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4 Capita l letter 28 Phone a friend Ja ck Waterford Tough times ahead Michele Gierck tunes in to the Kids 9 Summa Theo logiae Help Line service. Andrew Hamilton Wives' tales 30 Urban identity 10 Archimedes Bronwyn Fredericl< s looks at the Tim Thwaites Clever Kiwis identity of urban Indigenous people. 11 By the way 32 Th e road not taken Brian Matthews Wandering wombats Stephen Yorke considers the effects 47 Watching brief of the decisions we make. Juliette Hughes State of the Universe address IN PRINT Publisher Andrew Hamilton ; 1 Editor Marcelle M ogg 34 Crossing th e boundaries Assistant editor Beth Dohert y THE MONTH'S TRAFFI C John Kinsella boards Sarah Day's Graphic designers Maggie Power, janncke 8 Anthony Ham Passing go The Ship. Storteboom Director Christopher Gleeson st 8 Kent Rosenthal Border bandits 36 Toward s a pol iti cs of hope Bu iness manager Mark Dowell Kiera Lindsey reviews Craig Marketing & advertising manager Ca mille Collins Subscriptions Deni se Campbell POETRY McGregor's Australian son: Inside Ed itorial, production and ad mi ni stration Mark Latham and Brian Costar and assis tan ts Geraldine Battersby, Lee Beasley, 1 9 Tim Edwards Bali Cigarette Jennifer Curtin's Rebels with a cau e: jacqueline Dalmau 40 Heather Matthew Flores Festival, Independents in Australian politics. Film editor Siobhan jackson Lacedonian Living Poetry editor Philip Harvey 38 Too little justice jesuit editorial board Andrew Hamilton ''· Greg Baum, Virginia Bou rke, jane Mayo Brian McCoy examines the theories Carolan, Christopher Gleeson st, FEATURES of Joan Kimm in A fatal coniunction: Marcel le Mogg, jack Wa terford . Two laws two cultures. Pa trons [ureka Slreel gratefully acknowledges 12 Th e party's over the support of C. and A. Carter; Ms S. Tonkin; 43 Short I ist the trustees of the estate of Miss M. Condon; Joe Camilleri reviews the recent W.P. & M.W. Gu rry federal election. Reviews of the books The Sparrow Garden; The Pyiama Girl Mystery; 14 Pomp and circu mstance [ureka Street magazine, t>;N I 036- 1758, Stargazing: Memoirs of a young Tim Martyn joins the media fray. Austra lia Post Print Post approved pp349181 / lighthouse l

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4 EUREKA STR EET DECEMBER 2004 change is that it will be at the instance of the welfare state rather traditional communltles involves ideal relationships, sharing, than the old native affairs bureaucracy. caring and strong fa milies. Too m any comm unities are seri­ This will not happen because the kids are black but because ously dysfunctional, on a downward spiral and fa iling to address the children are neglected, and subject to physical and sexual abuse the consequences as well as the causes. Of course, there are at rates unimaginable elsewhere. The parents of many children many people in such communities trying very hard to look are so trapped in their own apathy, depression, victirnhood, or after their families and who are willing partners in programs drug addiction that they are virtually oblivious to the fact they to make things better. Too often these people are themselves are harming their children. This is not some subjective middle­ victims of a culture of apathy, passivity or active has- class standard, ignorant of different cultural ways of looking after tility to change. It is time they enjoyed more support. children. Nor is it from an assimilationist perspective. The most obvious, if milder, neglect is that, in many remote A T THE LEVEL AT WHICH IT WILL APPEAL tO the Hansonite communities, attending school seems to have becom e voluntary, constituencies-ever an active part of John Howard's im agina­ with average daily attendances usually at less than 50 per cent of tion- new m easure will involve tying social security payments catchments, and, in som e cases, as low as ten per cent. Occasional to performance in looking after children and dependents, not fi tful campaigns sham e communities into m aking more children least in making sure that they are attending school and receiv­ attend school- the favourite carrot and stick approach being ing proper food and health care. The rationale will be blunt and rules such as 'no-school, no pool'. A high proportion of those who uncompromising: we give ou t social security assistance, such as attend only casually are, of course, learning nothing, despite the single mothers' benefits, so that people can care for their fa m i­ best efforts of teachers. In some areas, such as in the Centre, the lies. You cannot say that you are doing so if your children do not most alienated and neglected children are not merely wagging attend school, or fa il to receive needed m edical attention. So you school, but destroying their senses by petrol sniffing. That is will be cut off . Other ways will be found, not least community­ the obvious self-abuse. There are country towns in NSW and based reward and punishment schemes to pick up on your obli­ Queensland where the rate of use of heroin and amphetamine gations, but as for you there's no more 'sit down' money. Those drugs is far higher than anywhere one might find in Sydney, who think this approach discriminatory may well find that gov­ Brisbane and Melbourne (where the highest abuse ra tes are ernment is increasingly willing to extend this attitude to the among Aboriginal communities) and causing more problem s and more obvious forms of welfare abuse in other parts of the Aus­ family breakdown than alcohol. tralian community. Don't worry; it will be popular. It may be argued that it is unsurprising that children do not The planning is what the ideologists might call results­ attend schools when the schools are so culturally alien and irrel­ based program s. At Commonwealth, state and local government evant to these children's lives. Perhaps, though this ignores the level, and in grants projects of the sort once funded by the now efforts and the investments in adapting curriculums to needs. It defunct Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission, the might be said that m any Aboriginal children are sick-particu­ accountability focus will move away from 'prove you spent the larly those made deaf by chronic ear disease-that they cannot money as you said you would' to 'prove you made a difference'. give attention to lessons, and that such obj ective illness is par­ It's going to be an unpleasant experience for many people-even ticularly marked am ong truants. Yes, we should do som ething those involved in well-established programs, such as legal aid-as about it, but what have their parents been doing about it? many admit that they are achieving very little. Why should the One might say that poor educational outcomes reflect the new stolen generation have to suffer so that we can sustain useless low investment the wider community has m ade in education, schemes whose only effect is to add a little more money (perhaps and the criminal lack of facilities in many remote cmmnunities. 20 per cent of the grant) to that circulating in the community? So far as this is true-and it must be said that the Northern The crisis has been present for years, if overshadowed Territory Government ought to be prosecuted for fraud for by the politics of symbolism, apologies, reconciliation or the differences between what it says it is doing and what the shenanigans of some senior ATSIC personnel. It simply actually occurs-it can hardly excuse the fact that, inadequate cannot go on. Not because the political will to help Aboriginal or not, what is available is all too often not consumed. The Australians will evaporate. Though that may happen. Not primary reason is that the parents and responsible others in because the government lacks a desire to improve Aboriginal these children's lives, make little effort to encourage or force conditions and prospects; as I have remarked before, there are their children to attend. The parents, themselves hobbled by many more Liberals with genuine knowledge of, interest in and educational disadvantage, place too little value upon education. commitment to Aboriginal interests than can be found in the Some will assume a level of autonomy among ten year- olds, or parliamentary Labor Party. After 30 years, the expenditure in seven year-olds that assumes that school attendance is a matter real terms of approximately $70 billion on programs to redress of personal choice. By whatever standard, we are perpetuating Aboriginal disadvantage, and many more billions in welfare new generations of kids who, as young adults, will have no paym ents, there is still no plan to make things better. No plan. choices and opportunities available to them, even in their own No belief that more programs, or more time, will effect any communities. And whose frustration, will further compound improvem ent. Indeed there exists a growing conviction that the difficulties of such communities. many Aboriginal Australians have been further trapped in the It's a form of inverted racism to imagine that Aborigines mire, further impoverished, and, perversely, made seem the mo t are m erely the passive victims of every one else's incompetence, cash-rich, most materially disadvantaged people on earth. • m alevolence or neglect in these matters, or to imagine, as some sympathisers with Aboriginal aspirations do, that life in Jack Waterford is editor-in-chief of the Canberra Times.

DECEMBER 2004 EUREKA STREET 5 snap shot

Calendar guy Only Generals who had won particularly At Christmas lime significant battles enjoyed triumphs. The manager of a troubled and sharply They were solemn affairs. The Gen­ Christmas is the imagination season. criticised business recently claimed, much eral would lead his troops into the city Amid the frenzy of end of year school aggrieved, that he was the victim of the wearing his Nike toga, gold crown, and concerts, shopping marathons and prepa­ tall poppy syndrome. Trouble was, he said, armour of burnished bronze. rations for the day, we make room at the he wasn't even a tall poppy. He certainly In the procession, h e displayed his inn fo r the imagination. The events that wanted to be a tall poppy, but people kept booty-consumer goods and h an gdog Christmas celebrates sound like the plot cutting him down before he could get there. s laves. The latter had then to lis­ for a Dan Brown blockbuster, or the pitch The sad story reveals the urgent t en to the impe ria l orators tell them for the next Mel Brooks musical; political need for a Patron Saint of Failed Tall what miserable p eople they mus t be intrigue, the intervention of the divine, a Poppies. A suitably height-challenged to fight against the might and moral­ m onarch obsessed with absolute rule, a candidate could be Dionsyius Exiguus­ ity of Rome. miracle birth, an angelic chorus, several Tiny Denis-who was good at working In the m eantime, the soldiers doubt­ sheep, assorted farm anim als, and a bit out dates. He fixed the date of Mary's less meditated nostalgically upon the with a donkey. conception of Jesus, and worked to get origin of triumph: the Greek procession Yet the Christmas season also marks a agreement on computing the day of Easter. in honour of Bacchus, the God of wine time of reflection when we recall the events But, as later happened with the Standard and anarchic behaviour. of the year- both personal and public-and Gauge in Australia, things then fell apart. To pay suitably reverential h om age to perhaps, imagine a different reality. The Th e calendars remained separate, and the victors of recent electoral triumphs, Christmas story reminds us of the need to Denis remained unsainted. though, you can't go beyond Thomas take a long view both of our own lives and Babington Macaulay, one of whose the events of our world. Christmas teaches English Civil War poems was mined for us that some events are aberrations, while the Battle Hymn of the Republic: others arc part of a larger, unfolding story. Roman idol As you reflect over the events of 2004 0 wherefore come ye forth in triumph we hope that the times of joy take prec­ Elections always end with the triumph fro m the north, edence over darker moments and that in of the victor, maintaining a tradition With yo ur hands, and your feet, and your our world and our lives 2005 is a time of that traces back to Imperial Rome. raiment all red? renewed peace.

Vale Marie With the sudden death of Marie Tehan, After she resigned from parliament, she matters had been handled. The committee we at Eureka Street have lost a dear friend was free to engage again with this issue. I members relaxed, and grew in energy and and patron. Marie, who had just accepted came to know her well at this time, when self-confidence from her contribution. She the invitation to chair the Board of Jesuit she joined the Management Committee had a purity of purpose that built resolve Publications, was passionate about the of the Refugee and Immigration Legal and resolution about what the organisation causes which Eureka Street represents: Centre. The invitation was made after was and what it was doing the claims of decency in public life and some hesitation: many refugee activists We were to recognise this style in the place of reasoned argument in public had little sympathy with the Kennett her contribution to the Board of Jesuit discussion. Government, and Marie's portfolios of Publications. She read submissions During Marie's time in Victorian Par­ Health and the Environment had always carefully, listened attentively and liament, when she served successively as been at the centre of fierce public debate. appreciatively, asked incisive questions, Minister for Health and Minister for Con­ And to invite such a competent public and offered wise advice. But above all she servation, she appreciated the place of figure on to the board of a small NGO shared our enthusiasms and passions, and Eureka Street in public life, even though always awakens latent doubts about one's encouraged us to do more effectively what she might have disapproved of its criticism own professionalism . we believed in. We grieve with her husband of the policies of the government to which On the agenda of h er first m eeting were Jim and their family in their loss, and for she belonged. Marie, who had actively delicate item s that n eeded to be handled ourselves and so many community groups sponsored refugees to Australia after the wisely. Marie listened carefully, and then for the friend and adviser we have lost. end of the Indochinese wars, shared our spoke a few warm words of appreciation of concern for asylum seekers and refugees. the care and compassion with which the - Andrew Hamilton SJ

6 EUREKA STREET DECEMBER 2004 coming across the English Channel are the transferable tax-free threshold to 50 kept in the Dover 'Rem ovals' Centre. per cent of the minimum wage and index When it com es to record-holding it to the minimum wage. The 30 per cent letters however, Australia is clearly in front. tax rate should apply to all income over The Brits are still able to express shock the threshold(s). Family benefits should over the fact that some asylum seek­ also be increased and indexed to the ers have been detained for up to two minimum wage. T he phase-out threshold years. The case of two Turkish girls should also be increased and indexed if held in detention for 13 m onths recently it cannot be abolished. Together, these provoked an outcry. Have no fear Aus­ steps would reduce the cost of people Setting an example tralia, the record is safe with us for a m oving from welfare to work and ensure while yet. that national wage increases were paid It seems that it is not enough for our sports­ But Australians must not get too in full and not discounted by a loss people to be setting the standard for ath­ complacent, as Britain has plenty of of benefits. letes around the world. Nor is it enough ideas to offer our corridors of power. Just If the job you want doesn't pay enough that Australian actors and musicians the other day, for example, the Shadow to allow you to afford a nanny, then eco­ have become a force to be reckoned with Home Secretary David Davis pledged to nomic sense says either don't take the job on the world stage. After spending a few 'substantially cut' immigration because, or do without the nanny. weeks in the UK, where I will be studying in his words, it endangered 'the values Chris Curtis for a year, I've discovered another great that we in Britain rightly treasure'. He Langwarrin, VIC Aussie export which has been filling later claimed that uncontrolled immigra­ the Home Office in Britain with glee for tion would 'fill six new cities the size of Lur('~.l ~treet welcollll''> lettt>rs lrom rh re,1ders. some time now: our refugee and asylum Birmingham over the next three decades'. Short letters Ml' more lrkl'l)' to lw publrshed, seeker regime. Substitute Birmingham for Geelong and ,1ncl all ll'tters lll.l\ be edrtcd. lettprs mu'>l be Imagine the pride I felt upon discov­ Senator Vanstone could have her next signed, and should inc lucie ,1 cont,rc t phont' ering that the 'Pacific Solution' was the policy platform. number Jncl the wrrter\ n.1111P ,111d .Jcldress. inspiration for a similar idea-the less Christine Bacon Send to: eurl'ka(f>'jespub jesuit.org.,w or exotically labelled 'N ew Vision'-which Oxford, UK PO Bo S') l, Richmond VIC ll.! I proposes to autom atically send asylum seekers, refugees, and other migrants arriving in the UK to 'regional protec­ Nanny nonsense tion zones' where they will be detained in 'transit processing centres' located at Anne Summer's claim that the taxpayer the external borders of the EU in order to should fund nannies (Eureka Street, Sep­ submit their claims. The masterstroke tember 2004) shows how unreal the world of the British proposal is the range of has become. There is no justification nations at its disposal. The suggested whatsoever fo r the taxpayer to subsidise 'host' countries currently include Alba­ the incomes of middle and upper-class nia, Croatia, Iran, Morocco, Northern families who do not want to look after Somalia, Romania, Russia, Turkey, and their own children. Ukraine. All have serious records of It is now unexceptional for both violating the rights of asylum seekers, parents to work, but that decision refugees and migrants. As this method should be m ade with both the costs finds no support in international law, and the benefits falling on the family Australia and Britain can now join forces which makes it. The taxpayer ought to as pioneering nations of the gulags of the keep children out of poverty and ought 21st century. therefore to fund generous child allow­ Patriotic sentiments have also been ances for all families. The family can stirred by the extent to which the system choose then whether one parent stays at of detention has been ca tching on here. hom e to look after the children or goes Around 1,800 asylum seekers are locked out to work and outsources the care of up without trial and without a tirue limit. the children. Furthermore, in addition to around a dozen Labor's acceptance of the ideas of For 5 ways !o help. please contact centres already in operation here, construc­ a transferable tax-free threshold and a 1800 985 944 tion is underway for new detention centres higher threshold for the phasing out of www.mifellowship.org with target capacities of 4,000. And, unlike family benefits is a fantastic step for all Aussies who detain asylum seekers in families, especially low paid ones. But it 'Reception and Processing Centres', over should go further. The best arrangem ent here a pade is a spade, and asylum seekers would be to lift both the individual and

