Herstory - ponderings, passions & politics

when no-one is watching...

2012-02-13T14:30:00.021+11:00

atrocities are rampant and unchecked, as evidenced in the undercover investigative footage shown by lateline last week which resulted in the immediate closure of a nsw abattoir because of its appalling animal abuse… the following is an extract from the transcript of that exposé...

"The focus of cruelty in abattoirs is shifting to Australia from Indonesia.

Late today the New South Wales food regulator suddenly closed down an abattoir after viewing video footage which it says reveals, "acts of gross animal mistreatment".

The footage, taken secretly inside the abattoir north of Sydney, has been given exclusively to Lateline.

The New South Wales Food Authority is promising a full investigation of slaughter practices at the abattoir, which the authority says is the worst treatment of animals it's seen...

... Shot undercover over six days at the Hawkesbury Valley Abattoir near Sydney, this footage has been described by the NSW Food Authority as disturbing and containing acts of gross animal mistreatment.

Here, pigs are being dragged onto the sticking table. They should be rendered unconscious by a stunner before their throats are cut, but in this instance, it hasn't been done properly and the slaughterman reaches for what looks like an iron bar. The pig's head was pummelled seven times. A minute later, the same worker is at it again, this time beating another pig over the head 13 times." you can read more, or view the footage, here...

this is the second abattoir to close in australia within 3 months - and we supposedly have animal welfare standards in slaughterhouses… if that’s the case, i’m sure we can assume brutality (aside from the obvious brutality of slaughter itself!) is rife in all abattoirs in this country…

it takes dedicated people to get this information to the outside world… those who are prepared to take direct action – heroic people who are prepared to put themselves on the line by going undercover to expose the brutaliy...

after this successful exposé, and having just received my copy of “behind the mask”, it seemed to be the perfect, most fitting time to watch this documentary about the animal liberation front – no longer a single, local grass roots organisation these days, but a global movement of clandestine animal rights activists - from undercover investigators to liberators and economic sabateurs – all fighting on behalf of animals and in protest against the animal testing, fur, entertainment, meat & dairy industries - a dangerous endeavour, with direct action activists now labelled the #1 domestic terrorist threat by the FBI...

directed and narrated by shannon keith, animal rights lawyer, founder of ARME and uncaged films (a production company founded after she learned that she had been an FBI target, labeled as an `animal rights extremist') - she “goes behind the mask and captures the hearts and souls of men and women who unveil their individual struggles for animal liberation.

Who are these “animal liberationists” and why do they believe that breaking the law is the best way to help animals? What inspires them to challenge the status quo, fight against all odds, and endure public reproach?

Behind the mask exposes never-before-seen footage that reveals the extent to which these individuals will go to save the lives of animals.’

People of all ages and backgrounds, from all over the globe, tell their tales of liberation, incarceration, sacrifice and determination, while exclusive underground footage reveals heart-thumping action sure to leave you wondering, who are these people…"

animal liberation front guidelines:

Liberate animals from places of abuse
Inflict economic damage on those who profit from the exploitation of animals
Reveal atrocities committed against animals
Take all precautions against harming any animal, human & non-human

many animals have been liberated from unimaginable horrors, many lives saved... numerous activists have lost their freedom through years of incarceration… and still they don’t give up…

and the movement keeps growing, with more and more organised groups aligning themselves with the animal liberation front network, taking on even more animal abuse industries and exposing even more hidden practices, and more domestic and wildlife animal sanctuaries being established and providing refuge for the abused and displaced...

we have heroic, direct action activists here in australia too… passionate people such as debra tranter and lyn white (to name just a couple!!)... and there are many who prefer to remain in the background...

these dedicated people inspire me – they are proof that there is compassion in this world, that many are fighting the complicity of silence that exists within the status quo…

and let's not forgot all those who use their online presence to share these investigations, spread their stories around the world via blogs, social networks, petition sites - and those who get out and demonstrate, or email politicians to protest against the horrors... theirs is another layer of activism necessary to change this world...

all of these people make me proud to be a thinking, questioning womon, proud of my politics, my ethics, my morality, my veganism - i'm proud to blog and demonstrate alongside so many other passionate activists, and i'm proud to be a part of this dynamic animal liberation movement…

it’s because of this global movement that others are starting to pull their heads out of the sand and become outraged - are you one of them? all you have to do is open your heart and mind…

you can view the official trailer here, or watch the first 10 minutes of the documentary below - perhaps after a glimpse you may want to watch the full 72 minute film available from arme - a proactive action in itself, as all proceeds help continue the fight for freedom and educate others...

#1 terrorist threat - you have got to be fucking kidding - i call them freedom fighters... pity the FBI and similar agencies take the side of corporate greed... in the words of john f kennedy:

"those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."

liberating the 'spanish 40'...

2012-02-06T12:31:00.008+11:00

while waiting for the estate agent - the "assistant relationship executive" actually (don't you just love the titles they come up with!?!!) - to arrive for a property inspection, i thought i'd share a video of the 4th rescue of arme's beagle freedom project...

"On November 23, 2011, ARME's Beagle Freedom Project rescued 40 beagles from a laboratory in Spain where some had spent their entire lives. Others had come from other labs to the lab in Spain, only to be tested on in there. When we heard the lab was closing and the dogs would be killed, we stepped in and rescued them by flying them to Los Angeles, CA, to BFP Headquarters."

you may need some tissues handy - i did - but they'll be tears of joy you'll shed for these beautiful beagles, finally released from their imprisonment and torture...

now i'm just going to ponder the prospect of another rent rise (far out, it was only 8 months ago the rent rose by $30 per week - surely they wouldn't put it up again so soon, would they??!!)...

spreading the seeds of change...

2012-01-30T14:15:00.021+11:00

“how wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” ... anne frank

ever heard of freekibble? or freekibblekat? maybe you’ve earned ‘kibble karma’ by answering the trivia questions on these sites…. if not, it’s about time i introduced you to mimi ausland, whose website i came across a few months ago...

at 7 years old, too young to volunteer at her local humane society shelter, she was determined to help animals and started mailing spare change to the shelter... at 9 years old she was finally accepted as a hands on volunteer...

at 11 years of age she was inspired while playing an internet game called freerice, which donates several grains of rice to feed the poor for every correct answer to a trivia question - she decided something similar could be done with kibble for shelter animals and freekibble & freekibblekat were born...

her volunteer work and freekibble idea led to mimi being named 2008 aspca kid of the year... mimi and her 3-legged friend maty were also the inspiration for mimi's mother, brooke smith, to write a book "mimi and maty to the rescue"...

currently, at 15 years of age, mimi is the humane society of central oregon’s goodwill ambassador... she and maty visit schools and community centres to talk about animal safety (and show off how clever maty is!)... you can read her blog here...

another inspirational young womon i discovered recently is carylanne joubert - i read about this young animal activist on the howling for justice blog... carylanne is 15 years old, with a love of writing and wolves... combining both passions, she is now a published author of two books - 'cry of the wolf', & 'mingan'...

"I wrote Cry of the Wolf to teach the truth and dispel the unfounded fears about wolves by telling their story through the eyes of Mingan, a wolf pup who not only learns about wolf life but also witnesses firsthand the effects of Man’s encroachment."

"Mingan (ages 3 and up) teaches lessons about wolves for younger audiences to destroy the image of the Big Bad Wolf."

about the author (from the amazon website)...

"Born in Rhode Island in 1996, Carylanne Joubert has been focused on working to help wildlife since the age of four. Her first influences, Steve Irwin and Jack Hanna, instilled in her a love of animals and a desire to learn more about each one and what can be done to help them in the wild. Her father having served in the US Army, Carylanne has lived in many states before settling in Central Florida. Home-schooled her entire school career, she is now completing her high-school education through Florida Virtual School. Carylanne being a gifted student has excelled in her studies and is 2 grades ahead of her peers. She decided to use her talents in writing to tell the story of the Yellowstone Wolves through the eyes of Mingan, a wolf pup. After completing a project for the science fair about the wolves and their struggle Carylanne became passionate to do more to help. She is dedicated to working to help all animals and intends to continue to write her tales to tell the stories of many of our wildlife who are in endangered or otherwise need protection. She intends to pursue a degree in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology with a minor in Foreign Languages. A portion of all her proceeds will go to organizations such as Wolf Mountain Sanctuary." ... interested in supporting carylanne and the organizations she believes in? you can purchase the books here...

while on the subject of books, i must mention ruby roth... ruby is a young (20s-something?) artist, designer and writer... vegan since 2003, she was inspired to write a picturebook while teaching art in an after-school program where the kids were interested and inquisitive about her vegan lifestyle...

that's why we don't eat animals "takes a candid, compassionate look at the plight of animals on factory farms, using gorgeous artwork and lively text to introduce vegetarianism and veganism to early readers." you can read more here... (i can't wait to check it out - i requested it for the library some months ago - it's being catalogued and processed now so should hit the shelves very soon!!)

i was pleased to read that she has another picturebook due for publication in april this year...

vegan is love - which "introduces young readers to veganism as lifestyle of compassion and action. Ruby Roth illustrates how our daily choices ripple out locally and globally, conveying what children can do today to protect animals, the environment, and people across the world. From the food we eat to the clothing we buy, from the use of animals in entertainment to the benefits of organic farming, Roth explores the many opportunities we have each day to act with kindness."

while doing some research, i stumbled on an interview with ruby at 'bitch media' and was impressed with her reply to the question "For you, what is the relationship between feminism and animal rights?"

her response: "They go hand-in-hand, both being vehicles of cultural critique and ultimately self-determination. If you call yourself a feminist but you eat animals, there is a good chance you have not yet examined the sexual politics of eating meat, let alone how we allow our well-being, our health, and our physical body to be determined by the interests of certain food and chemical industry leaders. Also, you may not yet truly know how animals suffer impossible atrocities without rights, just as slaves and Holocaust victims did. As liberal as I was, I would have arrived at veganism sooner, by the way, if the American Studies program at UC Santa Cruz (a mecca for vegans and Women’s Studies) had included food as a subject we turned our race-class-gender-sexuality-lenses onto, right alongside history, culture, labor, music, politics, etc. It is incredibly hypocritical to be an activist for freedom or civil rights or equity or equality if you eat animals today."

i'm heartened by such inspirational, intelligent, articulate, determined, committed, young womyn - perhaps there is hope for a compassionate world yet!!!

novel ideas…

2012-01-23T09:34:00.019+11:00

books… i've always found them to be a sensory pleasure, a sensual experience - the touch, the smell, the caress of the pages as you lose yourself in another life, another time, another world – but I’d never thought of them as tools for sculpting… after coming across a number of references and various graphics on different sites, i couldn’t resist following the trail to a more comprehensive article on a specific series of sculptures - 10 all up, anonymously left at various libraries and literary venues around edinburgh throughout 2011... here are 4 of those wonderful creations…

the scottish storytelling centre found a dragon nesting in a window with a note "once upon a time there was a book and in the book was a nest and in the nest was an egg and in the egg was a dragon and in the dragon was a story"


a gramophone and a coffin, sculpted from a copy of ian rankin’s "exit music" ... this one found at the national library of scotland with the note "A gift in support of libraries, books, words, ideas….. (& against their exit)"

this one includes a teabag filled with cut out letters, on the tag of which are the words “by leaves we live”. the cup on the top has a swirl of words which read ” nothing beats a nice cup of tea (or coffee) and a really good BOOK”, and on the ‘tray’ next to the cupcake it says “except maybe a cake as well”... left on a signing table at the edinburgh book festival with the note " ‘A gift’ This is for you in support of libraries, books, words, ideas…… & festivals xx

a tree, a ‘poetree’ with a paper egg lined with gold and a scatter of words which, when put together, make “a trace of wings” by edwin morgan... left anonymously at the scottish poetry library... the note for this one read "we know that a library is so much more than a building full of books… a book is so much more than pages full of words.… this is for you in support of libraries, books, words, ideas….. a gesture (poetic maybe?)"

they are amazingly delicate and intricate creations, but ohh the mystery and intrigue of it all... if your curiosity is piqued you can view all 10 and read their stories in this article "mysterious paper sculptures"...

while on the topic of books, i must recommend my last read...

turn of mind by alice laplante - no relation to lynda... the author has written non-fiction before, but this is her first novel, and what a stunner it is...

told from the perspective of jennifer white, a once-brilliant surgeon now suffering from alzheimer's and the prime suspect in a murder mystery... we learn the details of the crime through fragmentary conversations between jennifer and various people — some of them living and some dead...

it was a new style of writing for me and i was totally mesmerised - i couldn't put it down... it'll be a hard act to follow though...

while on the topic of writing...

do you have a story just waiting to be written? not just any story, but one that relates to the human-animal relationship? if so perhaps this is 'right up your alley'...

voiceless will be awarding a prize to recognise the best australian short fiction and non-fiction that "has at its heart the place of animals in the world we have made", and writers of fiction and nonfiction are invited to reflect on the ethical relationship between humans and animals.

"there is a rich world literature which takes animals - their feelings, wishes and desires - seriously." ... j.m. coetzee...

submissions should be between 5,000 and 10,000 words and should focus on animals produced for food or found in the australian landscape.

the winner chosen by the judging panel will receive $15,000, while the public will vote for the people’s choice to receive $5,000. all writers published in the collection will receive $500.

if you think your writing fits the brief, you can read more on the guidelines, and how to enter here... but don't procrastinate, entries close march 16...

while not on the topic of singing or music...

i can't end this post without acknowledging the death of the wonderful etta james, an extraordinarily talented singer... her life story is worth exploring in more detail - but she deserves a post of her own... so for now i'll leave you with some of her music...

a quick share...

2012-01-16T10:43:00.008+11:00

i came across this youtube video via the youth page of the uk evolve campaigns website (and heartening it is to discover sites where young people are informed, passionate, and sharing their vegan philosophy with others) - it's a compilation of cartoons by vegan cartoonist dan piraro and i thought i'd share...

and a friend sent me this video... a 'snow-boarding' crow having a ball on a roof slope ...

hmmm, forethought and enjoyment - another sentient creature exhibiting intelligence and emotion...

meet fudge...

2012-01-09T11:59:00.020+11:00

fudge is my new feline 'house' guest... she's 18 years old, deaf, and a real sweetie... as you can see she's not averse to walking all over the furniture - her new surroundings haven't fazed her at all...

of course there have been the mandatory hissing and mewling sessions with my boy shadow, but that's all settled down now and they seem to have a healthy disrespect for each other... they can actually walk passed each other without the paws getting raised or 'words' said to each other now... they were pretty good actually, it only took a couple of days for them to 'sort themselves out'... they're still at the giving-each-other-a-wide-berth stage, but they can be in the same room within eye contact without hackles being raised now!

life and living arrangements haven't always gone as planned these last few years for various reasons, but change is again on the horizon...

having been notified of a rent increase 'due to improvements made' to my friend's bed-sit - they were putting the rent up $40 per week after 'repairing' his floor where dry-rot had resulted in a hole that needed fixing immediately - hmmm, definitely maintenance, not improvements, and something that should have been fixed before he even moved in 6 months ago - and huh, the 'repair' entailed a 'bandaid' silicone type fill that certainly won't last long - improvements, yeah, sure - rip off, more like it!!!! now that would have taken his rent up to $320 per week for a 'bed-sit' - a tiny, tiny space - so we sat down and discussed our respective predicaments - personal and financial - and our options, and decided sharing a house would be cheaper for both of us, so rather than pay an exhorbitant rent hike, now was the opportune time for brann and fudge to move into my flat and help pay the rent here, giving us a chance over the next few months to get enough money together for bond and rent on something larger yet cheaper than what we both currently outlay...

we have both found solo living is becoming increasingly expensive these days - and, for me, being a part time worker reliant on the private rental market certainly has its drawbacks - and chances are my rent will increase too at the end of my lease in 6 months... to stay in the area close to my chronically ill mother is important, but living in st kilda and surrounds means high rent, so two incomes means greater choice - and of course, the cost of living just keeps going up and up, from groceries to utilities, with electricity set to rise yet again...

added to that is the dog-shaped hole in my heart which couldn't be repaired while renting a one-bedroom flat - a terribly depressing prospect - it's been 10 months since my beautiful old girl allie's life journey ended and my need for canine companionship is growing daily - i desperately need a dog in my life!!!! loneliness plays a part too, so a close friend's companionship will be nice as well - especially as we have always shared a similar sense of humour, cynicism and skepticism - and we both work in libraries so both understand where the other is coming from when we need to have a good gripe about 'the workplace'...

it will be a bit of a squeeze in my small flat for 2 adults and 2 cats, but the end result will be worth it... a house - a larger space that will allow us the ability to live a bit more cheaply and to offer a forever home to a rescued dog in the near future...

2012-01-01T20:40:00.001+11:00

hypatia ... a womon of note...

2011-12-27T14:35:00.026+11:00

this weekend was the perfect time to hide away from the outside world - the way-too-many tourists and shoppers and all things jingly, bright, loud and constant - the general christmas cacophony in other words...

i'd brought home a selection of movies for my 'hibernation', and the herstorical content drew me to agora… “fourth century a.d. egypt under the roman empire… violent religious upheaval in the streets of alexandria spills over into the city’s famous library. Trapped inside its walls, the brilliant astronomer, Hypatia, and her disciples fight to save the wisdom of the ancient world… among them, the two men competing for her heart: the witty, privileged orestes and davus, hypatia’s young slave, who is torn between his secret love for her and the freedom he knows can be his if he chooses to join the unstoppable surge of the Christians” ... the container blurb...

as with all hollywood 'historical' depictions, a lot has to be taken with a 'modicum of disbelief' – ‘artistic licence’ is employed in their portrayal of people, places and events, which become 'blurred' in their endeavour to make a ‘blockbuster', so some reading inevitably has to follow… and what a treat i was in for in my search for hypatia...

all accounts recognize her as a teacher, philosopher, mathematician, astronomer…

"Socrates Scholasticus wrote that "she far surpassed all the philosophers of her time,” and was greatly respected for her “extraordinary dignity and virtue.” [Ecclesiastical History] Hypatia's house was an important intellectual center in a city distinguished for its learning. Damasius described how she "used to put on her philosopher's cloak and walk through the middle of town" to give public lectures on philosophy. [Life of Isidore, in the Suda].

