A hatful of ‘Wotif’ Scenarios

THIS is the flag of the Republic of China, not THE REAL CHINA.

We at Pcbycp have been looking at the tea- leaves.   We’ve been working on a intra-agency think tank of “ Wot- if scenarios”. It prepares us for the report we must give at the end of May for the Defense Brown Paper, (all the white papers had been used by hoarders). One of the key hypotheticals was; “What if we fell foul of a rich and powerful ally who wasn’t quite as rich or powerful as the other ally,………. yet?

And what could precipitate such a distaster. ?

The following is a detailed description of what ensured. 

It all began with a cup of tea. 

The “Golden Crown” Chinese tea that gave us all the trots

The Formosan tea, (not really Chinese tea)

Clarrie noticed that the tea leaves were Formosan. “There it is on the packet”, he pointed to the text written in bold green and deep yellow.. “there it is..” Formosan tea’. We quipped; ” but I can’t be very Formosan if it’s made in Ceylon? Why didn’t you just get Ceylonese tea’? (have you noticed how tea is sold as Ceylon tea, when it comes from a post Britannic Empire former colony they now call Sri- Lanka). ‘I couldn’t’, Clarrie said dejectedly,  ‘all the Ceylon tea comes from China, and you know the Chinese tea made us crook and gave us the trots’. He had a point. The last batch (Heavenly sacred Golden Crown 888) we purchased gave us the daily doubles and we almost ran outta betting slips. ‘That’s why I chose Formosan. That’s when we sent off that request to DFAT from an investigation into the Chinese Tea market. And anyway, this Formosan tea, that’s from Sri- Lanka aint really Chinese tea, cos Formosa aint really China. We’ve gotta stick to our principles, that crook Chinese tea made us sicker than a dozen yellow dogs. From hereon we’ll put an embargo on Chinese products starting with tea’.

Clarrie was right, we all stared at our tea leaves. Though we realised an embargo on Chinese tea was gonna be pretty hard to enact. We’d have to be disciplined. Stay the course. Resolute.

Beaut picture of the Cutty Sark plying tea during the happy days when Formosa was part of REAL CHINA. Allegedly Opium my have also been on the odd shipment.

And that was our Wot- If moment.

What’s this got to do  with the price of recently removed organs in Uighurstan’?  Well, we’ll tell you. We’re a bit worried about drinking “Formosan Tea”. Cos as the bosun on the Cutty Sark will tell you, “Formosa is what they now call Taiwan”. And the Taiwanese call emselves “the Republic of China”. And that’s really put the wind up us, cos it aint the “REAL CHINA”. The REAL CHINA is crook on Formosa, cos it’s  not run by the party. In the REAL CHINA everything is run by the PARTY. “Bit like COAL runs Australia”, Clarrie said. ‘If you even mention Formosa they’ll (the other CHINA) go APE-SHIT.  And if you hang around with them, they’ll dis you faster  than Bridget McKenzie was dumped from the front bench’.

Which begged the question; Could this be the catalyst for a pan- global showdown, in which Australia could be the prawn? 

And if it was, would we have to come the raw prawn to justify our very existence, and STAND ALONE on PRINCIPLE??

Wot if, we kept to our embargo, and demanded the other Chinese Government, (not the one from Formosa that aint officially recognised where the tea is alleged to come from) apologise for sending us crook tea?

Mateship and trust are at the core of strategic partnerships. “You’ve Gott trust yer mates” (Dutton)

Wot-if, the REAL CHINA got really really angry at us for buying Formosan tea? And asking silly questions that called in their capacity to govern, make the trains run-on time, or offer themselves as a comparison to other extremely well managed countries like the U.S of A? Who just happened to be having an election and were in need of a dose of xenophobia to get them across the line?

Wot- if, we asked the  Formosan tea sellers to help us in our investigation. And if we keep on drinking that tea, they’ll (‘the REAL China”) threaten to ban imports, and stuff our entire economy?

Wot-if, our entire economy was dependant on the REAL China, our pollies had pockets stuffed with REAL Chinese money to influence decision making and the rivers of gold derived from real estate, and visa factories, (universities) was stemmed?

Wot-if, In spite of all the money, influence and largesse tossed at our pollies, miners and educational institutions, we said; ” thanks, but no thanks, and did a Clive Palmer on them”?

Mateship can be nuanced

Just a reminder, this is a hypothetical, nothing this far- fetched would happen in real life. 