DECEMBER 2004 EUREKA STREET 7 application for m s, plus €780 (A$ 1,335) as Then, after two years of uncertain legal sta­ the month's the application fee. tus- during which time a German police­ The application form itself was a mine­ m an at Frankfurt airport was the only official traffic fi eld. Wedged in between 'Have you, or to ask how long I had been in the European any other person included in this applica­ Union- I made m y formal application. tion, ever committed, or been involved in The only documen ts asked of me were the commission of w ar crimes or crim es m y passport, Marina's identity card, our against humanity or human righ ts?' and marriage certificate, a medical certificate Passing go 'Do you and your partner intend to m ain­ and an Australian fi ngerprin t check. T here tain a lasting relationship?' (would we was no application fee and there were no M IGRATI ON HURDL ES really pay $1,335 if we didn't ?) was the intrusive questions. ultimate lie detector test: 'Did you enter Most of this took place under the reign G ONE ARE T H E DAYS when Austral­ this relationship with your partner solely of the Popular Party (PP) Government of ian immigration offi cers would conduct to gain perm anent residence in Australia?' Prim e Minister Jose Maria Aznar who had spot-checks of the bedrooms and bath­ And all of this before the interview. nom inated border control as a major pri­ room s of applicants for a spouse visa. These As a former refugee lawyer, I was accus­ ority. After the 14 March, 2004 election, house searches-disinterested inquiries in tom ed to hostile interroga tions of my cli­ the new Partido Socialista Obrero Espaiiol the nam e of the law-refl ected a presump­ ents. After a Refugee Review Tribunal (PSOE) Governmen t of Jose Luis Rodriguez tion within the Department of Immigration hearing, the Algerian brother of an appli­ Zapatero announced a new approach to that those seeking to migrate to Australia cant em erged sweating, with the words: illegal immigration. Under the plan, most on the grounds of m arriage were guilty of 'I feel like I've just gone 15 rounds w ith illegal imm igrants employed in Spain are deception unless proven otherwise. Mike Tyson'. Four days after a particularly eligible for residence. It is safe to expect Two toothbrushes by the basin . His and adversarial interview at the Department of that this will be granted regardless of what her underpants in sufficiently proximate Immigration, my 68-year-old Iraqi client they have in their bathrooms. drawers. Letters addressed to both parties died of a heart attack. When she learned - Anthony Ham as a couple. Such were the critical pieces of of the applicant's death, the immigration evidence which guarded our borders. officer said, 'I hope the interview didn't T he form may be different, but the con tribute to this. I was going to approve Border bandits spirit of spot-checks remains alive and him and his wife anyw ay'. well. When Marina, my wife, wished to On another occasion, I was present at a M IGRATION HURDLES 112 apply for permanen t residence in Australia, Department of Immigration liaison meeting. the tranche of evidence required by the In the course of the meeting, I complained on A ROAD TRIP TO ATTEND a priestly Australian Government seem ed like the behalf of one of our clients who had begun ordination is not an occasion traditionally paper equivalent of bathroom inspections. convulsing under interrogation, so aggressive associated with sniffer-dogs pouncing on Although plan ning to live in Spain, we was the questi oning and so reminiscent was your luggage looking for drugs. Such was had decided to apply for Marina's residence it of a prelude to torture she had experienced the case when I travelled with three other to avoid reliving past experiences at Tullam a­ in her own country. The head of the depart­ Jesuit scholastics, studying at El Salvador's rine airport. On Marina's first journey to Aus­ m ent's Compliance Division- those respon­ U niversity of Central America, on a recent tralia prior to our marriage, she was made to sible for border con trol, detention and the jou rney to Honduras and Panama. feel like an intruder at the ga te by an earnest, rounding-up of illegal immigrants-said sim ­ While several nations in the north of humourless in1 migration official who was ply: 'If I had an applicant who started con­ Central Am erica are joining forces to cre­ innately sceptical that an yone on a tourist vulsing in an interview, I'd know that I had ate a free travel zone, the anomalies, red visa could possibly want to return home after them right where I wanted them '. tape and corruption associated with border seeing what Australia had to offer. It was thus with some trepidation that crossings in this region still exist. Borders In addition to the residence application, we entered the interview. To his eternal bring ou t the good, the bad and the ugly we needed statutory declarations by friends credit, the embassy official who interviewed in each of these cou ntries where poverty and family detailing our history as a cou­ us at the Australian embassy in Madrid did confronts poverty and US dollars confront ple, our own statements detailing where so with impeccable politeness, not to m en­ local currencies and red tape. and when we met, our periods of cohabi­ tion an efficiency that put the two-year wait The border between Nicaragua and Costa tation, our commitment to each other and demanded of asylum seekers to shan1e. He Rica presents the m ost glaring contrasts. even our plans for a family. Docu men tary did, however, admit that some Spanish appli­ After paying to have our minibus fumigated evidence of joint econom ic responsibility, cants asked whether the application fee also for bugs, we joined a queue in the tropical fi nancial solvency, medical perfection, pho­ included a return ticket to Australia. heat and waited more than 90 m inutes to tos of us together and all letters between us My own experience of obtaining resi­ have our documen ts processed. Relatively during periods of separation soon swelled dence here in Spain was significantly differ­ well off Costa Rica seems to be trying hard our dossier to a weighty 2kg pile. en t. In the firs t place, after falling illegal with to temper the flow of poorer Nicaraguans For this abrogation of the right to the full knowledge (and lack of concern) of looking for economic respite and jobs. privacy, we were charged €1 0 (around the Spanish police, these sam e policemen While waiting we were approached by A$17) for the explanatory booklets and took me out to lunch and insisted on paying. 'guides' offering us the chance to skip the

8 EU REK A STREET DECEMBER 2004 queue and be delivered directly to a bor­ summa der official. My legally-minded Guatema­ lan bro ther questioned the man about the theologiae legality of his off er. He replied by asking us whether we had families to feed and informed us that he earned ro ughly US$2 for the odd weary traveller he helps. In the grey zones between countries Wives' tales some border officials seem to be a law unto themselves. Between Honduras and Nicara­ L mTWNAL CHR

DECEMBER 2004 EUREKA STREET 9 archimedes Clever Kiwis

0 ""' Tm eAST 20 YeARs, New Ze.l•nd h"' tumcd •n "nnu•l NZ$2 null ion fruit and vegetable export business into NZ$2 billion. The dramatic growth in the NZ horticultural industry has been based on exports of kiwi fruit and wine. The Kiwis have managed to stamp their name all over a fruit that is not even native to their land. But ask Dr Richard Newcomb from the HortResearch Institute in Auckland what the secret of success has been, and you may be surprised at his answer. 'R & D', he says flatly. Acquire more. Drive more. 'From day one there was the expectation of building an export market', says Type more. Phone more. Newcomb. With that international focus, the Kiwis developed a sustainable pro­ duction system for fruit, and then determined how best to bring their fresh pro­ But what about being more? duce to international markets-when to pick them, and how to ripen, store, pack­ age and transport them. They invented special plastic films to keep them fresh, What about helping others and tested varieties and tastes. Newcomb is an expert in the genetics of taste and smell. He heads the Mo­ to be more? lecular Olfaction Group at HortResearch (the NZ equivalent of a co-operative re­ search centre). His present research includes projects to intensify the taste of fruits This authentic more, this Magis> and match them to Asian and European markets, as well as to control insect and is deeper than culture, mammal pests by disrupting their olfactory communication. But the Kiwis are after even bigger bananas. In June, NZ signed a m emo­ than status quo, the everyday. randum of understanding with all the Australian states and the ACT to form an It's what ignites your intellect Australia-NZ Biotech Alliance. The Kiwis have committed NZ$12 million as a catalyst for trans-Tasman biotech business collaboration. 'Apart, we're bit players; and calls you to a life of service. together, we're the fifth largest biotechnology hub in the world', says NZ Trade Commissioner to Australia, Mark Ingram. Our Master ofTheological Studies Projects undertaken range from tests for toxins in shellfish to development of program grves you better clover for cattle fodder. But the Kiwis are talking of joint research institutes and funding. Already NZ has invested A$5 million in the Australian synchrotron, a thorough and practical while the two countries have worked cooperatively to develop clinical trials for theological foundation. drugs and vaccines. Join seekers from the world over People like Dr Andrew Kelly, chief scientific officer of Life Science Ventures, an Auckland-based NZ$100 million biotech venture capital fund, have a pretty to explore contemporary good idea of where to start our joint assault-agricultural biotechnology. 'There's theological questions. no point', he argues, 'in taking on the US and Europe in areas such as pharmaceu­ ticals. Let's play to our strengths'. Not only are we good at agriculture and agricultural research, but it is a More? www.wjst.edu large part of our respective economies. We have the networks to apply and sell whatever biotechnology we develop. We can even move into the medical field via agricultural biotechnology. An interesting model is provided by two sister companies in Dunedin on NZ's South Island-Ovita Ltd and Covita Ltd. Ovita focuses on developing biotechnology products based on the sheep genome, control • of parasite infections, diagnostic tests, fertility control, and muscle growth and WESTON JESU IT repair. Covita takes that research and develops it for off-farm application. In many SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY cases, sheep can give us the clue as to how to deal with human problems, as sheep are already used as models for many human medical conditions. Cambridge, Massachusetts (Harvard Square) Whatever other food they provide, those Kiwis are certainly providing fo od I-617-492-1960 for thought. • admissionsin fo @wjsr.ed u

Tim Thwaites is a freelance science writer.

10 EUREKA STRE ET DECEMBER 2004 by the wa Wandering wombats

I DON'T su, osE mu'vE HA D much oppmtunity bte!y to seems ill-favoured, not quite how he was meant to end up by study the wombat. In general, this comically named and, one his creator. 'Did he who made the koala make thee?' as the man has to admit, somewhat comic looking herbivore is rarely seen more or less said. on the svelte nature strips or along the bland, clinical street or But there is something terribly endearing and yet at the in the neat gardens of our capital cities' better suburbs. Or, for sam e time vulnerable about the wombat's unfathomable expres­ that matter, in those engaging backyards you see from trains, sion, which incidentally rarely changes. Teeth aren't bared, lips where abandoned fridges, evi cerated motorbikes, sloping­ don't curl, eyes don't flash: whether racked by lust, tormented roofed chook houses, sagging blow-up swimming pools afloat by thirst or transported by the sight of a new lush pasture, wom­ with leaves, and random clumps of rhubarb all attest to a terrain bats maintain a Sphinx-like equanimity. inimical to the slow, philosophical wombat. So they ought to, because behind the disguise of that glassy, Where I am just now, however, on the verandah of a ven­ seemingly brainless stare and that slow, clumsy gait, the erable, slightly staggering cottage looking out over the lush wombat has the game sewn up. To begin with, the female pastures of Bundanon that run down to the Shoalhaven River, wombat's pouch, wherein of course nestles the latest jun­ the wombat does not exactly rule, but he and she maintain a ior, is reversed so that when the wombat digs with its substantial, unignorable presen ce. One of them lives under this tough, muscled feet and claws designed for the purpose, it shack and innumerable others are, at this mid-morning hour, doesn't fill baby's bed with sand. Smart and thoughtful. Of­ snoozing in their very large burrows. ten with one offspring in utero, one in the pouch and a tod­ Your common wombat probably wouldn't appreciate being dler in tow, the mother wombat produces a different milk described as a 'lumbering marsupial' but truth will out. With for each teat, with different compositions of lipids, a body like a beer barrel and a frankly bulbous bum, any pace carbohydrates and proteins. This Mum is no mug. above a rolling, honest-to-God lumber would have the stewards reaching for the swab. B ECAUSE THEY ARE so well equipped for the ta k, wombats When they got over their shock on first seeing a wombat, make spacious burrows-as much as 30 metres long. I won't the early settlers called it a badger. But, according to the experts say I've actually seen a wombat manoeuvring a TV and a chaise the wombat's nearest relative in the odd spectrum of Australian longue into the burrow, but the way they recline in the warm marsupials is the koala, another macropod, which m eans liter­ spring sun at the entrance to their subterranean castles, before ally, big footed. Personally, however, I think the wombat has descending to sleep the rest of the day away, shows a highly de­ much in common with the frog. veloped capacity for sophisticated self-indulgence. As does their When it com es to fashion and good looks, frogs, like wom­ preference for living alone. Wombats welcome visitors-other bats, start a long way behind, what with having comically wombats, that is-but basically are solitary dwellers, kicking bulging eyes, a broad, down-turned mouth that seem to signal offspring out at age two without a trem or of empty nest angst. defeat and disappointment, and a great spreading backside. As When 'my' wombat em erges from under the house each if that were not enough, frogs have swarthy, seemingly empus­ evening to graze the grassy slopes, he is setting out on a peripa­ tuled skin. Here beyond doubt is a creature which, if not quite tetic feast that might take him three or four kilometres through the forgotten of God, is certainly languishing in the outer sub­ the night and involve visits to several burrows, som e his own, urbs of the Divine awareness. All very well to protest that in for a rest and a clean up. Should he break a tooth as he chomps their element frogs are magnificent, true. In mid-leap and at along his nocturnal way, well, no worries. His teeth grow con­ full stretch a frog is a slim gleam of plaited sinew. But imagine tinuously and the broken one simply replaces itself. If wombats frogs pleading some case or other in court-gloomy, pop-eyed, ruled, root canals, caps, crowns and bridges and similar bar­ swarthy, big-bummed and cold, like a delegation of malfunc­ barities would be things of the past: the entire dental econom y tioning thyroids. would collapse, bringing not a flicker of interest to the wom­ Wombats, waiting patiently out in the foyer for their turn bat's impassive face. in front of the judge, would not look much better. On that ro­ Had Aesop been able to observe a wombat going about its tund body, a large, well-eared head and a bland, big-eyed, snub­ nightly life, he would have am ended his fable to read, 'Slow and nosed face suggest a kind of dopiness that might engender pat­ apparently dopey wins the race'. So we take comfort. • ronising attitudes and even insults from the insensitive. Like the frog, but unlike his koala relatives, the wombat- when Brian Matthews is a Distinguished Visiting Professor at glimpsed motionless and apparently pondering his next move- Victoria University.

DECEMBER 2004 EUREKA STREET 11 the election: I Joe Camilleri The party's over

In light of the federal election, joe Camilleri considers the questions that have yet to be asked

SmcE 9 O c TOBER we hove hod the muol ' " eom to shape the way we experience anxiety and the of election post-m ortem s. Several weeks after the conscious and unconscious responses we bring to event, journalists, academics and pundits of various that experience. At first sight, deeply felt anxieties do kinds are still trying to make sense of the unex­ not seem to impinge much on politics generally or on pected scale of Labor's defeat, the implications of the election campaigns in particular. Obscured though it Coalition's control of the Senate, and the inability of may seem, the connection is nevertheless real. the Greens to stamp their authority as a new emerg­ The insecurities of the nation cannot but perco­ ing force in Australian politics. late through to issues of identity, multiculturalism, While there is much to explain, most of the relations with the outside world, and most impor­ analysis to date has fo cused on appearances and tantly to notions of the 'good life' that economy and symptom s. Endless words have been written and politics are supposedly m eant to deliver. spoken about the ailment which afflicts this or that Australian insecurity is not a new phenomenon. leader, this or that party, or this or that election Australians of European origin have long experienced strategy. However, there has been remarkably little in their relations with 'people-of-colour' a mixture of said about the ailment which may afflict the entire anxiety and discomfo rt. This experience continues to body politique. shape our relations with Aboriginal Australia as much Numerous explanations have been offered for the as it does with Asia. We are still a long way from ALP's poor showing: Latham's youthfulness or 'inex­ developing the knowledge, confi dence and sensitivity perience', the ill-judged last minute release of new needed to nurture relations based on policies, especially on Tasmania's forests, the effec­ reciprocal trust and sustained dialogue. tiveness of the government's advertising scare cam ­ paign, Labor's failure to return to its social roots, the M ORE RECENTLY, economic insecurity seems to reasonably good shape of the Australian economy. have grown, even in the midst of affluence. Australia's No doubt all this sheds som e light on the result, rapid integra tion into increasingly deregulated regional but little on the mood of the nation, and even less on and global markets has produced both winners and los­ the health of our political processes and institutions. ers. Hence, the sharp inequalities that separate the 20 per cen t at the bottom of the wealth and income ladder (Howard's 'battlers') from the 20 per cent at the top. ct rate itself And for the remaining 60 per cent (where we find the so-called aspirational class), endless anxiety about how to move higher or at least how to avoid sinking lower. tion For man y, employment does not mea n job security, let alone job satisfaction. The ladder of aspiration oft en turns out to be more the treadmill of desperation. A deeper analysis would begin not with political par­ For som e, other questions are equally troubling: ties, their leaders, strategies and tactics, but with the How will we cope with the continuing influx of electorate itself. Asian migrants (who take jobs and may weaken our One does not have to go fa r in today's Australia 'Australianness'), with possible new waves of boat to observe a profound unease about the future. This people [a reminder of the large pools of human misery is not to say that all Australians experience the same within reach of om shores), and terrorists who can insecurities, or that they deal with them in exactly strike at any tim e, in any place (Bali may have left a the same way. Age, incom e, social status, gender, deeper scar on the Australian p yche than is generally and ethnic and religious background no doubt help acknowledged)?

