Remember in the good old days when someone would say ‘How are you?’ and you’d automatically respond ‘not bad, you?’ It was all rhetorical and deeply meaningless but in the end one of those little courtesies that was neither here nor there. There are equivalents all over the world and did nothing more than break the ice or indicated an acknowledgement you were involved in an exchange with another human being. Frankly it was good enough for me and served its purpose.
Now of course that perfectly satisfactory set of words is no longer good enough and the over familiarity and intrusiveness that Facebook and (so called) Reality TV have bred demands something else. Today you are more likely to be asked an ‘open’ question such as ‘So how has your day been so far?’ I don’t like it.
It didn’t matter how you were feeling in the old days, you would always respond with ‘not bad’ or ‘good’ (as though you’d been asked your moral standing). It was a rare beast that might have been open enough to let you know in fact they were a bit crook or had a pustule that was causing them grief, thanks for asking. Today, I feel as though I need to keep a diary to recount the events of my day when some spotty, underpaid weed poses the big question. I guess I should be grateful I can understand what they’re saying because lord knows much of what anyone under 20 says these days is unfathomable to me, like no true as if whatever, totally.
What do they care how my day has been anyway? What would they do if I responded fully? ‘Well actually my day has been pretty good. I’ve survived a day of abuse and unfair work conditions in my underlit and poky office. That of course is nothing compared to the deprivations people in Iraq are enduring under the liberating forces of the coalition of the all too willing. Oh by the way what is your opinion on that whole thing? Can we really say that they are better off now than before? Especially when you consider that some sources reckon nearly 100,000 civilians have been killed by coalition forces. That’s 100,000 people who had no say in the whole process and just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and now are…dead. But at least we did all this to avenge the nearly 3000 people who were killed in the Twin Towers and just because there’s no link between that and Iraq I guess we shouldn’t look into it too deeply. How has your day been? Yes I’ll have some cash out as well thanks’
For a bit of fun when asked this question just try answering ‘terrible’ and see if you even get an acknowledgement of what you said. I bet you don’t. So automatic is the question and so uninterested or untrained are they in the reply it just disappears into the ether. One time when I was asked I just stared at the guy and I got nothing back.
There’s no escape either, you can be interrogated anywhere, the hairdresser, the bank, a restaurant, the supermarket. For God’s sake, can’t anyone cope with dead air anymore; does every bit of space have to be filled with something? Do we always have to have hold music, can no-one say ‘thanks bye’ when you leave instead of ‘thank you for shopping at Goaways’, can’t I have a moment to fill out a form without some awkward chat and trust me I don’t mind if I get my hair cut and the guy with the scissors says nothing after ‘so what are we doing today?’ It’s as though we’re scared of silence. What’s up with that?
Yes, yes I know they’re told to say it and I know there are even fascist employers who would scold their staff if they don’t say it but STOP now. That’s no excuse, it annoys me and it alienates me, it’s intrusive and I don’t think it’s appropriate.
It might be a generational thing but so what, I’m entitled to my generational sensibilities, who are you to tell me it’s wrong or old fashioned or ‘that’s the way it is now’. Believe me customer service was a whole helluva lot better twenty years ago. Now I do most of the work people used to do for me years ago, I’d ring somewhere and get to speak to someone straight away and they even solved my problem themselves. Now I have to work my way through a menu selection before I get to ask my question and be transferred around five different people without having the reason for my call answered to. I could get on a tram and buy a ticket from a real live person whether I had coin or notes let alone forgotten to buy one in advance from the not so convenient store location. I could even go into a takeaway shop and buy a cup of coffee and the person serving me would take my order, make my coffee, hand it back to me and not need to ask me my name to finalise it all with three other people needing to be involved.
Asking me how my day has been is not going to fix that. Finding a slogan or a label for everything instead of just calling it what it is isn’t going to fix it either. Listening to what I’m saying, providing me with what I want and treating me as though I am the only person you’re interested in for that brief moment will do me fine.
By the way how are you?
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Ten Years On...Where'd We End Up?
