Matt is suing me for banning him for having called ‘mad’ anyone who used my lines and is undaunted by my naming of a hundred of them including Oscar winners and wants my lawyer’s phone number.
It is 0410765772. He is Damian Spruce, one of the three writers of The Year It All Fell Down and a former advisor to the Attorney-General, Bob Debus.
Name:
Matt’s obviously someone with a fragile and narcissistic personality. Threatening to sue for being banned on a public blog site plumbs the depths of stupidity, but there you go…
I’ve learnt to never overestimate the capacity of people to behave like complete and utter tools…
Boo-hoo Matt’s dummy spit is robotic idiocy in full bloom.
You are all being too silly for words. Like my own case, most of us couldn’t care less what Bob Ellis does with his own blog (and it IS getting popular – a big mention in the Australian today), and Matt is no exception I suspect. Unless I am TERRIBLY wrong, though, I suspect that Matt was going along with Bob’s ongoing (and public) jokey threats to sue all and sundry for the slightest thing that comes up.
If not, then what can I say? Only that yet another nutter has joined the blog.
And has been banned from it.
While I am at it Bob, if you don’t want your friends and business associates to not get nuisance calls and thus utter “a thousand curses”, don’t post telephone numbers online.
Email them privately.
Who would know a nutter better than Ryutin? It takes one to know one, and all that.
Don’t worry Phill, to me some Greens supporters are nutters also.
I’m glad you said some.
Indeed. I see your point. Not all nutters are conservative, however, all conservatives are nutters.
I meant the sort of Green that wants us to go back to subsistence farming live in teepees and eat your own food. You aren’t one of those Greens I am sure, but fit into some other category. No, I don’t even want to find out what sort of Green.
Of course you do Ryutin.
Greenies living in Teppees? My God! With love beads, no doubt. Singing in harmony to the delightful strains of Kumbaya and making love to each other with gay abandon.
All whacked out on dope, waiting around for their next dole cheque.
You are so stereo typical of a conservative Ryutin it’s pathetic.
Unlike you in your world of course, who thinks the planet can be exploited forever. Where people like Gina Rinehart can amass a fortune that could probably find a cure for cancer.
Bragging about your land in the Barossa and unit in Adelaide like it was going to really impress the likes of people like me. What a wanker you are.
I’ve got your number my man.
Don’t feel bad Phill. This is tedious for the readers who want to read some conspiracy theory or other (or worry about landlines).
I only mentioned my decades of connections to Adelaide and SA because you big-noted yourself (as usual) about a honeymoon there meant that you knew more about the Dunstan Adelaide than I did.
Unlike you, my lifetime of being a wage earner was not turned into being a boss and a Green.
If any proof was needed you are a wanker this last burst to me takes the cake.
I was not big noting myself you moron, I grew up in Adelaide, you mentioned the Arkaba hotel so did I.
As for Don Dunstan. I met the man on several occasions, his house was open to anyone who was of the progressive left. That you didn’t know that fact, just proves to me, you know fuck all about this man, and most importantly his relationship with his constituents.
All of your points about Don are straight out of the books written about Dunstan with emphasis on ‘GrosslyImproper’ the main reference for your twaddle.
The media destroyed Dunstan in the same vein they are trying to destroy Gillard.
I didn’t know that one could not be self employed and a green. Like they are mutually exclusive. You are an idiot.
I will repeat for you, you are full of it. You have some fooled on here that you are some well informed conservative, but I know better. All of your information comes hot off the net. Period.
Contrary to your point redirected at me about your land and unit, the comment was to somehow big note yourself,to make me somehow look inferior along side you.
It is because of your limited brain capacity you cannot compute the fact that a person can actually be a successful individual and a Green and lefty at the same time.
I take the piss out of you and insult you if you must know, because you are as fake as a nine bob note. You have tried to promote the fantasy, that you are a middle of the road libertarian who is a deep thinker and the only one able to analyse political discourse properly. Anyone else who does not see the world as you do, is accused of group think or communist.
So one more time, for old times sake, you are a know all and wanker with out peer.
No argument from me. well said Phill.
Ryutin is part of the furniture, like we all are.
