Category: Personal

Australia is a beautiful country, geographically and socially. But as with all good things, it has its bad apples. News coming out of Camden NSW last month about the rejection of an Islamic school building application has put a pall of bigotry and intolerance on what could otherwise be a lovely town in which to live.

It would appear that there are conflicting views on why the application was rejected. Counter to the council’s view, quite a few people have chosen to tell the ABC why they thought the application should be thrown out. See the video “Council rejects building of Islamic school” in the ABC News article to see what I mean.

The guy who rambles on about “My kids don’t read Islamic, how are they going to go to that school?” is evidently a fluent speaker of Christian. And then there’s that “…we don’t want them in Australia” woman. I mean… “Please explain?”

People of Camden: shame on you. Not for rejecting the proposal – I’m sure any professionally prepared proposal will have come to the same conclusions. You should be ashamed, however, that you should allow your community to breed such contempt for humanity.

No faith professes the merits of evil. Islam is getting lots of bad press at the moment because a few so-called “Muslims” have chosen to misinterpret scripture, abandoning context for bravado and their own religious bigotry. But to call Islam evil or a “bad teaching” is, in itself, evil. In my opinion the events at Camden amount to religious persecution.

Go back a few centuries and you will see that Christianity has had its own PR disasters. The Crusades were a shambles – politically motivated and representative of the very things Christ would have abhorred. In 1098, troops of the First Crusade besieged the city of Ma’arrat on their way to Jerusalem and, to quote a participant: “In Ma’arra our troops boiled pagan adults in cooking-pots; they impaled children on spits and devoured them grilled.”

It isn’t a fairy tale. It happened. It is difficult to look upon the Crusades in an attempt to glorify one’s faith, just as it is to look upon Camden to find some glimpse of brotherly Christian love*.

I should point out that I am not out for a whinge about how Australia is on the verge of a religious war… far from it. From where I stand, Australia is becoming a rich and thriving land of cultures that I would never otherwise have encountered. It’s fantastic!

At lunch a couple of weeks ago, a friend was telling us how her parents would not enter an Italian or German establishment of any sort, and that Japanese goods were to be shunned. Now her parents love their zippy little Japanese car. Imagine going out for dinner and not having the choice of risotto or (good) spaghetti Bolognese. And think – if my beloved gelateria did not exist, there would almost certainly be another fish and chips shop in its place. And it would probably be owned by the illustrious and colourful (but only white, ployse) Pauline Hanson.

The people in Camden (with their collective views) are very much in the minority in Australia. I just wish that they knew that too.

*This could be any faith, but I use the Christian example primarily, because even though Australia is a secular state the Constitution opens with “Whereas the people of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland, and Tasmania, humbly relying on the blessing of Almighty God…“. It’s up to a subject of the Consitution to decide what that means to him or her, but historial evidence suggests that the reference to Almighty God relates to the Christian God.

I seem to be blogging somewhat vicariously this week. Still, if someone else can better express what I want to say, then why not.

Things have been a bit rough on a number of fronts lately, but one does one’s best to stay on top of it all by being resilient and making things, well, bounce off. This is the story of every human being, and at times we succeed without even trying, at others we fail miserably. Soldiering on in the face of hardship is easier said than done, but it helps when inspiration comes so handsomely, courtesy of Shakespeare:

“Now, my co-mates and brothers in exile,
Hath not old custom made this life more sweet
Than that of painted pomp? Are not these woods
More free from peril than the envious court?
Here feel we but the penalty of Adam,
The seasons’ difference, as the icy fang
And churlish chiding of the winter’s wind,
Which, when it bites and blows upon my body,
Even till I shrink with cold, I smile and say
‘This is no flattery: these are counsellors
That feelingly persuade me what I am.’
Sweet are the uses of adversity,
Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head;
And this our life exempt from public haunt
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
sermons in stones and good in every thing.
I would not change it.”

Duke Senior in As You Like It, Act 2, Scene 1

How easy it is to just say “I give up, I’m not going a step further” when things don’t seem to be going your way. It happens when you think you’re all alone and there’s no one to prop you up.

All too often, the view of Duke Senior is one that is concealed from the disheartened and depressed. A friend of mine describes depression as being the inability to conceive of anything that could be remotely fun. Things that were once pleasurable become relentlessly mundane and extravagant, and hope for change seems futile. It is difficult to understand this when you’re not the victim of it, so a snappy “Just snap out of it” will never work.

