tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80070082024-03-13T10:53:59.717+08:00fourth floor feminism | sociable speculationClaire Madeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05731948368295746877noreply@blogger.comBlogger238125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8007008.post-85791933308281193532020-07-20T16:42:00.009+08:002020-07-21T18:01:37.425+08:00Paeans for EonsThis kind of prompt entertains me immensely, and so, in the tradition of <a href="https://insanelysociable.blogspot.com/2017/10/paeans-by-fangurl.html" target="_blank">a similar prompt from 2017</a>, please enjoy ...
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Your Dystopian YA author name is your last initial + your first initial + the first kind of tree you can think of.<br /><br />The title of your book series is The + the color of your shirt + the first object to your right.</p>— tiny snek comics (@TinySnekComics) <a href="https://twitter.com/TinySnekComics/status/1170453657701224448?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 7, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><div><div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Your Dystopian YA author name is your last initial + your first initial + the first kind of tree you can think of.</b></div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>The title of your book series is The + the color of your shirt + the first object to your right.</b></div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>#CB</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>BC Willow defines the generation with her opus The Grey Bed</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Following the stories of multiple couples through their first and last sexual acts in their lovingly shared beds, it is a potent refutation of the 50 Shades generation.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>#RM</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>M R Oak with their thrilling YA debut "Cream Windows"</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Claire: the fans can be called Creamies!</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Claire: oh hai. I am coming back up to the first comments because I am on a roll and I did not do these first books justice.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">'Cream Windows' was probably the first YA novel to really address the world-wide experience of young people seeing their future change after 2020.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Oak's protagonist is a visual artist in one-room lockdown and resorts to painting half of their windows cream to use as a canvas each day for their work.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The novel allows us to follow the tentative connections of social media as the daily paintings are digitally preserved for the protagonist's audience, while the clear window shows a world unprepared for the new ways needed to resume life.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">In a year of worldwide transition, the work of the protagonist, paintings momentarily more pliable than the real world, allowed readers to understand that negotiation is the only way forward.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">RM: THIS SOUNDS REALLY GOOD</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Claire: I'm not going to lie, I have been doom-scrolling TikTok compilations, so I have been enjoying too much electronic cream windows ...</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>#HP</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>PH Sequoya, Beehive shelf</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Claire: I am not going to lie, would deffo read that ...</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>HP provided photo of the beehive shelf</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Claire: that is THREE trilogies!!</div><div style="text-align: justify;">HP: I am obsessed with hexagons. I have matching glasses in the kitchen LOL</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Claire: I've been really getting some inspiration from the books, so I am back up here to see what I get from your book:</div><div style="text-align: justify;">As the much-lauded biographer of Buckminster Fuller, Sequoya was a leading light in the biosphere wing of sustainable living policy wonks. During her long-service leave, she wrote a stream of consciousness diary of a settler on a terraformed planet in a speculative future.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Beehive Shelf became the first in an extensive series of earnest science fiction that was often hailed as the only real successor to the Foundation series.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">HP: OMG that's exactly what I would write LOL In fact I wrote the outline of a book in 2004 and it was something a little like that - speculative future, earnest science fiction, reformed planet, climate change.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>#MS</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>SM Birch</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Claire: 🔥well now🔥</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Claire: Soooooooooo, hey there. I have been letting my imagination off the leash a bit with the other books, so I thought I'd ACTUALLY write what I so imperfectly implied in my deliberately obscured initial comment.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Let's see how much NSFW content I can imply in polite language:</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Everyone knows SM Birch's iconic blog, even if no one discusses it with their parents. Comparable only to Belle du Jour or Savage Love, The Supple Birch was the place to find what Belle and Dan would not, or could not, discuss.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">When Birch's announcement of a book went out in the vanishingly rare subscribers newsletter, hands flew to bedside table drawers around the world. Something new to rest in that drawer - we were ALL ready.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">But you see, no one was actually ready for the next iteration of The Supple Birch. Every square inch of the graphic novels that became the blogs' final form were full of import.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Thirty years later, the generation who grew up on the blog and then graphic novels created university courses in its arcane, speculative and revolutionary discoveries.
And now, the live show is here.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">MS: Oh wow. I had no idea such a person existed!</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Claire: Right? That prurient secrecy around adult ideas damages us all ...</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>#BL</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>LB Hazel "The Hawaiian Bowling Ball"</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Claire: I am trying to work out if it's a Big Lebowski Universe entry or about some Volcano-Surfing extreme-sport loving criminals headed up by Dwayne The Rock Johnson in the Fast and Furious Universe??</div><div style="text-align: justify;">BL: Porque no los dos?</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Claire: Look, you're not wrong, make it so ... </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Claire: I got REALLY verbose on the topic of other books, so I'm back to realise the vision set out in our comments above:</div><div style="text-align: justify;">LB Hazel is probably the most influential Film Agent of our times. Discreet to the point of secrecy, he was the steady hand at the helm of some of the best-loved careers of 21st Century Cinema.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">So the memoir of the ultimate insider should have been more scandalous than philosophical, but this is where 'The Hawaiian Bowling Ball' will surprise and delight you.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Taking the careers of long-time clients John Turturro and Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, Hazel maps out the heartbreaking restrictions on-screen physicality places on the true inclinations of artists working in the film medium.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">He takes us into the heart of Johnson's political and philosophical salons, held in libraries the world over, co-hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson and the Notorious RGB, the policy outcomes of which were never credited with his facilitation or collaboration.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">And, in stunning contrast, especially as the Turturro estate gave their full permission for publication of otherwise restricted papers, the tales of the extraordinary extraction team that Turturro trained and operated for three decades on behalf of the Hague to find mass murderers, and bring them to justice.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">This book truly reminds us that the brain is a muscle best used for the next generation and that muscles are mighty when used on behalf of lady justice.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">BL: Well then...I best get writing! I really want to read this!</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Claire: I got the tea for you, I'll be ghost writer! ahahahahaha </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>#CR</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>RC Eucalyptus, Purple cat on a red blanket</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Claire: clearly a children's adventure series. iconique.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Claire: I'm BAAAAACK!
Seeing as I have started creating more and more elaborate blurbs for books, I am coming back to this one for round two ... </div><div style="text-align: justify;">'Purple Cat on a Red Blanket' is a book that takes Alan Coren's tongue-in-cheek joke about one of his books and turns it right on its head.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The late Alan Coren famously published a collection of humorous pieces in book form, called Golfing for Cats. And he put a swastika on the front cover. He had noticed the most popular titles in Britain in those days were about cats, golf and Nazis. <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-12752501" target="_blank">That was in 1975</a>, long before the internet.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">So in 2020, while cats ruled the interwebs and the Golfing Nazi was in the White House, RC Eucalyptus released a book for children that apparently took place on a red tartan blanket spread out in a field of Patterson's Curse during wildflower season in Australia.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">But anyone who has read this gentle story of a picnic in 1975 in the rolling hills surrounding York will tell you it's more Watership Down and Picnic at Hanging Rock than Possum Magic, although there are plenty of lamingtons.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">It's hard to describe the book, so go read it, but don't tell me I didn't warn you about the cats ... </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>#PC</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>PC Oak. The Blue Pillow Trilogy</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Claire: a cyberpunk love story, not to be confused with CP Oake's The Blue Pillow, which is about Gardening in Foreign Climes.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Claire: The Oakes of Insi Catt, or the Shetlands as we know them now, are a literary family of extraordinary longevity, producing a giant of literature every third generation. Although most of their work is now lost to history, 'The Blue Pillow' from CP Oake, published 1890, used to be the most modern Oake book on the bookshelf.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">It is a warm retelling of a young Oake leaving the ancestral isle and forging a career as a gardener in some of the most celebrated gardens in warm climates around the world. His bittersweet discovery that he could not bear the cold, not even for his family or history, lingers long in the memory.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">But it is now the third generation of Oakes around the world, and the great publishers were poised and ready for the inevitable flowering of the rare Oake genius.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The literary world was NOT disappointed. PC Oak, from a cadet branch of the great authorial tree flourishing in Australia, offers us a strong Oak/e story for the times.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Again on the eternal topic of pulling up and putting down roots, his 'The Blue Pillow' takes us into the cosmos, three sisters, the new science of space travel, and a ship full of specimens leaving a dying blue dot.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Resting the hope of the world on yet another set of protectors of seeds and shoots, the very meaning of life, Oak reminds us that humans have traveled, always.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>#FM</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>MF Sheoak, Black Mouse</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Claire: fans of the Trilogy regularly address each other as 'Mother F#*kers' and it's totally cool.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Claire: Well, this is the last of the books that I did not write an overly elaborate blurb for ... so now you are getting one!</div><div style="text-align: justify;">'Black Mouse' is one of those literary events that you only get to witness once in a generation. MF Sheoak produced a manuscript at 22, was holding simultaneous negotiations with eight publishing houses, and sold the movie rights alongside her manuscript for a fortune no one can actually confirm.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">But we know all this because we are in a post-'Black Mouse' world now. Sheoak's prescience was so overwhelming that we now live in a world described in minute detail only two years before in her book. </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Not even Nostradamus was this good, not even Agnes Nutter was this good.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">And we cannot be sure the sequel will not be as farsighted and true as the first. We wait for her. And in the meantime, we mutter 'mother f#*ker' under our breath as each new revelation is proved to be in the book …</div><div style="text-align: justify;">FM: this is the greatest!!</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Claire: I love doing blurbs for friends, and your Agent was very flattering about my own work, so, y'know, it was an honour :)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>#JM</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>MJ Fig is the author of The Black Bottle</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Claire: The Black Bottle was a serious departure in style for Fig, whose extensive literary career covered both literature and biography. The Black Bottle, as a kind of mannerspunk/solarpunk hybrid, divided critics and united readers.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">JM: I have to write this now.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Claire: <a href="https://youtu.be/79DijItQXMM" target="_blank">what can I say except you’re welcome.gif</a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>#JW</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>WJ Bonsai, The Black Glass</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Claire: This darkly funny coming-of-age story leaves readers with the memorable final image of the dark glass heart, traced over with kintsugi, shattering for an eternity 💔</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>#MD</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>DM Ash, The Black Door</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Claire: Ash reimagines Ragnarok for the 21st Century, reminding us that in our greatest triumphs are the seeds of our utter destruction.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>#WD</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>The world had grown cold since the "unforgivable years". Sure we can make heat, but can we find warmth? - DW Jarrah, The Black Hot Water Bottle</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Claire: The book that inspired the Smash Hit West End Musical 🎶</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Claire: I have been going overboard with the blurbs now ... so it's time for yyyooouuurrrsss!!!</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Here's the thing about The Black Hot Water Bottle - both book and musical. It's complicated, yeah?</div><div style="text-align: justify;">That DW Jarrah was able to write and release both simultaneously is still the stuff of legends in both ends of town, the great publishers of the Strand, and the bright theatres of Soho.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">But he was the scion of families that literally own both powerhouse industries, so how could he not straddle both with his breakout debut?</div><div style="text-align: justify;">It's when you realise he's a medical innovator, bringing cutting edge medical improvements to these shores that you begin to wonder if he sleeps at all, and how does he physically have time for everything he does?</div><div style="text-align: justify;">It's a mystery to this correspondent, but maybe you can ask him yourself on Saturday, when he gives a reading at Waterstones Piccadilly and then attends the Opening Night of the restaging of the musical at Theatre Royal Drury Lane.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">SOMEBODY ask him how he does it!!</div><div style="text-align: justify;">WD: Your flattery is of a special brand x</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Claire: It's not flattery if it is based on real events, it's just sparkling reportage!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>#JJ</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>JJ Ginkgo Biloba. White Toothpick</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Claire: a genre-defying retelling of Ginkgo Biloba's torrid three-year affair with David Bowie.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>#CH</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>HC Oak The White Light</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Claire: The White Light became a touchstone for a generation of writers, Oak's reimagining of the way literature communicated science created powerful images that influenced authors, playwrights and filmmakers for decades.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">CH: truly fabulous. An inspiration! 😍I'd love to write something that influenced authors, playwrights and filmmakers for decades!!</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Claire: I cannot wait for the book launch, and the dedication to me!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>#MM</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>MM Yew, the striped malteasers </i></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Claire: We all saw the public feud between MM Yew and their esteemed colleague Mal Teese, fought over many years through PhD students and across Conference Papers, but this behind-the-scenes look at MM Yews machinations to come out the victor will surely replace 'The Prince' on the bookshelves of hungry young power brokers the world over.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>#GK</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>KG Pine. The Green Door. (I mean, that's a world of possibilities right there)</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Claire: The Green Door was a pioneering policy, ensuring climate change science was the prime mover in Australian legislation for almost two decades. Pine's tell-all memoir of the dedicated campaign team that put her on the road to Canberra will leave the reader charmed by the people who won the war for Australia's sustainable future.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>#AM</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>MA Huon. The Black (Speckled) Envelope</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Claire: A collection of short stories reimagining Sherlock Holmes stories from the point of view of the perpetrators. Famous for the unforgettable revelation that while Holmes may find the miscreants, Watson is a vigilante who kills each perpetrator before they even go to trial ... </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>#JF</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>FJ Gum. The grey plate and empty mug</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Claire: After humanity has spent seven generations in an off-planet settlement, a group of young humans return to earth for a school trip, and are required to create an artistic response to what they see.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">One young human’s photo, entitled 'the grey plate and empty mug' reveals that something on earth is not quite what it seems.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>#NM</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>MN Palm "The Black Bag"</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Claire: When the first volume of 'The Black Bag' was released, fans of Palm and her multi-disciplinary work, who should have known better, really, were not prepared for the resulting decade long cultural wars.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">She kept readers, forgive me, in the palm of her hand, as she released book after book that shifted public opinion and even national policy, and it became apparent that she had many cultural relics to assign to a 'black bag'.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>#LP</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>PL Wattle "The White controller"</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Claire: As a mostly academic writer, Wattle's book on animal husbandry and liberation was a cross-over hit for reasons still examined every year in book review circles.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">In her excoriating dismissal of colonial attitudes to animals, especially wildlife, her examination of the absurd biblical weight on the narrow frame of the snakes of the world, far from the deserts of Palestine and its religions, became a celebrated part of popular culture.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>#ZJ</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>JZ Bonsai ‘The No Lamp’</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Claire: As far as counter-cultural touchstones go, young readers cannot go wrong with the radiantly revolutionary ideas of 'The No Lamp'</div><div style="text-align: justify;">At its heart is the premise that the eternal 'NO' flickers and beckons us towards freedom and change, by examining every assumption we hold, whenever we can.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">When in a political economy that posits 'YES' as the answer to all wants and desires, 'The No Lamp' reframes service and duty as a means of community change.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">We are all called to pick up the lamp, and look for the 'NO' at the core of our mutual challenges ... </div><div style="text-align: justify;">ZH: Dang it, your blurb makes me want that book to exist</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Claire: I am really warming up this morning. I, too, wish I could work out the first principles of 'NO' ... I'd make a fortune.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">ZJ: I’ll be getting back to this response soon 🤣</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>#AS</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>AA Maple. The taupe pillow</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Claire: When 'The Taupe Pillow' first hit the shelves, it changed many of the usual misogynist strictures of literature. There were no overtly feminine features to the cover, there was almost no discussion of the author, nothing to go on but the buyer's interest until the word of mouth started.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">But when the word of mouth started, there was no stopping the book sales. Almost everything about this book is about structures within structures hiding truths that destroy structures as soon as build them.
The intricate set pieces that make up the key plot points, the mannerly deceptions and misdirections of the characters, all conducted by leaders leaning over the elaborate plans for civilizations that were to hang from the stars.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">It's a tour-de-force from Maple, who almost never tours or gives interviews but spends her time as an architect to the very worthy, and milliner to the wider world (if you can work out which Instagram milliner is she!)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>#ZH</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>HZ Ash, The Pink Mouse</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Claire: After two decades of being the most decorated short story writer in SciFi, Ash was sitting in the pantheons of the gods, on panels beside Le Guin, hoarding Hugos and not needing any more Nebulas, but winning them anyway.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ash commanded the great halls at the Cons, the fans spun theories into the ether endlessly, the galaxies spun on.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">On 29 February 2020 'The Pink Mouse' was released with no warning and no launch, just available in all the usual places as the world began to drown under COVID. As the whole machine of the globe faltered, 'The Pink Mouse' did not.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">In the loose tradition of the 'Brown Book' in 'The Book of the New Sun', 'The Pink Mouse' is a collection of short stories that are either prequels or sequels to the prize-winning short stories on syllabus' across the world.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">And the stories in the 'The Pink Mouse' destroy the premise of their celebrated precursors with a sentence or two that bring down decades of reviews and scholarships.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">No short story writer has so comprehensively reframed their own legacy in their lifetime. With a rock-solid lack of ego, Ash burns her storied legacy to the ground and strides on, for there is no prize in literature for burning everything and building again, but maybe there should be.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>#SJ</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>JS Pomegranate, The Brown Batik.
It held the memories and history of a world forgotten, and a mystery to be solved hidden in the vines and leaves of this simple heirloom</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Claire: I can see the movie in my head 📽️</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>#EM</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>ME Oak. The nude chihuahua</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Claire: We all remember the moment that we read page 420 in 'The Nude Chihuahua'.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Personally, I was lying in bed at about my fourth hour of reading, just biting into and chewing a granny smith, and I just froze when I read that notorious sentence.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The juice from the bite and the apple in my mouth pooled at the back of my throat, just under my tongue, then dripped into my lungs so I started coughing. I spat apple and juice out over the page from my mouth and, more painfully, out my nose, in a kind of unconscious homage to that moment in the book.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">To say that I could not easily eat a granny smith for months afterward is an understatement, and each time I see the book on my shelf I re-live the feeling of apple chunks in my sinuses and carried down the back of my throat while unable to breathe.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I hear that people have fainted during readings of that scene when Oak toured for the two years 'The Naked Chihuahua' was #1 on the Times Bestseller List. I am not surprised.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">So recommend this book to your nearest Book Club ... it'll rattle everyone's cage.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">EM: love it! Decided nude was more mysterious than naked though xx</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Claire: Hahaha, I figured as much! ZJ further up has 'The No Lamp', which I suspect is his polite way of indicating nudity … Although, considering this story was inspired by a mixture of Lionel Shriver and Chuck Palahniuk, 'The Naked Chihuahua' is pretty on brand ...</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>#CS</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>S.C Fig. The Grey Notebook</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Claire: A friend of mine admitted to me the other day that they have a very unique way of screening lovers: the bookshelf of the potential lover is checked minutely, and the number and configuration of books in the 'The Grey Notebook' series on the shelf will accurately predict the kindness and consideration of the lover in bed.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I present to you now their 'Notebook Sex Scale' for your edification:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Fifth Book only:</i> came to the series at its peak of popularity and got to read the first four at their pace, not the pace of publication. It was found that these people will not spend enough time with foreplay, and will be too showy with their technique.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>First to Third Books only:</i> stuck with the short waits between book publication, but tapped out during the 15-year gap between the Third and Fourth book. It was found these people were too LONG with foreplay, and just rolled over after orgasm.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Just the Movies:</i> do not sleep with these people, we all feel strongly about what happened to the book on the screen. We feel your pain, Fig, we stand in solidarity, and we do not sleep with those who love the Show.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>All the Books, all the novellas, all the short stories, memorabilia: </i>they will be the soul of patience and longevity, hold these treasures close.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">CS: HAHAHA!