Wot-if, we said, in retaliation;  “Dont threaten us, we want an enquiry into your tea. We don’t like it, that’s why we buy the Formosan tea. Your tea is unpalatable, the hygiene standards are below par and it gives us the trots. We’ll conduct a Tea enquiry in your country on our terms, and find out why it’s giving us the trots.   And whilst we’re at it, you can just bugger off’!

That’s what geo-politics is all about. If you get on the wrong side of your big mates they’re liable to get shirty. Even if they’re not shirty, you still have to kow-tow, (is that a Japanese term?) do all their wars, invade Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc, etc,  buy shitty and exorbitantly expensive war materiel that’ll never be used, and get screwed by one- sided trade deals. So if another one of your big mates goes crook on you, you’re totally stuffed.   It’d be worse than being shoved in the prison showers whilst having to pick up multiple bars of soap. Or worse still,  living an entire year without footy, cricket, or anyfink!  

And you don’t kow-tow to yer mates. Japanese P.M talks to marketing guru.

Wot-if the REAL China went crook on us, and said; “look here if you do an enquiry as to why you’ve got no footy or cricket and blame us,  we wont buy your stuff and you’ll get what’s coming to yer.’.

Wot- if Our response was;  ‘Get Stuffed, we can do without YOUSE!’, and we telexed em in Cantonese just to nark em. 

The Wot-ifs just grow and grow.

Dear reader, this scenario grinds onwards to the next thrilling instalment which you may read over your Formosan tea tomorrow morning.

 

Poetry Sunday 26 April 2020

A poem from Keith Douglas, one of the finest British poets of the 20th century, killed at the age of 24 in Normandy, three days after D-Day.

 

Vergissmeinnicht (Forget-me-not)

Three weeks gone and the combatants gone
returning over the nightmare ground
we found the place again, and found
the soldier sprawling in the sun.

The frowning barrel of his gun
overshadowing. As we came on
that day, he hit my tank with one
like the entry of a demon.

Look. Here in the gunpit spoil
the dishonoured picture of his girl
who has put: Steffi. Vergissmeinnicht.
in a copybook gothic script.

We see him almost with content,
abased, and seeming to have paid
and mocked at by his own equipment
that’s hard and good when he’s decayed.

But she would weep to see today
how on his skin the swart flies move;
the dust upon the paper eye
and the burst stomach like a cave.

For here the lover and killer are mingled
who had one body and one heart.
And death who had the soldier singled
has done the lover mortal hurt.

 

[More on Keith Douglas here: http://war-poets.blogspot.com/2009/01/keith-douglas.html ].

MDFF 25 April 2020 Clients

下午好朋友

The pandemic isn’t all that is happening.

I’ve been sent a March 2020 Productivity Commission Study Report-
Expenditure on Children in the Northern Territory.

Whatever the undoubtedly significant expenditure on creating this doozy, in my opinion it is worthless.

From pages 317-327 incl. Annexure B of this 344 page report is a Case Study-Yuendumu.

Rather than bore you with an in depth analysis of Annexure B, I’ve gone to the trouble of counting the almost hundredfold use of the word ‘services’ (not including the 70 times ‘service provider’ is used). The word ‘funding’ and derivatives such as ‘funded’ ‘funding agencies’ ‘funding bodies’ ‘funding providers’ occur more than 50 times. The word ‘clients’ appears more often than the word ‘children’.

No need to read these extracts from Annexure-B, skip to the bottom for a translation:

The co-location of service providers can also be a barrier to access if that co-location is between child protection and other services. Some community members are distrustful of child protection and are concerned that if they seek help from a service provider in the same location, child protection workers may be notified or intervene, as has occurred in this community in the past. Recently, the NT Government relocated its child protection service to the Child and Family Centre, without consulting the community or other service providers. This resulted in some community members feeling uncomfortable attending the facility. Some providers suggested that co-location of services should not occur without consultation with the community to ensure that it does not reduce access to other services.

And in a section sub-titled ‘Operationalising the Child and Family Centre’:

the previous Child and Family Centre manager had approved for Territory Families, family support services to operate out of the Child and Family Centre. When Territory Families recently merged their operations, the child protection staff commenced operating out of the facility. There is a perception from some people in the community that the presence of these workers has made some families unwilling to visit the facility due to the perceived threat of child protection intervening.

Translation:
People are shit scared of the ‘welfare mob’ stealing their children.