12 EUREKA STREET DECEMBER 2004 And difficult questions too for those with responsibilities tion are to address the underlying malaise that afflicts much of for the raising of children: Can our schools deliver them path­ contemporary Australia. ways to comfort and security? And, what of the pitfalls of drug To ask these questions is to invite several others. If seri­ addiction, depression and other psychological disorders? ous soul-searching is called for, whose views and experiences It is reasonable to argue that it has been Howard's great should we take into account? In any case, the issue is not skill to read this psychological undercurrent and to harness it simply what happens inside Australia, but how Australia for political ends. Was it not he who-prior to his first election situates itself in the world. Whether we look at trade, invest­ victory-promised to deliver a society where Australians could ment, interest rates, oil prices, refugees, environment, global feel relaxed and comfortable? His message ever since has been warming, terrorism, or security, we are dealing with regional essentially the same. The alliance with the United States, the and global trends. No serious diagnosis can afford to treatment of asylum seekers, the children-overboard affair, ignore these connections. the very notion of 'border protection', and the threat to take anti-terrorist pre-emptive action in the region are all m eant to POLITICAL PARTIES the problem is structural. reassure, to convey the same promise of safety. Personalities aside, they lack the intellectual equipment and By identifying so closely with the great and powerful, institutional infrastructure needed to diagnose, let alone to Howard offers many Australians the comfort zone they so prescribe remedies. Not surprisingly, the content of what they desperately seek. Dependence on and support for the United have to communicate is at best flimsy. So i the m edium of States-in Iraq, the 'war on terror', the UN, on issues of global communication, especially during election campaigns, where warming, the free trade agreement, relations with south-east the accent is on cosmetic presentation of leadership styles, Asia and the Islamic world-are all presented as a sometimes tedious point-scoring, the 30-second media grab, and costly costly, but indispensable, insurance policy. and mindless advertising. Though they featured less prominently than in the 2001 It is arguable that many citizens, including a good election, these themes had been so clearly and forcefully artic­ number who voted for the Coalition parties, are discon­ ulated in the preceding months (and years) that the electorate certed by the growing gap between repetitive, second-rate was left in no doubt as to the Howard Government's cultural politics and the reality of their lives. Many might be more and psychological m essage. To this was added another potent disposed to thinking about social and political options, if symbol-the stability of interest rates. What was at issue they were offered forums able to en gage their concerns and here was not the government' technical capacity to prevent fears about the future. a future rise in interest rates, but the impression that it was The key question can be simply put: can we envisage sympathetically disposed to the fears of Australia's mortgage in the Australia of the next ten to 20 years a new kind of belt. The commitment to border protection (i.e. erecting a solid public discourse, and new ways of conversing? In such a fence around the nation) was now complemented by the tanta­ conversation there would be few rewards for shortcuts and lising promise of another kind of protection (i.e. a safe financial glib answers. The focus would be not just on policies, but fence around one's own home) . on ways of thinking and doing things, on conventions and If one turns to the parties of change-the ALP, Greens institutions. Our educational, media, legal and political and Democrats-the message was much less clear. Not much institutions in particular would be subjected to thorough can be said about the Democrats as they were scarcely visible, scrutiny. Political parties-even of the more progressive not just in the election campaign but for the best part of three variety-in part because they have become professionally years. What can we say of Labor's response to Australia's pro­ and ideologically attuned to the imperatives of media-pack­ found insecurities? Medicare Gold, a slightly fairer system of aged electioneering, seem ill-equipped for the task. What is funding for Australian schools, a promise to bring Australian in question is the party system itself. This is perhaps the troops back from IraCL and a last minute pledge to do something about Tasmania's forests. What did all this add up to? N ot a lot. How effective an antidote to the pervasive experience of anxi­ .. .can we envisage in the ... ne ety? Not terribly. As for the Greens, they signalled that when it came to issues of environment, peace and justice, they were generally new kind of public on the side of the angels. But did they have alternative policies as distinct from an alternative wish list? More importantly, did they have a convincing story to tell about our future relations most important lesson of this year's federal election-a les­ with the United States, Indonesia, or the Islamic world? And, son which, we may be pleasantly surprised to find, many what of future economic directions? Most importantly, what intuitively understand, even when they cannot articulate it was the intended message for the 'anxious nation'? How were or are at first psychologically discomfited by it. • Australia's fears and insecurities to be handledz To say all this is not to denigrate those who campaigned Joseph Camilleri is Professor of International Relations at La for the preservation of forests, an end to military involvement Trobe University. He has written and lectured extensively on in Iraq or a more civilised approach to the stranger, be it the international relations, governance and globalisation, human Asian immigrant or Middle Eastern asylum seeker. It remains rights, North-South relations, international organisations, the to be asked, however, how well equipped the parties in ques- United Nations, and the Asia-Pacific region.

DECEMBER 2004 EUREKA STREET 13 the election:2 Tim Martyn

Pomp and circumstance

Tim Martyn gets up close and personal on the campaign trai I

N m, DAYS OUT hom the fede>•l dection, the one individual best able to present their case Mark Latham emerged from another 30 minute stint and represent the nation's interests. Part of making of 'talk back' claptrap. 'Well that really set the news this choice includes an opportunity to reflect upon agenda for the day', despaired one Sydney Morning the m erits of each candidate before voicing a demo- cratic preference; for once these preferences have been tallied, the electorate is expected to remain largely silent while a new mandate is hastily implem ented. Election campaigns are intended to provide this oppor­ tunity for reflection. Now that another election has passed, it is important to ask just how much we learned about the policies on offer. Did the 'news' you read, saw or heard provide the analy­ sis required for you to make an informed choice? One trend that emerged from this election is that the Australian Herald journalist, snapping off her dictaphone in contest has become increasingly presidential. Through disgust. Labor's campaign launch was a m ere day the mainstream media's narrow lens, Australia away, and the Australian voting public had just been watched a slogan-filled slugfest between two big treated to another hard-hitting interview: yes, Mark spending contenders. As each scripted barb was m et Latham had been present for the birth of his two by a choreographed riposte, journalists 'embedded' in children; no, he hadn't brought any massage oil. the campaign eagerly redistributed the 'live action' Voting at election time is one of our few recorded from the ringside. And while the cameras responsibilities as Australian citizens. However, and digital recorders were trained on the prime min­ making that vote an informed choice has become an isterial stoush, those voices calling for attention on increasingly difficult burden. behalf of other national issues went unheard. I've always been fascinated by the cut and On the election trail, each 'embedded' journalist thrust of election campaigning, and the making travels within a whirlwind of spin. From unknown of an Australian prime minister. Subsequently, I destination to unknown destination, from photo volunteered to follow the Latham campaign as a opportunity to press conference, the media's brief was youth 'Election Tracker', and write for an independ­ to spectate, not speculate; we watched what we were ent website, www.electiontracker.net. My mission, brought to watch. Thus, the Australian along with three other young volunteers, was to public becam e spectators too. provide an alternative analysis of the campaign than that presented by the rest of the travelling press AsTHE CAMPAIGN progressed, one day morphed gallery, while attempting to demystify the ultimate into the next; even the media's questions appeared democratic event. recycled. Faced with another policy announcement, Once every three years, Australians are com­ the Australian Financial Review would ask Mark pelled to choose fr om a field of political candidates, Latham whether it was fu lly-funded; Channel Nine

14 EUREKA STREET DECEMBER 2004 or Seven would ask fo r a response to the Coalition's Coalition fo r their fourth response to an earlier announcem ent; and then term? Did the Coalition one of the major dailies would follow up by asking receive an endorsem ent for whether this new spending commitment would their plans to privatise the negatively impact upon interest rates? By ques­ rest of Telstra, or to rem ove tion seven or eight, som eone might be so bold as unfair dismissal laws for to request additional information on the policy small businesses and restric­ itself. Then question time would be over, leaving tions on cross-m edia owner­ the journos an hour or two to peruse that morn­ ship? D oes a government ing's quotables, file their story, and then board the elected to keep interest rates 'opportunity express' to the next m arginal seat. low hold a universal m andate Thankfully, there was always plenty of time to rule1 to drown one's sorrows on the campaign trail-one When election cam­ m ore of the trail's daily routines. paigns are reduced to a On the bus, I listened as seasoned journalists cacophony of competing commented on how stale and stage-m anaged elec­ soundbites, Australian tion campaign s have becom e; h ow politics has been dem ocracy is poorly served. turned into a public relations exercise orchestrated Unfo rtunately, the future by professional PR firms. Now, the only m essage outlook is similarly grim. left to report is 'their' m essage. The need to feed Election coverage will 'news'-any news- back to headquarters up to increasingly be left to junior three times a day has left the m ainstream m edia journalists, campaigns will vulnerable to this kind of message managem ent. be ever m ore tightly m anaged As the campaign spin doctors starve society by public relations firms and of real inform ation, the m edia quickly the relaxing of cross-m edia devours whatever scraps rem ain on off er. ownership laws will see the range of issues covered con­ W ILE AusTRALIANS MAY be compelled to vote, tract even further. they are not compelled to consume the 'info rma­ The Australian vot- tion' dished out to them. Labor spent millions of ing public deserves better. dollars crafting the story of the 'Boy from Green Thankfully, the internet is Vale', yet Australia's swinging voters weren't lis­ one m edium that supports tening. The federal election m ay have been one of in-depth independent inves­ the m ost policy-driven campaigns in recent history, tigation, and even provides yet Labor (through the m edia lens) failed to convey an opportunity for debate the m erits of those policies to a sceptical elector­ am ong citizens. It is here that ate. Through a combination of spin and the m edia's vo ters can becom e informed need for simplicity, their policies were reduced to citizens by supplem enting the content-free slogans. In the end, Australia's swing­ information they receive from ing voters went with the devil they knew. m ore mainstream mediums. After eight years of conservative government With fewer time and in which numerous issues of national importance space constraints, the inter­ were raised- immigration detention, climate net is only going to improve change, pre-emptive war, national security and as a m edium fo r political our relationship with our region- this election reporting and analysis. And was won on the back of fo ur simple words: 'Keep­ as the internet becom es m ore ing interest rates low'. N o m atter the forum, the mainstream, its capacity to fortunes of Australian families were incessantly inform voters will grow. portrayed as dependent upon low interest ra tes, yet In the interests of where was the debate surrounding this assertion ? dem ocracy in Australia, it is m y hope that rather While economists rallied against the notion that a than switching off at the next election, Australians future federal government, Labor or Liberal, would turn on the computer instead. It is there that the send interest rates sky-rocketing, the m edia contin­ Australian voting public will fi nd answers to the ued to convey the Coalition's warning on interest questions that were never asked. • rates to a cautious voting public. They continued to do so because it was all they were hearing on the Tim Martyn joined Mark Latham on the federal campaign trail. election campaign trail for as a volunteer youth Which leads m e to ask: just what sort of journalist . He is currently employed as Policy and m andate did the Australian people really give the Research Offi cer at Jesuit Social Services.

DECEMBER 2004 EU REKA STREET 15 the \Vorld Anthony Ham The original Europeans

Anthony Ham discovers that Basque is not a region but a way of life

S oME YM" AGO, deep in the S•h'" It is for this reason that Basques consider The Basques, who have historically Desert, I asked a traveller where he came themselves to be the original Europeans. called themselves Euskaldun (speakers from. He said Catalonia. I made some The Basques were here when the of Euskera) who inhabit Euskal Herria comment about Spain, whereupon he Romans occupied Iberia and the Roman (the land of the Euskera-speakers), fought said, 'I don't think you heard me. I said province of Vasconia gave the Basques against the Vikings, against the Muslim that I am Catalan, from Barcelona. I am the name by which they are known. armies which occupied Iberia for 800 years not Spanish.' And then he stormed off. and against the Christian kingdoms which A few years later, I met Fernando in sought to integrate Basque territories into Madrid. When I asked him where he was their realm. from, he said, 'I was born in the Basque This history of battling against Country but I am not an ETA terrorist. I national entities or larger empires has am Spanish and I am proud to be Spanish'. fed an enduring image of the Basques as a More than any other country in hostile, warrior race. In the 12th-century Europe, Spain is a nation defined by history, Codex by Aimeric de Picard, the regional sensibilities, by the battle for author speaks of 'Basques and Navarrese, coexistence between a state and its con­ who practice such cruelties to Christians, stituent elements. This was most starkly laying waste like infidels, sparing neither illustrated in a 1997 survey by the Vizcaya elderly, orphans, widows or children'. In Chamber of Commerce (Vizcaya is the Don Quiiote, it is a Basque or Vizcayan to region of the Spanish Basque Country whom Cervantes gives the words, 'Me kill surrounding Bilbao). Some 80 per cent you, or me no Vizcayan'. of the native Basque children who were At the same time, Basques, unlike questioned stated that their primary other European peoples of history, have identity was Basque. A further 12 per never harboured territorial ambitions cent said that they felt European, while beyond their own land. Their fight just eight per cent considered themselves has always been for the right to live Spanish. Among children whose parents had migrated to the Basque Country, 48 per cent said that they were Basque, 28 per cent saw themselves as European and 24 per cent said that they were Spanish. Indeed, the Basque Country is the area of Spain where regional identity is strong­ est. It is also here that the survival, or otherwise, of Spain will be determined. The Basques are quite possibly the oldest people in Europe. Their history has no legend of origins, no migration myth to explain how they came to live in the north of the Iberian Peninsula. The Basque language, Euskera-described by the 19th-century dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy as 'so confusing and obscure that it can hardly be understood'-pre-dates the Indo­ European invasion of Europe in around 900 BC. It is an orphan language so distinct that no linguistic relative has been found.

