At my disk
Some of the editorials from Wilson's Almanac
Third Quarter (July, August, September), 2002
On to Fourth Quarter, 2002 editorials »
July 2, 2002
Toto: I'm trying to think whether there has ever been a line in a song with more density, more tongue-twisting magnificence, than:
"Sure as Kilimanjaro rises like an empress above the Serengeti".
Toto control
(You're listening to a midi file of Africa by Toto)
I'm picturing the band trying to persuade the record company:
"Sure we can do it, man! We'll have the longest lyric line in the whole damn world, man! We'll be in the
Guinness Book of Records! Try to see it like ... like PR. And it'll give us cred, dude! So what if we're named after a dog?!!"
Abundance and gratitude,
Pip Wilson
July 3, 2002
Yule: As you know, last week I took a few days off. I headed for the bush, and was pleased to see that in many places in this state (New South Wales, Australia), a new celebration has emerged that relates to the ancient European pagan commemoration of Midwinter (Yule).
The new festival is called 'Christmas in July', and although it comes a little later than Yule, which is the Winter Solstice (around June 22), it enriches our culture.
As the Australian Christmas occurs at the hot part of the year, Ozzies were lacking a time of feasting like the Northern Hemisphere's Christmas. Now in many Ozzie places you will find a growing number of shops and restaurants decked in holly, mistletoe and tinsel.
This month, many Australians will sit down to roast dinners with the same gusto that attends our December 25 fare of prawns, salads, cold meats and icy cold drinks. (By the way, Australians had never heard of "putting shrimps on the barbie" until Madison Avenue came up with the line for Paul Hogan in Ozzie Tourism ads in the 1980s. The word 'shrimp' (prawn) is as unknown here as the practice of barbecuing crustaceans. More manufactured culture by courtesy of the corporations who sell us our souls
– if we let them.)
Australia's Yulefest is being manufactured, but by individuals and Mum & Dad businesses, rather than by TNCs (transnational corporations). It's another sign of people all over the world tapping into customs and culture that are appropriate to their own bioregions, and it must be seen as a healthy departure from Australia's former apron-strings mentality to Britain. Happy Yulefest to all from Downunder!
Thank you to those readers who have commented on the recent changes to the Almanac. Feedback is always welcome. Some readers seem to like the changes, and one or two have asked whether there will still be 'This Day in History' and birthday celebrations. The answer is 'yes' ... so please stay tuned. Each almanac will have its own character, as the mood strikes me and time allows, so I trust there will be plenty to interest Almaniacs in days ahead. Some will be big, and some small, but I'm committed to making them worthwhile. See you tomorrow.
Abundance and gratitude,
Pip Wilson
July 19, 2002
SpyBeWare: Thirty-six hours ago I downloaded Hotbar from
http://www.hotbar.com with a view to increasing my range of backgrounds for Outlook Express emails. The pretty 'skins' on my Internet Explorer were nice, but I didn't particularly care for having them. I was after the backgrounds.
Twelve hours ago, I uninstalled Hotbar, because it would not let me use my own backgrounds and inserted pictures. Monopoly at work!
To make matters worse, I discovered that Hotbar, even after it's uninstalled, leaves the graphics function in MSOE disabled. What a nice bunch of Wall Street Cowboys they are!
After a lot of wasted time, I have discovered the way to deal with these people.
1) In MSOE, go to Tools/Options/Send/html Options/ and check the box to allow you to insert pix.
2) Download Ad-aware from http://www.lavasoftusa.com/
and promptly use it to disable the spying capacity of Hotbar and other greedy tricksters. Yes, Hotbar is spyware, and it will try to turn you into consumption an you can say "Nokia Mediamaster 210 T".
3) Tell everyone within earshot.