No worries. If he was honest, I would not mind. He is a rightwinger and just wont admit it.
I realise this is off topic BUT I would hate to see Labor mugged by an overseas event whilst Julia is in Indonesia….there is a major military clash forming over the Syrian crisis with Putin putting Russian marines ships and airpower on the line to prevent US and NATO instituting a no fly zone over the county. Don’t laugh…this is existential for Russia as the West is attempting to drive a fuel pipeline from Doha through to Europe cutting thereby 35% Russian foreign earnings…and the Syrian rebels are mostly Chechen…so Putin can’t backdown…now this thing could get very very ugly over the next few weeks and Labor had better have a game plan to deal with it or Julia might get caught in what might be seen as shimmy shallying on small fry stuff whilst something truly big and threatening is taking place on the world stage…the first standoff or clash between superpowers in the 21st Century.
I appreciate your sincerity, and your sentiments, but Syria is even less relevant to Australian politics than Iraq should have been, and Libya was.
Apart from grandstanding and expressions of support it should not require our input - and Carr is very capable of handling it.
The facts…debka analysis
Let There Be Popcorn.
I agree, Carr will handle it. Fuck off Putin thank you very much, don’t stay in touch, would pretty much be the case. Re the Matt thing, he has to be yanking his own chain. He could have gone to Christopher Pearson for advice on how to concoct a case, but he died thank christ, so of no help. Matt must think he is important in the scheme of things. Sad innit! Should have just told him to kiss the other side of your royal domain and to please act surprised!
Bob, having trouble posting. Anyone else?
Ryutin,
There you are!
Let me preface first briefly,
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/education/australian-students-fall-behind-rest-of-the-world/story-fn59nlz9-1225967240227
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/oecd-education-report-shows-work-to-do-20120911-25qou.html
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-12-11/aussie-schools-flatline-in-international-education-tests/4422532
http://www.acer.edu.au/documents/PISA_Report.pdf
As the Australian Council for Educational Research’s professor Geoff Masters said of PISA:
“International studies are able to give us a better understanding of how our students are performing and also an opportunity to try to understand practices, effective practices, effective policies internationally.”
2012 PIRLS: “The Progress in International Reading Literacy Study has revealed that a quarter of Australia’s year 4 students failed to meet the minimum standard in reading for their age.
Let’s get a few other FACTS out of the way also. It will stop you trying to muddy the waters later.
Gonski made NO recommendations, NOR was his committee tasked with, suggesting funding options.
That’s the Governments job.
It had to find money somewhere. I would have liked it to pull apart a few of Howard’s white elephants ( Health insurance rebate, baby bonus, and fuel excise for Gina’s trucks) but that wasn’t to be. What it DID do was something that I applauded at the time as a wonderful solution: it slowed the rate of funding increase to Uni’s. Now let me repeat that for you, slowly and carefully - it DID NOT reduce funding (funding which was greatly increased by Rudd by the way) it simply reduced the RATE OF INCREASE for a few years.
Have you got that?
We are sliding back. Argue, lie, procrastinate, bluff, dummy spit, all you like. It ain’t changing the FACT that something needs to be done.
At the moment the Labor party are TRYING to do something.
At the moment the Liberal party are doing FUCK ALL.
At the moment what you and other party hacks are doing with your lies, propaganda and obfuscation is to the detriment of our children.
Your ideology is hurting my children’s future.
I’ll tear your heart out before I let that happen.
If you reply with your usual verbose distractions, I’ll just direct you back to this post.
If you actually have a point, I’ll address it.
Till then, fuck you and the carpet bagging secessionist libertarian whore you rode in on.
Maggot.
