East Timor solidarity
It was with regret that I read about the WA Friends of East Timor (FOET) deciding to call it a day after two decades. I am sure that many felt the same way.
While 139,000 East Timorese are held hostage in Indonesia, East Timor is not free. While a single East Timorese is held hostage by the militias and their TNI backers (and their allies in our Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade), then East Timor is not free.
Even if they were all released tomorrow — easily achieved if those in power in the West who regularly posture on "human rights" said the word — then we would still need East Timor solidarity groups.
But even if all the war criminals were brought to justice, and the East Timorese were living in safety with infrastructure rebuilt, what then? Then we would still need to think of our role in the occupation since 1975.
To quote from the remarkable The Cost of Living by Arundhati Roy (about the Narmada dam): "From being a fight over the fate of a river valley it began to raise doubts about an entire political system. What is at issue now is the very nature of our democracy."
Paddington NSW
Appeal for information in Port Kembla
Premier Bob Carr and Health Minister Craig Knowles must be feeling very smug. The court case that their law stopped in the Land and Environment Court would have clearly shown what a disaster the new smelter at Port Kembla would be. That law will go down in history as one of the worst laws ever passed in the NSW State Parliament. It denied justice to the people and put their health at risk.
Labor politicians are still supporting the antiquated, ill-planned monstrosity of a copper smelter. Not one Local, State or Federal Labor politician has spoken out against the poisoning and sickening of hundreds of their constituents. Not one addressed the deaths of pet birds. Had Port Kembla been a mine or industry, it would have been evacuated on the night of the secret Port Kembla Copper start-up.
Now weeks later, we are still being gassed and sickened by fumes. Residents have had enough!
The Environment Protection Authority, Port Kembla Copper and BHP will not disclose emission levels. Daily and nightly, the BHP sinter plant belches out toxins. The same old secrecy and cover-ups continue. The only way we will achieve justice is through our own actions.
We ask that all those affected by pollution send your details and information to IRATE, PO Box 85, Port Kembla 2505. We need information about damage to your health or your property.
We have a right to breathe clean air. We have a right to protect our properties. We have a right to open our windows on hot summer nights without being gassed or sickened.
Vice-chairperson, IRATE
Port Kembla NSW
[Abridged.]
Better government
Here's my model for a better system of Government for Victoria. These thoughts were garnered during the 1999 State Election campaign when I stood as the Australian Greens candidate for the South Eastern Province of the Upper House.
1) Abolish the parasitical and wasteful Upper House. How have ordinary people benefitted from this colonial relic?
2) Using proportional representation voting, create a new Legislative Assembly by electing five MPs from 22 Provinces; a total of 110 MPs. Currently Victoria has 132 MPs; 88 in the Lower House Districts and 44 in the Upper House Provinces (with two MPs per province.) My Idea would see a reduction of 22 MPs.
3) The new Legislative Assembly could be easily modelled on the existing 22 Upper House Provinces. At present the Provinces cover four Lower House Districts. Electing five MPs per Province would he much more democratic, and more representative of broad community opinion.
4) A new system of local/ regional Government could then be built on these 22 Provinces (but still maintaining the local wards). There are now 78 Victorian Shires and Councils.
Australia desperately needs extensive community
debate and a plebiscite about its Governance. My model could he a good transitional step towards a better future.
Tootgarook Vic
[Abridged.]
Blackmail
I was recently granted a Newstart Allowance. Due to the fact that I am not a member of, and refuse to join, a financial institution, it emerged that there would be a problem with accessing my benefit. While Centrelink has agreed to pay me benefit in the form of a cheque I am unable to cash it. This is apparently my problem.
Appeals to my local MP, Allan Morris, and subsequent inquiries have so far yielded the response that I have "no choice" if I wish to be paid my entitlement. Apparently they can envisage no way of bypassing a financial institution.
Wondering if perhaps I was in fact being blackmailed, I duly consulted with an attorney. "No", I was told it is not blackmail because it is the law. I have taken a stand and refuse to be profited off by banks and other financial institutions any longer. That this means that I may be unable to live says more about the existing structure of our society than anything else.
Why is it, for example, that Centrelink clients, the most disadvantaged sector of Australia's population, are by state mandate, forced to entrust their meagre funds to wealthy financial institutions? Convenient? Rational? "For whom?", I would ask. Not for me — and not, I would argue, for any poor people.
Hamilton
American Beauty
Re: John Gauci's review of American Beauty: Blisters hurt even if we try to ignore them. But blisters are a protective mechanism, our bodies' defence against an undesired friction, unlike a boil filled with pus and corruption. Is the family in the film actually protected in their American suburban cocoon?
I wish Gauci had explored the film's apparent themes in more detail.
What is the "beauty" of the title? Is it the self-obsessed wife's front garden, the facade shown to the neighbours of the happy successful suburban home? Is it the conventionally attractive cheerleader that the protagonist begin to obsess over?
Is it the "beauty" seen in mundane and usually unnoticed or unwanted objects, obsessively filmed by the unusual next door neighbour? What about the "perfect" housewife next door, femininity in extremis: passive to the point of silence, obedient to the point of catatonia. Is it about the seeming social obsession with "beauty"? What of this overarching theme of obsession with sex, money, power.
And what of the unrelenting ugliness in the film? Lester's ugly boss, the neighbourhood marine's ugly hatred of homosexuals, his son's independence and ultimately himself? The self-obsessed cheerleader's pursuit of a modelling career achieved at the expense of others' self-esteem? Is there ugliness in the sexual liaison between the wife and another real estate salesman, or is the ugliness actually the tawdriness forced onto such extramarital relationships?
The film is unrelenting in its confrontation of so-called American values, yet never preaches to the audience. And perhaps instead of viewers looking for an anti-capitalist message, the film should be seen for what it is: an American film that takes a deep breath and seriously challenges American viewers to think about their values.
American Beauty is one of the finest films I have seen in years, it will win a swag of Oscars, and best of all, it will generate discussion and debate for a long time.
Katoomba NSW
[Abridged.]