Come forth young urine, and flow from the bowels of human excrement to the white porcelain of the lavatory bowl.

Your journey has ended, and yet just begun...

There is one difference between the world of satire and the world of mainstream corporate and political indoctrination:

The satirists advertise the fact that they are talking shit.

Sometimes I feel an incredible love for the world. It tears me apart. We are human beings. We have children, lovers, wifes. Regardless of our religion and upbringing. Whether we choose to fly the plane that drops the bombs or press the trigger which releases the rocket propelled grenade. Whether we fix the evening meal or stitch the open wound. We are human. And as a certain playwright once said,

If you prick us do we not bleed? If you tickle us do we not laugh? If you poison us do we not die? And if you wrong us shall we not revenge?

Dear John Howard and Co,

You are all power hungry no-balls cunts.

Signed,

Wintervacation

Life of a young man

I wrote this four years ago almost to the day:

I’m steadily achieving a clarity of mind which I have been unable to find for the last few months (or as long as I can recently remember – like maybe even while I was at high school, I’m not entirely sure). By clarity of mind I mean that I’m not constantly worrying about what I’m doing, what I’m not doing, what’s ‘real’, what I should do in life (and what if I get it wrong), am I a good/bad person, will I fail/not suceed at something and so on. I mean, it’s still there but it’s not enveloping me like it has previously. I tried to take a lot of stuff on my shoulders and I don’t think you (I) can do that directly – I become unproductive and stagnant. Like you can think so much about what should be done and what you’re not doing and what’s wrong with your life and the world but if you let it control u dealing with it becomes impossible. Ok, it’s like this. Just say there’s this huge stone u want to move. If u try and deal with it all at once and take it on your shoulders you know it’ll break your back and you’ll never get it anywhere. But you try anyway, cause it seems like the ideal way to move the stone. But then you realise you can break it up and focus on moving smaller parts of the stone, and that succesfully moving little parts of the stome are an accomplishment in the first place. And then u realise that you’re lucky to have a stone to move in the first place, and although other people may be moving bigger stones faster than you’re moving your stone, and instead trying to copy the path other people have made with their stones, and comparing your stone to theirs, you realise you’ve still got your stone and if you focus on moving it, however insignifacantly, you know it’ll go somewhere. And you also realise that it’s nice to rest against your stone every once in a while, instead of constantly trying to move it. And of course, people often come over and help you move it, or combine their stone with yours so you have a bigger stone.

So, in my case, I’ve been resting on my stone for a while, or moving it back to where it was previosusly to see if the earlier spot was better, or moving less recognisable parts of it, a combination of the three actually. And because I hadn’t moved my stone forward for so long, I began to wonder whether I could move it at all, and I began to think that I needed to move it all at once in the right direction, even though I didn’t know where that was. But I’m starting to move little bits, or at least beleiving I can move little bits, and I’ve also found comfort in the fact that whether or not I move the stone at all, it’ll be gone soon enough, and I won’t have the choice, so I may as well see how much further it can go.

Come you masters of war
You that build all the guns
You that build the death planes
You that build the big bombs
You that hide behind walls
You that hide behind desks
I just want you to know
I can see through your masks

You that never done nothin'
But build to destroy
You play with my world
Like it's your little toy
You put a gun in my hand
And you hide from my eyes
And you turn and run farther
When the fast bullets fly

Like Judas of old
You lie and deceive
A world war can be won
You want me to believe
But I see through your eyes
And I see through your brain
Like I see through the water
That runs down my drain

You fasten the triggers
For the others to fire
Then you set back and watch
When the death count gets higher
You hide in your mansion
As young people's blood
Flows out of their bodies
And is buried in the mud

You've thrown the worst fear
That can ever be hurled
Fear to bring children
Into the world
For threatening my baby
Unborn and unnamed
You ain't worth the blood
That runs in your veins

How much do I know
To talk out of turn
You might say that I'm young
You might say I'm unlearned
But there's one thing I know
Though I'm younger than you
Even Jesus would never
Forgive what you do

Let me ask you one question
Is your money that good
Will it buy you forgiveness
Do you think that it could
I think you will find
When your death takes its toll
All the money you made
Will never buy back your soul

And I hope that you die
And your death'll come soon
I will follow your casket
In the pale afternoon
And I'll watch while you're lowered
Down to your deathbed
And I'll stand o'er your grave
'Til I'm sure that you're dead

- Bob Dylan, Masters of War

Today is a day I resent my country.

