Just finished reading Barack Obama’s “Dreams from my Father” – it’s a good read – flowing narrative that draws you in, with insightful and nuanced reflection. The book is about his journey to discover and forge his own identity, and also about his thoughts on race politics. He writes about growing up with the identity struggles that come with mixed cultural background, working as a community organiser in Chicago, and returning to Africa to meet his father’s side of the family.
i was surprised how emotional i became when reading about Obama in the latest edition of Time mag. Emotions that kept returning as i read the book. Could there really be an authentic person in politics? Someone with intelligence, decency, style and the competence to govern .. who believes in assembling the best minds and working together to solve problems?
That sense of hope that he generates was sorely needed in the world, especially when looking to the USA to return to its noble visions of highest and best potential.
For me it’s not so much about the colour of his skin .. as the fact that we are about to have a Community Organiser in the White House. Not only a person who works at grass roots level, but someone who understands that to solve big problems, we need to find common ground and work together.
(i say “we” .. meaning that .. that the whole world depends on that one country to be their best. Unlike the fearful and aggressive, unreconstructed alcoholic version of the US we’ve had recently.)
In my view Barack is a good person, who believes in getting things done .. and does things differently. My hope is that he will move politics back into a place of decency and competency, genuine problem solving and that he will inspire others to join the world of community organisers.
He is a good person .. i wonder if he will turn out to be a great person.
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i just remembered watching the acceptance speeches at Ben and Rhi’s house, projected huge upon the wall. Just as sweet as the day kevin007 took the throne of Oz.
Links:
photo credit: Hot Meteor
Spent a Saturday last week indulging whims.
Started off watching films at the HRAAF festival (Human Rights) ..about disappearing islands in the Pacific (eg the Carteret Islands off Bougainville). One of Georgie’s films was featured.. her NGO Pacific Black Box got young people to make films about the local effects of climate change. (Mentioned this on my work blog.)
The session was called: “Reel Change”
Really good films that could have an impact. There was a woman from Tuvalu and a man from the MakePovertyHistory campaign. They held a forum and spoke after the film.
Anyway i felt i needed to make a change, and stimulate the economy .. ok i just went therapy shopping. And came back with the latest in
Must Read Now.
Not only that but when i arrive home, i remember that there are many new CD’s in my bag from recent CD launches. eg
gray taylor was magnificent at the Qua / Mountains in Sky album launch, supported by the Stars of the Night Pikelet. i would have bought the Qua CD too but they’d run out.
i go now .. i Prepare 2Listen.
ooo.
Much joy on Cup Day, our official gambling holiday. For the first time ever i did not watch the race, i have no idea who won (oh wait a minute, yes Bart “don’t have a horse” Cummings won again).
i spent my time picnicking with Zeena in the Edinburgh Gardens, and then stumbled upon the annual billy cart race in Eastment St Northcote (thanks to the wonderful Cos for texting me). This was super fun, and very civilised.
The only photos i remembered to take were during the fashion parade. An hilarious romp, with boys in a Zoolander-style walk-off. The winner was very clear from the deep growl of crowd approval. Not so much a louder cheer, but definitely a different quality.
And Barak Obama bin Hussein won the Grand Presidential Lottery over in the land of Hollywood. Yay Barak! Finally a communist in the white house. (Ha, ha.)
Two Canadian comedians make fun of Sarah Palin, with her full co-operation. Tim turned up at my house this morning and told me about it, so i had to listen.
Sarah doesn’t notice when he gives the wrong name for the Canadian Prime Minister, she doesn’t seem to shudder when he says he loves killing baby seals ..
Even dumber than Dan Quayle, it seems.
But ouch .. the Hustler joke was going too far, wasn’t it?
Did she not notice the French “Prime Minister” telling her he loved watching a porn-u-mentary about her, or did she diplomatically let it slide? You wouldn’t expect sexual harrassment from one head of state to another (potentially on the same level) .. but i’m sure it happens.
Link: Trail Blazer Blog | The Dallas Morning News. Link: BBC also.
On the positive side, listen to this guy on the BBC .. ‘Redneck votes for Obama’. Good man.
Recently there have been rumours that Sarah Palin, as Mayor of Wasilla Alaska, rang up her local librarian to find out how she could get books banned.