Admired by all Alexandria, Hypatia was one of the most politically powerful figures in the city. She was one of the few women who attended civic assemblies. Magistrates came to her for advice, including her close friend, the prefect Orestes. [Damasius, Socrates Scholasticus] In the midst of severe religious polarization, Hypatia was an influential force for tolerance and moderation. She accepted students, who came to her "from everywhere," without regard to religion" ... from suppressed histories

according to an article “Hypatia Silenced by Death” by bolder landry, “Even using material from sixteen different sources, I find it difficult to do justice to Hypatia, one of the forgotten heroines of civilization. Her birthplace, Alexandria, was three times the size of Athens and sparkled with marble- lined streets, colleges and a library of some 500,000 volumes containing all the known history of the time. Alexandria had been a gathering place for the best scholars, thinkers, scientists and historians. In the first century B.C. Egypt had become a thriving Roman province, but by the fifth century A.D. Alexandria's last glory was extinguished by the Christian bishops and monks (The Epic of Universal History).”

and then this by mikelle mercer… "Along with her lectures, Hypatia also wrote several treatises. It is unknown how many she wrote because a lot of them were destroyed through the ages. Evidence does show, however, that she wrote commentaries on "The Conics of Apollonius" and "Amagest," which included Ptolemy's numerous observations of the stars, as well as an analysis of her father's edition of Euclid's "Elements." Most of the writings Hypatia completed were actually meant to be used as text books to help her students with difficult math concepts.

Hypatia's most famous pupil was Synesius of Cyrene, who later became the Bishop of Ptolemy. It is through some of his letter's that he wrote to Hypatia that researchers are able to learn more about her. In his letters Synesius credits Hypatia with creating an astrolabe and a planesphere, which were both devises for studying astronomy, as well as instruments for distilling water, for measuring the level of water, and for determining the specific gravity of liquids.”

so not only mathematician, philosopher, astronomer, but scientist and inventor too…

but ohh, she was so much more – she was a believer in wisdom and reason...

"Hypatia herself says, "Fables should be taught as fables, myths as myths, and miracles as poetic fancies. To teach superstitions as truths is a most terrible thing. The child-mind accepts and believes them, and only through great pain and perhaps tragedy can he be in after-years relieved of them. In fact, men will fight for a superstition quite as quickly as for a living truth - often more so, since a superstition is so intangible you can not get at it to refute it, but truth is a point of view, and so is changeable." from hypatia – a victim of bigotry

she was one strong, independent womon…

“Hypatia dressed in the clothing of a scholar or teacher, rather than in women's clothing. She moved about freely, driving her own chariot, contrary to the norm for women's public behavior. She exerted considerable political influence in the city… she was a woman who didn't know her place.” jone johnson lewis

it's not surprising this independent, highly respected, strong, wise womon was branded heretic, heathen, pagan... more from suppressed histories...

"She spoke out against dogmatism and superstition: “To rule by fettering the mind through fear of punishment in another world, is just as base as to use force.” Unquestionably, Hypatia's teaching represented a challenge to church doctrine. The apparent destruction of her philosophical books underlines the point. Her mathematical works survived and were popular into the next century."

claims of witchcraft? you betchya...

"Realizing that he was losing on public relations, the bishop changed tactics. Now he attempted to turn the people against Hypatia as a powerful woman by accusing her of harmful sorcery. A later church chronicler, John of Nikiu, explained that "she beguiled many people through satanic wiles." It was Hypatia's “witchcraft” that kept the prefect Orestes away from church and made him corrupt the faith of other Christians. Further, she was involved in divination and astrology, "devoted at all times to magic, astrolabes and instruments of music ...

Hypatia was not targeted only as a pagan. Other pagans—men—continued to be active at the university of Alexandria for decades after her death. It is clear that Hypatia's femaleness made her a special target, vulnerable to the accusation of witchcraft. Her courage in opposing the escalating anti-Jewish violence and her moral stance against religious repression were factors as well. In defending the assault on the philosophical tradition of tolerance, Hypatia had everything to lose, yet she acted boldly."

hypatia of alexandria from alexandria cosmographica

the womon had to go… it appears hypatia may have been one of, if not the first womon killed as witch by the violent zealots of christianity…this from hypatia, a tragedy of lent ...

"It was on the morning of the fifteenth of March, 415, — the fatal Ides, the anniversary of the murder of the greatest of the Caesars. Hypatia set out as usual in her chariot to drive to the lecture-room. She had not gone far when the mob stopped the way. On every side were men howling with all the ferocity of hungry wolves. She was forced out of the vehicle and dragged along the ground to the nearest church. This was the ancient Caesar's temple, which had been dedicated anew to the worship of the Christian Trinity. Here she had been denounced by Cyril and her doom determined by his servitors. Her dress was now torn in shreds by their ruffianly violence. She stood by the high altar, beneath the statue of Christ.

"She shook herself free from her tormentors, and, springing back, rose for one moment to her full height, naked, snow-white against the dusky mass around — shame and indignation in those wide, clear eyes, but not a stain of fear. With one hand she clasped her golden locks around her; the other long, white arm was stretched upward toward the great still Christ, appealing — and who dare say in vain? — from man to God. Her lips were open to speak; but the words that should have come from them reached God's ear alone; for in an instant Peter struck her down, the dark mass closed over her again, . . . and then wail on wail, long, wild, ear-piercing, rang along the vaulted roofs, and thrilled like the tram-pet of avenging angels through Philammon's ears."

While yet breathing, the assailants in a mad fury tore her body like tigers, limb from limb; and after that, bringing oyster-shells from the market, they scraped the flesh from the bones. Then gathering up the bleeding remains they ran with them through the streets to the place of burning, and having consumed them, threw the ashes into the sea."


Hypatia, by Charles William Mitchell (1885)

with its depiction of christian misogyny, domination and brutality - all supported by other accounts - what a fitting movie agora turned out to be for this christian celebratory time… a powerful reminder of the subjugation of womyn by all patriarchal religions...

give me a solstice to celebrate any day…

2011-12-19T21:26:00.019+11:00

"there are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell. there is only our natural world.

religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds" ...

anne nicol gaylor, founder, freedom from religion foundation

why is it presumed everyone is christian - or that at the very least everybody celebrates christian festivals? there are many that aren't, and don't... we aren't, by constitution, or law, a christian country... we don't have a state religion... we are a nation encompassing many beliefs - and yet we only close down for christian 'observances' - whatever happened to separation of church and state?

like many i don't believe in the christian god or christ - hey, jesus i'll concede existed, a documented historical figure – but i believe, as do others, he was just an ordinary man fighting for reform within the judaic religion he followed - a man who could be considered a religious revolutionary - not son of any god… after his ‘martyrdom’ christianity and it's bible certainly became one hell of a fairytale - and one brutally intolerant doctrine...

i'm not wiccan, pagan, jewish, islamic or buddhist either - i don't follow any of the myriad spiritual or religious doctrines that make up our society... i consider myself an earthling, one of many sentient life forms inhabiting this earth… my belief lies firmly within nature - in the natural world and all it’s wonders, the equality & complementarity of all creatures of this planet, home to us all...

i have to ask though, if you are christian, do you follow the basic, important tenets of your christianity – the 10 commandments, the religion's 'rules'... the 6th commandment – though shalt not kill - is an interesting one... do you partake of the death industry? do you eat the product of someone else's 'kill'? do you wear someone else's skin? if so how does that fit within the christian ethic?

i hate the in-your-face crass commercialism and consumerism pushed heavily at this time of year, and i feel sickened at the 'saturation' of repugnant advertisements exhorting people to eat flesh - the dead, cooked carcasses of once living beings displayed with such morbid delight in the anticipation of the taste of suffering and death… the brutality and cruelty perpetrated by the death industry is horrendous…

paul mccarney once said "if slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be vegetarian"… but I came across this graphic and couldn’t help but nod my head in agreement…

and there's still more life seen as commodity - the factory farming of our companion animals - more cruelty and abuse... and many from these deplorable facilities end up in shelters... please don't help this cruel industry continue to exist... 'animals are for life, not just for xmas'... if you are looking for a companion, please consider offering a forever home to a shelter animal desperately waiting for rescue, for the chance to know compassion and love...

ahhh yes, the summer solstice - far worthier of celebration... we are all dependent on the changing seasonal cycles, and the summer solstice in the southern hemisphere – where “the earth’s south pole is tilted towards the sun ... is, usually, the longest day of the year” – is due to occur on december 22 this year – far more crucial to the earth's well-being than xmas... happy summer solstice...

a new look...

2011-12-10T18:56:00.009+11:00

as the saying goes "a change is as good as a holiday"... so, after a few years with the same colour scheme i decided it was time for a 'makeover'...

rosie the riveter takes pride of place in my title banner, with beautiful australian dingoes in the background...

rosie started out as the 'star' of a us government campaign aimed at recruiting female workers for the munitions industry during world war 2, becoming the most iconic image of working womyn - and she has, over the years, been adopted by many as a symbol of female strength, passion and 'attitude'...

i decided to go with a sepia colour tone for the moment, but don't be surprised if next time you come back the look has been altered a bit...

i hope you like it... i'm sure it will take me a few views to get used to it... i do like the transparent overlay with the static graphic... but it has taken a while to get it to this point though, so that's it for this post... almost...

i just received my latest oscar's law update with a timely reminder coming up to one of the most commercial times of the year... "The lead-up to Christmas is a critical time for puppy farmers who rely on impulse purchasing at pet shops in order to profit. We can stop the puppy trade by not buying puppies from pet shops and showing others why they should do the same."

why not become an oscar's law ambassador - find out more here

a karmic experience...

2011-12-04T15:58:00.001+11:00

i read this article on the care2 causes site... i got a chuckle out of it...

"Dog Shoots Duck Hunter in Butt with Birdshot

You could call it payback, justice or even doggie karma. A Utah man went duck hunting Sunday and was accidentally shot in his buttocks by his dog.

“One of the hunters was inside the boat with the dog, and the other hunter was in the water setting up decoys. The guy in the water had put his 12-gauge shotgun across the bow of their boat,” said Chief Deputy, Kevin Potter from Box Elder County.

“The dog got excited, was jumping around inside the boat and then it jumped on the gun. It went off, shooting the [decoy setter] in the buttocks,” as told in The Salt Lake Tribune.

The incident happened at the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge in Brigham City, Utah. Don’t be confused by the word “refuge.” It is a U.S. Fish and Wildlife facility, hence they allow hunting.

The unnamed 46-year-old victim of the float-by shooting was taken to a nearby hospital, treated and released. He was lucky to have been wearing waders or the birdshot could have done more damage.

No one else – including the dog – was injured."

a true animal activist... saving ducks, one hunter at a time...

a 'tail' of freedom...

2011-11-30T22:25:00.003+11:00

no words are necessary, the video 'says' it all... but you may shed a tear watching these rescued research beagles see sun and walk on grass for the first time...

the institution of marriage & the fight for equality...

2011-11-29T22:30:00.013+11:00

marriage is a hot topic at the moment… marriage equality has been long sought after by many gay & lesbian people, and now perhaps their battle may soon be over, well, at least one more hurdle may be surmounted… “the ALP’s left faction is claiming the numbers to remove from the party’s policy platform a reference to the Marriage Act which defines the union as that between a man and a woman” ... read more from "left believes it has numbers to change policy on same-sex marriage" - this issue will be debated at the alp national conference this week so there’s definitely an interesting time ahead…

now i actually don’t believe in the institution itself - it has its roots firmly planted in patriarchal, judeo-christian history and has been a major ‘tool’ in the subjugation of womyn…

consequently i can’t get excited over an institution i find oppressive – obviously with that goes a lack of enthusiasm for the trappings of a wedding ceremony... oh, i declined my last wedding invitation for those reasons and my friends totally understood where i was 'coming from'...

there are a number of weddings being planned at work at the moment so i try my hardest to avoid the discussions, especially the ones about 'the gown' - 'fashion' in general is of no interest to me - but after an 'interaction' i was involuntarily drawn into and which i really didn't want to be part of today, i so needed to talk to a friend this evening - he has similar views to me so his empathy and understanding of the situation and how i was feeling was invaluable - and his comments were far more full-on 'ra-ra-ra' political than my pathetic 'i'm not into that crap' response, rather than getting into a 'heavy' conversation when i felt 'backed into a corner' after already declining to participate in 'the gown' conversation - the choice is yours to marry, but equally the choice is mine not to be involved... i guess the assumption that because you're female you must be into all the - as my nan would have called it - 'frippery' - is a tad irksome too...

back to the point here... while the institution of marriage exists, equality is a fundamental right and same sex partners should be accorded the same entitlements and choices as heterosexual partners… i'll stand up for marriage equality, but i'll maintain my view on the oppressive nature of the institution...

i read an interesting article by nori j. rost, minister of all souls unitarian universalist church in colorado springs, “a lesbian pastor with a predominantly gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgendered congregation in the center of Conservative Christianity”, entitled ‘marriage and patriarchy’ – “In this paper I will address the Judeo-Christian historical contours of marriage and how those foundational patriarchal beliefs about marriage still shape public and social policy regarding marriage entitlements, explore the unconscious reasons that conservative politicians and religious leaders oppose same sex marriage, and finally, seek to answer the unasked question with a different ethic that, in the words of Dr. Mary Hunt, respected Catholic lesbian, feminist theologian spoken to a summer school class in July, 2004, seeks relational equality for all rather than legal privilege for a few.”... it’s quite thought-provoking…

the absurdity of it all...

2011-11-27T13:39:00.002+11:00

"Isn't man an amazing animal?

He kills wildlife by the millions in order to protect his domestic animals and their feed.

Then he kills domestic animals by the billions and eats them.

This in turn kills man by the millions, because eating all those animals leads to degenerative - and fatal - health conditions like heart disease, kidney disease, and cancer.

So then man tortures and kills millions more animals to look for cures for these diseases.

Elsewhere, millions of other human beings are being killed by hunger and malnutrition because food they could eat is being used to fatten domestic animals.

Meanwhile, some people are dying of sad laughter at the absurdity of man, who kills so easily and violently, and once a year sends out cards praying for "Peace on Earth."

.. preface from Old MacDonald's Factory Farm, by C. David Coates

melissa magic...

2011-11-21T14:34:00.022+11:00

she hasn't been to australia since 1996, and for one reason or another i missed her extremely rare performances when she was here - but not this time!! i've been wanting to see melissa etheridge for so long now... once i discovered she'd be touring australia in 2012 and tickets were available online now, i wasn't passing up an opportunity to see one of my all-time favourite singers!!!!! her visits have been few and far between and she may not get back here again - not while i can still enjoy a concert anyway!!!

mind you, the concert isn't until july next year though - i guess at least i've got the anticipation leading up to that sunday in july, the 15th, knowing i'll be having a wonderful time watching melissa, enjoying the music (i'll be getting right into it!!) - and i'll be sharing the evening with a close friend who likes melissa (almost) as much as i do... yes, we'll be there!!!! we've got our tickets!!!! (sorry, just a bit of a brag - and in case you can't tell, i'm excited!!)

what a pick-me-up after a weekend feeling like utter crap - yet another 'lurgy' going around (or perhaps it's the same one that's just been 'lying dormant')... having worked both an early and then a late shift in a row, i made it to work on friday only to have to leave because i felt terrible, with a majorly sore throat, ear ache, pounding head, and by the time i reached home i was coughing and spluttering too... but i did struggle to work on saturday afternoon - they were already one short for the morning shift - the call had gone out during the week but with saturday mornings only paid at 'normal time' up until midday there had been no takers - so i couldn't make them down one for the afternoon too!! but once i got home shadow and i just spent the rest of the weekend as couch fixtures...

i'm a wee bit concerned for me mother too... she's a tad depressed at the moment... her eyesight's degenerating rapidly now due to her chronic kidney disease, and she was told on friday that blindness was more likely a probability rather than a possibility - her anger at the incompetence that led to this prognosis is understandable, as is her depression, and her tears (i've shed a few of those for her too)...

to end this post how could i not include some melissa magic... enjoy, i always do...

are you over it?

2011-11-14T15:57:00.005+11:00

i wasn't actually going to blog today, but then i read this article on the huffington post website and thought i'd share it...

it's by eve ensler, activist, actor and playwright (remember 'the vagina monologues'? she was the author) ... i'm reproducing the whole article because it needs to be read in its entirety... it's powerful, so i really couldn't just give a short excerpt and link - finding the 'right' excerpt was impossible, it's too important to break down to a small 'snippet' (but you're more than welcome to read it at it's source, here, if you prefer...)

"Over it...

I am over rape.

I am over rape culture, rape mentality, rape pages on Facebook.

I am over the thousands of people who signed those pages with their real names without shame.

I am over people demanding their right to rape pages, and calling it freedom of speech or justifying it as a joke.

I am over people not understanding that rape is not a joke and I am over being told I don't have a sense of humor, and women don't have a sense of humor, when most women I know (and I know a lot) are really fucking funny. We just don't think that uninvited penises up our anus, or our vagina is a laugh riot.

I am over how long it seems to take anyone to ever respond to rape.

I am over Facebook taking weeks to take down rape pages.

I am over the hundreds of thousands of women in Congo still waiting for the rapes to end and the rapists to be held accountable.

I am over the thousands of women in Bosnia, Burma, Pakistan, South Africa, Guatemala, Sierra Leone, Haiti, Afghanistan, Libya, you name a place, still waiting for justice.

I am over rape happening in broad daylight.