Because of all this, you probably didn't get graphics in yesterday's almanac, for which I apologise and kick Mr Hotbar in the wooglies. Here's one wee thing you missed (speaking of cowboys):
Abundance and gratitude,
Pip Wilson
July 24, 2002
Thanx: Thank you to the members who are opting to support the almanac through voluntary paid subscriptions.
http://www.wilsonsalmanac.com/support.html
Even a few cents a day, less than the price of a cup of coffee or a newspaper, is very welcome exchange value for your daily almanac.
If you are poor, or bored shitless, I do not expect a paid subscription. Likewise if you know lots of other personalised ezines like this one. I'm giving it what I can, as long as I can.
By the way, I've done some spring cleaning (ok, it's mid-winter here, I know!) around
http://www.wilsonsalmanac.com, and it has a new front door, lots of new stuff, and a new face on the Alchemy Clock. I'd love to hear from you if you find any dead links, missing pix, or anything that generally stinks.
Magic is afoot! Bright blessings to us all.
Abundance and gratitude,
Pip Wilson
August 6, 2002
NewsMusings: Well, it seems that recent genetic findings that Europeans are descended from Middle Easterners (Source) might be having an effect on the racism that, along with transnational arms corporations (and ultra-right ideology) is driving the push to bomb Iraq back to a parking lot.
In Europe, such is the growing abhorrence of the warmongers' crusade that German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder is playing the peacenik card in order to win re-election. His political career has taken a dive, and for once, anti-militarism has become a populist cause. Schroeder, clinging to power, is now begging Germans to trust that he won't drag Germany into Dubya's Iraq fiasco
(source). It's nice to see, but it won't stop The Machine.
Meanwhile, as most of the world tries to eke out a bit of food in desperation as the planet inexorably heats up (due to industry in the North), a small but powerful, and discredited, band of ideologues in the US administration sits by glistening swimming pools enjoying the summer sun.
There, these Ivy Leaguers plot an escapade guaranteed not only to wreak untold suffering on innocent victims of Dictator Saddam, but also to assure increased hatred of America in the poor nations. Oh great, more upset Moslems -- just what Americans wanted when they (ahem) 'voted' Shrub into office.
Will US citizens let Bush, with his bizarre fundo Christian apocalyptic zeal, get away with it, or stop him before the tragic event? Time will tell. Thankfully, many outside the US do not blame all Americans for this obvious nutter.
Those among us who have been working for decades to promote solar energy which will reduce the West's oil addiction, and wars of this kind, have a long way to go.
So do those who promote non-violent solutions to conflict and dictatorship. However, let us be heartened! If the Archbishop of Canterbury can
become a Druid (source), anything is possible!
Hell, if English beer makers can use a Sumerian goddess (I've stuck in an ancient beer drinking song to the goddess Ninkasi at foot of page) in their ad campaigns
(source), maybe the whole world really is as nutso as you and I think.
Cheers!
Abundance and gratitude,
Pip Wilson
August 9, 2002
Imagine: The woman, who I hadn't seen before, was serving me at the counter. Her name tag revealed that she was Juliet.
"Do you know," I ventured with a silly smile, "what the birthday is of Juliet in Shakespeare's play, Romeo and Juliet?"
She gave me that bemused look to which I've long become acquainted. It's a bit like my silly smile. We sort of made bookends.
"No," she replied as she looked at the item on the counter and kept wrapping.
"Well, Juliet's nurse, in the play, says that she was born on Lammas Eve. Now, that's July 31, because the Pagan feast of Lammas is August 1. And we even know the year. The nurse says that Juliet was weaned in the year of the earthquake. There was an earthquake in London in 1580 that Shakespeare would have felt, so Juliet was most likely born in 1578. So she's just had her 424th birthday."
Juliet kept wrapping.
"How do you know that?" she asked in her charming Filipina accent. "Do you do that for a living?"
"Yes, I do."
"What is your job?"
"I'm an imaginician."
Juliet kept wrapping. Can't blame her really, it was sort of a practice run for me as well.
She looked up at me. "My boyfriend's name is Romeo."
It's true, I tell you. You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not a phoney one.
