Ideas that Died in Iraq

"Preemptive wars, unilateralism, regime change, the neoconservative approach to foreign policy: Just a few months ago, powerful government officials and influential commentators presented these ideas as not just desirable but inevitable choices for a superpower confronted by unprecedented threats. With more than 900 American soldiers dead, 10,000 coalition troops wounded, a military price tag of more than $90 billion, and the main reason for going to war dismissed as a “massive intelligence failure,” these concepts lie buried in the sands of Iraq."

Something to read...

As well as this article in BBC News about the death toll of Iraqis post "liberation"...

sestinas anyone?

here's a little excercise i tried a couple of years ago that i just rediscovered. it's called a sestina, and normally it is a form which is artificial and hard to master. i tried to do one using the most un-poetic words i could find...


writers? wankers!

a sestina is bogus
only ponces like sonnets
haikus are for hippies
tripping on zen grass
rod mckuen can kiss my ass
all poets are wankers

forms are for wankers
who's creativity is bogus
i use poetry books to wipe my ass
geriatric people write sonnets
whilst tanning in tall grass
they all once were hippies

writing by old hippies
is rhetoric from new-age wankers
smoked up with sweet grass
so easily termed 'bogus'
many love sick sonnets
are wafted from one lonely ass

heaney was one such stuffy ass
with irish sorrow like sad hippies
writers said he was good at sonnets
but they were all tosspots and wankers
a nobel laureate is decidedly bogus
when a poem is bare toes in tall grass

i've stared at clouds and slept on grass
trekked up mountains on the back of an ass
but feelgood platitudes make poetry bogus
like a cliche mantra of throwback hippies
poetic sentiments that belch from wankers
are best in greeting cards and sonnets

some think poetry is best placed in sonnets
nestled in meadow green grass
prompting pure emotions from smug wankers
or a pose from a playboy-perfect ass
but it's all cliches from hippies
making all such forms bogus

any poetic wankers can sit on their ass
smoke grass like hippies
and write sestinas and sonnets as poems, bogus.

24/7/02

Progressive vs Regressive American Politics

This interesting article in the Washington Post talks about general strategies employed by the current administration to disenfranchise voters in order to maintain a voting base which favours it's re-election. With movements such as Michael Moore's Slacker Uprising Tour and other movements to encourage traditionally apathetic constituencies, there is a huge surge in voter registration for the upcoming election. However there is a consistent attack going on politically between those in power and those not. The article states:

"After four years in the White House, George W. Bush's most significant contribution to American life is this pervasive bitterness, this division of the house into raging, feuding halves. We are two nations now, each with a culture that attacks the other. And politics, as the Republicans are openly playing it, need no longer concern itself with the most fundamental democratic norm: the universal right to vote."

Since Bush is not an elected President, but rather a Supreme Court appointed one, I'm sure he's aware of the loss he could potentially face should the majority who normally remains aloof from the voting process decides to shake off apathy and head to the polls. I'm sure he is aware that in a pure democracy he would not have been in power, and therefore he is not going to encourage democratic principles when it comes to his re-election.

All this increases my severe dislike of divisive politics. I can only watch so much news or read so much commentary about it. I've voted, so all I can hope for is sanity and reason to prevail again.

I think I'm going to read a good book now...

Remote Voting

Despite me living on the underside of the world, I felt it was my civic duty to vote in the upcoming elections in the US. So I got my absentee ballot and was preparing to send it off in the post when a card arrived stating that I needed to vote by the 7th of October or up to 15 days thereafter. Since it was the 20th at the time, I had no choice but to fax my ballot which forfeited my right to give my vote in secret. Although I did get to vote, I disliked the tricks associated with remote voting.

Apparently absentee voting is widely practiced even when people don't have a "legitimate" reason (i.e. they are on the other side of the world). In an editorial in USA Today, the editor talks about the pitfalls of such voting practices, things which I hadn't considered until now...