Ten years ago Channel Nine was playing show shuffle with the wonderful ‘The West Wing’ and consigned it to 11.oo on Tuesday nights. I’d set the video to record it as usual and went off to bed for my usual battle with attempted sleep. I was listening to Tony Delroy on ABC Radio to while away the time until I dropped off. News came through of something going awry in New York. As the story of the ‘light plane’ crashing into one of the towers at the World Trade Center I got up to see if anything was on the tele.
By the time I got up there was Jim Waley on the screen looking bewildered but reporting on what would develop over the hours as a story surreal and unimaginable. The irony was that a tv series about the machinations of the US Presidency and Government was interrupted by news that would affect that very institution at its core.
Like most people I was transfixed by what I saw on the screens or was hearing on the radio. It simply couldn’t be real could it. At what point was Steven Spielberg or Martin Scorsese going to walk into frame and explain how the CGI effects were done? Sadly, ultimately it wasn’t too be and what we were actually seeing (‘processing’) was a tragedy unfolding for a city, a nation, a world but most importantly, most deeply thousands of families and friends, workmates and observers.
I remember the next day at work felt as though in slow motion. You knew some people just wanted to talk about it, but where to start and it was clear others hadn’t come to terms with it all or didn’t want to go there. There was fear – what’s next, are we safe- there was hatred and there was absolute, unadulterated sadness.
Ten years on I wonder whether we missed opportunities, how well and mature the response was, if we reacted rather than acted well and what was lost that day in the streets of Manhattan, the field of Pennsylvania and the corridors of the Pentagon.
The invasion of Afghanistan may have been just but has it been successful? The Iraq bombardment was neither just nor worthy of countries attempting to prove they were on the side of ‘right’ or the good guys. Muslims were vilified, either directly or by implication and some were even physically attacked which shames us all. I have yet to see proof that Bin Laden engineered or ordered the attacks but I have no doubt it was done in his name. But that was Bin Laden not the religion and we ought to think a bit more about the difference sometimes and what it says about us if we act from a point of ignorance and hate rather than pause and think.
I don’t believe the world is a better place today than it was ten years ago but it is certainly different. September 11th 2001 allowed governments, including our own, to introduce vile laws, unfair and unreasonable sanctions against its own people. Security measures are often extreme and would shame repressive regimes – especially the ones were decry for their human rights abuses. It led to Guantanamo being a focal point of unspeakable acts and the dispensing of fundamental rights to a fair trial and basic justice. ‘The worst of the worst’ were supposed to be in there and yet there have been only one or two trials and the majority of those imprisoned have been released and most of those live back in their communities harmless and productive. So much bad was done in our names by our governments and the coalition of the all too willing; so much was done to enforce the negative image of the West rather than claiming the high moral ground and leading by example to say ‘this is the way a decent, just and free world works’. We missed the opportunity to bring our ‘enemies’ into the conversation and show through our actions that we wouldn’t reach for the gun but we’d say ‘enough’ and work through it together. It could have been done through the law, it could have been done by isolating the wrongdoers so that their followers would lose faith in them and it could have been done by getting on with our lives, enhancing our rights and treasuring our liberties.
I am angry that nearly 3000 people were taken from us on that day and I continue to be angry that hundreds of thousands more have died since in Afghanistan and Iraq and through other terrorist attacks. What stories that might have had, what history they might have made, what a world this could have been. My world, my history, they would have added to that and how dare any mindless, vile, evil and hateful act take that from me, from any of us.
Teach your children well, cherish yourselves and have a good heart.
By the time I got up there was Jim Waley on the screen looking bewildered but reporting on what would develop over the hours as a story surreal and unimaginable. The irony was that a tv series about the machinations of the US Presidency and Government was interrupted by news that would affect that very institution at its core.
Like most people I was transfixed by what I saw on the screens or was hearing on the radio. It simply couldn’t be real could it. At what point was Steven Spielberg or Martin Scorsese going to walk into frame and explain how the CGI effects were done? Sadly, ultimately it wasn’t too be and what we were actually seeing (‘processing’) was a tragedy unfolding for a city, a nation, a world but most importantly, most deeply thousands of families and friends, workmates and observers.