I’ll tell you an education story. Back in 1997 I went from my home in SA up to the NT to fossick for gold and other metals. I’m on a war service pension so I can do this sort of thing. I took my family and we lived in the bush, about as rough as it gets, march flies,ticks,fleas, allergies, dingoes, wild bulls, king browns, taipans, melioidosis, even leprosy, fortunately no faceless men, that we couldn’t have survived. Well, after getting rocks assayed on a regular basis I got pretty good at working gold rock out and could guess its content to a tenth of a gram. After a while you develop a sixth sense. I’m an old khant and had raised a second family so these young dudes, boy and girl were aged five and ten respectively. So they were enrolled at the nearest school (15klms) and slowly but surely the wife and I got involved until eventually she became the local councils after school carer and I finished up as the school council president, more or less running the school, including the hiring of junior staff. It had 150 pupils, split evenly between aboriginals and europeans. I won’t name the place because one day I’ll go back for a look around and they shoot people who talk about them, especially southerners. You’ll have to trust me on this. The previous headmaster had got the sack, mainly because he’d been busted doing wheelies on the wet school grounds with about 30 kids in the bus, great fun. But really the town didn’t like him (I did) but up there you get set up anyway, they just invent anything to fuck you off, a dangerous place. The next headmaster was a bureaucrat, sent from a city (no name), and was alcoholic and addicted to pokies. One night, when I went early to set up for a school council meeting, I heard a whimpering in the bushes, and after investigating the sound, discovered the headmaster, having a nervous breakdown after being threatened by local parents. Only the week before I’d had to fight off a dude who grabbed me by the throat for allegedly dobbing his daughter in to the cops for vandalism. It’s all part of the territory if you get my drift. I hadn’t actually done it and went that night round to his house with the intentions of killing him but he wouldn’t come out of his house, I took my wife as a witness. Eventually we sorted it out. So the headmaster was a mess, after a year my daughter in grade 1 had learned nothing and I suggested to the teacher that they go back to rote learning, like the old days, but I just got sneered at and told to but out, despite some mothers having panic attacks in the office. I could go on for hours, seriously I could, the stories are endless. Eventually some serious tropical health problems assailed our son and we had to return down south, all up a two year adventure. I’ve just given you a tiny glimpse, but I thought I’d ask you learned gentleman how do you think Gonski is going to go up there, I’d be interested to hear your thoughts?
What can I say Chris?
More money for kids, disadvantaged or not, means better teachers, air conditioners, books, facilities, etc. This will mean a better environment for learning. Kids feel better, teachers feel better, parents are happier. Learning happens.,
Money alone wont fix everything but without the money the situation will only get worse. No mistake about that.
As for me, I’d rather have more potholes on the road or pay a few more dollars in tax, or get Clive and Gina to pay a few more dollars in tax just to have education (and health) taken care of.
In this country, I think it’s our right to pass this on to our kids.
Great story by the way.
chris hunter, a story well told, I’ll read it again.
Thanks Judd. One thing this school had was buckets of cash, when I left we had 86,000 in the overflow. The local mining company was very generous, plus auction (donated articles) days where we raised around 3 grand at a time. We had a high staff turnover, but that’s not untypical for remote towns in the NT. When I rocked up a number of the staff (3) had just quit so I was dealing with newbies, it was a serious learning curve for all of us, it dawned on me pretty quickly that conventional methods were not going to work so I sought the help of an amazing old woodcarver out in the bush who played extraordinary acoustic guitar and got him involved with the indigenous kids who were not really interested in conventional education. That old dude has now passed away. I regretted having to leave, but my son’s condition was life threatening and came back with each wet (twice). It took serious steroids to get him through the first time, but it was not related to our bush camp, luckily we met a legendary old aboriginal woman who supplied us with a house in the township. I guess the moral to the story is that its not just money, its the will of the teachers with the support of the parents and the surrounding community, that was what was turning this school around when I was reluctantly forced to leave. It’s a difficult thing to legislate. Education is tricky, so many factors.
Special and terrible circumstances up there, which require strong intervention, but not just in the schools.
But money is the key in most schools. Money buys you more teachers and better teachers
The difference between the personal attention that kids get from well paid teachers who have decent working conditions in a rich private school compared with government or poorer religious schools is incredible.
Gonski in several ways, but especially by establishing Australia-wide benchmarks, is an imortant move
What you say, from my experience, is true enough. I’ll go a step further jsa. I told you a while ago I liked you, did I not, I said you were incorrigible but I liked you, despite a bit of good natured abuse here and there along the way. But that’s good. I hate slobber. So what am I saying? I’m saying that guys like you and Judd and Helvi and Chris and Phil and Gerard and many others who are “part of the furniture”, all have one thing in common - passion. Passion is the key, its infectious, it lifts people up, it educates, it inspires, if only it could be legislated, if only….