The black stain of fascism is now spreading through Australia like a terminal urethral cancer eating away at the insides of a seemingly healthy young woman. The economy is strong and incomes are high. But we are destroying our humanity.

New police laws coupled with ministerial jurisdiction and a xenophobic immigration system have put a grown man, a doctor, in a detention centre. Without charge after 12 days of police detention. He was granted bail by the courts, the minister moved swiftly to cancel his visa.

The justification is protection from terrorism. Protection from evil. Protection from inhumanity. But unfortunately, inhumanity breeds inhumanity. Wars create fighters. Ignorance for the rule of law in a society breeds a lack of respect for justice administered in that society.

The arrogance and power-greed of White Man trudge on, bulldozing the lives of life-givers, fathers, mothers and children.

If an individual looses faith in the established rules and order, because the rules have been designed to imprison and marginalise them, what avenues are left to voice their concerns?


Violence...perhaps?

TGIF terror poll

Coming every Friday. And in this case Thursday afternoon. Wintervacation's original and o-so-interesting, polls!

Vote in my poll!

On the immigration debate

Please listen, Philipe Legrain talking on migration, audio link here.
You might have to skip forward about a third of the way through the broadcast. You need realplayer.

Dearly beloved
We are gathered here today
2 get through this thing called life

Electric word life
It means forever and that's a mighty long time
But I'm here 2 tell u
There's something else
The afterworld

A world of never ending happiness
U can always see the sun, day or night

So when u call up that shrink in Beverly Hills
U know the one - Dr Everything'll Be Alright
Instead of asking him how much of your time is left
Ask him how much of your mind, baby

'Cuz in this life
Things are much harder than in the afterworld
In this life
You're on your own

And if de-elevator tries 2 bring u down
Go crazy - punch a higher floor

Prince - Let's Go Crazy

'government has gagged debate on the fairness test'

- is it just me or is there inherent irony in that statement?

Just for arguments sake, I made my last post at 12:30am on Tuesday morning. Here's what came out in the Sydney Morning Herald, that same day, an article about Malcom Fraser's, former Liberal Australian Prime Minister, criticism of Howard's use of fear politics.

I'de just like to make this heard...somewhere

We.

As in - you, me, your grandmother, the postman - are living in an era of global fascism.

You are living in fascist times.

I'm going to bed now. I just had to make that truth heard. Because I suddenly realised that most people don't know, or don't want to know, that they are living in backward, suppressive, dictatorial, unfair, violent times. Because they can avoid the truth.

But I can't. And this will help me sleep. More importantly, it will help my neighbours sleep, as it will prevent me from screaming my hatred and despair at the whole present State Of Things out my bedroom into the night air.

Am I happy? I'm not blindly happy, but I'm getting better.

WV

- Oh, and if you have no idea what I'm talking about, I give you a stepped plan excuse to not remain ignorant:


1. Look around your world.
2. Read George Orwell's 1984
3. Search Arundhati Roy's transcripts, speeches or books and listen to/read them
4. Look around your world again.

I wonder

Gun culture.

In other news, I wonder.

I wonder if my thoughts are a construction. I wonder if they are a construction of my upbringing, the school I go to, the circles I turn in. I know they are. But if they are, who am I? And where is the world going? And can I make a value judgment about it? Can I choose to be righteous, successful, intelligent, philanthropic?

Who doesn't want to be a good human being? Who is damaged? Who isn't? What does being a lawyer mean? What does focusing on profit maximisation mean? What does opting-out mean? What is drug use? What is reality?

What is caring? What is selflessness? What is science and what has it done for us? What is meaning, and what is the structuralised meaning in language? And where has it gone? And was it ever structured? And if it wasn't, how was it meaning?

What is modern, post-modern, valuable? What is evil and what is good?

What is the difference between a double espresso and a soy decaf late? What is getting drunk?

What is disease? What is war? What is terrorism? What is poverty? What is inequality?

Who is at fault?

What should be done?

Who should do it?

Where am I? Not in time or space. Where am I in the dimension of life?

edit: who reads my blog?

aaaaaand I'm back in Sydney :).

billboard

demolition

Terrorists have ambitions of empire

Terrorists have ambitions of empire, says Cheney - SMH 23/02/2007

I knew it! That must be why they have military bases in the Japan, Europe, the Middle East, the Pacific, hell, the middle of Australia. That's why they're starting wars with sovereign nations under provenly false pretenses. That's why they have ignored the international organisation of countries which was formed to enable diplomatic decisions on global issues (the UN).

Wait a second! That's America!

I think my head is going to explode.