Abundance and gratitude,
Pip Wilson
August 15, 2002
Carnegie: I came upon a nice story the other day. Near the Gulf of Carpentaria, on the north coast of Australia, 60 kilometres (35 miles) from the sea, there’s a place called Borroloola. It’s just a tiny place, like many small, remote settlements in this big continent, where most of us live in a few major cities of several millions – the most urbanised nation in the world, despite our reputation.
Borroloola lies about 700 km (434 miles) from Darwin – not that much in Australian distances – in the Northern Territory. Despite what Territorians might tell you, Darwin’s nowhere, so Borroloola’s about as remote as you can get on God’s earth, and a hundred years ago it was the back-blocks of the back-blocks – the other side of the Black Stump, as we say here.
This hot, tropical bush settlement, a hundred years ago, was as close to the Wild West as Australia ever had. Stock drovers – men on horseback who led cattle overland for thousands of kilometres, through jungle and near-desert plain – sometimes stopped over at Borroloola with their herds. No doubt the men were tough, and Saturday nights must have got pretty wild in this one-horse, one-pub outpost.
One thing though, that visitors to Borroloola found over the decades last century, was that the few people who lived there seemed darn well educated, for a mob of bushies.
Sometimes a man could be seen sitting under a tree by the crocodilian river, reading a copy of Virgil, or Plutarch, or Henry James. A visit to the aboriginal encampments of the region might reveal an illustrated leather-bound Shakespeare whose pictures would be appreciated, and a drovers’ camp might turn up a fine Bible, the pages of which made useful fire starters or toilet paper.
There was a bloke lived around there, name of Roger Jose. This old eccentric and his aboriginal wife lived outside the ‘town’, like Diogenes and his barrel, in an upturned water tank, sweltering in the nearly equatorial sun. When a rare visitor arrived, Roger would treat them to some of his favourite fare, which included a glass or two of metho (methylated spirits), a shot or two of sal vital, and a nip of strychnine as a bolting heart starter.
Roger Jose was known for reciting many poets – Virgil, and Omar Khayyam included – as well as his own rather excellent (though politically incorrect) verse, such as,
Here doddering in senile decay,
My memory harks blithely away
To pink dawns, when I’d creep
On blacks fast asleep
And knock ‘em hell west and all of a heap.
A bravo, just hired to slay.
That their weapons could scarcely compare
Didn’t cause me much care,
Nor the fact that they slept
While sheer murder crept,
My red embers guided and no sentinel kept
Them apprised of the sinister shapes lurking there.
The famed erudition of Jose and the many hermits and other men of Borroloola was a happy consequence of the “Carnegie Library”, a remarkable collection of books that comprised much of the wide canon of Western literature. How those 2,900 books got to Borroloola, and into their own room in the town's little pub, is a disputed subject and there are several widely disparate theories, but (you know me) I’ll mention the most romantic of them.
One widely quoted aetiological story has it that towards the end of the 19th century, the town’s solitary policeman, remembered as Corporal Power, saw the need for the wild bushmen of the region to get a little learning. Power, it’s said, wrote to as many dignitaries as he could think of to get support for his crackpot idea, and the Governor-General of the day took up the cause. Lord Hopetoun contacted the Carnegie Institute, the famous American philanthropic body, and a generous grant was awarded.
According to this story, the books (after having been imported from England and the USA, no doubt) would have been freighted from Melbourne, Victoria (way down south) up to Thursday Island, many thousands of kilometres, by steam freighter, and then on a smaller steamer across the Gulf of Carpentaria and up-river to Borroloola, where Corporal Power enlisted local men to file them. And there, surprisingly, the books were read, and the rough local men became better educated in the classics than most genteel men anywhere.
Over that century between then and now, the Carnegie Library, as famed in the tropical North as were the educated hermits of Borroloola and the erudite bushmen of the whole big North, slowly went the way of most things in the Gulf country. Termites and mould inexorably ate the Carnegie Library to dust.
The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it.