Passion might be difficult to legislate Chris, but its not to express.
Keep the wattle (aspidistra) flying…
…whilst on the way to Catalonia, eh?
Well written and a good insight in how to overcome and improve the almost unsurmountable difficulties up North.
I know that the Samis in Scandinavia faced huge problems of isolation, a harsh climate, vast distances and cultural differences as well.
It seems to be working there and the kids do get educated and eduated well.
It’s a bit slower than usually…
If this goes through thanks Helvi
Indeed. some posts refuse to take.
don’t know if this is a clue for people, but i find all posts now go ok except when I’m on the computer at another house i visit - when all fail (sorry, Chris’s) - so are people having trouble posting doing something that in some way mimics using a different computer??
Off topic, could somebody tell me why rudd was consoling Husic in such a Minsterly way, did someone die. I must have missed something.
ministerly!!^
This 43rd has been the most divisive and fractious nightmare!
We have lost friends and have been alienated from family by simply trying to discuss policy. They can’t/won’t do it. Mantras only! We acknowledge flaws in the Government, they refuse to cede any ground whatsoever. I used to think education and intelligence predicated these things, but now see that it is clearly like religion, current conservative thinking(?) a matter of blind faith.
The toxic distortion of EVERY issue by ALL media- even sadly now the ABC except for Jon Faine and Ten’s Paul Bongiorno, drives one to despair. That is, at least in Victoria.
We so hope there is a groundswell of true believers out there who will get us home triumphant.
Bring on the debates. Why are we not hearing the challenge? One week to go - get on with it. Gillard or Combet, (she’s the toughest, he’s the most generally respected alternative).
don’t think that it is up to the government, or the ALP, talk to your neighbours
these are strange times.
the primary cause is that the Libs have, like the Repugs in the US become captive to the clowns they paid to destabilise the government. The teaparty elected people who just are not rational; the Repugs may be nasty, but they are rational, only throwing in some racism/religion etc to keep the chooks happy. But now the are stymied by people who really believe all that stuff among their elected members
Abbs has used the same sort of people to gain power (he began by opposing legislation on the biggest issue facing humanity, remember) and personally has adopted a policy of saying NO and LIAR alternately
The cancerous clowns of the media, Jones, Akerman, Henderson, Bolt, and their imitators hungry to share in the gold of the 1pc, are also setting Abbs’ agenda, notably the misogyny and racism
This, plus a hung parliament has been what Gillard has faced adn triumphed over by bringing in major policy changes
As for the election; that is not here yet; she has clearly started to fight, saying things that set the pants of the old media on fire (like her confrontation of Abbs’ lying misogyny, and mocking the blue-tie muppets), but will ring a bell with a lot of people in this land. We will see if she can bring people around.
If krudd and his desperate pants-shitting followers keep stirring up trouble, it will be a much harder task
But there is the talent on the Labour side to put a great case.
And it is clear the electorate has not writtin off Labor; the changes in polling when alternative leaders are included shows willingness in the electorate to go with Labor
Rudd coming back is impossible given his failings and his white-anting the party; and if he did come back he would be swamped in negative publicity about all the revelations about his behaviour - the party would be destroyed in the storm
The polls are a blunt instrument to find what the electorate really wants with its reactions to (pollster’s) questions about other leaders; the politicians will have to find that out. But the volatility is a cause for hope
Another cause for hope is the polls themselves
Most people have forgotten that before the last US presidential election the Republicans - utilising pollsters backed by the greatest force of money ever spent in the history of the world on an election, were convinced from their reading of the polls that their man would win. The media constantly spoke of the result being on a knife-edge.
That is the now-forgotten reality about how the polling went prior to the US election. Many have forgotten (or hidden) that, and now only point to Nate Silver and others who got it right; but they got it right because they made the right analysis; the Repugs with all their expensive expertise got it wrong. Polling is by no means a simple matter.
The Australian polling system is far less rich than the American, and there is good reason to at least hope, if not be sure, that the switch to mobile-phones-only among young voters is masking better figures for Labor
But Gillard and her team will fight, and they are an excellent bunch of people
All who support a caring society need to say their bit in the months ahead
A quid each way in this essay.
