November 2006 - Millennium Watch

Millennium Watch

follow this blog subscribe by email

6 followers

84 daily readers

rank of 1393

Millennium Watch - November 2006

The Australian Identity---Part 4 (Final)

November 30th 2006 06:05

As well as Franklin, another author to capture a snapshot of Australian-ness was Louis Stone, with the 1911 novel Jonah. Set on the streets of Sydney, the story follows the life of a street-smart larrikin who gives up his rogue lifestyle as 'captain of the push' (boss of the gang) to marry his pregnant girlfriend and start a shoe repair and sales business, which becomes highly successful. The larrikin, alonside the bushmen, are core Australian identities. The larrikin verse of C.J. Dennis followed Stone with the Songs of a Sentimental Bloke in 1915, and The Moods of Ginger Mick in 1916 as Mick joins the ANZACS in the birth of another Australian identity, that of our brave Aussie warriors, before dying a heroic death at Gallipoli. The humour of the heavily inflected colloquial slang a great souce of moral for the Diggers on the Front Lines.

Two other novelists to follow Franklin and Stone with their own images of Australia are Katherine Prichard with Coonardoo, and Kylie Tennant's The Battlers. Coonardoo was published in 1929, and follows the fortunes of an outback station and the small Aboriginal tribe camped in the vicinity. With dominant themes of love--love of a mother for her son; forbidden love between white man and black woman--as well as the treatment of the Aborigine by white settlers and vice versa. It's a courageous novel wrote at a time when like women, the Aboriginal people were invisible agents in Australian history. The Battlers, published in 1941, tells of a band of nomadic workers traipsing the countryside in search of work. With themes of bush VS city life, marriage and responsibility, and a life of poverty on the road, it's a sobering look at Australia in the grip of the Great Depression.

In summarising this series, much more could be said about the works covered and their contribution to Australian literature. However, this series is about core identity formation, and for this reason alone I have overlooked other classic works like Baynton or White for example, or the poets of the 1920-50 era like Slessor or the Jindyworobaks, who were accused of grafting on aboriginal terms for added authenticity

[ Click here to read more ]

Vote

Comments (4)

Add Comments

[ Link ]

Posted By: Pete - Category: No Category

Email this Post to a Friend

The Australian Identity---Part 3

November 27th 2006 08:45

The Taming of the frontier and the opportunity for settlement lured migrants to Australia around the turn of the 19th century, the bulk of which hailed from England, Europe, and famine-ravaged Ireland. The women who undertook these harrowing voyages across open sea, either as wives or single woman, wrote about the trials and tribulations faced and these invaluable writings are only now coming to light. The worth of these works from a historical perspective alone cannot be overstated. They are in essence snapshots of life through the eyes of the female pioneer.
An unfortunate truth about life for women in the New Colony, is that apart from the odd literary verse or reference, they were invisible agents in this era of Australian history, relegated to the quietude of wife or mother. However, things were about to change. The new century and subsequent fifty years will see the rise of feminism and the penning of some of this country's greatest works of verse and prose, over half of which was wrote by women.
First things first however, and the masculine passion for all things 'bush' was gaining momentum. Around the campfire, 'The Ballad of the Drover' and 'Clancy of the Overflow', stirred bushmen's blood, written by two of this nations finest bards: Henry Lawson and A.B.(Banjo) Paterson, respectively. Another of Paterson's ballads, 'Waltz Sing Matilda', some consider should be the Australian national anthem. These two prolific authors would soon engage in a literary tussle termed the 'City or the Bush'. Paterson, the son of a sheep station owner, verses Lawson, a city dweller who made only brief and uncomfortable forays into the bush. The literary slanging-match was published in the Sydney weekly The Bulletin, and I believe with Lawson's bush yarn realism, though especially Paterson's bush verse romanticism, was behind the formation of the 'bushmen' identity myth, the horse riding, Akubra wearing stockman/drover seen in school text and history books wordwide

[ Click here to read more ]

Vote

Comments (1)

Add Comments

[ Link ]