Via Boing Boing, i stumbled on this post from Everybody’s Libraries: “Why Banned Books Week matters”. You can find a list of books that have been banned around the world, as well as information about this book week.
Interesting to see that the South African govt once banned “Black Beauty”.
Not everyone is fortunate enough to live in a country where the right-wing lunatics have only a handful of seats in the parliamentary house of review.
image and photo credits: licensed under creative commons at flickr: Thanks very much: sidelong
Via Delia at biddyjournal, news of a movie called Hope, which tells the stories of Siev-x. Screening very soon !! At the Nova in Melbourne, and around the whole of Australia.
i referred to an article in New Matilda a while back, and they’ve since changed all their links: Tony Kevin wrote on the seventh anniversary of the tragedy, describing the heartfelt compassion in the Canberra memorial that so many people struggled to create.
“Each pole represents compassion, love and acceptance of the stranger Australian values that were in little evidence in Australia during the 2001 election campaign”
353 people on the boat .. only 7 made it to Australia.
(image from wikipedia, thanks :{
Time for some good news. i’ve just been reading Pitchfork Design .. where Sam talks of a new project up near Swan Hill; and her inspiration is this amazing tale of greening the desert in Jordan.
This video is so worth watching, from desert to fruit trees and oasis: “You can solve the problems of the world in a garden,” says Geoff Lawton the permaculture artist behind the project.
3years later they’ve revisited the system to see what’s happened:
and here’s Geoff Lawton talking more about the project:
.. and read up on Sam’s projects too, she’s doing amazing work rebuilding the gardens in schools around Victoria. go Sam!
Via Sydney Indymedia, news of a plane crashing with 3-6 tonnes of cocaine. Several people seem to believe that this plane “belonged” to the CIA; and also that the same plane had been frequently used to transport enemy combatants to Guantanamera Bay.
(Whole story was reported in ‘daily Kos’)
Can you imagine what the CIA would be doing with that much coke? When you follow the discussion, you find that a number of people are taken by the idea that the US govt is actually in charge of the illegal drug market. And that major banks are laundering cash from the whole thing.
Bizarre! i’m aghast and flobbergosted. Who would believe such things. Does this mean we can’t trust our governments here in the West? But i thought we lived in a civil society, a democracy. Surely this is just paranoid ranting?
The government, that runs a war on drugs, supports a covert drug smuggling operation? But wouldn’t that be hippo-critical ..?
One of the lowlights of ‘007 was the “don’t tase me bro” incident, which was converted into a brilliant remix (check in video); and plenty of re-remixes on the tube. Some commentators said he was an attention-seeking git; i prefer the term performance artist.
If only that dead Canadian guy had heard the song, he might have been able to rap out a quick defensive beatbox.
You have to be ready when they come to get you. And you too could make the most memorable phrase of the year. So what’s your catchphrase gonna be? And what kind of incident would you like to make the news?
Just before new year, i was listening to the heaviest rain i’d heard in melbourne for years. Such a delicious sound. i revelled in the delights of pounding water.
But of course, most of that water was going down many drains into the bay, because we don’t have a huge embedded system to catch, keep and recycle storm water.
The smart guys at the top of town want to throw billions of dollars at private companies, to build a desalination plant which is going to use coal-fired electricity, add pollution and greenhouse gases, and line the pockets of those private investors for years to come
.. when research shows you’re so much better off catching what falls out of the sky.
(um, evidence, michael? Well, Bob Brown and the Greens say so. Average households receive 8 times the water they consume, apparently.)
Here’s Bob talking to a rally against desalination.
Bill Mollison once said that all the solutions are there already. It’s just the political will, and getting past the stakeholders.
One of my dreams for ’08 is that the people of Victoria will demand intelligently innovative, sensible and truly sustainable solutions to the water crises, and that we’ll be rewarded with the best new system in the world.
And i reckon that means we collect and recycle storm water.
Oh look, here’s a bunch of sane and clear-thinking locals investigating the whole DeSal/PPP setup (or maybe they’re commie free radicals?). Apparently we pay for the desalinated water even if it turns out we don’t need it.
(The weirdest thing .. the herald sun editorial agreed with me.)