You, my friend, are fucking funny.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Claire: true.story!</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div><b>#PG</b></div><div><i>GP Eucalyptus, The Maroon Pillows</i></div><div>Claire: When you really need to bury an otherwise untouchable cultural icon, especially an oppressive one, you call in The Doctor.</div><div>GP Eucalyptus earned her tongue-in-cheek moniker during the book tour for her debut volume of investigative journalism that comprehensively disembowelled the cult of the great white male in literature.</div><div>'The White Jacket' was a cultural watershed, but it was her sophomore publication 'The Maroon Pillows' that really cemented in our minds the surgical decimation of her commentary.</div><div>If you've ever used a line from Shakespeare in your everyday speech (and if you are an English speaker, you have!), this book will ensure you never do so again.</div><div>The Doctor stakes Shakespeare's oeuvre out on a rock and turns her hands to removing that liver over and over again, pointing out to the English-speaking theatre world that our blind obedience to programming a Shakespeare every year, in every repertoire, does irreparable damage to equality and justice in roles and casting across the acting world.</div><div>Shakespeare may have given us fire, but his male character-heavy plays are holding us back. Call The Doctor, we need a cure ...</div><div><br /></div><div><b>#ET</b></div><div><i>Ok I need to see your reaction to this one: T.E Gum's "The Blue Breast Pump"</i></div><div>Claire: There is a particular thrill to finding out that two of your favorite authors are friends. It's especially nice when that friendship turns out to be mostly secret, but very dynamic over multiple decades.</div><div>TE Gum and BC Willow have enjoyed a long-documented but seldom discussed artistic collaboration for almost four decades, and 'The Blue Breast Pump' is a surprisingly moving account of two women finding their voice.</div><div>Written as a celebration of two different paths in the literary woods, at the start of each decade we join the budding writers to enjoy their work.</div><div>Their youthful debut is 'NP: A Tale', and a decade later, Gum and Willow work together for a year maintaining an Installation that was 152 years old, the latest in a line of young guardians of an ancient Institution.</div><div>A decade later the two women are working on extensive political treatises over a three year period, and then it is back to that year-long Installation for an examination of their legacy with new parameters.</div><div>When Gum and Willow return, two decades later, to the Installation, the two authors critically examine their work until it collapses under the wisdom of their intervening life experience.</div><div>This book is a deeply feminist experience, showing that as artists grow, there is a need to reflect on the work of the past, and if it doesn't stand up, it must go. I look forward to reading the next installment, in forty years' time!</div><div><br /></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-X0BXT_swePI/XxVbs7ZgijI/AAAAAAAAGQI/KJPHObUqMU8LCL9RBIoFf_rrraN-AOyCACPcBGAYYCw/s2048/Peacock.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="2048" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-X0BXT_swePI/XxVbs7ZgijI/AAAAAAAAGQI/KJPHObUqMU8LCL9RBIoFf_rrraN-AOyCACPcBGAYYCw/s320/Peacock.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>Claire Madeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05731948368295746877noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8007008.post-68081019486493471862020-03-21T08:52:00.000+08:002020-03-22T19:35:44.638+08:00World Poetry DayThe excellent <a href="https://twitter.com/handonthepulse"target="_blank">Duc</a> proposed that we compose some poems together, line by line, for World Poetry Day. This is the <i>Age of C19</i> however, so we had a live thread in my Facebook Writing Group, and it worked surprisingly well. Devoted readers and Facebook friends alike will know that I love a good live thread, whether that is for <a href="https://insanelysociable.blogspot.com/search/label/The%20Voice"target="_blank">The Voice</a>, <a href="https://insanelysociable.blogspot.com/2012/06/diamonds-are-for-lizzie.html"target="_blank">the Jubilee</a> or Q&A.<br />
<br />
The first poem was pleasingly symmetrical, the second quite melancholy ... they started out as Follows -<br />
<blockquote><b>-1-</b><br />
how precarious the life of the tree by the road<br />
precarious and precious, said the poet<br />
the poet with the last roll of TP<br />
precarious and precious, said the poet<br />
The TP from the tree by the side of the road</blockquote><blockquote><b>-2-</b><br />
Hands made to touch, cannot touch, cannot be touched, but must wash, be washed, wash, be washed, wash<br />
Birthdays unmarked,<br />
But we sing, sing the song, the birthday song<br />
when we wash, washed, wept, wash</blockquote><b>Claire:</b> Emily would be prouder of us if we added some capitalisation and dashes, but otherwise, I like it<br />
<br />
<b>Duc:</b> Happy for you to do it -- and add dashes --<br />
<br />
<b>Claire:</b> Thanking you Kind friend --<br />
<br />
Then we started a terrible/wonderful game of reformatting them in different styles - and I squished everything into one of my favourite formats - <a href="https://insanelysociable.blogspot.com/search?q=dickinson"target="_blank">Miss Dickinson’s Midnight Missives To Those She Loves</a> ...<br />
<blockquote><b>-1-</b><br />
How Precarious the Life of the Tree - by the Road<br />
Precarious and Precious - Said the Poet<br />
The Poet - with the Last - roll of tp<br />
Precarious and Precious - said the Poet<br />
The tp - from the Tree - by the Side - of the Road</blockquote><b>Duc:</b> what a ballad!<br />
<b><br />
Claire:</b> Emily is Rolling in her Grave - Under the Tree<br />
<br />
<b>Duc:</b> There are Victorian-era poetic images of skulls and skeletons under the roots of oak trees in church graveyards. I’m thinking of Tennyson’s In Memoriam<br />
<br />
<b>Duc:</b> Also, I haven’t laughed this hard all week. Thank You, Friend—<br />
<br />
<b>Claire:</b> I am honoured you were laughing!!!<br />
<br />
But I kept going ...<br />
<blockquote><i><b>Part One:</b> Death Dickinson Version</i><br />
<br />
How precarious the Life -<br />
Of the tree by the Road -<br />
Precarious and precious - Said -<br />
The poet -<br />
<br />
The poet with the - Last<br />
Roll of - tp<br />
Precarious - <br />
And precious -<br />
<br />
Said the poet -<br />
The tp from the Tree - <br />
By the side of the Road</blockquote><blockquote><i><b>Part One:</b> Essence of Emily's Garden Version</i><br />
<br />
How Precarious the Life<br />
Of the Tree -<br />
By the Road!<br />
<br />
Precarious - and - Precious<br />
Said the poet -<br />
The Poet with the - last<br />
Roll of tp!<br />
<br />
Precarious and Precious - <br />
Said the Poet -<br />
The tp -<br />
From the tree - <br />
By the side - <br />
Of the road!</blockquote><b>Duc:</b> I like the second version best. It’s arboreal after all! But I think also suits. Are you happy to edit the second part a la Emily arboreal?<br />
<br />
<b>Claire:</b> oooooh. We are literally branching out - multiple versions of each. I like your Hopkins-like version, but will try Dickinson Arboreal for a laugh ...<br />
<br />
<b>Duc:</b> Dickinsonise the Hopkins<br />
<br />
<b>Claire:</b> Nooooooo, number two is DEFFO a Death poem ... Emily does NOT put the word 'cannot' in her Garden Poems. I spend a LOT of time thinking about Emily's poems, please understand ...<br />
<blockquote><i><b>Part Two:</b> Emily's Admonishments to her Household at this Time</i><br />
<br />
Hands made to Touch - <br />
Cannot Touch - <br />
Cannot be Touched - but - <br />
Must wash -<br />
<br />
Be washed - wash - be washed -<br />
Wash - birth Days unmarked -<br />
But we Sing -<br />
<br />
Sing the song - the birth Day song -<br />
When we wash - washed -<br />
Wept - wash</blockquote><b>Claire:</b> It works so well as a Death Poem<br />
<br />
<b>Duc:</b> 💯<br />
<br />
<b>Claire:</b> I think it would be hilarious to do both in another format all together ... I enjoy the joke-format of Part One in its first incarnation, and the Dickinson Arboreal. Part Two as Hopkins and Dickinson Funereal?<br />
<br />
<b>Duc:</b> Can we do a Hopkins version of I heard a fly buzz when I died? And a Dickinson version of Hopkins’ morbid/“terrible” sonnets??<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44398/no-worst-there-is-none-pitched-past-pitch-of-grief"target="_blank">No worst, there is none. Pitched past pitch of grief</a> | Gerard Manly Hopkins<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44396/i-wake-and-feel-the-fell-of-dark-not-day"target="_blank">I wake and feel the fell of dark, not day</a> | Gerard Manly Hopkins<br />
<br />
<b>Claire:</b> Hooley dooley, our man hopkins likes his synonyms! That was ... intense and full<br />
<br />
<b>Claire:</b> Emily would prune those poems like a rose bush<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-66JixabQp2s/XnbzmiQ6IzI/AAAAAAAAGM4/RN2-q02-gHcGTo_1itOIxv9cu72YfOKPACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Squares%2B-%2BWell%2BCome%2B%252B%2BGood%2BBye.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-66JixabQp2s/XnbzmiQ6IzI/AAAAAAAAGM4/RN2-q02-gHcGTo_1itOIxv9cu72YfOKPACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Squares%2B-%2BWell%2BCome%2B%252B%2BGood%2BBye.jpg" width="320" height="320" data-original-width="1080" data-original-height="1080" /></a></div><br />
Image includes <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00shkn6"target="_blank">Arabian Bronze Hand</a> and <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00shk95"target="_blank">Seated Buddha from Gandhara</a><br />
<br />
<b>And if you are curious; my <a href="https://insanelysociable.blogspot.com/2007/09/53-days.html"target="_blank">other poetry work</a> and poems that other people have <a href="https://insanelysociable.blogspot.com/2004/01/start-of-unnatural-obsession.html"target="_blank">written about me</a> ...</b>Claire Madeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05731948368295746877noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8007008.post-20701342201556778812020-03-20T21:02:00.000+08:002020-03-21T10:00:45.860+08:00Writing at a Social DistanceI have a writing group that I started specifically so writers could spend some hours in each other’s company. We’d write in silence for an hour, stop for tea and chat, and then write for another hour if that suited everyone.<br />
<br />
I loved every moment of facilitating those groups, and I got some really excellent writing done in those times, along with making <a href="https://insanelysociable.blogspot.com/2016/06/1119-roundup.html"target="_blank">treasured new friends</a>. I had a modest private group on Facebook that supported everyone inbetween the writing groups with announcements of writing competitions. All was going well until the <i>Age of C19</i> was upon us, and writers retreated to their garrets again.<br />
<br />
So the writing group went online, and the decision to go online in full was sealed when I went to see my sister, and one of her housemates was a writer. I invited her to join me in a long-running online writing group - <b>The Writing Race</b> by the <a href="https://awmonline.com.au/"target="_blank">Australian Writer’s Marketplace</a>.<br />
<br />
It was lovely to sit on the sofa, participate in a Writing Race, and hear the steady tap of another writer’s keyboard. Most satisfying was the finished word count for both of us, and the feeling of having shared something with the outside world, while we were being responsibly distant.<br />
<br />
So I decided to change my Salon of Sociability into a Salon of Social Distance, suddenly becoming the salon at the end of the empire. For what else is a group of great writers to do but keep documenting the death throes of one way of living, and the birth of new ideas, in this time of corona?<br />
<br />
I wish these times were not paid for in death, I wish we were suffering any other upheaval than that of insidious disease, but these are the times we have now, and looking away is not the way writing serves the world.<br />
<br />
So now I run my writing hour more frequently, and I take time to point people towards other writers documenting how these times unfold.<br />
<br />
Right now, might I recommend <a href="https://medium.com/@Marisa_Garreffa"target="_blank"><b>Marisa Garreffa</b></a>’s reportage from the heart of the Italian Lockdown.<br />
Claire Madeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05731948368295746877noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8007008.post-45425608581973072872019-03-17T10:02:00.000+08:002019-03-19T09:13:46.908+08:00Islamic Hospitality: Family<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vIgLmph1514/V1owYNwChhI/AAAAAAAAEwU/1SEPBEJ37ik5rutf1hX5GVUDMUxgkfGMQCLcB/s1600/election.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vIgLmph1514/V1owYNwChhI/AAAAAAAAEwU/1SEPBEJ37ik5rutf1hX5GVUDMUxgkfGMQCLcB/s400/election.jpg" /></a></div><br />
On a street in Covent Garden my heart overflows with love and I stop and tell Ozy and Ely that I feel like they are my sisters. They hug me in the middle of the wintery rush hour and tell me in chorus that I am their sister.<br />
<br />
They then look me straight in the eye and remind me that this is a serious moment, becoming part of a Persian family. At that moment I could not think of any other way of entering the future. The side-splitting and brain-melting delight of my sisters and their family and friends hold my life up in ways that shape much of my chosen family.<br />
<br />
Hamida and I spoke about the importance of politics, faith and life all over the UWA campus over a cool decade, and I will be forever grateful for the invitation to a weekday Ramadan dinner that meant this extraordinary woman became a friend.<br />
<br />
My head overflows with love when I see Hamida, because each time she stops to speak to me, she changes the course of my life for the better. So much of my intellectual life is stronger and better for her insight and generosity, for the changes in our own lives that we witnessed in each other.<br />
<br />
While I was learning to be an artist activist, Marziya always had time to guide me and keep me on the path towards the intersections I needed to witness to be better. I learnt from her actions, her words, her networks, and I was safer in spaces because of her. When she takes the time to know what I have done with her wisdom, I am lost for words.<br />
<br />
Rafeif and her trust and friendship is impossible to pin down. We live in so many different worlds together and apart, just hoping that words and intentions can get us through what needs to be done to make things better. And no matter what I could do, did do, I could not move the needle closer to safety for her, for all that it was one of the actual aims of my life.<br />
<br />
These treasured humans, much missed when we are in different cities, beloved when on the phone or in front of me, subtle teachers in the art of knowing with empathy and intelligence, spend every day in a world that grows ever more dangerous because my peers and I cannot yet influence it enough to change that horrific trajectory.<br />
<br />
It is an artificial trajectory, an ahistorical trajectory, manufactured by the internal fears of a few, absorbed by the many, illogical and infuriating. And always it is entirely overshadowed by the mighty hospitality and love that has been shown me by my chosen family from the great culture that keeps the light of thought and knowledge alive for me and everyone.<br />
<br />
Today I want to thank every beloved human I know who learnt their grace and love from Islamic culture. I want to thank you for being a home for my historic heart, for being a fountain of intellectual growth, for helping me pinpoint my future plans. I am not the woman I am without your labour and love.<br />
<br />
<b>CODA</b><br />
<br />
In 2014 I attended an exhibition in the Louvre called <a href="https://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/full/10.1162/AFAR_r_00256"target="_blank"><b>Medieval Morocco: An Empire from Africa to Spain</b></a>. It was exquisite.<br />
<br />
I was in Paris after a full two weeks in the great churches of York and Edinburgh (and Scotland from top to bottom) so I was a full bottle on the Celtic religious imagery, patterns and traditions stonemasons added to the invading Christian iconography of the churches they built.<br />
<br />
I was not allowed to take photos in the Louvre exhibition, so I was diligently sketching shapes and designs from Moroccan mosques, when my eyes caught the most un-Islamic pattern I had ever seen in an exhibition of Islamic art!<br />
<br />
In the middle of the geometry and calligraphy of Islam was the delicately rounded shapes and small flowers of northern Celtic worship, and I can assure you I had a full-body reaction to that pattern!<br />
<br />
I felt a shiver run up and down my body, I quickly assessed every triangle in my eye line to confirm their lines and relationships, and then back to the clearly Celtic pattern in front of me. I sketched the carving, and then I just stared at it, mentally leaping back to sacked churches along Hadrian's Wall for reference.<br />
<br />
Ever the storyteller, I was delighted with the historical possibilities presented to me - was it a stonemason from al-Andalus who had been to the cold isle to the north to learn new angles? Was it a Caledonian stonemason who had decided the mist was no longer their destiny, revelling in clear skies?<br />
<br />
<b>HOW DOES A CELTIC TRIANGLE WITH NORTHERN EUROPEAN FLOWERS END UP CARVED INTO THE STONES OF A MOSQUE OF THE MAGHREB?</b><br />
<br />
It’s almost as if the world was full of cultures moving around in a glory of humans and thoughts, and had been forever …<br />
<blockquote><b><a href="https://insanelysociable.blogspot.com/2016/02/idiotic-didactics-treasure-ships.html"target="_blank">Idiotic Didactics</a></b><br />
<br />
<i>The international trafficking in goods and ideas, which inspired cross-cultural art in the Age of Spices, transcended the differing ideologies of Islam and Christianity. The emphasis of Islamic aesthetics on floral and geometric motifs profoundly influenced global art forms, while Muslim artists readily adopted elements of foreign styles for local audiences.<br />
<br />
Islam and Christendom both co-opted images of each other to support domestic narratives of cultural identity in miniature painting and engravings.</i></blockquote><blockquote><a href="
https://insanelysociable.blogspot.com/2013/07/politics-history-tampa.html"target="_blank"><b>The Tampa: Defining the threat of the other</b></a><br />
<br />
As a ‘multicultural’ country, Australia has a population of the peoples of the world, but is governed by an identifiably Christian, Capitalist, Anglo-Saxon power class. So while we should be a country that can claim fellowship with the world as we contain many representatives of that world, we instead are very clearly ruled by the ‘truths’ of our governing class.<br />
<br />
In reading the letters to the editor I was able to identify certain prevalent themes that ran through the arguments on all sides. These themes can be directly linked to metaphors and narratives from within Australian society and especially from the governing class.<br />
<br />
For ease of reference I will list the main themes so that I can refer to them later in the essay. The themes are ‘charity at home’, ‘White Australia Policy’, ‘invasion by others’, ‘do-gooders’, ‘legal solution’, ‘return to sender’, ‘independent nation’ and ‘political stunt’.<br />
<br />
For this essay I have deliberated on how I am to refer to the people who seek to cross Australian borders, including of course those 450 people on the Tampa. I am what the writers in letters to the editor might call a ‘do-gooder’ and so I regard these people as refugees and asylum seekers and not as illegal immigrants with all the connotations of that label. And so I will refers to these people, genuine or not, as refugees.</blockquote><blockquote><a href="https://insanelysociable.blogspot.com/2005/01/importance-of-being-earnest.html"target="_blank"><b>The Importance of Being Earnest</b></a><br />
<br />
At one stage during the afternoon, Adeeba was standing with Ely and Ozy and I, and she asked Ely if she was Muslim. Ely replied that she was, and when Adeeba looked at me, I asked her what I was. 'You are Christian because you are white' she replied, qualifying it a little by saying 'I have only met a few Christians with black skin.' And then Adeeba said something that made me sad. She told me that her father's car window had been smashed by white boys, but that her Dad was not hurt. And then she told me that 'a group of white boys had poked at Dad with a stick, but at least it was not a knife or he would be dead.'</blockquote><blockquote><b><a href="https://insanelysociable.blogspot.com/2006/04/baby-steps.html"target="_blank">Baby Steps</a></b><br />
<blockquote><i>"If none of us ever read a book that was 'dangerous,' nor had a friend who was 'different,' or never joined an organization that advocated 'change,' we would all be just the kind of people Joe McCarthy wants."<br />
Edward R Murrow</i></blockquote>These words are from a patriotic American to a country in the grip of a reaction to terror across the water. I would like to think that we can apply them to the global village of today, opened up by travel, communication and the media – we know that McCarthyism was a madness, we know that Hansonism was damaging, we know that Race Riots are shameful, we know that wiping out a continent of indigenous culture is genocide. These acts are a result of the ignorance of life in someone else’s shoes, a result of remaining safe in the confines of your own ideological comfort zone, of fearing to look over the wall between us and them and acknowledging that they have a right to their opinion and beliefs. I am not advocating the madness of total inclusivity that makes everyone special, which Dash in ‘The Incredibles’ points out, makes nobody special. I would like to think that just as they have a right to their opinions, so do we. <br />
<br />
We have an obligation, in this world of fluid media and easier travel and communication, to seek out the thoughts and ideas of the other, so we can hold our beliefs in true honesty. Continually seeking the opposition’s arguments, trying them against our own, and make the best decision we can on the validity of them prevents ideological stagnation and keeps your mind on the future. Just one ‘dangerous’ book, just one ‘different’ friend, just one idea for ‘change’ a year and you will be able to look people in the eye and state your beliefs knowing you do so in wisdom and not ignorance.</blockquote><blockquote><a href="https://insanelysociable.blogspot.com/2006/07/bear-with-head-cold-reprise.html"target="_blank"><b>Bear with a Head Cold: Reprise</b></a><br />
<br />
Where are the borders of rationality and emotion? Let's see; ruefully admitting 'we was wrong, evil, weak, racist and intolerant', check for emotion; all Muslims are the same, check for irrationality.<br />
<br />
Where are the borders of rationality and emotion? Let's see; no Europeans are stupid, ignorant, religious extremists, intolerant, criminal and poor, with no family pride, the Muslims brought that into our great country, check for irrationality; all Muslims are to blame for terrorists that share their religious beliefs, check for irrationality; Europeans are being punished for the Holocaust; check for emotion.<br />
<br />
Where are the borders of rationality and emotion? I don't know, right in front of us every day as people in every strata of life try to assert themselves with violence instead of reason perhaps.<br />
<br />
Perhaps in the words pasted together by somebody who is using the argument that ALL of Europe was stupid, ignorant, religiously fanatic, intolerant, criminal and dismissive of familial safety to argue that ALL of Islam is likewise, coated in the inarguable emotion of the Holocaust to make it slide down a treat.<br />
<a href="
https://insanelysociable.blogspot.com/2006/07/bear-with-head-cold.html"target="_blank"><br />
<b>Bear with a Head Cold</b></a><br />
</blockquote>Claire Madeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05731948368295746877noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8007008.post-14039934450947017182017-10-24T11:14:00.004+08:002020-07-20T16:54:21.381+08:00PaeansJust a reminder that I wrote my <a href="https://insanelysociable.blogspot.com/p/sovereignty-in-book-of-new-sun.html" target="_blank">History Thesis</a> on Science Fiction and Fantasy, so I am a bit of a fan of the genre ...<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Your fantasy novel name is your name, but with the letters in alphabetical order. <br /><br />Hi, I'm Aeln.</p>— Lena 🌑 (@DeaExLena) <a href="https://twitter.com/DeaExLena/status/894421568343781376?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 7, 2017</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><b><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Hi, I’m Aeln.</b> </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></b><div><div style="text-align: justify;">As the column broke out of the forest cover, they found the ranks of the cavalry under General Aceilr Adeeeilmn waiting patiently on the plain.</div><div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ace rested her hands on her pommel and smiled down at the Captain, 'what fun we're going to have today, now you've finally arrived.'</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>
<b><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>#Aadm Kkooosstuu</b> sends his highest honours to General Ace.</div></b><div style="text-align: justify;">Claire: General Ace thanks the pre-eminent Aadm of the Kkooosstuu for both the honours from the groves and that crate of particularly lethal warrior bees, used to great effect in the last campaign.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">#Aadm Kkooosstuu: Our bees are always at your service, General.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Claire: You are a scholar and a gentleman.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>
<b><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>#Achilno</b></div></b><div style="text-align: justify;">Claire: Achilno was the most famous bard in all the land, and she only ever had to use one name.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>
<b><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>#Eefijnnr Eippr</b> sat under the tree beside their cottage, utterly hidden from the world and unseen by men. They knew the battle would come. The battle over how to pronounce Eef's full name without losing any teeth.</div></b><div style="text-align: justify;">Claire: When the leashed tongues of those who sought knowledge were finally loosened enough, there was the Time of Great Spitting, where supplicants would face each other, in waterproof vestments, and call out the name of the most Eefijnnr Eippr until utterly soaked. The holder of knowledge was never summoned, but they did delight in all that moisture unleashed in their name ...</div><div style="text-align: justify;">#Eefijnnr Eippr: Only the bravest among them would attempt to pronounce the middle name. Not for fear of extreme dehydration, but rather because they knew that any person who could wrap their tongue around all three names certainly disappear sometime after midnight. Many would never return. All would be heard calling, "Eeehrst," over the wind for weeks to come.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>
<b><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>#Amy</b> just sat and sulked.</div></b><div style="text-align: justify;">Claire: 'isn't she just gorgeous?' murmured the crowd, as Amy's litter was carried through the throngs around the palace, 'hair as black as the cavern depths, red lips like the blood of your enemies spilling over the waterfall. And that name. So exotic. What do you think it means?' In the years after Amy married the Princess, almost a thousand babies born in the kingdom were given her name in adoration.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>
<b><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>#Finn Hmpruy</b></div></b><div style="text-align: justify;">Claire: Finn + Hmpruy were just minding their own business in the bar, nursing the first beers of the night, when they caught sight of the WANTED poster. The photo was so bad that there was no immediate danger, but goddamnit, the local authorities had finally spelt their names correctly. It looked like these beers were going to be the last ones for tonight, time to get outta here.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>
<b><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>#Aaehm Nostt</b></div></b><div style="text-align: justify;">Claire: General Ace was just sorting out a victualling dispute when a presence over her shoulder was felt; her spymaster had slipped back into camp. She glanced at Aaehm as she made her decision, and he nodded slightly, in his only method of communication. That nod spoke a thousand words and was the genesis of the name he was known by, Nostt.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">#Aaehm Nostt: Thoughtfully Aaehm raised his eyes to the sky. After some time his eyes, emboldened and quivering, fell towards earth and met those of General Aceilr. Nostt nodded.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>
<b><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>#Aeffir Aiilms</b> 😂😂</div></b><div style="text-align: justify;">Look, we saw it here first, the hero of your first fantasy novel …</div><div style="text-align: justify;">*cough* Aeffir Aiilms, the pride of Wakanda, and their most widely travelled ambassador. Aeffir was known for her playful stories over the treaty table that started out as relationship building exercise and always ended up with a very elegant threat that always got the result she and her nation wanted.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>
<b><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>#Adinor Agry</b></div></b><div style="text-align: justify;">Claire: Adnior the Agry is the name of that terrifying zombie that Cersei Lannister has turned The Mountain into.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>
<b><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>#Aacijnt fiiillnop</b></div></b><div style="text-align: justify;">Claire: Aacijnt Fiiillnop was one of the most successful teachers in the whole region, and her name became synonymous with excellence in the vocal arts. It was said that you achieved mastery of her methods when you could articulate each individual 'i' in Fiiillnop without running out of breath. Truly, only the adepts were that good.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>