Polls show good stuff/polls useless.
Labor supported still when alternative leader ‘polled’/Peoples choice under that scenario proves the people don’t know anything, except anointed experts.
Strange, very strange.
yes, it is a complex world; too complex for some little possums
Sorry- off topic, but it being Friday evening, just wanted to share the love!
That’s the point, really. We of the Left feel our common humanity and do not subscibe to elitism. Except superior morality.
Doug….not advising chasing windmills….try worldmeets.us/
Rudd is not interested in leadership…he is attempting to split party al la Santamaria.
Rudd is a treachorous ruination engine curled by hatred.
The guy has a plastic component heart and is thus heartless.
Doug….not advising chasing windmills….try worldmeets.us/
Rudd is not interested in leadership…he is attempting to split party al la Santamaria.
Rudd is a treachorous ruination engine fueled by spite.
The guy has a plastic component heart and is thus heartless.
Sorry if I gave any impression that I was defending Rudd! Ask Chris or Phill about it
Take no notice of DQ he loves Rudd. DQ has said many times, it was a sad day for the Labor party when they sacked him.
DQ thinks Rudd is the most misunderstood maligned politician in Australia.
In one comment, DQ had maintained that Rudd would go down as Australia’s greatest P.M. in the pantheon of Gods like Whitlam, Hawke, Keating.
DQ told me he was disappointed in the unrequited love he had for Rudd. In fact DQ had said if he had been born a female he would have thought it an honour to have Rudd’s babies.
I wouldn’t take much notice of DQ
All my guilty secrets revealed . . .
The unrequited love of a narcissistic, psychopathic nerd who wouldn’t know humility or empathy if he fell over them . . . the one who thinks he always knows what is best. A bible bashing born to rule self-centred and egostistical control freak who interfered in every single portfolio . . .
Yes, I miss him. Like I would miss a hole in the head.
“There were ducks on the pill but there were no eggshells cracking etc”….to be sung to the tune of ‘Til There Was You (Beatles version).
Labor had better have a plan well underway to call up a dozen new faces to be preselected for a rash of resignations a month or two out from the election because the lot he leads have only one goal and that is the destruction of Labors electoral prospects. He believes he is answering a higher call…to folks like him…who believe we are in the last days Australia needs god fearing leader
at the helm…its the LionsForum…seemingly innocous bipartison gatherings of MPs…it has fractured Labor unity. Get it McTernan?
Well Combet said we need new talent.
Hopefully they’ll have faces.
When asked why he preferred to live in Tuscany, Italy, Jeffrey Smart answered; Well, “living in Adelaide was no laughing matter.”
What a loss to Australia. What a lucky man, fifty years in Tuscany.
If the bloody Abbott gets in, I’ll have to seriously think about ‘doing Jeffrey’: to live in Tuscany.
Love his paintings. Vale Jeffrey Smart.
Helvi living in Adelaide as a homosexual 50 yrs ago was dangerous. In fact you probably had to fear the police more than the ignorant homophobes, that infected what was probably the most cultural city in Australia.
Phil, I asked hubby why it was it no laughing matter to live in Adelaide, I asked because he came here as fifteen year old and knew the place better than I.
He said: They threw them (the gays) in the river.
A lucky escape for Jeffrey Smart ,it seems.
Indeed Helvi. There was a famous case of an Adelaide Professor who ended up in the river Torrens dead. His name escapes me at the moment but there was a cover up of police involvement.
Before Dunstan it was a very conservative place indeed. The police kept files on well known South Australians, even the Premier Don Dunstan, dissident’s and others, they probably still do.
The churches had control of the place of that, there is no doubt.
A lucky escape for Jeffery Smart indeed. A man of his obvious intellect would have known the score on how homosexuals were treated. An acted accordingly.
It is a worry for the future if the Gods are not with us and install Tony Abbott as P.M. those days of ignorance and the police state, could return with a vengeance.
We must be vigilant for sure, I see dark clouds descending on this country.
The man who was murdered by a group of police out for an evening of gay bashing was George Duncan, a law lecturer at the University of Adelaide.
