Civil Disobedience

All this activism around Occupy the World along with the resulting attacks upon democratic freedoms has led me to examine my own corner of the universe with fresh eyes. A brisk walk down the main street proved most informative. Every few paces there was some admonition for me to adhere to....No Parking, No Standing, No Entry, No Loitering, No Walking, No Through Road, No Smoking, No Eating, No Drinking, No Skateboarding, No Cycling, No Picking the Flowers, No Littering and absolutely No Exit! But my favourite is this one (see photo). Yes, its an ordinary footpath with painstakingly clear instructions to keep left. As you see there's not a soul in sight, even though its Saturday afternoon, the sun is shining and all's right with the world. But it wouldn't matter what day or time it was, I'm usually the only sentient being plodding this pavement, apart from the odd dog or skulking adolescent. So do I keep left like a good little brainwashed citizen doing as I am told by those who think they know better? No, I do not. I make a point of doing everything but keep left. I wander aimlessly, gambol with gay abandon, pirouette on the spot, skip backwards, drift off the beaten track, even hobble with one foot in the gutter, but I adamantly refuse to keep left! Alas, for such is the limited extent of my civil disobedience, but its definitely a beginning.....

99%

Media technology is a wondrous thing. It has enabled, if not totally created, the society in which we have consented to live. We have allowed ourselves to be cajoled, tempted, brainwashed, lulled into complacency and addicted to mediocrity. We are enticed to fill our lives with brain numbing banality, while the planet, blindfolded and brakes off, is rollicking straight to hell.

But media technology is a wondrous thing and not averse to biting the hand that feeds it.

Which is why September's moderate gathering at Wall Street to protest against social and economic inequality has become a global movement in over 2,000 cities worldwide. Thanks to media technology, I (and millions around the world) have watched horrified as ordinary people endeavouring to exercise their democratic rights, are beaten, arrested and vilified by an armed and militant police force. And just as I was thinking this couldn't possibly happen Downunder, disgust and disbelief churned my stomach at the atrocious behaviour of our own Australian police during Occupy Melbourne.

So thanks to media technology, the blissfully ignorant are blissful no longer and ignorant no more. Safely ensconced in God's own country I may be, but I know a revolution when I see one.

I am the 99%.

Who's Cool

The Who ~ my first independently purchased LP and like everything worth having, comes with a story.....

There I was, at high school, one of 4 girls in an otherwise all boy class of 24, and unfortunately at my most excruciatingly awkward period. I wasn't sporty (Yvonne), or sexually savvy (Linda), or Gone with the Wind gorgeous (Carol). No, I was the tragic who read Russian authors during unfathomable Maths lessons and haunted the library while everyone else was outside getting a tan.

Then one day the hunk of the class (you know who you are, Bob Skewes) was taking orders for a record club, the kind where you receive a decent price reduction for buying 12 albums at a time. Well, there he was in all his 16 year old manly glory, angling for takers, and I swear, I couldn't resist. No matter that this was the only time he deigned to address me all year, no matter that all he grunted was along the lines of "yeah, record like, wanna order, yeah money now, like yeah" and no matter that I had no idea who all the groups and singers were. All I knew was that he Spoke the Word and lo! I was in the land of milk and honey! I stammered something about not sure which record to buy and after some pursing of the lips and puckering of the brows, the mangod proclaimed " yeah, Who's cool" so I signed on the dotted line and handed over the dough.

And by the way Bob, wherever you are, you were so right. Who's cool!