku-Ku tribe and the Mer command our attention. Over the next Here, in this white university room, people. When the Mabo tenth-anniversary few months, as John and Tracey write and wearing her authority as of right, Lillian celebrations were held in Melbourne he we meet, some of that spark of connec Holt was a woman to be reckoned with. had to be here as master of ceremonies. tion will show up in the pages of Eurelw But she is always that, anywhere. Hard to And earlier in the year he was also in Street. • imagine how anyone could think it appro Melbourne to rehearse and oversee a pro priate, think they were somehow entitled duction of his play, Enuff, for a season of Morag Fraser is editor of Eurel SEPTEM BER 2002 EUREKA STREET 19 I TWAS A CLEAR N 20 EUREKA STREET SEPTEMBER 2002 dehumanise, vilify and dem onise the identified N auru, initiating an unprecedented policy of paying group. It fans anxieties and m obilises nationalist, countries dependent on Australia to look after its racist and religious prejudice. By rallying the popu refugees. lation behind it against the scapegoated group, the In war many taboos are broken. The time of government maintains power. uncertainty fo llowing September llled to the war on All m embers of the scapegoated group are terrorism . Faced with an election it was going to lose, lumped into one fa celess or caricatured entity. They the government brought the war on terrorism closer are placed outside usual laws, and special laws may to hom e. Painting the refugees as an invading horde be promulgated for them . The group is constrained and scapegoating them as quasi-terrorist, the govern economically, and som etimes geographically. If m ent used the process described by N aumann to rally incarcerated, people are identified by numbers, the electorate behind it. not nam es. They are humiliated and equated with It is hard to credit that this process should be animals. They may be kept as long-term scapegoats, so cynically applied. It is fa r less psychologically or ultimately be expelled or killed. w renching to trust the government's good faith. I returned fro m the conference to my dem o However, if we take off our blinkers, and include cratic, multicultural country, grateful for how totally the Holocaust paradigm in our wide-angled view, we it had absorbed the lessons of the Holocaust. Through see disturbing details of the Naumann process. my profession I continued to heal victims of atroci ties from other countries. But recently I felt reverberations of the old fear. Recently I felt reverberations of the old fear. I heard those epithets, which described my family's quest fo r escape from persecution, being hurled at a I heard those epithets, which described my new wave of refugees. I did a check. Of course, this was nothing like the Holocaust. But in its treatment family /s quest for escape from persecution, being of refugees in detention centres and on the high seas, Australia was far along the process described by N au hurled at a new wave of refugees ... What was mann. It was condemned internationally for breaking human-rights conventions relating to refugees and happening to my country and its va lues? This time children. What was happening to my country and its values? This time I was not going to be a victim, or I was not going to be a victim, or a bystander. a bystander. In the vanguard of a m ovement among disaf Refugees, in the main fro m Afghanistan and fected Australians were two organisations of which Iraq, arriving by boat, were chosen as the scapegoats. I was a representative. The Australasian Society fo r Disinform ation, euphemism s and vilifications about Traumatic Stress Studies published in newspapers, them have a familiar ring, which, if he heard them , and made representations to Philip Ruddock's Immi would m ake my fa ther turn in his grave. Refugees gration Detention Advisory Group (which later rec and asylum seekers were called illegal immigrants; ommended scrapping the Woomera detention centre), escapees of persecution were queue jumpers (as if pointing ou t that traumatising the traumatised, there were a queu e); paying to be smuggled branded especially children, was wrong and cruel. The Child refugees as criminals, and lifestyle seekers; turn Survivors of the Holocaust Group wrote similar letters, ing away leaking boats with their human cargo was and started to visit children in detention. Both groups called border protection. Fears of these few thousand took part in the Children in Detention Story submis refugees were fa nned by equating them with 20 m il sion to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity lion refugees who wanted to pour into this country, Commission Inquiry into Children in Immigration and with al Qaeda terrorists. Detention, which scientifically documented To m aintain this demonisation, the government the sorry plight of imprisoned children . sought to control information and its interpretation. Media suffered limitations of access unheard of in 0 N 29 AuGUST IT WILL be a year since the inaus peacetime. Those working in detention camps could picious phone tapping and subsequent storming by not speak because of confidentiality clauses. Speak crack SAS troops of the unarmed Norwegian ship the ing out could also harm detainees' cases. Tampa. On that day Australia declared to the world D ehumanisation and lack of com passion were that it was prepared to turn accepted international carefully tailored. No government pictures were convention on its head. The Tampa's 'crime' was res allowed to give a human face to refugees. Pictures of cuing asylum seekers from a sunken ship, and prepar the faces of deeply distressed children like Shayan last ing to deliver them to the nearest port, as required by year, and the Bakhtiyari boys who escaped Woom era international law. In its undeclared 'deter and deny' last month, were called stunts. Parents were blam ed war against refugees, the government heavy-hand for the distress of their children, and the media were edly prevented this. Eventually it diverted the ship to blamed for being duped by the stunts. Refugees SEPTEMBER 2002 EU REKA STR EET 2 1 belonged as faceless numbers in distant camps. The major hidden cost is the acceleration of our Then there was the famous, 'We do not want that move away from being a compassionate society. The sort of people here,' intoned by the righteous, but we dehumanisation of others has a boomerang effect. now know dissimulating, John Howard, just before The initial brunt is borne by naval personnel, and the election. Information about refugees throwing guards and staff in detention camps, who see the their children overboard was