michaelBlogwell

No Happy Ending

2006-07-30T00:42:00.000+08:00

From the SIEVX website

Vale Amal Basry
1 July 1953 - 18 March 2006
by Marg Hutton
19 March 2006
Less than five years after surviving the horrific sinking of SIEVX, Amal Basry lost her three year battle with breast cancer. She passed away on Saturday afternoon 18 March in Melbourne's St Vincent's Public Hospital in the presence of her son Rami and daughter-in-law Daniella. She was fifty-two.

Amal and Rami were rescued from the Indian Ocean on 20 October 2001 after spending nearly twenty four hours in the water fighting for their lives. Amal and Rami defeated the odds - only about one in ten passengers aboard SIEVX survived and most of the 353 who drowned were women and children. Unlike most of the other survivors they did not lose any immediate family members, although they did lose cousins, nieces and nephews.

In June 2002, eight months after the sinking, Amal and Rami were finally permitted to come to Australia on temporary protection visas (TPVs) because they had proven family connections here. Amal's husband Abbas Akram had made the journey to Australia on an earlier boat arriving on the north-west coast in January 2000. He spent 8 months in Woomera Detention Centre before settling in Melbourne on a TPV. Only seven survivors of the sinking were permitted to settle in Australia; the remaining 38 were resettled in other countries where they were very quickly granted permanent residency. Unlike the 38 who went to other countries, Amal and Rami had to endure an inexplicably cruel three year wait before being granted permanent protection visas. It is difficult to imagine how this needless bureaucratic obstructionism affected these already deeply traumatised people. They wanted nothing more than security and were forced to wait for years never knowing if they would be allowed to put down roots and make their home here. It was not until the middle of last year (2005) that they were finally granted permanency.

I never met Amal but I did hear her speak once.

On the first anniversary of the sinking - only days after the first Bali bombing - I attended a memorial service at Edwardes Lake Park in Reservoir. At exactly 3.10pm, a year to the minute since SIEVX sank and 353 people perished, Amal bravely took the stage supported by Gabrielle Fakhri of the Thornbury Asylum Seekers Resource Centre and recounted, first in Arabic and then in English, the story of the sinking.

To hear Amal speak was an unforgettable experience. She had a powerful presence - strong, courageous, poetic, dramatic. Speaking haltingly in English but with conviction she moved the audience to tears as she told of her son kissing her goodbye for what they both believed would be the final time.

I taped Amal's speech. Although the sound recording is very rough and some of the words are indistinct, the tape provides a glimpse of an exceptional woman. Below is a transcript:

Good afternoon. I would like to welcome you all. It means a lot to me. It gives me hope .... because this time last year I was fighting for my life, fighting like many others who were with me last year. When our boat sank we felt we were going to die. Everyone... screamed - 'God, God, please help us, save us please'... I can never forget the unbelievable pictures in front of my eyes. Some people... in the water, some swallowing the water and choking and choking. I will never forget the bodies lying on the sea. And the moment that pushed me into... the....water and... I saw my son fighting for his life as well... finding a piece of wood, my son started to scream 'Mum, Mum, we will choke, we will die. God please save us.' At this point I was anxious to get where my son was but I saw a dead woman's body beside me. And with my heart burning I feeling very scared and try to hold the hand of the dead body to support myself to swim to my son's side. Thank God I could arrive near my son. We kissed each other. [sobbing] Then he said 'Give me a kiss mum, we are going to die'... where some other people were still fighting for their lives. The screaming still rings in my ears. And one man screams 'All my family drown' and my friend who was holding onto a piece of wood had all her children's dead bodies floating around her. Next morning while we were still waiting for death the Indonesian fishermen help us and save us. And now I am living in Australia with my family and all my dreams come true. Thank you.

One thing Amal did not mention in this speech was her role in saving the life of her son. When she was rescued by the Indonesian fishermen her son was not among the survivors. Amal prevailed on the captain to turn his boat around and continue the search and her son and ten others were eventually found clinging to a small piece of wood.

Amal believed she had survived for another purpose as well - to tell her story. She wanted the world to know what had happened to the people of SIEVX. As she said to Geoff Parish of SBS Dateline, the story of SIEVX is 'a disaster that deserves to be written down by someone. People bought death in seeking freedom'.

During her four years in Australia, Amal recounted the story of SIEVX many times. In August 2002 she told her story to Michael Gordon of the Age:

At her new home in Broadmeadows this week... [Amal Basry described] in near forensic detail how almost 400 people were coerced into boarding a small, unsafe and ill-equipped boat: the trip in five buses with curtains drawn to the apartments where they prepared for the voyage; the demand that the women and children board first, apparently to ensure the men followed; the refusal to return mobile phones surrendered the previous week; the attempt to plug a hole with material from a pair of jeans; the decision of the men not to let on that the engine had failed and could not be repaired; the sound of women screaming as the boat sank; the two mysterious lights in the distance as she clung on to the body of a drowned women; the rescue by Indonesian fishermen alerted when they saw floating luggage and bodies.
After saying all this through an interpreter, she looks at me intensely and says in English: "I was like a camera. I remember everything."