保持安全

Frank

Archie Roach-Took the Children Away…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aywDT6yHMmo

Plus a song from Paraguay sung by a child:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07P4etSwfc4

An Anzac Special, Georges Victory Lap!

pcbycp has the scoop of the century. 

The Magic Bus has been refurbished for the Cardinals Victory Lap!

Cos Anzac Day has been rooted by the Corona-crisis, the Easter Show was a fizz in Sydney, footy is off, and pubs and clubs are closed there’s nowhere to celebrate the greatest day in the Australian calendar, ANZAC DAY. ‘This is so un-Australian.  It’s  beyond contemplation” a leaked memo from Scomo’s office reads. What now Australia? Is this the end? Is this worse than the WHO?

(Some of us still think, the Who’s “Live at Leeds” is the greatest live rock album of all time, and Keith Moons percussive influence on ‘Magic Bus’ beyond compare.)

But who will drive the Magic Bus without Anzac? We need guidance, both spiritual and symbolic to fill this yawning abyss in the Australian psyche. From Wuhan to Wagga the question remians…. Without ANZAC, are we Australian? 

Hence the genius of “The Cardinals Victory Lap”!.  

Bigger than Moomba, The Cardinals float will lead the procession. Emblazoned on the side, “ for those who have been wrongly accused of kiddy fiddling’; the Pope”. This is no Papal Bull.  

The procession will be led by first Australians in traditional ANZAC regalia

This is the real deal. Through the auspices of the Catholic Boys Daily, (the Australian) Sky News an the one they call BOLT, the Cardinal victory lap will encompass Anzac, Easter, footy Grand Final (both codes)  and Australia Day as the greatest demonstration of cohesive policy, since, ‘terra nullius’. Leading the procession will be a phalanx of orderly aborigines, in chains, to demonstrate the bond they have for religion and overarching soverignty. To demonstrate to the world at large that George, religion and good governance has instilled in these  people a respect for authority and the capacity to march straight. A unifying symbol beyond compare.  

In celebration of his release, April 25th will be renamed “Cardinal’s Day” and George shall as ordained by GOD,  TO LEAD!

Sir John. Kerr, a GIANT amongst men.

Johnny H will be M.C . Beamed live by Sky News! First stop will be a vigil at the grave of Sir John Kerr.  In homage of the right to do whatever it takes to restore the STATUS QUO!  Then, after circumnavigating poorer suburbs, the entourage will meet for a star studded cavalcade to honour men and service-women who have made Australia Great. In Canberra,  the Governor General will give his soliloquy how he (George) alone stood between the infidel, (Johnny Turk, the ABC and the leftist Victorian Police Force and judiciary) and stood fast, so that kiddies may be fiddled. 

The TOMB OF THE AVERAGE BASTARD

Then at the tomb of the unknown soldier he will quote Levitivucs chapter seven and say   And lo, little kiddies will be buggered to preserve the right of men to be fucked up about sexuality, secrets and guilt as stalwarts of the Catholic Church” For this the entourage will visit the ‘TOMB OF THE AVERAGE BASTARD’, who died ingnominously somewhere on a field of valour so that some high ranking influential individual may get a sinecure. A brief prayer by local aborigines will symbolise the passing of the baton from the tomb of the “WRETCHED UNKNOWN SOLDIER” to their race so that they may be officially recognised as “wretched”, thus perpetuating the sacred tradition of bureaucrats who are ordained to “make  wealth” in prolonging  their suffering. 

His Holiness George will pass the spiritual Anzac baton, (a tin of bully beef) to Kevan Gosper in acknowledgement that sports officials are also worthy of lifetime sinecures.  Kevan will then pass it to George Brandis, who will celebrate the right of those in the Australia Council and other arts bodies so tnat they may gain sinecures and permanent employment whlst those who actualy work for a living in the arts sector are rendered poverty stricken. “So that they may apprecciate further the irony of Anzac”.  George Brandis will then pass it to Joe Hockey, so that average Australians will know their sacrifice made by losing jobs in manufacturing made him comfortable with a string of investment properties  and well off. 

George will receive the sacred baton in recognition of his visionary cuts to arts funding

Then at midday George will deliver the “Lest we forget eulogy”. 

This is a special Anzac-Corona event. There will be a guard of honour of scouts, brownies, girl guides and orphans who will sing excerpts from “ Fiddler on the roof” , “Fiddler in the cloisters” and ‘Fiddler at the confessional” concluding with a spirited rendition of “May those in power continue to fiddle”.  