false. What was true faces of refugees, know the truth, but are not allowed was that Mr Howard and Mr Ruddock threw children to speak it. The cost to these Australians is dehuman into detention camps. isation, demoralisation, burn-out and stress. Howard and Ruddock have shown scant compas The wider community is also victimised. It suf sion. For instance, the mother whose three children fers a corrosion of democratic values through disin drowned at sea was denied entry to Australia to join formation and censorship; questionable, ad hoc laws; her husband. If her husband were to visit her in Indo and the blaming of the legal system when it does not nesia, said Ruddock, he risked being denied return do the government's will. The morality and human here. ity of us all is attacked when we becom e bystanders Questions of compassion are always answered in the abuse of human rights, the denigration of those with blame, and upping the ante. When questioned who expose the truth, and the implicit ridicule of about the inhuman conditions children live in at kindness. Woomera, Mr Ruddock suggested that these children Internationally, we cannot hold up our heads are potential terrorists and laws should enable them as a moral country any more. Our treatment of to be strip-searched. There was no compassion for refugees compounds our treatment of the escaped Bakhtiyari boys last month. Rather, the Aborigines. father was threatened with deportation. Similarly, Mr Ruddock shows no obvious com ~T Now? Unfettered by compassion, history, passion at the prospect of detainees being driven guilt, shame or sorrow, Mr Howard and Mr Ruddock to riots and suicide. He disparages both actions as lecture Europeans on how to treat refugees. However, equally manipulative. This is an unsympathetic pre they may do better to learn from Europe. In spite of psychiatric and pre-modern-prison-era interpretation having much larger numbers of refugees, no Euro of intolerable circumstances where suicide is the last pean country has adopted Australia's harsh policies. resort. These countries still respect the international laws What is the meaning of this uncompromising on refugees, and they remember the reasons fo r their attitude? It brings back questions of why all Jews promulgation. They are frightened by the return of were dehumanised, why as a child I was as much a xenophobia and fascism. target for annihilation as my parents. The answer is Yet, we are still a lucky country. The claim that that dehumanisation must include the whole group, 20 million refugees are waiting to flood us is fa lse. A and just as one does not differentiate between young few thousand have made the attempt. We can afford and old germs, one does not differentiate between to honour international laws. We can afford to proc children and adults. ess refugees humanely, and not confuse victim s with Similarly, to the extent that detention camps are perpetrators. designed a signals to deter others from attempting Even on their own terms, John Howard and to come to Australia, it is logical to make all suffer, Philip Ruddock have won their phoney war. Deter including children. It is like saying, 'If you want a rence worked. Still, politically, it may not serve them better life for yo ur child, don't come to Australia.' well to maintain their harshness till the next elec People often avoid the realisation that their tion . Pragmatism, legality and humanity may com governments are abusing human rights. In Aus bine to release the incarcerated refugees at last. tralia we saw many rally behind the government's Mr Ruddock can put his Amnesty International actions and policies, readily accepting the spin that hat back on, and Mr Howard may temper toughness such policies and actions were necessary for national with mercy. Rather than being remembered for assail security and survival. ing the Tampa, and 'We do not want that sort of peo I want to emphasise again that detention camps ple here', he could be remembered for resilience. Resil are not like concentration camps, and the treatment ience could join his other humane responses, as in his of refugees is a fa r cry from the treatment of Jews in push for gun control after the Port Arthur massacre the Holocaust, even if it shares some precedents with and his efforts for East Timorese independence. And it. However, lesser persecutory processes also carry we may all redeem our pride in being Australian. • costs. The costs to refugees are obvious. The cost to Aus Paul Valent is past president of the Australasian tralians of unnecessarily depriving them of resources Society for Traumatic Stress Studies and the Mel that could have been better spent on health and wel bourne Child Survivors of the Holocaust. His writ fare, is also relatively clear. It is the less obvious costs ings include From Survival to Fulfilment and Child to Australians that carry, for me, special pain. Survivors of the Holocaust. 22 EUREKA STR EET SEPTEMBER 2002 The fruits of passion S,. moM THE MERCmss SEPTEMBER 2002 EUREKA STREET 23 THE W OR LD The pope has visited. Soon world lea ders wi ll assemble in M exico for the APEC summit. Th ey'll disc uss globali sation and free trade. Meanw hile, in the great city square, those words ass ume other levels of mea ning, as w riter and photograp her Peter Davis discovered . PRE CI SELY lOam every day The size of about 20 MCGs, the Zocalo on the second floor, are the vast murals except Sunday, two events take place in is where freedom of speech and movement of Diego Rivera. To view these depictions the Zocalo. The massive bells from the meet the bastions of might and power. of Mexican history, skimpily clad tourists 15th-century Metropolitan Cathedral The square is bordered by seriously grand with cameras meander past heavil y clad announce the hour. And the doors of the buildings and by ancient sacred sites. The soldiers with machine-guns. Monte De Piedad, the national pawn Metropolitan Catholic Cathedral, one of The Zocalo achieves exactly what a brokers, swing open to desperate sellers the largest in South America, took 350 city sq uare should- it is a magnet for and almost-as-desperate buyers. In the years to complete. It sits on what was all the colour and contradictions of the late afternoon, in another corner of the once an Aztec sacrificial site. nation. It mirrors a complexity beyond its sq uare, Aztec dancers pound their drums Adjacent to the cathedral is an archae own simple form . Insid e the square, one is with such vigour that the church bells are ological site-the grand temple. Excavated not simply in the centre, one feels centred. almost silenced. Elsewhere in the square, in 19 76, this is where the