Omar Khayyam
After I heard this yarn, I googled it, and to my surprise, there’s more about the Carnegie Library
here. Bright blessings to all.
Abundance and gratitude,
Pip Wilson
[This full article is now here – PW]
August 17, 2002
Iraq: I was pleased to hear on the radio this morning that President Bush is getting all the latest intelligence.
Abundance and gratitude,
Pip Wilson
August 20, 2002
Weather: Everyone talks about global
warming, but no one does anything about it.
I paraphrase a 19th century American genius*, and it reminds us of a grand time when America's fame was for men such as he: forthright; individualist; pro-human rights; pro-peace.
How serious is it, then? We now have to speak of 'the rocks of Kilimanjaro'. Is this not a warning, and a reprimand to us for our lifestyles?
Similarly, up near the top of Mt Everest, glaciers are turning to lakes, and soon we will no doubt be hearing of tragic inundations of people below, who are innocent of Western consumer living that is causing the problem.
Look now at two photos taken from the same spot at the Blomstrandbreen Glacier in Kongsfjorde, Norway. Well, there used to be a glacier in Kongsfjorde, Norway. The first picture was taken in 1919. The second was taken by Greenpeace last weekend.
Last week, too, we learned that there is a 'brown cloud over Asia' and anomalous weather behaviour all over the planet.
The way these things are being reported is an eye-opener in itself. The mainstream media have been focusing on flooding in old Prague, and the fight to save works of art. The real weather story of this past week, however, has been buried between the Prague story and whatever Tom Cruise and Jennifer Lopez have been up to in Monte Carlo.
The real story is that more than 900 people have died due to floods, and 23 million men, women and children have had to flee their homes. Where could this be? Prague? No. Berlin? Uh-uh. Paris? Let's not be silly, that would have been on the front page for sure. America? Give me a break!! That's the very heart of Cruise territory.
Southern Asia is where. In Nepal alone, more than 420 people were killed in floods and mudslides. India, Bangla Desh, Assam
– all have had devastating tragedies over recent weeks, about which the Western world is scarcely being informed.
It's more than apparent that we cannot trust the media to bring us the truth about the world. They will report from where it is easy to get live news feeds, which is Europe, America, Australia, and generally anywhere inhabited by white people.
They will report only that which does not irritate their big sponsors – Unilever (they make most of the kitchen products we use, the tea we drink, and so on and on); Texaco; British Petrolem; Shell, Roche. Or individual products that, when one investigates, usually turn out to be manufactured by a subsidiary of one of the top 100 TNCs (transnational corporations)
– the giants that now rule the planet. That produce the pollution, that warms the globe, that rains on the hills, that were deforested by TNC bulldozers, that makes the floods, that kills the people ...
Everyone talks about it, but no one does anything about it. Australia's John Howard and the USA's George W Bush steadfastly refuse to ratify the
Kyoto Protocol on Global Warming. And let's call a 'spade a spade', as long as the climate damage is created by white people, but only drowning or starving tinted people, people like Bush and Howard, semi-conscious men in the pockets of the TNCs, will not budge. We must make them budge.
It's not all rain and floods. I reported in the almanac recently that research from Australia and Canada has indicated that the famine in Africa is a consequence of the atmospheric pollution drifting south from the rich countries. Fourteen million Africans are on the brink of starvation, yet all our news is about the 'drought' in Australia and America, or Tom and Jennifer. A drought here means that eventually they put water restrictions on washing your car. And it hasn't even got to that point of desperation so far, yet the news is full of talk about our 'drought'.
Everyone talks about global warming and no one does anything about it? And you want to do something about it but don't know where to start? Well, dear reader, here's the first place to start:
Turn the bloody thing off – you already know it's wasting your hours, days and years. You know that television is about watching other people have lives. Why be a pawn in their game?
Next, refuse to read crappy tabloid newspapers. You know they're bad for your health. Commit today to no longer being just another mushroom (kept in the dark and fed bullshit) like most of us in the West.