<b><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>#Aaimryz</b></div></b><div style="text-align: justify;">Claire: That is really beautiful</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The pilgrims entered the oasis as the sun rose, bathing all the buildings in a lemon-yellow glow. The House of Aaimryz glowed at the centre of this remote temple complex; the beautiful bright mosaics and gold painted porticos of the cult centre of the God of Delight were designed to shimmer in the crisp morning air, and impart joy to and induce reverence in the weary supplicant, newly arrived after ten days of travel from the coast.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>
<b><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>#Aev Diortu</b>, sounds like a Star Wars name to me lol</div></b><div style="text-align: justify;">Claire: Yup. You belong in another universe!</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>
<b><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>#Aaacdnrss Elorsw</b> is on the case. Known to her friends as Acss, she pays her respects to Ace.</div></b><div style="text-align: justify;">Claire: Ace and Acss were inseparable both in the training yard at the Academy for War, and when carousing in the libraries and laboratories of the Universities next door. A well-rounded experience of what life can offer is essential in the leaders of tomorrow ...</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>
<b><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>#Aaddenz Abdnru-Ajnnsso</b> pulled her burnoose tighter around her as she stared up at the Milky Way at the clear desert night.</div></b><div style="text-align: justify;">Claire: It's been a long time since Aceilr and Aaddenz were sitting together with travel rations in hand at the edge of a continent, but hopefully it will happen again soon. Also, many happy returns on your wedding, lovely friend, I hope all is tea, chocolate and hugs for you both</div><div style="text-align: justify;">#Aaddenz Abdnru-Ajnnsso: It has been! If you ever find your way to Santa Cruz, (maybe on your book tour?!) I do have a guest room as well as plenty of tea and chocolate to share! Thank you! Sending many good thoughts your way!</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>
<b><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>#Aekt</b> 😊</div></b><div style="text-align: justify;">How you going Claire? It's been so long since Ive spoken to you xx</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Claire: Aekt was the fiercest house mother at the Academy of War, and the years Ace attended there was a phrase you chanted under your breath as you snuck back into the dorms after curfew:</div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Check yourself before you Aekt yourself"</div><div style="text-align: justify;">But it didn't matter, you were ALWAYS Aekt'd. She never slept ...</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>
<b><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>#Aceijss Deeknny</b>, little sister of Ace ..!</div></b><div style="text-align: justify;">Claire: Right after you graduated from the Academy of War (or University if you were going into the Administration) there was a year that each graduate spent in the forests or desert as rangers or guides across various regions of their country. While partners deep in the clearings of the western forests keeping dancing circles clear of debris and the sounds of the forest swirling, Aceij and Aceil kept their names and schedules as aligned as they could so they could be effective and open to listening.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">#Aceijss Deeknny Sista Rangers in the forest, educating on esx abeilnort, perhaps</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>
<b><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>#"Alpu"</b> is not really a goer Clever Niece 😁</div></b><div style="text-align: justify;">Claire: Look, we all know Alpu is Ace's trusty comedy sidekick, who gets her and the calvary into some sticky situations - no lives are lost though. Eventually, it is discovered that Alpu has a very powerful family 'back home', and when that penultimate sticky situation arrives, so does Alpu's family to save the day (and ensure the cliffhanger for the next volume of the series … because Alpu's family is INTERESTING!)</div><div style="text-align: justify;">#Alpu stumbles gracelessly into Ace's presence. "Forgive me once again Eminence, I fear I have exposed your left flank … Aceil and Adeimn are about to launch another assault from the west. It may have something I said!" Ace smiled benignly and Alpu breathed easily once again.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Claire: I laughed until I snorted. Oh dear.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>
<b><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>#Abe Lnoprstu</b> cracked his reddened knuckles and prepared to loose the dark soul of Abemnno Ry from his place within. Of course, no one knew that his middle names were Ramon Byrne, so his cleverness was overlooked.</div></b><div style="text-align: justify;">Claire: For some reason, I have located you in a Robin Hobb universe with the whole two-spirits-in-one-body-but-noone-knows line of thinking. I always find Robin's books a little distressing to read, because nothing ever runs smoothly for her characters, ever, and when you've just met them, you hope that if you keep reading, something will work out ...</div><div style="text-align: justify;">#Abe Lnoprstu: I am an ill-made mute. I keep talking 😊</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>
<b><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>#Bruy!</b></div></b><div style="text-align: justify;">Claire: Bruy and Ace didn't talk much about the communication networks that allowed them to discuss military strategy across the borders of their countries during peacetime, and across their respective lines of engagement during armed conflict.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">These networks only occasionally carried low-level intelligence, the system mostly carried elaborate and ridiculous false-information to annoy anyone observing them, and the next move in the three-year-long chess game they were currently playing.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>
<b><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>#Aeigonr aemrsy</b></div></b><div style="text-align: justify;">Claire: Well now, you are clearly from The Wheel of Time universe with that name! How exciting to have a new Universe visiting - we've had Star Wars on this thread.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I'm going to guess Two Rivers stock, but with a bright future ahead of you in the service of the Queen of Andor. May you be a legend, that fades to myth, that is forgotten by the time the Age that gave birth to you comes again ...</div></div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-X0BXT_swePI/XxVbs7ZgijI/AAAAAAAAGQI/FFG_tCG2_7oxbDO7g8a8kjB5kHSWGWJFQCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/Peacock.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="2048" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-X0BXT_swePI/XxVbs7ZgijI/AAAAAAAAGQI/FFG_tCG2_7oxbDO7g8a8kjB5kHSWGWJFQCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Peacock.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>Claire Madeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05731948368295746877noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8007008.post-75529735591146321312017-09-29T15:29:00.000+08:002017-09-29T15:38:28.100+08:00When asked, will write<b><blockquote>Originally published <a href="http://www.tissueworldmagazine.com/departments/consumer-speak/tissue-the-perfect-canvas-for-capturing-lifes-perfect-moments/"target="_blank">here</a> by a dear friend</blockquote></b><br />
I’ll let you in on a secret – I keep all kinds of tissue products long after the use they were provided for has passed, and some tissue products I have kept for over a decade now. And no, I am not a hoarder or a collector, but a storyteller and traveller who has been gifted art on the nearest easy canvas from all manner of artists.<br />
<br />
These beautiful sheets have been treasured for the many memories they carry, and their longevity speaks to the enduring power of paper to persevere.<br />
<br />
Along with most people, I dispose of used toilet paper, tissues and kitchen paper rolls in my day-to-day life as they wipe clean and dispense comfort, and are then discarded. But every now and again a piece of paper becomes the canvas for something innovative or evocative that I wish to keep, and they form a beautiful tapestry of tissue from across the world.<br />
<br />
I have an intricate rose made of a paper napkin given to me in Greece on the last night of a two-day romance on an Aegean island. The creator was used to visitors coming in and out of his life, but he was the only Greek dispenser of napkin roses I met, so the rose lies, flat and pure as Mediterranean sand, alongside ferry tickets in a travel guide. It was a strong napkin, plush and soft.<br />
<br />
I have a kitchen towel, perforated and quilted, that has an extraordinarily detailed map of New York City on it, drawn at a London house party by a homesick American writer who is now a YouTube animation sensation. On one side of the towel is his precise drawing of his much-missed hometown, and on the other the terrible drawing that had prompted his own, my impression of what I thought Manhattan looked like. I don’t want to claim to be the inspiration for his <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/CGPGrey"target="_blank">YouTube Education channel</a> that uses animation to dispel myths, but you can draw your own conclusions.<br />
<br />
I have the inspiring advice of a Siberian Philosopher on the back of apple tea wrap from a tea stop in the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul; my favourite being <i>‘all the world is a pot, and you are the spoon’</i>.<br />
<br />
My main art collection at the moment is of faces drawn by an artist on napkins, menus and receipts from our European bar crawls, and I have a note left in all her three languages by this lover, who could only find the hostel toilet cover to use as she left for her early flight to the other side of the world.<br />
<br />
I have a lot of thin paper that hold the memories of large emotions for me, and now I have to find a tissue because memories, hey?<br />
<br />
I have photos of intricate patterns drawn across paper tablecloths as a friend and I plot world domination over suburban yum cha, and my favourite saved wrapping paper comes from a friend whose day job was to sell family holiday packages to EuroDisney. To create the wrapping paper she spent a day on the phones writing Disney Corporate Catchphrases in calligraphy – this masterpiece is safe with me, I assure you – every <i>‘close to the magic’</i> and <i>‘in the magic’</i> is treasured.<br />
<br />
So next time you consider that roll or box of tissues, think of the world it came from, and how it will fit into your world, but also keep in mind that an artist may pick up that extraordinary piece of canvas and capture emotions on it for another delighted human. There is much more to tissue than we talk about.Claire Madeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05731948368295746877noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8007008.post-82314700409445840352017-03-15T21:21:00.001+08:002017-05-24T19:16:02.798+08:00@realdonaldtrump<a href="https://twitter.com/MaddyDeSarras/with_replies"target="_blank">#MakeAGreatAlbum1997</a><br />
<br />
Honey, bring it close to my <a href="https://youtu.be/IOCG2vd-QqY"target="_blank">lips</a><br />
The sun will shine from time to <a href="https://youtu.be/5n1mfhFBYdg"target="_blank">time</a><br />
You can't make no money if you can't keep an <a href="https://youtu.be/8tqeBRVinoU"target="_blank">artist</a><br />
Mingle with the good people we meet, <a href="https://youtu.be/oA8UEWLUkd0"target="_blank">yeah</a>!<br />
<br />
See me I'm all about my money <a href="https://youtu.be/7wx00LUMy-g"target="_blank">mane</a><br />
Peeping your <a href="https://youtu.be/lbnoG2dsUk0"target="_blank">steelo</a><br />
I could never spend my life with a man like <a href="https://youtu.be/HIX2RAHPTsI"target="_blank">you</a><br />
<br />
People hold on, we've got to be <a href="https://youtu.be/BV179CmOkGg"target="_blank">strong</a><br />
A quarter past eleven on a Saturday in <a href="https://youtu.be/D-NvQ6VJYtE"target="_blank">1999</a><br />
You know you cannot hide, from what's <a href="https://youtu.be/bihoNRc8GDQ"target="_blank">inside</a><br />
<br />
So I chose <a href="https://youtu.be/zgwMpJs-dCA"target="_blank">freedom</a><br />
A light still <a href="https://youtu.be/CcTCLnXH4Kc"target="_blank">shining</a><br />
Remember me, I'm the one who had your <a href="https://youtu.be/y2Eah_EGiDc"target="_blank">babies</a><br />
<br />
addict-insane, come play my game, inhale <a href="https://youtu.be/6_PAHbqq-o4"target="_blank">inhale</a><br />
you're the firestarter, twisted <a href="https://youtu.be/wmin5WkOuPw"target="_blank">firestarter</a><br />
high density random blond boy blond <a href="https://youtu.be/6iKFn8dlxX8"target="_blank">country</a><br />
<br />
I have run away, run <a href="https://youtu.be/0fMUYU8DC1U"target="_blank">away</a><br />
Heaven on earth, paradise for a <a href="https://youtu.be/df4EZ2Z3tNs"target="_blank">price</a><br />
Sexism, baptism and <a href="https://youtu.be/qG9ZWUitFik"target="_blank">wisdom</a><br />
will this deja vu never <a href="https://youtu.be/9ro0FW9Qt-4"target="_blank">end</a>?<br />
<br />
I wish I could turn back <a href="https://youtu.be/Ug88HO2mg44"target="_blank">time</a><br />
fools begin to open up their <a href="https://youtu.be/4gDYDTvXJjQ"target="_blank">eyes</a><br />
oh I know what you're <a href="https://youtu.be/TR3Vdo5etCQ"target="_blank">thinking</a><br />
paint it black and white and <a href="https://youtu.be/id4splHS8vM"target="_blank">easy</a><br />
<br />
They don't like the game we <a href="https://youtu.be/tyANFcnrM8I"target="_blank">play</a><br />
and i'm a simple selfish <a href="https://youtu.be/9FI63lu5i_E"target="_blank">son</a><br />
He's fighting and biting and riding on his <a href="https://youtu.be/F_HoMkkRHv8"target="_blank">horse</a><br />
<br />
Don't push us, 'cause we're close to the, <a href="https://youtu.be/qMh_VsTuXtE"target="_blank">edge</a><br />
wasting my precious <a href="https://youtu.be/ym1eDeOxq14"target="_blank">energy</a><br />
Is this how it all will <a href="https://youtu.be/Ar5TOc7LZa0"target="_blank">end</a><br />
<br />
We're 'bout ready to rock <a href="https://youtu.be/iTxOKsyZ0Lw"target="_blank">steady</a><br />
Your baby's got <a href="https://youtu.be/8KHwuOtcALQ"target="_blank">rabies</a><br />
And you jumped in with your eyes <a href="https://youtu.be/CJXAxlj1-Z8"target="_blank">closed</a><br />
<br />
wanted to be satisfied, i tried to be <a href="https://youtu.be/0NhqN0KcWAE"target="_blank">dignified</a><br />
around the <a href="https://youtu.be/7exajMfNiFQ"target="_blank">world</a>Claire Madeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05731948368295746877noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8007008.post-67028424412701440452016-11-03T17:00:00.000+08:002019-12-01T20:25:47.525+08:00Being a Woman on the Internet 101 - disclaimer, this is all very white and middle-class<b>A. 2016, the year an MRA ran for President</b><br />
<br />
Firstly, the current context is that the nerdy manbabies of the internet are listened to by the Trump Campaign; both Trump and said consultation is something no one imagined in their darkest nightmares before last year.<br />
https://medium.com/welcome-to-the-scream-room/im-with-the-banned-8d1b6e0b2932#.tn7iv0xok<br />
<br />
<b>B. Male Oppression by Men, but Blamed on Women</b><br />
Still with the merciless Laurie Penny, here is an efficient entry into the world of the oppressed men of the internet:<br />
http://www.newstatesman.com/laurie-penny/on-nerd-entitlement-rebel-alliance-empire<br />
<br />
These are the places that these angry men begin their life, starting with the least-worst and escalating fast:<br />
<br />
<i>4chan - a message board that spawned Anonymous among other things</i><br />
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2014/09/25/absolutely-everything-you-need-to-know-to-understand-4chan-the-internets-own-bogeyman/<br />
<br />
<i>reddit - a news aggregate site that can be used by the man in the street</i><br />
http://nms.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/10/07/1461444815608807.abstract<br />
<br />
<i>Pick Up Artist (PUA) culture</i><br />
This is toxic male culture of the worst kind, and it's been around since I started going out with men, so this is the strand of abusive male entitlement I know most about. For a summary I recommend The Game by Neil Strauss, it's a classic for a reason:<br />
https://www.amazon.com/Game-Penetrating-Secret-Society-Artists/dp/0061995320<br />
<br />
I have attached a document called crp2.pdf which is from Strauss' website; he got his people to read all the key self-help books to find strategies to pick up women.<br />
<br />
Recently an abusive PUA from the USA came to Australia to run some workshops and some annoying womenz protested or something and got them thrown out:<br />
http://www.smh.com.au/national/deported-us-pickup-artist-julien-blancs-mates-plan-australia-tour-20160116-gm77z1.html<br />
<br />
<i>MRAs and MGTOW</i><br />
So the Men's Rights Activists you've already met in Paul Elam and A Voice for Men:<br />
http://www.avoiceformen.com/<br />
<br />
Their tagline is "A Voice for Men – Humanist Counter-Theory in the Age of Misandry" and I seriously thought it said 'Humourless' the first time I read it.<br />
<br />
But there is also a nascent movement to be more ... alone:<br />
https://www.mgtow.com/<br />
<br />
Men Going Their Own Way - is a statement of self-ownership, where the modern man preserves and protects his own sovereignty above all else.<br />
<br />
<i>ROK</i><br />
And now, for the place I hate most on the internet, the Return of Kings; please be aware this blog will induce dry-retching:<br />
http://www.returnofkings.com/<br />
<br />
Roosh V, who runs the site, was nearly hosting meetings in Australia, even in little old Perth. Then the ladiez mobilised on this thing called the Interwebz and he buggered off:<br />
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/feb/04/daryush-roosh-v-valizadeh-cancels-neo-masculinist-meetings-over-safety<br />
<br />
<b>C. White Knights</b><br />
Thankfully there is We Hunted The Mammoth, tracking MRAs the internet over:<br />
http://www.wehuntedthemammoth.com/<br />
<br />
White Knights are dude feminists and they are all well and good, but sometimes it goes pretty pear-shaped:<br />
http://jezebel.com/what-happens-when-a-prominent-male-feminist-is-accused-1683352727<br />
<br />
HOWEVER, dude feminists can also be the best thing ever - this is my favourite dude feminist:<br />
http://www.rejectedprincesses.com/<br />
<br />
So, this is where things take a turn for the terrible.<br />
<br />
<b>D. That escalated fast!</b><br />
Here I am going to list a few of the major online abuse controversies that I know of, almost all of them are about white women too, so you can imagine what happens to WOC, trans*folk and anyone outside the moral neutral of white-male-cisgender-straight-able-bodied:<br />
<br />
<u>1. Anita Sarkeesian</u><br />
https://feministfrequency.com/<br />
<br />
Anita has an idea to apply feminism to the portrayal of women in computer games, she set up a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds to create a video series, she got torrents of abuse, she got her money, she created the videos (they are worth watching), and then she becomes the primary focus of male hatred on the internet for years until more women with ideas gained prominence.<br />
<br />
<u>2. Caroline Criado-Perez</u><br />
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jan/24/two-jailed-twitter-abuse-feminist-campaigner<br />
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/07/29/tech/twitter-criado-perez-abuse-media-reaction/<br />
<br />
This was a turning point for twitter abuse directed at women, Criado-Perez retweeted the abuse she got and spent weeks reporting and recording the threats, then the police lost all the records and she had to go back and endure it all over again. The police could do little because the laws didn't allow them to do anything, so the feminists mobilised and twitter and the police magically found a way to do something.<br />
<br />
After this incident women began to fight back with raising their voices, as in some of these projects from around the start of social media in our pocket:<br />
http://everydaysexism.com/<br />
http://www.ihollaback.org/<br />
<br />
<u>3. #gamergate</u><br />
http://gawker.com/what-is-gamergate-and-why-an-explainer-for-non-geeks-1642909080<br />
<br />
#gamergate was a terrible mess, and since the only part of the gamer community that I knew was Anita, I was naturally on the side of the women in the story.<br />
<br />
The big impact of #gamergate on non-gaming women on the internet going about their business was the unification of all the trolls from under all the bridges. The trolls came out of 4chan and reddit and the manosphere and they did everything together and this was chilling to watch - puppet twitter accounts sending death and rape threats in unbelievable waves and doxxing public and private female citizens.<br />
<br />
Then there was the Fappening, which is when all the nudes of female celebrities were hacked and distributed on reddit.<br />
http://mashable.com/category/the-fappening/<br />
<br />
Basically from here the unhappy men of the internet just got bolder and bolder and your niece knows this because she became a troll hunter for too many friends. When private citizens tag me into toxic and abusive conversations with their male 'friends' on Facebook so I can unleash the feminazi, one takes notice.<br />
<br />
<b>E. In our own backyard</b><br />
<br />
<u>1. Clementine Ford</u><br />
If you want to see the true horrors of being a woman on the internet, I suggest you make Clementine Ford's facebook profile required reading. Start at December last year as a starter - I tagged you into that conversation in May this year.<br />
<br />
<u>2. Australian Feminism - Destroy The Joint vs Alan Jones, Feminist Frightbats vs Tim Blair and Everyone vs Mark Latham</u><br />
Feminists in Australia got a huge filip to the collective action heart when Julia Gillard was in office because of how terrible all the misogyny was. This is a good entry point for some of the watersheds:<br />
<br />
<i>Everyone vs Mark Latham</i><br />
http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/news-and-views/opinion/mark-latham-needs-to-stop-his-unfair-ragefuelled-attacks-on-rosie-batty-20161101-gsfxef.html<br />
http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/sundayextra/mark-latham-on-journalism/6709500<br />
<br />
<i>Destroy the Joint vs Alan Jones</i><br />
Book: https://penguin.com.au/books/destroying-the-joint-why-women-have-to-change-the-world-9780702249907<br />
My review: http://insanelysociable.blogspot.com.au/p/feminist-book-club.html<br />
Counting Dead Women: http://www.dailylife.com.au/news-and-views/dl-opinion/when-will-we-stop-counting-dead-women-20150415-1mlzrt.html<br />
<br />
<i>Feminist Frightbats vs Tim Blair</i><br />
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/blogs/tim-blair/crown-our-crazy-queen/news-story/42f0956231aa661813b9352d4fb1337e<br />
<br />
<u>3. Revenge Porn and its related abuse</u><br />
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/police-probe-pornography-ring-at-melbourne-elite-private-school-st-michaels-20160810-gqpj53.html<br />
<br />
And lastly, the treatment of women on social media in Australia that I personally witnessed - revenge porn becoming mainstream and now an objective of male bonding.<br />
<br />
There is a Facebook Group just for women in Perth called Help A Sister Out - it has about 30,000 members - and it is Australia-wide, in every state. One morning this year I saw a post up in the group from a girl who had just discovered that there was an online server in Australia to which men uploaded nudes or partial nudes that they had on their phones of young women. They uploaded the photos into named files that were sorted by city and suburb. Those with access to the server could search their area for photos of girls WITH NAMES ATTACHED, and sometimes comments of an identifying nature.<br />
<br />
The post was up for twenty minutes only because they needed everyone to check for themselves or their friends to see if the photos had been taken when they were underage.<br />
<br />
I saw the server, clicked through to Perth and then the regions to see that there were too many files for me to even comprehend, and then I saw the post with screen captures of the reddit thread where the girl had found the links to the server. The language in the reddit thread was deliberately obscured to make sure an outside observer would not know that this was a revenge porn server, and it showed complete complicity, outlining how there was a new link because a previous server had been traced.<br />
<br />
It was a chilling twenty minutes to see it for myself, see the calmness with which hundreds of women signed into the server, investigated files, tagged friends to alert them that they had a file and shared information about which ex/boyfriend/lover had those photos and who was underage.<br />
<br />
After twenty minutes the underage girls had been found and the AFP was alerted, and the post taken down.<br />
<br />
I still think about what I saw on that server and the way that all those women reacted with calm language and cold efficiency; I had never been prouder of the Sisters of Perth and Australia.<br />
<br />
And that is the tip of the iceberg. I follow WOC and trans* commentators and disability advocates and islamic feminists and their stories are even more devastating, and I can direct you to them too if you want. What white feminism is fighting is pretty tame next to intersectional feminism's fight.<br />
<br />
<b>FAVOURITE UNCLE</b><br />
<br />
Wow!! Claire I took a break from work and I am now breathless. I haven't even opened any of the links and all I can think is "are girls really having to put up with this shit?" i am stunned. My age group don't know this. We are in a bubble...😨😨😨<br />
<br />
<b>CLAIRE</b><br />
<br />
The amazing Samantha Bee on the same topic as my email!<br />
https://youtu.be/XQ8swY06eRU<br />
https://youtu.be/QGn-C0G6xcw<br />
<br />
*sigh*<br />
<br />
It's grim stuff Uncle, and I just read about it! I have friends who have PTSD from being exposed to this in person, in real life, too often.<br />
<br />
Intellectual fatigue is a real thing with women who are aware and active - in Australia alone, the domestic violence epidemic and the treatment of First Nation women, women on Nauru and women under the scarf can mean that sometimes you read a run-of-the-mill news article and the rage and tears arrive with no apparent trigger.<br />
<br />
I cry automatically when I read about Manus and Nauru, I don't even have time to intellectualise my reaction, it's pure terror/horror, and frankly, it's an expression of low-level trauma from knowing too much about systems I can only change in tiny increments.<br />
<br />
And what I've just set out for you is so little and so white. The experience of others is overwhelming - like the fate of young women in the countries that have allowed selective abortion of female foetuses - the 160 million missing girls across the southern Asian countries is so grim I had nightmares while I read Unnatural Selection (http://www.marahvistendahl.com/unnatural-selection/)<br />
<br />
This is why I have no activities in my life that are not explicitly for women only, and educate me on my privilege. With all this evidence, I had to choose a side, and I chose my side :)<br />
<br />
The good news is that I have pledged to Building Worlds - the only way to stop crying automatically at the news is to get my pen and write another world ... I don't know if I have ever sent you an example of what my book is like, but I have attached an extract that gives the basic idea.<br />
<br />
Good luck with any of those links, you are down the rabbit hole now ... taking that Red Pill!Claire Madeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05731948368295746877noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8007008.post-42171677490997007502016-06-13T18:07:00.001+08:002016-06-13T21:13:59.798+08:001119 Roundup<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kKZHuHj0ysg/V152ikZShBI/AAAAAAAAEwk/0IXCufk0odcAedhHSqtgRr6-O0iuDDfuwCLcB/s1600/Minority%2Bof%2Bone.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kKZHuHj0ysg/V152ikZShBI/AAAAAAAAEwk/0IXCufk0odcAedhHSqtgRr6-O0iuDDfuwCLcB/s320/Minority%2Bof%2Bone.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<blockquote>"The crucial difference between<br />
Lesbian, Gay, Transgender, Bi-Sexual,<br />
Intersex and Questioning people<br />
and other minorities is this:<br />
<br />
In every other minority group the family shares the minority status.<br />
In fact it is often something that unites them.<br />
But gay people are a minority group within the family.<br />
<b>A minority of one</b>."<br />
<br />
<i><b><a href="https://seventhvoice.wordpress.com/2016/05/23/a-minority-of-one-words-from-magda-szubanski/"target="_blank">Magda Szubanski</a></b></i></blockquote>Yesterday I went to see the exhibition <a href="http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/a_history_of_the_world.aspx"target="_blank">A History of the World in 100 Objects</a>, and I was thrilled to be able to see many objects from throughout history that I felt I knew so well - the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00nrtd2/episodes/downloads"target="_blank">podcast</a> that inspired the exhibition being my favourite listening for relaxation and inspiration.<br />
<br />
I walked through the exhibition with four women who are part of the external safe space in my life - the writing group I run which welcomes all writers in all genres, as long as they do not identify as male. This group is full of humans of great intellect and passion, and on Sunday three of them were discussing each object so completely that a volunteer guide asked me if we were a guided tour group. No, I replied, just some learned humans who like to share their knowledge.<br />
<br />