ancients saw an It is from here that all things radiate. rap dancers, political demonstrators, eagle with a snake in its mouth perched The best view is fro m the seventh tradesmen, shoeshiners and entrepreneurs atop a cactus. For the Aztecs this was the fl oor balcon y of the colonial Majestic congregate and push their causes. centre of the universe. The image is now hotel. From here the Zocalo is not unlike Welcome to the third-largest city the emblem at the centre of the Mexican a Rivera mural-a pastiche of intercon square in the world (after Beijing and Mos flag. Toda y's centre of power, the presiden nected activity. The more you look, the cow). The Spanish word zocalo means a tial palace, dominates the eastern side of more yo u see. A fo cal point is the giant stone base-a reference to an independ the square. Behind the palace colonnades Mexican flag atop a 40-metre pole. At 6pm ence monument that was begun but then is a square within a square (where Cortes every clay (except days on which demon abandoned in the mid-19th century. once staged bullfights). Inside the palace, strators are camped in the sq uareL the flag 24 EU REKA STREET SEPTEMBER 2002 is ceremoniously lowered by the presiden movement for freedom and democracy ten rescue, when galloping inflation was tial guards. years ago. Aztec artefacts are also popular. stopped, foreign investment rekindled Throughout my four days of explora And along the pavem ents, on the perimeter and fr ee trade agreem ents forged, Mexico tion the square is taken over by protest of the square, thousands of hawkers oil the has been gripped by a globalisation frenzy. ing schoolteachers. Thousands of them wheels of the underground economy. They These workers represent the flipside. They assemble to pitch their tents in the centre. sell everything from designer clothes and sit on stools or pieces of cardboard with Opposed to privatisation of education and power tools to CDs and videos. Much of it their tools of trade on the ground in front calling for more government funding, they is stolen from any on e of the 4000 trucks of them . Each worker displays a home use music, dance, art shows and intermi that are hijacked each year on the Mexican made sign prom oting his skills. Plumber, nable speeches to sell their message. highways (a considerable drop from the electrician, plasterer, stonem ason or car Look closely and there are protests 12,500 trucks that disappeared in 1995). penter. If they get lucky, someone will within protests. Tucked away in one area Authorities claim the satellite tracking sys engage them fo r a few hours, or maybe is a small but vocal ga thering appealing for tems and armed guards on board the trucks even a few days. the release of Erika Zamoron, a university have helped reduce the hijacks. Even so, 'There are 250 workers who have per teacher and political agitator who has been every day tonnes of tacky and stolen booty mits to work this corner of town,' says in prison for four years and has just begun find their way to the centre of town. Augustin, a 57-year-old stonemason who a hunger strike. And in another area, a gag The police stage regular raids. The has sat in the Zocalo six days a week, ten gle of out-of-unifo rm police officers use a hawkers invariably know the police are hours a day since 1976. 'I live in the south m egaphone and some passionate slogans coming and with lightening dexterity of the city and it takes me two hours on to demand an increase in their allowance wrap up their goods and vanish into the the metro to get here. If I get work I can for uniforms. shops. Sometimes the law wins and police earn 100 pesos [A$25] a day, som etimes These sellers of messages come and trailer trucks loaded with the loot as well more. I'm paying for my sons to go to col go . Up to one million dem onstrators can as the hawkers wend their way though lege. They don't want to do my kind of assemble in the Zocalo and then evaporate the traffic snarling into the depths of the work, it's too hard for them .' Asked what into this city of 20 million. But it is the metropolis. he thinks about the fr eeing up of markets, sell ers of goods and services that make the Labour is also sold on the square. Augustin says all he knows is that there square hom e. Along the western wall of the cathedral, is a lot more wealth in Mexico. 'But none Che Guevara T-shirts have been in away from the tourists, is a long line of of these people benefit,' he said, pointing vogue ever since the resurgence of a Mexican workers. Since the 1994 currency along the queue. SEPTEMBER 2002 EU REKA STRE ET 25 For Augustin and his comrades, the Carlos is a modern-day player in this We talk at length about photography Zocalo is a holding bay until they are grand theatre of multiculturalism. 'Some and politics. 'We're choking ourselves out snapped up for work elsewhere. But for times I even eat over there,' he says, point of existence,' he says as I photograph him others, the Zocalo is their place of work. ing to McDonald's on the western side of holding an image of himself. He gives me Through the dancers and the sha the square. a splendid book of his images. They do mans who work the square, the Mexican McDonald's occupies part of one of the indeed reveal another Mexico. His book Indian culture struggles to survive beyond old colonial buildings. The McDonald's is titled Alavera Del Camino (at the side the museums. Every couple of hours the sign is surprisingly understated. I wanted of the road). The title is a reference to his Aztec drums begin. The dancers mark to see Mexicans at the consumer end of sponsors, Goodyear. But the title is also out a small circle inside the square. This globalisation. Inside are young, upwardly poignantly prophetic. becomes their sacred space. In the cen mobile Mexicans looking as homogenised That afternoon, two Mexico City tre sits an elder (sometimes male, other as the food they devour. But it is the teams play each other in the national times female) with a smoking vessel. The soccer finals. The team called Americana others dance around the sacred centre in wins, for the first time in 12 years. Within what looks like a fusion of an Irish jig and minutes the Zocalo explodes into a frenzy ancient Aztec rites. After maybe 30 min of singing, conga dancing and shaving utes of sometimes frenzied choreography cream. and drumming, the beat slows and the Had the soccer match occurred in dancers become coin collectors with caps earlier times, some of the winning play in hand. ers would have happily walked to their decapitation to please their god. Today there are no such sacrifices. But there are new gods. Soccer is one. The free market Next to the traditional dancers are the is another. I leave the conga to walk back rap dancers doing backward triple somer to my hotel. The next morning I flag one saults and spinning on their heads and but of Mexico City's 150,000 green-and-white tocks on the stone floor-all to the strains internal walls that draw my gaze. They Volkswagen Beetle taxis. Carlos the driver of an over-amplified ghetto blaster. carry striking black-and-white photo has a small TV on his dashboard. He is Only metres from where the rappers graphs of another Mexico-a Mexico that absorbed in the soccer replay. I ask him are rapping, two medicine men-Carlos, existed in the period before McDonald's. to drive me once around the square before a vet, and Gavriel, a silversmith-perform Some of these pictures I had seen else heading to the airport. 