Amal's story travelled far and touched many. I don't know if she ever knew that the harrowing account of her survival as retold by Arnold Zable in an essay in Eureka Street was incorporated into a London production of Pericles - a joint production of the Royal Shakespeare Company and Cardboard Citizens. The Australian folk singer Suzette Herft also credits Amal as being the inspiration for her song 'Journey on the Wind'.

Amal was a patron of Jannah the SIEVX memorial, an online condolence book established by Mary Dagmar Davies - the first memorial of any kind to the SIEVX dead. Amal was also involved in the national SIEV X memorial project begun by author and psychologist Steve Biddulph and Uniting Church Minister Rod Horsfield.

She attended the opening of the Memorial Exhibition in Sydney in October 2004 where she gave the most remarkable speech. Mary Dagmar Davies described the occasion:

When [Amal] reached the lectern she started with the words 'I am still in the water with the dying' and then she looked across the room and suddenly saw Sondos Ismail the mother who lost her three little girls... Seeing Sondos with her little daughter Allaa who was born in Australia and looks so much like her three little sisters that she will never meet overwhelmed Amal and she broke down in tears. For a moment it looked as though she could not go on. But Amal, who is fighting cancer, is an exceptionally strong woman and she knew she must speak for Sondos as well. And Amal continued with tears rolling from her eyes. She was so articulate her voice rang out loud and clear... She spoke for less than four minutes. She spoke of her cancer and her experience on SIEVX and in the water. She told us more about SIEVX than any of us knew because she was there. She was poetic. She was compelling. She was the truth. People listened intently, some cried, and in the packed church a pin dropping would have sounded like a thunder clap.

Amal was haunted by the SIEVX tragedy. In an interview with Helen Lobato in 2002 for 3CR radio's 'Women on the Line' she spoke of how SIEVX had diminished her, how difficult it was for her to do normal every day things and how afraid she felt. She told Lobato : 'I lost something in myself in this accident'.

But Amal didn't let her fears or her illness prevent her from bearing witness to what she had endured. In 2004 she made the long journey to Brisbane to give evidence at the committal hearing of Khaleed Daoed, one of the organisers of the SIEVX voyage.

Amal was always prepared to stand up and speak about SIEVX on behalf of the survivors despite her illness and the fears she carried with her from the trauma of SIEVX. In many ways she was the public face of SIEVX.

More than 140 women lost their lives on SIEVX. We don't know their names and cannot mourn them as individuals. But over the last four years many of us have come to know Amal and she will be deeply mourned both as the warm courageous person she was and as a symbol of all the nameless women who drowned on SIEVX while seeking sanctuary and a better life in Australia.

Our thoughts are with her family both here and overseas.

The Myth of the New India

2006-07-09T17:26:00.000+08:00

By PANKAJ MISHRA
Published: July 6, 2006

INDIA is a roaring capitalist success story." So says the latest issue of Foreign Affairs; and last week many leading business executives and politicians in India celebrated as Lakshmi Mittal, the fifth richest man in the world, finally succeeded in his hostile takeover of the Luxembourgian steel company Arcelor. India's leading business newspaper, The Economic Times, summed up the general euphoria over the event in its regular feature, "The Global Indian Takeover": "For India, it is a harbinger of things to come — economic superstardom."

This sounds persuasive as long as you don't know that Mr. Mittal, who lives in Britain, announced his first investment in India only last year. He is as much an Indian success story as Sergey Brin, the Russian-born co-founder of Google, is proof of Russia's imminent economic superstardom.

In recent weeks, India seemed an unlikely capitalist success story as communist parties decisively won elections to state legislatures, and the stock market, which had enjoyed record growth in the last two years, fell nearly 20 percent in two weeks, wiping out some $2.4 billion in investor wealth in just four days. This week India's prime minister, Manmohan Singh, made it clear that only a small minority of Indians will enjoy "Western standards of living and high consumption."

There is, however, no denying many Indians their conviction that the 21st century will be the Indian Century just as the 20th was American. The exuberant self-confidence of a tiny Indian elite now increasingly infects the news media and foreign policy establishment in the United States.

Encouraged by a powerful lobby of rich Indian-Americans who seek to expand their political influence within both their home and adopted countries, President Bush recently agreed to assist India's nuclear program, even at the risk of undermining his efforts to check the nuclear ambitions of Iran. As if on cue, special reports and covers hailing the rise of India in Time, Foreign Affairs and The Economist have appeared in the last month.

It was not so long ago that India appeared in the American press as a poor, backward and often violent nation, saddled with an inefficient bureaucracy and, though officially nonaligned, friendly to the Soviet Union. Suddenly the country seems to be not only a "roaring capitalist success story" but also, according to Foreign Affairs, an "emerging strategic partner of the United States." To what extent is this wishful thinking rather than an accurate estimate of India's strengths?

Looking for new friends and partners in a rapidly changing world, the Bush administration clearly hopes that India, a fellow democracy, will be a reliable counterweight against China as well as Iran. But trade and cooperation between India and China is growing; and, though grateful for American generosity on the nuclear issue, India is too dependent on Iran for oil (it is also exploring developing a gas pipeline to Iran) to wholeheartedly support the United States in its efforts to prevent the Islamic Republic from acquiring a nuclear weapon. The world, more interdependent now than during the cold war, may no longer be divided up into strategic blocs and alliances.