16 EUREKA STREET DECEMBER 2004 in Basque territory as a distinct nation the Partido Nacionalista Vasco (PNV or dropped splinter and incendiary bombs free from outside interference in their Basque Nationalist Party). Vitoria, the offi­ upon a town filled with traders from the cultural traditions. cial capital of Spanish Basque Country is surrounding villages and with the refugees Basque territory is divided between provincial and strategically located as of Spain's Civil War. Urged on by Spain's Spain and France. Although there a buffer against the Spanish Castilian future dictator, Francisco Franco, the are three provinces in French Basque heartlands below the River Ebro. The German planes unleashed the first civilian Country-Labourd (Lapurdi in Eu kera), walls of this brooding old town are massacre of the modern military age, kill­ Basse- Navarre (Benafaroa) and Soule adorned with pro-ETA graffiti. ing 1,645 people in around three hours. (Zuberoa)-French Basques account for Vitoria, Bilbao and San Sebastian may From his headquarters in Salamanca, just nine per cent of the overall Basque be the centres of modern power, but it Franco initially denied the involvement population. Some 75 per cent of Basques is only in Guernica (Gernika), midway of his forces or their allies, claiming that reside in three Spanish Basque prov­ between Bilbao and San Sebastian in the poor weather had prevented their planes inces-Guiptlzcoa (Gipuzkoa), Vizcaya province of Vizcaya, that Basque identity from flying. In support of his case that (Bizkaia) and Alava (Araba). The final can be understood. the Basques themselves had dynamited province, Navarra (Nafaroa), is a disputed Guernica boasts a strange, hybrid their own town, Franco released a flight territory, with the northern districts eth­ architecture which itself tells a story. log which later proved to be from the nically Basque and the southern districts Subtle 19th-century arches support 1940s wrong day. inhabited predominantly by Spaniards. buildings laid out upon a medieval street The journalist George Steer of the Although Navarra is considered by die-hard plan. It was here, on Monday 26 April London Times was in Guernica at the Basque nationalists to be an integral part 1937, at 4:40pm, that German planes time and his reports (ca rried also in the of Basque territory, it does not fall within New York Times ) horrified a world the Autonomous Community of Euskadi, soon to become accustomed to the administrative entity of the the deaths of unarmed civilians. Basque provinces in Spain. An outraged Pablo Picasso, who had been commissioned to paint L E DIVERSITY OF THE BASQUE people a mural for the Spanish pavilion across the provinces is reflected in its cit­ at the 1937 World Fair, produced a ies. San Sebastian in Guipuzcoa is elegant breathtaking and highly political and sophisticated, at once the most masterpiece, capturing Guernica European and most Basque of Basque cit­ in all its deathly anguish. ies, and historically the capital of militant Within three days, Franco's Basque nationalism. Bilbao, transformed troops occupied Guernica. Mark into a European centre of culture since the Kurlansky, author of The Basque opening of the Guggenheim Museum in History of the World, reports an 1997, is the economic engine room of the incident when one of Franco's Basque Country. It is also the home base of troops became so exasperated by the traditionally moderate party of power, the questioning of journalists who were taken on a tour of Guernica that he snapped, 'Of course it Clockwise from right: Plaza Foru, Gernika; San was bombed. We bombed it, and Sebastian and Bahfa de Ia Concha; Bilbao and bombed it, and bombed it, and, Museo Guggen hei m; and Basque flag. buena, why not.' And yet, somehow, despite the devastation, the Gernikako Arbola (Tree of Guernica), the most important symbol of the Basques, survived. The Tree of Guernica still stands alongside the 19th-century Basque assembly, the Casa de Juntas. An oak tree has stood on this spot since the 14th-century. According to legend, the first oak survived for 450 years until its death in 1811. An offshoot, planted in 17 42, replaced it and was the focal point of Basque independ­ ence until1892. The third, missed by German bombers, survived

DECEMBER 2004 EUREKA STREET 17 from 1858 until 2004, whereupon a new sapling was prepared to fill the void. Upon the death of the third Tree of Guernica, the president of the Basque assembly, Ana Madariaga, stated simply: 'It's finished its life cycle .. . I want to believe in the idea of the eternal tree, we ended one cycle, we start another'. The dried-up trunk of the original tree now stands in a small pavilion in the grounds of the assembly. It was under this tree that the Basque assembly, the Juntas Generales, met for centuries to legislate and rule on foral (Basque customary) law. Local village assemblies from across Vizcaya used to send representatives to meet under the Tree of Guernica. The King of Castile, who was nominally sovereign over the Basque Country, would com e to the sessions under the oak tree to swear that the Spanish authorities would respect the authorities of the fueros. The fu eros themselves had first been codified in 1155 and were remarkably enlightened for m edieval law, guarantee­ ing 'justice to the poor as to the rich'. of cider to laws of inheritance and the with greater autonomy than any other These laws covered many aspects of recognition of human rights. region of Europe as matters of housing, criminal and commercial law, regulat­ It was under the Tree of Guernica that agriculture, town planning, sport, tour­ ing everything from the requisite purity the first regional Basque Government of ism, health and social services all came Jose Antonio Aguirre stood, on 7 October within the powers of the Basque regional 1936, to swear the oath of Basque office: government. The statute was proclaimed UNDER THE GREAT CROSS under the oak Tree of Guernica. Humble before God Since that time, Spain has coexisted Standing on Basque soil uneasily with its regions, most notably In remembrance of Basque ancestors • the Basque Country. Since 1968, more a Gathering in Canberra Under the Tree of Guernica for Australian Spirituality than 800 people have been killed by I swear faithfully to fulfil my commission the Basque terrorist group ETA. During 4th, 5th & 6th, March 2005 Less than seven months later, Guernica the same period, many Basques, led by at The Australian Centre for was in ruins and the entire Basque the PNV with its motto 'God and the Christianity and Culture, Country soon fell under the occupation Old Laws', have strained under security 15 Blackall St, Barton ACT of Franco's fascist government. Tens crackdowns which have invariably

organised by of thousands of Basques were rounded targeted, and often killed Basques. The the WELLSPRING COMMUNITY, up into concentration camps and the clamour for independence has never a contemporary Australian ecumenical movement Basque language of Euskera was banned, been greater. inspired by the /ONA COMMUNITY its speakers ordered to 'speak Christian'. In early October 2004, the arrest in Speakers All statutes of autonomy were abol­ south-western France of ETA's leadership JAMES HAIRE, ished and the Spanish Basque Country, signalled the latest, potentially fatal blow Director of the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture like the rest of Spain, would remain to the terrorist organisation. At the same under fascist occupation until time, the Basque regional Parliament was RACHAEL KOHN of the ABC 'l i{ T Franco's death in 1975. debating a motion by the leader of the The Spirit of Things Basque Government, Juan Jose Ibarretxe, HEN SPAIN AND THE Spanish which calls for the Spanish Basque PETER NEWMAN V V Director, Institute for Sustainability and Technological Basque Country emerged from dictator­ Country to become a community 'freely Policy, Murdoch University, W.A. and Sustainability ship four decades later and took its first associated' with Spain. Among the pow­ Commissioner in NSW steps towards democracy, perhaps its most ers sought by this new entity is independ­ pressing issue was how to prevent the dis­ ent diplomatic representation abroad. CONTACT mantling of Spain while satisfying regional The motion is to be voted on jamestulip@bigpond .com or ph (02) 4758 8104 demands for self-rule. The 1979 Statute of before the end of 2004. At la st count, Guernica provided the Basque Country the Basque Government remains two

18 EUREKA STREET DECEMBER 2004 votes sh ort of the necessary m ajority. Polls in the Basqu e Country suggest a region evenly divided between those wanting independence fro m Spain and verse those wishing to rem ain wi thin the Spanish state. If successful, the Basque Government h as promised a referen ­ dum on the proposal, regardless of the fact that regional governments have no legal power to call referenda under the Spanish constitution and despite the Bali Cigarette certainty that the plan will be rejected by the national Spanish parliam ent. These are extraordinary times in It was there. That crackle of fire between his fingers, Spain, potentially the endgam e of a Struck with the second last match, it ignited the attack­ A thermal headspin ascending through twisting sm oke, Vapours of clove rising like temples from terraced fi elds, To the warm neck of mountains. Some twenty years ago.

He knows this ambush but he is caught every time; Smells the numbing net of smoke. Hears the village Cocks crow. Sees the old m en grin betel nutted teeth Oily red with resin. Tastes coconut and honey wax. Rem embers how salt stiffened hair into ringlets.

Another tongue flames. Unhelmeted she rode pillion, Into the mouths of Kuta sunsets. Down shaded paths Of palm and two stroke. To be parked in photo albums­

Pa sa rela Zubi Zuri over Rfa de Bilbao (l eft) Ordered m emories stored for safekeeping. Just like the and Bil bao's M useo Guggenheim (a bove). Old surfboard now carried from one shed to the next. centuries-long embrace of mutual mis­ understanding. To Spaniards, at stake is Tim Edwards the very idea of Spain, a country which prides itself on its diversity. To many Basques, the question is one of survival as a distinct people as expressed in their right to self-determination. The Tree of Guernica has seen it all before. But this time could be different. In an era when Europe is centralising and moving closer together, it could be that one of its largest m embers is falling apart from within. •

Anthony Ham is a fr eelance writer living in Madrid.

DEC EMB ER 2004 EUR EKA STREET 19 the nation Tony Malkovic Spreading the word

Tony Malkovic investigates an Australian Christian broadcasting service into the Asia-Pacific

M ,., M ooR< ANn m s wm CmRn decided broadcast them further into the Asia Pacific region. seven years ago to move to Kununurra, in the In all, the new towers would cost an estimated $20 extrem e north of Western Australia, not far fr om million. But for the past three years, em otions have the Northern Territory. run high over the proposal. For many people, the attraction of Kununurra is Long-time Kununurra residen t Keith Wright that it's the eastern gateway to the Kimberley, one is a vocal opponent who says there are still wide­ of the m ost remote and breathtaking landscapes in sprea d concerns, especially given the rise in terror­ the world: home of outback 4WD adventure, rugged ism around the world in recent years. terrain, an outback sea and giant barramundi. 'In Perth, you 're about 1,800 kilom etres away But for Mike, the attraction was to lend support fr om your nearest Muslim country', says Keith, to an unusual radio project aimed at broadcasting who is also a shire councillor. 'We're about 180 Christian radio program s to some 60 per cent of the kilometres away from our nearest Muslim country. world's population. They're broadcasting Christian messages to 220 'I guess I go t involved because as a Christian our m illion people in Indonesia, and about 180 million whole aim in life is to help people', says Mike, who of them are Muslim. used to run a m echanical repair and hire business 'An awful lot of people have voiced the opinion, and grew up in the West Kimberley town of D erby. and I tend to be one of them, that it's probably not 'And I could see that radio could help a lot of a wise choice to potentially make Kununurra, and people in the Third World countries. We decided to Australia, the source of this religious indoctrination .' chuck in the m oney side of things and come with He says another concern is that the towers HCJB where you don't actually ge t paid. You get sup­ would be a 'blot on the landscape' and a danger ported by different churches and Christian people.' to planes fl ying scenic tours around the town. He Mike is the local manager for HCJB World Radio, acknowledges that people in other countries could a worldwide Christian broadcasting group based in exercise their choice and simply turn off the radio if the US. HCJB pioneered evangelical broadcasting they didn't like HCJB's program s. in 193 1, beaming short-wave programs from a con­ 'It's not the people's choices we're concerned verted sheep shed in Ecuador. These days, it broad­ abou t, it's the fact some of the radical groups or casts to m ore than 100 countries in 120 languages. some of the governments in some of these areas And depending on the target audience, the group uses might feel we're inflicting som ething on them that short-wave, AM and FM radio, sa tellite, TV and the they choose that their people shouldn't be internet to get its evangelical m essages out. listening to', he says. HCJB is the radio call sign originally in Ecuador. From that, a m otto has been created: 'The m otto is BuT Mr KE MoORE SAYS the group's current three "Heralding Christ Jesus Blessings" but that's not our towers have been broadcasting Christian short­ nam e, our name is HCJB ', says Mike. wave radio for m ore than 18 months, and there In October, HCJB announced that it had finally hasn't been any backlash . cleared seven years of red tape and local opposition 'N o, nothing at all. Yo u must realise there are and had the go ahead from the Western Australian hu ndreds of Christian radio stations all around Government to lease Crown land to extend its broad­ the world broadcasting into Muslim countries and casting centre several kilometres outside Kununurra. there are hundreds of Muslim radio stations broad­ Although it already broadcasts radio program s casting into Australia. So it's a two-way thing. in 11 languages to the Asia Pacifi c region from And I think people just accept that. There have Kununurra, H CJB plans to expand its short -wave been Ch ristian radio stations around for the last broadcasts by leasing the extra land and building 75 years, and there have never been any reprisals another 3 1 radio towers som e 90 metres high . against the radio stations.' The Kununurra towers would take programs He says the program s HCJB sends out don't produced at HCJB 's Melbourne studios and need to be modified for Muslim countries.

20 EU REKA STREET DECEMBER 2004 'N o we don't because we're non-political and departments, as well as native title clearances, and non-critical. So we send ou t a positive family mes­ applications to Canberra for fo ur international broad­ sage and we send out the Christian m essage and we casting licences. Mike Moore says the local shire has don't m ake any excuse fo r that', he explains. given planning approval in principle and construction So are Muslim countries likely to take issue on the 3 1 towers is likely to start in April/May after with groups such as HCJB broadcasting Christian the wet season. program s? President of the Australian Federation of 'I think one of the main things we have to realise Islamic Councils, Dr Ameer Ali, says on principle in this whole exercise is that as Christians we believe he doesn't have a problem with Christian groups that we're doing what God wants us to do and our broadcasting into other countries, saying confidence is in God', he says. 'So we're just a sm all / Australia is a democratic country. cog in a big world, just operating under God.'

'ANYONE CAN BROADCAST any m essage they want as long as they do not hurt the feelings of another community or another group of people deliberately', says Dr Ali. But he says it depends on what is broadcast. With hot spots of religious tension such as Ambon and Central Sulawesi in Indon esia, there could be concerns. 'If it deliberately broadcast into those regions with the idea of converting the Muslims to Christianity, that might be a problem ', Dr Ali points ou t. 'A simple religious m essage prom oting the ideas of Christianity, I don't think anybody can say anything against it. So that's harmless. It all depends on w hat is being broadcast. On principle, I don't see an objection .' Anglican Bishop Brian Kym e is of a similar opin­ ion, saying the issue is much the same as Muslim program s shown on community TV in Australia. 'They're very informative but if one is simply not interested they can turn off the program ', he points out. 'I don't think there's really a problem with allowing that sort of broadcasting, I can't see that it's infringing anyone's rights', says Bishop Kym e, who's Chair of the Anglican Committee for Multicultural Ministry. However, he sees a wider issue. 'I have heard som e stories about som e people who've claimed to have been converted through broadcasts', he says. 'But I think it would not be to any great extent. In my opinion, the vast sums of m oney to be spent on short-wave broadcasting to other countries could be spent m ore eff ectively.' Mike M oore believes there's been a campaign of misinform ation waged against the HCJB project over the years, which resulted in a petition with som e 800 signatures. But despite that, he says when HCJB held an open day and tour of fa cilities for those opposed to the project, no one from the town bothered to show up. 'I think people are realising now that a lot of the He said for the project to go ahead 'we need to nonsense against us was false', he says. be praying to God and relying on Him. It's not the In October, HCJB announced on its website that people who are making it happen, it's God that's it had finally got the green light from the Western making it happen'. • Australian Government to expand onto adj acent land. The go ahead m arks the end of a long road: Tony Malkovic is a freelance writer based in Perth. HCJB had to get approval fr om som e 19 government H e is a former reporter and producer with AB C TV.