Given the stories about registration rigging, voter disqualification, and the mass of lawyers being employed to ensure that neither side cheats, it is clear that democracry is an idea that makes a good storefront, but it is rarely used in practice.

mother me

stand straight
speak clearly
wait to be spoken to
listen
be nice
be honest
never say my age
don't stare (but look at her over there)
don't ummm or ahhh
be good
be better than everyone else
don't act better than everyone else
be polite
shut up
speak up
be quiet
don't slouch
be careful
take off your shoes
put on your coat
look out
hurry up
slow down
close your mouth
say something
don't interrupt
look at me
don't stare at me
speak to me
don't talk to me like that
don't lie

do i look nice?
20/10/04

The Hair Over There

whilst looking for some hirsuite facial photos, i happen to stumble across a website which was a haven for the hirsuite. in fact, it broke the back of the subject...

i think my friend pj would feel at home there... :)

Dine in Post-Apocalyptic Splendor

This child of parents influenced by apocalyptic fear inherited the food that her parents purchased to sustain them in the event of a nuclear disaster (this is assuming they survived the disaster in the first place).

With her stocks of "Neo-Life", in honor of of her parents' drive for post-apocalyptic survival, she prepared a dinner that the basement dwellers of ground zero would have been proud of...

thanks to ds for the entertaining link :)

Some Things You May Not Have Known

Some of these facts had me laughing:

The first couple to be shown in bed together on prime time television were Fred and Wilma Flintstone.

What common everyday occurrence is composed of 59% nitrogen, 21% hydrogen and 9% dioxide? A fart.

Dueling is legal in Paraguay as long as both parties are registered blood donors.


And some had me crying:

Michael Jordan makes more money from Nike annually than all of the Nike factory workers in Malaysia combined.

Average number of days a West German goes without washing his underwear: 7

Number of people who starved to death in 1997: 20,000,000.


All in all, it's worth a read

Wonky Voting in Florida

I've made sure to register to vote in the upcoming election and will hopefully get my absentee ballot soon. I don't know how much good it will do, but here's hope for some kind of democratic process.

On Michael Moore's website, former US President Jimmy Carter has written an interesting article about the how voting process in Florida is still subject to the same biases that affected it during the 2000 election. The Carter Center is responsible for usually overseeing the democratic elections in contentious areas such as Venezuela and Indonesia. Since the Center is unable to monitor the elections in Florida due to financial and resource constraints, the only way to make sure the process in Florida remains a democratic process is "to focus maximum public scrutiny" on the election there.

These problems shouldn't really be happening in the "land of the free"...

death brings different socks

bilirubin makes up for your lack of asian genes
as the sunlight writes your name in shadows
now made more even as breathing slows
or as thinking slows.
who knows?

closets full of unworn clothes
compete for space as we cram ourselves
between drawers of tube socks and the leaky loo
twelve years a bachelor marked out in chilli cans and condensed soup
finally you've flown the coup
and women flock to clean up after you.

your youngest son builds the box
(which we wipe down with your socks)
and your oldest waits for you to look with recognition
but by your own admission
you lived for years waiting to be seen
as you hid on Sand road behind the cedar hedge
with the radio always on in case the world ended without you

they say that death comes with a rattle
but it sounded more like socks stuffed in a box
and the muffled sense of loss
that comes when you give away something you never really had

though we plan to bury you
to the sound of taps under a triangular flag
we bury the memories of all we missed
the dad that came and left but liked to hover
like an aloof eagle in the sky
occasionally swooping before he said goodbye.

Take Time to Tongue Twist

If you are fond of tongue twisters, someone has created the first international collection...

irony

i just got my first radio commercial series voice-over gig in more than five years and i get to play a particular leader of the free world known by a letter at the end of the alphabet.

if my father were alive, i know he would have a good chuckle about it.

Don't let the Cat in

Yusuf Islam (the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens) was recently denied entry to the US because of his alleged connections to terror groups despite him being a well known moderate Muslim (as long as you don't count the supporting of the fatwah on Salman Rushdie). One has to wonder if this is caution being taken to the level of paranoia.

I'm all for making sure people don't commit terrorist acts, but it's not so clear as to be able to condemn one specific group just because the media emphasizes the religious fanatics amongst it. I mean, Christianity would come off just as bad if not worse if we looked at the wars and destruction done in it's name. It's the religious fanaticism and lust for political power that are the real enemies, and these "evils" are not confined to one race or religious preference.

A "war on terror" is only going to perpetuate a dualistic warring mentality: us and them, friend or foe. I think Jesus came to take away that mentality. I find it ironic that the political right in the US portrays itself as embodying good Christian values.

British Diplomat Gaffe

I found it amusing that someone leaked a comment from a British dipolomat that terror groups would rather have Bush in the Whitehouse than Kerry.

Although the current US administration would have the world believe it would be safer with it in power after the next election, one does have to mention that the current polarised situation was created by the current administration...