'Do you want to an Aztec purification and energising ritual. where, in other cafes, in books, postcards buy something? I know a good place,' says And so I stand with my arms outstretched, and in the lobbies of the boutique hotels. Carlos in tourist English. 'I just want one hands together and palms open upwards The next morning I venture outside last look,' I tell him. He ignores me and as if to receive from the gods. With cer the square in search of Enrique Segarra drives to a narrow street behind the cathe emony and chanting, Gavriel waves the octogenarian photographer who took dral where shop after shop overflows with smoking herbs over my body. Five minutes those images on the McDonald's walls. Articules Religiosis. 'The pope will be later it's Carlos' turn. He offers me a liquid I find him at the Jardin de San Jacinto, a coming soon to Mexico,' he tells me. 'You to rub into my palms and on my forehead. craft market nestled in an exclusive area must visit the basilica.' In the midst of all Had this taken place during the height of of cobbled tree-lined streets and grand the rosaries, the crucifixes and the virgins Aztec power, it would almost certainly haciendas. is an Aztec medicine shop. 'You buy good have been a prelude to my being sacrificed. Segarra sits in a collapsible chair next energy here,' says Carlos. I purchase some Now the only sacrifice I have to make is to his orange Ford Mustang. He gazes incense, more to please him than myself. a donation according to how I value the into the middle distance as he chews on When I reach the airport I examine the experience. I ask Carlos if he does this just a Cuban cigar. Opposite him, against a packet closely. The label reads 'Made in for the tourists. 'Of course not,' he replies. wall, are his images. 'Look at this one,' he China'. • 'I believe in this, but I also believe in West says with pride. He shows me his picture ern medicine. I see no problem with believ of Diego Rivera. 'I took that in 1942 and I Peter Davis is a freelance writer and ing in more than one culture.' remember like it was yesterday.' photographer. 26 EUREKA STRE ET SEPTEMBER 2002 TH E NATION :2 Workable, decent, affordable Could Australia develop a refugee policy that is all of the above? Yes, argues Frank Brennan, and it might even become exemplary. GOVERNMENTS are trying seekers and to fear-filled voters. Dispers and independence of the primary decision to strike the balance between sovereignty ing the 180 Woom era detainees to other makers and of the security of tenure and and the protection of refugees. In Aus places would deprive government of a competence of the RRT members. tralia, we have not found the balance. crucial transmitter. Also of concern are the visa entitle This has been evident in our politi The government justifies detention in ments granted to asylum seekers once cally charged public debates, in the part because it helps with the processing they are found to be refugees. These peo 'Pacific solution', in the limiting of judi of claims. Detention in an accessible place ple should have the same rights as all cial review, excision of islands and the and in a more work-friendly environment other refugees, regardless of whether they mandatory and unreviewable detention of might help with processing. The current arrived by plane or boat, with or without asylum seekers. These policies have been detention regime, however, contributes a visa. In particular, they should have the pursued at great and unnecessary human to and helps disguise the uneven perform sam e rights of international travel and of and economic cost. ance of our decision-makers, especially family reunion. By denying these rights to It is time, then, to create a refugee when it relates to Iraqis and Afghans. some, we encourage women and children policy that is workable, decent, affordable During this last financial year (1 July to risk hazardous voyages and we demean and efficient. 2001-30 June 2002), the Refugee Review those refugees living in our commu At enormous expense, we are main Tribunal (RRT) set aside 62 per cent of all nity who want to get on with their lives taining reception and processing centres Afghan decisions appealed and 87 per cent and not remain disconnected from their at Curtin, Port Hedland, Woomera and now Baxter on the Australian mainland. Imagine that every country signed the Refugee Convention and Curtin will soon close. All fair-minded people, including the government's own then adopted the Australian policy ... all refugees in the world Immigration Detention Advisory Group, would be condemned to remain subject to persecution or to think that Woom era should have closed long ago. There are now only 180 detain proceed straight to open-ended, judicially unreviewable detention. ees in that hellhole, which is dehumanis ing for detainees and workers alike-our of all Iraqi decisions appealed. This m eans families. Family reunion is not a 'Conven 21st-century Port Arthur. that Afghan asylum seekers got it right 62 tion plus' outcom e as the minister likes to For government, Woomera's deterrent per cent of the time when they claimed describe it; it is a basic human right. value is enormous. There is no other policy that the departmental decision-makers In recognition of the far-reaching dam reason for keeping it open, certainly no sen go t it wrong. And the public servants got age of policies based primarily on deter sible financial rationale. It is far removed it wrong in 87 per cent of the cases that rence, the European Union is now trying to from state services such as children's serv the Iraqi applicants claim to have been formulate common standards and a unified ices and police. It is too isolated a place mistakenly assessed. Meanwhile, the RRT approach to the processing of asylum appli to enable public servants and tribunals set aside only 7.9 per