Nevertheless, there are much better reasons to expect that India will in fact vindicate the twin American ideals of free markets and democracy that neither Latin America nor post-communist countries — nor, indeed, Iraq — have fulfilled.

Since the early 1990's, when the Indian economy was liberalized, India has emerged as the world leader in information technology and business outsourcing, with an average growth of about 6 percent a year. Growing foreign investment and easy credit have fueled a consumer revolution in urban areas. With their Starbucks-style coffee bars, Blackberry-wielding young professionals, and shopping malls selling luxury brand names, large parts of Indian cities strive to resemble Manhattan.

Indian business tycoons are increasingly trying to control marquee names like Taittinger Champagne and the Carlyle Hotel in New York. "India Everywhere" was the slogan of the Indian business leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, this year.

But the increasingly common, business-centric view of India suppresses more facts than it reveals. Recent accounts of the alleged rise of India barely mention the fact that the country's $728 per capita gross domestic product is just slightly higher than that of sub-Saharan Africa and that, as the 2005 United Nations Human Development Report puts it, even if it sustains its current high growth rates, India will not catch up with high-income countries until 2106.

Nor is India rising very fast on the report's Human Development index, where it ranks 127, just two rungs above Myanmar and more than 70 below Cuba and Mexico. Despite a recent reduction in poverty levels, nearly 380 million Indians still live on less than a dollar a day.

Malnutrition affects half of all children in India, and there is little sign that they are being helped by the country's market reforms, which have focused on creating private wealth rather than expanding access to health care and education. Despite the country's growing economy, 2.5 million Indian children die annually, accounting for one out of every five child deaths worldwide; and facilities for primary education have collapsed in large parts of the country (the official literacy rate of 61 percent includes many who can barely write their names). In the countryside, where 70 percent of India's population lives, the government has reported that about 100,000 farmers committed suicide between 1993 and 2003.

Feeding on the resentment of those left behind by the urban-oriented economic growth, communist insurgencies (unrelated to India's parliamentary communist parties) have erupted in some of the most populous and poorest parts of north and central India. The Indian government no longer effectively controls many of the districts where communists battle landlords and police, imposing a harsh form of justice on a largely hapless rural population.

The potential for conflict — among castes as well as classes — also grows in urban areas, where India's cruel social and economic disparities are as evident as its new prosperity. The main reason for this is that India's economic growth has been largely jobless. Only 1.3 million out of a working population of 400 million are employed in the information technology and business processing industries that make up the so-called new economy.

No labor-intensive manufacturing boom of the kind that powered the economic growth of almost every developed and developing country in the world has yet occurred in India. Unlike China, India still imports more than it exports. This means that as 70 million more people enter the work force in the next five years, most of them without the skills required for the new economy, unemployment and inequality could provoke even more social instability than they have already.

For decades now, India's underprivileged have used elections to register their protests against joblessness, inequality and corruption. In the 2004 general elections, they voted out a central government that claimed that India was "shining," bewildering not only most foreign journalists but also those in India who had predicted an easy victory for the ruling coalition.

Among the politicians whom voters rejected was Chandrababu Naidu, the technocratic chief minister of one of India's poorest states, whose forward-sounding policies, like providing Internet access to villages, prompted Time magazine to declare him "South Asian of The Year" and a "beacon of hope."

But the anti-India insurgency in Kashmir, which has claimed some 80,000 lives in the last decade and a half, and the strength of violent communist militants across India, hint that regular elections may not be enough to contain the frustration and rage of millions of have-nots, or to shield them from the temptations of religious and ideological extremism.

Many serious problems confront India. They are unlikely to be solved as long as the wealthy, both inside and outside the country, choose to believe their own complacent myths.

2nd Letter

2006-06-23T16:22:00.000+08:00

Dear Michael,
Please accept my respectful greetings . Hare Krsna .
Thank you for your open and thoughtful letter . I am just in a rare in between places period , so much writing is going on . But within a few short days I will be on the move again and writing and even reading emails will become difficult to achieve . Therefore I will follow the idiom of making hay while the sun shines .
Please feel free to print anything I write if you feel it so worthy .
What you say is true . The excessive opulence of the West must be countered with a proportionate series of deficits elsewhere .Those who have good fortune should know it as a blessing which can never come to all people in all places . I one time thought that perhaps the greedy people of this life become born in the next life as victims of the greed machines they themselves created . In general I still agree with that thought , but India is in a special category .

Although the example you mentioned of disfigured children is perhaps not entirely natural , the point still stands .( Parents are known to sometimes break thier childrens' limbs and re-set them in a deformed manner so that they can be more successful in begging.) But the spiritual consideration is different .

When there is disease , that is like a poison in the body . So when that poison becomes visible , an uninformed person may consider that is unfavourable situation . But a knowing person will rejoice , knowing that the poison is now getting out .

