This Dispatch is from 15 December 2010, and, sadly, still as current as the day it was first published. (Use Google Translate for foreign text)
अच्छा दिन मेरे दोस्त
A documentary on SBS reminded me that many moons ago I read several Hunter S. Thompson books. I like to think some of Hunter’s writing rubbed off on me: Fear and Loathing under the Intervention.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVT2tAV_66k
Hunter S. wrote that there was a rumour that Edmund Muskie (then running for President) was alleged to be addicted to a little known drug Ibogaine. Hunter S. started the rumour.
I herewith start a rumour: There is a rumour that Mal Brough and Jenny Macklin are both alleged to be addicted to Ibogaine.
I haven’t been able to come up with any other explanation for their politically motivated attack on Aboriginal Australia.
On the news last night: An NT enquiry has not come up with any explanation for the $70 million that is missing from the “Closing the Gap” SIHIP (Strategic Indigenous housing and infrastructure program) initiative.
Hunter S. supported George McGovern’s Presidential campaign. McGovern’s main platform was that: The war in Vietnam was a mistake and we should withdraw immediately. McGovern lost.
Kevin Rudd and now Julia Gillard (both also alleged to be addicted to Ibogaine) should have said: The NTER Intervention was a mistake and we should withdraw immediately. Kevin didn’t and Julia won’t. Their humanity and common sense are dwarfed by their fear of defeat and their determination to cling to power.
Mind you, if they withdrew the Ginger Bread Men, I am at a loss to imagine how we’d manage without them. How could this society function without the bee-watcher-watchers?
Last week a young lady that grew up in Yuendumu rang from Stirling (500Km or so by road) enquiring if we were buying seeds. She turned up with some relatives and her two small daughters.
They’d brought Watiyawarnu (Acacia Tennuissima), Paturtu (Acacia Melleodora), Manja (Acacia Aneura), Kanalarampi (Acacia Cowleana) and Wakulpiri (Acacia Coriacea) seed.
When I spoke (bad) Warlpiri to their mother, the little girls (around 10 years old) were surprised and amused, so I struck up a conversation with one of them (in Warlpiri). Yes, she spoke Warlpiri at home, and yes she was going to school, and so on. With justified pride their mother told me that her daughters spoke four languages (Anmatyere, Alyawarra, Kateij and Warlpiri). As an afterthought she said “and English”. When the seeds were being weighed, the little girl named them (in Warlpiri).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnHoqHscTKE I don’t believe in an Interventionist God….
A father of five works for us, but only manages part time hours. He spends much time pushing a pram.
Presumably based on “information received”, Yuendumu police were looking for him. They eventually caught up with him out the front of the Intervention Store. For all to see they proceeded to search him for drugs. They made him take off his shoes etc. They found nothing.
Whence the presumption of innocence? Whence the due respect of discreetly searching him at the Yuendumu Police Station?
Everyone thought that there was nothing wrong with this kuntangka (shame job) situation, this humiliation. It was seen as normal. These are truly a conquered people.
So will they re-introduce tar and feathering and the stocks? Why not!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LgkuPfcN3c The Police….”I’ll be watching you!…”