It was the 10th of May 1972, and he was 42.
Killed by the very people one would hope could be trusted, but that’s kind of a common dog issue these days - cops kill the innocents, again and again.
Some years ago I had a bit to do with a bloke, an ex copper, pretty much my own age, who local legend had it was the one who threw Duncan in the river. He must have talked about it for this rumor to gain traction. He cut a solitary figure. I never asked him about it, his wife was very ill. After his wife died he sold his house and bought a Winnebago and headed off. A year or so later he turned up in the town again, back from WA. Apparently he had an infection in his foot and no doctor out west had been able to cure it. So he was back, hoping his old doctor could help him. I haven’t seen him since, I presume he’s still out there, alone, circulating, sore footed. Has a Greek, mythological ring to it.
Well, the word ‘karma / kamma’ has been in the lexicon for thousands of years, hasn’t it?
Vulgarly put, what comes around goes around, and otherwise; the law of reciprocity, an immutable aspect of existence.
Sure. I was thinking more literally. The great NZ poet, James K Baxter (whom I met in 1971 not long b4 his death) and his play: The Sore Footed Man, printed in conjunction with The temptations of Oedipus.
Jerusalem?
“When Tom and Elizabeth took the farm
The bracken made their bed,
And Quardle oodle ardle wardle doodle
The magpies said.”
I’ll open a fresh reply below. Hang about.
Thanks Canguro for that, I should have remembered it was the same year I got married.
There was a doco not so long ago on SBS about that very murder.
I still have family in S.A. they tell me not much has changed.
Apparently it is now the only city in Australia, you can lose enough demerits in one street to lose your license.
A long way from serious crime I know but, the persecution of the police state goes on.
Newscorpse in existantial battle with Labor knowing now its dismemberment must occur upon reelection of Gillard government..
Rudd dsnt care.He has millions.Those who lose their seats though ….I feel sorryfor those cats. Its looking crook said Daniel Croak.
Whats with the ‘doesn’t care’ routine?
Malcolm has millions too, but he was very hurt after losing to…Abbott.
He was humble enough to say it, Abbott does not know the meaning of the word.
RUDD
SANTAMARIA
RUDD
SANTAMARIA
Cha-cha-cha!
I think Solven has raised an extremely interesting point. Afterall what is Rudds endgame. Can he expect loyalty. Can he expect women to forgive him. Can he expect to win election. Not with a sane mind. Logic dictates therefore he wants none of these things. He wants to pave the way for Abbott
pull the building down on yourself to destroy your enemies - it has biblical precedent
In early 1971 I was working at the Wanganui (NZ) freezing works, packing meat in the cool store at 20 below. I hadn’t long returned from South Vietnam so it was quite a challenge, heaving boxes in a man made Antarctic, rowing them up, next to the lines of frigid, rock hard, hanging lambs. I met a bloke there by the name of Brian Wilkie, later a Wellington journalist, who knew Baxter’s daughter, apparently a junkie at the time, going through the motions of life, and despair, in a hippie squat in Wanganui. By this association Brian travelled regularly to Jerusalem, located further up the Wanganui River, and got to know Baxter quite well. Both Brian and a maori guy I met at the works, wanted me to go up with them on the weekends, help drink the keg etc (Baxter was off the piss), but I was reticent, Baxter was heavily anti Vietnam “put some napalm on your forehead and watch you face run down your chest”, and I wasn’t sure whether I’d get into a brawl with him or not (I wasn’t entirely sure of my politics at that stage), so I stayed away. But the inevitable happened, it was meant to be. One day Brian and I were wandering down the main drag in Wanganui when we became aware of an energy, feeding through the pedestrians up ahead, reaching us like a mild, fluttering breeze, precursor a heavy blow. Brian said it first, “It’s James K,” and suddenly there he was, honing in on us, dressed in a bedraggled, soiled, knee length woman’s style coat, bare feet, matted hair spread out across his shoulders, bearded, in appearance something between flasher and a hobo. In Singapore I’d had some fancy clothes tailored, (at that age I was permanently looking for a root), so naturally I felt a little over-dressed standing next to Baxter, people gawking from everywhere, including across the street. Brian introduces us and I went to shake hands but Baxter, brushing my hand aside, flung himself around me, hugging me like the prodigal son, saying how good it was to meet me. Naturally my head was spinning