Dog Whistles will play the last post at the conclusion of the ceremony

Joint sponsors

Finally, a pause in the proceeding as Alexander Downer delivers his address on bugging embassies to preserve the right of petrochemical companies in not paying taxes and the  ongoing incarceration of special  witness K. The event is sponsored by Kellogs. The RAAF roulettes, (sponsored by Crown) will do a flyover, and finally a special performance by aboriginal tribes gathered from the wastelands of areas not deemed fit for mining, real estate or re- education will sing ‘Wollongong the Brave’ and instill in us a sense of nationalism. 

Lest we forget, that we might continue the great tradition of useless sacrifice in other peoples wars, rather than imagine an indigenous foreign policy. 

Ratbags will NOT BE INVITED to the Cardinals Anzac-Corona Victory Lap!

Next years event is already in planning

If you aint “Corona-ed” yet, this ‘ll get you thinking.

The academic staff at Tolmie Theosophical Society Anthropology wing.

Dear readership, in times of crisis like these when we’re forced to draw down on the untold intellectual capital of our readership we realise how lucky we are not be an Uighur, a Hong Kong protester, Peter Dutton, (there should always be editorial balance) or just a Virgin airliner. Cos we’ve been told  all the virgins are completely grounded, rooted and penniless.

From the sage of the near north comes this fascinating insight into cultural  imperialism, a bit of social Darwinism and the pole- axing hypothetical that We; “those anointed by the crimson thread of kinship that unites us as inheritors of the White Empire under the all seeing beneficence  of her Imperial Majesty Queen Victoria, Defender of the faith, Empress of India, etc.etc, etc’, may not be the full bottle on archeology, anthropology and prehistoric art. In light of the restriction currently being exercised on purchasing of full-bottles at licensed liquor establishments we recommend you savour this one slowly, and send your correspondence, to ” Paleolithic Wine Appreciation Society’, 12 Cardboardcask St, Dubbo.N.S.W.

This from our esteemed anthropologist front the  Margaret Meade anthropology chair, (the stool was broken) The Tolmie Theosophical Society, Private Bag, Emeritus Professor Ira Maine (OBE , Croix de Guerre Pour le Merite, Tidy Towns Award recipient 1988.)

Prof Ira Maine, with assistant developing Corona Vaccine

he writes…..
‘I was more than a bit amused when Australian archaeologists, Griffith’s Adam Brumm, Bruno David from Monash and Maxime Aubert from Griffith had the temerity to suggest that  ancient cave paintings in Sulawesi  were thousands of years older than those at Chauvet or Lascaux in France. The Poms, being long convinced that all forms of modern homo sapiens began in Huddersfield,  pooh-poohed the notion. Influential archaeological scientists  (Durham and Southampton Universities)  implied that the work had been poorly done, that parts of the Sulawesi cave paintings might have been done much later and surely almost everyone was aware that archaeologically sound work can only be carried out by English professionals?

Javanese Sea Shell seller negotiating fair price with staff member.

And then there were the sea shells from Java which turned out to be slightly less than half a million years old and that the incised  geometrical shapes cut into the shells very strongly suggested a very high level of cognition in the geezer woh did the incising.

Javanese paleolithics demonstrating distinctive dance technique and native costume

All of the above would suggest that the modern mind, the modern thinking process has been around for much longer than suggested and that the thick-as-a-brick shambling, half man, half gorilla promoted as part of our evolutionary past might  need revising.
The doctrine of the ‘survival of the fittest’, a very timely and useful tool of the 19th century,  gave God fearing people  the right to burn, rape and butcher all over the Americas, the East and the South Seas.   ‘Backward’ countries, those which had failed to industrialize, (so this notorious Darwinian , self-serving ‘philosophy’ suggested) were doomed to fail.

Oddly in all of these  ‘backward’or ‘failed’ countries not one country, despite the propaganda, was discovered to have a population of mentally retarded people. In all cases the people were bright, intelligent and relatively happy. They were, in fact, just as bright, intelligent and happy as you or I. They hadn’t ‘developed’,  hadn’t ‘ industrialized’,  because they hadn’t felt the need to. What they had they were happy with.  Despite this absence of ‘development’,, they exhibited no shortage of intelligence whatever.

Evidence, like Neanderthal DNA, paleolithic art flourishes to this very day.