DECEMBER 2004 EUREKA STREET 21 tlw \'\orld:..> Fatima Measham Charting a course for the Philippines

Fatima Measham investigates the declining credibility of Filipino President Gloria Arroyo

E mNO PRESmENT GLOR>A Macapa credibility and belie her gal Arroyo initiated a policy debate of a image as a strong presi­ kind never seen before in Manila, when dent. she announced the country's fi scal deficit H er decision to lift had become its biggest problem. the moratorium on the The State of the Nation Address-an death penalty late last occasion generally dominated by pro­ year, was widely per­ poor rhetoric and visions of national ceived to be a reaction unity-raised m ore than a few eyebrows to increased pressure when President Arroyo presented a list from the local Chinese of eight tax m easures to address the community, whose looming fiscal crisis. m embers were being Whilst critics were quick to dismiss targeted for kidnapping her legislative agenda, it was supported (a capital offence in the by a group of economics professors from Philippines) . This deci­ the University of the Philippines, wh o sion contrasts with the warned of economic collapse in the next withdrawal of Filipino two to three years if certain strategies humanitarian troops were not implemented. from Iraq, in order to Although the Philippines' budget has save the life of abducted been running at deficit for several years, truck driver Angelo de the prospects are indeed grim. The cur­ la Cruz. rent fiscal deficit is over A$ 7 billion. Pub­ While the comparison lic sector debt is at an astounding A$130 may be weak, it is worth billion and has been exacerbated by the noting the underlying devaluation of the peso (around half of inconsistency between the debt is in foreign currency). The gov­ wanting to be seen as ernment is currently trying to prevent tough on local issues a credit downgrade by foreign lenders, yet conceding to the which would affect lending rates, debt demands of foreign ter­ serviceability, and availability of rorists. To understand funds for development projects. these actions, one must consider the political President Gloria M acapaga l Arroyo AAP/AFP Romeo Gacad FIRST GLANCE, Arroyo seems to value of populism. In possess the necessary skills to navigate both situations Arroyo the economy through these turbulent revealed her vulnerability to pressure. will lead to dire consequences. One clear tim es. She is, after all, an economist. Inadequate government policy on illustration is to be found in education. First ca tapulted to the presidency by population control further highlights At the start of the school year in 2003, a popular revolt against Joseph Estrada in the issue of Arroyo's credibility. The there was a shortage of over 44,000 class­ 2001, her penchant for detail came as a Philippines has a population of more than rooms and 38,000 teachers. relief to non-government organisations and 84 million, with an annual population Arroyo's government has not advocacy groups who feel they can engage growth rate of 2.36 per cent. One might addressed the issue of population growth the new administration in policy reform . expect a person with an economics on a national scale. It is suggested that However, a pa ttern of politically expe­ background to understand that high the absence of a clear policy is to avoid dient decisions have undermined Arroyo's population levels and high public debt antagonising influential Catholic Church

22 EUREKA STREET DECEMBER 2004 leaders, who oppose artificial popula­ are influenced by business or populist poorest nations. If it did and govern­ tion control. In contrast, major business interests and may not fast-track the ment advocated for its inclusion in the leaders are urging Arroyo to establish a necessary fiscal measures Arroyo has program, it would need to demonstrate national policy on population control, proposed. The previous Congress passed adherence to International Monetary including the provision of artificial con­ only one of 13 bills that she Fund criteria, including a proven track traceptives to the poor. Described as a had endorsed. record in implementing a national devout Catholic, Arroyo maintains a poverty strategy. 'hands-off ' approach, even as she sets a L xATION IS NEVER A popular pol­ To be fair, Arroyo is making progress target of a 1.9 per cent population growth icy for government. Although some of in this area, albeit slowly, through pro­ rate by the end of her term in 2010. How Arroyo's proposals m erely adjust certain gram s on food security, micro-finance, too might one reconcile her 'pro-life' excise taxes to current inflation lev­ housing, and agrarian reform . Much more stance on population control while per­ els, one can assume that people already needs to be done and a lot more guts is mitting the resumption of executions for struggling with poverty will be hardest required to do it. some capital offences? hit by an increase in taxes or the creation Many Filipinos feel that they need to The most infamous blow to her cred­ of new ones. rally behind her, despite their reservations ibility, however, involves her decision An argument could instead be made about Arroyo's capacity to govern wisely, to run for president at the May elec­ for properly enforced tax collection. It decisively and courageously. There is no tion. Arroyo had declared in 2002 that is pervasive tax evasion, through illegal solid alternative at present. she would be able to govern better if she practices such as smuggling, which keeps It could have been worse: presiden­ eschewed campaigning, and therefore revenue low. tial candidates at the recent election would not stand for the In this respect, the challenge for included an ageing actor with no edu­ presidency after her term. Arroyo and her government is to initiate cational or public service background, significant change in the ways in which a former police chief believed to be the A NALYSTS IN THE MEDIA remarked government conducts and manages busi­ mastermind of certain summary killings, that her decision was a welcome change ness, while balancing this against social and a religious lea der equipped only with in a culture where positions of power asset reforms (with which she has identi­ good intentions. are held until such time as they can be fied herself) such as housing for the poor With a history of voting for flashy bequeathed to the next generation. and agricultural land for tenant-farmers. public figures instead of policymakers, However, Arroyo reversed her decision Unfortunately, there is little evidence that perhaps Filipinos should be given credit a year later, saying that she would put people accept the changes needed to turn for electing a person with a proven work aside her own wishes for peaceful retire­ the economy around. ethic and a commitment to good gov­ ment in order to offer herself as a leader For example, a nationwide donation ernance. Time will tell if they will be with vision and experience. drive initiated by a prominent congress­ rewarded for their circumspection. • Arroyo caused further disappointment man to help close the deficit, may have when, after winning the election, she was attracted considerable contributions from Fatima Measham is a Filipino writer believed to have coerced well respected corporate and church groups. However, residing in Melbourne. cabinet m ember, Dinky Soliman, into it inadvertently raises the question of resigning from the Department of Social taxation. If people were indeed sincere in Welfare and Development, in order to helping government raise revenue, paying hand over the portfolio to Vice President prescribed taxes and eradicating corrup­ Noli de Castro, a media personality cred­ tion ought to be the solutions to which ited with helping Arroyo win the election. they subscribe. De Castro has since declined the post, There is also a case to be made regard­ undoubtedly due to the backlash from ing debt relief or at least debt renegotia­ civil society stalwarts. Indeed, serious tion. Current legislation mandates 30 to Outback Priests discontent exists over Arroyo's leadership. 40 per cent of the annual budget be allo­ The stories of 25 priests To many Filipinos she comes from a long cated to foreign debt servicing; a policy who shaped the character line of 'traditional politicians' who run for that has been upheld for the past 30 years and culture of th e Di ocese government in order to maintain the sta­ and continues to keep one of the largest of Toowoomba founded tus quo from which they benefit. Lacking economies in south-east Asia from mov­ in 1929. This book was written by Fr Peter Murphy to celebrate the 75th Anniversary of the Diocese: credibility, she has so far been unable to ing forward. (Some of these debts were 28th May 2004. galvanise or inspire the people. incurred during the Marcos regime and A great Christmas present While Arroyo's coalition may hold 14 are widely perceived to be under disadvan­ of 24 Senate seats and over 70 per cent tageous term s.) Book available from Diocesan Archives of the House of Representative seats, the Unfortunately, the Philippines does PO Box 756 Toowoom ba QLD 4350 strength of her power base is deceptive. not qualify under the existing ca tego­ Ph (07) 4632 7484 She was elected on a margin of 1.1 million ries of the Highly Indebted Poor Coun­ Cost $14.95 postage included votes-a small proportion of the 35 tries Initiative, launched in 1996 to Cheques/M Orders to be made out to Diocesan Development Fund million votes available. Many legislators secure debt relief for 42 of the world's

DECEMBER 2004 EUREKA STREET 23 Ash Street

ONAsH STRHT the chestnut trees by the mek ,Ulct go" once and there is a steady rain of hard fruit the size of tennis balls. People move their cars. On windy days m y children and I hear the nuts falling from our house and we amble down the street and watch from a safe distance as the heavy green nuts leap from the trees. We take home handfuls and rot off the fruit and burnish the lovely brown nuts and m y young sons throw them at each other and at their sister until I insist on desist and put the boys to bed but not the sister who is a teenager and so never sleeps. I work the nuts through m y fin gers like fat oily coins and consider the paral­ lels between chestnuts and children. Both are wrapped in soft peb­ bly skins. Both have stubborn centres. Both glea m when polished. Both are subject to being crushed by cars. Both are subject to rot. Crows are fascinated by both. I watch the gangs of crows flare and hammer and bicker and chortle among the shards in the street and then go kiss my sons and nod to my daughter, who deigns, for once, to nod back.

Ash Street bisects a hill named for a m an who was born in County Clare in Ireland. He took ship to America and landed in N ew York and walked to N ebraska where he joined that state's Second Cavalry Regiment and fought in the Civil War and then walked to Oregon, where h e lived on our hill until the day he died. H e was a stone mason. He died about noon, with a chisel in his hand.

Holy place in my house on Ash Street: The infinitesim al indent made by ten years of left hands as woman and man and children lean against the wall while adjusting the thermostat with their right hands.

Down Ash Street on our side lives the crazy lady, who occasionally walks through our back door and into our kitchen and stays for a long time, talking loudly. She tells the neighbours that her husband is travelling on business when actually he left ten years ago. Recently she leased her house to a young couple, telling them that she was moving to Egypt, but she has yet to leave, and is still living in the basem ent. They are puzzled and walk clown the street to my house to talk about the crazy lady. They sit in the kitchen and talk softly.

24 EU REKA STREET DECEMBER 2004 Another young couple appears at our back door once a year or so to ask us to sign a petition to move their property line, which has an old right-of-way through it, as their yard was once near a road that led to the village smelter. The smelter and foundry and blast furnace where the first steel west of the Rockies was made are no more, but the legal means of approaching them with horse teams along Oswego Creek remains. I say to the young woman one year, but don't you like the fact that the ghosts of horses walk through your yard? and she says, uh, no.

One house on Ash Street is a poker and drinking cabin for a group of men and their dogs. It's surrounded now, very nearly grown over, by vast blackberry and laurel thickets; the men park their pickup trucks on the street, in a dell carved out of the thickets for their trucks, and haul their beer and whiskey up the muddy steps into the cabin. At night you can hear the music and voices. Once a gunshot.

Across the street is a very religious family with three small children; the oldest, age six, goes to a kindergarten where the children are punished for saying the word cruel.

Animals seen on Ash Street: coyotes, deer, raccoons, hawks, herons, swifts, swallows, jays, flickers, once a policeman's horse, complete with leathery policeman.

Before Ash Street was a street it was a path with no name, running cheerfully above a creek with a name. Before it was the path it was probably a trail, and before it was a trail maybe it was a tunnel forced by burly deer through fern and fir, and before it was a tunnel maybe it was a tiny path for tiny animals, and before that, before there was any green pulse in the world, maybe it was a stripe of stone; like it is now.

Brian Doyle ([email protected]) is the editor of Portland Magazine at the University of Portland. He is the author of five collections of essays, most recently Spirited Men, about great male writers and musicians, among them the Adelaide genius Paul Kelly.

DECEMBER 2004 rURfi,A TREET 25 people Daniel Donahoo and Tani a Andrusia k Acting all raucous

Disabi I ity is sometimes a matter of perspective

C e>M BAADe" a "

26 EUREKA STREET DECEMBER 2004 Clem made the move how quickly difference with Kate from Justus disappears in the face of into a new project that people recognising their spawned RAWCUS. similarities on stage, 'Theatre is my life come as well as recognising true', he notes. Through their weaknesses and Justus, Clem found a raw emotions. way to fit in, to fit in RAWCUS's 2002 to a place with others, performance, Designer and into himself. His Child, was a challenging theatre work allowed piece exploring issues him to explore how of cloning and genetic he occupied his own engineering. Clem's body, how it moved, view on these issues how it could express is more than strong: what he wanted to 'Cloning is wrong', say and what it was limited to. Clem's hands help he says. The development of performance centred shape his words: 'I was in a bubble. Justus around these issues was powerful, asking its burst that bubble. (It) let me out'- performers to reflect upon their very existence, and what that means in a world celebrating the complete F JTTING JNTO HIMSELF has helped Clem to force physical transformation of people on reality TV. 'I his way into a society that pursues physical perfec­ just know how glad I am I was born', Clem says. 'I am tion. 'As I have matured, I have been able to branch so glad that I am me.' out into employment, acting and to study', Clem It has been a hectic couple of years for Clem says. 'Everywhere, I have interacted with many, Baade. RAWCUS have now headed back into the many people.' And, they, like Clem are the richer rehearsal room to work with experienced dancers for it. As a founding member of RAWCUS, Clem is and actors to develop their next show to be enthusiastic and passionate about their significant performed at Theatreworks in December this year. achievements. Despite his personal triumphs, the success Clem RAWCUS began in 2000 by specifically feels most passionate about is RAWCUS. It is in creating a performance for the Australian Cerebral the 'silence before the applause' that Clem knows Palsy Association's National Conference. That people have been touched, that they have been performance, Flight, was then performed as part of moved to feel something. And while he can't know celebrations for the International Day for People for sure what that feeling is, he knows that feeling with a Disability in December 2000. RAWCUS things, anything, is good. places disability squarely on stage, as a celebration 'RAWCUS is just something. It m eans for m e of ability and diversity, but they don't make the ride the most loving, caring theatre company. And, it is easy. Audiences are asked to consider issues from not just a company. It is a huge family based in a social isolation to genetic engineering. The actors are theatre world.' not afraid to shatter society's limitations on stage. A world where a striking young man, full of RAWCUS is a theatre company of people with a ability, can really make an impact. • great range of abilities. Clem believes much can be achieved through the RAWCUS formula of workshop­ Daniel Donahoo is an OzProspect fellow. OzProspect devised performance. 'RAWCUS accommodates is a non-partisan public policy think-tank. Tania a range of all different people', he says. Clem sees Andrusiak is a freelance writer and editor.

DECEMBER 2004 EUREKA STREET 27 c,oc_ iet\ Michele Gi erck Phone a friend

Michele Cierck meets the people on the other end of the line

PUL HARR

28 EU REKA STREET DECEMBER 2004 abuse 4.5 per cent, while drug and alcohol use, of callers-Paul is keen to encourage males to sexual activity, homelessness and mental health, express themselves and not to wait until crisis point each account for between three and four to ring the service or seek help. per cent of calls. Kids Help Line is currently embarking on a strategy targeting young males. While they MEETING PAUL IT IS CLEAR that he loves represent less than 30 per cent of callers, they are talking to children and young people, helping them over-represented when it comes to drug and alcohol deal with the problems they face, and developing use, violence and homelessness. What the research their own coping skills. In fact, he would like to see indicates, is that there is a culture among young more enhancing life skills and interpersonal skills males of not seeking help. taught in schools. Some years ago, Kids Help Line undertook a 'As a counsellor I believe in young people's survey focused on family life; the nature of affection resilience, and in supporting them. We need to hone and discipline in families, and how this impacts on their strengths, and bring them out.' young males. What became apparent was that boys Paul also says that it's not unusual for young who had good relationships with their parents were people to 'try you out' first, to see how a counsellor far more likely to seek help. responds before they decide if they will open up. While it was hoped that the introduction of Apart from being a counsellor, and at times email and web counselling would increase the working as a shift supervisor, helping counsellors number of males using the services, this was with complex cases or listening to them when they not the case. These recent innovations, based on need to debrief, Paul also visits schools, as a peer one-on-one counselling, introduced new children skills facilitator. and young people to the service, but overall, did Having been bullied at primary and secondary not lead to an increase in the proportion of males school, he thought it would be good to help kids get contacting the service. through similar situations. Kids Help Line is well known in schools nation­ 'I consider myself a fairly good role model. I wide, and students of all ages are aware of it. The can open the door for them, so they can express service also advocates on children's and young themselves.' people's issues in each state. • Although Kids Help Line is overwhelmingly used by females-comprising almost three-quarters Michele Gierck is a freelance writer.