a bit and at Baxter’s suggestion we went into a nearby milk bar (as was called) to have a cup of tea and a chat. Brian, Baxter, and I lined up at the counter, along with a whole entourage of maori dudes, but when it came time to pay up front Baxter wouldn’t have a bar of us paying, he dredged out of his ‘flasher’s’ coat (I don’t think he had anything on under it) a pile of coins and dumped them on the counter, allowing the entourage to soak up the rest. So there we sat, chatting about a variety of things, the whereabouts of Hilary, his daughter, the fuzz (police) who were locking up too many of the clan etc. We never broached Vietnam, (thank God) but I do remember him suddenly panicking about the timing of his imminent airline flight to Auckland, he scrambled two tickets from out of his coat pocket, they had been paid for by some ladies guild in Auckland where he was to give a talk and no doubt read some of his work. The whole time, in that milk bar, young Maori dudes were coming up, desperately seeking answers to their problems, “Hemi” (Baxters maori name) this, and “Hemi” that, he was like the living Socrates. I reckon we spent about an hour there, before saying goodbye. He died not long after, of a heart attack, in a doctor’s surgery in Auckland, in the waiting room, reefing from angina. I watched his funeral, nationally broadcast, the biggest funeral in the history of the nation, of this man I once met, this humble repentant, one of the greatest english language poets ever, according to Max Harris. I think the Jerusalem sonnets, his last works, testify to this.
HIGH COUNTRY WEATHER
Alone we are born
And die alone
Yet see the red-gold cirrus
Over snow-mountain shine
Upon the upland road
Ride easy, stranger
Surrender to the sky
Your heart of anger
* * *
He wrote that when he was 18.
ch, thanks for that, I found it most interesting, I have never heard of this wonderful eccentric poet; I’m often pleasantly surprised by the good things that come from NZ.
I’m sure my lovely local library has some of his books of poetry.
Looks like you too, chris, have some interesting stories to tell…”heaving boxes in a man made Antarctic”…
Thanks Helvi,
Baxter lead a tumultuous life and ultimately the piss and hard living did him in, like Dylan Thomas. Both equally gifted. Both men left massive vacuums after their respective deaths, their family’s left to pick over the traces, “Left over time to Kill,” in the case of Caitlin Thomas. I hope Baxter’s clan found peace, his widow, his daughter Hilary, his friends, living in the wake of genius. As you can see from the post by Polybius above, High Country Weather, he wrote it when he was eighteen, remarkable.
Tell me about Vietnam Chris. If you want to.
I’ve written quite a bit about the topic, mostly in submissions to government health enquiries, on behalf of the vets, and myself. I’ve written about it, wept about it, woken up in the night screaming about it. Judd, I promise you, as we rough beasts slouch towards Bethlehem, given that we still have this forum, Bob’s miracle, the stories will crawl out, the tales will be told, by me, by all of us, and more…
Prayer
In the drum ridden fields
doubt folds to death’s flank
the mad heart beats
remember where the comb’s teeth meet
sad sick soul
presented for judgement
confluence
nobody owns death
when the money changes hands
make us equal in your love
murderer and saint
in your chamber.
And one for the climate deniers:
Epilogue
The talking is done
Crisp leaves powder the burning earth
Our time will never come
Emotion crowds unknowing
Only greed is growing
Under the torrid sun.
I do believe I may know you Chris, did you serve with 2 RAR ? I was at Kapooka 1969 and I knew a Chris Hunter.
Phil, I was in the NZ Infantry (1RNZIR), trained at Burnham, NZ, then Terendak, Malaya, then Nui Dat, Sth Vietnam, where we were merged with the Australians. My stint was 1969. Officially I served in the 6RAR/NZ(Anzac)Bn. NZ Component. Whilst I trained as a rifleman, I did not serve in a rifle company, my tasks were many and varied, including the resupply of ammunition/food etc to the battlegrounds, sometimes via trucks, sometimes Chinooks. I was a volunteer, a Lcpl, and saw a lot of South Vietnam, including time at Bien Hoa/Long Bin. I was based at Nui Dat. All of the ANZAC battalions were even numbered 2,4,6,8. Afterwards we returned to Nee Soon, Singapore. It was while serving with the Australian Task Force that I fell in love with Australia(ians), their irreverence was breathtaking, their humour disorienting, funny beyond belief, and their bravery, like the Kiwis, scary. I first arrived in Australia, late 1971, working on oil rigs off Timor (Sedco 135G). Pre cyclone Darwin, now there’s a story. Later I drove engines (trains) in WA and so on….