I remember the next day at work felt as though in slow motion. You knew some people just wanted to talk about it, but where to start and it was clear others hadn’t come to terms with it all or didn’t want to go there. There was fear – what’s next, are we safe- there was hatred and there was absolute, unadulterated sadness.
Ten years on I wonder whether we missed opportunities, how well and mature the response was, if we reacted rather than acted well and what was lost that day in the streets of Manhattan, the field of Pennsylvania and the corridors of the Pentagon.
The invasion of Afghanistan may have been just but has it been successful? The Iraq bombardment was neither just nor worthy of countries attempting to prove they were on the side of ‘right’ or the good guys. Muslims were vilified, either directly or by implication and some were even physically attacked which shames us all. I have yet to see proof that Bin Laden engineered or ordered the attacks but I have no doubt it was done in his name. But that was Bin Laden not the religion and we ought to think a bit more about the difference sometimes and what it says about us if we act from a point of ignorance and hate rather than pause and think.
I don’t believe the world is a better place today than it was ten years ago but it is certainly different. September 11th 2001 allowed governments, including our own, to introduce vile laws, unfair and unreasonable sanctions against its own people. Security measures are often extreme and would shame repressive regimes – especially the ones were decry for their human rights abuses. It led to Guantanamo being a focal point of unspeakable acts and the dispensing of fundamental rights to a fair trial and basic justice. ‘The worst of the worst’ were supposed to be in there and yet there have been only one or two trials and the majority of those imprisoned have been released and most of those live back in their communities harmless and productive. So much bad was done in our names by our governments and the coalition of the all too willing; so much was done to enforce the negative image of the West rather than claiming the high moral ground and leading by example to say ‘this is the way a decent, just and free world works’. We missed the opportunity to bring our ‘enemies’ into the conversation and show through our actions that we wouldn’t reach for the gun but we’d say ‘enough’ and work through it together. It could have been done through the law, it could have been done by isolating the wrongdoers so that their followers would lose faith in them and it could have been done by getting on with our lives, enhancing our rights and treasuring our liberties.
I am angry that nearly 3000 people were taken from us on that day and I continue to be angry that hundreds of thousands more have died since in Afghanistan and Iraq and through other terrorist attacks. What stories that might have had, what history they might have made, what a world this could have been. My world, my history, they would have added to that and how dare any mindless, vile, evil and hateful act take that from me, from any of us.
Teach your children well, cherish yourselves and have a good heart.
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Not So Specific and Certainly No Solution
Now that the High Court has delivered its finding that the Malaysian Solution is invalid I think it’s time for the Government to embark on more creative and constructive thinking about the refugee issue.
It might not be popular or trendy but a big idea is just the thing to tackle what has become an unnecessarily troubling and divisive hot button topic in our fair land. A small percentage of people are risking their lives hopping on boats and travelling through dangerous waters. A disproportionately large amount of dollars are being spent on housing these people offshore. Politicians are running around, mouthing off and whipping up a frenzy of misinformation and pandering to the ill informed for the basest of reasons. Maturity and intelligent discourse has gone out the window to win popularity. In the meantime good people are having their already troubled lives made ugly and some of us are left to gasp ‘why’ or ‘when will this stop?’
The ludicrous idea that so called people smugglers have a business model and that our government must then break it is just dumb. I prefer to think how do we simply give these opportunists no reason to operate anymore?
A recent report says there are 91,000 people in Malaysia currently awaiting either determination on their refugee claim or have been declared refugees but haven’t been ‘assigned’ a country to reside in.
How about we embark on a real ‘Pacific Solution’? My big idea is first to get all the neighbourhood countries together (we might even be able to influence Canada) and ask them to take 20,000 of these people. This would make a significant difference to the numbers awaiting relocation and hardly affect the overall immigration numbers in the region. There would also be a big dent in potential ‘customers’ for the people smugglers.