I am over the 207 clinics in Ecuador supported by the government that are capturing, raping, and torturing lesbians to make them straight.

I am over one in three women in the U.S military getting raped by their so-called "comrades."

I am over the forces that deny women who have been raped the right to have an abortion.

I am over the fact that after four women came forward with allegations that Herman Cain groped them and grabbed them and humiliated them, he is still running for the President of the United States.

And I'm over CNBC debate host Maria Bartiromo getting booed when she asked him about it. She was booed, not Herman Cain.

Which reminds me, I am so over the students at Penn State who protested the justice system instead of the alleged rapist pedophile of at least 8 boys, or his boss Joe Paterno, who did nothing to protect those children after knowing what was happening to them.

I am over rape victims becoming re-raped when they go public.

I am over starving Somalian women being raped at the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya, and I am over women getting raped at Occupy Wall Street and being quiet about it because they were protecting a movement which is fighting to end the pillaging and raping of the economy and the earth, as if the rape of their bodies was something separate.

I am over women still being silent about rape, because they are made to believe it's their fault or they did something to make it happen.

I am over violence against women not being a #1 international priority when one out of three women will be raped or beaten in her lifetime -- the destruction and muting and undermining of women is the destruction of life itself.

No women, no future, duh.

I am over this rape culture where the privileged with political and physical and economic might, take what and who they want, when they want it, as much as they want, any time they want it.

I am over the endless resurrection of the careers of rapists and sexual exploiters -- film directors, world leaders, corporate executives, movie stars, athletes -- while the lives of the women they violated are permanently destroyed, often forcing them to live in social and emotional exile.

I am over the passivity of good men. Where the hell are you? You live with us, make love with us, father us, befriend us, brother us, get nurtured and mothered and eternally supported by us, so why aren't you standing with us? Why aren't you driven to the point of madness and action by the rape and humiliation of us?

I am over years and years of being over rape. And thinking about rape every day of my life since I was 5-years-old. And getting sick from rape, and depressed from rape, and enraged by rape. And reading my insanely crowded inbox of rape horror stories every hour of every single day.

I am over being polite about rape. It's been too long now, we have been too understanding.

We need to OCCUPYRAPE in every school, park, radio, TV station, household, office, factory, refugee camp, military base, back room, night club, alleyway, courtroom, UN office. We need people to truly try and imagine -- once and for all -- what it feels like to have your body invaded, your mind splintered, your soul shattered. We need to let our rage and our compassion connect us so we can change the paradigm of global rape.

There are approximately one billion women on the planet who have been violated.

ONE BILLION WOMEN.

The time is now. Prepare for the escalation. Today it begins, moving toward February 14, 2013, when one billion women will rise to end rape.

Because we are over it."

you can read more about the billion womyn rising campaign here....

world vegan day...

2011-11-07T11:18:00.054+11:00

november is world vegan month, and to celebrate world vegan day melbourne's event was held yesterday, sunday 6th, in the beautiful building and grounds of the magnificent abbotsford convent... and i finally made it this year!!!!

i'd asked a close friend, brann, to come along too so we were up early to 'hit the road'... well, you don't so much 'hit the road' when you're a public transport user in melbourne on a sunday... it's a slow, slow wait... that's if the transport mode arrives at all!!! how many times we watched the screens at southern cross station to see the train line we needed just disappear off the list without any announcement - it was frustrating to say the least... we gave up on the train after a while and found a tram that would get us close to the venue - i'm a tram person, why didn't we do that to start with? hmmm, that's what i get for believing someone who thinks train travel is quicker - might be, but the trains have to arrive first!!!!

it was heartening to see such a turnout... and interesting to see the number and diversity of animal activist groups - although sad on another level that so many exist due to so much cruelty...

i located the cruelty free shop stall where i found the munchie bars i've been wanting to try for ages... i bought vegan versions of bounty, snickers and mars bars, and some hard-to-come-by vegan marshmallows - those i intend making some vegan rocky road with this week - yummmmm....

a bit more wandering around, reading pamphlets and a few more purchases later and it was time to head towards the speakers area... i really wanted to hear philip wollen speak...

and just who is philip wollen i can hear you ask.... the short answer is he's a man who turned his back on the privileges and lifestyle he experienced as a very, very wealthy merchant banker... he's been described as a 'humanitarian philanthropist' - but that description doesn't tell you of his commitment to animal welfare, of his activism, of his commitment to the earth... it doesn't tell you that at age 40 he decided a vegan lifestyle was the only compassionate way to live... this interview gives a wee insight into who he is and what he believes...

he is a recipient of...

the medal of the order of australia ""For service to international humanitarian relief and to animal welfare, particularly through the establishment of the Winsome Constance Kindness Trust”,

the australian humanitarian award - "The Australian Humanitarian Award dismantles the narrow belief that humanitarianism is the exclusive domain of health care professionals,volunteers, carers and charities. The Australian Altruism Foundation sees humanitarianism as an inspiring and uniting value that we can all adopt and display in our every contact with other living beings."

australian of the year victoria 2007 ... the following excerpt comes from the national australia day council... "Philip Wollen OAM, Philanthropic humanitarian. Through his kindness and generosity, Philip Wollen brings crucial help to many charitable causes and inspires others to share his humanitarian values and ideals. His achievements in the business world mark him as a man of action and he channels this energy into practical outcomes for the causes he champions through the Winsome Constance Kindness Trust. Philip promotes kindness towards all other living beings and strives to enshrine this as a recognisable trait in the Australian character and culture. The measure of his support can be seen in the extraordinary list of organisations the Winsome Constance Kindness Trust supports, benefiting children, animals, the ill, the environment and aspiring youth. Essentially a private man, he seeks no personal publicity but is not afraid to step into the limelight for a just cause..."

he is without a doubt one of the most fascinating, passionate, articulate people i have ever had the pleasure of listening to - a believer in the universal rights of other species, he made one statement yesterday which expressed a belief i've long held - "animal rights is the greatest moral issue facing humanity today"...

it was good to come away feeling less isolated and alone in my beliefs, that they had been validated, that there were others who thought like me, that my frustration and anger at humankind is shared - and justifiable... it was encouraging when brann said he'd go home and finally watch 'earthlings'-- i've been trying to encourage him (and others) to watch this for ages, but after listening to philip wollen he was possibly a little inspired by his very persuasive arguments...

i came across this article this morning while reading a bit more about the man - and his has definitely been an interesting journey and makes fascinating reading... "radical kindness: the banker who gave it all away" by katherine kizilos... you might also like to check out the winsome constance kindness trust - named for his mother and grandmother, it's an initiative founded by him, and actively supported by his life partner and political ally trix...

heading in the right direction...

2011-10-24T09:13:00.023+11:00

this was one of the few 'good news', welcome articles in my inbox yesterday...

"MASSIVE new fines, jail terms and unprecedented powers to shut down illegal puppy farms will be introduced in Victoria in a crackdown on animal cruelty.

Premier Ted Baillieu will announce the toughest dog and cat laws in Australia today, with legislation to be introduced in State Parliament next week." from "baillieu government gets tough on illegal puppy farms"...

it's one step closer to achieving 'oscar's law', and one step closer to a more sane, compassionate society, and proof positive that people-power can have an impact...

and how could i not share this from debra tranter, the passionate, committed, brave, strong and determined womon who has fought to expose the brutality of this cruel industry for 2 decades...

"Today was a good day. I still cried like I do most days, but today were tears of relief. Relief that they are listening. Relief for my team who have stood by me for years even when I almost gave up. Relief for the hidden dogs that I am always with where ever I go. Relief for the staunch loyal kick arse supporters of Oscar’s Law who believed “The power is in our hands".

Almost 20 years ago I was a lone voice telling people we factory farm our pets. No one believed me, it couldn’t possibly be true. Today we have succeeded in exposing the industry and it is hidden no more. This is the first time in 20 years that any Government has made a first positive move and listened to the communities concerns.

People have jumped on the bandwagon and I think its great

As I remember back to that day in 1993 and look at the journey so far, so many times we could of walked away, so many times we were ridiculed, attacked, belittled, humiliated and threatened and we never gave up. I am proud of the people who have chosen to take the journey with me, proud that all they see are the dogs, in the sheds, in the cages, in the dirt pens. They don't seek out the kudos and the limelight, they simply stand beside me and get the job done. They are heroes.

It’s a step forward in this long battle.

So I will still cry every day, and my soul will still be torn apart, and we will at times feel like we are on the edge of our sanity, the battle continues and I will remain in those sheds until they are empty.

But today, just one day, I will celebrate this moment of greatness with Oscar, the dog that changed my life, showed me the way and resolved my commitment to never give up. The power is in our hands! I want Oscar’s Law ” ... from deb's blog prisoner's for profit

i wept tears of joy reading that last paragraph - you celebrate sister, enjoy this moment with oscar because you've fought hard for it... thank you for your courage and strength - you are an inspiration and a hero debra...

why don't YOU - yes YOU! - join the movement, because we can't become complacent... it is only a small 'gain', there is still a long way to go... the fight to abolish puppy factories will continue until the industry is eradicated... oscar's law needs to be 'enshrined in law' to end all companion animal factory farming - at the very least...

"never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world... indeed, it is the only thing that ever has"... margaret mead

another altered meaning…

2011-10-17T13:05:00.024+11:00

feminine… mid-14c., "of the female sex," from O.Fr. femenin (12c.) "feminine, female; with feminine qualities, effeminate," from L. femininus "feminine" (in the grammatical sense at first), from femina "woman, female," lit. "she who suckles," from base of felare "to suck, suckle" (see fecund). Sense of "woman-like, proper to or characteristic of women" is recorded from mid-15c. The interplay of meanings now represented in female, feminine, and effeminate, and the attempt to make them clear and separate, has led to many coinages: feminitude (1878); feminile “feminine” (1640s); feminility “womanliness” (1838); femality (17c., “effeminacy;” 1754 “female nature”). Also feminality (1640s, “quality or state of being female”), from rare adj. feminal (late 14c.), from O.Fr. feminal. And femineity “quality or state of being feminine,” from L. femineus “of a woman, pertaining to a woman.” ... from online etymology dictionary

definitely a female word - ‘of the female sex’ - therefore you would assume that no womon can fail to be feminine, no matter what she looks like, how she dresses or how she asserts herself…

so when did it become 'watered down' and interchangeable with ‘ladylike’ (a word i don't 'subscribe' to - you can read my post ‘this womon ain’t no lady’ here) – hmm, it appears to have started changing in the 15th century when we see the words "proper to .. women" creep into the definition... a time when womyn's worth and their roles were being redefined by a misogynistic, patriarchal culture to keep them subservient and silent - you know, seen but not heard…

because if you were heard, that meant you had opinions of your own - you may just have been a strong womon... and strong womyn were to be feared...

yes, you may have picked up that the 'shift' in the meaning appears to coincide with the growing fervour of the european witch hunts and hatred of all things female, the gathering momentum with the publication of the malleus malificarum in 1487 and the spreading of fear into england...

and henry (yeah, that one - the 8th!!) 'fed the growing fear' when he accused anne boleyn of witchcraft, infidelity and incest - as adultery was considered treason for a queen it was also a very expedient way to dispose of a womon who'd only 'produced' a daughter - elizabeth - but no sons!... 6 years after her execution henry passed the witchcraft act of 1542 against 'conjurations and wichescraftes and sorcery and enchantmentes.'... the act was repealed in 1547 under edward's reign (but he was only 9 so the regency council was making all the decisions at this time!)

alas, repeal only lasted until the elizabethan witchcraft act was passed during elizabeth's reign in 1562 - sad considering her own mother had been accused of being a witch... but then lizzie had very powerful men with vested interests surrounding and advising her, and she inherited (and maintained) an extremely misogynistic 'kingdom'... "during the Elizabethan era men were all-powerful. Women had few rights and were expected to obey men. Elizabethan women totally relied on the male members of the family. Society and the culture of England was changing. The convents had been closed. The number of poor was increasing and people were far less charitable. Old, poor, unprotected women needed to be supported - and this was resented by other Elizabethans."

so womyn were either witch - non-submissive, old, poor or without male support in a male dominant society - or submissive - totally downtrodden in a male dominant society - the new vision of feminine...

"the english language has been literally man made and it is still primarily under male control, this monopoly over language is one the means by which males have ensured their own primacy, and consequently have ensured the invisibility or 'other' nature of females, and this primacy is perpetuated while women continue to use, unchanged, the language we have inherited" ... excerpt from dale spender's 'man made language'

what's sad now is when I hear womyn labelling themselves with this diminished patriarchal sense of the word as though being a submissive ‘decoration’ is something to aspire to... and then there's the judgement of others - i'm sure you've all heard someone comment on the perceived feminine or unfeminine 'quality' of someone - maybe you've heard something similar to "she's as rough as ..., so unfeminine" - or the seal of approval that goes along the lines of "doesn't she look feminine in that"?

perhaps next time you hear that you might think 'hey, she's female - she can't be anything but feminine!' - because to be feminine is to be female... to be female is to be feminine - and strong, and loud and proud - it's a womon-centred word... it's a word worth reclaiming...

the complicity of silence....

2011-10-03T13:58:00.025+11:00

“Our culture, religion and tradition starts with oral history. Our belief in the superiority of humans is rooted in the darkness and superstition, passed on by word of mouth for centuries. It has become holy, writ large by human hands. If we taped an oral history of animal kingdom, the anguished screams would drown out the sound and fury of the Big Bang.” … philip wollen

sometimes i despair at being human - i weep often and suffer incredible bouts of depression when i am constantly confronted with way too many horror stories of the abuse and suffering of animals the world over….

my inbox is often ‘overflowing’ with cries for help from activists and organisations worldwide fighting to end the cruelty...

humans are responsible for all manner of horrors, from factory farming, to bear baiting and bile farming, animal experimentation to mass slaughter of wolves, whales, kangaroos and so many others... animal smuggling, the 'exotic pet' trade, poaching, and destruction of habitat placing many species in danger of extinction… then there's the live export shame, bullfighting, fur farming, the dogmeat trade, circuses, 'domestic' cruelty - the litany of atrocities goes on and on…

“Animal cruelty has become big business. Billions of defenceless animals are killed each year for the mere taste of their flesh, look of their fur or skin, or vain hope that experimenting on them might tell us something about ourselves...

But it doesn’t have to be like this. Knowledge is power, and the power is in your hands to make a world of difference for animals!” ... unleashed australia

knowledge is power - and brave, caring and passionate people risk prosecution, sometimes physical harm, sometimes their lives - all risk their sanity - to discover the truth and then inform others... it’s this that gets me out of my despondency - their knowledge needs to be shared - i'll continue to weep but i have to keep reading, and keep writing... i'll keep pleading with politicians while filling up their inboxes, and i'll keep signing petitions and demonstrating - because silence only benefits the torturors and allows heinous practices to continue - silence makes us complicit in the horrors perpetrated against the innocent and voiceless…

"Animals cannot speak, but can you and I not speak for them and represent them? Let us all feel their silent cry of agony and let us all help that cry to be heard in the world."

... rukmini devi arundale

one thing that did brighten my world this weekend was discovering there is soon to be a vegan b&b in victoria - the first one in australia apparently - bed & broccoli - their official opening coincides with world vegan day on 6th november... and it's part of an animal sanctuary, how appropriate... hmmm, now that might be incentive enough to save for a weekend away...

who are you going to blame?

2011-09-27T13:06:00.009+10:00

womyn, of course…

i was appalled to read about the so-called ‘witches camps’ in ghana over the weekend… these are essentially concentration camps for womyn accused of 'witchcraft'…

over 1000 womyn and 700 children are currently exiled and living in horrendous conditions in 6 camps in northern ghana - many are elderly women who have been accused of causing death, misfortune, or calamity to their families, neighbours or villages through sorcery, witchcraft, or juju…

belief in witchcraft and supernatural powers is common throughout ghana, and other african countries, and is often encouraged by pastors who preach in the nation’s many charismatic churches… according to the european research network on pentecostalism, "pentecostal, or charismatic, christian movements have been in africa for over 100 years and is one of the fastest growing and diverse forms of pentecostalism in the world"… a frightening fact indeed!!!

and a fact made more frightening because apparently some of these pastors take their 'responsibilities' seriously and take an active role in the torture of womyn – this from an article by claire mcdougall in the christian science monitor september 15, 2011 entitled ‘ghana aims to abolish witches’ camps’...

“the brutal murder of 72-year-old Ama Hemmah in the city of Tema in November of last year, allegedly by six people, among them a Pentecostal pastor and his neighbors who are accused of dousing her with kerosene and setting her alight, caused public outrage and made headlines across the world.

In Ghana, we know that when a calamity happens or something befalls a family or a community the question is not what caused it, but rather who caused it?” Anukun-Dabson said. “We are a people who do not take responsibility for our actions; rather we find scapegoats and women are the targets.”

the following is from ghana's southern sector youth & women's empowerment network (sosywen)

"Forced to flee their homes and loved ones following false witchcraft accusations, the women in this film face a life of misery, desperate poverty and deplorable living conditions. They won’t see their families again, probably not for the rest of their lives. Many have no idea how many years they’ve spent in the 'witches' camps. And it’s all because of some misfortune of a family member or neighbour, or a dream that someone’s had. The women are blamed for the misfortune, such as a death in the family, economic hardship, even the death of their own child. Once the finger has been pointed and the accusation made, the lynch mobs beat and abuse the accused woman who flees for her life to one of Ghana’s ‘witches’ camps where she believes she may find some protection. The women are stigmatised and outcasts from society.

This SOSYWEN film shows the desperate poverty these women face, their daily struggles to fetch water and find enough food. They sleep on the bare floor, cold and uncomfortable, exposed to malarial mosquitoes. Some still suffer pains from the beatings they received many years ago. Children, mostly girls, sent to help these elderly women are stigmatised because they live in a ‘witches’ camp. They can’t go to school and they lose all hope for the future. Zenabu Sakibu, Coordinator of the Southern Sector Youth and Women’s Empowerment Network, Ghana, narrates the heart-rending story of these women and children, the abuse and beatings they suffered, why they ended up in the camps, and their daily struggles for survival."