Many of the objects that I walked through in the exhibition form part of the internal safe space in my life - history, which over and over again teaches us that today's discrimination and fears did not exist at many points in the past.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UHfH-hzNhCA/V15-gscN_aI/AAAAAAAAExI/bi3tQyM5_zweyCmSACt8F5h6wltFleUKACLcB/s1600/mithras.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UHfH-hzNhCA/V15-gscN_aI/AAAAAAAAExI/bi3tQyM5_zweyCmSACt8F5h6wltFleUKACLcB/s320/mithras.jpg" /></a></div><b><a href="http://www.thenational.ae/arts-lifestyle/art/a-history-of-the-world-in-100-objects-statue-of-mithras"target="_blank">Statue of Mithras</a></b>, replaced by Christ across the Roman Empire<br />
<br />
Every culture on every continent throughout time acknowledges the self-evident spectrum of gender identification and sexuality; it is reflected in their pantheons of gods, their shamans and spirit leaders, in their societies and culture. Only Western Christian capitalist culture is obsessed with the binary and fears the spectrum that is right before their very eyes in their friends and family; and that fear and discrimination is outside of humanity and outside of rational, scientific and historical observation.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6kAk0dxUStU/V16BD9VGHBI/AAAAAAAAExU/lx5mcTUljd4q2gXLcJxf3eF7XdFZ41PHwCLcB/s1600/hand.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6kAk0dxUStU/V16BD9VGHBI/AAAAAAAAExU/lx5mcTUljd4q2gXLcJxf3eF7XdFZ41PHwCLcB/s320/hand.jpg" /></a></div><b><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00shkn6"target="_blank">Arabian Bronze Hand</a></b> and <b><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00shk95"target="_blank">Seated Buddha from Gandhara</a></b><br />
<br />
History also shows that religion is a universal human need, and for all its variety the basics are similar across time; there is polytheism or monotheism, and the basic precepts are care for your family and neighbour, and seek to act with your life after death in mind; whether that is the idea of your own life after death, or that of your descendants. The absurd concept of a modern "clash of cultures" dated from a certain day at the start of the 21st century needs only be rebutted with a look at any 100-year-span of history from any continent to prove that religions rise and fall, clash and combine, and it is not caused by anything other than human irrationality or fear.<br />
<br />
Today as the world spun on, as our friends who are minorities in their families mourned death in their created families, as Australian and American politicians tried to squish two irrational fears into one short-term political slogan, I longed to push through time into the past, where the stories of all those who were not white, christian and male wait for us, and I longed to bring back to my time a little humanity from those who were wiser and more observant than we.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/--LUBhlhXK14/V16DswNGLBI/AAAAAAAAExg/GrIIvDsaEQsegG_N_XWnIG9e8wSAnGXBwCLcB/s1600/amritsa.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/--LUBhlhXK14/V16DswNGLBI/AAAAAAAAExg/GrIIvDsaEQsegG_N_XWnIG9e8wSAnGXBwCLcB/s320/amritsa.jpg" /></a></div><b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amaravati_Marbles"target="_blank">Carving from the Great Stupa of Amaravati</a></b><br />
<br />
<blockquote><b><a href="http://insanelysociable.blogspot.com.au/2007/03/bending-faith-to-facts.html"target="_blank">Bending the Faith to the Facts</a></b><br />
<br />
<i>To me the most humanist aspects of each set of beliefs speak of three pillars, not three schisms. Science speaks in terms of rigour of inquiry into the real, Philosophy in terms of individual vision and speculative progress, Religion in terms of selfless connection with the past, present and future. I do not see that these three sets of belief cannot work together, especially as all serve humanity; humanity is, after all their creator, their subject and their future.</i></blockquote>Claire Madeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05731948368295746877noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8007008.post-22486763945334348002016-06-10T10:55:00.000+08:002016-06-10T11:17:42.379+08:001422 Roundup<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vIgLmph1514/V1owYNwChhI/AAAAAAAAEwU/1SEPBEJ37ik5rutf1hX5GVUDMUxgkfGMQCLcB/s1600/election.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vIgLmph1514/V1owYNwChhI/AAAAAAAAEwU/1SEPBEJ37ik5rutf1hX5GVUDMUxgkfGMQCLcB/s400/election.jpg" /></a></div><br />
It's two weeks now to the reading of my first adaption of a short story to stage in Melbourne for <a href="http://www.witinc.com.au/whats-on/scandal-weimar-reading"target="_blank">wit Incorporated</a>, and of course I've decided that blogging some link roundups of the final countdown towards that and the Federal Election is exactly the kind of procrastination I need to participate in :)<br />
<br />
<b>14 DAYS</b><br />
<br />
What I enjoyed about this gif was how succinctly it summed up the reasons 'A Scandal in the Weimar', as an adaptation of Conan Doyle, was conceived by Jen in the first place; much menz, wow science, very easy to change characters to women because science and logic are universal skills ...<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ML1psx2_IdY/V1op8nc4AMI/AAAAAAAAEvw/V1KlgkPfkVgja-VqXElplU5S0u-y2O3WQCLcB/s1600/Every%2Bepisode%2Bof%2BHouse%2Bin%2Ba%2Bnutshell%2B-%2BImgur.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ML1psx2_IdY/V1op8nc4AMI/AAAAAAAAEvw/V1KlgkPfkVgja-VqXElplU5S0u-y2O3WQCLcB/s320/Every%2Bepisode%2Bof%2BHouse%2Bin%2Ba%2Bnutshell%2B-%2BImgur.gif" /></a></div><a href="http://imgur.com/gallery/mu3yByL"target="_blank">Credit here</a><br />
<br />
<b>22 DAYS</b><br />
<br />
My election campaign took a turn for the Nineties with Alex McKinnon's call for Australian Pop from the end of the 20th Century to guide us into the 21st century:<br />
<blockquote><a href="http://junkee.com/savage-garden-affirmation-read-as-an-election-policy-platform/80366"target="_blank"><b>Savage Garden’s ‘Affirmation’ Is The Best Policy Platform Of The 2016 Election</b></a></blockquote>Given I still own one of Daniel Jones' guitar picks from Savage Garden's first Perth concert, this suggestion has my full endorsement for both considering pop as art (whoot!) and the comfort of considering the values of my generation as valid.<br />
<br />
Please imagine I am singing this to the day known as 2 July 2016:<br />
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/yCyzA5YbGxY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br />
<br />
In more serious, but also pop culture related news, I am watching three non-Western Australian Federal seats with great interest this election - those being <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-05-19/tenants-renting-david-feeney27s-home-backing-greens-candidate/7427452"target="_blank">Batman</a> <a href="https://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2016/june/1464703200/john-van-tiggelen/dispute"target="_blank">Indi</a> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/jun/09/tony-windsor-accuses-barnaby-joyce-of-self-interest-over-santos-nationals-donations"target="_blank">New England</a> - because if you say them fast enough it sounds like a legitimate sentence, and also, they are interesting contests, especially <a href="https://insanelysociable.blogspot.com.au/2015/07/politics-women-leadership.html"target="_blank">Indi</a>!Claire Madeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05731948368295746877noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8007008.post-85638265685809212132016-05-12T21:00:00.001+08:002016-05-13T13:37:10.811+08:00Exceptional Conversation<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-b0nzKpt2Nzo/VzSmN7rOj1I/AAAAAAAAEvc/eTeNr8B_RhUdkfH60zgHbnwOhR7dw814gCLcB/s1600/exceptional%2Bconversations.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-b0nzKpt2Nzo/VzSmN7rOj1I/AAAAAAAAEvc/eTeNr8B_RhUdkfH60zgHbnwOhR7dw814gCLcB/s400/exceptional%2Bconversations.jpg" /></a></div><br />
I used to cry so seldom I would read ‘Bridge to Terabithia' each year to induce a minute or two of cathartic crying, but in the last years that has changed.<br />
<br />
Now all I have to do is catch a sentence in a news item about a particular section of humans on this earth and I will be crying and fighting for breath so fast I won’t have time to notice I’ve disintegrated. I’ll just be doubled over in shock, and usually the rest of the day is spent trying to avoid reading any further reportage.<br />
<br />
Rather esoterically the trigger that sets me off is the application of a certain legal philosophy known as the ‘state of exception’, which will mean nothing to people who haven’t had the dubious pleasure of studying the terrible beauty of Roman Law or reading the work of its fanboys ... I mean, the legal jurists who write on Roman Law.<br />
<br />
Only yesterday I attended an exceptionally dry lecture on the medieval concepts of heresy, and in the Q&A the lecturer did remind us that Western Law is based on Roman Law, and “Roman Law is very good if you are a dominant leader who wants to expand your power.”<br />
<br />
My <a href="http://insanelysociable.blogspot.com.au/p/sovereignty-in-book-of-new-sun.html"target="_blank">Honors thesis</a> required me to learn about Roman Law and its commentators. Coupled with my Catholic upbringing and my undergraduate degree in Medievalism and Modern Fascism, I can assure you that Roman Law, in religious application, literary re-imagination and deadly mechanisation, is my jam.<br />
<br />
And it used to be my very anachronistic jam, a topic that was rarely ever discussed in contemporary situations, it was history and I assumed it was dead and buried. Then a certain cadre of Australian Catholics became the Australian Cabinet and my worst nightmares wriggled out from between the pages of the books on my shelf and stalked me across the news cycle.<br />
<br />
I stopped sleeping, I started feeling incomprehensively angry, then I started seeing the future, and then I started crying. I’m crying now. It’s the new normal for me, watching the devils of the past dancing across my country.<br />
<br />
I’m crying tonight mostly because of this exceptional piece of writing<br />
<blockquote><a href="https://overland.org.au/2016/04/australia-exceptional-in-its-brutality"target="_blank"><b>Australia, exceptional in its brutality</b></a><br />
By <b>Behrouz Boochani</b><br />
<i>25 April 2016</i></blockquote>I’d seen glancing references on Facebook to Boochani and his writing, but I’d never read his work until finally a friend posted a link to the article that discussed Australian Law in relation to Giorgio Agamben’s theory on the ‘state of exception’. I cried because, well, it's about the 'state of exception', obviously, but I also cried because I can finally discuss my own knowledge in conversation with another piece of writing that applies this particular branch of Roman Law to modern Australian politics.<br />
<br />
So strap in folks, we are going deep and we are going Roman, although thankfully our Latin will not have to be perfect. I’m going to be talking about genre literature, I’m going to be talking about history, and I’m going to using screencaps of my Facebook comments from over the <a href="http://insanelysociable.blogspot.com.au/p/twelve-months-with-tones-september-2013.html"target="_blank">last three years</a>. Because finally, finally, I can talk about why I cry all the time now. Why I cry when I read what look like completely innocent sentences. Why I cry when one human is counted as somehow illegal on their own planet because of a law made by another human.<br />
<br />
You may legitimately not expect the Spanish Inquisition, but when it comes to the real terrors of Roman Law, I assure you, you may not be expecting it, but you will feel it when it comes for you.<br />
<br />
And oh, how it’s coming for you ...<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DpJoOJrxLM8/VzSeSfc7ADI/AAAAAAAAEug/UzUprkZ8NaQW4UT5MsXzKSzcacCRZ6MnwCLcB/s1600/Torturer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DpJoOJrxLM8/VzSeSfc7ADI/AAAAAAAAEug/UzUprkZ8NaQW4UT5MsXzKSzcacCRZ6MnwCLcB/s320/Torturer.jpg" /></a></div>Claire Madeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05731948368295746877noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8007008.post-18349391494042173922016-02-02T18:46:00.003+08:002016-02-10T20:16:31.159+08:00Idiotic DidacticsThe words chosen for the didactic panels in an exhibition set the ideological framework through which the visitor absorbs knowledge as they progress.<br />
<blockquote><i>Didactic texts are interpretive/educational texts related to an exhibition, usually written by exhibition curators, that are displayed on panels on exhibition gallery walls or as part of art object labels. Didactic panels orient exhibition-goers to a particular topic or theme.</i></blockquote>I recently attended <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/rich-nuances-permeate-treasure-ships-art-in-the-age-of-spices-20150720-giayvk.html"target="_blank"><b>Treasure Ships: Art in the Age of Spices</b></a> in which a disturbingly retrograde word/idea was used in the didactic panels in one specific part of the exhibition.<br />
<br />
That word/idea was 'discover', and it is generally acknowledged now that the West did not 'discover' any other continent or culture. Each continent and culture existed independent of the West setting eyes on it, and the moment that Europeans first encountered other continents or cultures is now called 'first contact'.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately, the curators of <b>Treasure Ships</b> were unable to use 'first contact' for a specific continent and culture out of the four discussed in the exhibition. So let's step through the didactic panels and see if we cannot find the problem ...<br />
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<h3 class="post-title">the Portuguese discovered a direct sea route</h3><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3H44SNQ9ZHI/VrBbdR02qgI/AAAAAAAAEsk/HMkBT3O_QSU/s1600/1.%2BDiscovered%2Ba%2Bdirect%2Bsea%2Broute.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3H44SNQ9ZHI/VrBbdR02qgI/AAAAAAAAEsk/HMkBT3O_QSU/s320/1.%2BDiscovered%2Ba%2Bdirect%2Bsea%2Broute.jpg" /></a></div><blockquote><i>The modern era of global art commenced with Europe's insatiable appetite for spices, especially pepper, nutmeg and cloves - products found only in tropical India, Sri Lanka and the remote islands of Indonesia. These condiments were prized as symbols of luxury and status, providing flavouring for food and drinks, as well as being regarded as essential ingredients in medicines.<br />
<br />
In 1498 the Portuguese discovered a direct sea route, via the Cape of Good Hope, to Asia, and Spanish, Dutch and English ships soon followed to directly access the sources of the valuable foodstuffs and other exotic treasures. The Europeans arriving in Asia encountered shipping networks extending from the Middle East to East Asia, along with cosmopolitan societies such as Indonesia, where art was valued both as a commodity and an expression of cultural identity.<br />
<br />
The East-West trade in spices inevitably inspired the exchange of ideas, styles and fashions in diverse media in the fine arts and in material culture, including book printing, which played a key role in promoting understanding of the East. The West's mapping of the world no longer referenced religious cosmologies but emphasised maritime cartography, to ensure the success of the long sea voyages by which Europe engaged Asia.</i></blockquote><br />
<b>CORRECT USE OF THE WORD 'DISCOVER'</b>: a sea route is something that can be discovered, brava! A sea route requires many years of exploration and mapping, and knowledge of that route and how to find it can be lost by a culture and discovered again later, or by other cultures willing to put in the work. A sea route is a physical manifestation of knowledge, and thus is infinitely discoverable by each sailor. Let's go make our own discoveries via knowledge and learning!<br />
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<h3 class="post-title">initiating the first contact with Europeans</h3><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-blnHT5aP0bU/VrBi5uYUg0I/AAAAAAAAEs0/uEzDvwcKI3Q/s1600/2.%2BFirst%2BContact%2BJapan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-blnHT5aP0bU/VrBi5uYUg0I/AAAAAAAAEs0/uEzDvwcKI3Q/s320/2.%2BFirst%2BContact%2BJapan.jpg" /></a></div><blockquote><i>In 1543, Portuguese adventurers aboard a Chinese junk ship landed on the small island of Tanegashima in southern Japan, initiating the first contact with Europeans. The establishment of the ports of Macau and Nagasaki enabled the Portuguese to access the entirety of Asia, including the lucrative trade of Chinese silk for Japanese silver.<br />
<br />
Known as the Southern Barbarians (nanban), the Portuguese introduced firearms and Christianity, and were integral to the inter-Asian trade of ceramic and Indian cotton textiles (sarasa) to Japan. The unexpected arrival of their massive black ships inspired depictions by Japanese artists and the adoption in Japan of European painting techniques and aesthetics, particularly in lacquerware, which was created for local Jesuit communities and export.<br />
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The waning prestige and viability of Portuguese mercantile concerns in Asia during the seventeenth century enabled the Dutch East India Company (VOC) to establish new ports and annex others. Sequestered on the small island of Dejima, at Nagasaki, the Dutch became the sole European nation allowed to trade with Japan and introduced a wealth of fashionable Indian textiles as well as novel items such as the kaleidoscope, European ceramics and printed books, which had a profound impact on the arts and sciences.</i></blockquote><br />
<b>NO USE OF THE WORD 'DISCOVER'</b>: brava! Japan existed whether Europeans had made contact with the island and the culture or not. Everything seems to be in order, I would like to learn more!<br />
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<h3 class="post-title">Europe was yet to achieve a comparable level of technological sophistication in these art forms</h3><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-v2cwIZfrWsA/VrBl8ecM7eI/AAAAAAAAEtA/U2xz8Kg6CcA/s1600/3.%2Btechnological%2Bsophistication.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-v2cwIZfrWsA/VrBl8ecM7eI/AAAAAAAAEtA/U2xz8Kg6CcA/s320/3.%2Btechnological%2Bsophistication.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<blockquote><i>Asian textiles, including carpets, and glazed porcelain were among the most globally desired cargoes carried by ships during the Age of Spices. Europe was yet to achieve a comparable level of technological sophistication in these art forms, and it was the attractive designs of these items as well as the industrial scale of production that ensured their universal demand.<br />
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Indian dye-printed clothes were unequalled in the vividness of their colours and the variety of patterns catering to niche markets in destinations as distant as Europe and Southeast Asia. The Tree of Life motif, with its eclectic combination of Indian, Chinese and European elements, typifies the role of fashionable textiles as a medium of artistic exchange between East and West.<br />
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Chinese and Japanese high-fired ceramics, notably blue-and-white 'china', was likewise exported along the international shipping lanes of the spice trade. The decoration, vessel shapes and brilliant glazes of East Asian porcelain subsequently inspired Southeast Asian, Middle Eastern and European ceramic artists to emulate their appearance.</i></blockquote><br />
<b>NO USE OF THE WORD 'DISCOVER'</b>: brava! Ideas and skills move along trade routes, existing in their own right, not being 'discovered' by Europeans. In fact, definitely not 'discovered' when Europeans couldn't replicate the skills and scope needed to build the successful industries needed for the global market. How we take our beautiful items for granted today!<br />
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<h3 class="post-title">Islam and Christendom both co-opted images of each other to support domestic narratives of cultural identity</h3><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-btd017hdyos/VrBqRkswONI/AAAAAAAAEtM/J3oRoEeLj_4/s1600/4.%2Bco-opted.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-btd017hdyos/VrBqRkswONI/AAAAAAAAEtM/J3oRoEeLj_4/s320/4.%2Bco-opted.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<blockquote><i>The international trafficking in goods and ideas, which inspired cross-cultural art in the Age of Spices, transcended the differing ideologies of Islam and Christianity. The emphasis of Islamic aesthetics on floral and geometric motifs profoundly influenced global art forms, while Muslim artists readily adopted elements of foreign styles for local audiences.<br />
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Islam and Christendom both co-opted images of each other to support domestic narratives of cultural identity in miniature painting and engravings. Indian textile artists, often Hindus, produced court garments for the Muslim sultanates of Indonesia, while weavers in Iran created carpets whose style responded to the tastes of non-Muslim clients.<br />
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It was the European craze for tulip flowers, first introduced from Ottoman Turkey in the sixteenth century, which epitomised the eclecticism of cultural exchange. Turkish artists valued the tulip for its beauty and association with divinity, while the Dutch perceived these exotic flowers, bought and sold at wildly inflated prices, as symbolic of the republic's wealth gained through the spice trade.</i></blockquote><b><br />
NO USE OF THE WORD 'DISCOVER'</b>: brava! Instead, we have the movement of ideas mapped out for us over land and sea borders and the note that art was used for political purposes. The irony of the 'domestic narratives of cultural identity' aside, we are in the last lap of the exhibition, only one more continent and culture to discuss with respect ...<br />
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<h3 class="post-title">The discovery of Australia by Europe</h3><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QUuZXq-Rlsc/VrBv4B3Yn7I/AAAAAAAAEtk/JosIahFRm-w/s1600/5.%2BDiscovery%2Bof%2BAustralia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QUuZXq-Rlsc/VrBv4B3Yn7I/AAAAAAAAEtk/JosIahFRm-w/s320/5.%2BDiscovery%2Bof%2BAustralia.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<blockquote><i>By the early seventeenth century, European sailors had landed on the shores of every continent, including Australia, either by intentional exploration or accidental shipwreck. The discovery of new species of animals, birds and plants in foreign lands inspired artists to seek to accurately record their appearance in meticulous scientific drawings and paintings.<br />
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In the urban centres of Europe, the increasing availability of Asian art inspired a fashionable craze called 'chinoiserie', which expressed the West's fantasy vision of the distant Orient. Ceramics, lacquerware, textiles and furniture were decorated with a pastiche of motifs derived from Chinese, Japanese and Indian art.<br />
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<b>The discovery of Australia by Europe</b> and the eventual establishment of the British settlement of Sydney town was a <b>by-product</b> of the Age of Spices and Europe's shift from trade to the pursuit of geopolitical domination in Australasia. <b>Nevertheless</b>, it was the Indonesian fishermen from South Sulawesi who <b>first</b> regularly sailed to Australian shores, calling the continent Marege, and who engaged in peaceful exchanges with Indigenous people.</i></blockquote><br />
Reader, I got intellectual whiplash standing in front of that didactic panel. So I want to <b>FIX IT!</b>, with thanks to <a href="http://janegilmore.com/category/fixedit/"target="_blank">Jane Gilmore</a> for the idea of fixing shit up so it is less shit.<br />
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<h3 class="post-title"><b>CORRECTION:</b></h3><h3 class="post-title">Indonesian fishermen from South Sulawesi regularly traded with Indigenous people</h3><blockquote><b>Indonesian fishermen from South Sulawesi regularly engaged in peaceful exchanges with Indigenous people, calling the continent Marege. Sporadic European contact with the Indigenous people of the continent eventually resulted in the establishment of the British settlement of Sydney town, reflecting Europe's shift from trade to the pursuit of geopolitical domination in Australasia. The Indigenous people of Australia never ceded sovereignty to, nor signed a treaty with the British invaders.</b></blockquote>Obviously I had two main things to correct in this single paragraph (the others will have to wait):<br />
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<b>1.</b> Australia was not discovered by Europe. The Indigenous people on the continent existed whether European eyes were looking at them or not. First contact was made by various isolated Europeans over time, but no European 'discovered' the continent nor its inhabitants.<br />
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<b>2.</b> Indonesian fishermen and the Indigenous people of this continent had trading partnerships before European first contact. That fact should be listed first, and without the diminishing 'nevertheless'.<br />
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And I have one thing to add, especially as there were beautiful pieces of Indigenous art in the exhibition, right alongside this stupidly worded didactic panel: <b>Australia was and always will be Aboriginal land</b>.<br />
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I am still startled that the composition of the didactic panels was so clearly political and regressive. To have composed four panels that used 'first contact', and language that placed no culture above another, only to revert to boring Australian racism in the last panel is incomprehensible. To have listed Indigenous maritime trading relationships last and diminished in an exhibition about maritime trading routes is similarly hard to justify in an exhibition created for Australia.<br />
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I had expected better, so much better.<br />
<blockquote><i>Below, the east coast of Australia being 'discovered' by Captain James Cook. Good work James, no one else knew it was there ...</i></blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sEx-Jbs7uEc/VrB8dYijBSI/AAAAAAAAEt0/6et8pDvseTM/s1600/6.%2BDiscovered%2Bthe%2Beast%2Bcoast%2Bof%2BAustralia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sEx-Jbs7uEc/VrB8dYijBSI/AAAAAAAAEt0/6et8pDvseTM/s320/6.%2BDiscovered%2Bthe%2Beast%2Bcoast%2Bof%2BAustralia.jpg" /></a></div><blockquote><i>The terrestrial globe incorporates the latest information gained from exploratory voyages, notably Captain James Cook's 1768-1771 circumnavigation of the world. It was during this voyage Cook discovered the east coast of Australia that led to the founding of Sydney in 1788.</i></blockquote>Claire Madeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05731948368295746877noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8007008.post-37701809287913035672015-10-14T13:21:00.000+08:002015-10-14T13:21:35.532+08:00Here be Dragons (laughing to live)Dragons.<br />
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It was a cool, fine day in Perth. I was out swimming at Inglewood. Suddenly a black cloud covered the sun. Everyone looked up and saw a big green dragon. I looked up and saw a yellow belly coming towards me with its black claws ready to grab. I thought that since dragons like pretty ladies, he was going to take Sarah or Astrid. He stopped and said in a kind, dragonlike way, "Which one of you knows the funniest jokes?" Sarah and Astrid pointed to me. The claw came down and scooped me up and flew up. One minute I was in my bathers, the next minute I was in a long, silky, purple skirt and a wide green silk blouse. I had green shoes. My hair was dry, permed and held back with an Amethyst and Emerald tiara. I asked the dragon where we were going and he answered, "I am taking you to my land where the King can't laugh." He sighed then continued, "We tried every funny joke we knew but they just made him sad or angry. I set out to find a person who knew the most jokes. When I saw you I knew you were the one. There was silence, then I said "My name is Claire and I am fifteen." The dragon replied "My name is Merlin and I am a thousand and fifty." Suddenly we were in the court of the King. Merlin said, "Claire there are four hours til our King dies from lack of laughter, we are relaying on you." I nodded and went to the King, courtesied and started to tell him lots of jokes. After three and a half hours I shrugged my shoulders then I said "How did Jack defeat the Giant?" The King shrugged. I replied, " With his bean" I didn't get it, but to everyone's surprise the King roared with laughter. Then everyone cried "Goodbye Claire and Thankyou!" I suddenly woke up on the floor of the swimming pool's office with people rushing around calling for a doctor for me. I smiled and said under my breathe "My Pleasure Merlin." and looked around for Mum.<br />
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THE END<br />
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<i>Written in 1991, for Yr 5 Creative Writing</i><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bwKpthQJsv8/Vh3l-qJ82gI/AAAAAAAAErc/x-m5nYAvJQg/s1600/Dragons%2B1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bwKpthQJsv8/Vh3l-qJ82gI/AAAAAAAAErc/x-m5nYAvJQg/s320/Dragons%2B1.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OMc91b5-sT0/Vh3mAPChsmI/AAAAAAAAErk/P5hhLwvTTgY/s1600/Dragons%2B2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OMc91b5-sT0/Vh3mAPChsmI/AAAAAAAAErk/P5hhLwvTTgY/s320/Dragons%2B2.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HnxcV1f45UA/Vh3mCjFiZ5I/AAAAAAAAErs/VL1SRg0xCos/s1600/Dragons%2B3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HnxcV1f45UA/Vh3mCjFiZ5I/AAAAAAAAErs/VL1SRg0xCos/s320/Dragons%2B3.jpg" /></a></div>Claire Madeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05731948368295746877noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8007008.post-56669249339704088542015-08-06T12:00:00.002+08:002015-08-06T14:22:32.534+08:00Climate Change: Human Behaviour and Economic Modelling<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YxoiZHfqIg0/VcLY8OFDYiI/AAAAAAAAEpQ/ujD-N31jbzs/s1600/climate%2Bchange.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YxoiZHfqIg0/VcLY8OFDYiI/AAAAAAAAEpQ/ujD-N31jbzs/s320/climate%2Bchange.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Here are two practical and useful lectures about climate change for those of us who take the time to discuss such things with other people.<br />