cent of decisions cations. In Europe, they do not have the to process claims for refugee status com appealed by members of other ethnic luxury of going it alone, because deterrence fortably and efficiently. The Department groups. Even more disturbing than these methods merely shift the burden from one of Immigration and Multicultural and comparisons is the following statistic: in country to another-very unneighbourly Indigenous Affairs sees an ongoing use for the last financial year, the RRT finalised behaviour. Indeed, governments of First Woom era because it ensures that 'we have 855 detention cases of which 377 were set World countries everywhere are under a network of centres in order to best man aside. This represents a 44 per cent set double pressure-from asylum seekers and age the diversity of the detainee caseload. aside rate in detention cases. from electors-as they strive to find the Retaining the Woomera IRPC [Inun.igra The government and the parlia balance between the protection of borders tion Reception and Processing Centre] also m ent have been anxious to get the deci and the protection of asylum seekers. makes possible the operation of the alter sion-making process away from court Compared with the European asylum native housing project for women and chil supervision. We could approve the cost seeker challenge, Australia's problem i a dren in the Woomera township.' effectiveness of removing the courts from very small nut to crack. Why then use a Woomera's main purpose now is to supervision of these decisions if we could sledgehammer approach that would inflict emit a double signal- to would-be asylum be more convinced of the professionalism untold damage if applied in other places? SEPTEMBER 2002 EU REKA STRE ET 27 Our current policy suggests two explana judicially unreviewable detention. The should be investigated and removed. tions. Either we want to be so indecent purpose of the Refugee Convention would • RRT members should be given suffi that no other country will dare to imitate be completely thwarted. cien t security of tenure (if need be after us and so asylum seekers will want to try Wh ile we await the European reviews an initial probation period during which anywhere but here. Or we wan t to lead of law and policy next year, we should urge their decisions would be automatically other countries to a new low in indecency. our politicians to m ake these immediate reviewed by senior m embers) to ensure That way we lose our short-term compar corrections to our own law and policy: the integrity of their decision-making and ative border-protection advantage but get • Those claiming to be asylum seekers render it immune from improper ministe to be seen as world leaders in greater strin inside our territorial waters should be rial and departmental influences. gency towards asylum seekers, triggering escorted for processing to Christmas Island • Successful applicants should be given another round of competitive by navy personnel who place the highest a visa entitling them to family reunion tightening. importance on the safety of life at sea and and international travel as specifically who always respond to those in distress. provided in Article 28 of the Refugee Con IFDEMOCRA CY rs about honouring the • Initial detention at Christm as Island vention (of which Australia is unquestion will of the people and protectin g the should be only for purposes of identity, ably in breach). A temporary protection rights and dignity of all, it is essential that health an d security checks. There should visa should be made permanent if our pro our political leaders respond responsibly be resident child protection officers at tection obligations are still invoked three to people's fears instead of feeding those Christmas Island. No child should be years later. fears. They must allay fear with policies treated as a security risk. • We should maintain a commitment faithful to the values of the people and • Those who have passed these checks to at least 12,000 off-shore refugee and to the integrity of their social institu and have not been screened out as bogus humanitarian places each year in our tions. Because of the electoral fervour claimants should be moved to the Baxter migration program regardless of the and the talkback-radio lather about the reception and processing centre, which number of successful on-shore applica asylum-seeker issue, we have not taken should be for reception and processing tions for refugee status. There is no reason sufficient stock of the damage and cost rather than for deterrence and punishment. to think that our on-shore caseload will being inflicted. Our policy presumes that Better still, people could be moved to one increase exponentially given the improved we can isolate Australia from the popula of the urban centres, such as Villawood, regional arrangements and the tighter con tion flows that affect the rest of the world. with provision for day release. Alternative trols within Australian territory. • We should abolish the 'Pacific solution'. Woomer a /s main purpose now is to emit a double signal-to • We should abolish the concept of a distinct Australian migration zone given would-be as ylum seekers and to fear-filled voters. Dispersing the that our processing and appeal system can 780 Woomer a detainees to other places would deprive government be sufficiently streamlined to process all comers. The Australian Federal Police of a crucial transmitter. have already warned that the excision of further islands from our migration zone We think we can stop or control the fl ow detention arrangem ents outside Baxter may 'deflect illegal immigrants to regional by sending a harsh m essage. Instead, we should be set up in Port Augusta and/or in centres with better infrastructure'. should manage the flow by keeping step the available and vacant Whyalla housing If detention is to remain a cornerstone with other First World countries and by stock, to which many in the local commu of Australian border protection and front maintaining a principled commitm ent to nity are anxious to welcome newcomers. door immigration entry, there is a need human rights. Alternative detention should be available for alternative arrangements to render The immorality and inequity result to any person for whom a prim ary deci the present policy m ore humane and ing from our present 'slam the back door' sion is still pending after four months, effective. There is also a need to strike a policy is highlighted by a simple thought or an RRT decision after two months of balance between border control and the experiment. Imagine that every country lodgement. fair and efficient management of