In this world we make many unskilled actions . Therefore we have to experiance the unpleasant results of these actions . But when that dificulty has been experianced then a person is free from all encumberances of his errors . When a person completes payment of his loan , then he is free from all obligations to the lending party . So , the unpleasant occurences of life are seen by a wise man as welcome as they are freeing us from our bondage to all our past unspiritual actions ( karmas ) .

I give another example to illustrate the point . One man is busy living it up by the grace of the credit card company . A second man is working hard to pay off his credit card debt . Whose situation is more favourable ? Which man is better off .? With a little thought we can realise that the second man is better situated because his suffering is about to end . The first man is about to be looking down the barrel of alot of hard work to pay off his accrued debt .His overall lot must be considered to be less favourable. The India experiance must be viewed in light of that consideration .

One sadhu living in a holy place made a nice observation which I was blessed to be able to share in . He answered the question , " If Jaganath Puri is a holy place , then why do we see the inhabitants catching a cold , or getting fever like everyone else ? " He replied , " Jaganath wants to free them from all their past karmas so that they can soon come to Him . That is why they have come to His place , to come to Him . So , they should get the benefit of Jaganath's mercy of suffering , actually more than everyone else ." The implication is that the suffering given by Jaganath is the suffering to end all suffering . But the so - called happiness coming from material comfort is simply creating extra suffering in the future .

..................

..
Isha Prakash das

First Letter

2006-06-23T16:20:00.000+08:00

Dear Tracey's brother,
Please accept my respectful greetings . Hare Krsna .
Neither I know you , nor you me , but I am happy to make your acquaintence. I also have sisters , both younger and older , but none of them are as spiritually inclined as Tracey . So you are blessed in that way .
I am Isha Prakash das , the name given by my spiritual master , but to look at I am just the same as everyone , fitting neatly into the WASP background category ( White Anglo Saxon Prodestant ) . Still , we all have the capacity , if we but will for it , to rise above the expected limitations of our initial beginning . So , I am trying to be anything but a trouble giving wasp to the world .
Regarding India , I would be very happy to meet you there . However , it is not expected that I will return until early September . So perhaps next time we could meet .
The India experiance is something that will grow on you . At the time there will probably be many troublesome bits . But the real value of it all is if you can somehow weather all that bothers with a balanced mind . The real value of your experiance comes after you return .
When we were in Adelaide , one of the friends of the temple understood something of his India experiance in hearing our explanation of Vedic principles of offering things . " Oh , so that was why they were not liking my smelling the flowers , " he said. And his trip to India was when ? Twenty (20) years ago at that time !
So the real value comes in the introspection after the experiance . That is central to learning from India . Be patient in the present , later you may , by Krsna's grace understand what was going on . And believe me , in India it is all spiritual .
Yes , the dirt, the crowds , the cheating, the poverty , the beautiful unornamented people , the willingness to help others , the friendliness , the genuine interest in others , the self diginity in oneself , the ability to stay happy despite whatever comes , the ability to accept others exactly as they are and the beautiful unconditional human warmth - all these things are spiritual . The trouble is that we often get too lost in the first half of the list to see our way through to the second half . That is like the mud caking the gem . If we can somehow get past all of that then we can get the real value from our India experiance . Otherwise we are really a victim of " not being able to see the wood for the trees. " Getting through the wrapping is part of receiving the gift .
In the West it is the same in the other way . In the West the wraping around the spiritual core is all gloss , glitter and tinselly stuff . And most people don't get through that wrapping. So they also miss the essence . But in India the core goes much deeper . There is more essence there .
Anyway those are just some general comments I felt moved to make . If you have anything specific you would like to discuss or ask about please feel free to write . I even have two frinds who I regularly visit who are collecting pen and ink letters for me , so that a person can write in that way also .
Best of luck with your journey . It is said that the seed of a great Banyan tree will never germinate until it has passed through the body of a crow . So some initial purifactory difficulty is to be expected before any genuine progressive learning experiance . We need not feel dismay in the presence of seemingly contrary occurences . They are actually the precursors to something very wonderful .If that truth can always be bourne in mind then one's progress is positively assured . Hare Krsna .
Your new friend ,
Isha Prakash das

The Tourist

2006-06-20T00:12:00.000+08:00

It barks at no one else but me
Like it's seen a ghost
I guess it seen the sparks a-flowing
No one else would know

Hey man slow down, slow down
Idiot, slow down, slow down

Sometimes I get overcharged
That's when you see sparks
You ask me where the hell I'm going
At a thousand feet per second

Hey man slow down, slow down
Idiot slow down, slow down

By Thom York.

Melbourne y Geelong

2006-05-28T21:48:00.000+08:00

Brick in the wall

Camilito

Trisha

SJ

Colaba Mumbai

2006-05-26T19:49:00.000+08:00

Words of wisdom from Sam the Yoga man:

"You will get heaps of people trying to sell you hash or women. The hash is often shoe polish and if not its a policeman and the women is usually a man."

Late one night on a curb drinking Chai....

...... the three of us have given up looking for the roof top bar which we later realise has been closed down by the police. So here we on a hot humid stinky Bombay night chewing the fat, all of a sudden the gate to our right opens, out comes a 40ish something man, behind him we realise are 10 - 15 people sleeping out in the open, an extended family I guess. We apologise for waking him but he does not seem to mind. To my company this is probably a non event as they have both spent three or so months in India and this is a normal state of affairs. I know however that I will always remember this moment as my introduction to India. People everwhere living like this, I have no idea where they go during the monsoon.