I don’t know if there is a universal solution. I know that my spirits are sometimes improved when I open a book and unexpectedly discover gems like the above.

The one thing, above all, that I would tell a friend in need would be that friends and family are always around, even though it may not be apparent. Escaping from circumstances and the people around you only deepens the despair. Concern about turning to someone – only to find they are equally troubled – is unfounded. Even in the midst of one’s own troubles, knowing that there is someone else in the same boat more often than not can become a mutual call to arms, a drive to emerge from the crisis and draw strength from adversity.

Perhaps my tuppence-worth could be good enough for my own consumption from time to time, eh?

Just out of sheer boredom last week, I was going through my messenger conversations from many, many years ago. It’s cool but scary to think that these messenger programs store everything that is said between people, especially when you consider that there are entire relationships that exist only within the messenger world.

Anyway, I’m fairly sure the person I was talking to wouldn’t mind if I published his words – a very insightful view on “shininess”:

People are attracted to shiny things. These shiny things do not necessarily have any particular value, but the assumption is subconsciously (and often incorrectly) made that something that is shiny is also valuable.

Think of sugar as an analogue… Before we refined sugar and added it to everything, something sweet tasting was something that would give you energy and nutrients. The association was made between sweetness and good food.

But we know that things that are sweet nowadays are not necessarily good in terms of nutrition or substance.

Similarly, people are attracted to shiny things because they may have been (in the past) things which were that substantial that they could afford to be shiny. But we know now that shiny things do not necessarily have any substance.

Because people are attracted to shiny things, it is actually necessary to advertise your worth by being shiny to a degree. And that also, you in particular have a lot to be shiny about.

So what you need to do is two things:

1. Understand and become comfortable with just how amazingly hot, talented, friendly, etc, etc. you are. In realistic terms.

2. Understand and become comfortable with the idea that you are allowed to advertise your wares. You will not offend anyone who understands your worth. In fact, it is unlikely that you will offend anyone at all.

Sometimes a lecture from a good friend is all it takes to make everything better.

Q: What’s better than a cup of coffee to wake you up in the morning?

A: Opening the front door to find that there is a temperature difference of approximately 15 degrees between the inside and outside of your apartment. In a singlet.

This is Brisbane: June is supposed to be singlet-able! Anyway, I was up bright and early this morning to go to the markets at the Powerhouse. A brisk walk down Brunswick Street revealed that there are people in the world who still haven’t figured out that V8 engines aren’t very sensible in the current economic and ecological climate. I saw a Maserati Coupé, an Aston Martin V8 Vantage and what I am fairly sure was a Ferrari 612 Scaglietti (which is a V12). This cold snap must be their fault entirely*.

The markets were wonderful. The assortment of fresh food is astounding. The fruit and veg were crisp and aromatic, the bakers were showcasing the most perfectly plaited loaves I have ever seen, and the cherry tomatoes were selling at 80 cents a punnet. Sadly, the German sausage queue was at least 10 people long, so that had to be missed. The markets are always good for the spirits, especially if you don’t go with a shopping list. Call it retail therapy without the retail bit.

I took my camera along for no other reason than for the fact that it was already in my pocket. And thus, I am able to provide evidence that the Baby Bonus scheme is working. Babies everywhere! I got “heeled” by prams twice. The attached photograph shows one small stretch of the markets, and where one would normally expect to see roller bags, one sees prams. And toy dogs, but that’s another story. End rant.

I am now going to warm up with a nice bowl of fresh pasta. Mmmm…

* Before you say anything, no I am not an alarmist greenie. Ice caps come and go, with or without our help. It’s just easier to hold nature responsible for our inability to live without fossil fuels.

The new 3G iPhone, let it be said, is a staggering piece of technology. It may be weeks away from official release here in Australia, but if everything that is said about it is true, then I am hard pressed to think of a device that does so elegantly what the iPhone does.

I have had my eye on the yet-to-be-announced Nokia E71 for a while, and there is a real chance I will still go for that, however the iPhone has gone from being a pretty toy to a serious business phone and surprised everyone in the process. It isn’t the fact that Apple’s moved the goalposts; it’s more that they have started playing on a different field altogether. As if each iPhone developer at Apple had a picture of me (and every enterprise user on the planet) on his or her desk, with a cross-hair superimposed on it!

I should also point out that I do not normally gush about any particular brand or piece of equipment. I am not a Macevangelist, nor am I a Microsoft junkie. I just like good technology. So I really do hope that the iPhone does all that it promises to do… I don’t know if I could deal with any more disappointments this year.