What I used to know: the road to Ghana's 'witches' camps
from sosywen organisation on Vimeo.

outraged? then why not sign the care2 petition here...

misogyny - alive and well and still being 'masqueraded' as religious superstition by powerful men...

the power and the passion...

2011-09-19T11:45:00.027+10:00

i was proud to be part of the oscar's law rally yesterday on the steps of parliament house... thousands of concerned, compassionate people (and almost as many canine companions - and a few ferrets) turned out to express their outrage at the cruelty of puppy factories - that they exist is shameful, that the law supports their existence is more shameful...

there were some inspirational speakers, none more so than debra tranter who's commitment and perseverence has forged this movement - oscar was there too!! - shatha hamade from the barristers animal welfare panel spoke with feeling, as did philanthropic humanitarian philip wollen, who also donated $20,000 on the spot...

not so inspirational was the green's representative who didn't quite seem to get the point - puppy factories are cruel whether 'legal' or 'illegal' - they need to be abolished, not 'regulated' - $30,000 maximum fines won't deter the greedy or lessen the profit they stand to make, or change the fact that puppy factories only exist to churn out puppies for profit ensuring animals are cruelly exploited as nothing more than money-making breeding machines - at least she was there i guess, unlike the other political parties who were conspicuous by their absence!!!! ohh, and nelli scarlet's rendition of somewhere over the rainbow was beautiful...

thank you debra - without your passion these 'chambers of horror' would still be kept secret... unfortunately many are still hidden away from scrutiny... this cruel industry needs to be closed down to save all the 'other oscars' languishing in appallingly sickening conditions - 'people power' can change this world so please, take a stand now and visit the oscar's law website to see how you can stand up for the voiceless...

"Oh, the power and the passion
Oh, the temper of the time
Oh, the power and the passion
Sometimes you've got to take the hardest line"

from "power and the passion" by midnight oil

my, time certainly flies...

2011-09-17T15:30:00.023+10:00

hard to believe that my two weeks off are just about over – and i didn’t even blog during that time… hey, there were times i didn’t even turn on the computer for days at a time… guess i needed a break from technology too…

i did the 'dutiful daughter' thing though – yep, the mother was ill - she thought her kidneys were 'packing up' so we got into the hospital and then spent 7 hours in the emergency ward while they monitored lungs and kidneys - once they discovered neither had deteriorated significantly they sent her home – the next day was spent checking up on her and doing her shopping…

of course, when she wanted more shopping a couple of days later i wasn't so happy when she insisted on coming - she refuses to accept she can't do what she once did - consequently she needed to take a break from walking (it wears her out - and she can barely breath) so we decided on a sit-down and a coffee… she thought we should eat but she just couldn’t (or wouldn't) understand that there was nothing in the shop i could get that was vegan-friendly and anyway, all i wanted was coffee, but she could have food... her response was typical - why couldn’t i just 'stop being so damn difficult' – hmmm, apparently i went vegan just to antagonise her!!!!

you could say we get very niggly after too long with each other - conversation sometimes can get a bit strained between us - the mother's become really conservative over the years so we disagree on a lot of issues… i try to just let things ‘wash over me’ but after a while ‘bad daughter’ comes to the fore and stands up for herself and her beliefs… my mother just doesn’t ‘get’ vegan – vegetarian she could (just) cope with, but vegan - now that's just tooooo weird... never has she asked why i chose to be vegan - of course, why would she, she already knows i did it to be difficult!! – these days it seems if it’s not her belief system, it's not worth learning about - it's not the status quo so we just won't talk about it… fuck there are times when i wished i lived on a remote country property far away from my mother (and, at times, humankind in general!) – see, bad, bad daughter….

enough of the mother/daughter shit...

i haven’t gotten through anywhere near the amount of reading i had planned… and now i’ve gotten even more to read because two new books i bought a few weeks ago arrived… ‘the sexual politics of meat: a feminist-vegetarian critical theory’ by carol adams, and ‘sister species: women, animals and social justice’ ed. by lisa kemmerer… being mine rather than the library's though means i can read them anytime...

i did watch a couple of interesting movies – one, a documentary called “troubled minds - the lithium revolution” – in the 1940s an australian doctor, john cade, discovered the ‘benefits’ of lithium for treating manic depression (as it was called then – bi-polar now) – this in effect marked the beginning of psycho-pharmacology (the use of drugs to manage psychiatric conditions) – up until this discovery electric shock ‘therapy’ and lobotomies were the dominant treatments… it explains his search for chemical alternatives to these brutal forms of treatment and the lack of interest from drug companies because lithium is a naturally occurring element so couldn’t be exploited commercially – it was quite fascinating actually….

i also watched ‘ironclad’ – set in 13^th century england when john was king – this is the story of what john did after being forced to sign the magna carta – his rampage across the country and the violence he and his mercenary army perpetrated against all who signed the document and supported limiting a kings powers – that included mass slaughter of families and villagers - in his desire to regain total control… this was also very interesting, but very graphic - i found myself closing my eyes a lot – but they were violent times…

i caught up with a number of people too – usually dinner at my place because it’s just easier – i know exactly what’s gone into the food and nobody that comes to share has any problems with my vegan menu – consequently i cooked, ate and drank soooo much – and i did catch up with a vegan friend that i hadn’t seen for ages – it’s always lovely to speak to a full-on, ra-ra-ra vegan - ahh, another's passionate belief in the things i hold important – it makes the heart sing...

two causes i strongly believe in take ‘centre stage’ this week…

the first one is the oscar’s law rally i’m off to tomorrow - a campaign to stop the factory farming of companion animals… the campaign is named for this wee little boy who was finally rescued after spending 5 years as a breeding machine for the greed of humans… the sheer neglect these babes suffer is heartbreaking… my old girl allie who died earlier this year spent her first 4 years of ‘life’ as a ‘brood bitch’ in a puppy factory and believe me there are psychological as well as physical scars from the deprivations they endure…

the second cause is palestine’s 'push' for UN recognition of statehood… over 120 nations from the middle east, africa, asia, and latin america have already endorsed this initiative, but israel and the US are trying to block it... europe is still undecided - sadly it appears australia is undecided too… 44 years of occupation is just way too long - please sign the petition calling on the UN to recognise the state of palestine here…

i'll leave you with this video a friend sent me... 'freed' after decades as laboratory animals in a pharmaceutical research facility, this is the extremely touching vision of a group of chimpanzees seeing the outside world, feeling the sun on their faces and bodies, for the first time... their pleasure is apparent - palpable - and brings a tear to the eye and a smile to the lips... (the commentary isn't in english - but who needs commentary - a picture paints a thousand words)... you can read more here...

two weeks of leisure...

2011-09-05T03:58:00.028+10:00

yay - i'm on leave! well, i went to say i was on holidays, but hey – something just niggled me that this was no doubt another word with its origins in christianity and lo and behold, on checking it appears it was ‘coined’ around the 1200s – “haliday (c.1200), from O.E. haligdæg "holy day; Sabbath," from halig "holy" (see holy) + dæg "day" (see day)”… it later took on dual meanings “in 14c. meaning both "religious festival" and "day of recreation," but pronunciation and sense diverged 16c". it had lost it’s christian meaning by the 19th century “as a verb meaning "to pass the holidays" by 1869.” ... online etymology dictionary

looks like 'ye olde english' could just as easily be called 'ye olde christian' - it pervaded the language and peoples lives totally...

i’m hoping it’s going to be a relaxing, reinvigorating next 2 weeks – i applied for these couple of weeks off a few months ago now – and i’ve been hanging out ever since… although i’ve been a tad depressed this weekend because my old girl was always there to spend my leave with, so this is actually my first real time off that she hasn't been around for in 15 years… i'm sooo missing canine companionship...

i occasionally check out the save-a-dog website but whenever i do me boy jumps on the keyboard and zaps me (as only cats can) to 'stop looking at dogs – stupid, stupid dogs’ (and i swear, i can actually 'hear' him saying that in my head! – and for some reason i hear it in antonio banderas’ voice – if you’ve missed shrek 2 and its layers of humour for young and old - it certainly wasn’t just a kiddies film - the ‘puss in boots’ voice won’t mean anything to you!)…

but there’s a pull, a tug – i think my old girl is telling me it’s time – or nearly time - to save another older homeless babe (or is the 'nearly time' just me procrastinating - due to a guilty disloyal feeling where shadow's concerned whenever i ponder the prospect perhaps - but then i feel bad for doing nothing because there are so many in need! - and then i wonder if i have enough space - me old girl was blind and deaf when we moved in here and didn't need a lot of space - is there enough 'territory' for a dog and a cat with just a small courtyard - but of course there are some wonderful, beautiful areas around here to go walking with a canine friend... oooh, why can't i just make a decision?!!!!!…

i saw me mother yesterday though and she’s not well – between copd (chronic pulmonary disease) and ckf (chronic kidney failure) she’s having a hard time at the moment…which could mean her condition (it's chronic remember, so no 'getting better' - and hey, she's 82!!) could be deteriorating - at the very least she may have to have another hospital 'visit' - guess i just see how the next few days pan out…

but i brought plenty of ‘provisions’ home with me - that’s books galore… if you’re interested, these are some of the books i’m hoping to get through…

the immortal life of henrietta lacks - rebecca skloot...

"Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor black tobacco farmer whose cells—taken without her knowledge in 1951—became one of the most important tools in medicine, vital for developing the polio vaccine, cloning, gene mapping, in vitro fertilization, and more. Henrietta’s cells have been bought and sold by the billions, yet she remains virtually unknown, and her family can’t afford health insurance...."

me of the never never - fiona o'loughlin

"This book is for anyone who likes to laugh (and cry), who wants to read about a woman living her life on her terms."

the particular sadness of lemon cake - aimee bender

"On the eve of her ninth birthday, unassuming Rose Edelstein bites into her mother's homemade lemon-chocolate cake and discovers she has a magical gift: she can taste her mother’s emotions in the slice. To her horror, she finds that her cheerful mother tastes of despair. Soon, she’s privy to the secret knowledge that most families keep hidden: her father’s detachment, her mother’s transgression, her brother’s increasing retreat from the world..."

the book of rachael - leslie cannold

"Two thousand years ago, as a charismatic young preacher from Nazareth was gathering followers among the people of Galilee, his sister swept floors and dreamed of learning to read. In Leslie Cannold’s story, it is the women of Nazareth who take centre stage..."

now all i have to do is line up some smoke (i’m almost out – not what you want when on ‘holidays’)…

it's 3.45am now, i couldn't sleep so thought i might as well write a post, but i'm going back to bed now - maybe a couple of chapters will help me 'nod off'...

old superstitions die hard…

2011-08-27T16:38:00.015+10:00

"fingers crossed"…

it rolls off everyone’s tongue so easily… i grew up with the "fingers crossed" saying when hoping for something to turn out well, to have a positive outcome… but ever wondered where it came from? i hadn’t thought about it significantly before - but then i went to use it earlier… all of a sudden i was intrigued by 'whose' superstition it was based on and had to check it out…

tt’s not so easy to discover the origin though – so here’s a few of the ‘origins’ I came across…

purely christian...

"The theory of a Christian origin of crossing your fingers is based on early periods in the religion's history. During these early times, Christianity was an outlawed religion and the disciples of Christ usually formed a secret society. To protect the identity of the sect's followers, secret hand signs were developed so the members could recognize each other." http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-origin-of-crossing-your-fingers-for-luck.htm

majorly christian...

“Crossing fingers - Generally this means "wishing for good luck or fortune". Another interpretation could be seen as "here's hoping". The gesture probably has pagan / Christian origins where the gesture was believed to ward off evil. As such, folklore believes that crossing the fingers when telling a lie somehow offsets the evil of the lie... Some historians believe that crossing your fingers is a hidden or secret way of making the Christian sign of the cross - a sure-fire way of defeating demons. As a gesture it has both positive and negative symbolism. Luck or lies.” http://www.aquiziam.com/gestures.html

"The custom of crossing your fingers for good luck is fairly common. Superstition states that the act of crossing one's index and middle fingers brings good luck and wards off evil spirits or witches." http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-origin-of-crossing-your-fingers-for-luck.htm

“Crossing one's fingers is a quick and easy way of making the sign of the cross to shield oneself from diabolic powers. It is also easy to keep them crossed, thus ensuring lasting protection from the devil's tricks.” http://users.tinyonline.co.uk/gswithenbank/sayingsf.htm

purely pagan…

“Another theory suggests that the sign pre-dates Christianity, when it was believed that benign spirits dwelt at the intersecting point of the cross, as in the Solar Cross (also known as Pagan Cross, Sun Cross, Wheel Cross, Odin's Cross or Woden's Cross). In Europe, the sign was made by two people; the first to make the wish and the second to support it. Linking their fingers firmly would squeeze and energize the spirits into beneficial action.

The popular gesture grew out of the pagan belief that a cross was a symbol of perfect unity; and that its point of intersection marked the dwelling place of beneficent spirits. A wish made on a cross was supposed to be anchored steadfastly at the cross's intersection until that desire was realized. The superstition was popular among many early European cultures.” http://www.scribd.com/doc/44602448/Charles-Panati-Extraordinary-Origins-of-Everyday-Things

to add to that…

“To ensure the wish stayed in place and on the wisher’s mind, it was often tied to the finger with string, a practice that eventually evolved into a memory aid.” http://www.bigsiteofamazingfacts.com/why-do-we-cross-our-fingers-when-wishing-for-luck-and-where-did-the-practice-come-from

and now…

“… As time passed, the rigors of the custom eased and a person could wish without the assistance of an associate. It sufficed merely to cross the index and the middle fingers…

Over time the ancient custom of the "crossed fingers" of friends degenerated to a wisher crossing his own fingers and finally to today's expression "I'll keep my fingers crossed," with the well wisher never actually doing so, and no one expecting him or her to. What was once deliberate and symbolic has become reflexive and insignificant—though not obsolete.” http://www.unicornlady.net/superstitions/superstitions.html

hmmm, this one gesture can identify me to likeminded people, ward off evil, allow me to lie without consequence and bring me a whole lotta good luck - wow - what duality - it spans both good and bad...

hearing that phrase is going to conjure up a whole different image in future!!! don't you just love the etymology of words and phrases - the power and politics of language...

the subjugation of womyn...

2011-08-15T11:33:00.021+10:00

after an enjoyable gathering of friends at my place on saturday - which of course meant lots of food, lots of wine - champagne cocktails were on the menu too thanks to kirsty - and plenty of conversation - i was feeling a tad 'green' yesterday - so my plan was simple - i wasn't moving from the couch! even blogging wasn't on the agenda because the brain was a bit 'fuzzy'...

however, i checked my emails to find i'd received a petition to support a womon's right to wear the burqa... now to me the burqa is a tool of female oppression within a patriarchal culture encompassing the misogynistic tradition of womon as chattel, so i went online, and after reading copious amounts of differing versions of the origins of this garment (along with varying names and the many variations of the garment itself) i ended up viewing a slideshow entitled 'the canvas prison' showing the use of the burqa in the systematic subjugation of womyn in afghanistan under the fanatically brutal regime of the taliban ('ousted' in 2001- unfortunately it appears that karzai maintains links to the taliban and has close ties to iran - another brutally misogynistic regime - so a change in power doesn't appear to have resulted in change for womyn!) ... here's that slideshow...

The canvas prison

after viewing these images, i then followed some other links and ended up on an australian website called 'the punch' - "The Punch is for every Australian with a passion for debate. We'll feature some of the nation's best writers and biggest names discussing current events in politics, entertainment, sport, business and more."

it was here that i came across an article "the truth behind the burqa" written by jacqueline pascarl (aussies might remember her as jacqueline gillespie) - it's an impassioned, enlightened and intelligent article of which this is just an extract...

"The common, misinformed perception is that Muslim women mostly wear the burqa to express their religious devotion.

Frankly, I’ve lived on both sides of this debate, and I would like to put the record straight once and for all as I was instructed during my time in a moderately strict Islamic society - to wear a burqa, hijab or headscarf during daily life is not prescribed specifically anywhere in the Koran – it is not wajib (mandatory and prescribed by the Koran), but only sunat (recommended culturally).

As a royal princess in an Islamic country (Malaysia), and originally hailing from Australia, I was required, after my marriage, to undertake four years of Islamic study under the tutelage of the Royal Household’s Iman and religious teacher. We used text books primarily sourced from Pakistan and Egypt which had been specially printed in English for converts to Islam, as well as long tracts of the Koran and my tutor’s own knowledge and interpretations as he was a respected scholar nationally.

These twice weekly classes over four years, were never undertaken between myself and my teacher without the presence of my servants, or another royal lady who acted as chaperones – not for my chastity or purity, but, as the Iman explained to me, for his! He truly believed that I, or any woman, could not be trusted in the lone company of a male without the baser instincts of the female gender coming to the fore.

According to these books, I was to learn that it was fine for a husband to beat his wife as long as he didn’t mark her face, I was to ascertain that female circumcision was not mandatory or even mentioned in the Koran, that it is a cultural practice only. However, the father who does instigate the excision of the clitoris of his female child will be rewarded in heaven – this again, I stress, was not mentioned anywhere in the Koran, but simply extrapolated from cultural musings of a scholarly nature. That abhorrent undertaking is about control of women and tempering their sensuality – it has nothing to do with religion and I have yet to meet any Australian Iman who would say otherwise.