Stella and police man....

...... you want hashish, coke my friend. I want one gram of coke, do you have 1 gram on you. one gram, yes of course. How much for one gram of coke? One gra. Actually i want 10 grams of coke, do you have this one you now. 10 grams...yes i have this. Well we are going to get the police then. (laughs) i am the police.

I am watching cricket on some dusty rubbish covered ground next to Marine Lines train station....

........ the young guys are dressed in whites so I'm guessing its some kind of club match. I can tell they have spotted the white guy watching their match as one by one they all look over in my direction and laugh (or maybe I just have that effect on people). The bowling side seems to have to upper hand here until the next batsman arrives and quickly takes charge. Just before i get up and go he smashes a hook shot right in my direction, i figure i've got a handle on this but at the very last moment the ball kicks up at my face, I don't know how but I manage to avert a really sore face and actually take the ball cleanly, the fielding side are clearly impressed as i get a round of applause.

And The Winner is Sydney

2006-05-13T09:27:00.000+08:00

Shadow People

Drunken Dinner Party

Night Scrapers

Da House

silhouette

El Bridge

5 Minute Stand Off

Manly Bush

Manly Houses

Rail

Vertigo by Tim

Tim

Newtown

Bridge view from Glebe

Some Tiles

How it should have been built

Passing of Peace

2006-05-11T21:40:00.000+08:00

Download the mix here.

Total Length: 56:42

Tracklisting:

1) Masters At Work feat. Wumni - Ekabo (Afro Beat Mix) :: 0:00 - 9:18
2) Marvin Gaye - Calypso Blues :: 4:47 - 7:40
3) Paiva and the Singing Saw - Orfeu Negra (Seiji Remix) :: 8:42 - 13:25
4) DJ Tvyks & Hakan Lidbo - Norr/Vychod (Version 1) :: 12:24 - 20:38
5) The Pharcyde - (Intro to Testing The Waters 12") :: 15:31 - 16:01
6) Recloose - Can't Take It :: 19:15 - 24:20
7) Naomi Daniel - Feel The Fire (Deep Dish Burning Remix) :: 22:26 - 26:55
8) Meikbar - Feelings - 26:40 - 30:43
9) Problem Kids - I Will Lead (??? Mix) :: 30:03 - 34:42
10) Minus 8 - Theia :: 34:15 - 38:35
11) Moodymann - LiveInLA 1998 :: 37:12 - 43:15
12) Mood II Swing - The Slippery Track (Wink Re-Mix) :: 41:43 - 48:57
13) Moodymann - Silence In The Secret Garden :: 46:42 - 52:54
14) Katalyst - Passing Of Peace (Danielsan War & Peace Remix) :: 51:48 - 56:42

Broken Headphone

2006-05-10T20:17:00.000+08:00

Download the mix here.

Total Length: 70:05

Track listing:

1) Soul II Soul - African Dance :: 0.00 - 04:55
2) Jersey Street - Brand New Day (Atmospheric Vocal) :: 02:44 - 10:00
3) Soul II Soul - Happiness (dub) :: 09:04 - 14:17
4) Herbert - The Last Beat :: 13:25 - 18:35
5) Streetlife Originals - Sidewalk Story (Sans Bateaux) :: 17:11 - 21:04
6) Herbert - So now... :: 19:50 - 25:29
7) Norr/Vychod (Version 2 or 3 ???) :: 23:00 - 29:01
8) Masters At Work Feat. Wunmi - MAW Expensive (A Tribute To Fela) :: 28:11 - 35:17
9) Paiva and the Singing Saw - Orfeu Negra (Unsawn Version ???) :: 33:30 - 37:24
10) Herbert - This Time :: 36:57 - 43:15
11) Thievery Corporation Feat. David Byrne - The Heart's A Lonely Hunter :: 41:08 - 50:15
12) Newworldaquarium - Tresspassers :: 47:44 - 58:02
13) Carl Craig - Sandstorms :: 53:02 - 59:38
14) Paiva and the Singing Saw - Orfeu Negra (Rednosedistrikt Remix) :: 58:47 - 64:27
15) Herbie Hancock - Stars in Your Eyes :: 63:24 - 70:05

Words to be heard

2006-05-09T12:04:00.000+08:00

My genius has been recorded through the written word and a certain blog run by a Guy Called Tim. Please refer to the Mikeisms entry dated Wednesday, May 03, 2006.

The Golden Age

2006-04-11T21:38:00.000+08:00

Ida and Moon

2006-03-16T22:56:00.000+08:00

Download Mix here.