Yea thanks Chris. I served but fortunately did not serve in Vietnam. I say fortunately because many of the boys as you would well know, came back fucked up.
My brother did he was with 2 RAR.
He like many has PTSD. A whole life for him and his immediate family suffering from a long gone war.
My youngest son serves, I hope the Afghanistan fuck up is over before he does a tour there.
Yes the irreverence is there for all to see. You can tell from this blog who are x diggers.
Thanks Phil,
I was officially diagnosed with PTSD only 3 years ago. Sleep disorders mainly. I’m a family legend. I’ve been an RSL President and founding member of the local Vietnam Vets chapter. 60 members. We’re all fucked up, but we’re together now. Regards to your bro, and yes, hope your son stays clear of it.
Yeah, I suppose I will. If you old boys care to tell it that is.
Found your website. I’ll look a the art and I’ll read the poems.
And get back to you with my favourite.
But before I do let me ask something of you in return. Tell me what’s going on with your “Untitled Construction 1979″?
What were you thinking, what were trying to achieve? Do you think it’s successful or that your idea’s been resolved?
What you found was my old site, kept up there for archival reasons, and occasionally referred to. I figured you’d probably run it down. Technology has moved on a lot since then, actually it was designed on the original NASA model. “Untitled Construction 1979,” what was I thinking? I’ll go back and have a look. I can’t remember it off hand, I’ve made thousands of images. Still do.
But b4 I do, just keep in mind what Jeffrey Smart said, “no art work is ever finished, it’s just abandoned”.
Can’t say I agree with him.
Judd, The background to the image is not a part of it, the boards don’t belong. I made a number of these constructions including see-through ones with images suspended behind the canvas surface. It was part of the early minimalism I experimented with that become extremely popular in galleries years later. Good on you for questioning, now it disturbs me, but the site is archival and I won’t change it. And guess what Judd, I’ve never had, or applied for an art grant! I’m rather proud of that.
Thank you ch.
Stirs memories.
OT
as the spy agencies make our digital lives part of their files, there are plenty of other ways the crowning glory of rampant unleashed capitalism - yes, the internet - has damaged us all
“Initially it appeared as if “cyber-porn” would be no different from the old variety, the screen merely replacing the mag. Now most people accept that the ease and availability of a dizzying range of pornography, easily accessed by the very young, represents more than a change of platform. Images that are now commonplace were once visible only to those who were determined to seek them out, knew where to go and were not ashamed to reveal their appetite for them. Now they can be reached at a click, without fear of disclosure or embarrassment. There is no shame. And that may well be altering, if not distorting, the sexuality of the next generation.
“Friday was Stop Cyberbullying Day. The old response, that bullying is timeless, misses two key differences: as has been argued in these pages, the pre-digital tormentor rarely followed his victim into the home, as he can now, and always had to witness the consequences of his actions in the flesh, which for some probably acted as a brake.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jun/21/memory-sexuality-digital-age-changing-human
I hope you have banned him for life, or at least till after the weegend.
The Chris Hunter posts about the NT bush school are very timely ones and because they are by him they might actually be taken note of. They accurately describe specialised problems encountered in many such isolated areas and his later far more general but equally valid comment that “its not just money, its the will of the teachers with the support of the parents and the surrounding community” is all of a matter-of-fact, evidence-based and accurate observation.
It also highlights that while resources and money are necessary and ever important, that neglect of (or opposition to) all the other points are destructive for educational achievement.
Pathways to improvement of teacher quality, availability and skill-based remuneration (monetary or otherwise) are vital . As is the support of the parents and the surrounding community. Equally important, though, is removal of any roadblocks or opposition to those important factors.