The point I am trying to make here is that perhaps this has always been the case. Perhaps our brains have always been as complicated and sophisticated as they are now.  How the brain is used simply depends on the complexity of the task involved. As far as Mother Nature is concerned, she has furnished us with a brain capable of creating either a spear head or a Hadron Collider. I believe mankind has only survived until now BECAUSE of this astonishing complexity of the brain and its capacity to adapt to almost any condition it finds itself in.

I find it very difficult to believe that what archaeology/paleontology offers us, as our cross-your-heart-and-swear-to-die ancestor, a half man, half gorilla.Frankenstein monster, can be true.. This stupid, shambling, moronic  oaf would have lasted about five minutes. Unless of course, all the sabre-tooth tigers and their familiars were all mentally retarded as well.

This ground breaking research was to have been published in the CSIRO journal and Nature, but the authors recognising the fact the Australian Government has no interest in science, research or academic funding re- released their findings at the height of the Corona Crisis as ” Carry on Screaming” which made it extremely attractive to the Murdoch Press. And for  an entirety of one week, took the suffering and martyrdom of Cardinal Pell off the front page of the Catholic Boys Daily, (the Australian) .

Ira.  (His mark)

More poetry of a Sunday on a Tuesday

Ernest and his wife fiddling before George in Rome made it popular

Song: All I Got’s Gone
Lyrics: Ernest V. Stoneman(

Music: Ernest V. Stoneman ( I think you can find this on youtube)
Year: 1934
Genre: Country
Country: USA

Dear poetry lover, Todays piece was postponed in recognition of the excellent work sent through from our sage of the distant north west central, who happily informed us that though there may be rivers of gold going to bankers, big business owners and sundry heavy hitters, for the people of Yuendumu, nothing’s changed, cept that the police station at seven million and counting is really big, its up to date, all the uniforms are well pressed, and immaculate, and thus equipped it gives the constabulary free reign to wander through the community behind tinted windows, community proof glass, as paramilitary to install FEAR!

Ernest being Ernest

For the most  peace-able people on earth this is meant to install RESPECT.

And it ‘s all done to keep them SAFE!

So what on for poetry?

 

We found this Gem from Ernest V Stoneman, a colleague of Woody Guthrie who did really bad doggerel, but its way funnier than anything Henry Lawson did, and there’s a delightful ironic lilt. Which tells us something very simple. Things aint that bad. It got real bad during the depression, and if it gets even half that bad it aint that bad really.

Country folk, the extended Stoneman family before social distancing took its toll

So let’s hand it to Ernest, and in deadly earnest give a thought to those poor folk up north, who are not allowed to have fun, public gatherings or anything or they risk being incarcerated, corona-ed and killed to protect them for their own good. There’s logic in that, up north the incarceration inductee is what keeps the cogs going, to think otherwise would be ‘Un- Australian’.

 

Take it away Ernst……

 

I’m gonna sing you a brand new song, 

She’s a dandy sure as you’re born, 

All these things just a-runnin’ in a rhyme, 

Things all right considering these times, 

But all I got’s gone, all I got’s gone.

 

Before Netflix there was the Auto-harp

Whole lot of people own nice little farms, 

Doin’ pretty well, didn’t do no harm, 

Sold their farm, bought an auto or two, 

Notes come due they had to skid-doo, 

All they got’s gone, all they got’s gone. 

 

Whole lot of people bought automobiles, 

Didn’t know how they’s a-gonna feel, 

Rode around so grand and proud, 

Notes come due, couldn’t pay it out. 

All they got’s gone, all they got’s gone.

 

Locals admire the Yuendumu Public art initiative, ” Bloody Palms” (they were subsequently arrested for not practising social- distancing)

I went to the bank to borrow some money, 

I tell you right now, didn’t find it funny, 

The banker said he had none to loan, 

Get your old hat and pull out home. 

For all we got’s gone, all we got’s gone 

 

Whole lot of farmers want to ride and plough, 

Had to buy a tractor to find out how, 

When they broke a piece them poor white fools, 

Better kept walking and a-ploughing them mules. 

For all they got’s gone, all they got’s gone.

 

“Bloody Palms” failed Australia Council funding, but may be eligible for funding grant from Philanthropy Australia ” Building Better Communities Initiative”.

Country dudes are ridin’ in cars, 

Tailor-made suits and smokin’ cigars, 

Runnin’ to the barbershop, primpin’ and a-rubbin’, 

But you right now they’re ploughin’ and a-grubbin’.