AND /VO WE VC Nor CONCLU!)E. TI1E.. I ' LA'{INb ON OF 1·-\f',NDS WITH 'ALL fOR ONE, AND ONE. fo rz ALL("

DECEMBER 2004 EUREKA STREET 29 culture Bronwyn Fredericks Urban identity Bronwyn Fredericks argues for the identity of urban Indigenous Australians

AReN'T ALL in the 'bu,h', I have experienced people trying to cat­ are as diverse as the population and w'outback' or 'on communities' ... egorise me by my hair, skin or eye colour, include a diversity of experience, need, I don't leave my Aboriginality at the in an attempt to organise me into a group­ prospects shaped by gender, education, airport or in a locker at the bus station on ing that suits their framework of what religion, age and level of human secu­ the city fringes when I visit. It seems that they perceive to be an Aboriginal woman. I rity. Culture cannot stay the same, it is some people assume that Aboriginal peo­ have been asked, 'What part is Aboriginal?' dynamic and there are many cultural ple don't belong in the city or big regional I know as an urban Aboriginal woman that configurations. Aboriginal people live in centres. Research undertaken in Brisbane if I don't fit the images that some people the contemporary world and weave in and suggests that some people think that hold, I may be perceived as having no cul­ out of two, three and even m ore cultural Aboriginal people belong in the 'bush', ture, as not being 'real', as 'unauthentic' or domains. We are part of colonisation, just 'outback', and 'on comrnunities'. Others a 'fake'. Sadly, some Aboriginal people feel as it is part of us. Aboriginal culture has think that somehow our Aboriginality this about themselves and others. What needed to adapt, adjust and modify itself becomes irrelevant does the word in order to survive within the contem­ in the city or that we 'authentic' even porary world. This does not mean that place our cultures to m ean with regard our cultures are not, and that we are the side in order to to Aboriginal peo­ not, Aboriginal. You might have to look 'succeed'. In spite ple in the historical and listen m ore closely, but culture is of such comments, context of urban always there in some form, Aboriginal people Brisbane or in any always was and always will be. are still asked to other urban area? give a 'welcmne' Normally, the A BORIGINAL PEOPLE HAVE had to or an 'acknowledg­ word 'authentic' is work hard to build and sustain positive ment to Country' in posed in a way that Aboriginal identities due to the influ­ cities and in other describes someone ence of the dominant culture on our urban areas. We may being more 'tribal' lives. The contacts and interactions be asked whether we or 'traditional'. we have with institutions, agen­ know, or could we These terms can set cies and services are grounded in the organise, a group to Aboriginal people world view of the dominant culture. do traditional danc­ within a timeless The constant exchanges, interaction ing or play the did­ and static setting and dialogue with non-Indigenous urban geridoo, or whether we can get an artist where we are generally represented in the society can present challenges to our to paint a mural or display some art? Our bush, on a hill, or in a remote community. identity. It can be a struggle to live a involvement is generally placed in the These images trap us and don't represent life within the dominant culture, while context of what is deemed 'traditional', the complex lives and situations in which at the same time trying to honour and 'authentic' or 'tribal'. That is, we are we find ourselves as Aboriginal people. protect our own heritage, institutions asked to be involved in ways that portray They also trap non-Indigenous people into and worldview. Sometimes it can be the artistic and material cultural images a way of seeing us as Aboriginal people. In difficult for Aboriginal people living in of the past. What if we don't depict the the trapping, the images and accompany­ the city, trying to deal with issues such cultural and social stereotypes of what ing thoughts may keep us from honestly as having a troubled, or no, connection to some people in society believe, perceive knowing each other. land due to historical processes or being or expect of us? What if we aren't dark There is no single urban Aboriginal removed as a child, or your parents or brown or black skinned? experience or identity. The experiences grandparents being removed. For those

30 EUREKA STREET DECEMBER 2004 that may not even know where they a range of acc01TJ.­ buy services, drive have come from, and where they belong, modation options, cars, have problems what then? It might be difficult for some buying goods and and issues, or live in people, for a range of reasons, to access services, finding a houses in urban streets ceremonies, language and Elders and job, participating in or on the streets, does they m ay therefore feel disjointed from sporting groups, clubs not mean we are no what culture m ay mean. It is not easy for and organisations and longer Aboriginal. som e Aboriginal people in the city. Life in sharing and interact­ Urban Aboriginal big cities and other urban areas presents ing with people from people are not 'hybrids' Indigenous people with many factors a diverse range of or alienated from the and interactions that create self-doubt, backgrounds. It also Aboriginal experience. iden tity confusion and anguish-all includes trying to Aboriginal culture of wh ich can work to underm ine find or make space is dynamic and new one's sense of Aboriginality. within the city for Aboriginal identities Aboriginal cultures, have developed in DATA FROM THE AUSTRALIAN Bureau languages, individual response to urban life. of Statistics shows that over 50 per cent and collective expres- Urban identities will of all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander sion, establishment keep developing and people now live in urban areas includ­ and maintenance adapting as they did in ing the big cities of Brisbane, Sydney and of Aboriginal organisations, programs, the past and as they do in the present. This Melbourne. The statistics demonstrate that services and other structures. is about our survival. • living in urban centres is as much a real­ Just because we might work, go to ity for Aboriginal people as living in a dis­ school, TAFE or university, hang out, drink Bronwyn Fredericks grew up in Brisbane crete Aboriginal rural, regional or isolated alcohol, smoke, play sport, be members of and now lives in the Rockhampton region. community. This reality includes using clubs and associations, shop for food and Artwork by Pamela Croft. Anchor your Faith in Understanding Consider taking one of these courses:

);> Bachelor ofTheology );> Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor ofTheology (double degree with the University of Melbourne and M onash University) );> Graduate Diplomas in Theology, Counselling, M inistry, Spirituality, Spiritual Direction, Liturgy );> Masters degrees in Divinity, Arts, Theology, Ministry Studies );> Doctorates in Theology, Ministry Studies, Philosophy

Telephone: (03) 9853 3177 E mail: [email protected] www.mcd.unimelb.edu.au Fee-Help available I I ru1nn1•nu also available Melbourne College of Divinity Australia's oldest ecumenical degree-granting body Seven campuses around Melbourne plus online study Established 1910 Affiliated with the University of Melbourne

DECEMBER 2004 EUREKA STREET 3 1 Stephen Yorke The road not taken

a minimum m eant 60,000 military dead and inca lculable misery and sadness for those at home. Princip's cause was for the reunifi ca­ tion of Bosnia with the independent Serbia-not to start a world war. He was left behind by the waves and effectively had no further role in events. Under th e benign (for the time) law of Austria­ Hunga ry, a murderer under the age of 20 could not be executed. Princip was sentenced to the maximum 20 years in prison and died of tuberculosis­ unrepentant- in April 1918. The journey from Sa rajevo to declara­ tions of war by the va rious alliances took SuNDAY 28 JuNE 1914, colonies of European countries meant less than six weeks. The diplomatic and Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the events in Europe had worldwide ra mifi­ military steps involved along the road throne of the Austro-Hunga rian Empire, ca tions. Equall y significant, the means are too complex to recount in an y useful arrived with his wife in Sarajevo fo r existed not only to bind but amplify all way. But it is agreed by all the crucial an official visit. At the time, Sarajevo these factors: such as the steamship for point was the Austrian determinatio n to was in the imperial provin ce of Bosnia­ trade and travel and the ocean telegra ph punish the Serbs not only for their pa rt Herzegovina. As the royal party travelled cables for immedi ate communication. in the assassination but also for other in an open motor vehicle along the As we know, the waves generated political reasons. The decision by Austria­ official route, it was fired upon by a by the events at Sarajevo that Sunday Hunga ry not to show restraint dragged 19-ycar-old student, Gavrilo Princip, did not just spread and di ssipate within all the other countries into the conflict a Bosnian nationalist. Princip only Eastern Europe. The waves from Sarajevo thro ugh the various alliances managed to fire two shots before he was pread, were refracted by other events, and between the Eu ropean powers. arrested, but these two shots managed effectively dislodged or caused events to kill the Archduke and Archduchess. which generated new waves. These new M ANY WRITERS HAVE suggested that The assassination of Franz Ferdinand is waves were fa r more damaging in their a war in Europe was inevita bl e-if not generally taken as the starting point for consequences for the world. in 19 14-with the ongo ing political and the descent into what became known as By the time the Great War was over, military rivalries between the em pires of the Great War or World War I. the waves had claimed around nine Europe. Perhaps a more significa nt reason At first, the assassination- no matter million military casualties and perhaps for the failure to prevent the war was the how shocking-was seen by the outside an equal number of civilian casualties lack of a major European war in the previous world as an event isolated from its deep through displacement, starvation and 40 years as a model: no one appreciated concerns. The consequences of the disease; th e German, Austro- Hungarian, the ability of modern economics and assassination were expected to be and Ottoman Empires were no m ore; industry to transform both the technology contained within Eastern Europe. The and the Russian Empire was in the and in tensity of war. The working model response from Ki ng George V of Great process of transforming into the Soviet fo r the generals was the brief, relatively Britain was perhaps typical: he wrote in Union . The refracted waves included bloodless, and decisive Franco-Prussian his diary 'It will be a terrible shock to the the British Empire reaching its zenith War, 45 years earlier. Emperor and is most regrettable and sad. in its geographic area; the German The decision making processes of We dined alone. Marked my new stamp collapse creating the stage for the journey individuals are rarely based on a logica l ca ta logue. Bed at 11.30'. But the planet into World War II; and oth er events such (o r moral) assessment of the issues by 1914 was a world of alliances between as the first step in the creation of the involved, large or small. For instance, the empires and nations and the networks of State of Israel. For Australia, the war at prospect of war can generate excitement

32 FUREKA STR EET DECEMBER 2004 as much as dread, especially if there found themselves, or, they could not visu­ The first assassin's courage failed him has not been one in recent memory. alise the actual outcomes. Or that many and he made no move. The second assas­ Many can have a vested interest in war: decision-makers were only following sin threw a bomb which exploded, injuring war to the military is the raison d'etre orders (a precursor to the Nuremburg members of the official party and others, and presents opportunities for new and defence following the next World War). but left the Archduke unscathed. The quick promotions. This is to say nothing As citizens in a democratic society, motorcade then left the scheduled route for of the opportunities for business or of we still retain moral responsibility for security reasons and the Archduke went patriotism of the ordinary citizen. decisions made even though we may about his official duties for the visit. Later More often than not, we work from abdicate the day-to-day decision making in the day, the Archduke on hearing there the decision which best suits us back to to the politicians. Good decision making were casualties from the bomb attack in the justification for the decision (if one in the collective sense is hard. It is dif­ hospital, insisted on visiting them despite is indeed required). And it can be said ficult to cut through the bombardment of all protests to the contrary. Personal cour­ confidently that the decision that best rhetoric, the opinions of the m edia, and age, cmn1non concern and what was termed suits us will more often be based on short­ the constant appeals to what can be seen noblesse oblige overcame any doubts term gratification than long-term gains. as self-interest, patriotism, or whatever. that he may have had. The Archduchess If our individual decision making But when we participate in a collective insisted on accompanying the Archduke. processes are accepted as poor or short process such as an election we could at Eventually, in a compromise decision, it sighted, then where can we get objective least reach a provisional decision as for was determined that a hospital visit would guidance? Religion can provide guidance whom to vote. Then ask ourselves of it: occur, but the motorcade would not go on moral or ethical issues in particular 'will this decision cause harm to others along the original route even though it led but cannot easily deal with complex and how, and if so, why am I making directly to the hospital. temporal questions such as trade policy it?' To love our neighbours as ourselves As hours had passed since the assas­ or the setting of educational standards. is an easy plea, but such a decision sination attempt, the assassins along the As an alternative, perhaps we could con­ actively implemented is the hardest one royal route gave up waiting, concluding sider history? On the face of it, history of all, far greater than to ask someone to that there had been a change of plans for is no good-at least as a teacher. Perhaps sacrifice their life as in war. As people, the Archduke. Princip, when he came to the reason for this failure is that we we favour the simple over the complex. the same conclusion, instead of depart­ can't learn from history because it does All in all, we simplify the situations ing for home like the rest, he reportedly not set out to teach us. History only pro­ we face often to the point where any went into a shop and bought a sandwich. vides examples (exemplars) of actions thinking of the possible consequences is Unfortunately, the official in charge forgot and consequences. We-individually and brushed away in favour of the immediate. to tell the driver of the Archduke's vehicle collectively-have to do the hard work Written histories too, simplify of the new route. When the official real­ of learning. However, history teaches complex matters. ised they were going down the wrong road, half a lesson: deep inside us we do know he remembered and at last mentioned the that to do wrong to others means they brief histories of the Great decision to the driver. The driver stopped will likely act in a similar fashion in War will mention 'Sarajevo', 'Gavrilo the car at that point and started reversing, return. But even with consideration, Princip', and 'Archduke Franz Ferdinand'. so as to take the right road. It was at this often we still go ahead and do wrong to Generally, the histories do not mention point that Princip, who had now come out others by direct means, by conveniently that there were six assassins in Sarajevo of the shop, saw what was happening. He looking the other way at the right time, that Sunday-90 years ago this year-for decided to take advantage of this stroke or through general indifference. we only remember 'the winner'. The of fortune. Princip produced his pistol, We also make decisions as individuals assassins were spread along the route to stepped forward, and fired the two shots. which collectively become larger deci­ be taken by the Royal party. Three of the Two shots was all it took. And we live sions such as occurs with political six were chosen because they had tuber­ with the waves and refractions of Princip's elections. The result of a general elec­ culosis-a disease at that time which was decision, albeit attenuated, to this day. • tion leads to a party being put into power invariably fatal. Each person had a cyanide and it then makes decisions. It generates capsule to prevent capture and interroga­ Stephen Yorke lives and works waves and refractions by its decisions. tion, a 'suicide squad' in modern terms. in Melbourne. Unfortunately, often we want to pass not only the duty of decision making to others but also every shred of responsibil­ ity for any outcomes. We try to build a barrier between us and responsibility: it was not my fault; don't blame me; they did it. In group terms, the responsibil­ ity for decisions in 1914 of emperors, generals, and diplomats can be argued as not being theirs personally: they were prisoners of the situation in which they

D ECEMBER 2004 EUREKA STREET 33 Crossing the boundaries

The Ship, Sarah Day. Brandl & Schl esinger, 2004. ISBN 1 876 04059 9, RRI' $22.95

T IS >S A BOOK m mcEs, of pedphedes, w

J4 EUREKA STREET DECEMBER 2004 observation and participation. Old connections are triggered by new experiences; memory is physical and walks with you down corrugated gravel roads. In her examination and ethno-linguistic critique of repre­ sentations and alterations to the natural, to the restructuring of nature through genetic modification and cloning, Day insists that 'living' is not simply a matter of having a similar or the sam e physical structure. The learned experience, the patterns and progress of inheritance, are disrupted. You can't teach the recreated to be what it naturally would have been. And the genetically altered Salmon with its Trojan gene will come unstuck from the inside out. What has been lost outweighs what has been artificially 'regained'. These are Miltonic issues of the Fall, with no Paradise available to regain. The satiri­ cal 'Inaugural Speech at the Announcement of the Successful Cloning of the Thylacinus Cynocephalus' posits: Now, teach this individual shy reticence, teach it elusiveness in dry sclerophyll and casuarina, teach it native invisibility in the shadows of shearing sheds and out-houses. Teach it fear. There is a commentary on occupation of land here. There is a commentary on the impossibility of playing the hand of God. The codes of existence itself are being tampered with and upset, and what we have is J.K. Huysmans' 1884 A Rebours where nature is constructed, where real nature is merely the inspiration and stimulus for an artificial world. Day is ruthless in her critique, but the deftness of her language, its verbal twists and turns, its m etaphorical base, lead to questioning rather than m ere accusation. Yet there is real anger, and a real questioning of what religious belief is in such contexts. In 'Oncomouse (R) DuPont', the fetishisation of the living, the capitalist profit at all costs in the world of science­ religion oppositions, psycho-babble and validation through this, the ultimate indifference to what it means to live, even be 'created', are all'dissected': Try telling the oncomouse that a lab-bred predisposition to cancer is in some way akin to predestination. is entered and explored poetically. It creates its own directions. And in the devastating poem 'Lex Talinas' the abuse and Sometimes possible readings might go against the purpose of use of animals is templated against ideas of justice (natural) the author, but Day creates digression through a sharp, intense and law: 'Did they savour the sop/of the vocabulary of punish­ linguistic register-she knows that words have so much inter­ m ent?' and: nal pull, such energy, that as hard as she works to contain them, they will escape. This gives The Ship a life of its own. Better a wicked pig This book of diverse poems is like the engine room of an than an aimless God ocean-going liner, the Rolls Royce engines of a jumbo, the Rob­ in a random universe. ert Stevenson MS train belching smoke, and the most acutely There is a despairing humour, if that's the word, for this. realised moment in nature actualised. There's no simple Day makes full use of repetition and semi-refrain, and in the answer. This book does not seek to answer, however, but to thylacine poem, the Biblical and Whitmanesque anaphoric rep­ explore. Read it again and again, it's eerie to realise how many etitions parody sacredness. Tradition is tampered with, geneti­ 'subterranean missives' there are. She reads the science, she cally modified. A love poem becomes a Dadaist inversion of the knows the edges: she looks over them as we look with her. She Aubade, and a 'romantic' image is grounded by empirical data. asks the necessary questions. • This is a book of struggle. It has moments of immense beauty, with Day turned to natural phenomena, the 'human' John Kinsella's most recent volume of poetry is Paipheral moment. There's despair in the hubris of altering what is, with Light: New and Selected Poem s. He is a fellow of Churchill tampering with creation. But it's a scientific book as well­ College, Cambridge University, and Professor of English at judgment doesn't fall blindly. The language of this tampering Kenyon College, Ohio.