57:31

1. Carl Graig - Twighlight :: 0.00 - 4.00
2. Demon Ritchie - 70 More :: 01.28 - 08.15
3. Brothers of Peace - Zabalaza (MAW Orginal Remix) :: 5.45 - 13.17
4. Samuel L Sessions - Centrafrique (Part 2) :: 12:33 - 16.49
5. Samuel L Sessions - Centrafrique pt1 (Ben Sims Hardgroove mix)??? :: 16.18 - 19.54
6. Samuel L Sessions - Centrafrique (Part 3) :: 18.05 - 24.02
7. The Chemical Brothers - Hold Tight London :: 22.37 - 29.15
8. Jeff Mills - Perfecture :: 27.30 - 32.45
9. Niko Marks - Chune :: 31.00 - 38.18
10. Frankie goes to Hollywood - Two Tribes (Annihilation mix) :: 36.17 - 42.12
11. G Flame - Da Walls :: 39.50 - 45.21
12. Terry Brookes - Breaking Cycles :: 44.33 - 49.04
13. Jah wobble & Bill Laswell - Alsema Dub (C2 Spiritual Dub) :: 47.23 - 57.30
14. Maurizio - mo5 :: 50.50 - 54.50 :: 56.26 - 57.40

300 Days Off

2006-03-09T00:31:00.000+08:00

52 Days to go.

Web 3.0

2006-02-02T22:57:00.000+08:00

Is all the talk of Web 2.0 pissing you off, to me it seems that Web 2.0 is becoming the new "Enterprise Solutions" for sales people. Soon the mantra will be; "We sell Web 2.0 Ajax enabled solutions...." Not that there is anything wrong with Ajax.

Jeffrey Zeldman has similar problems with Web 2.0 and is able to describe them much more eloquently, than myself, over at A List Apart.

Read on...

Apocalypse Choir

2006-01-31T20:08:00.000+08:00

Download this track.

betWeen-the-sTars.kom

2006-01-25T23:47:00.000+08:00

betWeen-the-sTars.kom

Simon & Charlie

2006-01-24T22:40:00.000+08:00

In Case We Die

2006-01-14T11:52:00.000+08:00

"
Norway is planning to build a "doomsday vault" inside a mountain on an Arctic island to hold a seed bank of all known varieties of the world's crops.

The Norwegian government will hollow out a cave on the ice-bound island of Spitsbergen to hold the seed bank.

It will be designed to withstand global catastrophes like nuclear war or natural disasters that would destroy the planet's sources of food.

"

Read on.

Dryandra Winter 2005

2006-01-12T20:38:00.000+08:00

Back Online

2006-01-05T22:49:00.000+08:00

My mixes are back online thanks to hostmysite and my credit card. Now I don't have get angry with shitty free hosting and their campaign of random file deletion.

Turtles Don't Age

2005-12-30T23:25:00.000+08:00

Ive always considered myself to be someone who is not afraid of death. By this I mean while I value my life and do my best to stay out of life threatening situations, I accept that one day this century my death will occur and there is absolutley nothing I can do about it. Why then do I find the prospects of living to the ripe old age of 1200 so entertaining?

"
By João Pedro de Magalhães

"The knowledge that every ambition is doomed to frustration at the hands of a skeleton has never prevented the majority of human beings from behaving as though death were no more than an unfounded rumor." - Aldous Huxley

Aging fosters sickness and disability, increases human suffering, and makes us more likely to die. Yet there are a number of possible objections to the endeavor of curing aging. Most of these are unfounded myths, easy to disprove. This essay draws on my own lectures on the subject and attempts to answer the most commonly raised questions and concerns about a possible cure for aging.

Myth #1: Aging is natural and so we shouldn't fight it

First of all, aging is not universal. A number of complex species such as lobsters, rockfishes, some tortoises, etc. do not appear to age. Therefore, aging is not a prerequisite to life. Aging is neither inevitable nor universal.

Secondly, humankind is, in a sense, a struggle against nature. We have antibiotics and vaccines because we don't want to be sick, which would be the natural outcome for many of us. If we were to follow Nature's will, many of us wouldn't be here and wouldn't be reading these lines, on a monitor, over the Internet.

Myth #2: What's the point of extending life if we are old

This is a common misconception about research on the biology of aging. The ultimate goal of my work and that of many biogerontologists is to preserve health and life. Yet we aim not just to make elderly people live longer but to diminish, not extend, age-related debilitation (also see de Grey et al., 2002). What we want is to find ways to extend healthy life span by postponing disease and eventually eradicate all forms of age-related involution. In other words, to find a cure for aging, an intervention that permits us to avoid aging and all pathologies associated with it. Instead of improving the quality of life of the elderly, I want to avoid having elderly patients in the first place. People would still die from accidents, infectious diseases, etc. After all, children and teenagers die too even though they are not yet aged.

My calculations for a cure for aging yield an average longevity of 1,200 years. This is assuming one would be forever young in body and mind.

"
Read on.

Rapidshare ate my mixes

2005-12-29T23:18:00.000+08:00

In one foul swoop rapidshare hosting has deleted my mixes due to what it states as a file being inactive for 30 days. Funny thing is people have been downloading these mixes in the last few days, myself included (needed something to listen to at work). Oh well I shall search for another free host, in anticipation I shall work on recording more.

p.s If you have the means and are feeling generous I would love to have some decent free hosting (yeah yeah I know when it comes to computing and all things internet I tend to be a cheap ass).It would make me very happy and give you warm fuzzy feelings.