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These talks have given me some incredibly quotable ideas, and I have used the arguments in Carmen Lawrence's talk for five years now to understand this issue.<br />
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<blockquote><a href="http://www.ias.uwa.edu.au/lectures/denniss"target="_blank"><b>How to win a fight about the budget: How economic modelling is used to circumvent democracy and shut down debate</b></a><br />
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<i>A public lecture by Richard Denniss, Chief Economist, The Australia Institute</i><br />
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The Federal Budget and much economic discussion is based on economic modelling. People who use economic models want you to think that modelling is boring. The last thing they want you to do is to pay attention. Economic models claim an amazing degree of precision and this is used by the people who commission them to build a case for their preferred policies and projects.<br />
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The recent Intergenerational Report (IGR) used modelling to scare the public into accepting that we can never afford to tackle climate change or spend more on health. But this modelling rests on ridiculous assumptions – like that income-tax rates will be cut every year between 2020 and 2055. In this lecture, Dr Richard Denniss discussed how economic modelling has been used and abused on a range of issues.<br />
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Essay: <a href="https://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2015/april/1427806800/richard-denniss/spreadsheets-power"target="_blank"><b>Spreadsheets of power: How economic modelling is used to circumvent democracy and shut down debate</b></a> by <i>Richard Denniss</i> in <a href="https://www.themonthly.com.au/">The Monthly</a></blockquote><br />
<blockquote><a href="http://prod.lcs.uwa.edu.au:8080/ess/echo/presentation/84fedb80-d273-4538-8dc7-79ce3801f1c5/media.mp3"target="_blank"><b>What we need to know about ourselves to deal with climate change</b></a><br />
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<i>Winthrop Professor Carmen Lawrence, Director, Centre for the Study of Social Change, School of Psychology, The University of Western Australia</i><br />
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Scientific evidence indicates that climate change is the result of rising levels of greenhouse gases which are, in turn, due to human behaviours, such as burning fossil fuels and clearing forests. Equally, many of the recommendations to reduce these emissions and to facilitate adaptation to a changed climate depend on people changing their behaviour. From changing our patterns of settlement to modifying our diets, there is no doubt that we need to change - and on a scale that has never before been contemplated.<br />
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Yet the scientists who study human behaviour and societies have not been part of the global debate about climate change and how to deal with it. In this lecture, Carmen Lawrence explored why this must be remedied and outline what we know – and need to know - about human psychology (including our occasional irrationality) to make any progress in crafting workable solutions to the problem of climate change. </blockquote><b>MORE LECTURES</b><br />
<blockquote><a href="http://insanelysociable.blogspot.com.au/2013/06/traveling-without-moving-stem.html"target="_blank"><b>STEM and the human atom</b></a><br />
Ian Chubb, Chief Scientist of Australia, gave a lecture on the need for a Scientific Enterprise for Australia to provide leadership in schools, universities, industry and government to encourage and utilize STEM graduates was timely and challenging.<br />
<br />
Lyn Beazley, WA Chief Scientist, gave a lecture that was informative, inspiring and grand in scale; it took the concept of vision and mapped out one of many knowledge trajectories from the photoreceptors of human and animal eyes through the advances in Australian bionic eye technology to looking at the stars and talking to Indigenous Australians about the Milky Way.</blockquote><b>OTHER THOUGHTS ON AUSTRALIAN POLITICS</b><br />
<blockquote><b><a href="http://insanelysociable.blogspot.com.au/2015/07/politics-women-leadership.html"target="_blank">It's Time</a></b><br />
<i>Australia has three major political parties, each backed by their own training and voting block: the Australian Greens have the Environmental and Activist movements, Labor has the Unions and the Liberal Party has the business sector.<br />
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The largest population in Australia without a voice is women; our very urgent needs for parity, safety and leaders are being ignored and wound back, our leadership is locked out of power and as voters we are unable to direct our vote to a party that champions us.<br />
<br />
Australian women do, however, have an established and proven mentorship and training ground for female candidates to gain political experience and female voters to gain access to candidates to influence policy; the Country Women's Association.</i></blockquote><blockquote><b><a href="http://insanelysociable.blogspot.com.au/2015/07/politics-australia-not-yours.html"target="_blank">Not our circus, not our monkeys</a></b><br />
<i>So, women of Australia, take thee to the CWA, become involved with all manner of practical local politics, all manner of women as mentors and all manner of consulting to Government, and participate in politics on your terms.<br />
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Find your own policies, build your own campaign teams, field your own candidates and vote for the candidates who have the best vision for new politics you can find. You are the only people who can build the future, because the existing systems are dying, and trying to take us all down with them.<br />
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And for all of our sakes, be militantly inclusive; as 51% of the Australian population, the women of Australia include Indigenous Australians, refugees/immigrants, the LGBTIQ community and anyone who has additional access and medical requirements. Our new politics must include everyone excluded from the current systems so our votes and candidates count the first time, and into the future.</i></blockquote><blockquote><a href="http://insanelysociable.blogspot.com.au/2014/06/politics-budget-failure.html"target="_blank"><b>Fighting Winter with Summer</b></a><br />
<i>I credit the 1% with being fully aware of the impending water and energy conflicts, and it is clear from their actions that they are taking the requisite steps to survive while preventing the population from taking the same steps. Unfortunately their pride and entitlement will never allow them to consider the fact that their place in the 1% means nothing to the environment. Water and energy do not obey, and never have obeyed, the forces of nations, economies and capitalism.</i> </blockquote><blockquote><a href="http://insanelysociable.blogspot.com.au/2014/05/politics-australia-neoliberal-climate.html"target="_blank"><b>Textbook</b></a><br />
<i>Anyone who thinks they can argue for 21st Century Climate Aware action with 20th Century Climate Ignorant ideologies is going to be pulled back into historical patterns of conflict and paralysis, which is exactly where the Government and their corporate partners want their population.</i> </blockquote><blockquote><b><a href="http://insanelysociable.blogspot.com.au/2014/04/politics-racism-australia-18c.html"target="_blank">Ask for me tomorrow</a></b><br />
<i>The current Australian Government makes announcements that destabilise the news cycle, and these announcements come in two forms:<br />
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<b>1.</b> An outrageous suggestion designed to let opponents react with scorn and satire, but neither suggestion nor satire achieves anything but noise, and a false sense of protest for those who did not vote for this current Australian Government.<br />
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<b>2.</b> A very real threat that opponents cannot ignore, but is sure to be withdrawn or watered down once it has short circuited the news cycle and wasted the time and resources of those who did not vote for this current Australian Government.</i></blockquote>Claire Madeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05731948368295746877noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8007008.post-14665357918014019222015-07-29T16:52:00.002+08:002015-07-30T12:31:17.174+08:00Withdraw your Vote from the LNP and ALP in 2016 and 2019I would like my children, nieces and nephews, godchildren, grandchildren and all young people with dreams to be able to participate in a political system that demonstrably represents the population.<br />
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At a basic level that would mean a political system that has a minimum of 50% of its participants, from voters to parliamentarians, being women.<br />
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I would like my daughters, nieces, goddaughters, granddaughters and all future women to take political power and shape it in their image, not ask for political participation and have to change it to fit them.<br />
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I think the voting women of Australia have a five year window to take political power and shape it in their image so the women growing up now have one less battle to fight in the future.<br />
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The women growing up now will have to face a world in the merciless grip of climate change. If we have not secured 50% presence of women in all areas of social, economic and political power, women will have no voice in how they and their children survive climate change.<br />
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The female voters of Australia have one job to do in the next five years; we need to take political power from the <b>LNP</b> and <b>ALP</b>, the <b>BIG TWO</b>, who are dominated by men and outdated ideologies. The female voters of Australia can take political power from the <b>BIG TWO</b>, because if we vote as a bloc, we are the majority of Australians.<br />
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With the failure of the <b>BIG TWO</b> to be moral leaders in our political system, I suggest the female voters of Australia lobby our friends, family (and strangers) to withdraw our first preference vote <b>COMPLETELY</b> from the two major parties in the 2016 and 2019 national elections.<br />
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In the Australian Electoral system, no vote is ever wasted, but it is counted.<br />
<br />
Your first preference is worth money to the <b>BIG TWO</b>, and your first preference counts towards making the <b>BIG TWO</b> visible in the electoral statistics.<br />
<blockquote><a href="http://www.aec.gov.au/parties_and_representatives/public_funding/Current_Funding_Rate.htm"target="_blank"><b>How Much Money is Your First Preference Vote Worth?</b></a><br />
<i>The amount of election funding payable is calculated by multiplying the number of formal first preference votes received by the rate of payment applicable at the time. This rate is indexed every six months in line with increases in the Consumer Price Index.<br />
<br />
The election funding rate from 1 July 2015 to 31 December 2015 is 259.405 cents per eligible vote.</i></blockquote>If you withdraw your first preference from the <b>BIG TWO</b> you will have withheld money from the <b>BIG TWO</b>, and you will have allowed your vote to be counted for alternatives to the <b>BIG TWO</b> in the electoral statistics.<br />
<br />
Your second preference can go to whichever <b>BIG TWO</b> you wish to gain power, but the second preference will not earn the <b>BIG TWO</b> money, nor will it be visible in the electoral statistics.<br />
<br />
When you stand in the booth in 2016 and 2019, you can give tangible feedback to the <b>BIG TWO</b> that you want them to listen to the electorate, not tell the electorate what they should think.<br />
<br />
And if female voters withdraw their support of the <b>BIG TWO</b> in an organised and dedicated manner, we can change the course of history in less than five years.<br />
<br />
Because once you have decided to withdraw your first preference from the <b>BIG TWO</b>, you get the chance to vote for new candidates, new parties and new ideas. Your first preference will earn the new party money, and the new party will register in the electoral statistics. If your electorate is particularly lucky, someone independent could be elected on the first preference of female voters alone – a very strong message to the <b>BIG TWO</b>.<br />
<br />
The electoral system in Australia is women’s most powerful tool to shape the world to be more equal for those who will face the future when we are dead and gone. At a minimum, female voters can send a strong message to the <b>BIG TWO </b>to ensure 50% representation faster.<br />
<br />
If the female voters of Australia mobilise during our five year window, we can achieve a lot more than just a message to the <b>BIG TWO</b>; we can change them from the <b>BIG TWO</b> to just two out of many parties in Australian politics!<br />
<blockquote><a href="http://insanelysociable.blogspot.com.au/p/what-can-i-do-within-existing-system.html"target="_blank"><b>Australian Politics: What Can I Do? (within the existing system)</b></a><br />
<br />
<i>The first option is to participate in the existing system of political parties; a system which is biased towards men, because it is a system created by and for men. The second option is to form a political party that works within the existing system; this party should have policies focused around the needs of women in Australia.</i><br />
<br />
<a href="http://insanelysociable.blogspot.com.au/p/what-can-i-do-outside-existing-system.html"target="_blank"><b>Australian Politics: What Can I Do? (outside the existing system)</b></a><br />
<i><br />
<b>51% of Australia’s population are women</b>; that’s a population that can elect any Government they like.<br />
<br />
<b>Women do not make up 51% of Australia's political representatives</b>; challenge accepted!<br />
<br />
<b>Two of your first preference votes are all that is needed to effect change</b>; one in 2016 and one in 2019.<br />
<br />
<b>One candidate in your electorate</b> is all that is needed to be given a chance with your first preference vote.<br />
<br />
<b>One new membership in your area</b> is all that is needed for you to be able to spend time with the women in your electorate and your country to talk about what policies you would give your first preference vote to.<br />
<br />
Women of Australia, the Australian Government is yours if you decide to take it.</i></blockquote>Claire Madeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05731948368295746877noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8007008.post-73154855069594798292015-07-24T12:27:00.000+08:002015-11-16T21:10:22.525+08:00Not our circus, not our monkeysIt's an inconvenient truth that our current economic, political and legal systems don't even acknowledge that the majority of us exist.<br />
<br />
That’s because we currently live with systems created by <i>old rich white dudes</i> about 300 years ago, and in Australia up until 1962, positions of power in those systems were not open to:<br />
<blockquote><b>Indigenous populations</b><br />
<b>Women</b><br />
<b>Anyone who was not able-bodied</b><br />
<i>Non-Europeans</i><br />
<b>Non-cisgender males</b><br />
<i>Non-heterosexual males</i><br />
<i>Men under a certain threshold of wealth/employment/education</i></blockquote>Here are some dates for reference:<br />
<blockquote>Renaissance ideas on the individual had taken over Europe by the <b>17th Century</b><br />
Parliamentary Democracy (British Edition): <b>1707</b><br />
Industrial Revolution: <b>1760</b><br />
Universal Male Suffrage (Britain): starts <b>1791</b>, full by <b>1928</b><br />
Non-Indigenous Male Suffrage (Australia): <b>1855</b><br />
Non-Indigenous Female Suffrage (Australia): <b>1902</b><br />
Suffrage for Indigenous Australians: <b>1962</b></blockquote>In truth, access to positions of power in Australia for anyone excluded before 1962 has turned out to be mirage. The systems are so old and so biased that we still don’t have proportional representation of any of our major diverse populations in any positions of power. We definitely don’t have the most basic and visible manifestation of proportional representation, gender parity.<br />
<br />
We should also take into account that for a majority of <i>cisgender able-bodied working men</i> in Australia, a place in the system is not viable because it still requires a baseline of wealth and a household/team of people to run their life while they are in a position of power.<br />
<br />
Observing the overwhelming number of <i>old rich white dudes</i> representing us in the Australian parliament, then, should not surprise us. But those <i>old rich white dudes</i> are no longer the majority in Australia, nor the world, so the systems that keep them in delusions of prime relevancy needs to go.<br />
<br />
The system that we can affect most directly is the political system because we can all vote, and all stand as candidates.<br />
<br />
The current political system we live under is not our circus, not our monkeys. And if the current political system is not ours, how do we build a political system that IS? We take our votes away from the old circus, and we field and vote for our own monkeys so we can build our own circus. <br />
<br />
And this new political system has to be intersectional or it will be nothing. It has to be fucking inclusive, it has to be the antithesis of the old, broken, dying system or it simply won’t carry us into the future with any kind of success.<br />
<br />
Since there is only one degree of separation between my own circumstances and that of Mr Tony Abbott, Prime Minister AUST#28 - our difference in gender - the only builders of the new political circus I can really talk to are the <strike>housewives</strike> women of Australia.<br />
<blockquote><i>(<b>PLEASE NOTE</b>: I am white, middle class, raised Catholic and Conservative and I have a <a href="http://insanelysociable.blogspot.com.au/p/sovereignty-in-book-of-new-sun.html"target="_blank"><b>major boner for the history of Fascim</b></a>. Tony and I, in another life, would be <a href="http://insanelysociable.blogspot.com.au/p/twelve-months-with-tones-september-2013.html"target="_blank">soulmates</a>)</i></blockquote>So, <strike>housewives</strike> women of Australia, take thee to the CWA, become involved with all manner of practical local politics, all manner of women as mentors and all manner of consulting to Government, and participate in politics on your terms.<br />
<br />
Find your own policies, build your own campaign teams, field your own candidates and vote for the candidates who have the best vision for new politics you can find. You are the only people who can build the future, because the existing systems are dying, and trying to take us all down with them.<br />
<br />
And for all of our sakes, be militantly inclusive; as 51% of the Australian population, the <strike>housewives</strike> women of Australia include Indigenous Australians, refugees/immigrants, the LGBTIQ community and anyone who has additional access and medical requirements. Our new politics must include everyone excluded from the current systems so our votes and candidates count the first time, and into the future.<br />
<br />
No <i>old rich white dudes</i>. Literally, <b>none</b>. They have their playground, and they are welcome to the cesspool it is right now. Not our circus, not our monkeys, not our job to clean it up.<br />
<br />
If they want to be on the side of progress and in the midst of the new politics, their roles include:<br />
<blockquote>Making cups of tea<br />
Getting the sponge cake into and out of the oven<br />
Minding the crèche<br />
Doing the washing up<br />
<b>Bloody well moving up the ladder of humility until they reach the rest of us in our new political landscape</b></blockquote>We outnumber them; it’ll be our circus and our monkeys quicker than you could imagine.<br />
<blockquote><a href="http://www.womensagenda.com.au/talking-about/top-stories/item/6055-a-national-political-party-advocating-for-women-it-s-time"target="_blank"><b>A national political party advocating for women? It's time</b></a> by <b>Jane Gilmore</b> at <i>Women's Agenda</i><br />
<br />
<i>Think about social media and how connected women’s groups are, and how easy it would be to reach out to your base. Think about the Country Women’s Association and how terribly the regional areas are treated by Canberra.<br />
<br />
Think about the (so far) 52 women killed this year, the pay gap getting worse, the gender disparity in our national leadership and how no one in our current parliament appears even slightly interested in genuine action on those things.</i></blockquote><blockquote><a href="http://insanelysociable.blogspot.com.au/p/what-can-i-do-within-existing-system.html"target="_blank"><b>What Can I Do? (within the existing system)</b></a><br />
And we will not be alone: <a href="https://womensequality.org.uk/about/"target="_blank"><b>Women's Equality Party, UK</b></a></blockquote><h3 class="post-title">What to do now</h3><br />
<b>JOIN</b> your local CWA and start being politically informed on a practical level. Tell your CWA group that you are interested in female candidates and electoral change:<br />
<a href="http://www.cwaofwa.asn.au/"target="_blank"><b>CWA Western Australia</b></a><br />
<a href="http://www.cwant.net/"target="_blank"><b>CWA Northern Territory</b></a><br />
<a href="http://www.qcwa.org.au/"target="_blank"><b>CWA Queensland</b></a><br />
<a href="https://cwaofnsw.org.au/"target="_blank"><b>CWA New South Wales</b></a><br />
<a href="http://www.cwaofvic.asn.au/"target="_blank"><b>CWA Victoria</b></a><br />
<a href="http://www.sacwa.org.au/"target="_blank"><b>CWA South Australia</b></a><br />
<a href="http://www.cwaa.org.au/"target="_blank"><b>CWA Australia</b></a><br />
<a href="http://www.acww.org.uk/"target="_blank"><b>The Associated Country Women of the World</b></a><br />
<br />
<b>EMAIL</b> the Women's Equality Party in the UK and tell them that you are interested in an Australian Women's Equality Party.<br />
<br />
<b>READ</b> this: <a href="http://insanelysociable.blogspot.com.au/p/what-can-i-do-outside-existing-system.html"target="_blank"><b>What Can I Do? (outside the existing system)</b></a><br />
<br />
<h3 class="post-title">What to do before the 2016 Election</h3><br />
<b>LOOK</b> for the women who are politically active in your area, and talk to them - each electorate will need a <b>CANDIDATE</b>, a <b>CAMPAIGN TEAM</b> and a <b>MENTOR</b> - and to be honest, you already know who they are, or you'll find them in less than a week.<br />
<br />
<h3 class="post-title">What to do until the 2016 Election</h3><br />
<b>ADD</b> the Independent Media to your life<br />
<a href="http://theaimn.com/"target="_blank">www.theaimn.com</a><br />
<a href="http://theconversation.com/au"target="_blank">www.theconversation.com</a><br />
<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/au"target="_blank">www.theguardian.com</a><br />
<a href="http://www.themonthly.com.au/"target="_blank">www.themonthly.com.au</a><br />
<a href="http://thenewdaily.com.au/"target="_blank">www.thenewdaily.com.au</a><br />
<a href="https://www.newmatilda.com/"target="_blank">www.newmatilda.com</a><br />
<a href="http://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/"target="_blank">www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au</a><br />
<a href="http://ausopinion.com/"target="_blank">www.ausopinion.com</a><br />
<a href="http://www.crikey.com.au/"target="_blank">www.crikey.com.au</a><br />
<a href="http://www.dailylife.com.au"target="_blank">www.dailylife.com.au</a><br />
<a href="http://www.eurekastreet.com.au/"target="_blank">www.eurekastreet.com.au</a><br />
<a href="http://www.independentaustralia.net/"target="_blank">www.independentaustralia.net</a><br />
<a href="http://nofibs.com.au/"target="_blank">www.nofibs.com.au</a><br />
<a href="http://www.womensagenda.com.au/"target="_blank">www.womensagenda.com.au</a><br />
<a href="http://junkee.com/"target="_blank">www.junkee.com</a><br />
<a href="http://www.mamamia.com.au/"target="_blank">www.mamamia.com.au</a><br />
<br />
<h3 class="post-title">What to do in the 2016 Election</h3><br />
<b>BE</b> the winning candidate, build the winning campaign team or vote for a new type of politics in Australia.<br />
<br />
<b>OTHER THOUGHTS ON AUSTRALIAN POLITICS</b><br />
<blockquote><b><a href="http://insanelysociable.blogspot.com.au/2015/07/politics-women-leadership.html"target="_blank">It's Time</a></b><br />
<i>Australia has three major political parties, each backed by their own training and voting block: the Australian Greens have the Environmental and Activist movements, Labor has the Unions and the Liberal Party has the business sector.<br />
<br />
The largest population in Australia without a voice is women; our very urgent needs for parity, safety and leaders are being ignored and wound back, our leadership is locked out of power and as voters we are unable to direct our vote to a party that champions us.<br />
<br />
Australian women do, however, have an established and proven mentorship and training ground for female candidates to gain political experience and female voters to gain access to candidates to influence policy; the Country Women's Association.</i></blockquote><blockquote><a href="http://insanelysociable.blogspot.com.au/2014/06/politics-budget-failure.html"target="_blank"><b>Fighting Winter with Summer</b></a><br />
<i>I credit the 1% with being fully aware of the impending water and energy conflicts, and it is clear from their actions that they are taking the requisite steps to survive while preventing the population from taking the same steps. Unfortunately their pride and entitlement will never allow them to consider the fact that their place in the 1% means nothing to the environment. Water and energy do not obey, and never have obeyed, the forces of nations, economies and capitalism.</i> </blockquote><blockquote><a href="http://insanelysociable.blogspot.com.au/2014/05/politics-australia-neoliberal-climate.html"target="_blank"><b>Textbook</b></a><br />
<i>Anyone who thinks they can argue for 21st Century Climate Aware action with 20th Century Climate Ignorant ideologies is going to be pulled back into historical patterns of conflict and paralysis, which is exactly where the Government and their corporate partners want their population.</i> </blockquote><blockquote><b><a href="http://insanelysociable.blogspot.com.au/2014/04/politics-racism-australia-18c.html"target="_blank">Ask for me tomorrow</a></b><br />
<i>The current Australian Government makes announcements that destabilise the news cycle, and these announcements come in two forms:<br />
<br />
<b>1.</b> An outrageous suggestion designed to let opponents react with scorn and satire, but neither suggestion nor satire achieves anything but noise, and a false sense of protest for those who did not vote for this current Australian Government.<br />
<br />
<b>2.</b> A very real threat that opponents cannot ignore, but is sure to be withdrawn or watered down once it has short circuited the news cycle and wasted the time and resources of those who did not vote for this current Australian Government.</i></blockquote>Claire Madeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05731948368295746877noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8007008.post-10097880990303947472015-07-23T13:38:00.001+08:002015-11-16T21:09:43.429+08:00It's TimeTo build a political movement there must be a large population without a voice, mentorship and training for candidates, and voters that have access to the candidates to articulate their specific needs.<br />
<br />
Australia has three major political parties, each backed by their own training and voting block: the Australian Greens have the Environmental and Activist movements, Labor has the Unions and the Liberal Party has the business sector.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately the Labor and Liberal models are the Boys Club in Australia, and while the Australian Greens have a very different internal model of democracy, they participate in a parliamentary model that was created by the Boys Club, and they do not have the numbers to change the system – yet.<br />
<blockquote><b><a href="http://insanelysociable.blogspot.com.au/2013/09/feminism-political-change-australia.html"target=“_blank">Australian Politics: The Boys Club</a></b><br />
<br />
<i>Our political system simply cannot cope with diversity of candidates - and that is the fault of the system, not the fault of diversity. Diversity is ever-present and requires systems to improve, not retreat.<br />
<br />
Systems are just tools, they should react and change with the user. But our systems are not changing with the population that use them, as evident by under-representation of varied proportions of our population in almost every area of public and private life. The systems are wrong, not the diversity of the population trying to use them.</i><br />
<br />
<a href="http://junkee.com/australias-two-party-system-has-failed-us-heres-how-we-can-fix-it/60812#BDk325pkl1Jj9A1m.99"target="_blank"><b>Australia’s Two-Party System Has Failed Us; Here’s How We Can Fix It</b></a> by <b>Jane Gilmore</b> at <i>JUNKEE</i><br />
</blockquote>The largest population in Australia without a voice is women; our very urgent needs for parity, safety and leaders are being ignored and wound back, our leadership is locked out of power and as voters we are unable to direct our vote to a party that champions us.<br />
<br />
Australian women do, however, have an established and proven mentorship and training ground for female candidates to gain political experience and female voters to gain access to candidates to influence policy; the Country Women's Association.<br />