For all they got’s gone, all they got’s gone. 

 

Don’t like to see the women a-wearin’ satin dresses, 

Their husbands bankrupted and are in great distresses, 

Better being at home a-washin’ up the dishes, 

Patchin’ their dresses or their husbands’ old britches. 

For all they got’s gone, all they got’s gone.

 

The joint chairs of philanthropy Australia, will ensure funding is granted to worthy recipients.

Me and my partner, we both went to bed, 

Jug of white lightning under my head, 

I waked up, the stopper was pulled, 

The jug was empty and my partner was full.

All I got’s gone, all I got’s gone.

MDFF 20 April 2020 Outrage

Howdy folks,

Our leaders are outraged.

Last week as we all sat in front of our TV screens we were being admonished. “Stop it!” we were told. “I’m very disappointed” declared our great leader. Some of us had behaved atrociously, we had stockpiled dunny paper. Makes the bombing of Yemen pale into insignificance.

In Australia, public enemy number one is the budding capitalist who’d been blocked by eBay from selling 5,000 rolls of toilet paper. Public hero number one is the Supermarket manager who refused to issue a refund to public enemy number one and gave him the highly publicised bird instead.

This week as we Happy Little Vegemites sit in front of our TV screens we are no longer castigated as our leaders change the focus of their outrage onto the World Health Organisation and the Chinese so called ‘wet markets’.

It is alleged that it was the influence of the Chinese Government that got Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus the job of Director General at the WHO. The good doctor is being much maligned. Whatever the whole story is, it does remind me a bit of when allegations and innuendo surrounding Geoff Clarke justified the disbanding of ATSIC.

Cases of the baby being thrown out with the bathwater are all too common.

There is no shortage of straw men either.

So there was our treasurer the Honourable Josh Frydenberg in an Oscar winning performance expressing apoplectic outrage about the WHO not banning China’s wet markets.

Lets face it, it is all the WHO and the Chinese’s fault.

Several million people being up in the air at any one time flitting from continent to continent, thousands of people being shunted around in those disease incubation vessels of industrial scale tourism, a Global Economy that needs perpetual growth to prevent it from falling over and the ever increasing movement of people and goods, none of these have contributed to spreading the virus.
It is all due to the WHO and the Chinese wet markets, its as simple as that.

I think it was Dylan Moran who in a comedy routine expressed his gratitude to Muslims.

We Irish are no longer stereotyped as terrorists thanks to the Muslims

Out here in remote Aboriginal Australia we know all about stereotyping as a tool of political opportunism.
I guess we have to be grateful to the Chinese.

Keep safe you-all

Frank

Sister Sin- Outrage

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KB3UiwAdfec

And as an antidote to the heavy metal- Ronnie from Botswana:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTvyHKBuUpQ

MDFF 19 April 2020 Jurlpu

Hallo vrienden,

Yesterday’s Dispatch had two songs about ‘pajaros’ (Spanish for birds) described as ‘non sequiturs’.

I was wrong. Almost everything is connected to everything just like the neurons in a brain or the butterfly and the tempest of chaos theory.  Non sequiturs often are not, and only appear to be such.

Jurlpu (Warlpiri for birds) have often featured in the Dispatches, notably in the one labelled ‘Wings’ in which it was pointed out that a Democracy would only be able to take graceful flight if the pragmatic right wing and the idealistic left wing were evenly balanced.

As I hasten to correct myself regarding the non sequiturs that weren’t, outside in the front garden there is a loud bird that I’ve dubbed the ‘peep-peep’ bird. We haven’t been able to get a glimpse of this bird that keeps well hidden in the oleanders and intermittently lets out a loud peep-peep. Way off in the distance another peep-peep bird answers. This has been going on early in the morning for years.

I often listen to the Dutch news on SBS TV.  Lately this is more of a duty towards my mother tongue as a wall to wall coverage of the corona virus as if nothing else is happening in the world is rather boring in any language.  So you can imagine my delight when a news segment was presented by an ornithologist.  She interviewed city dwellers in the Netherlands who because of the lock-down’s sound of silence had for the first time become aware of and able to hear the song of birds. Unlike us in Yuendumu, they had not realised just how many birds there are.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_xWCJAtz3U
Simon & Garfunkel- The Sound of Silence

The most common bird in the Netherlands is the merel (blackbird)…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=997RTKzc39c

Sarah McLachlan- Blackbird…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8U7DmaMEZs

Elvis- I wanna be free…(like a bird in a tree)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wTKo_kPlck

Tot ziends,

Frenk

MDFF 18 April 2020 Exponential

Hello fellow pawns,

In the process of trying to cobble together my Yuendumu story (which incidentally is tentatively titled ‘Resilience’) I’ve once again pondered the nature of memories and the associated pitfalls.