Second we get the Pacific/Asian countries to work on a way that we can attack refugee creation in the first place. What do we as a world community need to do so that people do not feel they have to escape their countries and if they do how so we manage that process humanely, efficiently and quickly? What is our best response? Let’s have a minimum response covenant that all nations (especially democracies)sign up to. If they won’t sign up the conversation then becomes one of ‘why would your country not want to provide a decent response to an extreme or horrid scenario’. If there are concerns about the UN then keep it removed from them, just keep the conversation going and asking the question ‘why not’? It is beyond fathomable why a country would not want to care for and about their own citizens and then not want other humans to be afforded the same opportunities.
The money we would say by stopping the laughable off shore processing could actually be pumped back into the community for housing and services which would support the ‘detainees’ in their transition to their new lives. I know there are some who say that you can’t have ‘these people’ released into the community presumably because they are a threat to the rest of ‘us’. Well to my knowledge we haven’t had an increased security threat, let alone identified a terrorist (and lord knows the definition of a terrorist is so wide these days, anyone could be seen as one)from anyone who has arrived here by boat.
How nice if this country at this moment with this Parliament would step up and say ‘enough’ and decide ‘it’s time to change’.
How nice would it be if we stopped focusing on the boats and thought about the PEOPLE.
One day...
It might not be popular or trendy but a big idea is just the thing to tackle what has become an unnecessarily troubling and divisive hot button topic in our fair land. A small percentage of people are risking their lives hopping on boats and travelling through dangerous waters. A disproportionately large amount of dollars are being spent on housing these people offshore. Politicians are running around, mouthing off and whipping up a frenzy of misinformation and pandering to the ill informed for the basest of reasons. Maturity and intelligent discourse has gone out the window to win popularity. In the meantime good people are having their already troubled lives made ugly and some of us are left to gasp ‘why’ or ‘when will this stop?’
The ludicrous idea that so called people smugglers have a business model and that our government must then break it is just dumb. I prefer to think how do we simply give these opportunists no reason to operate anymore?
A recent report says there are 91,000 people in Malaysia currently awaiting either determination on their refugee claim or have been declared refugees but haven’t been ‘assigned’ a country to reside in.
How about we embark on a real ‘Pacific Solution’? My big idea is first to get all the neighbourhood countries together (we might even be able to influence Canada) and ask them to take 20,000 of these people. This would make a significant difference to the numbers awaiting relocation and hardly affect the overall immigration numbers in the region. There would also be a big dent in potential ‘customers’ for the people smugglers.
Second we get the Pacific/Asian countries to work on a way that we can attack refugee creation in the first place. What do we as a world community need to do so that people do not feel they have to escape their countries and if they do how so we manage that process humanely, efficiently and quickly? What is our best response? Let’s have a minimum response covenant that all nations (especially democracies)sign up to. If they won’t sign up the conversation then becomes one of ‘why would your country not want to provide a decent response to an extreme or horrid scenario’. If there are concerns about the UN then keep it removed from them, just keep the conversation going and asking the question ‘why not’? It is beyond fathomable why a country would not want to care for and about their own citizens and then not want other humans to be afforded the same opportunities.
The money we would say by stopping the laughable off shore processing could actually be pumped back into the community for housing and services which would support the ‘detainees’ in their transition to their new lives. I know there are some who say that you can’t have ‘these people’ released into the community presumably because they are a threat to the rest of ‘us’. Well to my knowledge we haven’t had an increased security threat, let alone identified a terrorist (and lord knows the definition of a terrorist is so wide these days, anyone could be seen as one)from anyone who has arrived here by boat.
How nice if this country at this moment with this Parliament would step up and say ‘enough’ and decide ‘it’s time to change’.
How nice would it be if we stopped focusing on the boats and thought about the PEOPLE.
One day...