<blockquote><a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-16/nrn-world-cwa/5025464"target="_blank"><b>Ruth Shanks from Dubbo</b></a> leads the <i>Associated Country Women of the World</i>.</blockquote><blockquote>Rural women breaking the <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/landline/content/2013/s3853974.htm"target="_blank">Grass Ceiling</a> and becoming <a href="http://fleurmcdonald.com/the-women-changes-in-agriculture-by-pip-courtney/"target="_blank">leaders in their communities</a>.</blockquote>The CWA is a National and International group of women who can provide mentors, training and leadership for women who want to be political candidates, or women who simply want their informed vote to count in a new political system.<br />
<br />
This is not a suggestion that the CWA itself field candidates - the CWA is explicitly non-political - but membership of the CWA means women can access grassroots political training and mentorship from an exclusively female leadership. The CWA provides all-female mentorship and training, but it accommodates women of any political persuasion as members.<br />
<br />
Australia normalizes men and women working up through business, the Unions and the activist movements to become effective political candidates because that is the Boys Club method. People of all voting persuasions can take part in business, the Unions or the activist movements and they are not bound to any party whilst employing people, being employed or working for their passions.<br />
<br />
Australia is not comfortable with women working their way up through an effective organisation like the CWA to become candidates, because that is using the Boys Club method and making it work for women. Using membership of the CWA to learn to be politically effective is entirely practical and does not politicise the organisation, but it will train women to be great candidates and informed voters.<br />
<br />
The CWA consult to the Australian Government on many, mainly rural, matters, and this is important because the Nationals are no longer a legitimate power in the Coalition of the Liberal Party and the National Party.<br />
<br />
Rural votes are no longer exclusively for the LNP, as the <i>Voice for Indi</i> campaign proved with <b>Cathy McGowan</b>, and the rural vote is the most powerful and important in Australia. We survive on the food and water that the rural voters preserve for us, and they are the Australians that live closest to the climate changes of the coming century.<br />
<blockquote><b>Your Electorate, Your Candidate</b><br />
<br />
<i>The campaign that got <b>Cathy McGowan</b> elected in Indi used the <a href="http://insidestory.org.au/from-little-margins-big-margins-grow/"target="_blank">Kitchen Table Conversation</a> model of involving people in the electorate directly.<br />
<br />
The CWA is a similar model that could be used to facilitate involvement in grassroots programs so female candidates and female voters start learning about how policies impact people on the ground, and how to consult to government at all levels.</i></blockquote>Between the Australian Greens naturally protecting the environment, and female candidates who are active in rural life through the CWA, voters can place their vote with candidates that take the challenges of this century seriously. Voters can turn away from the two major parties and be sure that they are participating in growing a new type of politics.<br />
<br />
With the mobilising and organisational power of social media and the internet, the established mentorship and opportunities of CWA membership, and a campaign team, you could be one of the women that stands up and takes the first step towards a party of women, for women, by women, thinking of the future and challenging the crippled major parties.<br />
<br />
With the unique possibilities of joining the Australian Greens and the cross-benchers in holding Labor and the Liberals accountable, and lending strength to the arms of those who wish to widen representation in Australia, it’s time. It's time for women to be candidates outside the existing political system, and it's time for a Women's Political Party.<br />
<blockquote><a href="http://www.womensagenda.com.au/talking-about/top-stories/item/6055-a-national-political-party-advocating-for-women-it-s-time"target="_blank"><b>A national political party advocating for women? It's time</b></a> by <b>Jane Gilmore</b> at <i>Women's Agenda</i><br />
<br />
<i>Think about social media and how connected women’s groups are, and how easy it would be to reach out to your base. Think about the Country Women’s Association and how terribly the regional areas are treated by Canberra.<br />
<br />
Think about the (so far) 52 women killed this year, the pay gap getting worse, the gender disparity in our national leadership and how no one in our current parliament appears even slightly interested in genuine action on those things.</i></blockquote><blockquote><a href="http://insanelysociable.blogspot.com.au/p/what-can-i-do-within-existing-system.html"target="_blank"><b>What Can I Do? (within the existing system)</b></a><br />
And we will not be alone: <a href="https://womensequality.org.uk/about/"target="_blank"><b>Women's Equality Party, UK</b></a></blockquote><h3 class="post-title">What to do now</h3><br />
<b>JOIN</b> your local CWA and start being politically informed on a practical level. Tell your CWA group that you are interested in female candidates and electoral change:<br />
<a href="http://www.cwaofwa.asn.au/"target="_blank"><b>CWA Western Australia</b></a><br />
<a href="http://www.cwant.net/"target="_blank"><b>CWA Northern Territory</b></a><br />
<a href="http://www.qcwa.org.au/"target="_blank"><b>CWA Queensland</b></a><br />
<a href="https://cwaofnsw.org.au/"target="_blank"><b>CWA New South Wales</b></a><br />
<a href="http://www.cwaofvic.asn.au/"target="_blank"><b>CWA Victoria</b></a><br />
<a href="http://www.sacwa.org.au/"target="_blank"><b>CWA South Australia</b></a><br />
<a href="http://www.cwaa.org.au/"target="_blank"><b>CWA Australia</b></a><br />
<a href="http://www.acww.org.uk/"target="_blank"><b>The Associated Country Women of the World</b></a><br />
<br />
<b>EMAIL</b> the Women's Equality Party in the UK and tell them that you are interested in an Australian Women's Equality Party.<br />
<br />
<b>READ</b> this: <a href="http://insanelysociable.blogspot.com.au/p/what-can-i-do-outside-existing-system.html"target="_blank"><b>What Can I Do? (outside the existing system)</b></a><br />
<br />
<h3 class="post-title">What to do before the 2016 Election</h3><br />
<b>LOOK</b> for the women who are politically active in your area, and talk to them - each electorate will need a <b>CANDIDATE</b>, a <b>CAMPAIGN TEAM</b> and a <b>MENTOR</b> - and to be honest, you already know who they are, or you'll find them in less than a week.<br />
<br />
<h3 class="post-title">What to do until the 2016 Election</h3><br />
<b>ADD</b> the Independent Media to your life<br />
<a href="http://theaimn.com/"target="_blank">www.theaimn.com</a><br />
<a href="http://theconversation.com/au"target="_blank">www.theconversation.com</a><br />
<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/au"target="_blank">www.theguardian.com</a><br />
<a href="http://www.themonthly.com.au/"target="_blank">www.themonthly.com.au</a><br />
<a href="http://thenewdaily.com.au/"target="_blank">www.thenewdaily.com.au</a><br />
<a href="https://www.newmatilda.com/"target="_blank">www.newmatilda.com</a><br />
<a href="http://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/"target="_blank">www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au</a><br />
<a href="http://ausopinion.com/"target="_blank">www.ausopinion.com</a><br />
<a href="http://www.crikey.com.au/"target="_blank">www.crikey.com.au</a><br />
<a href="http://www.dailylife.com.au"target="_blank">www.dailylife.com.au</a><br />
<a href="http://www.eurekastreet.com.au/"target="_blank">www.eurekastreet.com.au</a><br />
<a href="http://www.independentaustralia.net/"target="_blank">www.independentaustralia.net</a><br />
<a href="http://nofibs.com.au/"target="_blank">www.nofibs.com.au</a><br />
<a href="http://www.womensagenda.com.au/"target="_blank">www.womensagenda.com.au</a><br />
<a href="http://junkee.com/"target="_blank">www.junkee.com</a><br />
<a href="http://www.mamamia.com.au/"target="_blank">www.mamamia.com.au</a><br />
<br />
<h3 class="post-title">What to do in the 2016 Election</h3><br />
<b>BE</b> the winning candidate, build the winning campaign team or vote for a new type of politics in Australia.<br />
<br />
<b>OTHER THOUGHTS ON AUSTRALIAN POLITICS</b><br />
<blockquote><b><a href="http://insanelysociable.blogspot.com.au/2015/07/politics-australia-not-yours.html"target="_blank">Not our circus, not our monkeys</a></b><br />
<i>So, women of Australia, take thee to the CWA, become involved with all manner of practical local politics, all manner of women as mentors and all manner of consulting to Government, and participate in politics on your terms.<br />
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Find your own policies, build your own campaign teams, field your own candidates and vote for the candidates who have the best vision for new politics you can find. You are the only people who can build the future, because the existing systems are dying, and trying to take us all down with them.<br />
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And for all of our sakes, be militantly inclusive; as 51% of the Australian population, the women of Australia include Indigenous Australians, refugees/immigrants, the LGBTIQ community and anyone who has additional access and medical requirements. Our new politics must include everyone excluded from the current systems so our votes and candidates count the first time, and into the future.</i></blockquote><blockquote><a href="http://insanelysociable.blogspot.com.au/2014/06/politics-budget-failure.html"target=“_blank"><b>Fighting Winter with Summer</b></a><br />
<i>I credit the 1% with being fully aware of the impending water and energy conflicts, and it is clear from their actions that they are taking the requisite steps to survive while preventing the population from taking the same steps. Unfortunately their pride and entitlement will never allow them to consider the fact that their place in the 1% means nothing to the environment. Water and energy do not obey, and never have obeyed, the forces of nations, economies and capitalism.</i> </blockquote><blockquote><a href="http://insanelysociable.blogspot.com.au/2014/05/politics-australia-neoliberal-climate.html"target=“_blank"><b>Textbook</b></a><br />
<i>Anyone who thinks they can argue for 21st Century Climate Aware action with 20th Century Climate Ignorant ideologies is going to be pulled back into historical patterns of conflict and paralysis, which is exactly where the Government and their corporate partners want their population.</i> </blockquote><blockquote><b><a href="http://insanelysociable.blogspot.com.au/2014/04/politics-racism-australia-18c.html"target=“_blank">Ask for me tomorrow</a></b><br />
<i>The current Australian Government makes announcements that destabilise the news cycle, and these announcements come in two forms:<br />
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<b>1.</b> An outrageous suggestion designed to let opponents react with scorn and satire, but neither suggestion nor satire achieves anything but noise, and a false sense of protest for those who did not vote for this current Australian Government.<br />
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<b>2.</b> A very real threat that opponents cannot ignore, but is sure to be withdrawn or watered down once it has short circuited the news cycle and wasted the time and resources of those who did not vote for this current Australian Government.</i></blockquote>Claire Madeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05731948368295746877noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8007008.post-39862268770838588932015-02-23T23:00:00.000+08:002015-09-11T09:48:11.544+08:00The Language That Kills<blockquote><b><i>Rosie Batty and Natasha Stott-Despoya were on <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/feb/24/qa-panel-shows-why-we-cant-move-beyond-the-basic-questions-in-domestic-violence"target="_blank">Q&A tonight discussing Domestic Violence</a>. They were outnumbered, ironically, by the male panelists.</i></b></blockquote>Anyone reading the crime reports in newspapers around Australia today would find sordid tales of people throwing themselves at other people’s fists and sober drivers inconveniently getting in the way of drunk or speeding drivers. We all read about people who work hard to buy houses to fill with possessions only to selflessly let other people destroy or steal them.<br />
<br />
There is the inevitable roundup of people staying in relationships only to be injured or killed by their partners and, of course, those terrible reports of children who seduce adults.<br />
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Apologies, my mistake! I seem to be getting the relative culpability of perpetrators and victims mixed up. I am especially confused because we seem to have two ways of reporting crime and violence.<br />
<br />
When we report crime, we have crimes in which the criminal is named, and crimes in which the victim is named. When we discuss violence, sometimes the language we use indicates the person who acts violently is responsible, sometimes the victim of violence is responsible.<br />
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In order to prevent the spread of violence, society has to discuss the criminality of alcohol-fuelled violence, drink driving, speeding, arson, burglary, domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse. The language we use to describe the first crimes define a criminal act by the perpetrator, to be examined and tried by the law.<br />
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The last three crimes of violence, however, are named and discussed as if a result of disembodied violence that manifests only in the victim; the domestic victim, the sexual victim, the child victim. This is a disingenuous use of language because these crimes of violence are enacted entirely by living, breathing humans. This pervasive language shields the perpetrators from the full gaze of society and the law, and it turns an intolerable gaze on the victims.<br />
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If in everyday language we can talk of drunk drivers, burglars and arsonists without restriction, but not abusers without excuses, is there any wonder there is an epidemic of criminal violence in domestic and intimate relationships? As a society we must change the words we use to reflect crimes of violence back on the perpetrator.<br />
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Take, for example, a much quoted statistic: ‘1 in 4 women worldwide experience some form of domestic violence or sexual assault.’ This makes the violence visible only in connection to the victim, not to the abuser. The statistic we should be reporting is the numbers of perpetrators, turning the focus of guilt on those who act violently. Thus we would be quoting a statistic that would read closer to ‘1 in 4 people worldwide abuse their (female) partner or children.’<br />
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In Australia and around the world women, children and men with full and loving lives are forced to live with violent and criminal abusers. We know this because of the women, children and men who are injured and die at the hands of abusers, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/notes/destroy-the-joint/counting-dead-women-australia-2015-we-count-every-single-death-due-to-violence-a/899064306807981"target="_blank">14 women killed by their intimate partners in Australia in the first eight weeks 2015 alone</a>. But it is not the victims who are obliged to make the abuser visible to society by injury or death, it is up to us to do something to change our language and thus our understanding of who is guilty of violence.<br />
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As family, friends, workmates and neighbours to people who abuse their partners and children, it is our job to consciously register instances of public and private violence, speak about violence in language that focuses on the abuser and refuse to be silent when violence is trivialised in social discussion. Criminal violence enacted on intimates by people we know is our responsibility to name and stop, and our first step is to examine our language and who it places in the position of culpability. After all, every other violent crime is blamed entirely on the perpetrator, why not domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse?<br />
<blockquote><b><a href="http://insanelysociable.blogspot.com.au/2013/08/invisible-humans-securing-sex.html"target="_blank">Real People and Sex</a></b><br />
<i>Separation of sexual provider and customer by perceived morality is problematic because the negative morality is projected onto the provider by the population that supplies the customers. This results in my two least favourite prevalent social concepts; that sex workers aren’t real people from the real world with partners/families/friends who love them and that the people who pay for sex with sex workers aren’t real people from the real world with partners/families/friends that love them.</i></blockquote><blockquote><a href="http://insanelysociable.blogspot.com.au/2013/06/feminism-c-word.html"target="_blank"><b>The C Word</b></a><br />
<i>Why is it the ultimate insult for anyone, male or female? Because it speaks about the least desirable, the most unwanted, the ultimate source of fear: the vagina. It’s not enough to liken someone to a woman as a whole; the reference must be to what is biologically perhaps the most identifying aspect of being a woman, her very essence summed up in a body part. To a large proportion of men, the vagina is at best a mystery, at worst, a source of disgust. To have linked the most vulgar word in the English language to the most essential part of femininity is no mean feat.</i></blockquote>Claire Madeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05731948368295746877noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8007008.post-27894813511542040082015-02-21T16:03:00.000+08:002015-07-10T11:59:39.634+08:00Sickly Sweet: Wildly Successful Female NarrativesWhether it’s called <i>chick-lit</i> or <i>mommy porn</i>, narratives written for women are treated with grave disrespect by the publishing industry and the wider public, especially erotica. Erotica written exclusively for women is rare, and when it exists it’s pink-i-fied, covered in vanilla and perceived to be much harder to create than it actually is; a Red Velvet Cake if you will.<br />
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Erotica written for men is Victoria Sponge of course; totally vanilla, lots of cream, the tiniest smear of delicious red jam. Heterosexual male erotica is so mainstream prizes could be given out at Rural Fetes for the best out of an array made from a completely standard recipe.<br />
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In a world of written and visual erotica that does not care to cater for our desires nor our gaze, women are adept at sustaining a sexual imagination by living off erotic crumbs that fall from the table of male-centric literature. In fact, everyone whose sexual practice is not that of a heterosexual male is trying to live off erotic crumbs.<br />
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Reductive and derogatory genre labels aside, narratives written by women for women are stereotyped from the start of a reader’s education to the moment a reader lays eyes on a book written by a woman. Literature’s problem with women starts because the classics of literature, as taught in the school and university curriculum, are oriented almost exclusively around male authors, characters and narratives.<br />
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Hosting a Perth Writers Festival panel today, Aviva Tuffield, one of the founders of <a href=" http://thestellaprize.com.au/"target="_blank">The Stella Prize</a>, explained that the prize was set up because female authors were underrepresented on the school literature curriculum across Australia. Two of the three Stella Prize long listed authors on the panel, <a href="http://slamup.blogspot.com.au/"target="_blank">Maxine Beneba Clarke</a> and <a href="http://www.alicepung.com/"target="_blank">Alica Pung</a>, spoke eloquently of writing diverse female characters they wanted their child, and indeed all children, to read and recognise.<br />
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The Stella Prize also seeks to correct the under-representation of female authors in the literary magazines, given that books by women were being reviewed less and given shorter reviews. On another panel at the Festival, <a href="http://georginapenney.com/"target="_blank">Georgina Penney</a> discussed the industry conventions of marketing any book written by a woman that contain a love story as a romance, not matter what the literary style of the book.<br />
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In a world of readers brought up on male literature and ghettoised female authors, there are still female narratives that break all the rules to become bestsellers. The problem with wildly successful narratives that reinforce old stereotypes while breaking others, however, is that one exceptional example of a diverse genre is then seen as the <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booknews/11726082/Joanne-Harris-highlights-sexism-in-the-publishing-industry-in-string-of-tweets.html"target="_blank">exemplar of that genre</a>.<br />
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When a book by a woman for women becomes a best seller, it is assumed that the women buying it want exact replicas of the successful formula that broke the glass ceiling. Two such juggernauts of female-centred literature are represented in Australia this week. Even a quick glance at the output of Elizabeth Gilbert and EL James teaches us a lot about the curse of the successful female narrative.<br />
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Elizabeth Gilbert sold 10 million copies of her memoir <i>Eat Pray Love</i> that saw her find love with a man after a life-changing journey through food, travel and spirituality. EL James sold 70 million copies of a book of <i>Fifty Shades of Grey</i> in which a woman finds love with a man after letting him tell her what to eat and how to accept his love, all while frequently addressing her inner goddess.<br />
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Both successful formulas followed the age old narrative allowed to women; settling down with a man after an acceptable length of time experiencing the world. What is not considered is that women are so starved of respect for their stories that they will endure any amount of bad writing or stereotypical narratives to be able to read a book in which they are represented on the page.<br />
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In contrast to the giant of <i>chick-lit</i> that is <i>Eat Pray Love</i>, what <i>Fifty Shades of Grey</i> did when it left out the vanilla icing and went straight for the erotica, was serve up a moist, velvety cake just for the straight ladies. The ladies basically ate slices and slices of the cake, had a bit of a lie down, then got back up to eat more.<br />
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Women made <i>Eat Pray Love</i> and <i>Fifty Shades of Grey</i> bestsellers for the same reason <i>Frozen</i> rules children’s movie right now, women are so starved for our own stories that we gorge on the few that are allowed to us. It doesn’t mean we are not achingly interested in diversity in the literature and erotica written for us.<br />
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The truth of the matter is that we crave innovation in our stories, and if you look at the market hungry for any stories for women by women, it makes sense to cater for that market with more good stories. We just don’t want any of the old prejudices to stand in the way of us baking our cake and eating it too.<br />
<blockquote><a href="http://insanelysociable.blogspot.com.au/2015/02/publications-fairfax-media-17-february.html"target="_blank"><b>When is kinky sex not kinky sex? When it's Fifty Shades of Grey ...</b></a><br />
<i>What is literally legislated as "alternative" sexual practise encompasses homosexual, bisexual, transsexual, pansexual and asexual practises. These include means for those with limits to their physical sexual capacity through illness, injury or trauma to enjoy erotic play and sexual release. For those who have limits to their intellectual or emotional sexual capacity, expanded techniques allow for their particular erotic needs outside the strictly physical. As people age, their erotic and sexual requirements change, no one escapes the ravages of time. Open discussion of all techniques mean personal sexual practise can change whether it is out of choice or necessity.</i></blockquote>Claire Madeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05731948368295746877noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8007008.post-55727721167431598932015-02-17T06:30:00.000+08:002015-07-08T15:46:50.622+08:00When is kinky sex not kinky sex? When it's Fifty Shades of Grey ...<blockquote><b><i>Published online:</i></b><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.watoday.com.au/comment/when-is-kinky-sex-not-kinky-sex-when-its-fifty-shades-of-grey-20150216-13gdji.html"target="_blank"><b>WAToday</b></a><br />
<a href="http://www.smh.com.au/comment/when-is-kinky-sex-not-kinky-sex-when-its-fifty-shades-of-grey-20150216-13gdji.html"target="_blank"><b>The Sydney Morning Herald</b></a><br />
<a href="http://www.theage.com.au/comment/when-is-kinky-sex-not-kinky-sex-when-its-fifty-shades-of-grey-20150216-13gdji.html"target="_blank"><b>The Age</b></a><br />
<a href="http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/comment/when-is-kinky-sex-not-kinky-sex-when-its-fifty-shades-of-grey-20150216-13gdji.html"target="_blank"><b>Brisbane Times</b></a><br />
<a href="http://www.canberratimes.com.au/comment/when-is-kinky-sex-not-kinky-sex-when-its-fifty-shades-of-grey-20150216-13gdji.html"target="_blank"><b>The Canberra Times</b></a></blockquote>I'm on the train and the person across from me is reading <i>That Book</i>; the religiously repressed treatise on misogyny packaged as a risqué rebellious romance with ropes.<br />
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In that moment I manage to subjugate the urge to evangelise safe, sane, consensual orgasm techniques to them, a stranger on the train. But if you wanted to play the lead role of Stranger On The Train, maybe we could see where this takes us?<br />
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Much has been written by practitioners, participants and detractors about the sexual practice called BDSM, as explored in <i>Fifty Shades of Grey</i>. I have been an avid reader of such discussions. After all, train-riding missionaries who urge strangers to "branch out from missionary" need to keep up with the literature.<br />
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I have found it interesting that most critiques of the portrayal of BDSM in the book have preserved the idea that BDSM is "alternative" or "kink" sexual practise. In fact, when practised without social stigma and mythos, the sexual techniques included in BDSM and kink encompass a full range of physical and mental sexual practice that can meet even the most specific of orgasmic needs.<br />
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The culture in which <i>Fifty Shades of Grey</i> was written grew out of religious roots that value virginity, misogyny, monogamy and compulsory heterosexuality. Our currently repressed culture has progressed to active exclusion of the erotic pleasure and desire of the majority of society from public discussion.<br />
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Thank goodness for the meteoric sales of <i>Fifty Shades of Grey</i>, a book that effectively thrust our limited sexual practice right into the public spotlight.<br />
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Extricate yourself, just for a moment, from the Hollywood/Pornography Sex Homily of kissing-as-foreplay, penetration-with-a-penis-shape, male-orgasm-whoops-finish that is the secular version of what celibate Christian dudes over the millennia have thundered down upon us from the pulpits.<br />
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I urge you to ignore the legislation of how we orgasm and with whom by committees of politicians and lawyers from a homogenous gender and social class, most of them now dead for decades.<br />
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I particularly encourage you to ignore the stylised and passionless bodies and techniques in visual culture that are created by the camera-wielding acolytes of those legislative and religious men. Be free of both Hilarious Hollywood Sex and Banal Pornographic Banging!<br />
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You know, as well as I, that real-world sexual practice, whether yours alone, yours with one person, or yours with many people, is always more interesting than anything dreamt of in their philosophy of rules and fears.<br />
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Once you are free, you will see that what is literally legislated as "alternative" sexual practise encompasses homosexual, bisexual, transsexual, pansexual and asexual practises. These include means for those with limits to their physical sexual capacity through illness, injury or trauma to enjoy erotic play and sexual release.<br />
<br />
For those who have limits to their intellectual or emotional sexual capacity, expanded techniques allow for their particular erotic needs outside the strictly physical. As people age, their erotic and sexual requirements change, no one escapes the ravages of time. Open discussion of all techniques mean personal sexual practise can change whether it is out of choice or necessity.<br />
<br />
So essentially, darling Stranger On The Train, possibly holding <i>Fifty Shades of Grey</i> and definitely intrigued, sexual technique not centred around the penis is not "alternative". Sexual practise not concerned with penetration is not "kink". Sexual desire not centred on touching a physical primary sexual organ is not "BDSM".<br />
<i><br />
Fifty Shades of Grey</i> manages to both uphold and tear down the sexual status quo, as all good sexual fantasies do. It would behove you to Google your favourite technique from the book and learn it from a few professionals, more than one guru is always best!<br />
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I guarantee you'll be talking to Strangers On The Train about your own personal road to orgasm before long. And I'd love to be there, if that is OK with you?<br />