JOHN HOWARD has turned up the political heat over Iraq by committing 50 to 70 more troops - SMH 20/2/2007

50-70 troops? How many soldiers does it take to change a lightbulb? Cause that's about all the use they're going to be.

WV's wordplay for Tuesday

The text below is taken from a Sydney Morning Herald article regarding John Howard's recent comments about American presidential candidate Obama's plan to withdraw troops from Iraq by 2008. The quoted text is Howard's speech:

Senator Obama's call for a withdrawal of troops from Iraq by March 2008 was also matter of Australia's national security (Howard)

"If I was running al-Qaeda in Iraq, I would put a circle around March 2008 and pray, as many times as possible, for a victory not only for Obama, but also for the Democrats."

"I do not apologise for criticising Senator Obama's observations because I thought what he said was wrong. If America is defeated in Iraq that will be catastrophic for the West and it will have tremendously adverse consequences for Australia."

"The greatest current threat to the quality of the alliance would be a sense in the United States that Australia had deserted her in her hour of need,"


Well lets have a look here:

Senator Obama's call for a withdrawal of troops from Iraq by March 2008 was also matter of Australia's national security (Howard)

The logic presented by Mr Howard in this sentance seems to be that if American forces were removed from Iraq, the security of the nation of Australia would be put under threat. Would the various groups and forces fighting Australian and American foreign intervention in Iraq, having suceeded in their goal of freeing the country from foreign military intervention, decide it was then time, when the troops are removed, to launch an offensive in a country on the other side of the world? The more likely assumption is that a withdrawl of force would actually lead to a softening in anti-Australian sentiments from the various military organisations ('terrorists' as they are commonly known) causing violence in the middle east. The public rhetoric of organisations such as al-Quaeda support such a conclusion.

"If I was running al-Qaeda in Iraq, I would put a circle around March 2008 and pray, as many times as possible, for a victory not only for Obama, but also for the Democrats."

Al-Qaeda is a military organisation that uses violence to achieve its goals. In this sense, it is similar to the militaries of American and Australia. The difference being that American and Australia are sovereign states and thus assume moral supremacy when they use bombs, tanks and guns to kill people and destroy other sovereign countries in the name of a safer world. There was no al-Qaeda in Iraq before the American and Australian invasion of Iraq. Local resistance by such organisations grew out of a situation of foreign intervention. The country is now entrenched in civil war and there are arguments that if foreign forces withdraw the situation will further deteriorate. But it is questionable if the situation could deteriorate any further. There are daily bombings and people on all sides are being killed every day. A withdrawl of foreign forces could lead to a softening in the killing, as hapenned in Afghanistan. Granted there are still massive problems there, but at least people aren't being killed as they were during the conflict period.

"I do not apologise for criticising Senator Obama's observations because I thought what he said was wrong. If America is defeated in Iraq that will be catastrophic for the West and it will have tremendously adverse consequences for Australia."

Was America's defeat in Vietnam catastrophic for the West? We must remember that the wars being fought between the middle-east and the west are being fought on middle-eastern soil. They are wars were eastern military organisations tied to no particular nation state are fighting the foreign powers of western sovereign states. A defeat for the west in this context would lead to less violence. This is mainly because these are ideological wars, they are fought on the basis of values and religion. They are not geographical wars because the 'terrorist' military organisations have no country to call their home. The wars therefore cannot be won on geographical grounds, as the invasion of Iraq has shown so clearly. The terrorists in Britain were home grown. In this context, continuing to use military force will only fuel the violence. Diplomacy and recognition are thus needed. An avenue not once, not ever, considered by America or Australia in dealing with these military organisations.


"The greatest current threat to the quality of the alliance would be a sense in the United States that Australia had deserted her in her hour of need,"

American parliament in both houses is now ruled by the Democrats. The Democrats initially opposed the Iraq war and are looking to removing troops by 2008. It is hard to see how Australia's alliance with America would be threatened if we choose to pull out troops in the near future as well. Also, It is impossible to imagine that the world's only superpower, who is fighting technological wars it has initiated in countries outside it's borders on the other side of the world, is 'in her hour of need'.

fireworks

Chinese new year's a coming baby!

I'm in Vietnam. Will blog when the internet becomes more interesting than beach and cheap seafood. Photos when I get back

peace

WV

for the last time,

Hewitt is a fuckwit.