Get your news from the kinds of sources you see each day in your almanac. Read Daily Planet News, which Jeannine presents here several times a week. Bookmark Wilson's Almanac
Daily Planet
News, where there are links to many sources that will keep you informed of what's really going on. (It doesn't matter to me if you get hypertexted a million miles from my site; I simply don't care. The stuff is there to help us all get better informed
– me as much as my readers.) Follow links in the Planet
Directory. Become informed. Get angry. Refuse to be part of the problem. Join a group. Get angry. Make friends. Save the planet.
Abundance and gratitude,
Pip Wilson
* Everyone talks about the weather, but no one does anything about it. –
Mark Twain
Aug 26, 2002
Joburgtalk: Keep watching your daily almanac as we report on Johannesburg's World Summit on the Environment. Jeannine Wilson will give you news clips in Daily Planet News, and I might bung in a word or two as well about the world's biggest party since the Olympics.
Stay tuned to the Summit for words that are usually only spoken by politicians, TNCs (transnational corporations), financial bigshots and bureaucrats, at these sorts of summits. Sometimes a certain measure of translation is required:
Sustainable development (SD) = Development
Developing countries (DCs) = Poor countries. Must be SDd by politicans, TNCs, financial bigshots and bureaucrats.
Underdeveloped countries = Poorer versions of DCs, even more in need of SDing, poor things.
Grassroots change = Astroturf change
Foreign aid = Foreign trade. Aid tied to donor countries' big businesses.
After the Rio Summit ten years ago, Brazilian rainforest destruction rates actually increased markedly, though most of the world probably assumed that the Summit had fixed the problem. Similarly, in almost all parts of the world, environmental degradation is far worse than a decade ago.
Sincere hopes are held across the planet that this summit will be different. There will be hundreds, if not thousands, of protesters at the gates of the world's biggest gabfest, and Wilson's Almanac will keep you informed, as well as many sources, and doubtless better than some.
Abundance and gratitude,
Pip Wilson
Sep 1, 2002
Notice: Today, as you saw above, is the first day of the Japanese Yatzuo Kaze-No-Bon event, whereby people originally danced to appease an evil god of foul weather. Such practices are found in many cultures.
New South Wales, the Australian state in which your almanackist happily resides in the small burgh of Narrabeen Beach, currently has 80 per cent of its lands drought declared. In a touching token of civic responsibility, on Friday, Sydney radio station, Triple M, committed itself to doing something about this dire lack of rain.
The rock music station, having learned that there is apparently an ancient Nepalese custom for remedying drought conditions, entreated its listeners to participate in a practice that is unusual even by Australia's renowned high standards of spirituality.
It seems that the ritual involves a large number of naked women performing a rain dance outdoors in an offertory to some deity or deities. In a
heart-warming display of spirituality and community spirit, more than 150 female Sydneysiders showed up at an outdoor venue in Parramatta, a city near Sydney, and dutifully shed their clothes for this terpsichorean tradition.
During the ceremony, the station reported that a phone call had been received from the rural town of Inverell, where drops of rain were beginning to fall.
Your almanackist is happy to report that this morning, Sydney has been lashed by gales bearing rain and hail. Much more rain is needed by the farmers, however, so I would earnestly request that more public spirited women sally forth into the fields, the streets, the highways and the
by-ways, to entreat the gods and goddesses of the weather to smile upon our land.
In particular, the area around Narrabeen Beach is especially dry and many small plants are in dire need of water.
Thank you, most thankfully.
Abundance and gratitude,
Pip Wilson
Sep 7, 2002
9-11: Info requested ASAP for 9-11, by 9-10.
I have this idea for September 11. Please join me in it.
As I did within half an hour of the 9-11 attacks in the USA, I shall prepare a mourning issue this year.
The tragedy of 9-11 struck us all, especially as we watched it on the screen. Moreover, it behoves all people of goodwill to put things in perspective,
and we all know that many tragedies occur away from CNN, and far from Big Business's axis of power, the WTC.