<blockquote><i><b>Claire Bowen is a Perth-based blogger and dramatist who studies the impact of popular culture on the historical record.</b></i></blockquote><blockquote><b><a href="http://insanelysociable.blogspot.com.au/2013/08/invisible-humans-securing-sex.html"target="_blank">Real People and Sex</a></b><br />
<i>Separation of sexual provider and customer by perceived morality is problematic because the negative morality is projected onto the provider by the population that supplies the customers. This results in my two least favourite prevalent social concepts; that sex workers aren’t real people from the real world with partners/families/friends who love them and that the people who pay for sex with sex workers aren’t real people from the real world with partners/families/friends that love them.</i></blockquote><blockquote><a href="http://insanelysociable.blogspot.com.au/2013/06/feminism-c-word.html"target="_blank"><b>The C Word</b></a><br />
<i>Why is it the ultimate insult for anyone, male or female? Because it speaks about the least desirable, the most unwanted, the ultimate source of fear: the vagina. It’s not enough to liken someone to a woman as a whole; the reference must be to what is biologically perhaps the most identifying aspect of being a woman, her very essence summed up in a body part. To a large proportion of men, the vagina is at best a mystery, at worst, a source of disgust. To have linked the most vulgar word in the English language to the most essential part of femininity is no mean feat.</i></blockquote><blockquote><a href="http://insanelysociable.blogspot.com.au/2015/02/invisible-humans-domestic-violence.html"target="_blank"><b>The Language That Kills</b></a><br />
<i>If in everyday language we can talk of drunk drivers, burglars and arsonists without restriction, but not abusers without excuses, is there any wonder there is an epidemic of criminal violence in domestic and intimate relationships? As a society we must change the words we use to reflect crimes of violence back on the perpetrator.</i></blockquote>Claire Madeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05731948368295746877noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8007008.post-54907412729024837442014-09-23T13:27:00.001+08:002015-07-08T14:50:17.637+08:00I'm so fucking inspired I can’t even with your (conservative) shit anymore: not even with full consentY’know what? I fucking love my fellow leftie feminist greenies. I do. Some are my peers or my mentors and some are the people younger than me who inspire me. Whether they tweet, write letters, wave signs at protests, run not-for-profit advocacy groups, mount plays or get arrested, I fucking love their style.<br />
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It’s charming to be around them virtually and in person, and they make me super happy.<br />
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As for those who aren’t my people, I’m sure they’re perfectly nice when I’m not around. I’d rather not harsh my buzz by testing that theory, however. There are some complete knobheads, of course, who think they deserve to live in their parents' world and are scared shitless that they won’t. The future is going to be an amazing enema for them, and even the bible says that time waits for no one, not even constipated conservative larvae.<br />
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And then there are the hardcore neo-cons who are chewing the scenery because they can’t impose their parents' parents' world on me and my people. I just tell them not to swallow. If you swallow, it won’t end well; take note Prime Minister AUST#28.<br />
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Back to the people I love though.<br />
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My favourite fabulous people are feminists who bathe in <a href="http://insanelysociable.blogspot.com.au/2014/06/imitation-sincerest-flattery.html"target="_blank">misogynist tears</a>. They have REALLY soft skin y’all, and sometimes they eat misogynists for breakfast and then write about it and it’s hilarious. Sometimes trolls try to eat them instead, and they write about it and it's hideous. But hilarious or hideous, it keeps the tears flowing so they can keep up their beauty regimes.<br />
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Sometimes we hang out with climate warriors and their battle bicycles and fondness for tree-and-gate-based public chaining events. Sometimes I wonder why EL James didn’t base her novels (<a href="http://insanelysociable.blogspot.com.au/2015/02/publications-fairfax-media-17-february.html"target="_blank">You Know The Ones, The Terrible Ones</a>) on non-violent protesters across the ages, because they were into kink, consent and communication from way back. I’ve lost my train of thought ...<br />
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Oh yeah, fucking loving the progressives, that’s where I was. I love their <b>It’s Complicated</b> hatred of capitalist and patriarchal bullshit, I love their renewable passion for progress and innovation and I love their democratic restraints on unfettered and regressive government policy. I love them all.<br />
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And I hear conservatives have really bad sex. I’m just sayin’<br />
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Whether it’s promoting indigenous issues, building communities, rooting out institutionalised violence, supporting sustainable energy, discussing civil liberties, improving education and health, welcoming refugees, being vegan or just having a bit of a <i>Bleeding Heart Flounce</i> because someone doesn’t feel exactly the same way about Palestine, I’m there with my people, being inspired.<br />
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And sometimes getting just the tiniest bit turned on, but don’t mind me.<br />
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<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/K6i9OOhM3mM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Claire Madeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05731948368295746877noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8007008.post-34424495895510846682014-06-28T21:55:00.001+08:002014-06-29T12:31:13.760+08:00Imitation is the sincerest form of flatteryInspired by the discovery of <a href="http://the-toast.net/2014/06/16/fine-normal-moments-art-history-one-get-murdered/"target="_blank">Normal Moments in Art History With No Murder</a> and with paintings provided by <a href="http://withcuriouseyes.blogspot.com.au"target="_blank">Ariel</a>, I have created a little tribute to some of the Murderous Ladies of Western Art History.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sdWnCAOUVXo/U67Hyj-aVJI/AAAAAAAAASQ/hzWNlZJiE6U/s1600/Judith.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sdWnCAOUVXo/U67Hyj-aVJI/AAAAAAAAASQ/hzWNlZJiE6U/s320/Judith.jpg" /></a></div><blockquote><b>Best moment:</b> Representing my School at Debating<br />
<b>Future Plans:</b> Winning more Debates</blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-h2R8ZY-HQdo/U67IDV6W4PI/AAAAAAAAASY/MLs_DN--t9Y/s1600/Orestes.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-h2R8ZY-HQdo/U67IDV6W4PI/AAAAAAAAASY/MLs_DN--t9Y/s320/Orestes.jpeg" /></a></div><blockquote>what is for dinner?<br />
<i>did you buy the shampoo I like?</i><br />
<b>how could you leave the house in that?</b><br />
Your mum’s kinda quiet …</blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-AZUWP_gnnQs/U67IXQQFVWI/AAAAAAAAASg/f_14z36GSKk/s1600/Judith+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-AZUWP_gnnQs/U67IXQQFVWI/AAAAAAAAASg/f_14z36GSKk/s320/Judith+1.jpg" /></a></div><blockquote>Now just get that back to the bench and I’ll get everything else. Start prepping it for the stock, but pluck all the hair.<br />
Gary hates hair in stock and I want to win this challenge.</blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0NR_B9ZrddE/U6-WMZC59tI/AAAAAAAAAS4/01mgAb1QaHE/s1600/The-Sphinx.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0NR_B9ZrddE/U6-WMZC59tI/AAAAAAAAAS4/01mgAb1QaHE/s320/The-Sphinx.jpg" /></a></div><blockquote>I tried one bell, then three bells, but she just kept bringing them back. She loves playing with them, I guess. It’s in her nature. And she does keep them out of the house as well, so that's good.</blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ljj8dWLcHKY/U6-Wb6u2vWI/AAAAAAAAATA/3CIelUeD2g8/s1600/Jael.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ljj8dWLcHKY/U6-Wb6u2vWI/AAAAAAAAATA/3CIelUeD2g8/s320/Jael.jpg" /></a></div><blockquote>He told me I was spending too much time on Pinterest. He told me he wanted me to spend more time with him. I split the diff.</blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FjCtW7Lv-zI/U67Inc1s3pI/AAAAAAAAASo/zCAFjr3ycQI/s1600/Danaides.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FjCtW7Lv-zI/U67Inc1s3pI/AAAAAAAAASo/zCAFjr3ycQI/s320/Danaides.jpg" /></a></div><blockquote>he was crying and begging<br />
<br />
<i>mine too!</i><br />
<br />
anyway, he was crying and I felt the tears fall and kinda moisturise my hand <br />
<br />
<i>let’s see</i><br />
<br />
see, really smooth<br />
<br />
<i>wow, that feels fantastic</i><br />
<br />
I found myself wondering what would happen if I bathed in tears, y'know?</blockquote>Claire Madeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05731948368295746877noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8007008.post-81890580609299542142014-06-15T21:25:00.003+08:002015-07-29T15:17:46.559+08:00Fighting Winter with SummerAre you feeling a little confused about Australian Politics right now? Do you keep on trying to reconcile what the Government says with what the Government does? Perhaps the part of you that prides itself in common sense and “telling it like it is” seems to be reacting quite strongly to what the Government does, but the part of you that tries to apply some of the ideas you had to learn throughout your life is reacting very strongly to what the Government says?<br />
<br />
Perhaps your reptile brain keeps tapping your education on the shoulder and muttering "something is going on mate, they are not doing what they say they are doing!"<br />
<br />
<b>The 1% are not stupid, they just want you to think they are</b><br />
<br />
Those who currently run our Government do believe in the climate science and they know the water and energy conflicts are rolling across the world and are heading for Australia. They didn’t get to their position without intelligence, a survival instinct and an eye for future conditions that have to be planned for. They intend to survive the water and energy conflicts, and they intend to make sure the population will bear the brunt of the struggle to ensure that survival, not them. If the best chance of their survival in the new climate is claiming ignorance of this new climate while being in power so they can prepare for their survival, they will be claiming ignorance.<br />
<br />
The Coalition is not in power in Australia, the 1% are . The people who currently run our Government are not acting in the interests of the people who voted the politicians into Government, they are acting in their own interest. The people that voted for the politicians in the pocket of the 1% will not be treated any differently than other voters. Those in power now have no need of easily persuaded voters anymore, and they will have no need for easily persuaded voters in the future either. They have their politicians in power, what do they need the voters for now?<br />
<br />
<b>There is always the weakness behind the strength</b><br />
<br />
I credit the 1% with being fully aware of the impending water and energy conflicts, and it is clear from their actions that they are taking the requisite steps to survive while preventing the population from taking the same steps. I am, however, a little bemused that they are so confident in the historical means of achieving a place in the 1% via the social constructs, that they think these tactics are the way they will continue to survive in the new climate. <br />
<br />
Unfortunately their pride and entitlement will never allow them to consider the fact that their place in the 1% means nothing to the environment. Water and energy do not obey, and never have obeyed, the forces of nations, economies and capitalism. Our social contracts are intellectual exercises compared to the immutable laws of nature. When was the last time you saw the forces of physics and chemistry change for the whims of a Government? When was the last time you saw the wider universe obey the wishes of a Government? When did you last see the sun not rise for a Government, or water cease its desire to move according to its nature for a Government?<br />
<br />
<b>What is the strength we acquire out of weakness?</b><br />
<br />
The concepts of nations, economies and capitalism are constructs that are now clearly shown to be exactly the wrong way to survive within the immutable natural laws. So if we are going to survive in the new world where a crippled climate is only factor that decides our ability to eat, drink and secure shelter, do you really think success will be assured by repeating the intellectual exercises that have put us so at odds with the systems that provide the essential means of our survival?<br />
<br />
Humans cannot create particles on a scale that allows us to add to and repair our climate systems. This means our current habits of consuming the environment and not creating anything to add to the environment is obviously the worst survival strategy. Since we cannot create one atom of oxygen or water to add to the climate, but must rely on the climate to repair itself, clearly our way forward is social constructs that mirror the repair and maintenance systems of the environment.<br />
<br />
<b>The 99% are not stupid, we are just told we are</b><br />
<br />
In the old ways of nations, economies and capitalism, the 99% were too powerful not be told they are stupid by the 1%. As survivalists in the system, you had better believe that the 1% know that the 99% is more powerful; the 1% are proud and selfish, but not stupid. Purely on a question of scale, to change human patterns of behaviour so they mirror an ecosystem, we need the entire population to participate. The 1% of the human population on earth are doomed if they think they can change the world climate without the survival and participation of the 99%.<br />
<br />
And just as the immutable laws of nature bow for no 1%, so the 1% don’t exist without the 99% putting them there. If we withdraw our participation in the myth of the 1%, what are they to do?<br />
<br />
<b>Progressives are still trying to survive in the 20th Century, not the 21st</b><br />
<br />
Progressives persist in arguing for making cosmetic changes to a national economic capitalist system that was created in climate ignorance hundreds of years ago, a system that created the climate crisis, and a system that allows the 1% natural domination of the discourse due to their place at the top of the structure. This is not the fight, but it is the fight that the 1% are super keen for us to keep fighting.<br />
<br />
The 1% look so smug because they are watching their Opposition chattering away to the masses, watching their Opposition enforcing the idea that this is a civilised society on track to survive climate change by using all the old forces that created climate change. <br />
<br />
Even more than media support of the 1%, the politeness of the Opposition in charging the Government with being stupid and cruel instead of clever and strategic is keeping the rest of us firmly in the dream world that we can negotiate with people who want to survive quite badly. The 1% are not negotiating with us. The 1% are very fond of survival, and they truly don’t care who dies first or last, people are simply going to die before them.<br />
<br />
Ask yourself why the Government would formulate a budget that could be so easily attacked, if it were not to keep us busy?<br />
Ask yourself why the 1% seem to be unafraid of the more numerous 99%, if it were not because they are planning to be ahead of us?<br />
What would be be the logical path of a 1% intent on survival by being the last alive?<br />
<br />
<b>New problems, old systems</b><br />
<br />
If, however, we actually look at their actions and not their rhetoric, if we consider how they intend to survive instead of how they tell us they expect us to survive, the answer is simple.<br />
<br />
We need to get out of the old system. Nations, economies and trade are killing us. Ecosystems, weather and resources are being taken away from us. We can’t be economic citizens because the economy has nothing to do with the ecosystem. Water and weather and energy obeys no national borders, so why are we wasting our time with them, let alone arguing over hundred year old ideas about them when we should be moving on?<br />
<br />
How do we step away from the old ideas of economies and money as the signs of a successful society and make involvement in ecosystems a sign of being a good organism of the world, not a citizen of the conjured up notion of a nation? What have we to learn about borders of environment, weather and animals rather than rates of trade or banks? The working week is not the way that ecosystems, weather, water and food are husbanded, interacted with and allow us to survive, so why are we still obsessed with the working week? <br />
<br />
Why do we have ornamental plants anywhere on this continent? Why do we have golf courses? Why is not every drop of our water going to plants we can eat? Where are our roofs made of energy creating cells? Where are our rainwater tanks and grey water retrieval systems? This nation has the money for fighter jets that can’t save us from the weather or water scarcity, but not for a nation of scientists who are food sufficient, water preserving and in charge of the biggest collection of clean energy infrastructure to survive in the world?<br />
<br />
<b>Reassessing our Leaders</b><br />
<br />
In 2016 we will have the opportunity to vote for leaders who work for the good of their constituents (those able to vote, and those not yet able to vote), not corporations, political parties or long dead historical ideas. I think most people with eyes and opinions will concede that the people in charge right now appear to be having problems growing up into their leadership roles. <br />
<br />
The leaders in charge across Australia’s political landscape right now seem to be under the illusion that they were voted in to do what they personally found most attractive from the past, instead of what the people they represent need for the future. They seem to think that, as individuals that overwhelmingly represent a specific and narrow age, education, status of residency, ability and experience, they can cling to the ideas and values of a rapidly dying generation instead of attempting to represent the populations who are growing up to experience the policies they form.<br />
<br />
The leaders in charge across Australia’s political landscape right now seem to be under the illusion that they owe allegiance to the idea of the past of a political party and system rather than the future political platforms that Australia needs them to grow into. They seem to excuse their homogeny of life experience despite the fact they work in a political party and election system that was created by people, can be undone by people, and should be grown and changed by people. There is no organisation on the face of the earth that cannot and should not be improved and be allowed to change with the diversity of the population that uses it. Systems LITERALLY do not exist without people in them, and our system clearly serves the past population makeup, not the present population.<br />
<br />
The leaders in charge across Australia’ political landscape right now seem to think that corporations, which do not exist without the people that make them up, are actually more important than the people within them. No system created by humans exists without us there, it dies when we step away from it. So it seems a flight of fantasy at best to watch policy being formulated to benefit an entity that does not exist without the presence of the people the policy is designed to disadvantage.<br />
<br />
The Abbott Government is hopefully the last time that we will have to endure current politics as wilful self-destruction.<br />
<br />
The Abbott Government displays very sobering signs of being unable to operate in a reality that is not of their own construction. Even worse for them, they are destroying themselves by constructing their reality with policies from the past that destroyed their past creators and implementors over and over again.<br />
<br />
The policies of the Abbott Government are ineffective for them for good reason; they are the policies of regimes that no longer exist. And these regimes don’t exist because they destroyed themselves. <br />
<br />
The leadership in charge across Australia’s political landscape right now lack vision and bravery; they lack empathy, presence and imagination; they lack greatness, generosity and graciousness. <br />
<br />
But here is the good news, they don’t get power, prestige or influence if we walk away from their parties, their policies and their platforms. Systems don’t exist without the people in them! So, uh, let’s step away from them ...<br />
<blockquote><b><a href="http://insanelysociable.blogspot.com.au/2015/07/politics-women-leadership.html"target="_blank">It's Time</a></b><br />
<i>Australia has three major political parties, each backed by their own training and voting block: the Australian Greens have the Environmental and Activist movements, Labor has the Unions and the Liberal Party has the business sector.<br />
<br />
The largest population in Australia without a voice is women; our very urgent needs for parity, safety and leaders are being ignored and wound back, our leadership is locked out of power and as voters we are unable to direct our vote to a party that champions us.<br />
<br />
Australian women do, however, have an established and proven mentorship and training ground for female candidates to gain political experience and female voters to gain access to candidates to influence policy; the Country Women's Association.</i></blockquote><blockquote><b><a href="http://insanelysociable.blogspot.com.au/2015/07/politics-australia-not-yours.html"target="_blank">Not our circus, not our monkeys</a></b><br />
<i>So, women of Australia, take thee to the CWA, become involved with all manner of practical local politics, all manner of women as mentors and all manner of consulting to Government, and participate in politics on your terms.<br />
<br />
Find your own policies, build your own campaign teams, field your own candidates and vote for the candidates who have the best vision for new politics you can find. You are the only people who can build the future, because the existing systems are dying, and trying to take us all down with them.<br />
<br />
And for all of our sakes, be militantly inclusive; as 51% of the Australian population, the women of Australia include Indigenous Australians, refugees/immigrants, the LGBTIQ community and anyone who has additional access and medical requirements. Our new politics must include everyone excluded from the current systems so our votes and candidates count the first time, and into the future.</i></blockquote><blockquote><a href="http://insanelysociable.blogspot.com.au/2014/05/politics-australia-neoliberal-climate.html"target=“_blank"><b>Textbook</b></a><br />
<i>Anyone who thinks they can argue for 21st Century Climate Aware action with 20th Century Climate Ignorant ideologies is going to be pulled back into historical patterns of conflict and paralysis, which is exactly where the Government and their corporate partners want their population.</i> </blockquote><blockquote><b><a href="http://insanelysociable.blogspot.com.au/2013/09/feminism-political-change-australia.html"target=“_blank">A definition of madness</a></b><br />
<i>Systems are just tools, they should react and change with the user, but our systems are not changing with the population that use them, as evident by under-representation of varied proportions of our population in almost every area of public and private life. The systems are wrong, not the diversity of the population trying to use them.</i><br />
</blockquote><blockquote><b><a href="http://insanelysociable.blogspot.com.au/2014/04/politics-racism-australia-18c.html"target=“_blank">Ask for me tomorrow</a></b><br />
<i>The current Australian Government makes announcements that destabilise the news cycle, and these announcements come in two forms:<br />
<br />
<b>1.</b> An outrageous suggestion designed to let opponents react with scorn and satire, but neither suggestion nor satire achieves anything but noise, and a false sense of protest for those who did not vote for this current Australian Government.<br />
<br />
<b>2.</b> A very real threat that opponents cannot ignore, but is sure to be withdrawn or watered down once it has short circuited the news cycle and wasted the time and resources of those who did not vote for this current Australian Government.</i></blockquote>Claire Madeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05731948368295746877noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8007008.post-5628434619652562292014-06-15T17:21:00.000+08:002014-09-24T12:19:38.010+08:00Zeitgeist (2007)One thing I like very much about being a historian who has treated her own writing as a historical record, is that I can assess just how well I process the world as I pass through it.<br />
<br />
I used to think that the careful archiving of my diaries, journals, blogs and emails was an affectation, a wish to leave a historical record of my thoughts to future historians.<br />
<br />
It turns out that the use of that archive was going to be more personal, and the application of its lessons more contemporary, than I ever anticipated.<br />
<br />
My history degree was supposed to stay history, but it didn’t.<br />
<br />
Today I completed another step in this journey of history into reality by finally getting around to watching <i>Zeitgeist</i>.<br />
<br />
The thing I find most interesting about <i>Zeitgeist</i> was the familiarity of the material; my historical and political studies sit exactly parallel to the thrust of the arguments in <i>Zeitgeist</i>, so I was comfortable with the broad ideas and the conclusions from them. All of the conclusions can be argued robustly, but the wider movement of world ideology is very strongly illustrated.<br />
<br />
<h3 class="post-title">Setting the Scene</h3><br />
The first part of <i>Zeitgeist</i> was about religion, and as a Catholic-raised Medieval Literature major with a fondness for 5,000 years of myths being recycled through endless new retellings of old ideas, I didn’t bat an eyelid. Yes, there are only a few basic stories in the world, yes all the major (and minor religions) are more similar than they are different, yes, yes, it’s all storytelling, keep going ...<br />
<br />
<h3 class="post-title">Towards the War on Terror</h3><br />
The second part of <i>Zeitgeist</i> was about the War on Terror, and again I felt at home in the context of the arguments because I have on record my own journey through the creation of the Governments that Rule by Fear.<br />
<br />
In September 2001 I was in my third year of university and writing an essay on the Tampa crisis that allowed me to watch in real time what would, in hindsight, be the disintegration of the remains of the 20th Century into the 21st Century of the War on Terror.<br />
<blockquote><b><a href="http://insanelysociable.blogspot.com.au/2013/07/politics-history-tampa.html"target=“_blank">The Tampa: Defining the threat of the other</a></b><br />
<i>This essay was written for a UWA History Unit in September 2001, so soon after September 11 that I referred to those events in their long format. I actually haven't had to change a word to publish it twelve years later in 2013, which is a sad state of affairs for Australian narrative on refugees.</i></blockquote>I finished university, moved to London for two years, and until the July 7 bombings four weeks before I left London, I was completely uninterested in the politics of the War on Terror, enjoying only my long desired residence in my favourite country in the world.<br />
<br />
The great catalyst for change in the months of July and August of 2005 was a simple string of events. <br />
<br />
On July 6 I was offered a job in Sydney by the company I was working for in London. They would give me two weeks in Perth before requiring me to relocate to Sydney.<br />
<br />
On July 7 I got off a Piccadilly Line tube carriage that was heading towards the bomb that had exploded ten minutes down the route between Kings Cross and Russell Square.<br />
<br />
In shock I declined the job offer and went home a month later, finally part of the conversation about the War on Terror.<br />
<blockquote><b><a href="http://insanelysociable.blogspot.com.au/2005/07/prising-greatest-city-on-earth-from-my.html"target=“_blank">Prising the Greatest City on Earth from my Cold Dead Hands</a></b><br />
<i>Well, this post title was supposed to be used for my huge farewell love letter to London. It was going to contain all my sadness and reluctance to leave, all the things I love about London, all the things that I hated about London.</i></blockquote><blockquote><b><a href="http://insanelysociable.blogspot.com.au/2005/07/being-afraid-of-dying.html"target=“_blank">Being Afraid of Dying</a></b><br />
<i>Claire (24): I feel like I am in a f^£king Bruce Willis movie.<br />
Tereza (20): You are really showing your age with that comment.</i></blockquote><h3 class="post-title">Away from the War on Terror</h3><br />
When home I secured a new job, a one bedroom apartment and the fastest internet connection of my life (I was being served by the commercial connection of the Beaufort Street/Walcott Street hub and I had unlimited downloads in 2005, it was a joy!) I also had no TV, so my information collection became borderless, confined only by the internet.<br />
<br />
I had a blog of travel writing and a desire to go back to study, and so I am incredible proud to say that my first piece of writing on returning home was this one, six months before <b>An Inconvenient Truth</b> arrived on the scene.<br />
<blockquote><b><a href="http://insanelysociable.blogspot.com.au/2005/10/good-news-greenie.html"target=“_blank">The Good News Greenie</a></b><br />
<i>Last night I went to see one of Australia’s favourite popular scientific writers give a talk at UWA.</i><br />
</blockquote>It would take over six months of daily interaction with the huge amount of sources that I followed before I was confident enough to start writing about politics, but even reading this piece now, I cannot see a sentence that could not have been written today.<br />