refugee signed the Refugee Convention and then • For unaccompanied minors there flows. Given the modesty of the problem adopted the Australian policy. No refu should be an independent guardian who confronting Australia, we would do well gee would be able to flee from his or her can exercise authority without the con to ensure compliance with the standards country of persecution without first join flict of in terest and artifices that surround set by other countries that receive signifi ing the (mythical) queue in that country the present guardianship arrangements. cantly more asylum seekers across porous in order to apply for a protection visa. We m ust avoid farcical situations such as borders. • If people dared to flee persecution, they the guardian offering h is ward a financial would immediately be held in deten incentive to return to a war zone because Frank Brennan SJ is Associate Director of tion (probably for a year or so) awaiting the guardian has a vested interest in hav Uniya, the Jesuit Social Justice Centre. determination of their claims. In other ing the child leave the territory. This is an edited version of a speech delivered words, all refugees in the world would be • The influences on prim ary decision to a University of Sydn ey Forum on 7 August. condemned to remain subject to persecu makers that lead them in to regular error in The full text can be found on the Eurel 28 EUREKA STREET SEPTEMBER 2002 ESSAY KIR STY SANGSTER A poem for David I tried to think of some way to let my face become his 'Could I whisper in your ear a dream I've had? You're the only one I've told this to.' He tilts his head laughing as if, 'I know the trick you're hatching, but go ahead.' I am an image he stitches with gold thread on a tapestry, the least figure, the back of his sleeve-unselfconscious. When you said, 'Hello David,' you had a playful addition. David was frightening because he heard to address the top of his head and the hori voices. He was a drunk and a crazy. He zon of broad, dark-coated shoulders his but nothing he works on is dull. talked about being able to feel his father's head sunk below. There would be a long I am part of the beauty. spiritual presence, and he had a tic that pause before his response. For the first few - Rumi flung his head all about and over to one weeks I was afraid that, in the pause he side, twisting his face upwards. 'That's my would spit, or swear, or swing his fist at Uncle Robert tormenting me. ' Usually, me. Everything about his presence spoke T ," ABOUT one m•n o m y hiend though, you could not see David's face. of violence. But eventually, he would lift David, and about the very brief time that He hung his head down so low that-even up his leaden head and look at m e. It was I knew him. It is about how his face did though he was a tall man-you could see more a stare, then the surprise of recogni not resemble the face in the Sufi mys only his ginger-coloured hair spiralling, all tion, and this great, loud and warm 'hello' tic's poem-and yet paradoxically Rumi's matted and dusty, towards the crown. It back. poem is all about David and David's face. was if he were carrying a huge weight, his This is how the Rumi poem illumi The poem is a good way to start talk head a ball so heavy that it had to be car nates my friendship with David. The ing about David, about fa ces and bodies. ri ed on his chest. poem speaks of the mystery of our sepa In m y mind, I connect the poem with The way he walked reinforced the idea rateness-our bodies' boundaries . The Marc Chagall's figures; all his brides of weight, of burden. Years of alcoholism face holds much of the tension of this and bridegrooms, musicians and crazies gave his gait a seafaring roll. Most of the mystery: the contrast between its open painted with their faces turned upwards time his balance was so bad that he would ness (this is where our tears come from) towards the light. This in turn reminds edge himself along the walls of the ter and yet also its closed, unreadable quality. m e of the Latin phrase-in luminas race houses, with his back to the street. In the face are our isolation and our deep oras-'into the shores of light'. The expe A simple 'walk' to the corner pub was an need to overcome this isolation. rience of knowing David and sharing in arduous journey. He was also dirty and The poem is about love and how it cre his life was like entering, for a very short smelt bad. He never washed and often was ates the need, not just to know the other time, into light. so drunk that he would piss himself. So person, but to be that other person . It tells I m et David when I was working with the wet trousers with the yellow stains, of a meeting. I imagine an empty room, homeless men in the inner city. His face the vomit, and the blood-smeared wind and the writer edging up close to the other. was scary-looking. His eyebrows ran cheater, were other burdens that David There are only two people in the room. For together over a nose that was flattened, had to carry. The ugliness, the bloodiness, the poet it is a privilege. It is a secret, a and his cheekbones were very wide. He the smell-he could have been the hunch private audience. It is a rare occurrence, always had a black eye, stitches and back of Notre Dame. Except that in the perhaps even a one-off m eeting, and the blood, always blood. As he sat at the end, Quasimodo is filled with bitterness. poet- in love and eager to make the most kitchen table he would pick scabs. If you David wasn't bitter and he wasn't spiteful. of the chance-tries to trick his way into said, 'David, you've got blood all over your And when he lifted his head, well-that unity with this person. It is the meeting face,' he would wipe the blood off with was something else altogether. with the beloved. SEPTEMBER 2002 EUREKA STREET 29 Encounters with David were similar work of the early Christian m ystics who of the soul: the sheer abundance, fertility to this. Even in a crowded room or on the talked, wrote and meditated upon the and creative possibility of a human life. street, when David raised his head it felt body and the body of Christ. Maybe it is As if the soul and the world mirror each like a private meeting. This was partly at this point that the idea of imperfection other-outdoing each other after the rains because of his isolation. Other drunks comes in, because the body of Christ on in how green they can become. In the Old were noisy. They tried to scam money the cross was not a perfect thing. It was Testament too, the landscape and the sto off passers-by. They sat together on the an image of intense physical pain and ries of the prophets are intertwined. The footpath drinking