I was taught scores of things by the Royal Iman, the beauty of many tracts of the Koran, the cadence of the Arabic language; but much of the teachings, as opposed to the Koran itself, were strictly cultural and archaic, rather than the pure religious teachings of the Koran. I learnt that the primary reason women are required by Islamic societies (the majority of which are patriarchal) to swathe themselves in fabrics and cover their collar bones, necks, arms, legs, ankles, calves, chests, elbows, shoulders, throats, thighs, ears, napes of necks, hair and in some cases, faces, is that women are culturally condemned to the roll of seductress and are considered untrustworthy, immoral humans, driven to tempt men and bring down the bastions of male self-control. The fine shape of an ankle, or a tendril of hair – a glimpse of which can send a mere male into a sexual frenzy, are the tools of seduction. In essence and to outline it crudely – the veil, much lauded by so called Islamic teachings, is a protection for men against we voracious vixens of the mortal world. Not, as so many pundits state, a protection for women against men.

Even culturally, under the Islamic teachings I studied and with which I was indoctrinated, not one stanza exhorted a man to order his woman to cover her face – everything else, yes, but to wend her way along streets covered in a tent with only slits for her vision was never mentioned...."

this led me to jacqueline's blog - although it hasn't been updated since January, nonetheless she has some interesting posts to read on a number of topics...

i also checked out rawa's (revolutionary association of the women of afghanistan) website - they were mentioned in the slideshow and have been active in the fight for womyn's rights and social justice since 1977... the short biography on rawa's founding leader, meena, murdered in 1987 is worth the read ...

no, i haven't changed my view on the burqa (unless you call firmly cementing my already-held-belief a change) - i certainly won't be signing that petition to aid the oppression of womyn...

this womon ain't no lady...

2011-08-07T12:33:00.015+10:00

being called 'lady' and the ensuing conversation with a couple of friends last week really frustrated, or should that be annoyed or disheartened me - perhaps all three - it's a word i never use because to me it's heavy with oppression...

when i'm called 'lady' i cringe - when i was growing up young womyn were supposed to act like young 'ladies' so we were constantly being told "ladies don't talk back" (opinionated womyn definitely weren't ladies!) - "ladies don't swear" - "ladies don't dress like ______" (insert your own term here - whore, slut, harlot - the antithesis of a lady!!) - "ladies don't smoke in the street" (because they looked 'cheap' - meaning whore, slut, harlot. etc.!!) - it was a constant litany of 'ladies don't do this', 'ladies don't do that'... hmmm, apparently ladies didn't do very much at all so who'd want to be one? everything i did when growing up (and still do) was very unladylike...

and the origin of the word...

"Lady begins in Anglo-Saxon or Old English as hlæfdige ‘bread-kneader’ being compounded of hlaf ‘loaf of bread’ + dige ‘female kneader.’ So the first lady was she who kneaded the bread. Lord is what is left from Old English hlaf -weard> hlaford =, hlāf ‘bread, loaf ‘+ weard keeper, guard (think of ward, wardrobe, guard, garden [place where you keep or guard plants?] ). So the lady kneaded the loaf of bread and the lord guarded the bread as master of the household." from http://www.billcasselman.com/wording_room/lord_lady.htm

there is consensus with this...

"c.1200, lafdi, lavede, from O.E. hlæfdige "mistress of a household, wife of a lord," lit. "one who kneads bread," from hlaf "bread" (see loaf) + -dige "maid," related to dæge "maker of dough" (see dey (1); also compare lord). The medial -f- disappeared 14c. Not found outside English except where borrowed from it." from online etymology dictionary

this last source also goes on:

"Sense of "woman of superior position in society" is c.1200; "woman whose manners and sensibilities befit her for high rank in society" is from 1861 (ladylike in this sense is from 1580s, and ladily from c.1400). Meaning "woman as an object of chivalrous love" is from early 14c. Used commonly as an address to any woman since 1890s."

it was something to 'aspire' to if you were from the lower socio-economic class...

"In the late 19th and early twentieth century, in a difference reflected in the British novelist Nancy Mitford's essay "U vs. non-U", lower class women strongly preferred to be called "ladies" while women from higher social backgrounds were content to be identified as "women." Alfred Ayer remarked in 1881 that upper middle class female store clerks were content to be "saleswomen," while lower class female store clerks, for whom their job represented a social advancement, insisted on being called "salesladies." These social class issues, while no longer as prominent in this century, have imbued the formal use of "lady" with something of irony (e.g.: "my cleaning lady," or "ladies of the night" for prostitutes)." from wikipedia

sadly, the word lady still appears to be in usage as a definer of womyn, a shackle to keep us in our 'place' - according to an article on ms magazine's blog - "who're you calling a lady?" by Leah Berkenwald - an american member of congress caused outrage just last month...

"This week, Rep. Allen West (R-FL) reminded American women that in order to be afforded due respect from him and ultra-conservatives like him, they need to act like ladies.

Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) had criticized Rep. West’s opposition to raising the debt ceiling:

"The gentleman from Florida, who represents thousands of Medicare beneficiaries, as do I, is supportive of this plan that would increase costs for Medicare beneficiaries, unbelievable from a Member from South Florida, slashes Medicaid and critical investments essential to winning the future in favor of protecting tax breaks for Big Oil, millionaires, and companies who ship American jobs overseas."

In response, Rep. Allen West sent a personal attack in the form of an email to Schultz cc’d to Congressional leadership. In it, he called the Congresswoman “the most vile, unprofessional, and despicable member of the US House of Representatives” and a “coward,” and told her to “shut the heck up.” Then he wrote this:

"You have proven repeatedly that you are not a Lady, therefore, shall not be afforded due respect from me!"

you can read the rest of the article here, but one of my favourite comments to the article was from a womon called sha:

"If you get right down to it, what he really means by being a “Lady” is being the under-educated, disenfranchised property of her husband with little to no interest or stake in the political process that governs her life and choices. We get it, you would love to return to the days of petticoats and lynch mobs, but it isn’t going to happen, so you better learn to dialogue with a woman who takes her job seriously and may even believe she is there for the people she represents. Radical, I know!"

nah, this womon ain't no lady!! (and i didn't think i'd ever get this post finished - it seems to have taken me all morning because my internet has kept dropping out - talk about pissed off - oooooh, how fucking unladylike!!!!

whatever happened to...

2011-07-24T16:47:00.016+10:00

good, old-fashioned common sense? or maybe that should read competence?

i mostly do my shopping at iga in st kilda... all of the staff are courteous, and most competent - but i shudder when i'm next in the queue if there's one particular young womon on one of the checkouts - iga's setup is that you just stand in one long queue until called - i watch with dread when i'm getting closer to being called and this particular cashier is getting closer to finishing with her customer...

i have to say here she is a lovely, friendly young womon - always very cheery and chatty (she's doing a creative writing course, hopes to be a writer some day) - but perhaps this is one of her 'problems' - chatting and not taking notice of what she's doing... her weighing of things leaves a lot to be desired - one day i was charged $16.99 for one bulb of garlic when she served me, and if you watch her closely (which i suggest you do) she just rests her hand on the scales while weighing! we weighed the garlic again and it came to $1.89! now that's a big difference - it's not like i've got money i can afford to pay out for nothing - shows the necessity for vigilance (similar 'mistakes' have happened in the past!)...

then there are the fruit and veg items she's unsure of - if you check your docket you'll notice a number of things that appear on it but aren't in your shopping bag - but you'll have other items that don't appear on the docket - pity you're mostly getting charged for more expensive items - apparently anything unrecognisable to her is exotic and costly! personally i prefer someone to ask me "what's this"! call me naive but i'd assume there'd be staff training in food identification if that's part of their job!!

another problem - packing... now i've noticed a few youngsters have a problem in this area - they put the bread and tomatoes and anything squashable into the bag first and anything heavy just goes right on top... what's that all about - surely common sense tells you heavy stuff first, soft squashy stuff on top!!!! is this the secret management plan to do away with staff packing bags altogether?

yeah, you can tell i had a bad supermarket moment today - i got that young womon, after being called to another checkout to be told the young lad couldn't serve me because i had a bottle of wine and he didn't 'have a licence to sell alcohol yet' - that was the first thing i put on the counter but he waited until i had unpacked my basket before telling me - that meant packing everything back up again and going to the end of a now much longer queue... i was really pissed off!!! i suggest if they can't swipe through the alcohol iga sells, instead of calling 'next', they need to qualify it with 'next customer without alcohol'!!!!

sorry, i just had to have that gripe...

and now i'm going to have a glass of that wine while i do some baking - a veggie pie and a chocolate cake - good old (vegan) comfort food! - and then i'm going to settle down and watch some movies - perhaps i'll watch "Splice", about genetic engineering, then maybe "Daybreakers", an australian produced vampire movie with claudia karvan, sam neill, ethan hawke and willem dafoe - should be interesting at the very least!

i'll leave you with an amy winehouse video - a very talented young womon with so much potential and such a beautiful, powerful voice - but sadly a troubled young womon addicted to crack cocaine and alcohol and surrounded by sycophants - dead at 27... farewell young sister...

a little bit of sorcer-y...

2011-07-18T16:58:00.015+10:00

nah, not that type of sorcery - i'm talking this type of sorcer(y)... our new(ish) web 2.0 catalogue 'experience'...

what does it do? this, from the developers (civica) website... "SORCER is focused at the library patron and, by using a range of Web 2.0 concepts and tools, provides them with a personalized exploration of a library collection integrating social networking and other new features."

in other words it's a more visual, informative, interactive and customizable online library catalogue... i'm in the process of 'learning sorcer' - how to create the containers to display information in various formats - browse clouds, gallery displays, browse lists, etc... doesn't sound too hard does it? but it's like learning a whole new language...

have you ever played around in the template html of your blog? maybe viewed the source code of a web page? because it's that source code that i have to work within when creating one type of container... this is the source code of the sorcer graphic and first paragraph above - and it's this sort of code that i have to become familiar with... granted, the wheel has already been invented in that there are containers already made that i can copy, paste and edit - but i still have to scan it, work out what needs to be kept, what gets added where, what to get rid of, find the right graphic and then format it to fit, then add it's location into the right place in the code... and then there's the containers that require boolean searching - it needs to be done right to get the right sets of results... all this gets done in a test database and then has to be transferred to the live system - all very 'focused' and 'fiddly' stuff - for me it is anyway - not so for the younger generation who have grown up with computers - guess they grew up with computer-speak their second language...

it is interesting stuff though, but it's been doing my head in all weekend just thinking over what i learnt on friday - i don't want to forget it! the memory doesn't have the same retention and recall it once did (access to the test database from home would be sooo good - the only place where total concentration can really be achieved!)...

i had ideas of writing a post on a totally different topic - i'd been mulling over a couple of reports of disturbing trends from earlier in the week - but, as you can see, it didn't quite work out that way - perhaps next week...

a significant 60s struggle...

2011-07-04T16:56:00.019+10:00

ever heard of dagenham? i certainly hadn’t – so i was totally oblivious to the major chapter of herstory written there in 1968…

well, oblivious until yesterday that is, when i watched a 2010 bbc movie – made in dagenham – a dramatization based on the struggle for equal pay and recognition as skilled workers by the female machinists at the dagenham ford factory…

in 1967 england there were effectively four grades of production workers...

the womyn were at the 'bottom of the ladder' and received only 87% of the unskilled male wage... the industry was rolling out a new classification structure which looked like this..

they were expecting recognition of, and proper remuneration for, their skills but when the industry reclassified their positions to an unacceptable category b, rather than the deserved category c (to which their male counterparts with equivalent skills were regraded) it was time to take action…

machinists voting to strike in 1968

when ford refused to upgrade them, all 187 machinists walked out and stayed out for three weeks... they were joined by the 195 womyn at ford's halewood plant in merseyside, effectively bringing ford 'to their knees'... oh, i forgot to mention they were also fighting a hostile union in collusion with the ford management...

strikers meet with barbara castle

after meeting with barbara castle, then secretary of state for employment & productivity, negotiations resulted in an immediate 5% pay increase, taking them up to 92% of the male rate, rising to the full category b rate the following year... it wasn't the desired outcome of equal pay and recognition, but it was one they were prepared to accept in the interim...

these courageous womyn and their struggle were instrumental in bringing about the united kingdom's equal pay act of 1970... but their fight didn't end there - it took another 16 years to win the regrading!!!

by the way, i enjoyed the film... there are some inaccuracies, and a bit of 'poetic licence' applied... the main character in the movie, rita o'grady, is a composite character - but played well by sally hawkins... bob hoskins also does a good job as the shop steward... there are also a lot of beehives!!!! all in all it's entertaining and informative (and it inspired me to look for more information!!!)

a dog's tale...

2011-06-28T20:12:00.002+10:00

take a dog, a human and throw in some compassion and what do you get? a wonderful, heartwarming story - thought it was worth sharing...

"Naki’o is the first dog to be fitted with a complete set of bionic legs that work naturally to allow him to run, jump and even swim. The prosthetics were designed and fitted in a pioneering procedure by Martin Kaufmann, founder of Orthopets.

Abandoned by a family fleeing their foreclosed home and their mother dead, Naki’o and his brothers and sisters barely survived the harsh Nebraskan winter. Weakened by malnourishment, the red heeler puppy stepped into an icy puddle in the basement and got his four paws stuck in freezing water.

At just five weeks old the litter was taken to an animal rescue center. Under the shelter’s care Naki’o's paws, lost to severe frostbite, healed to rounded stumps.

Veterinary technician Christie Tomlinson was on the look out for a playmate for her Jack Russell terrier mix Poki when she came across Naki’o. Fearful of the pain that walking and playing with other dogs would cause, Naki’o resigned himself to crawling along on his belly at home and at the veterinary clinic’s doggy daycare..." read more of naki'o's story at incrediblefeatures

when all you want to do is...

2011-06-27T15:59:00.016+10:00

... curl up and die! i am so sick of being sick - from thursday night to sunday evening i was aching, coughing, spluttering, the head was pounding, i had chills and flushes and spent most of the time in bed - yep, i just wanted a quick death to stop feeling so terrible...

this bug has been going around for ages and just keeps on keeping on... and no, it's not just me - it's affecting other colleagues too... perhaps we're suffering from sick building / sick office syndrome - 'my' office is an open-plan affair - it's small, i mean really, really small considering there are 5 people sharing it, using computers all day, (along with other testing processors turned on more often than not) and all emitting their electromagnetic radiation (and hey, i'm 'lucky' if i sit a foot away from the back of a minimum of 2 processors!)...

the office also comes complete with air-conditioning (that fluctuates between way too hot or chilly, chilly cold - but alas necessary for 'air movement' when there are 3 young men with their 'boy hygiene' in the office - not casting aspersions here, everyone tells me this, male and female alike!), locked down windows (no fear of anyone falling out an open window here!), fluorescent lights, probably mould spores and food crumbs in the carpet, etc. etc... we all get sick - perhaps rather than using our own sick leave anything 'flu-ey' should be covered by workers compensation - after all, we probably wouldn't be sick if we worked in a healthier environment...

according to an article Open-plan offices are making workers sick, say Australian scientists some believe we should re-think the open-plan idea and perhaps go back to the old-fashioned small office or partitioned space - wow, noise absorption and the semblance of privacy allowing concentration on your own work (some distractions are more than welcome, but sometimes you need to focus and constant noise and activity can really affect your thought processes!) - now that appeals to me!!! (funny how the majority of top-level managers in most workplaces still have a private office - no wonder they didn't 'join the exodus' to the open plan model, they would have lost their access to natural light, fresh air and personal headspace!)

déjà vu...

2011-06-20T10:47:00.016+10:00

me mum - now and way back when...

the mother was rushed to hospital again last thursday – me brother and i are becoming ‘old hands’ at finding our way around the emergency department and the ‘rabbit warren’ of rooms that make up ward 4 at the alfred hospital…

mind you, it was no mean feat getting her from her flat in st kilda to the alfred with all the roadworks happening at the time – all the dirt and dust in the atmosphere was no doubt a contributing factor to her inability to breath – and yep, pneumonia was part of the diagnosis – along with renal failure (of course, having chronic kidney disease meant that wasn’t a shock!)

after stabilising her there’s not much else they can do for her so she came home late saturday afternoon… they did discover she has no vitamin b12 in her body though so has to have regular supplementary injections (for the rest of her life, however long that will be - no, we're under no illusions, this is the downward slide) – but as she has ‘all her faculties’ and can still ‘live independently’ the dmu (disease management unit) is looking at a plan to provide more ‘carer assistance’ for her… it’ll be interesting to see how long it takes them to draw up that plan… perhaps they’re thinking ‘independent palliative care’ – after all it’s very bleak, ‘slim pickings’ where decent facilities are concerned for poor, low income pensioners – as judy says “all they do is put you in front of a television all day – i can do that myself!”

luckily there is a real sense of community in her block of flats with most residents looking in on each other and providing meals (wanted or not) and offers of assistance (although my mother – hey, my whole family – were brought up to ‘do things for themselves’ and not ask for help) - she’s extremely appreciative of the offers but I just know she won’t take anyone up on it though – she will of course help anyone else that needs assistance but it’s just so ingrained in her to not talk about her own problems and health issues – hey, it’s even hard for her to open up to her children! one of my grandmother’s favourite quotes was “i was sad because i had no shoes until i met a man that had no feet…” when you’re brought up with the view that there’s always someone worse off than you it’s hard to put yourself first because that seems selfish… good old fucking catholic guilt – has a lot to answer for…

for a bit of a relax after all the ‘excitement’ i popped a black raspberry (my favourite fragrance) soy wax melt on, made a mull and settled back to watch a movie - “my house in umbria” – maggie smith is wonderful as the eccentric mrs delahunty – a british romance writer living in a beautiful umbrian villa… whilst on a train ride through the italian countryside there is a bomb blast in the carriage she is sharing with nine others… the devastating blast leaves only four survivors – a disparate group of people whom mrs delahunty invites back to her villa to recuperate and come to terms with their altered lives… it’s a charming movie - happy and sad in equal measure, with delightful scenery - well worth the watch…

the rest of the weekend has been spent doing this'n'that for me mum so now it's time to do my domestic crap... sorry for the unedifying post, but that's been my last few days... ohh, shit - me smoke alarm's going off - me toast must be burning!!!! (it also goes off when when it detects 'excessive' steam from the shower - now that's a pain if i'm enjoying a nice hot shower - good for water conservation though, it forces me to have quicker showers!!)

sleepless in st kilda...