Monday, September 5, 2011
Melbourne Writers Festival 2011 - literary luvvies' heaven
In a year that has seen the rise of the e-reader, the closing of Borders, Angus and Robertson and Readers Feast, it wouldn't be surprising if a writers festival was challenging. Thankfully Melbourne's annual Literary luvvy fest didn't seem to suffer at all. I turned up for about 11 sessions at my 14th Festival.
Dymocks took over as the official bookstore this year after readings had done the job for a few years. I thought they had a much better set up this year with a good layout in the store although being able to move around is problematic in such a small space. The signing lines too were set up with good old ropes but it worked very well and gave one a bit more 'space' to have a quiet chat with writers and a bit easier if you had books to be signed by more than one author.
Unfortunately if, like me, you had a pass card you had to always have with you what sessions you were attending and I had to keep checking the paper guide to know where the sessions were because there didn't appear to be any directory on display telling you what was on where. Epic fail on that count!
Long live the book and long live writers!
Dymocks took over as the official bookstore this year after readings had done the job for a few years. I thought they had a much better set up this year with a good layout in the store although being able to move around is problematic in such a small space. The signing lines too were set up with good old ropes but it worked very well and gave one a bit more 'space' to have a quiet chat with writers and a bit easier if you had books to be signed by more than one author.
Unfortunately if, like me, you had a pass card you had to always have with you what sessions you were attending and I had to keep checking the paper guide to know where the sessions were because there didn't appear to be any directory on display telling you what was on where. Epic fail on that count!
- Jonathan Franzen was the opening act for me and was not exactly Mr high energy! When he managed to form coherent phrases he was very entertaining, indeed very funny but my gosh the pauses were so long at times three buses could have driven through! I had a chat with him after and asked him about the saga of the first edition of his latest book 'Freedom' needing to be pulped because it was actually an uncorrected proof containing many typos. His tip made me realise my copy is one that contained the errors!
- A session with Michael Robotham and Tess Gerritsen was hugely entertaining with lots of insights into the art of writing crime. Tess really knew how to present her stuff and told a great story about Nantucket's 'House of Rejuvenation" aka the local morgue - so named because of the preponderance of people declared dead who actually weren't!
- A session on Melbourne stories made me proud of the City I call home and reminded me how lovely it is to read a book set here. Had a nice chat to Rosalie Ham, Steve Carroll and Sophie Cunningham.
- Lynda La Plante who writes such tough characters was a quite refined woman who was absolutely hilarious and a great rubber face she used to great effect. Kerry Greenwood and Jane Clifton joined her in a session called 'lady killers'. I'm afraid I may have ignored LaPlante at the signing afterwards because I was somewhat caught up in a conversation with Kerry, simply sliding my copy of Lynda's book in her direction. A few minutes later when I picked the book up voila it was signed and I hadn't actually engaged in any conversation with her, let alone said thanks - oops!
- Terrific conversation sessions with Christine Nixon (enlightening and revealing), Jane Clifton (fascinating and charming) and Anna Funder (so beautiful and so bright) were highlights.
- There is nearly always one session that h. as an edge to it and might very well unravel before one's eyes and for me this year it was a session about Julian Assange and WikiLeaks. Some vigorous discussion about what makes a journalist, freedom of speech and what responsibilities go with that and whether the person chairing a discussion is required to have an opinion. Very entertaining and interesting with a woman who co-wrote a book with Julian when he lived in Melbourne and a guy who was an expert on investigative journalism and emerging technologies for the media. Tracey Hutchison seemed ill at ease in the chair and in fact bridled at some of the responses before getting embroiled in a discussion around journalistic ethics.
- I was particularly pleased to sit in on a session with Tom Trumble and Ken Haley on 'slow travel'. Tom wrote a book about walking the Camino in Spain (which had been a selection in our work book group) and ken is a wheelchair bound traveller. We even had a bit of a slide show! Great to chat to Tom afterwards and even discussed footwear for 8000 km walking!
- Favel parrot who must surely be an Australian novelist to watch after her superb 'Past the Shallows' was terrific in a session with Malcolm Knox and Gretchen Shirm on Surf Nation. We had a lovely chat afterwards.
Long live the book and long live writers!
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