Because US media and cultural hegemony flood the lives of the rest of us in the other 190 nations,
we almost need to remind ourselves to mourn other things as well.
Not that the tragedy of 9-11 is not enormous, nor that we don't feel it in other countries, but tragedies of the 190 nations are always relegated behind every catastrophe and every hiccup in the hegemonic nation.
9-11 was one of many conflict-related disasters of the last year. Let's not allow the media
TNCs (transnational corporations) and troglodyte politicians set the Planet's agenda for our capacity to grieve over what must be grieved, as they have ulterior motives that do us, and all victims, no justice at all.
Will you help me between now and Sept 10 compile a list of what you think we should mourn for during the past 12 months? We need some facts and figures here.
May we be patriots of Planet Earth first, and our respective nations second? Many believe that if we do not, it is at our peril no matter where we live.
May the commemoration of 9-11, which henceforth will certainly be known as a day of international mourning, establish a new ritual of mourning all that was wrong during the year, so that we can feel our grief, and emerge stronger and more committed to improving things.
I will publish as much of the following as I can, with your help.
In the last year:
How many people died in conflicts in Africa?
How many worldwide?
How many Palestinians' houses were bulldozed by Sharon's henchmen?
How many Israelis were murdered by Palestinian fanatics?
How many mammal species became extinct?
How many bird species? Plants? Fungi? Insects?
How many children died of hunger?
How many Iraqi kids died because of the sanctions?
How many of our brothers and sisters died
because they have no reliable water provision?
How many square miles of rainforest were destroyed?
How many people were injured by landmines?
How many square miles of coral reefs died as oceans warmed?
How much ice thawed on Mts Everest and Kilimanjaro due to warming?
How much topsoil was eroded in different countries?
How much money did the richest people bank?
How many illiterate people were there?
How many women unnecessarily died of fistula?
How many poets and journalists were imprisoned for their words?
How many refugees were there?
How much money was spent on gambling?
How much on armaments?
How much on drugs?
How many people were killed by courts?
How many Chinese people were denied human rights?
How many dams destroyed villages?
How many languages and dialects died under
the wheels of the juggernaut of English?
How many women were not allowed equal rights?
How many tons of pollutants entered the atmosphere?
And any others you can think of.
Send in a brief fact, or facts, and if you can, a reference or URL to show where you got it.
I'll acknowledge you in the almanac.
Please send to me before Sept 11 and put Mourning and your name or nickname in the Subject Header.
Let's mourn for a day, and move on.
Abundance and gratitude,
Pip Wilson
Sept 9, 2002
Moving: The almanac's Scriptorium will be shifting soon, from Sydney to a rural area 600 km (350 miles) away.
At the same time, the almanac and its website have a big pile of administrative costs that must be met. One of these is an bulging account with our Internet Service Provider. How both the move and the account will actually occur is still a moot point! LOL
As you know, the almanac comes to you each day only by voluntary paid subscription. I don't do it often, but every now and again I have a need to make the reminder rather loud.
So, subscriber, will you take a moment from your morning coffee with Wilson's Almanac, and (if you think that we make your coffee break sweeter) please consider what a coffee is worth, what a newspaper is worth, and what this work is worth.
However, the almanac's motto remains:
"If need be, read free'.
The details are here:
Please have a look, and dig deep. Thank you for reading, and thank you for supporting.
Abundance and gratitude,
Pip Wilson
Sep 23, 2002
Speak: Come and join the Almanac's News Editor, Jeannine Wilson, and your almanackist in
Almaniacs
Speak:
Your Discussion Forum
Let's have some fun! You can respond to our discussion topics, or start your own. It belongs to you as a member of this online community.
We'll see you there!
Abundance and gratitude,
Pip Wilson
Sep 29, 2002
Crap: The first casualty of war, it is said, is the truth. Western media like to keep the old saying alive. We have a rag in Sydney, called
The Sunday Telegraph, which is doing its bit for tradition.