their plonk, and roll suffering. It spoke of hum an limitations; body is com1ected to the earth and in tune ing their endless cigarettes with fingers as Christ suffered on the cross the audi with, akin to, the sowing of seeds and the stained yellow from the tobacco. But ence watched for som e sign that he really harvesting of the wheat. Cyclical, it incor David was just there, silently m aking his was the son of God. Instead the man hung porates not only those celebratory events way along the street. He seem ed larger there until he died of suffocation. It was of birth and renewal but also their oppo- than life and more alone than anyone in the pain and blood of the body that the sites, death and decay. The body's ripe else-solitary, suspended, other-worldly. holy was situated. ness marking the time for the harvest; the He was far removed from all the havoc of The mystic Julian of Norwich knew bruised wheat fields after the storm. the inner-city suburb where he lived. this well when she wrote that she wanted The bruised wheat fields . Once I went In the way he walked-one leg on the to suffer physically Christ's suffering, and around to get David from where he was footpath following one hand along the the visions she had of Christ were graphic lying, half-propped against the wall in wall-and in the way he looked with his illustrations of his physical state on the the back lane behind the housing com old moleskins and his blue windcheater, cross: mission flats, with a huge and bloody cut there was something monumental about lip. Every part of him was bruised. His David. His extreme dereliction, his literal I saw that he was thirsty in a twofold eyes were black-and-blue from a night in in-the-gutter state, gave him stature. He sense, physical and spiritual ... the physi the police cells. His body had been cut made his way, so slowly, so laboriously. It cal thirs t, which I assumed to be caused down. The sheer weight of living had cut was a feat of courage. by the drying up of the moisture. For that it down. It lay useless, a too-ripe and yet It was as if his deep isolation created blessed flesh and frame were drained of all whole fruit that had just fa llen in the grass a physical space, into which you were blood and moisture ... because of the pull of some orchard, and in the end would rot. immediately drawn. Yet this sense of a of the nails and the weight of that blessed That was David's body, as he lay there private audience had also to do with his body it was a long time suffering for I could waiting for someone to come and pick startling gentleness which, when com see the great hard, hurtful nails in those him up out of the gutter. The sheer brutal bined with his ugliness, used to sh ock dear and tender hands and feet. ity of being alive seemed lovely that day. me into a state of quiet-a place of Or at least comprehensible, part of the silence and concentration where only the This description of Christ shows cycle, part of the plan. It was the harvest communication between this Julian's commitment to a spirituality and I knew that it was near the man and me mattered. grounded in the physical: her visions end. were not lofty, flighty imaginings but I BEGIN TO THINK about how the body were hard-hitting and often violent. In her 0 NE TIME I WAS looking OUt the door and the spirit may be related, just how writing there is little separation between and saw David making his way towards corporeal the spirit life can be. But then the soul and the body. The soul inhabits the house in the pouring rain. I wished I get stuck, because typically when these and suffers with the body and vice versa. that I had not seen him, or that it was my things are connected with each other it It also luxuriates in the body, as Meister imagination and that the drunk walking is between the soulful and the beautiful: Eckhart writes: 'the soul loves the body'- along the street was not really David, that gold, curly-haired seraphims and arch In the writings of these early mystics, it was some other drunk I did not know, a angels; Mary Magdalene in her deep red a further connection is made between the David lookalike. robes; a chubby baby Jesus. So what place human body-soul and the world's body I rushed out with a broken old has physical imperfection? soul. Hildegard of Bingen sums this up umbrella. He was wall-walking as usual Perhaps the first place to look is in the when she talks of viriditas, the 'greening' so I stood behind him. What struck me 30 EUREKA STREET SEPTEMBER 2002 was the strangeness of the whole act. The spiritual-the dividing line so fine, so its literalness, its aliveness. Especially strangeness of protecting David from the (burnt)-skin-deep that sometimes it is the last verse: 'for thou hast delivered I rain- from cleansing water-and then this peeled away and the unseen is seen. Fleet my soul from death: wilt not thou deliver man who (in social terms) was unclean. ingly, I saw David's life held: all in a bun I my feet from falling, that I may walk I I was protecting him from the rain, which dle of dark Fitzroy streets and a paradise before God in the light of the living?' But would have cleansed him. It would also now. There was no separation between the when I read 'thou tellest my wanderings: have made him freezing cold and perhaps two places. put I thou my tears into thy bottle: are given him a dose of pneumonia. One morning, a few weeks after this, they I not in thy book?' I thought of the A few days after this I had a dream David announced to me that he was giv Rumi poem: 'I am part of the beauty.' Eve about David. He was coming towards me ing up the drink. We were sitting at the rything is accounted for. Even everything in a passageway filled with the most bril kitchen table over cups of tea-well, that had happened to David. I really hoped liant light. As he came closer I saw his David was trying to drink his. His hands for this. face. Instead of all the usual scars, dirt and shook so badly all the time that it was Two days later, David was sitting at weeping sores his face was clean, healed hard for him to pick up the cup. I looked the kitchen table after the evening meal. and glowing and his head was surrounded across at him when he made this huge Once again he had a cup of sweet tea in his by light. announcement and realised that I was on hands and was struggling to get it to his The dream was a gift. It made me the point of tears. Among all the grimy mouth. He had started drinking again that think deeply about my own reactions coffee cups, stains of tomato sauce, and morning, very heavily, and was not only to David and made me realise that how the dank grubbiness of the light globe and being tormented by 'Uncle Robert', the tic ever much I felt I had accepted David as the beige walls, I felt my heart was going and voices that flung his head around, but he was, I wanted him to be not like this. to break from the shock of sudden hope. was also agonised with guilt about picking I wanted him okay. I wanted him healed. I had not realised that hope was such a the grog up again. 