My father’s anecdotes which I wrote up more than a decade ago had the following footnote:

G.M.Edelman in “The Remembered Present: A Biological Theory of Consciousness”(1989) wrote:
Every act of perception, is to some degree an act of creation, and every act of memory is to some degree an act of imagination”

Thus I remembered the fairy tale of the Prince who rescued the Princess and as a reward asked the King for a grain of wheat on the first square of a chess board, two grains on the second square, four grains on the third square, eight grains on the fourth square….” anyway you know the rest.

In this instance the Princess turns out to be an act of imagination, borrowed from another story altogether.

Thanks to that time trap known as Google (the erroneous spelling of ‘googel’, a very large number) I can now save you the trouble of adding it all up- the chess board will have 18,446,744,073,709,551,615 grains of wheat weighing approximately 1.2 trillion metric tons (in continental Europe they use full stops, in Australia we use commas. Why? Possibly for the same reason as our water runs out of the bath in the opposite direction).
This is more than half a century of Australia’s total wheat production.

So all of a sudden those of us who thought we would never have to consciously use mathematics ever again are bombarded with “flattening the curve”, the threat of the exponential spread of the virus, logarithmic axis on graphs, and the time lapsed between doubling of infections.

I remember Dr. Julius Sumner Miller on TV explaining nuclear chain reactions by having a room full of ping pong ball armed mouse traps. Throw in a single ball and all hell broke loose. Not unlike the arrival of the First Fleet in Botany Bay in 1788, or the return of the Ruby Princess to our shores in 2020.

So how is Yuendumu coping? Heaven forbid that our ping pong balls take off.

There are strange things happening every day (Str. Rosetta Tharpe)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-88l-M0KgkI

Let me digress and tell you a Jukurrpa story (apologies to the Traditional Owners of this story for any errors and liberties taken):

Around Ngalikirlangu the Wardilyka (BushTurkey) collected lots of yakajirri (bush tomatoes) and made them into round flat cakes called pirdijirri. The Turkey hoarded a large quantity of the cakes. She was the Gina Rinehart of Central Australia.
During the Turkey’s absence, the Yankirri (Emu), rummaging through the Turkey’s camp discovered a huge hidden hoard of cakes. This made the Emu very angry “That Turkey she has only two chicks and I have a clutch of children to feed!” The Emu kicked and broke the cakes and scattered them all around. When the Turkey returned and saw what had happened she was very upset and flew away, never to return.

At Ngalikirlangu there is an outcrop of granite and scattered around its base there are many dark brown granite boulders. But we know the granite hill and scattered boulders were, are and always will be, a Yankirri and lots of smashed pirdijirri, and a cautionary tale against hoarding.

Warlpiri people are not natural hoarders. Our shop shelves are well stocked. We did not need a Prime Minister admonishing us on television like so many naughty children: “Stop it! Just don’t do it!”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pei0qERW5b4

to prevent Yuendumu people from panic buying toilet rolls. They’re still available on our shop shelves.

As for the police being out in force to ensure we don’t do the wrong thing, that we behave ourselves and do what we’re told, so what has changed here?

Nah, as long as our ping pong balls stay resting on the mouse traps, Yuendumu is probably one of the safest places to be at the moment.

Shalom

Frank

PS- So have those people whose houses were burnt down a few months ago suddenly miraculously found shelter in which to self isolate?

All they talk about is the medical and economic crises. Are we all supposed to conveniently forget the bushfire victims, coral bleaching, climate change, offshore-detention, Syrian refugees, the bombing of Yemen, the Mexican wall, Guantanamo Bay, the Weegas, the pork barrels …. I just realised I could go on forever.

Lest we forget.

Tom Rush- Remember Song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yN-6PbqAPM

And as per usual a non-sequitur nice bit of music to finish with- Pajaro Chogui from Paraguay

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nf9ksMrSDy0 

What the hell as we sit in self-isolation, one more: Pajaro Campana:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UhE4ouXjRg

In case you didn’t know Pajaro is Spanish for bird.