Enough people exist who don't consider it a rag, to give it a weekly circulation of more than 700,000. That fact alone is great cause for concern.
Today's 'Tele' has seen fit to relinquish a few column centimetres of space on Page 1, from the usual Hollywood and sporting pap, to inform us that the Iraqi Ambassador to Australia has "warned" Australia of something. Sounds dire, does it not?
Dr Saad Al Samarai must be a little disappointed that his words – his pleas, rather than warnings
– have been so misrepresented.
"We would like to ask why and for what purpose and which benefits Australia would add to an international crime in attacking Iraq," he told
The Sunday Telegraph in an exclusive interview.
"We are not neighbouring countries, we have no conflicts in the past, we have no conflicting interests in the region."
Have a read here. It doesn't sound like a warning to me. It sounds to me like a man who is terrified that for the second time in a decade or so, Australia, the UK and the USA will kill upwards of 200,000 of his fellow men, women and children. Maybe more.
Indeed, what the Australian Prime Minister has been saying sounds much more like a warning, to me. I think you and I know a plea when we read one, as opposed to a warning. Of course, no newspaper proprietor ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the Australian media consumer.
The Sunday Telegraph and its sister rag, The Daily Telegraph, are the ones that brought us the following picture of Australian citizen, David Hicks, some months ago.
Scary Bad Guy (black hat not shown)
David Hicks had been arrested in Afghanistan, allegedly fighting on the side of the Taliban. 'Allegedly', because Mr Hicks is one of hundreds of prisoners of the US government at Guantanamo Bay.
With the other uncharged captives, Mr Hicks is being held in his own luxury toilet-sized concrete cell, under electric lights 24/7. He is denied visits from his lawyers, and I suppose when he finally does go troppo he will be charged with striking an officer and find out what really makes the new US 'legal' system mad.
Whenever an Australian citizen is arrested overseas, someone from the nearest Ozzie consulate or embassy rushes to their side. In David Hicks's case, they rushed over to make sure he was interrogated good and proper. They needn't have, of course. Employees ("don't blame me, it's my job") of the US government have been doing that quite
nicely, thank you, for nearly a year.
God knows what privations and cruelties hundreds of uncharged men are being subjected to by our superior culture that has (for the first time in US history, I believe) thrown habeas corpus out the window.
What they papers didn't tell us was that the photo of Mr Hicks was taken when he was on the side of the good guys. In Kosovo. Risking his life for Might and Right. Of course, the Sydney newspapers neglected to mention it. Because they are not owned by people, but by huge corporations, like the oil cartels that are organising the invasion of the sand over Iraq's lakes of oil, using George W Bush as a willing accomplice.
It's worth remembering that the country of the Middle East that has weapons of mass
destruction and has ignored UN resolutions for decades, is the biggest recipient of US foreign aid. And it isn't Iraq.
Abundance and gratitude,
Pip Wilson
Sep 30, 2002
Times: So my ten-year-old son Remy is sitting at my computer, Esmeralda, see.
I'm in a normal mood, so I ask him, "Son, do you always boast to your mates at school about your Dad? Like, how fantastic he is?"
He doesn't take his eyes off the screen. "Yeah, right," he answers.
I say, "I guess you brag to them about how your Dad has his own website, huh? And an ezine.""
No answer. I try a new angle.
"Do your friends use the Net a lot?" I ask.
"Nup."
"What? Your mates don't use the Net? Really?!"
Remy slowly turns his head and delivers a long, withering look.
"Get with the times," he says.
Get with the times?! So there's a new generation that thinks of the Internet the way kids of my generation thought of Perry Como and WWII.
I had no idea I was so out of touch, such an antiquity for being a Net user. Oh well, I'm in my 50th year, so I guess I have an excuse. What's yours, Fossil?
Abundance and gratitude,
Pip Wilson
On to Fourth Quarter, 2002 editorials »