'I'm bloody hopeless, My feeling that David's suffering held hard thing to practice. I'm a bloody hopeless loser!' he shouted some meaning, that his broken body was The next few days we just spent time into the air and to anyone who approached part of a whole, was only true if there was talking. He would roll on to his bed and him. He had already fallen over several something beneath the suffering. There lie there. As I sat on the end of the bed times that day, and there was blood on is nothing redeeming about suffering in he would talk about Oscar Wilde's letters the steps leading into the kitchen, blood and of itself: it is sheer and brutal. The from prison, George Orwell, and Bach's in the lane behind the house. A trail of dream showed me the numinous qual cello concertos. At one time, a long time blood marked his passage back into the ity of David as he was, the shining being ago, he had been a concert pianist, a jazz dark. As he got the tea to his lips, he fell beneath all the bruises: musician, a performance poet. He had off the chair, hitting his head hard on the married a poet and they'd done the pub lino floor. We rushed him to hospital. He the more luminous anything is, circuit, singing her poems. died two days later. the more it subtracts what's around it He got me to get his Bible from the David's release back out into the light, peeling away the burnt skin of the world shelf and open it at the Psalm of David and his meeting, finally, with the beloved. making the unseen, seen Psalm 56-because he wanted me to read David was King David was David. We are - Charles Wright it aloud. 'That's me, that's my namesake,' all part of the beauty. • The dream showed the direct con he said. He had underlined the whole nection between the material and the psalm with thick lead pencil-struck by Kirsty Sangster is a freelance writer. He could be in school if his community wasn't impoverished Cariras Auscra lia helps so me of rhe mosr marginalised communiries around rh e globe by address ing rhe issues of poverry Through long rerm developmem programs we enable people ro rake grearer comrol of rheir live s. By remembering Cariras Ausrralia in your Will. you are making a precious gift char brings lasring change. Please call 1800 024 413 for more information. www.caritas.org.au Caritas Australia The Catholic Agency for Overseas Aid and Development SEPTEMBER 2002 EUREKA STREET 31 [HEsHORILIS] Reflections on a Mountain Lake: A Western indicates that there are lessons here for the global community: we Nun Talks on Practical Buddhism, Tcnzin should take care that international law is not similarly abused. Palmo. Allen & Unwin, 2002. IS BN I 86508 As Chanock quotes Gandhi: 'A thing acquired by violence can be 8 10 2, RRP $29.95 retained by violence alone.' - Kirsty Sangster This book is a bottler. I expected a poor brew TENZIN PALMO from the extemporaneous talks of a West A Terribly Wild Man, Christine Halse. All en ern Buddhist nun. But Tenzin Palmo, an & Unwin, 2002. IS BN l 86508 753 X, RRP $35 Englishwoman who began a three-year cave Ernest Gribble was trouble. After his Evan ,;; I retreat in India and finished it 24 years later, gelist father decided Ernest should take over ' \ imposes herself as a teacher of great spiritual his work with Aborigines, he grew into his . \ ---:... .., .... -- '·' "~' ·- ...... insight. calling and fought with Anglican bishops, ' ~ ·- The art of spiritual guidance is to help the church missionary societies, his fellow people m ove out from the defences that they build against the workers in the missions of northern Queens spirit. Since the most secure of defences are the doctrines and prac land and the Kimberley, local settlers, police, tices of the spiritual tradition itself, a good guide needs to be able magistrates and Catholic missionaries. He to recognise how the angel of self-preservation disguises itself as also struggled against climate and soil. an angel of light. His m ethods were also controversial. He tried to force Abo The spiritual traditions with which I am most familiar are the rigines, especially children, to come to the mission, and ran the Desert and Ignatian traditions. I was fascinated to see Palmo make missions like 19th-century boarding schools, with an emphasis in another key and with great subtlety the same kind of outflank on strict sexual m orality and on discipline built around beatings ing moves with which I was familiar. In her own tradition, the and segregation of the sexes. He showed no respect for Aboriginal techniques that enable contemplation are a source of strength but cultural norms. also bulwarks against the spirit. She is bold against their defensive On the other side of G ribble's attempts to force children on use: one man who had found that long practice of m editation had to the mission are the stories told by the stolen generation. His not led to inner transformation was sent off to Mother Teresa's m otive, however, was not solely theoretical: he wanted to protect nuns to care for the sick. the Aborigines from the pervasive exploitation and sexual abuse Reflections on a Mountain Lake is irreducibly Buddhist in its by the settlers. For his work he was feared by Aborigines and hated spirituality, surprisingly different from Christian spiritualities in by settlers. making its goal the discovery of the divinity within and not the But finally he is known fo r his denunciation of a massacre relationship with a personal God. But Palmo insists uncompromis near Wyndham. His clamour occasioned international interest and ingly that compassionate attitudes and practice lie at the heart of a Royal Commission, but no convictions. He finished his life as a spiritual growth, an d so makes deep connections with any genuine chaplain on Palm Island, enjoying the esteem of the people whose spiritual tradition. -Andrew Hamilton SJ cause he defended. Halse's modestly told life of Gribble illustrates the sad para The Making of South African Legal Culture dox of the fate of Aboriginal Australians. They suffered from the 1902-1936: Fear, Favour and Prejudice, European settlers who exploited them . But they suffered equally Martin C hanock. Cambridge University from those who tried to redress that exploitation . Each group knew Press, 2001. IS BN 0 52179 156 l, I