DECEMBER 2004 EU REKA STREET 35 books: 1 Kiera Li ndsey Towards a politics of hope

Australian Son: ln.,ide Mark Latham, Craig McCn:go1. Plu to Pre-,.,, .2004. '"1\N 1 H64 Oi2HS X, RIU' SH l):;

Hebels with a Cause: Independents in Australian Politics, Bn an Cost, .2004. I'>H'\ () S6X -J.()(ll)'i i IUU' S 16.lJ'i

INTH< AmRMATH of yet anothe< m an and see how this has also involved federal Liberal party election victory, the negotiation of many con tradic­ Craig McGregor's Australian Son: Inside tions. McGregor suggests these include Marl< Latham and Brian Costar and Latham being economica lly right, but Jennifer Curtin's Rebels with a Cause: emotionally left, a bit of a bully boy, Independents in Australian Politics offer but also an intellectual, a bloke's bloke, two very different solutions to the prob­ with a soft underbelly. McGregor is at lem vexing an increasingly disillusioned his weakest when he slips into adulatory Australia; how to change the state (and appreciation of the man he has dubbed status quo) of Australian federal politics. 'The Great Suburbanite', indulging in The solution offered by Craig what Latham's first wife has described McGregor (with assistance from brother as Latham's 'Messiah complex'. At Adrian) is found in the man he has his best, however, McGregor offers been researching for seven years since some convincing insights into the McGregor first recognised him as the shifting sands of Australian society as future leader of the Labor party. Using well as critical sensitivity to Latham's material gleaned from interviews with Mark Latham, thinking. Indeed, having reviewed Latham's writ­ his friends and family members, as well as observa­ ing McGregor argues that, as a politician, Latham's tions made while accompanying Latham on numer­ strength lies, not so much in his policies, but, in his ous campaigns, McGregor promises an 'inside' per­ ability to be responsive to new ideas. spective of Australia's alternative prime minister. Ironically, Latham's intellectual strength may be While the book provides short, sharp and often the source of his 2004 election defeat. While Latham's insightful observations of the 'man of dualities', at perceived reluctance to reveal policy attracted criti­ 197 pages, it is tempting to suggest that either there cism from the media and general public, when his is not much 'inside' our future leader, or, as other policies did em erge they were criticised as being 'soft' Latham biographers have suggested, that the attempt or offering no solutions at all. Although McGregor's to quarry Latham's 'inner world' is like extracting Latham possesses a persuasive command of rhetoric, 'blood from a stone'. 'election Latham' did not. In contrast to McGregor's McGregor begins his biography with a visit to Latham who describes Australia's need for a more Latham's suburban childhood. Through a series of clearly articulated 'politics of hope', Latham's 2004 semi-nostalgic, almost sepia toned, snapshots­ election campaign offered little more than the reas­ which include Latham on the football field, Latham surance that things would stay the same. In so doing, in the classroom and Latham doing his homework­ Latham not only failed 'to appeal to the future'; he we see an ambitious, bright, but rather lonely child also neglected to create a point of difference from who was exalted as the great hope of a family strug­ 'The Program of Blandification' which has dominated gling against the odds. McGregor cites the death of federal politics during the Howard years. Latham's father and the discovery of his father's So if Mark Latham is not the current solution to secret first marriage and his drinking and gambling Australia's status quo, who or what is? In Rebels with habits, as integral to both Latham's close relationship a Cause: Independents in Australian Politics, Brian with Gough Whitlam and his interest in the so-called Costar and Jennifer Curtin suggest that the articula­ 'crisis in masculinity'. tion of a politics of hope comes from the real 'outsid­ As McGregor charts Latham's meteoric political ers' of Australia's political system : the independents. ascent, we can track Latham 's transformation from With over 55 elected since the 1980s, Australia now bright, right bovver boy to unifying party and family has more independent politicians than any comparable

36 EUREKA STREET DECEMBER 2004 Western democracy in the world. Of between the independents and the Senate, these, over 30 have represented rural and Costar and Curtin discuss the ways that regional constituents, and, at the time of independents have established Charters publishing in early 2004 there were still for Good Governance agreements, fought 25 independents in Australian politics. So, or failed to represent the needs of their what do these statistics and the relatively constituencies, while simultaneously recent phenomena of the independent struggling to 'keep the bastards honest'. say about Australia's political landscape? To Costar and Curtin, the real heroes And how might this offer us a point of of Australian politics are independents difference and even a voice of reason like Peter Andren, the current Member within a system, which some believe is for Calare, who maintains a stance against now so top heavy with party politics and the government's treatment of asylum career politicians that it is in seekers which is unpopular with elector- danger of grinding to a halt? ate; Doris Blackburn, who was elected as an independent in 1946 and was the F OR CosTAR AND CuRTIN, the rise of the inde­ first, and to date, only independent female elected to pendent can be traced to the fact that our main Parliament, and Tom 'Tory' Aiken from Townsville, political parties are no longer meeting the needs who kept his seat for 33 years, due to some highly of our regional and rural constituents. Add to this, amusing antics. These are people who bucked the sys­ the fact that Australia's major parties are experienc­ tem on their own terms and at their own cost with a ing a long-term decline in popularity, while inner zeal that was often visionary and radical. party discipline is at an all time high, and we have a Fast paced, well written and informative, Rebels situation where the independent is often the only with a Ca use offers its own 'politics of hope' by candidate able to articulate dissent and initiate reminding us that the Australian political landscape debate. Compulsory voting has also worked in favour has always been punctuated with colourful and of the independent who is seen to offer the disenfran­ passionate, defiant and determined characters, who chised voter a local and immediate alternative to the refuse to be bullied by the big guns of the party remote power players of Canberra. system. This book suggests, that while the current Using research gleaned from 85 nation­ landscape is arid and barren, it may well be that from wide qualitative interviews, Rebels with a Cause such deserts our next prophets come. • explores the history and future, power and position of the role of the independent in Australian poli­ Kiera Lindsey is a project officer for the Development tics. Through the use of current and historical case of Australian Studies in Indonesia at the University studies and an examination of the relationship of Melbourne.

DECEMBER 2004 EUREKA STREET 37 hook..,: l Brian McCoy Too little justice

A fatal conjunction: Two laws two cultures, Joan Kunm . Fedcr

I HAVE uN D ERTAKEN THE REV>EW of thi' book by easy to read book, she (a non-Indigenous woman) has Joan Kimm with som e hesitation. It is not that its opened a particular and public window on the vio­ content- the violence experienced by Indigenous lence that has been, and continues to be, experienced women-is not important. Having lived in a number by Indigenous women. Evidently, she has come to her of Indigenous communities over many years, I have perspective of this violence from her legal background, witnessed and heard enough to know som ething the reading of case studies and some historical and of this sad and distressing side of Australian life. anthropological research. It is not apparent that she T he violence currently experienced within som e has lived in Indigenous communities or collaborated communities is serious and needs urgent atten­ with Indigenous women in the forming of her argu­ tion. Nor do I hesitate because I believe it is solely ments. She firmly locates this violence within two 'Indigenous business'. We all have the right to live key domains: a cultural domination of Indigenous without violence. men over Indigenous women, and a Western My hesitation arises from my own history and and patriarchal legal system that has the perspectives I necessarily bring to this issu e. I am perpetuated that domination. not an Indigenous person nor am I a woman. There are aspects of Indigenous and gendercd life that lie MyOWN EXPERIENCE OF these tWO domains beyond m y own experience, however much I have is that they cannot be as simply reduced as Kimm heard and seen . My response to this book is from proposes. Indigenous women have cautioned me a non-Indigenous male perspective. It is necessar­ against assuming too readily that men dominate ily a response that is limited but accompanied by their lives and I have male Indigenous friends who some self-criticism. When I observe violence against openly acknowledge the relationship, spiritual and women, especially against Indigenous women, I cosmic powers that women exercise over them. At am aware that too easily has their suffering been the sam e time I have seen the results of male vio­ ignored, trivialised or even rationalised by m en lence upon wom en (and other m en) as I have also wit­ and much of Australian society. Thi book offers nessed great sensitivity and gentleness in men. I have the possibility that serious issues around violence seen the blindness of the legal system in addressing within Indigenous communities will be discussed Indigenous women and their rights. I have also seen and addressed. Unfortunately, it also runs the risk of it similarly and tragically deficient in responding to upsetting and alienating some Indigenous m en and Indigenous men and youth. women. They might not understand or interpret the What I found helpful (but also quite dispirit­ violence currently being experienced in Indigenous ing) in this book is its litany of legal tragedy. Kimm communities in as straightforward a way as Kimm moves across the decades of recent history and dif­ suggests. Indigenous researchers such as Judy ferent state and territory boundaries to demonstrate Atkinson, Bani Robertson, Marcia Langton, Kyllie a consistent, even systemic, pattern of legal igno­ Cripps and Sue Gordon have argued that the sources rance, insensitivity and incompetence in relation of violence are multiple, complex and cumulative. to Indigenous women. When she quoted Justice There would seem to be no logic or reason to dissoci­ Kriewaldt (Justice of the Northern Territory Supreme ate this present violence from the historical experi­ Court from 1952-1960) as saying, 'the older I get the ences of dislocations and dispossession, the decades less I know', she was more than repeating his com ­ of children being separated from their families and ment about cases involving Indigenous defendants. the immediate consequences of unemployment, wel­ Her book exposes, as it indicts, the Western legal fare dependency and alcohol addiction. system , especially as (largely) non-Indigenous men Kimm's book A Fatal Conjunction, appears to have administered it. It also discloses our inability, be based on the author's thesis for a Master of Laws as non-Indigenous people, to seriously engage with, at Monash University in 1999 (although this back­ understand and respect the values that lie deeply ground is not mentioned) . In a relatively short and within Indigenous society.

38 EUREKA STREET DECEMBER 2004 A FATAL CONJUNCTION l \\'' l\\\~ 1\\0{_ lh'RI-.

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~ <~ ... ·~~ The dichotomy that Kimm self-esteem and self-respect becom e proposes between 'traditional' and JOAHKIMM experienced and sustained by a group 'non-traditional' communities and her of m en as it was in earlier generations? understanding of 'elders', 'promised Do we, as Kimm proposes, continue marriages' and 'payback' tend to locate to blam e, accuse and abuse them ? As Indigenous people within fixed social the justice system so regularly and (pre-colonial) spaces. These social spaces have, in efficiently perform s, do we lock them away in fact, been fluid, changing and adapting as conditions, another world separated from their culture, fami­ environments and social structures faced an oft en lies and responsibilities? D o we believe that this brutal frontier and the enforcem ent of government conjunction of two laws and two cultures is, and can policies. Since first contact, Indigenous people have only be, fataP Alternatively, we can support those coped with a myriad of pressures due to colonisation initiatives and solutions that Indigenous m en and and the demands of assimilation . Som e are presently women have been proposing and which prom ote coping better than others. Som e are trying desperately their right to live without violence. We can form to hold onto values that connect their identity and partnerships with Indigenous m en that seek a m ore social regeneration, and some are abusing themselves just and non-violent world for them and their fami­ and their families. The violence that is currently lies. I would argue that the latter approaches are criti­ being expressed- directed m ostly inside rather than cal if we want to create a safer world for Indigenous outside the Indigenous community-cannot easily be wom en and children but also a more dignified world separated from the multi-faceted violence for Indigenous m en. It is also our only hope if we, as of colonial history. non-Indigenous m en, wish to honestly deal with the legacies of our colonial history and the violence that L ERE EXI ST T O DAY many oral and written exam­ has shaped us and those legacies. ples of the violence that Indigenous people have suf­ The title of this book is powerfully suggestive. fered. Take that of imprisonment. Unlike the army It points to the dire consequences that have resulted of North America that in the 19th century was used fro m the meeting of two laws and two cultures. to control its native peoples, here in Australia police However, by the end of the book we cannot more were used to settle and pacify the land. A long his­ clearly identify the pathology of this violence than tory of Indigenous imprisonment (with the use of to conclude that its virulence comes fr om men; chains) began where Indigenous m en were regularly Indigenous and non-Indigenous. As a non-Indigenous arrested for cattle and sheep killing. In recen t dec­ male reader I found the book disquieting and limiting ades the number of Indigenous people in prison has but also challenging. Part of me would like to think continued to rise to the extent that in 1998, 95 per that there is less violence than Kimm sugges ts and cent of all Indigenous prisoners in Australia were I would like to hope that men have less responsibil­ male and 90 per cent of those who passed through ity for this violence than she argues. However, I am the prison system in the Kimberley were Incligenous. sure that for too long we non-Indigenous men have At the sam e time there has been a steady increase denied our part in the violence that has deeply shaped in suicide am ongst young Indigenous m en in many ourselves and our relationship with Inchgenous people. communities. Clearly, especially through the use of I suspect that Indigenous men have denied their part in alcohol, expressions of self-harm and violence have violence as well. If you decide to buy this book I recom­ escalated within many Indigenous communities. For mend you check it out with Indigenous women. I found som e m en, old and young, violence towards them­ the experience informative and salutary. • selves, or those closest to them, has become normal­ ised behaviour. Brian McCoy is a Jesuit who has recently submitted The challenge to Indigenous communities is a Doctoral thesis at the University of Melbourne on how this behaviour might change. How do pride, Indigenous m en's health.

DECEM BER 2004 EU REKA STR EET 39 poet r\ Heather Matthew

Lacedonian Living

the creek meanders through crops of maize into holding dams, dribbling into laundry troughs and duck ponds to emerge downstream

in this earth floor con1pound, hammocks are strung between poles wired for electricity men in white dresses tend the fields

there are only 800 left in this rainforest their daughters marry Parisian tourists, return hom e in coloured skirts and polyester tops

here is an anthropologist's dream framed and catalogu ed on a museum wall fading in the sunlight

we are driven for miles along a bumpy track to see the temple's vivid frescos, it is late all the stalls are closed Flores Festival except for a hammock which divests itself firecrackers break the night into stars of its occupant, he is an arrow seller, quiver and bows it is 6am, no one is sleeping reading a cartoon magazine, night closes in the men are drinking from paper cups dancing inside painted m annequins, Heather Matthew wobbling crazily on a drunken axis another three day festival

laughter and music erupt from a shop doorway we need to leave but the streets are blocked the carnival is on parade, carrying the virgin on boards trailing flowers the length of this narrow bridge, we inch through the procession, against the flow of grandmas and children, turning sideways with our backpacks

our guide is hurrying on ahead, elbowing people who are walking orderly behind fla gs and banners women fo ur abreast shouldering their holy burden in high heels each statue different in its own splendour they are singing as they walk along the streets to the cathedral we are rushing late for our plane

Heather Matthew

40 EUREKA STREET DECEMBER 2004 - Young Writers' Award At Eureka Street we would like to extend our warmest congratulations to Annette Pereira and Angus Goswell who are the recipients of the Friends of Eureka Street Young Writers' Award for 2005.

Annette and Angus will receive awards of $1 ,000 each and will write a number of pieces for Eureka Street in 2005. The Friends of Eureka Street Young Writers' Award is designed to inv?lve young writers more dosely in the mission of the magazme. The two recipients stood out among a field of applicants and some excellent writing. The final decision was made by Jack Waterford, editor-in-chief of the Canberra Time s and member of the Eureka Street Editorial Board. Annette Pereira is studying a Bachelor of Arts/Communications at the University ofTechnology, Sydney. Her major is writing and contemporary cultures. She is interested in the integration of faith and public life. Annette also volunteers for Fusion Australia, an ecumenical organisation which seeks to bring about a more just society. Angus Goswell is completing a Bachelor of Arts in Media and Communications at the University of Melbourne. He has lived in Tamworth, Sydney and Amman, Jordan. Angus says he's pleased at the opportunity to take part in this program, as he recognises that it's hard for young people to break into the industry. The Young Writers' Award would not be possible without the support of Friends of Eureka Street members. We look forward to bnnging you the work of Annette and Angus during 2005.