Posted By: Pete - Category: No Category

Email this Post to a Friend

Israel---More Troubling Signs

November 24th 2006 01:11

Israel's Security Cabinet decided on Wednesday that they were left with no option but to launch a major war campaign against Hamas and its terrorist allies in the Gaza Strip, after suffering up to 80 Qassam missile attacks in the last ten days.
As reported in the article Israel and Armageddon the Iranian objective is total annihilation of the Jewish state, having already declared their backing of Hamas, Syria, and Lebanon in the on-going aggression. Take into account Iran's increasing nuclear capacity, and Israel's declaration that they will will not tolerate nuclear armament of the Islamic state, and we have a major powder-keg set to ignite.
With the United States behind Israel; collusion evident between Iran and North Korea; the failed peace processes and efforts of diplomacy, could we, as Nostradamus' symbolic writings seem to indicate, be heading for world war in 2007? Certainly, no nation can be expected to live in constant fear of missile attack, and as we have recently witnessed in Lebanon, Israel will retaliate with great force and relentless fervour

[ Click here to read more ]

Vote

Add Comments

[ Link ]

Posted By: Pete - Category: No Category

Email this Post to a Friend

The Australian Identity---Part 2

November 22nd 2006 07:15

BALLADS, GOLD & BUSHRANGERS
As the Frontier was tamed ballads and verse told of life on the land, the settler, drover, and jumbuck immortalised alonside the convict. Gold was then discovered at a number of sites. The goldfields of Western Australia witnessed a surge of literary expression as bards told of a life of hard work, hope, a little love, mates, and oppression. The goldfields of Victoria would become famous for a much different reason. In 1854, a small band of miners' staged an uprising at Ballarat, angry at oppressive license fees and rough-handed treatment. They fortified Eureka Stokade and stood against approximately 600 military. Of course they were defeated, but not before creating an enduring legend, that of the rebel underdog standing against the might of the Establishment. The Eureka flag, a white Southern Cross on a blue background, is the adopted flag of the Builder's Labourers Federation of today, known as a militant union who pits the worker and his rights against big-business stand-over tactics.
One cannot detail this era of Australian history without mention of the bushranger and myth, anti-heroes who were in reality lawless pariahs of the bush. Ben Hall and Ned Kelly two of this nation's most infamous. Many a rousing ballad has been recorded, and a contemporary film staring Heath Ledger keeps the myth alive. The bushranger is an enduring Australian identity whose anti-authoritarian kinship with the convict and Eureka rebel are seen as products of a colonial goverment's oppression

[ Click here to read more ]

100

Vote

Add Comments

[ Link ]

Posted By: Pete - Category: No Category

Email this Post to a Friend

The Australian Identity---Heritage and Expression

November 15th 2006 04:05

From the birth of this great nation in 1788 to the end of the Second World War, Australian men and woman forged enduring images of identity. Having tamed the frontier the bushmen rode from the dust of the Outback, the ANZAC climbed from the blood-stained sands of Gallipoli, and after WWII, a way-of-life was growing out in the suburbs.
Naturally this period witnessed the birth and growth of Australian literature, many classic works of ballad, verse, and prose that captured a particular Australian essence, like Wentworth's 1829 poem 'Australasia' for example. Through the eyes of the bard the reader is given a snapshot of colonial Sydney Town, the descriptive verse leaving an indelible impression of hope and wonder; pioneers in a new land. This series will examine images and constructions of Australian-ness like the aforementioned, contained in a number of other well known historical texts. First, defining their position in history, and second, examining dominant themes and influences, literary hallmarks that stamp the work as distinctly Australian, the creation of an image, icon, or identity.
The earliest works of literary expression in Australia were the Broadside Ballads and convict ballads and poems. Songs and verse of simple structure, depicting sea voyages, destinations ie. Botany Bay, imprisonment, hardship, and longing for home. Unlike Wentworth, who was an educated poet, the authors, or in most cases, oral bards due to lack of writing implements and paper, would sing the ballads to lift morale. Hence, anti-authoritarian themes run strong throughout, as does the impression of incredible brutality and hardship, a reality of colonial Australia. Of the more educated, Francis McNamara (alias Goddard), wrote the 'Convict's Tour of Hell' a parody of convict life as lived: hell on earth

[ Click here to read more ]

110

Vote

Add Comments

[ Link ]

Posted By: Pete - Category: No Category

Email this Post to a Friend

Multiculturalism and the Proliferation of Minority Faith

November 14th 2006 07:14

As traditional mainstream religions experience unprecedented attendance-rate lows, and thoughtless reaction to societal change sees the removal of Gideon Bibles from hospitals and schools in NSW and Victoria, effectively eliminating over 100 years of altruistic practice---is Christianity under attack?
There is a conundrum facing contemporary Australian society that of multiculturalism equals religious minorities. Move over historical mainstream Christianity, the Catholic, Anglican, and Protestant, you will need to make room for Islam, Buddhism, Taoism, Hinduism, to name but several.
Okay, so where is the problem? Well, if asked in terms of a society that was born multicultural, there is none. However, in terms of a society that historically has had Christianity as a moral and ethical cornerstone, established religious and cultural rituals dating from the nation's inception, then there could be

[ Click here to read more ]

Vote

Comments (4)

Add Comments

[ Link ]

Posted By: Pete - Category: No Category

Email this Post to a Friend

'Hear No Evil, See No Evil, Speak No Evil' the motto of universities in China (especially on matters of State).