2011-06-13T14:35:00.011+10:00

sleep – a casualty of living in st kilda at the moment…they’re raising the tram lines in fitzroy street between canterbury road and the esplanade and working through the night - i can’t imagine what the noise must be like closer to the heavy machinery – the noise reaching my place is constant and annoying – that pesky beeping of trucks and the rumbling and crash banging of the earthmovers and jackhammers (even shadow isn't venturing very far from home - he sits in his courtyard with his ears twitching and his eyes enormous orbs) – and this is going to be happening for the next week… which means no public transport running to balaclava or the st kilda shopping precinct… what a bummer – it’s going to be very hard psyching myself up for work this week – i’ll be walking – hope it’s not too ‘brrrrr’ chilly… but i’m not as bad off as the elderly people in me mother’s block of flats who have mobility problems due to age - there's no transport to get them to their various hospital and doctors appointments, let alone to the shops…

my weekend has been tinged with a bit of concern for me mum though - she isn’t well at the moment – she had a malignant growth removed from her face a few weeks ago that she's only just 'coming good' from, but then on thursday she had to have her cornea reattached (a quite common outcome apparently months after a cataract operation amongst the aged) - since then she's been really unwell – seems the eye drops they use affect her kidneys badly – she suffers constant nausea and fatigue – all she can do is stay in bed (which she hates) – she was almost at the point of ringing an ambulance saturday night but persevered with her pain instead… she has a fear that if she goes to hospital she may never get back home - at 82 and suffering chronic kidney failure (and her hospital experiences over the last couple of years) it’s an understandable fear…

apart from that it’s been a lovely weekend… i had dinner cooked for me last night – an array of vegies baked in a delicious garlicky tomato sauce… good, hearty winter fare – made even tastier i’m sure by the fact that I didn’t have to cook it - i did make some garlic bread to go with it though… (nah, this isn't a photo of what we had but it does look similar - just add beans and carrots too)...

to top that off I came across a new recipe for a lemon tart I just had to try – and it was sooo lemony delicious – and so very easy to make (and yes, this is a photo of my version!)… it comes from the sweet treats section of veggie.wedgie but i cheated with the base... i just made a crushed biscuit base because i didn't have the recommended oats and spelt flour - but the filling was 'by the recipe' and deeeelicious, so here's how to make the lemony yumminess...

1 cup fresh lemon juice
400ml light coconut milk
2tbsp lemon zest
1/2 cup corn starch
1/2 cup agave syrup
in a pot combine agave, coconut milk and cornflour. whisk until the cornflour is completely dissolved. add lemon zest. bring to boil whisking continuously and once it starts to thicken remove from heat. add lemon juice and continue stirring for 3 minutes. Let the mixture cool completely and pour over the crust. chill until set. enjoy!!

i'm sure this recipe can be adapted with many variations - any other citrus (tangello, grapefruit, lime, orange), chocolate, vanilla bean, caramel.... yummm, the list goes on - a definite must to repeat in the very near future...

and now it's to the kitchen and a sink of dishes... and then maybe i'll read some more of denise scott's memoir 'all that happened at number 26' - or perhaps listen to a few chapters of ruth park's 'swords and crowns and rings', centred around two young people growing up in an australian country town between 1907 and 1931 and read by deidre rubenstein, a narrator i really enjoy - it also won the miles franklin award in 1977...

what the f*@#...

2011-06-06T16:58:00.023+10:00

be careful what you say on the streets in future, because the baillieu government is introducing a new law to parliament this week giving police the power to issue on the spot fines to people using 'indecent language'... isn't swearing part of the aussie vernacular, and if so, doesn't that make this law 'un-australian'? a tad draconian anyway don't you think...

supposedly it will be used to curb ‘obnoxious and anti-social’ behaviour – surely each cop will have their own interpretation of what that means, and what they consider ‘indecent language’ depending on their personal 'moral code' - and then there's the matter of who you are and whether they 'take a shine' to you or not...

guess baillieu and cohorts don't ever swear (yeah, sure!!)... hmmm, perhaps not what it appears though - after all, the fine will be around $230 - with swearing so much a part of our culture that should make the government a tidy little sum - looks like they're onto a real revenue raiser there... a swear tax...

lucky i'm a homebody – the way i swear (just in normal conversation!) i’d be fined often - and broke all the time (unlike just being broke some of the time now)… unfortunately life will become even more frugal soon… my rent is going up $109 a month from august – fuck, that’s the highest rent increase i’ve ever had - now that's enough to make a person need to fucking swear - after all, a 2009 study by british psychologist richard stephens found that swearing is both therapeutic and good pain relief...

on a brighter note, i may have found a new favourite author – well, favourite after reading her first novel anyway – and what a treat it was to read rosamund lupton’s ‘sister’... it’s hard to define as any specific genre - there's an underlying psychological thriller that takes a back seat to the exploration of relationships between sisters, and between mothers and daughters - her treatment of grief and how we cope differently with it is deeply touching...

'sister' is written as if a letter - from beatrice to her sister tess, whose baby died soon after birth after 'being cured' of cystic fibrosis in utero - tess disappeared not long after and was found dead six days later – the cause being ruled suicide due to post natal psychosis according to 'the experts'... knowing her sister better than anyone, bea doesn’t believe this and sets out to find what really happened to tess and her baby… there are a number of twists and turns which kept me engrossed – it was haunting and mesmerising - definitely a gifted wordsmith with a refreshing writing style…

i can’t wait to read her second novel 'afterwards' (although 'sister' could be a hard act to follow!) - it's due out this month (and i’ve just reserved it – the library has it on order and i'm second in the queue, yay!!!)

the same fight, a different name...

2011-05-30T16:31:00.021+10:00

the first melbourne SlutWalk hit the streets this weekend - heartening that an estimated 2500 took part... the SlutWalk demonstrations began in canada after a toronto police official said that "women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimised"…

there are varying views on the controversial name, but the SlutWalk is nothing new - its themes far too familiar... we used to call them reclaim the night rallies - i went to many over the years - we demonstrated in support of womyn's fundamental right to freedom from violence, rape or fear – i remember the feeling of empowerment and the camaraderie of the sisters and supporters as they chanted ‘yes means yes, no means no, however we dress, wherever we go’…

which makes it even more frustrating, angering and unbelievable that we are still fighting the perception that womyn are to blame for their own rape - that we get raped because of what we wear - that we ask to be raped because of where we go and what we do... the facts certainly don't bear this out - but unfortunately the myriad rape myths overshadow the fact that rape is about power...

sadly, as Hilary Beaumont so rightly states...

"Society teaches 'Don’t get raped' rather than 'Don’t rape'"

who was that masked man?

2011-05-18T12:22:00.024+10:00

the lone ranger was a popular television show when i was growing up in the late 50s-early 60s - let's not forget, television itself was still new, only having been introduced here in australia in 1956 - consequently viewing was limited so really, anything and everything on telly was popular! at this stage in our technological development we were served up mostly american and british shows, with a sprinkling of local content hitting our screens...

getting sidetracked here, so back to the point... the show would end with the lone ranger 'riding off into the sunset' on his trusty stead silver, accompanied by his native american friend and sidekick tonto, with someone always posing the question "who was that masked man?"

why am i writing about the lone ranger? well, i'm not - but i did have a 'who was that masked man' moment yesterday when i went with my mother as moral support while she had a growth removed from her face...

it was a fascinating process to watch - i'm sure i wouldn't be saying that if the needle was massive, or if the incision was any larger and fleshy growth removed any bigger though!! - there was cutting and cauterizing and puffs of smoke - she actually had to be 'earthed' so as not to suffer an electric shock from the equipment! - but that's not what i'm writing about either!! what amazed me the most was the silence everything was performed in - the surgeon perhaps uttered a dozen or so words behind his mask in the whole time the procedure took (about 20 mins) - the most worrying utterance, well, a question for me mum, was "are you on any blood thinning drugs?" - now, i thought perhaps it was a question that may have been best asked before the procedure started - but it was asked halfway through - what the fuck!!! her answer was in the positive - 'yes, aspirin' - hmmm... i guess he at least knew then why she was bleeding so much!!!

once he'd finished and stitches were in place (he did seem extremely adept surgically), he put the removed material into a container to be sent off for testing and left the room (with mask still in place) - he never returned but left the poor young (20 year old, new to the job) nurse to try and answer our questions (guess he's not so adept with verbal communication)... i couldn't help but wonder "who was that masked man?"

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for regular readers, you will have seen my pleas to help free tony the tiger from his steel and concrete prison - the perseverence of all of those who have championed tony's cause over the years has paid off finally... the animal legal defense fund action has resulted in the louisianna department of wildlife and fisheries being prevented from renewing the truck stop owner's permit to keep tony as a roadside exhibit...

there is a downside though - the current permit stays in place until december (read more about the ruling here) - it's not ideal, but there is some 'light at the end of the tunnel' for the boy - now the search is on for a suitable sanctuary for this beautiful creature... hopefully boy you will soon experience some wonders of this world, rather than abuse, torment and sheer boredom...

this has been a long, hard battle - it's a long, slow process trying to change attitudes - but people can make a difference, we can change lives... we have voices that can speak up for the voiceless - but we need to continue to speak out, to 'persevere in the face of adversity'... as margaret mead said "never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world... indeed, it is the only thing that ever has"...

____________________________________

and why am i blogging during the day on a wednesday? i've got a cold thanks to a friend who came around at the weekend for dinner which was lovely, but unfortunately they were already feeling unwell (and obviously highly contagious) when they arrived - guess sharing the bong was an added guarantee of coming down with it! - the 'aftermath' sucks though (echinacea and ibuprofen are my best friends at the moment) - so i decided to stay home while feeling like crap and not spread anything to my colleagues... oooh, hopefully i wasn't contagious yesterday when i saw me mom (definitely no bong shared there!) - colds and flu are dangerous for her...

one pissed off mother...

2011-05-08T12:04:00.024+10:00

floods, tornadoes, earthquakes, tsunamis… you have to admit, the mother (nature that is) has one helluva way of expressing her outrage – we (humans that is) continue to rape, pillage and plunder her while mutilating, torturing and murdering her other children, the ones we consider less than equal to human animals, (that’s every other animal in the world!) – so many atrocities committed against her, and yet still she only gives warnings when she could so easily wipe humans off the face of the earth (like we’ve done to so many others)… a forgiving mother trying to teach us to respect our family and our home…

mother nature by saya kodachi

'mothers day' – what does it actually mean? marla of vegan feminist agitator has written a wonderful post – universal mother – i love this sister’s posts, always poignant and articulate… it’s well worth the read, her views expressed eloquently as she states in her final paragraph “... one also doesn’t need to be a mother to be deeply driven to protect another … for mother’s day, i propose that we honor this natural drive within all of us to protect the ones we love, the ones who depend on our consideration, by not consuming the products of exploitation and cruelty. this common thread of wanting our babies to thrive is natural and noble, a key part of our essential being. whether we are men or women, children or adults, human or hen, that universal mother is in all of us. let’s celebrate without exploiting another innocent mother who had not only the autonomy of her body but also her babies stolen from her for our appetites. let’s connect to that profound mothering spirit that links us together. she wants her babies to be well and protected from harm. i think we can understand." (thank you marla, so beautifully stated - such a way you weave words!!)

it's been a 'frenzy of death' for horses unfortunate enough to be forced to participate in jumps racing here in victoria, with 5 magnificent creatures dying in 6 weeks - victoria and south australia are the only 2 states that persist in allowing jumps racing in australia - with 90% of victorians against jumps racing perhaps dennis napthine has a vested interest in it continuing - according to him "the victorian government will continue to support jumps racing." so please take a moment to check out animals australia unleashed and the coalition for the protection of racehorses...

perhaps something will change now that there have been 'human casualties'... although that doesn't seem likely after an abc interview where napthine stated "the incident has nothing to do with the controversy over the sport of jumps racing." - surely he's not that naive - it was a jumps meeting for fuck's sake, it wouldn't have happened otherwise (although other forms of horse racing kills as well!!) nah, more likely he's heavily invested in the jumps racing industry and has 'too much' to lose...

no animal should die in the human 'pursuit of entertainment' - let alone any other 'pursuit'!! - so at the very least we should all shed tears for casa boy, hammerblow, squire rex, java star and shine the armour...

from the rspca website

on that note, i'm going to do some reading - it's just a 'lazy' day for me after working yesterday - well, the back is a tad sore, has been on and off for a few days - problem with getting older and having a physically demanding job at times - i feel every day of 56 sometimes!!! so i'll be relaxing and recuperating rather than lazing!! i have favourite authors and long awaited books to catch up on... i've recently finished lisa gardner's latest psychological thriller "love you more" - brilliant, as usual lisa! as with this one, i seem to have a spate of highly reserved books coming through at the moment - which of course means a 2-week borrowing period... and my next read is no exception...

many people, like me, have been waiting a long time to read the final book in jean auel's epic earth's children series - a story that has been 6 books in the writing and three decades in the telling - the first book, clan of the cave bear - was published back in 1980, when i first read it!!! needless to say i'm hanging out to get stuck into the land of painted caves!

time goes by and life goes on...

2011-04-26T13:10:00.027+10:00

my old girl’s been gone for over a month now and still i yearn for the feel of her – sometimes it feels like my whole body is aching, craving to touch her, every nerve screaming out for that sensory pleasure - i so miss caressing her… i still see her out of the corner of my eye, i look for her and talk to her, i end conversations with 'hey gang' and then look around to see the boy but no girl, i miss sharing my food with her - she loved all food, sweet and savoury... i miss her... i still weep, but then i feel her in everything around me so i get on with life…

we shared last thursday, april 21st though – my 56th birthday and the anniversary of her death exactly 4 weeks before… after a lovely visit from larry and lottie who came bearing gifts, my girl and i shared a ceremony to celebrate the occasion – surrounded by flowers and scented candles (soy wax of course) i placed some of allie’s ashes into the beautiful keepsake i purchased from furry souls… the keepsake is lovely to hold – hand-made, heart-shaped in brass and pewter which just fits into the palm and has an incredibly sensual feel... furry souls also have a memorial page and this is my tribute to my sweet beauty...

i spoke to some lovely, caring womyn during the preceding weeks when allie’s time was getting nearer – womyn who had started their own businesses to help grieving people deal with the impending loss of their companion animals, their best friends, their family members…

allie’s passing was well honoured, beautiful and serene for the old girl and me… emma whiston from my best friend was such a compassionate and caring vet who came to our home with such a calming presence… she encourages those close to be there too so as brann had known and loved her for years i invited him, and my brother darrell came too – he just adored her and was in awe of her resilience… she was in her element – she felt love all around her when her time came, all hands were caressing her… it was a beautiful passing…

caroline higgins from paws and reflect came and collected her body for cremation a few hours later – i appreciated those fews hours, having her body here without being whisked straight away was very calming and therapeutic in the letting go, the accepting… caroline came with a beautiful purple body bag in which she placed the old girl very respectfully – another honouring of my beautiful friend…

she returned in a black scatter tin and has been surrounded by orchids which have dropped from the plant over the last month... it was given by colleagues at work (although i suspect it was mainly thanks to kirsty, katherine and amanda) to mark allie's passing with something living – a beautiful gesture and a stunning plant – and a plant that can be divided to make more living memories of my girl, each containing some of her ashes…

if you share your life with an animal i can’t recommend the above people highly enough when your friend’s journey is coming to an end…

here’s a slideshow of my beautiful friend over the years, from 1996 when she came into my life at 4 years of age, to 2011...

as they say, 'time heals'... it was allie's time and she lived to a grand old age - 19, but the tears still flow at times... my girl will always be in my heart and memories though... and i know that she would expect me to rescue someone else, to give another babe a chance, a home, but that will be in the future - i'll know when it's the right time, when i'm being called - but for now it's shadow's time to have me to himself for a while...

i've had the last week off - it was an opportune time to take the minimum amount of my own leave while having the maximum amount of days off due to the public holidays, but it's back to work tomorrow - i needed that break though to reflect and reminisce, and it turned out to be a very pleasurable time with visits from kirsty, and michael and lottie, being taken out for dinner by steph and pete, lunch shouted by the mother and aunt (which meant food from veg out to go - neither felt well enough to get out so they paid and lunch and i came to them), and then i had a lovely dinner cooked for me on monday evening by brann... it's been nice to catch up with friends - a lovely birthday week...

looks like i'll be blogging again - it's time to come back to it but i don't know how regularly yet... so many topics to blog about, but this post is enough for today...

a journey's end...

2011-03-28T14:36:00.017+11:00

my beautiful, gentle, loving and very much loved friend and companion allie's lifelong journey came to an end at 11.10am on thursday march 24...

my heart is broken, my world bereft...

farewell my sweet beauty...

"when someone you love becomes a memory, the memory becomes a treasure..."

you will be forever treasured my dearest friend...

there will be more about my beautiful old girl - she was well honoured in her passing but i can't write it now... i miss the girl - i miss her presence - and the sensory deprivation of the touch and feel of her is incredibly painful...

one hundred years...

2011-03-08T14:33:00.008+11:00

yep, this is the 100th anniversary of international womyn's day... a celebration of gains, but sadly a commemoration also of the things that haven't yet changed, the inequality that still exists, the suffering, the exploitation, and the violence still perpetrated against womyn...

i'm not really ready to get right back into full on blogging just yet - but i couldn't let international womyn's day go by without any acknowledgement, and this is my forum for that!! if you're interested in a wee bit of australian iwd herstory you can find it here...

and this makes for interesting viewing...

time out...