DECEMBER 2004 EUREKA STREET 41 on stage

A TTH' '986 Amwm F

42 EUREKA STREET DECEMBER 2004 thsh o rt Ii st

The Pyjama Girl Mystery, Richard Evans. The Sparrow Garden, Peter Skrzyneck1. ...._ ... _.. . Scribe, 2004. I <; BN 1 920 76936 6, Im P $30 _...... _..,._ __ University of Queensland Press, 2004. I \11~ 'Who was the Pyjama Girl? Who killed her? 0 702 23426 5, IUU' $22.95 I don't know.' Peter Skrzynecki's memoir The Sparrow Gar­ Writers who eschew tidy resolutions den traces the journey of his family's immi­ are hard to come by. But crime writers who gration from the displaced persons camps of leave unanswered the classic 'whodun­ Germany to their new life in the late '40s. nit' conundrum are almost unheard of. In We follow Peter as he explores personally the face of a complex case of murder, the haunting and memorable events, from his expe­ conclusion of The Pyjama Girl Mystery is riences as a child in the Parkes Migrant Camp, refreshingly non-committal. Author Rich­ to the new family home in suburban Sydney, ard Evans traces a decade-long series of mistaken identifications, and later parts of his adult life. The selected memories allow us bizarre theories and official oversights following the 1934 discovery insight into the struggles involved in the refugee experience and the of an unidentified female body near Albury in New South Wales. nature of childhood, but perhaps most significantly, into the power­ The picture he paints tells many stories: of a corrupt and incom­ ful connection between family, particularly parents and children. petent police force; of a blind faith in forensic science despite its The strength of The Sparrow Garden lies in its emotional hon­ fallacies; of a pervasive social compulsion to sexualise and render esty. From the Skrzyneckis' innate grief at the loss of their homeland responsible female victims of violence. The former journalism lec­ to Peter's boyhood jealousies and frustrations; the emotions con­ turer's real talent lies in his ability to unravel the web of myth veyed are real. It is Skrzynecki's raw presentations of humanity that and hyperbole spun by the Australian press. Accordingly, his own make the text moving and cement many moments in the memory. account of the case is determinedly matter-of-fact. The style is The beauty of The Sparrow Garden is found in the language and simple, economical, and self-consciously devoid of literary flam­ poetry used to encapsulate these emotions and experiences. The boyance. What remains is an unreserved indictment of those all accompanying poems add to the text, and the author's ability to too willing to dispense with evidence in their pursuit of a more capture the essence of his experiences in a few verses is powerful. seductive, more convenient version of the truth. Skrzynecki's acute attention to detail in describing his surround­ - Jess Low ings, both past and present, is also strong, painting meticulous images (particularly of the treasured family garden after which the Stargazing: Memoirs of a young lighthouse text is named) that linger in the mind of the reader. keeper, Peter Hill . Vintage, 200-l. I~BN -Rachel Hewitt I 740 5 1276 6, IUU' $22.9.') 'Open your curtains over the black starry Sacred Space, The prayer book 2005, ed. Michelle night sky above Hampstead, or Boston, or Anderson. Mic helle Anderson l'ubhshmg, 2004. Sydney ... and read a favourite poem. Then l~BN () H5S 7234K 3, IUU' 524.9'1 stare at the sky and contemplate the vast­ Juxtaposed with the momentum of the com­ ness of the universe. Gradually, you will mercial Christmas rush is the timely release turn into a lighthouse keeper.' of Sacred Space, The prayer bool< 2005. This In 1973, art-school underachiever Peter daily devotional follows the same format as Hill applies to the Dr Who-ishly named the popular website by the same name. Alan 'Commissioners of the Northern Lights' McGuckian SJ and Peter Scally SJ of the Jesuit for holiday work doing a job that everyone Communications Centre in Ireland created must have fantasised about at least once. Despite his waist-length www.sacredspace.ie in 1999 as a response to hair and 19-year-old Aquarian idealism, he's accepted and spends all those 'seeking a sense of spirituality'. six months as trainee keeper on various tiny islands off the Scot­ The richness of this structure is in its simplicity. At the start tish coast. of each week there are six topics-The Presence Of God; Freedom; Despite the realities of Watergate, Vietnam and the Yom Kip­ Consciousness; The Word; Conversation; and Conclusion-to pur War seeping in via TV and newspapers, Hill's world contracts contemplate, as well as a daily scripture reading and a series of to a cocoon of story telling, midnight watches and endless rounds statements and questions in response. The need for spiritual sub­ of biscuits and cheese with tea. stance in our world is a quest not only for those already practicing In an age of 'Don't trust anyone over 30', he's thrust into close their faith. Sacred Space knows no denominational limits and is quarters with some colourful and often crusty older men who offer as much an invitation to those estranged from church as it is for low key but lasting mentoring in life, love and gourmet cooking. those with no faith background at all. Though the gap between the events and their retelling occa­ While over 11 million hits have been recorded at sionally shows as characters and places can blend into one another, www.sacredspace.ie, there are still many who find solace away Stargazing is a gentle, whimsical and elegiac story about vanished from technology. The commitment to seek daily comfort in the youth and an equally vanished profession. While Hill decides that pages of this book would be the greatest gift or N ew Year's resolu­ lighthouse life isn't for him (today he's an artist and critic living in tion the reader could give themselves. Holding tight to the spine Australia), it's clear that the beauty, peace and sense of wonder of of this prayer book may create a sacred space that becomes the that time have never left him. Recommended. backbone for their spirituality. -Sally Cloke -Lee Beasley

DECEMBER 2004 EU RE KA STREET 43 extreme: each frame of Steamboy breathes style and craft. Unfortunately the story doesn't match the visuals for brilliance. A ruthless cor­ fiJsh tn the pJn poration with its psychopathic henchmen battles the forces of Her Majesty (a stately Victoria) for control of the steam ball, an apparently endless energy source. The the­ An ime steam matic focus of man versus machine plays out with a fair degree of complexity: the Steamboy, dir. Katsuhiro Otomo. ideological struggle between the holistic Steamboy is Otomo's first feature-length and the m echanical. But what could have anime since the success of his 1988 sci-B. been poignant, will leave many cold. cult classic AlMongolia a Otomo is a passionate artisan, who has His born-again brother resents him, his family raises goa ts and camels. They also devoted the last ten years to developing sister-in-law looks like his mother, his cook, play cards, sing songs, baby-sit and Steamboy without the use of the modern ex-girlfriend has a daugh ter that has had as plait rope out of camel wool. In fact they Computer Generated Imagery (CCI) tech­ many birthdays as he has spent years away do pretty much what we all do: mix life and nologies found in such films as Toy Story and his father had a secret den. love, play and work, laughter and silence. and Pixar's up coming blockbuster The Paul, convinced to stay in town and The only notable domestic difference is Incredibles . The difference in texture is teach at the local school, meets Celia (Emily th ey don 't watch TV. Yet!

44 EUREKA STREET DECEMBER 2004 The Weeping Camel is part documen­ the help of a musician (not to m ention buy possible pasts and futures. The richness tary, part narrative fiction, and part fairy batteries, watch TV, eat ice cream, and of the characters, and our emotional tale. The film opens with an old man sit­ dream a little). involvem ent with them (and it is a film ting down to camera, telling an ancient tale The Weeping Camel is a quiet story that moves some people to tears), comes of how the trusting camel lost his antlers of domestic routine, working life, the from the recognition that all of the to the goat. He describes the camel look­ determination of nature and the seemingly characteristics and m otives attributed to ing up to the sky, patiently waiting for his universal desire children have to watch them in each fragment-assassin/hero, cartoons. There is little artifice-no 'char­ noble/base, tyrant/unifier, lover/liar­ acters' created from acting m ethods- just truly belong to them at the same time, people and their animals in front of and in the sam e world. cameras playing out a story, that is part real As a martial arts film there are some and part play. truly breathtaking fight scenes, but the But don't be lulled into a false sense of fighting is strangely secondary to the film's charm or sentiment. This fi lm has a very real concerns. Indeed for all its spectacular sophisticated narrative and a determined action the film is pervaded by a strange pace that m akes it far more culture than stillness. Zhang makes much of the nature. A fact that is perfectly reflected formal and aesthetic links between martial in the family's eventual use of the highly and other arts, music and calligraphy cultured tradition of music to reunite a explicitly, but also dance, theatre, painting, failure of nature. philosophy and even government. Even Does the camel really weep? I suggest in the fight scenes themselves, the fall you go and find out' of rain on the cobblestones, or the colour -Siobhan Jackson and movement of the leaves in the wind seem more essential to the scene than the swordplay itself. It is an extraordinarily Coloured sword strokes beautiful film to watch. - Allan James Thomas

H ero, dir. Zhang Zimou. Zhang Zimou's first foray into the wuxiz (swordplay) genre is a deceptively simple story. A man, known only as Nameless (Jet Li ), is presented to the King of Qin (C hen Dao Ming), a real historical figure famous as a despot, tyrant, and unifier of the warring forgetful, or perhaps plain thieving, friend Chinese kingdoms. Nameless claims to to return his lent body part. But of course have killed the three most wanted assas­ he never does. sins in the land: Sky (Donnie Yen), Flying Like Kipling's Ju st So stories, the tale Snow (Maggie Cheung Man Yuk) and plays beautifully with m agic and reality, Broken Sword (Tony Leung). As he tells stimulating the 'strange wonder' bit in his tale and is questioned by the King, we your head that cinema so rarely gives a find ourselves confronted by a layering of work out. multiple versions of the same events, each It is calving time in the Gobi Desert incompatible with the last but neverthe­ and the camel herd is m aking noises that less building on it, emotionally, aestheti­ only cam els can make. The first calf is cally and narratively. born with ease. All sticky and sandy, it Each fragment retells the same feeds without quarrel from its mother. events, but interprets the character's Before long a whole posse of calves are motives differently. Each fragment is drinking and milling about their mothers, also dominated by a different colour: but there is one expecting mother that is black, red, yellow, blue, green and still expecting. Waiting. Finally the calf white (both Zhang Yimou and the film's arrives after a long and difficult labour. It Australian cinematographer Christopher is a rare white calf, beautiful, but rejected Doyle are well known for their by the exhausted and traumatised mother. expressive use of colour). The effect is With a calm determination the family tries not one of repetition or incoherence, to unite the two, but all their attempts fail. it is m ore as if time itself has been So the two young sons saddle up and head passed through N ewton's prism and to a town, some distance away, to enlist broken into divergent but implicated

DECEMBER 2004 EUREKA STREET 45 watching brief State of the Universe address

/ L ALA LA. Whate woondeduul woodd .. . ' Maps tell you more than the physical shape of a cow1t1y: they Oh, hello. Just pass the towel, would you ? Well, don't you show the political preoccupations in the names chosen for newly sing in the shower too? I m ean, we've go t so much to be thank­ discovered places. There are some lovely little pieces of informa­ ful for, haven't we? Australia may be the lucky country, but tion: though Amerigo Vespucci's name was given to the enormous than k heavens there's so much good work going on all ro und lands that had been rediscovered by Columbus, the map makers this wonderful, happy world. John Kerry is going to make such gave it a feminine ending 'AmeriCA', to be consistent with Asia a fine President, and Simon Crean is showing all the doubters and Africa. The later programs deal with the fa cinating story of what quietly good statesmanship from a prime minister can do the Mercator projection and the maps of the D-Day landings. to make the nation mature and compassionate and visionary. And Tl1e Elegant Universe, a three-part series on SBS, Yep, I feel glad to be part of it all. Since Joan Chittistcr Monday 29 November at 7:30pm, is a funny, interesting look became Pope ten years ago, there has been such a resurgence at string theory. Though I am no mathematician, I think I of faith that churches are packed with tccnagersi and all those understood most of it, and what I didn't quite get I still enjoyed. new small parishes are working so well with their clerical Brian Greene, theoretical physicist who also wrote, with Mat­ families. We all grieved when dear old John Paul I died, but he thew Fox, The Universe is a Green Dragon, presents the big was such a wise, unifying force, that he left the church stronger, questions, ones that involve TOE- the Theory of Everything. kinder and happier than he found it. There had been some fears He is very much at hom e amongst all the nifty computer from conservatives when he relaxed all those antiquated patri­ animations and drinking blue orange juice at the Quantum archal marriage and reproductive laws, but strangely, through­ Cafe. It seems that almost anything is possible if you calcu­ out our culture, there seems to be more respect for the human late towards infinity: walking through walls, and juices of any body now that we know that harmless consensual joy is not colour, depending on what universe you inhabit. Because accord­ sinful. And ordaining women and married people has saved the ing to quantum theorists and the clever Mr Greene, there arc church fro m an unthinkable shortage of priests. JPl was such countless parallel univer cs alongside this one. This is an idea a visionary that the church is affecting people' lives for the much-visited by sci-fi authors: Terry Pratchett, that brilliant better all over the world. It's nice to know we're still relevant and funny writer (don't miss his latest, Going Postal: it's fantas­ to today's world and respectful of different ways of thinking. tic) often brings up this idea in his Discworld series, especially And it's such a relief to know that we've arrested the in Lords and Ladies. Funny, this idea of alternative greenhouse effect. Thank God for the probity of the forestry universes. Wonder if it's all real. companies: once it was pointed out that native fo rest logging was causing such problem s, they all got together and began to W AT? Hang on here, I have to try to take this in: What work out truly sustainable ways of getting timber. 'We'd hate are you telling m e? That only the bits about the telly are true? I to think we were responsible for one of the greatest mistakes of don't believe it: people wouldn't be so evil-so damned STUPID. the century', said the CEO of Nolongerrapacious Pty Ltd. He is Don't tell me that Bush managed to disenfranchise a million now the main force behind an extraordinary resurgence in rural Democrat voters with specious strategies designed to eliminate economies because now that employment and business aren't people of colour. Don't tell me the church has been bleeding tied to a decreasing resource, they can really be creative. internally from misogyny and fear for 25 years. Don't tell me Our Governor General, Lowitja O'Donoghue, said the the Indigenous people have not only got no treaty but have been other day that the 1988 treaty between Indigenous Australians weaselled out of their land rights. Don't tell m e that we're putting and the rest of us- the January 26ers-had been a powerful children behind razor wire and sending our young folk to fight force for good. She was launching a new book edited by a group another land war in Asia. Don't tell me we're logging, fishing, of Indigenous Vice-Chancellors, entitled Land, Learning and mining, polluting and burning the arse out of the planet. Opportunity, the three things that have made all the difference And when you tell me that the ABC have axed George Negus for the first Australians. and Channel Nine have axed Don Burke, I just know we're in And television is so good too: The Map Mal

46 EUREKA STREET DECEMBER 2004 Devised by Joan Nowotny IBVM

puzzled Eureka Street Cryptic Crossword no. 129, December 2004 ACROSS l. What a m ess! Nolan saving cub- he needs a white wine! (9,5) 9. Go back to nip black French drink; it's a tasty drop! (5, 4) 10. A child at one's ankles, perhaps. Ouch ! (5) 11. In fright and dismay, leader gone! That's a mistake. (5) 12. T hough mostly sane, I spent foolishly, not realising the unsuitability. (9) 13. Instrument helping one to return for a bath. (4) 15. Toast for the university lecturer saying 'nay' to a drink. (10) 18. Breadwinner, perhaps, who has the wherewithal to eat out? (4,6) 19. Possibly choose a place high up. (4) 22. Will inefficient trial ever result in recovery of property? (9) 24. Dante's hell has no ending, I conclude. (5) 26. Old card gam e in Rom e where Brutus initially entered. (5) 27. English leader took refu ge in rickety phone box, being afraid of passers-by. (9) 28. It can strike at the heart to express remorse. (4,4,6)

DOWN l. How could anyone as inept possibly be regarded as wise? (7) 2. Unusual lunar perspective on a human bone. (5) 3. Doctor on the web without ET. (6) Solution to Crossword no. 128, November, 2004 4. Som eon e, perhaps, I clothe in attire of the Stone Age. (9) 5. Sort of standard a girl like her sets. (5) 6. Any of 1-across, 9-across, 15-across or 18-across could be used for such an offering to the gods. (8) 7. A spoilsport possibly would act like this. (3,2,2,2) 8. Som ewhat bad-tempered about this sort of bread. (6) 14. How should one position oneself at the start of a m eal? (2,2,5) 16. They are like 1-across and 15-across in som e respects. But a single, Sir, would be adequate. (9) 17. Street torn about ID requirem ent- that's harsh! (8) 18. On the French sea, much pleasure can be gained from taking this. (6) 20. A phenom enon foreshadowing future trends, perhaps. (7) 21. Analysing primes could provoke a titter. (6) 23. Twisted vine holding ten bunches of grapes-watch for the little fox ... (5) 25 .... which might also disturb the Rom an flowers. (5)

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