Shihad spits the dummy

i was encouraged today when i read that the NZ rock band formally known as Shihad (pronounced 'she-had') and presently known as Pacifier has decided to revert to it's previous name. the main reason they changed their name in the first place was due to the post 9/11 mentality and similarity of their name to the word 'jihad". their motivation was to be able to sell albums in the USA.

on their website, the band members state:

"The events surrounding the name change and our choice to be known as Pacifier are well documented. As much as we believed in what we were doing, and the reasons for doing it at the time - the truth is we were wrong. "

to me the reversion to their previous name signals that the world is waking up from the madness of conformity to the conservative social norm created by 9/11. the first casualty of a semi-militarised state is freedom of expression and dissent. i hope that with greater experience of the dubious nature of political truths and narrowminded agendas, people won't be duped or controlled to the same extent in the future.

i'm off my soapbox now. time to smell some roses...

Something from the beat days

this poem tapped me on the shoulder unasked this morning as i was waiting for the green orbiter bus to arrive.

i wrote it more than three years ago when i was reading a lot of beat poetry. it happened one morning when i was getting dressed. suddenly the first two lines popped into my head. i had to stop buttoning my shirt and write them down. then the next lines came. i was able to finish getting dressed eventually and hop in the car to work, but the poem kept coming. i held an old receipt on my steering wheel and scrawled the lines on it with a pen as i drove. when i got to work, i quickly typed it all up and this is what came out. mind you, the editor in me came out eventually and made a couple of minor tweaks and changes, but this is mainly the product of inspiration which i was fortunate enough to get out of the way of and just let happen.

in some respects, i didn't write the poem so much as just write it down...


It Is What It Is

Poetry?
Infamy, the last of me,
Simpleton logic in Zen-like trances,
Dances of the mind-ballet,
Steps, hopes, long pregnant stares
Past the rows of chairs into the foyer
Burst through the double door of brain lock habit thought
From naught to ought in commercialesque prose.

Don't alienate,
Incorporate bland commonality
So it sparks energy, heart-life squeezes.
Please the knees of the march men,
The beat song, the sweet song
Hoarse with enthusiasm, applause,
Cause and effect.
Reject the spiderstep entry.
Speak your mind, brother!
Decline the whine to line the stacks and spines
Of whines that line the stacks
Backed in rows for your perusal,
Refusal to bow down to the push of apathy
Sympathy to the word sinews
The mouth thews of utterance
Spewed in elegant soliloquy.

Salivate the wait state.
Hate the silence,
Love the rhythm schism
Syllables split
Ground down into primal motion, emotion, motivation,
Exhalations of me on the windowpane of the morning bus ride
That divides my prehistory.

So you ask me of poetry?
And the answer is.
13/3/01

For those of us who are nosey

Now PC users can follow their nose to surf the web with greater ease...

Batman does Buckingham

It seems like elections this year are bringing out the more outlandish and provocative who aren't above a shameless publicity stunt to gain popularity....

Smelly Robots Eating Flies

Who would have thought that a tasty fly could serve as a useful energy source? These London scientists did...

freedom

freedom is a mirage
freedom is a catch-phrase to enlist the impoverished
freedom is a lever for the ignorant
freedom is a carrot on a string
freedom is a whip on broken skin

america is no more free than the soviet union was
america doesn't want freedom
america wants ordered voracious consumers,
independently wealthy money-makers,
happy service industry slaves
and wide-eyed watchers of tv.
“a well balanced breakfast is toast, juice, milk and cereal.”
have you ever mixed juice and milk?
can you say lobbies, kickback, and campaign contributions?

people are upset by this thought
they act surprised and outraged as if their sacred cow was shot
they've marched for freedom
fired guns for freedom
formed hate groups for freedom
stuffed their faces for freedom
made porn for freedom
killed foreigners for freedom
given up civil liberties for freedom
and the media watched it all and recorded every second
“god bless america,” they yelled,
“land of the free (spending)
and home of the brave (sports enthusiast).”

americans don't really want freedom
they want comfort
and there’s comfort to be had
at a price
and that price is their freedom
and the freedom of the rest of the world

freedom is the smell of one new empty shoe
freedom is the promise of desert rain
freedom is a willing chain of slavery for the poor
freedom is a fireworks display
freedom is a scapegoat
freedom is a christmas tree
freedom is a slot machine jackpot

freedom is just a lullaby