2011-02-06T10:25:00.005+11:00

after three and a half years of regular blogging i've decided to take a break - for how long? your guess is as good as mine... i've shared a lot of myself over that time, but now i have a need to contemplate, take stock and continue my life journey privately... perhaps it's an ending, or maybe a beginning - i might change the blog, or create a totally new one... who knows - only time will tell...

i'll leave you with clips of two admirable womyn - both long term stayers in the fickle music industry - marianne faithfull with the ballad of lucy jordan and sharon o'neill with maxine...

friends and food - antidote to the blues...

2011-01-31T11:20:00.032+11:00

it's always a pleasure to spend time with friends steph and pete - and saturday evening was no exception... dinner at my place was the order of the day so it was up early to do shopping so i could get back and start cooking - my vegan fare is always appreciated by these two - and there's nothing like deliciously tasty, fresh food, good conversation, music and much vino to push depression to the background - ohh, the beautiful bunch of flame red flowers they brought me was a lovely treat too...

we started with dips, olives, crusty garlic bread and rice-stuffed vine leaves marinated in lemon juice, followed by ratatouille stuffed zucchinis with rosemary baked garlic cloves and potatoes - yummmmm - a garden salad topped it all off while steph bought a delicious broccoli and garlic dish she'd made which complemented the meal perfectly... beautiful, juicy organic strawberries and rum balls were the perfect end to a veritable feast...

laughter is something that's never missing from an evening with these interesting and stimulating friends - nor is deeply political conversation (we have similar views about a lot of issues) - as they are also work colleagues and union delegates the conversation always involves some workplace 'anecdotes'... once we get together the conversation just flows, but i did have to start pushing them out the door around 2 am ('start pushing' being the operative words - it can then take 30 or so minutes for the final goobye!!!)...

so, after a late night, sunday was just going to be a lazy day with the temperature forecast to be 40 degrees - after checking in with the mother to make sure she was coping alright with the heat and didn't need anything i curled up on the couch and read most of the day, while allie slept in front of the fan (yes, amazingly my old girl has survived one more year and is now into her 19th - that's 133 in human years) and shadow stretched out on the coffee table until the heat of the day dissipated...

i watched a fascinating documentary in the evening - spitfire women - about the female pilots of the air transport auxilliary who ferried british warplanes from factories and repair bases to airfields all over britain during ww2 - considering they weren't allowed to take part in combat it was one of the most high-risk activities of the war with the death rate being higher than in the raf fighter command - one in six were killed...

i first read about these amazing womyn in marge piercy's novel "gone to soldiers" many years ago... and, if you're interested, i came across this article from 2007 in the daily mail - silk stocking and spitfires: the dark reality of the girls who flew dangerous wartime missions by glenys roberts...

a screenplay has apparently been commissioned based on the books “spitfire women of world war II” by giles whitell and “spreading my wings”, the autobiography of ata pilot diana barnato walker - spitfire girls is to be a co-production between the united kingdom and new zealand... unfortunately i've just checked our catalogue and 'my' library doesn't hold either of these book titles - you can find books about the 'daring-do' of the 'fly boys' in our collection - but the 'ata-girls', now that's a different matter - surely anything about feisty womyn pushing the boundaries of male dominance in their quest for equality is something we should have on our shelves - ahhh, luckily we have access to inter-library loans...

a depressing dilemma…

2011-01-27T13:46:00.009+11:00

it appears my carefully constructed work façade is starting to crack – i realised that when a colleague commented last week ‘you look okay sharon, but you sound totally disillusioned’… and the only response i could muster – ‘i am’…

at least there's work and life balance - disillusion and depression...

the security of a retreat in malmsbury is fast becoming a pipe dream, a once longed for illusion… after a bad few weeks involving a car accident, an assault and then the death of lucky boy, irene told me last week she's contemplating her future and the possibility of moving - and that move is likely to take her (and my louie) further away, closer to new south wales…

it's a decision that's totally understandable, but nonetheless depressing for me… the sanctuary i’ve been yearning for and which was seemingly so close now looks to be a receding dream… as is reuniting with my louie boy – i'm realistic enough to know he could never live in a flat (nor would it be fair to him - he’s used to being part of a pack, having space and barking a lot these days), and my only option as a city dweller is a flat - the rental on a house being way out of my solo-living, single-income league… that realisation has caused much heartache and many tears…

so now I grapple with possibilities for some sort of housing security as I age – the vagaries of the ever increasing cost and competition of the private rental market, or getting my name onto the community housing waiting list (available to those on low to moderate income with a percentage of 'stock' allocated for those over 55) - that though would entail cutting down a few hours to come within the income threshhold of $738 gross per week (as opposed to public housing which has a lower income threshhold) - i earn $683 per week net but then there's the compulsory weekend work for us lower banded workers… unfortunately it could take months or even years to be offered something – and that would mean trying to survive in private rental on even less income until an offer was made (which i could just afford staying here assuming they renew the lease and don't put the rent up!)… if the lease isn't renewed or the rent hike is massive (they didn't raise the rent last year so chances are there'll be a hike this year!!!) i'm fucked...

a dilemma indeed…

depression and disillusionment – a good start to a new year… and such a frugal few weeks it’s been to boot – with more frugality to come…

such a downer of a first post nearly a month into 2011 hey... while i wallow in self-pity i'll leave you with a favourite song... flame trees - sadly the co-writer and drummer of cold chisel – steve prestwich - died last week at the age of 56 (which is how old i’ll be in 3 months) – it has long been my very favourite chisels song...

2010-12-31T18:10:00.000+11:00

Magickal Graphics

a time for change...

2010-12-28T15:11:00.039+11:00

elizabeth evatt - first female judge of an australian high court and first chief justice of the family court of australia - stated many years ago that "we are not by constitution a christian country" - that statement has stayed with me for many years and often helped reinforce my beliefs - 'smash the church, smash the state' was an imperative of the womyn's movement in the 70s and often helped sustain me... the separation of church and state - it is an absolute necessity in a free world...

although with the amount of christian 'celebrations' we adhere to you would never know we were a multicultural, multi-belief population, a non-christian country... you'd never know more than a third of the population doesn't believe in any religion at all - but then, you have to wonder how many ordinary people within the percentage of those considered christian only identify with religion at certain times - christmas, easter - perhaps it's just easier for them to go through the motions - after all, let's face it, no child is born religious - it's purely an indoctrinated, learned behaviour from parents!!!!! what can i say - stop fucking brainwashing your kids with a mysoginistic patriarchal religious fantasy...

i'm surprised at the number of people that have said to me recently they're not christian, they just celebrate christmas because they always have... here's something novel - let's change it - let's still have a holiday, but at some other time of the year for something more worthwhile... perhaps international womyns day, or any one of the struggles that have been fought by ordinary people - maybe a time special to our indigenous population, or new years day for new beginnings... maybe a children's day seeing so many people say "it's just for the kids anyway"... perhaps we could all just choose a time that means something significant to us - now that would truly be political and religious equality...

for some of us the last week has been a time to hide away - i certainly find it hard to listen to all of the talk of murdered non-human animals being basted and trussed and stuffed for human consumption - all i can think of is the horror of their lives and the grotesqueness of their deaths for this over-indulgent time of gluttony... huh, and this the so-called christian time of compassion - but for who? definitely not the animals - nor most humans from what's happening in the world today!!!!

so while many consumed misery and death while bonding with family, i decided it was time to watch a documentary i'd bought a while ago - 'earthlings' narrated by joaquin phoenix - it's about nature, animals and humankind - i wept for the animals, and felt despair for humanity...

i gained some respect for joaquin phoenix after listening to his narration, which encouraged me to read something about him - i learned he'd been a vegan since he was 3 - now that doesn't really say much but for the fact he's now 36 and still vegan!!! he won an humanitarian award for his social justice work including his contribution to this documentary... thank fuck, all is not lost with this generation - there is hope in the world yet!!!

do you consider yourself a compassionate person? then why not view 'earthlings' online... it's only right that you watch it - after all, if you eat or wear animals then you are complicit in the horror that is their life because you 'benefit' by them, so you owe them that much at least - to see what brutality is inflicted on them for you... to see what savagery humans are capable of - perhaps if you see, the world might change rather than stay stuck in this rut...

roll on new year - and hopefully a new, compassionate world where people take a stand against speciesism, rather than go along with 'tradition' - after all, we are all earthlings...

my generation - or, another one bites the dust...

2010-12-21T18:00:00.018+11:00

what a lovely day i had monday... caught up with larry the librarian and got to meet his little adopted girl lottie who came for the visit too... she is a real sweetie and will be a wonderful, loyal companion... of course i didn't answer the phone when it rang - hey, i had visitors and as they weren't staying long i did the courteous thing and let the phone go to message bank - i also wasn't ready to deal with an emergency should there have been one!!!

eventually i checked the messages... my mother had rung - there'd been another death in the (extended) family - yet another from 'my generation'...

you have to wonder how much grief a person can cope with - how resilient we are... my dear childhood friend jennie has had such a hard couple of years... her mother (aunty al) died on the 18th december, 2008 - then her beautiful elderly canine companion cara died 12 months ago - on top of that benji, another furry friend and companion, died only 4 weeks ago... and just yesterday her only sibling - her brother jeff - died at 52 years of age... i'm thinking of you jen - your pain was palpable last night when we spoke...

jeff contracted an infection in hospital so, of course, they opted for antibiotic treatment - you'd think he was in the right place, being in hospital already (but not for anything life-threatening!)... not so - unfortunately they couldn't get the drip into his arm on the first try, so they then attempted to insert it into the other arm - they bungled that one too, with a 'clot' quickly developing - he was dead within 10 minutes... so very, very sad... goodbye jeff...

death leaves a heartache no one can heal,
love leaves a memory no one can steal ~ the quote garden

homophobia - still around and still brutal...

2010-12-19T11:16:00.036+11:00

on receiving my latest email update from change.org i read with horror the story of millicent gaika, a 30 year old south african womon who was beaten, strangled, tortured and raped for five hours by a man as he screamed that he would “cure” her of her lesbianism...

'corrective rape' they call it - a term used to describe the rape of a lesbian with the aim of 'turning' her heterosexual - the implication being that this form of rape is justifiable because it's a 'rehabilitation process' - a necessary punishment - and therefore not a crime against womyn...

sadly the horrifying reality is that "more than 500 “corrective rapes” are reported in South Africa each year, and more than 30 South African lesbians have been murdered because of their sexuality over the past decade. Worse, for every 100 men charged with rape in South Africa, 96 of them walk free..." you can read more here or sign the petition below to have this heinous brutality declared a hate crime...

Petitions by Change.org|Start a Petition »

and still more violently acted out homophobia with this disturbing article from reuters uk office...

"Girl killed gay man in "Clockwork Orange" attack. An 18-year-old girl was facing jail on Thursday after being found guilty of a homophobic attack which one witness described as being like something out of the film "A Clockwork Orange.

Former public schoolgirl Ruby Thomas was convicted of the manslaughter of 62-year-old Ian Baynham, who died 18 days after the drink-fuelled assault in Trafalgar Square." ... read more here

shameful isn't it that there is so much violent abuse in this world - so many more horrifying stories waiting to be heard... the brutal and callous treatment of any sentient being is hard to fathom in this world full of incredible beauty and natural wonder...

for those who were touched by tony the tiger's plight, an update...

sadly, this beautiful boy is to be psychologically and physically tormented for another 12 months... the action to free tony from his concrete and steel prison has been unsuccessful with the renewal of the truck stop owner's permit to keep him as a 'roadside attraction' for yet another year - but the fight to have him surrendered to a big cat sanctuary will continue throughout 2011... read more of tony's story here...

as it's that time of year - yes, summer! - nature's flourishing and abundant time (thanks Lily for sharing your lovely garden bounty of herbs and veg with me!) - i'd be remiss if i didn't wish you a happy summer solstice for tuesday 21 december...

simply magical...

2010-12-12T15:51:00.018+11:00

it caught my attention earlier in the week when i heard of the death of norman hetherington, puppeteer and creator of mr squiggle - one of australia's longest running childrens television programs... ohhh such childhood memories he helped create – magical moments of a black and white era of visual wonders - a very different technological world to now…

it was a time when simple pleasures exhilarated a child… mr squiggle entered our lives in 1959 (television only began transmission here in 1956!) – i was 4 years old – i was enthralled by this moon-dwelling marionette with a pencil nose who arrived in a rocket - and the grumpy talking blackboard used as an easel by mr squiggle... and of course the presenters - always female (obviously more empathetic to other-worldly beings!!!) - one of the longest stints being patricia lovell - 'miss pat' from 1960-1975...

i was totally mesmerised by that pencil nose and how quickly a few squiggles could be turned into a wonderful work of art (like i said, i was 4 – and i didn’t know someone else was pulling the strings!!)

simplicity is enduring though – after 40 years in production mr squiggle only ended in 1999 - although its black and white mystique was replaced by colour in the 70s, i guess it still held a unique appeal for kids...

it was a real family affair - margaret, norman's life companion and business partner, wrote the scripts, while he operated and voiced the puppets, with daughter rebecca a puppeteering assistant in the 80s and presenter in the 90s... here's a clip from a 1996 television report - a mini documentary about the beginnings and making of mr squiggle... enjoy...

and congratulations to larry the librarian and partner who have recently adopted lovely lottie - i certainly hope to meet her in the near future...

a cruel existence...

2010-12-06T17:52:00.012+11:00

meet "tony the tiger"... this magnificent boy has suffered - you certainly couldn't call it living - in a chain link and concrete enclosure at a truck stop in louisiana for all of his 10 years - a life of misery spent as a 'roadside attraction', his only protection being a cage and sign asking people not to throw things at him...

i can't begin to imagine the psychological trauma of being subjected to constant harassment, noise, flood lights and exhaust fumes in a space no bigger than a couple of parking spots - 24 hours a day, 7 days a week... then there's the living on concrete - their natural habitat ranges from tropical forests to birch woodlands, mangrove swamps and tall grass jungles... and to do it alone, with no other tigers to interact with - in 2003, after repeated violations of the animal welfare act, three other tigers were removed, but tony was left behind...

the "owner's" permit to keep tony comes up for renewal on december 14 - please sign wspa's petition letting the louisiana dept of wildlife & fisheries know this treatment is cruel and inhumane and that tony should be surrendered to a big cat sanctuary - a tiger's lifespan in captivity can be anywhere from 16-20 years so please help him experience something better than the horror he has endured...

dancing up a storm...

2010-11-28T11:50:00.110+11:00

it's been such a sad week with the death of lucky boy - fortunately there are many treasured memories - but his death has made me ponder my old girl's mortality, more so than usual anyway - you could say i've been a tad down the last few days...

a bad asthma day on thursday didn't help lighten the mood any... and to top the week off, i had to go out earlier yesterday which turned out to be a wet, miserable day and - of course - i got caught in the major downpour of the day and got totally drenched - after trudging home and sloshing inside, the clothes needed wringing out and i needed drying off!!!

fuck, i really needed cheering up - and with no incentive or enthusiasm for cooking i decided to get pizza delivered from mr natural gourmet vegetarian pizza - they'll 'veganize' any of their pizzas - being all vegetarian anyway just means they use vegan cheese! - so i opted for the chilli bean pizza (double chilli, pineapple & mushrooms please!)... i don't buy much 'fast food' these days, so very rarely order home delivery - but i was in need of a treat - that means food i don't have to cook, a nice big mix and a clean bong!!!

with dinner ordered, allie and shadow fed, dirty bong water changed and mix made, all i had to do now was wait for the food to arrive, choose a movie to watch and then snuggle up with the gang... being able to borrow 6 dvds at a time from the library meant i had plenty to choose from... i often reserve online, when i get notification of new films that have recently arrived, so without viewing the item but going on the summary in the catalogue record means it can be quite interesting when you get the dvd in your hand - i sometimes wonder if some of the movies chosen this way would have attracted my attention had they just come across the circulation desk...

white lightnin' was one of those 'sight unseen' movies... since bringing it home i've picked it up and put it down a number of times - with reviews like "a phantasmagoric tumble into the dark corners of artistic genius, addiction and insanity..." (sundance film festival) - "a visually brilliant work. revolting and compulsive in equal measure" (the times) - 'imagine deliverance with a dash of charles manson' (the financial times) - i wasn't sure if i wanted to deal with bleak, dark themes just at the moment - but i decided to give it a go - i could always turn it off if it was too heavy for my mood, or if it sucked...

it's based on the life of jesco white, known as the 'dancing outlaw' - born and bred in bandytown in 1956, a tiny community of boone county, west virginia, deep in the heart of appalachia - real hillbilly country - an area afflicted with total and utter poverty...

he started huffing lighter fluid, petrol, glue - anything that could be sniffed - at eight years old... he was in and out of 'correctional facilities' much of his young (and some of his later) life, with self mutilation and delusional behaviour ensuring time spent in mental institutions... alcohol and any drug he could hit up also played a part in his mental state!! and he was no stranger to violence - both perpetrated upon him, and by him...

his father d ray white was renowned for his mountain dancing - known variously as flat-footing, foot-stomping, buck dancing, clog dancing, jigging - a form of frenzied tap-dancing... he started teaching jesco dancing in the hope it would keep him on the 'straight and narrow' - but he was a troubled lad from a cultural background most of us will never come in contact with or understand - think frontier and daniel boone (yep, that's who boone county was named after!) then strip away the romanticism and exaggerations - what's left? a poverty stricken, superstitious community steeped in 'old-time' religion, large families, domestic violence, family feuds, moonshine stills, multiple firearms in every household, limited access to basic education and facilities, limited employment opportunities, and the major likelihood of some degree of in-breeding - ohh, did i mention the extreme poverty, or the desperately bleak landscape of these mountain people?

on d ray's death (he was actually murdered) jesco inherited his dad's dancing shoes - having been taught his father's craft early in his life, he honed his style and took his 'show' on the road - but psychosis, depression and violence were never far from the surface (he certainly didn't take heckling on stage very well!!!)... with so much substance abuse from a young age, its subsequent damage to a young brain, plus the psyche drugs ingested and injected over the years, along with his continued use and abuse of various substances - and of course the hillbilly culture itself - there's no doubt nor wonder he suffered mental illness...

according to the plot summary of the documentary dancing outlaw the adult jesco white has three distinct personalities - "the gentle and loving Jesse, the violent and dangerous Jesco, and the extremely strange Elvis"... norma jean, who first married him in 1974, would have known all three - theirs appears to have been a very volatile relationship - they married three times, divorcing twice!!... she died in 2009 at the age of 70 so she was a number of years older than jesco who turned 54 this year... i'd like to know more of her life story, so i'll have to check out the documentary...

i found it compelling, bleak, sad, dark, violent, and touching - it's well worth the watch - but remember it is only based on his life - it appears fairly accurate according to the articles i've read, except the film sees him die at the end, when he is in fact still very much alive... hmm, the library doesn't have dancing outlaw though, i just checked the catalogue - might have to request it...

i had a bit of a wander over to youtube and found a clip of d ray dancing - and one of jesco - if you're intrigued...

the whole white family is infamous apparently, and have been the subject of a documentary - the wild and wonderful whites of west virginia - so if you want a brief insight into the white family clan, here's another clip...

by the way, the pizza was delicious!!!!! for under $20, i think that could be an affordable treat every once in a while...

goodbye lucky boy...