<blockquote><b><a href="http://insanelysociable.blogspot.com.au/2006/04/baby-steps.html"target=“_blank">Baby Steps</a></b><br />
<i>But most of all I nurtured a climate of openness in my mind. Not openness so that everything fell out, but openness so that everything ran through and each new day polished or rearranged or carried away or left behind an idea that would mean I learnt something from the flood of information that reached my brain each day.</i></blockquote>I was able to utilise some very useful sources that allowed me to be in dialogue with some of the dissenting voices of the 2005/2008 era: <b>One Good Move</b> ensured a steady stream of <b>The Daily Show</b>, <b>Real Time with Bill Maher</b> and <b>Countdown with Keith Olbermann</b><br />
<blockquote><b><a href="http://insanelysociable.blogspot.com.au/2006/06/one-good-move.html"target="_blank">One Good Move</a></b><br />
<i>I got the link to One Good Move from the Blog column of The Big Issue, and I have to admit it is my essential US Politics reading each evening. I was tipped off to Stephen Colbert's now notorious address to the 2006 White House Correspondent's Association Dinner in one of the many political lectures I have been attending, and you can see it here.</i></blockquote><blockquote><b><a href="http://insanelysociable.blogspot.com.au/2006/07/pandoras-box.html"target="_blank">Pandora’s Box</a></b><br />
<i>I know I am fond of wailing that knowing thyself and thy history is important, but history is not there to be repackaged to make yourself look clever at a dinner party! History is there to act as a cautionary tale - forward, forever forward is its mantra - I do not exist when I am looking back at myself obsessively, only myself when I am hurtling forward in hope.</i></blockquote><blockquote><b><a href="http://insanelysociable.blogspot.com.au/2006/10/maths-fluffy-subjects-and-war-on.html"target=“_blank">Maths, Fluffy Subjects and the War on Terror</a></b><br />
<i>During work hours I deal with Civil Engineering students and academics; shear tests, torsion and suction caissons. In my lunch hours and after work I study History in Fantasy, Fantasy in History and Magic and Marvel in Early Narrative; consensus reality, subversive literature and radical ideology. In the dark hours of the night I keep an eye on the political opponents of the Bush Administration; comedians, cable TV commentators and Islamic scholars.</i></blockquote><b>The Show</b> with zeFrank provided me with very powerful commentary and with the platform he created for his listeners, I got some incredible feedback on my observations of American Politics<br />
<blockquote><b><a href="http://insanelysociable.blogspot.com.au/2013/01/real-life.html"target="_blank">Real Life</a></b><br />
<i>My fondest piece of feedback was positive feedback. It is a piece of art forwarded to me by someone who read my American Politics writing through the Org, the artistic collective that sprung up around zeFrank’s The Show. <b>a bomb nation</b> entitled this image <b>“let me out! - or - an explanation of why americans love clairemadeleine's blog"</b> I will never forget his explanation for the image: He said that while he did not agree with my politics - he was a Republican and I most certainly was not - he found my spontaneous and untried analysis was free of the noise of the American Media, and gave him a clearer lines of discussion in the politics of his nation.</i></blockquote>To top this all off, the TED Talks became available online in 2006, and I still have an enormous collection of them that I downloaded on my marvellous internet connection. Oh NBN, how wonderful you would have been ...<br />
<br />
As I headed into my Honours year, I wrote the two pieces of which I am still incredibly proud. They were the jewels of my political writing until this year, and I am not sure I have yet recovered the humour with which these were written. In fact, I know that I have lost the innocent humour of them. That is what growing up does I guess.<br />
<blockquote><b><a href="http://insanelysociable.blogspot.com.au/2006/07/bear-with-head-cold.html"target="_blank">Bear with a Head Cold</a></b><br />
<i>Just as my soapbox thought it was on holiday for two years as I prepare to write only for my honours thesis, I was gifted with the following annoying piece of written hokum in my inbox. All the senders that were listed on the forwarding addresses are friends, so I would like to preface this with a disclaimer: I am not arguing with anyone that sent it on, just the man who wrote the words and thought he had found the great truth of the 21st Century. Twat. Also, I am home sick with a head cold. Bear, sore head. You get the picture.</i></blockquote><blockquote><a href="http://insanelysociable.blogspot.com.au/2006/07/bear-with-head-cold-reprise.html"target="_blank"><b>Bear with a Head Cold, Reprise</b></a><br />
<i>Second day at home sick, re-reading my post from yesterday, a little concerned that my 'humour'(?) may have been as logical as his 'facts', bored, bored, bored, I think I may have another crack at his ... what I would not like to flatter by calling writing, perhaps more a collection of words ..?</i></blockquote>During my thesis year of 2007 I was able to write only one politically engaged piece of writing, although it is still a great conversation starter when confronted with a film buff.<br />
<blockquote><b><a href="http://insanelysociable.blogspot.com.au/2007/04/52-days.html"target="_blank">Bourne</a></b><br />
<i>One legacy of reading world news and a certain event between two airplanes and two New York Skyscrapers is that shadowy organizations have stepped into the sunlight, incubators are sending out their products and the hysterical killers are sanctioned. No Ludlum novel can out-spy, out-assassin and out-conspire the real world now, and I think that is the great strength of the movies.</i></blockquote><h3 class="post-title">Back to the beginning</h3><br />
And then, ladies and gentlemen, I spent a year with the darling of the neoliberals and fascists of the 20th Century. My thesis explored the transmitting of politics in Science Fiction and Fantasy, and my supervisor directed me towards the Political theorist who would prepare me for my future, the reluctant court philosopher of the Nazis and democracy's most dangerous critic, Carl Schmitt.<br />
<blockquote><a href="http://insanelysociable.blogspot.com.au/p/sovereignty-in-book-of-new-sun.html"target=“_blank"><b>Sovereignty in The Book of the New Sun</b></a><br />
<i>The sovereignty personified by Severian in <b>The Book of the New Sun</b> is of Wolfe’s own creation, but it can be placed in direct comparison to political theory in the world outside of the text, particularly aspects of Carl Schmitt’s critique of liberal democracy. The historical record influences and is influenced by political theory, and Schmitt is acknowledged in the western political tradition as the twentieth century’s foremost critic of liberal democratic thought, despite a high-profile collaboration with the Third Reich that resulted in long repudiation of his writing in political circles. This lack of engagement with Schmitt was only overcome in the last three decades with growing numbers of authors translating and discussing his work. One of the most prevalent justifications for rehabilitating Schmitt is best summed up by David Dyzenhaus who asserts that 'echoes of the main themes of Schmitt's work, and in particular of his critiques of liberalism, can be found today in political philosophy and, to an increasing extent, in popular thought.’ This thesis proposes that one such example of Schmittian presence in popular thought is the critique of liberal democracy embedded deep within <b>The Book of the New Sun</b>.</i> </blockquote>I doubt many readers will be interested in reading the entire thesis, but the introduction and conclusion will do nicely for the illustration of this narrative.<br />
<br />
The most important result of my thesis of 2007 is that I am very familiar with the ideologies of a very specific set of 20th Century men: <br />
<blockquote><b>Catholic<br />
Conservative<br />
Legally Trained<br />
Anti-Democratic<br />
Ultra-Authoritarian</b></blockquote>I found the mention of Carl Schmitt at the one hour point of <i>Zeitgeist</i> very interesting, for Schmitt was not translated into English until the Eighties, and the American Political philosopher Madison is much better known for very similar ideologies.<br />
<blockquote><i>The writings of Carl Schmitt form what is arguably the most disconcerting, original and yet still unfamiliar body of twentieth-century political thought. In the English-speaking world he is terra incognita, a name redolent of Nazism, the author of a largely untranslated oeuvre of short texts forming no system, coming to us from a disturbing place and time in the form of scrambled fragments.</i><br />
<i>G. Balakrishnan</i>, <b>The Enemy: An Intellectual Portrait of Carl Schmitt</b>, London, Verso, 2000, p. 1</blockquote>I am very glad that Schmitt is being mentioned in America, but it is essential for him to be read in Australia at this moment in our political history.<br />
<blockquote><b><a href="http://books.google.com.au/books/about/Political_Theology.html?id=MXPs7149s9sC"target=“_blank">Political Theology</a></b><br />
by Carl Schmitt (Google Books)<br />
<i>Political Theology is interpreted by commentators as a ‘theologically conceived, counter-revolutionary philosophy of history' concerned with the significance of the 'state of emergency' as a constitutional problem from which Schmitt believed ‘it was not longer possible to insulate the legal system.' Political Theology was written in 1922 out of a profound feeling that the legal system was stagnating, that it could not move as swiftly as was needed to follow the 'conflict over substantive political questions' and that legal rationality was incompatible with the political reality of the current European state.</i></blockquote><blockquote><b><a href="http://books.google.com.au/books/about/The_Concept_of_the_Political.html?id=sUYDQIXSEtoC"target=“_blank">The Concept of the Political</a></b><br />
by Carl Schmitt (Google Books)<br />
<i>The Concept of the Political, written in 1926, went on to rehabilitate the ‘classic’ ideas of the state, the current European State misunderstanding the meaning of classical politics. It is Schmitt’s concept of the ‘friend-enemy’ relationship however that made The Concept of the Political and Carl Schmitt both famous and infamous, and it is of interest for the central idea that the ‘friend-enemy’ relationship is not private enmity but the core of the political state and political interactions within the state. </i></blockquote><h3 class="post-title">New World Order</h3><br />
<i>Zeitgeist</i> then tackled the structures of the Central Banks, and having lived through the Global Financial Crisis while working for a Saudi and Kuwati Oil & Gas company, I recognised all the information that I had picked up from my Saudi bosses and the incredibly educated Egyptians, British and Indian engineers I worked with. The best way to see the West is to look at it from the other side, after all.<br />
<blockquote><b><a href="http://insanelysociable.blogspot.com.au/2013/06/travelling-without-moving-books.html"target=“_blank">It pulls me in, you know?</a></b><br />
<i>And then there was the book he lent me as the world watched the Obama and Clinton nomination race, as the Egyptian mathematician crunched the Electoral College numbers for me each day, as I had discussions on the difference between the Bible and the Qur’an in the corridors with my workmates.</i></blockquote>I did note that the very last part of the documentary, which discussed some ‘plans’ for the population of the USA and the world to do with electronics in 2008, was particularly well served by a quick Google search. When watching that section, be sure to bear in mind that the iPhone was launched in June 2007. You can force electronics on people, or you can let them desire, secure, finance and upgrade it themselves; I know which force a capitalist likes more!<br />
<br />
And finally, at the one hour thirty five mark is the mention of an event in Basra regarding two British SAS soldiers. I have just finished the book <b>Equal Justice</b>, written by the Perth-born Army lawyer who was sent into the Iraqi jail to rescue those two men. The full story of that incident is a lot more complicated than it first appears; and <a href="http://rabiasiddique.com.au/about-rabia/"target="_blank"">Rabia Siddique</a>’s recounting of that story does not make the inclusion of the incident in <i>Zeitgeist</i> any less interesting.<br />
<blockquote>VIDEO:<br />
<b><a href="http://youtu.be/guXirzknYYE"target="_blank">Complete Original '07 Zeitgeist With 2010 Updates by: Peter Joseph</a></b><br />
<br />
<a href="http://zeitgeistmovie.com/Zeitgeist,%20The%20Movie-%20Companion%20Guide%20PDF.pdf"target="_blank""><b>Zeitgeist Source Guide</b></a></blockquote>There are two more <i>Zeitgeist</i> movies to go, and I am looking forward to seeing what they say. My own political writing stops in 2008 and does not reappear again until 2013, so I imagine that much could change the parallel journey of Peter Joseph and I.<br />
<blockquote><b><a href="http://insanelysociable.blogspot.com.au/2014/06/politics-budget-failure.html"target=“_blank">Fighting Winter with Summer</a></b><br />
<i>I credit the 1% with being fully aware of the impending water and energy conflicts, and it is clear from their actions that they are taking the requisite steps to survive while preventing the population from taking the same steps. Unfortunately their pride and entitlement will never allow them to consider the fact that their place in the 1% means nothing to the environment. Water and energy do not obey, and never have obeyed, the forces of nations, economies and capitalism.</i> </blockquote><blockquote><b><a href="http://insanelysociable.blogspot.com.au/2014/05/politics-australia-neoliberal-climate.html"target=“_blank">Textbook</a></b><br />
<i>Anyone who thinks they can argue for 21st Century Climate Aware action with 20th Century Climate Ignorant ideologies is going to be pulled back into historical patterns of conflict and paralysis, which is exactly where the Government and their corporate partners want their population.</i> </blockquote><blockquote><b><a href="http://insanelysociable.blogspot.com.au/2013/09/feminism-political-change-australia.html"target=“_blank">A definition of madness</a></b><br />
<i>Systems are just tools, they should react and change with the user, but our systems are not changing with the population that use them, as evident by under-representation of varied proportions of our population in almost every area of public and private life. The systems are wrong, not the diversity of the population trying to use them.</i><br />
</blockquote><blockquote><b><a href="http://insanelysociable.blogspot.com.au/2014/04/politics-racism-australia-18c.html"target=“_blank">Ask for me tomorrow</a></b><br />
<i>The current Australian Government makes announcements that destabilise the news cycle, and these announcements come in two forms:<br />
<br />
<b>1.</b> An outrageous suggestion designed to let opponents react with scorn and satire, but neither suggestion nor satire achieves anything but noise, and a false sense of protest for those who did not vote for this current Australian Government.<br />
<br />
<b>2.</b> A very real threat that opponents cannot ignore, but is sure to be withdrawn or watered down once it has short circuited the news cycle and wasted the time and resources of those who did not vote for this current Australian Government.</i></blockquote>Claire Madeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05731948368295746877noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8007008.post-81712424046485607032014-05-14T12:58:00.003+08:002015-07-29T15:18:01.289+08:00Textbook<b>Trust me, they know the climate science</b><br />
<br />
Let’s imagine for a moment that the 1% of Australia, with their university degrees, access to the best climate science and neoliberal think tank papers and their dominance in politics, were acting in rational self-interest. They know that the water and energy wars are coming and they have a country with unique assets:<br />
<br />
<blockquote><b>No land borders<br />
<br />
Renewable energy resources<br />
<br />
Space and minerals<br />
<br />
Industries that specialise in extracting minerals<br />
<br />
Industries that can be turned to R&D and manufacturing<br />
<br />
An education system to get citizens to the point of carrying out necessary R&D</b></blockquote><br />
<blockquote><i>And a politically apathetic population that believes whatever the politicians tell them through monopolised and crippled information outlets.</i></blockquote><br />
To be honest, if I were a conservative politician in Australia (and the way I was brought up, I may as well be), this is what I would do to ensure my political and social survival:<br />
<br />
<blockquote><b>I would claim the government didn’t believe in climate science so as not to spread the panic or signal corporate intentions<br />
<br />
I would ensure that the sea borders were closed immediately and with heavy rhetoric that keeps them closed<br />
<br />
I would ensure that the air borders were able to be closed with ease<br />
<br />
I would ensure that energy, water, mineral, education, research and information resources were in the hands of the corporate bodies I can trust to act alongside the Government’s rational self-interest</b></blockquote><br />
<blockquote><i>And I would ensure that my population were reliant on my corporate partners and my Government for all of their needs by ensuring scarcity of all the essentials unless labour is exchanged for survival.</i></blockquote><br />
Anyone who has read the climate science, follows international affairs and is actually shocked at the Budget from the Government is not paying attention.<br />
<br />
Anyone who thinks they can argue for 21st Century Climate Aware action with 20th Century Climate Ignorant ideologies is going to be pulled back into historical patterns of conflict and paralysis, which is exactly where the Government and their corporate partners want their population.<br />
<br />
The reason anyone with a working knowledge of Weimar Republic politics and the rise of Fascism is acting like Cassandra is because we know that conservative neoliberals have seized upon the most recent and most effective method of obtaining what they want from <a href="http://insanelysociable.blogspot.com.au/2014/04/politics-racism-australia-18c.html"target="_blank"">the annals of history</a>. It’s pretty much textbook and it really isn’t a surprise given the inclination of conservatives to look backwards and not forwards.<br />
<br />
<b>Trust me, they don't want you to know the climate science</b><br />
<br />
The Government already had the rhetoric of the Friend/Enemy relationship between Australia and its ocean borders to work with, and they used this <a href="http://insanelysociable.blogspot.com.au/2013/07/politics-history-tampa.html"target="_blank"">established narrative</a> to start modelling the corporate and political behaviour they needed to implement to establish control in other areas. Six months later the next step was to create a young and jobless population that has no option but to accept the ideological national jobs that will be offered to them in extremis.<br />
<br />
So that is Operation Sovereign Borders and the Budget completed, with very little rioting in the street. So what is next?<br />
<br />
The Government and their corporate partners do not believe they will be governing Australia in a world still operating in the political utopia of the progressive ideologies of the 20th Century for very long. They are in conservative neoliberal survivalist mode and they will have emergency powers in place for the Government and their corporate partners by the next <i>*cough*</i> election.<br />
<br />
They know that to survive the next decades of water and energy conflict they will need a country of people who will stop at nothing to protect their borders and water and energy sources, and will do so under orders and with no alternatives discussed or available. It is important that the population cling to 20th Century ideas so they can be ruled by fear by those who understand the realities of the 21st Century. Those water and energy wars are playing out across the world right now, and they will reach us in the next half decade in the best scenario, but you wouldn’t know it from the information allowed into Australian discourse.<br />
<br />
The key to this strategy of ensuring the 99% is under control is not so much textbook but storybook – "please, oh please, don’t throw me into the briar patch!" The Government is years ahead of the population regarding planning for the worst the 21st Century will throw at them. That is their strength as conservatives, they want to maintain what they have acquired. But they are investing in keeping their head-start at the expense of the rest of us.<br />
<br />
<b>Leap Frog for Survival</b><br />
<br />
If the population, and the progressives who champion the population, do not abandon the 20th Century fast enough, we will be trapped as the worker bees for the 1%. As long as the population and progressives think we have to defend our 20th Century standards of living using the framework of minutely argued ideologies that will not operate effectively in the 21st Century, we will fail. We will fail progressives and the population, and we will have failed the conservative neoliberal 1% too.<br />
<br />
Because bless ‘em, they need our help. They have forgotten one very important lesson from history, and it will be their downfall. And if they fall, we fall too.<br />
<br />
Conservatives cannot survive without the innovative thinking and social inclusion that progressives bring to the world; we are the movers and shakers of history and progress, not the conservatives. No technological marvel, no social innovation, no inspiring ideology came from conservative thought in the past, and they cannot come from conservative thought in the future either.<br />
<br />
Conservatives are the workers of society, the maintenance department, the tax payers, those that argue for stability and the status quo. Change, progress and innovation comes from the other inclinations of human endeavour, from those who look forward, who take risks, who imagine other methods of living. And humanity needs both inclinations to survive, and both inclinations should be leading.<br />
<br />
So let's play hardball with our strengths, and let's be the leaders the conservative neoliberals need so they can stop reshaping the world into the old forms of conflict that make them comfortable, the only political strategy they know. The conservatives and their supporters need our help, or we are all going to fall back into the abyss together.<br />
<br />
The question is, how do those of us who hold views of progressive rational self-interest begin to change the conversation so we acknowledge the real goals of the Government and their corporate partners, and work towards taking their impetus and supporters and channelling them towards a more progressive target for the next decades?<br />
<br />
<b>ARM YOURSELF WITH INFORMATION</b><br />
<br />
<b>Austere times, and the perverse reproduction of neoliberal reason</b><br />
<br />
<i>A public lecture by Jamie Peck, Department of Geography, University of British Columbia</i><br />
<blockquote>The lecture explored the political and theoretical status of neoliberalism in these ostensibly twilight times. Particular attention was focused on the peculiar course of austerity politics in the United States, where a banking crisis has once again been transformed into a state crisis, the costs of which have been trickling down in ways that the benefits of growth never did.</blockquote><br />
<a href="http://www.ias.uwa.edu.au/lectures/peck"target="_blank"><b>RECORDING HERE</b></a><br />
<br />
<b>Progressive Politics and the Environment in Australia: what now?</b><br />
<br />
<i>A public talk by David Ritter, Executive Officer, Greenpeace Australia Pacific</i><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.ias.uwa.edu.au/lectures/david-ritter"target="_blank"><b>RECORDING HERE</b></a><br />
<br />
<b>READ THE INDEPENDENT MEDIA</b><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vFgMxleBfqY/U3MumiGJ9PI/AAAAAAAAARk/phWpJiAfhj0/s1600/10333565_1419873678277786_7744595668747518206_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vFgMxleBfqY/U3MumiGJ9PI/AAAAAAAAARk/phWpJiAfhj0/s320/10333565_1419873678277786_7744595668747518206_o.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<b>REMOVE</b> News Corp Media from your life<br />
<br />
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_assets_owned_by_News_Corp"target="_blank"">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_assets_owned_by_News_Corp</a><br />
<br />
<b>ADD</b> Independent Media to your life<br />
<br />
<a href="http://theaimn.com/"target="_blank"">www.theaimn.com</a><br />
<a href="http://theconversation.com/au"target="_blank"">www.theconversation.com</a><br />
<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/au"target="_blank"">www.theguardian.com</a><br />
<a href="http://thehoopla.com.au/"target="_blank"">www.thehoopla.com.au</a><br />
<a href="http://www.themonthly.com.au/"target="_blank"">www.themonthly.com.au</a><br />
<a href="http://thenewdaily.com.au/"target="_blank"">www.thenewdaily.com.au</a><br />
<a href="https://www.newmatilda.com/"target="_blank"">www.newmatilda.com</a><br />
<a href="http://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/"target="_blank"">www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au</a><br />
<a href="http://ausopinion.com/"target="_blank"">www.ausopinion.com</a><br />
<a href="http://www.crikey.com.au/"target="_blank"">www.crikey.com.au</a><br />
<a href="http://delimiter.com.au/"target="_blank"">www.delimiter.com.au</a><br />
<a href="http://www.eurekastreet.com.au/"target="_blank"">www.eurekastreet.com.au</a><br />
<a href="http://www.independentaustralia.net/"target="_blank"">www.independentaustralia.net</a><br />
<a href="http://nofibs.com.au/"target="_blank"">www.nofibs.com.au</a><br />
<a href="http://www.womensagenda.com.au/"target="_blank"">www.womensagenda.com.au</a><br />
<a href="http://junkee.com/"target="_blank"">www.junkee.com</a><br />
<a href="http://www.mamamia.com.au/"target="_blank"">www.mamamia.com.au</a><br />
<a href="http://birdeemag.com/"target="_blank"">www.birdeemag.com</a><br />
<br />
<b>THINK</b> for yourself, and start to communicate with others who think for themselves. <b>ASK</b> the basic question: <i>"What is in it for them?"</i><br />
<blockquote><b><a href="http://insanelysociable.blogspot.com.au/2015/07/politics-women-leadership.html"target="_blank">It's Time</a></b><br />
<i>Australia has three major political parties, each backed by their own training and voting block: the Australian Greens have the Environmental and Activist movements, Labor has the Unions and the Liberal Party has the business sector.<br />
<br />
The largest population in Australia without a voice is women; our very urgent needs for parity, safety and leaders are being ignored and wound back, our leadership is locked out of power and as voters we are unable to direct our vote to a party that champions us.<br />
<br />
Australian women do, however, have an established and proven mentorship and training ground for female candidates to gain political experience and female voters to gain access to candidates to influence policy; the Country Women's Association.</i></blockquote><blockquote><b><a href="http://insanelysociable.blogspot.com.au/2015/07/politics-australia-not-yours.html"target="_blank">Not our circus, not our monkeys</a></b><br />
<i>So, women of Australia, take thee to the CWA, become involved with all manner of practical local politics, all manner of women as mentors and all manner of consulting to Government, and participate in politics on your terms.<br />
<br />
Find your own policies, build your own campaign teams, field your own candidates and vote for the candidates who have the best vision for new politics you can find. You are the only people who can build the future, because the existing systems are dying, and trying to take us all down with them.<br />
<br />
And for all of our sakes, be militantly inclusive; as 51% of the Australian population, the women of Australia include Indigenous Australians, refugees/immigrants, the LGBTIQ community and anyone who has additional access and medical requirements. Our new politics must include everyone excluded from the current systems so our votes and candidates count the first time, and into the future.</i></blockquote><blockquote><a href="http://insanelysociable.blogspot.com.au/2014/06/politics-budget-failure.html"target=“_blank"><b>Fighting Winter with Summer</b></a><br />
<i>I credit the 1% with being fully aware of the impending water and energy conflicts, and it is clear from their actions that they are taking the requisite steps to survive while preventing the population from taking the same steps. Unfortunately their pride and entitlement will never allow them to consider the fact that their place in the 1% means nothing to the environment. Water and energy do not obey, and never have obeyed, the forces of nations, economies and capitalism.</i> </blockquote><blockquote><b><a href="http://insanelysociable.blogspot.com.au/2013/09/feminism-political-change-australia.html"target=“_blank">A definition of madness</a></b><br />
<i>Systems are just tools, they should react and change with the user, but our systems are not changing with the population that use them, as evident by under-representation of varied proportions of our population in almost every area of public and private life. The systems are wrong, not the diversity of the population trying to use them.</i><br />
</blockquote><blockquote><b><a href="http://insanelysociable.blogspot.com.au/2014/04/politics-racism-australia-18c.html"target=“_blank">Ask for me tomorrow</a></b><br />
<i>The current Australian Government makes announcements that destabilise the news cycle, and these announcements come in two forms:<br />
<br />
<b>1.</b> An outrageous suggestion designed to let opponents react with scorn and satire, but neither suggestion nor satire achieves anything but noise, and a false sense of protest for those who did not vote for this current Australian Government.<br />
<br />
<b>2.</b> A very real threat that opponents cannot ignore, but is sure to be withdrawn or watered down once it has short circuited the news cycle and wasted the time and resources of those who did not vote for this current Australian Government.</i></blockquote>Claire Madeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05731948368295746877noreply@blogger.com0