Upholding the Right to Righteous indignation……… In Sydney.

George won’t be seeing all the ribbons in Ballarat when he moves to Sydney.

Dear reader we know that you have eye strain and ear ache. Because like us, you have been glued to the television watching with clenched fists the sad narrative of Cardinal Pells persecution. 

And once you’d seen a picture of real, tangible, and not imagined human suffering. Like us, you just hit the replay button and played it over again. And played it again. And played it over and over and over until your eyes hurt, your back ached, and you were sticken dehydrated and catatonic through immersion in this mans suffering. Only then could you appreciate one millionth the suffering and  baseless accusations made by unseen accusers upon this MAN of GOD!

George wont be reminded of all the wicked things he had no knowledge of that were going in in Ballarat.

In Sydney , George wont have to worry about bumping into people who were abused under the overarching guidance of his administration.

Under the excoriating questioning of Andrew Bolt, we saw a man, (may we suggest with some rapt anticipation a Saint? ) who remains as a symbol of what GREAT MEN are. In spite of all the baseless, accusations made against him, this man of GOD is a soul of good natured forgiveness. He forgives the misguided ill-informed man who made the baseless accusation. He forgives him and understands that he may have been encouraged to fabricate his confected story so that the ‘culture wars’ may claim another victim. Pell points correctly to the anti establishment revolutionaries amongst the Victoria Police. The bias of the Victorian legal system, and the insidious influence of the leftist ABC.  Pell, (righteous be he in name and deed) knows which side of the culture wars he stands.  He stands for the right of the RIGHT! He has old fashioned conservative views. We rejoice. We rejoice that in doing so he repudiates the sin of gay marriage, the apostasy of nature and animalism, the nihilism of science, and the enshrined right for a man, (as quoted in the bible) shall stone, axe, or bludgeon to death his wife for adultery or back- chatting, or sometimes even for giving a funny look, and do it under the auspices of an all seeing all loving GOD!

By being in Sydney George wont suffer the indignity of whole crowds of angry former parishioners.

In Sydney the harbour views will keep him safe from the forests.

We flinched, when he turned his wrath upon the ABC. Their time had come! WE felt for him. We felt as our former Divine ruler Charles 1( though he wasnt a Catholic) did under the stench of parliamentary rule, that principle is far more important than popularism, governance and silly ideas like representation,universal sufferage and education for women.  The ABC is the incubus of popularism.  They allow little people to speak. They allow the unanointed to have opinions. They question. In doing so they question the right of authority to rule unquestioned over all of us. Because of this apostacy the ABC should be riven, broken on the wheel and its intestines removed, its still beating heart thrown to the seething throng, and the entrails of each quarter dragged though the village streets. Only then will we see justice and uphold “ CONSERVATIVE VALUES”!

Cardinal, Pell also made it quite clear that this heinous act could only happen in Victoria. Victoria that cess-pit of anti-establishment libertarianism. Where shock-jockery and pure values of a hard line Anglican and Catholic Church are suppressed by good governance and apathy of the people. Where what the jury thinks should count for NOTHING! Wisely he has fled to New South Wales, where power is vested for all of us by the few. No chance of him bumping into a victim in New South Wales. No chance to see the ribbons and flags addorining every Catholic establishment in Ballarat. By being in New South Wales, he is safe in knowing that whatever happened, it didnt really happen. And besides though it was happening all around him, he didn’t know, cos he is that kind of bloke who could have worked as a gas- fitter at Auschwitz and said; “I just thought they were into baking’, He will be safe in Sydney. 

In Melbourne his life would be in peril. There are angry people who blame Pell for the cover- ups, the bloody mindedness and the bastardry.

In Sydney, George wont come across books like these quite as much. Which might give him cause for introspection and any hint of personal responsibility in the deaths of so many innocents.  (sorry they have sinned originally, so we spose they aint so innocent after all).

In Sydney, his victory lap is a right to GLORY!

In Sydney George wont worry about bumping into angry parents who have since died waiting for compensation for the loss of their families through rampaging sexual deviants employed under his watch. They just don’t have that sort of thing in Sydney. Phew! And he wont have to apologise either. Phew! (again)

He need not worry, the highest court in the land has given him freedom. He’s not guilty, but he aint innocent either, cos he’s gotta deal with “ Original Sin’ for starters. And where do you start from there?