2010-11-24T22:33:00.006+11:00

a beautiful friend died this week... so unexpected and so very, very sad... many tears have been shed over this gentle, handsome boy...

i was fortunate to have developed a close relationship with this beautiful companion of my dear friend irene - lucky (aka the old man and luscious lucky amongst other endearments)...

sadly he died yesterday - he'd been healthy all of his twelve years - so heart failure was unexpected - but poodles are prone to many things due to genetic manipulation over time, heart problems being one of them...

Until one has loved an animal,

a part of one's soul remains unawakened.

Anatole France.

it's a sad time for all who knew and loved him, but a much sadder time for irene...

goodbye luscious boy xxx

courageous, strong and free at last - again...

2010-11-15T12:23:00.018+11:00

Aung San Suu Kyi has been released 'unconditionally' according to all reports...

it's been a hard-fought-for outcome by the long-suffering people of burma / myanmar, and human rights supporters worldwide...

but you have to wonder what ulterior motive lies behind the military junta's decision to end the 7-year house arrest of the country's most notable human rights advocate, freedom fighter and nobel peace prize laureate... after all, an appeal against her detention was rejected by the supreme court in february, and her latest appeal on november 11 was also rejected... perhaps after 'winning' the sham of an election on november 7 (the 'fifth phase' of the junta's roadmap to democracy) an extension of her detention order (which expired on november 13 anyway!) would have been seen as counter to their 'roadmap' (and proven their lack of 'commitment' to the democratic process) - oh, it probably would have caused worldwide outrage too!!!

since co-founding the national league for democracy in 1988 aung san suu kyi has spent 15 out of the last 22 years in detention (see timeline) so it's highly unlikely that the fraudulent 'government' will allow her to resume her political activities as leader of the nld 'regardless' -hmmm, guess we'll just have to wait and see how threatened they feel by her and what 'freedom' they allow her...

aung san suu kyi - a strong, courageous womon...

"You should never let your fears prevent you from doing what you know is right."

yummmmmm....

2010-11-09T19:52:00.038+11:00

i was inspired yesterday when i came across a very quick and easy, no-bake chocolate cheesecake recipe - vegan of course... so i had to make one (with a couple of minor changes) and this was the result... berries would have been a nice topping but i only had chocolate chips (and they only went on one piece - should have melted and then drizzled the chocolate over!!!) still, simple yet delicious - although i did have the munchies at the time so perhaps anything sweet would have been delicious...

my (slightly altered) recipe...

1 1/2 containers soy cream cheese (i used tofutti)

150g of dark dairy-free chocolate (i only had sweet william and only about half the required amount - and it's really only good for 'emergencies' - now a good quality raw dark chocolate would have made it richer - next time!!)

big slurp of dark agave syrup (i only had light syrup on hand but it's not as dense and full-flavoured)
approximately 8 plain biscuits (e.g. leda golden crunch or mcvities digestives)

3 tablespoons of nuttelex
cake tin or dish (in hindsight i should have lined this with baking paper!)

crush the biscuits until crumbs

mix the crumbs with the nuttelex until it all sticks together

pat down the crumb mixture on the bottom of the sandwich tin

place in freezer until finished next part of the recipe

for the filling:

place cream cheese in a mixing bowl

melt the chocolate and fold into cheese

add agave syrup
mix thoroughly

take the crust out of the freezer

pour the mixture into the sandwich tin

level out with spoon

put in fridge for 3 hours to set;

after set, top however you'd like and enjoy!!!

and no, allie and i haven't eaten it all - yet!!! for all her other elderly infirmities me old girl's sense of smell is amazing - that nose twitches away - then she's off the couch and on a mission - doesn't take her long to zoom in on her target!!! even shadow doesn't mind the filling (fuck the biscuit base he reckons though!!)

psychic warriors and torturous tunes...

2010-11-07T15:26:00.032+11:00

i watched ‘the men who stare at goats’ last night... having read jon ronson’s book a few years back it was disappointing that the movie didn’t quite succeed in 'capturing' the very dark humour contained within the book... hugely entertaining yes, but terribly disappointing that the seriousness was lost in the ‘hollywood-izing’ of the subject matter…

granted, the book did have comedic value – as in, if it wasn’t real it would be funny – but it was more frightening for being true – that didn’t quite come across in the movie…

the book is an expose of the american army’s venture into paranormal and psychic warfare with the aim of creating a breed of super soldiers who could become invisible at will... remote viewing was one of their 'specialties'… there are many accounts of the existence of a 'goat lab' at the special forces command center at fort bragg, north carolina (the number of de-bleated goats at any one time fluctuates between 30 and 100 depending on which account you read) - why? for the purposes of testing the psychic abilities of the 'warriors' to stop the hearts of the goats by staring at (and psychically zapping) them - the basis for the title..

jim channon (lieutenant colonel) is one of the major players in the book - on his return from vietnam in the 70s he had contact with a group called the human potential movement - and drawing on their philosophy came up with his idea of a new military to be organized along 'new age' lines - the first earth battalion…

“LTC Channon believes the Army can be the principal moral and ethical basis on which politics can harmonize in the name of the Earth. Since "Earthkind" has grown from pack to village, to tribe, to territory, and then to nation, LTC Channon envisions going from nation to planet next, and thereby declares the First Earth Battalion's primary allegiance to the planet. Making the planet whole requires the ethical use of force based on the collective conscience.” In his operations field manual titled Evolutionary Tactics, LTC Channon lists some of the important missions of the Earth Battalion as:

Urban pioneers

Counter hostage force

Disaster rescue

Eco pioneers

Animal rescue

The First Earth Battalion will organize itself informally: uniforms without uniformity, structure without status, and unity powered by diversity, since its members will be multicultural, with each race contributing to "rainbow power." As a guiding principle, members of the First Earth Battalion seek nondestructive methods of conflict resolution because their first loyalty is to the planet.”

hmmmm... "the ethical use of force" - whose ethics, and how much force? of course, what’s an army without force??

another major player was albert stubblebine (major general)… “A proponent of psychic warfare, Stubblebine was involved in a U.S. military project to create "a breed of 'super soldier'" who would "have the ability to become invisible at will and to walk through walls"...

stubblebine led the army’s intelligence and security command (inscom) for a few years and this group was actually given the go-ahead to implement some of channon's 'vision'...

“Within weeks of the publication of the First Earth Battalion operations manual in the spring of 1979, soldiers throughout the U.S. Army began seriously trying to implement his ideas. One example was when the Army's Intelligence and Security Command (INSCOM) began developing its own remote viewing program in 1979, which was a parapsychological intelligence gathering method that had already been experimentally tested at Stanford Research Institute** since 1972 by parapsychologists Russell Targ and Harold Puthoff. Channon's principles trickled through the services and even contributed—through ramblings about lifting soldiers to a higher spiritual realm—the Army slogan Be All You Can Be. Keying off of Channon’s blueprint, a Special Operations experimental team, dubbed “Jedi Warriors,” after the Star Wars craze, were trained in a wide array of Eastern oriental martial arts and meditative techniques, combined with super strenuous physical training programs."

(** coincidentally uri geller was tested at the stanford research institute (and features promintently in the movie - george clooney's character is based on him!!) - interesting that he is considered one of the more exceptional and talented psychics by some, a fraud by others, and a de-commissioned psychic warrior by the rest - he was purportedly 'head-hunted' by stubblebine's stargate project!!!)

of course, the military being what the military is, they weren’t ever going to be 'all pacifism and peace'!!! the first earth battalion manual proposes the use of music to effect "psychic mind-change"... 'naturally', they took the use of music to epic proportions – it became a means of torture – we’ve all heard of guantanamo bay and abu ghraib…

“In September 2003, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the U.S. military commander in Iraq, approved the use of music as part of a package of measures for use on captured prisoners "to create fear, disorient ... and prolong capture shock," and as is spelled out in an explosive new report by the Senate Armed Services Committee into the torture and abuse of prisoners in U.S. custody (PDF), the use of music was an essential part of the reverse engineering of techniques, known as Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape (SERE), which are taught in U.S. military schools to train personnel to resist interrogation.” … from ‘a history of music torture in the war on terror’ by andy worthington, historian, journalist and author of ‘the Guantanamo files’…

if you're wanting to read more, the real story of the men who stare at goats by journalist danny penman makes for a good read... and so does "the pentagon's twilight zone" by journalist sally squires...

so, though the movie was entertaining, it 'lost something in its 'slapstick' translation'… I’d definitely recommend the book over the film...

and what better way to end this post - here's "kiss my ass" by country joe mcdonald...

moving the masses...

2010-11-01T00:41:00.065+11:00

i was 'transported' back in time the other evening when i read kitty's post ‘ding, ding’ - it brought back memories of the time i spent on the trams as a connie… it wasn’t a long stint, 12 months – but it was an interesting and stimulating time… it was 'world's away' from working life in an office (or a library) - my mother was horrified when i told her i was leaving the 'security and prestige' of a government typing job to become a connie; she actually told me i needed to see a psychiatrist - it really was seen as much lower down the rungs of the working class ladder! - perhaps that was partly the reason i did it... to 'erk' my mother (mother-daughter relationships and all that!!!)

it was the end of the 70s, and the w-class trams were the mode of public transport on melbourne streets – safety was somewhat questionable – note the only ‘safety feature' on the doorways was a drop down bar… in winter there were canvas blinds to pull down to keep the weather out (ha ha ha) – unfortunately the 'getting on and off side' was always open to the elements… and that could be pretty dangerous if you were in the wrong place going around a corner with a bad driver!!!! the commercial road turn into st kilda road was deadly – i almost fell out the tram a few times at that one (i learnt to make sure i was hanging on)!!!! they had started to 'incorporate' sliding doors into the design but it took years to fully implement the 'upgraded' model...

us connies came kitted out with bag, tickets, thumb (or finger) rubber, small cash tin and ticket-clipper – i loved my ticket clipper – did you know that each one had a different hole-punch pattern? i was quite fascinated by that when i found out (but i don't know if it was always the case)... and kids just loved the stubs of the tickets – such simple pleasures just don't do it for them these days!!!

the bags got really heavy though – we had a number of different priced tickets and most commuters had the ‘exact change’ – and that included 1 and 2 cent pieces - some paid their whole fares with these pesky coins!!! (of course there were always those that 'tried it on' for a free ride by getting on with a big-denomination note hoping you wouldn't be able to change it - guess what, coinage was something we had plenty of - and if you really pissed us off that's all you got back for change!!!)

it was around 4 hours before you got back to the depot for your meal break (where you could empty the first half's takings into your locker) so you had to carry the weight for a long time - you could empty some into your tin, but they were only small (and then there was nowhere safe to put that - the drivers compartments weren't safe and enclosed like they are today) so roaming the trams meant you had to carry everything...

doing the early shift – the shifts ranged from a 5am start to a 1am finish – was always interesting… you had to give two bells to let the driver know it was safe to move off, so on those freezy-cold mornings you had to unwrap your hunched up body to stand up - well, i did anyway being one of the shorter connies (5'2") - and it didn’t matter how empty the tram was – if it was a cold morning some fucker would come and steal your warm seat - they’d just slip in right behind you!!! of course i always felt compelled to acknowledge "it's cold, hey" and they never ceased to amaze me by replying "yes, lucky there's a warm spot to sit in"!!! so off you would wander to warm up another spot for the next passenger!!!

unlike some connies i didn’t mind pension days – i loved the elderly people who’d chat away and tell you about their lives, and conspiratorially utter to you how "i wouldn’t want your job for quids love, having to cart that heavy bag around" - yes, the older folk understood!!!

there was heavy lifting involved in a connie's job - helping people with jeeps and prams - mind you, people with jeeps or prams weren't supposed to be stopped for during peak hour, because the whole point of 'peak hour' was to get the factory and office 'fodder' to work on time!!! fortunately not many workers took notice of this 'directive' (although if you hurt your back in the 'pursuit' of this non-sanctioned assistance you could well have a fight on your hands!!!)

there were characters like the ‘shopping jeep womon’ – the first time I tried to help her up with her heavy jeep I got majorly verbally abused – her standard reaction apparently so needless to say I quickly learnt she didn’t like to be helped…

there were the homeless people who spent their days riding the trams (sadly a capitalist society will always produce poverty-stricken people) - the derelict alcoholics were sad sights (and some smelled so bad but of course insisted on standing right next to you!!!) but they were (usually) harmless.. unfortunately some drunks (not necessarily the derelict) would drink on the tram and become downright aggressive and violent - booze wasn't meant to be consumed but ever tried telling a drunk that they can't drink on the tram? ever tried getting a drunk off a tram because they were threatening the passengers? (we're talking drunk people with glass bottles - deadly weapons - in their hands here!!)

'drug-addicts' (why doesn't that include alcoholics???) didn't pose the same problem as they do today because chemically altered 'designer' drugs weren't widespread then - smack and speed were the 'heavy' drugs, lsd was still quite popular, along with the prescription drug mandrax... home-grown dope was the most used and pretty much socially acceptable - what can i say, it was the 70s... marijuana was 'safe' then... until the 'scientists' got hold of it and decided to chemically alter seeds which made certain strains so toxic that their crops were possibly deadly and couldn't be smoked until a couple of 'generational strains' down the track!!!! these days there are way too many 'entrepeneurs' and way too many dangerous (if not lethal) chemical combinations!!!!

there were the lovely little kids from struggling families on their way to school – funny how they were the ones that always offered to pay their fares (unlike the little shits from the rich private schools!!!) – there were times you'd ask, to be told a child had nothing for lunch so, like many connies, i would give them a ticket (inspectors were routinely rostered on most routes so a ticket was a must) and tell them to buy something to eat for lunch (or breakfast!) with their fare (and perhaps a little bit extra thrown in out of my own pocket) - of course the ticket shortfall had to be made up… tickets were all accounted for at the start of each shift, and connies had to maintain a daily running sheet, so when you paid in at the end of the day tickets and money needed to balance - of course if you were under, it came out of your wage - if you were over, well you never saw that...

it was still a politically volatile time in the tramways - the management and union were extremely conservative - they didn't like strong, politically active people in 'their' ranks - i'd joined the tramways along with 4 other friends and we were all 'quite political'... hey, this was just 4 years after womyn had gained the right to drive trams in 1975...

"After an attempt in 1956 by the M&MTB to train two conductresses to drive, the ATMOEA went on a snap strike, and passed a resolution banning women drivers.

With the development of the women’s rights movement in the late 1960s, female tramway employees gained new hope and began a concerted push to become drivers. Joyce Barry played an integral part in this campaign. In May 1973, the M&MTB attempted to train Joyce and a colleague, Catherine Stone, as drivers, but the union immediately declared the Wattle Park line black, withdrawing services and forcing the M&MTB to stop their training."

this wasn't to stop joyce barry though...

"Much rancorous discussion was held at this union meeting, until Joyce Barry stood up and uttered the immortal line, “I don’t need a penis to drive a bloody tram!” This single statement swept away all union opposition to the proposal by exposing the moral bankruptcy of the status quo and opening it to ridicule. This enabled the M&MTB to implement an equal opportunity employment policy, and she became the first female tram driver in Melbourne.

Ms Barry’s action in overcoming this barrier (in somewhat startling fashion) enabled women to aspire to fill any role in Melbourne’s tramway system, and publicly advanced the cause of sexual equality in the workplace in Australia – particularly as female tram drivers were highly visible to the general populace."

there was still a lot of resentment towards womyn (and male 'sympathisers') in the 'old boy network' ranks - believe me they could make your life very difficult - and some managers and union delegates continued to 'stymie' applications by womyn to become drivers - however some depots were more 'accepting' than others...

friends of hawthorn tram depot (the 'training' depot for connies) have some wonderful articles if you're interested in reading more...

there were many heartwarming (and some heartwrenching) sights and happenings on the trams - it was a valuable experience - you really were working amongst the public... i'm definitely a 'bring back connies' supporter...

i was surprised at how hard it has been to find pictures of connies over the decades – i would have liked to show a timeline of the changes in uniform – i was around at the time of the brown uniform – yellow shirt, brown tie, brown trousers or skirt (another hard fought and fairly recent battle for womyn - the right to wear trousers!) and brown jacket...

here are some pictures of female connies during ww2… "It was not until 1941 that the first conductresses were employed by the Melbourne & Metropolitan Tramways Board to relieve the manpower shortages experienced during the Second World War. However, women were banned from driving trams, as it was thought that it was an unsuitable occupation for the more delicate sex, and thus were not eligible for the higher status and pay awarded to tram drivers."