Two photos. But yeah, there's a purpose here. This is the late night Muslim snack joint. They fry up just about anything except pork and you can have it with noodles or rice. I don't think people are aware there is quite a large Muslim population in China. Especially southern China. A lot come up from Malaysia and other SE Asian countries. Anyway, the food is good, and awfully cheap.

sweet potato sweet potato!

This is the honeyman. He walks around the cafes we frequent trying to sell watered down honey with a constant, chiseled-in, smile on his face. When he's not selling honey he's smoking copious amounts of tobacco through a bamboo water pipe or snoozing in the lotus position at various shady spots on the sidewalk. His speech is unintelligible and he's almost definitely a little crazy, but he appears happy.

There are stories to these photos and I should be telling them. This was taken near the water's edge of a relatively unknown Chinese port city on the way to Hainan. The old woman in the bottom left of the photo is sorting through garbage for used wooden barbeque skewers with the slow persistence of aged and weary hands. I assume they will provide here sustenance for the day. She is pilling them up on the edge of the garbage, below the black garbage bag on top of the concrete blocks. You should be able to see them if you look carefully. She did not once visibly recognise our presence. Rare in a country where people will sit and watch you play cards for hours on day long train journeys because you are white.

I'd just like to once again point out the obvious. Basically, why the political leadership of Australia, America and much of the rest of the west is full of shit. John Howard responded to Bush's speech regarding more troops for Iraq by claiming that if there was not a continued military presence in Iraq and Allied forces withdrew it would be a win for terrorism. Let us follow a little train of logic on this,

1. there were no 'terrorists' in Iraq prior to the American invasion,

2. the original reason for invading Iraq was because Iraq had weapons of mass destruction (which it didn't),

3. it is generally understood, even admitted by American military leaders, that much of the violence in Iraq is being caused by civil war between rival religious groups.

This is the problem with the concept of 'terrorism'. What is terrorism to you? What is a terrorist to you? Is a US soldier who sits in a tank and fires shells at residential housing a terrorist or is the 16 year old Iraqi kid who fires back with a Russian made AK-47 the terrorist? Who is more morally in the right? Who's cause is more important? Whose blood is more valuable?

Who started it!? And should that really matter?

What really troubles me is that because John Howard has made a decade long career out of feeding the public bullshit, the public mindset has become bullshit. Orwell named it 'doublespeak'. Where you use language in a way which destroys meaning. You know what you're saying is bullshit, but you say it anyway, at the same time believing in it yourself if you're really good at it. Look it up on google for more definitions, or read George Orwell, 1984.

Anyway, enough of that. Also, beware of French-Canadians. I won't go any further than that but they have special powers which you should watch out for. Especially if you're competing with them to chase women.

Do blind people go to sleep really easily? If my eyes were closed all the time, I think I'd go to sleep really easily. But then, maybe if you're blind, its more difficult to go to sleep, because you can never close your eyes. It must be an interesting experience waking up as a blind person. I'm gonna try and wake up with my eyes closed and actually get up. I'll let you know how it goes.

chocolate sure is yummy

'Australians spend more on chocolate than they do on helping poor countries' - SMH, 7/01/2007 (wholey shit its 2007, where's my hover board damnit!?)

Me, personally, I spend more on chocolate flavoured worm tablets than i do on helping poor countries. And I'm not even a huge fan of chocolate. And I live in a poor country, so I really don't have the 'too far away' excuse. I could walk outside right now and find a person within five feet of my main gate, hell, fifty people, who have less disposable income in a year than I have in 2 weeks.

But its cold outside.

PS fuck you google and your American imperialism spellcheck bullshit. Flavored is spelt flavoured in the rest of the English speaking world. Get with multinationalizm.

that z was on purpose, it isn't even a word...

Photo a day 2 weeks!!

There was a, ahhhh, earthquake in Taiwan and it broke a 5 out of 6 of the major telecommunications lines from the outside world to China. So, although it doesn't really seem to have made news in the west, the whole of south-east asia has been struggling with extremely slow internet for the past two weeks.

What it means for me is blogging becomes even more of a chore than it normally is. However, I've just finished exams and final assignments. With the ceremonial 'drink till 6:30 in the morning and feel like poo for most of the day' now out of the way. There's little else to do for the next two weeks except go to the internet cafe, buy pirate dvds and complain about the cold.

Because of my life is boring, so to speak, and because I have a wonderful camera which my parents bought for me at my disposal, I'm going to start carrying my camera with me everyday. And to provide myself extra motivation, I'm gonna post the best photo of the day on my blog each day. Can you believe it?! Daily updates! I've said it, I probably won't go through with it, but you heard it and disheard it here first.