November 8th 2006 05:00

Almost all would remember the image of a lone protester standing before a column of tanks in Tiananmen Square back in July, 1989. Whether you call it bravery, foolishness, or an act of defiant rage, it was the definitive protest of the late 20th century, a people's stand against communist oppression, corruption and economic mismanagement. The final toll was between 2600-4000 protestors killed, and up to 30000 injured.
Naturally, such a momentous event draws mass-media coverage, reverberated through halls of political power, and is the subject of much on-going debate. Not in China, and here is a jump-up-and-bite-you example of the absolute control a communist regime exerts over its citizens. Reported recently on an Australian current affairs program by the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS), was an interview with three Chinese university students. They were shown a picture of the 'lone protestor' and actually thought it was some kind of joke being played on them by the reporter, digital manipulation of some sort. They knew nothing at all about it!
We who live in the comforting folds of democracy can only imagine this level of repression, to totally purge the event not only from university and school curriculum but from the national psyche, is utterly disturbing to say the least

[ Click here to read more ]

Vote

Comments (2)

Add Comments

[ Link ]

Posted By: Pete - Category: No Category

Email this Post to a Friend

The Omen 2006---A Disturbing Review

November 5th 2006 11:15

The son of Satan is back and up to his old tricks. This time with added special-effects and a clever melding of Biblical verse and world events. There's a graphic depiction of Damien's nurse diving off the roof of their home rope attached to neck, cracking to an abrupt halt in full-view. Damien pushes his mother off the second-floor balcony, then as she lay in hospital, the new nurse, a stellar role played by Mia Farrow, finishes her off by injecting air into the drip-line. A priest has a church spire-rod driven through his heart from on-high. And a reporter is relieved of his head in the most graphic and imaginative way. I'll leave out the ending of course---wouldn't want to spoil the fun.
What intrigued me was where world events are linked (rather loosely) to the Book of Revelation verse at the start, and the director's/biblical scholars' comments post-script. As I have stated in the 'End Times', Bible prophecy is highly symbolic, scholars' spending endless hours in the pursuit of correct interpretation. So rather than contribute to the confusion, if interested, I suggest you take a look for yourself. Read the Book of Revelation, Ch: 8-10.
Most would be aware of the number combination 666, the 'number of the beast', or Satan's number. It can be found in computer code, linguistic calculation, symbols, almost anywhere if one looks hard enough. The interview with a gent who was born in June 1966---6/66 was interesting---the calamity that had befallen this guy! Bad luck, serendipity? You be the judge

[ Click here to read more ]

Vote

Add Comments

[ Link ]

Posted By: Pete - Category: No Category

Email this Post to a Friend

Dark Energy (God) and the Scientific Conundrum

November 1st 2006 02:25

Scientist and cosmologists have made some startling discoveries of late, one that stands out is that the universe is made up of 6% matter, 21% dark matter, and 73% dark energy. The problem is they have no idea what these so-called dark-forces are, only that without them the universe would cease to exist, stars and planets flung out of gravitational orbits like rocks out of a slingshot.
One cosmologist using computer simulation technology, designed a virtual universe and discovered that without the application of an umbrella-like force over each galaxy holding the stars and planets in place, it wouldn't work. This force is the so-called 'dark energy'. Haven't they got it back the front, it's not dark energy but light, not an bad force, but a good one?
Anyway, scientists being the relentless crew they are, the search to label this universal energy goes on, to the extent of building sensor machines and placing them in the bowels of the earth. And guess what they've discovered? Nada, diddly squat, a big fat zero. Funny thing that

[ Click here to read more ]

Vote

Add Comments

[ Link ]

Posted By: Pete - Category: No Category

Email this Post to a Friend

February 2010

1 Posts

December 2009

3 Posts

November 2009

2 Posts