- Update: I have contradicted myself and gone with ipowerweb hosting, $180 for 24 months with free domain rego, plenty of storage and transfer MB's as well. I'm hoping this was not a waste of money, we shall see.

Xmas Weekend 2005

2005-12-27T13:08:00.000+08:00

The Morning before Xmas

Xmas Day

Cassette Jam '05

2005-12-09T20:56:00.000+08:00

This is quite an amazing collection.

Moving house this weekend and also helping Paula move (what timing) so I'd better get packing...

The past few days...

2005-12-04T13:00:00.000+08:00

A 25 year old Australian is executed by hanging for Drug Trafficking in Singapore; the death penalty is abhorrent, to be executed by the state via not so rapid asphyxiation is beyond words

The Federal government passed its anti-terrorism laws; bring on the police state. Attorney general Phillip Ruddock now adds this to his legacy alongside his previous record of marginalising and locking up asylum seekers for political point scoring. The Suspected Illegal Entry Vessel X (SIEVX) tragedy being the worst example

The said government passed it beloved Industrial relations laws; this is a present for the dumb motherfuckers in this country who have repeatedly voted in this government - YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO COMPLAIN. Such is their parlimentary majority the government can now pass legislation as they please.

Clinically Inclined...

2005-11-28T22:23:00.000+08:00

...has to be one of my favourite radio shows in the world:
"
We mix a wide variety of funky futuristic records from all styles and years, inspired by Detroit's seminal open-minded radio DJs: from Electrifyin' Mojo and The Wizard during the pre-techno and birth of techno in Detroit... to the Chicago radio hotmix shows on WBMX that flourished at the birth of house music... to the open-mindedness of David Mancuso's Loft-era moods in NYC... to the expanses of Deep Space electronics.

We seek out the freshest sounds on emerging underground labels and mix them with the roots, scribbling outside the lines of history and rigid sub-genres. Expect deep new electronix alongside timeless techno, electro, detroit/chicago house, underground disco machine funk and weird nu-wave / italo / funk / soul dusties that slipped through the cracks of time (and fell onto our turntables).
"

The Clinically Inclined website is updated weekly with a good 2 1/2 hours of listening pleasure. I have guys like Matt MacQueen and Dave Siska to thank for making my working hours so much more enjoyable.

Other radio shows / stations that bring a smile to my ears:

- Compost Radio Show with Michael Rutten
- Split Radio Show with Ben Sims and Chris Finke
- RTRfm - Perth's best radio station by a mile

Nightlife

2005-11-23T07:44:00.000+08:00

Nightlife :: 52:43

1. DJ Sneak :: You Can't Hide From Your Bud
2. George T :: Gimme Lowdown
3. The Republic :: Earth Shaker
4. DJ Sneak :: Siren Song
5. Kevin Yost :: Move Your Mind
6. Moody Man :: People
7. Kevin Yost :: This Night
8. DJ Q :: We Are One (Carl Graig Mix)
9. Star Filght :: Dance to the Beat
10. Mr Fingers :: Got A Good Groove Going
11. John Beltram :: Pictures And Indian Summer
12. Blair :: Night Life

Download mix here

Sunday

2005-11-20T12:38:00.000+08:00

Its Sunday and my mind is tranquilo, A Tribe Called Quest is sounding super good from my new studio monitors (thanks Tracey :)). On Friday night a few of us went to see a band called Wolf Mother. They are like a cross between Black Sabbath, Led Zepplin, The Mars Voltar and the White Stripes. What I especially liked were the moments when the bass player swapped to the electric organ, chords more powerful and dirty than any electric guitar can produce. After the gig all I wanted to do was plugin my Roland Mp-600 and make some lovely noice.

Victor Jara

2005-11-13T15:23:00.000+08:00

As taken from the Winamp website collection of artist biographies:
"
The facts of Victor Jara's tragic death are well documented. Arrested in the aftermath of a military coup d'etat, Jara was one of many political prisoners and to the National Football Stadium where many were tortured, beaten and executed. Although his hands were broken, or, as many have claimed, amputated, Jara continued to sing a song supporting the ousted Popular Unity Party. After receiving many brutal blows, Jara stopped singing only when a machine gun fired by a military officer took his life. In the nearly three decades since, Jara 's songs and spirit have been celebrated by numerous politically-minded folksingers including Pete Seeger and Tom Paxton . Arlo Guthrie set Adrian Mitchell's ballad,"Victor Jara,"and recorded it on his album, Amigo . Jara 's heart may have been forcefully stilled but his music has lived on. The youngest of four children born to a ploughman, Manuel, and a semi-professional folk singer, Amanda, Jara grew up in severe poverty. Raised on a feudel-like farm, he lived on the bags of flour and occassional fruit which his father earned from his labors. By the age of six or seven, he was already accompanying his father to work in the fields. Family life was extremely difficulty as his father increasingly began drinking to escape his woes. When a pot of boiling water fell on his sister, he joined his mother and moved to Santiago, the site of the only hospital equipped to treat his sister's burns.

