Drygalski Fjord" photographer Peter Eastway
"Port Chariot Iceberg" photographer Peter Eastway
Peter Eastway has been inspired by the famous Australian photographer and Antarctic explorer Frank Hurley (1885-1962).
The 'Endurance' frozen in the Weddell Sea, photographer Frank Hurley
AUSTRALIA: I call this paragraph “Australia” so people can skip it if our news bores you. I try not to be too local or parochial – and try to only talk about issues many of you must face in your own countries. Following on from the last blog and the “lucky country” tag, The Economist (UK) criticizes our unimpressive leaders, and both sides of politics are ‘indolent’ and “captured by opinion poll-driven “short-termism””. The conservative opposition party “seems to have no philosophical principles at all” and both leaders pander to “xenophobic fears about asylum seekers”. We have not made enough of the China boom, and I have just read elsewhere that China now views us as “discriminatory” and a “political risk”, and we have slipped to fifth position for the value of their foreign investments.
VISIT: During the visit here of the High Commissioner for Refugees we were reminded that mandatory detention of asylum seekers/refugees breaks international law, and she stated that we are demonizing asylum seekers. We are now hoping to dump them on Malaysia who already have 90,000 refugees, and are not even a signatory to the UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. This will include unaccompanied children.
SHAME: AUSTRALIA’S FUTURE FUND – this Government investment fund holds a $135.4 million investment in nuclear weapons manufacturers, and had to be shamed into dumping investments in cluster bombs! Some future! It’s like living in a parallel universe….
The French documentary "Oceans"
FILM: I am looking forward to seeing Oceans which has been described as one of the best wildlife documentaries. Stylistically it is apparently more Jacques Cousteau/French than David Attenborough/British. Click here for a review.
MORE SHAME: The recent television report “A Bloody Business” has created a scandal as we were shown how our live cattle exports to Indonesia are cruelly treated and slaughtered. It was impossible to watch it all as it was so gruesome – but I can still hear their bellows of fear and agony. The Australian Government has known about these conditions in the Indonesian abattoirs for 10 years, and indeed this trade has been overseen by Meat and Livestock Australia – funded by the tax payer. Congratulations to Lyn White and Animals Australia for bringing this to our attention – they have previously put the spot light on our live cattle exports to the Middle East, especially Egypt. Some cattle had to wait their turn and were able to watch the slaughter ahead of them– the last one in the queue was a quivering wreck. Click here for the Four Corners ABC Report. Click here for GetUp Action for Australia to sign petitions to Julia Gillard and local MPs.
Ironically, Australians probably care more about these animals than asylum seekers, although many of them have had to flee for their lives and have had to take huge risks. These people are never identified in the media, as a “human face” may evoke sympathy. Frederika Steen asks in the SMH letters “When did public outrage at animal cruelty overtake our commitment to comply with human rights?”
VEGETARIANISM: Thanks for the emails about this, and the book The Face on Your Plate by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson has just arrived in the post. I certainly haven’t eaten meat since “A Bloody Business” was shown.
JULIAN ASSANGE: Julian in fact won the Sydney Peace Foundation Gold Medal, and this week the Martha Gelhorn Prize for Journalism which rewards work that “challenges secrecy and mendacity in public affairs”. The Sydney Peace Prize has just been awarded to Noam Chomsky.
MIDDLE EAST: The “spring” seems to have gone out of the Arab Spring for now. Libya seems a stale-mate, Egypt is still oppressive, the child Hamza Al-Khatib was tortured and murdered in Syria, and everyone in Afghanistan, except perhaps the Taliban, seem sick of the hopelessness and the civilian and military deaths. We lost our 29th soldier this week and the majority of our population are asking “why”? The Israel and Palestine conflict also seems to urgently need new leaders and a new paradigm…
EIKOH HOSOE: There are four seminal series by this marvellous Japanese photographer at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Hosoe has been inspired by Butoh for many years and has worked with many of the actors. With his arresting photographs, Hosoe, like several of the other photographers mentioned in this blog, wants to convey more than straight photographic documentation, in this case, his feelings for a place where he spent some years of his childhood. He wants to return to Australia and photograph some of our trees, particularly the Moreton Bay Figs.
BIG TOBACCO: It has been fascinating watching the pressure the tobacco industry has been exerting against legislation here for plain packaging on cigarettes which already carry the direst and most grisly images of what smoking can do to you. Our Opposition party however, receives donations from them, and the Opposition leader, although a former Health Minister and show-off fitness fanatic, had to be shamed into supporting the legislation.
GAMBLING: Australians are the worst gamblers in the world – on average US$1300 each year each person. There is an attempt to limit problem gamblers on pokie machines – of course a huge source of revenue for governments. Football players wear jumpers with Centrebet on their back, on playing fields emblazoned with beer commercials, and you can bet online on tabsportbet as the game unfolds!
From the Up in the sky series by Tracey Moffatt
TRACEY MOFFATT: Possibly our most famous Australian artist Tracey Moffatt is exhibiting Up in the sky at the Art Gallery of NSW. Click here to view all the photographs in the series, and Google her!
STYLISH: Barack and Michelle Obama in Ireland and UK. How stylish and charming they are. The Queen actually looked pleased for a change!
- Daniel Cunningham, Ildiko Kovacs, Liz Nowell photograph by Stephen Oxenbury
ILDIKO KOVACS: I love Ildiko’s paintings so it is marvellous to see a comprehensive survey of her work currently at the Hazelhurst Regional Gallery & Arts Centre until July 3rd 2011. The exhibition is curated by Daniel Cunningham and is accompanied by a superb publication. Ildiko received an excellent review by SMH art critic John MacDonald, click here to read article.
Serpentine 1999, was a gift to the Museum of Contemporary Art by the late Ann Lewis, a very generous art benefactor.
- Serpentine 1999 by Ildiko Kovacs
BOOKS: I know I’m very out of date with my reading – with my MA I just read Australian history for years – but I’ve finally read We Need To Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver. Brilliant, dark, funny, a mother/son hate/love story – I adored it but not for all.
MISC STATS: More eBooks are now sold than paperbacks (A Lion Called Christian was Random House’s first eBook)…. 10 million dogs are eaten in China each year – but now the wealthier Chinese are having them as pets…..50% of Chinese are now described as “urban” and in India it is 30%…humans consume 272 billion kilograms of plastic per year….
JANE GOODALL: The indefatigable and international treasure Jane Goodall is in Australia again – Click here to view her Australian tour schedule.
- Rescued from the tornado
ANIMAL VIDEOS: Mark Lewis’s Cane Toads: The Conquest has just been released. Some see this sequel as an allegory for our Australian xenophobia; Therasa sent in a link to very cute cats – Click here ; Dale Swanton sent the most touching photographs of dogs collected and huddling with each other after the destruction of the recent tornadoes in the U.S, and joining them on the back seat was a cat!
VOICELESS: Click here to view the Voiceless Grants Program.
PS: Happy World Environment Day June 5th 2011!
The wreck of the Lady Elizabeth in the Falkland Islands, photographer Peter Eastway
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