While in Santiago, his mother took a job at a food stand at an open market. In March 1950, Jara received word that his mother had died from a stroke suffered while she was at work. For the next three years, he struggled through school while sleeping at the homes of friends. Leaving school, at the age of fifteen, Jara entered the Redemptist Order in San Bernardo, a small village south of Santiago. His quest to become a priest, however, lasted only a year. In 1952, he left the seminary and enlisted in the Chilean army. The following year, he was dismissed with honors. Jara 's interests in theater and music soon became the dominant force in his life. Enrolling in the school of theater at the University Of Chile, he studied acting. After completing his degree, he continued on to begin studies in theatrical directing. While at the school, he met his wife, Joan Turner, a teacher from Great Britain. A turning point in Jara 's musical career came when he met Violeta Parra , a traditional folk singer and artist and the owner of a small cafe in Santiago. Taken under Parra's wing, Jara began to sing more and moe in the cafe. In 1966, he released his debut self-titled album. Four years later, he left the theater to devote his full-time attention to music. From the beginning, Jara used his songwriting skills to supply a voice for Chile's working class and peasantry.

Strongly supportive of the Communist Party, he was thrilled when Dr. Salvador Allende, the head of the Popular Unity Coalition, became the first Socialist to be elected president of a Latin American country. Under Allende's leadership, the Popular Unity Coalition planned to strengthen educational support, increase low-income and furnish free socialized medical care. Jara 's dreams began to crumble, on September 11, 1973, when a military junta headed by Admiral Toribio Merino and Army General Augusto Pinochet, assisted by the United States via the Central Intelligence Agency, overthrew Allende and launched a brutal coup. Thousands of Popular Unity Coalition leaders and supporters were imprisoned with hundreds being subsequently executed. Jara was working at the State Technical University when it was surrounded by the military. Taken prisoner, he spent five days in a chilled, dirty, cell without adequate food or water, before being taken to the National Football Stadium.
"

A big thanks to mi amigo Camilo for putting me onto Victor Jara and other cool Chillean music some 6 years ago. If you can find it take a listen Jara's song "Un Cigarillo." One of my all time favourite folk songs.

I remember having to give a tutorial in Spanish class about a Spanish speaking artist. While being apprehensive about giving a speech in Espanol - which I speak terribly - I decided it would be interesting to focus on Victor Jara. Imagine when after giving my talk and while playing his song "Un Cigarillo" the only Chillean woman in the class started crying. This moment I will always remember and reminds me what impact just one person can have on the lives of so many people (Yes I know this sentence is corny, but true it is).

Cracked Head

2005-11-09T22:20:00.000+08:00

On a day when I found out my car probably has a cracked head (couldn't you last till I piss off to India damn you), finding "Agent Manipulated" by "Katalyst" on my door step improved my mood considerably. As well as having the track "Uprock This" (which I have wanted on vinyl for some time) and some other very nice sounding tracks the album cover also includes this quote from George Orwell:

In a time of universal deceit
telling the truth is a revolutionary act

Inspired by these words I shall only do a dodgy fix on my car, not to sell off to some sucker but to get me the approx 12800 kms I need to travel around this city of mine till I get my but on the plane.

Break and Enter

2005-11-07T21:27:00.000+08:00

Fuck fuck fuck

Stolen:
1 x 40 gig ipod
1 x ibanez electric guitar
1 x acoustic guitar
1 x sennheiser headphones
1 x phone charger

I'm glad I am feeling a little calmer now (despite the bolded expletives) as all the parts I dislike about my self were coming to the fore of my thoughts; such as being annoyed at my sister for leaving the back door unlocked while she was sleeping and the fact the perpetrators where aboriginal - why does this come to mind when I consider myself TOLERANT of different cultures to that of the Anglo majority (myself included) in this country - and would I now be thinking the same thought processes if said people where of Anglo, Asian or African background (these are the majority in my barrio).

Perhaps the problem is that I am tolerant of different cultures. Being tolerant means that you are only tolerating people and if they do something to break this definition of acceptance then for a moment - or in my case a day or two - I am no better than some hill billy racist.

I am happy the break and enter folks left my sister asleep and that all they were doing was finding goods to put back onto the market.

NTM

2005-11-03T19:54:00.000+08:00

NTM mix :: 61:53

1. Shawn Rudiman - All the days
2. DJ Jerome - Capa City
3. Morgan Page - Inhale
4. Jeff Mills - Keeping of the kept
5. The Aztec Mystic - Jaguar (Octave One Remix)
6. Damon Wild & Tim Taylor - Bang the acid (Claude Young Remix)
7. Claude Young - Intro (From Fading the Edges EP)
8. Claude Young - Angelic
9. Jeff Mills - L8
10. DJ Madskillz - Morning glory (DJ Jeromeos Rising Sun mix)
11. Dave Clark - Stay out of the light
12. Happy Mondays - 24 hour party people (Jon Carters Acid Vocal)
13. Dave Clark - Just ride
14. Paper Clip People - Throw
15. The Vanisher - Elementary

One

2005-10-31T19:33:00.000+08:00

Happy Birthday Charlie...

...even cooler than Bob Marley. You really know how to throw a good party.

Contact

2005-10-26T21:59:00.000+08:00

Jeff Mills::Contact

Interesting Blog about Mill's current attempts to simulate a UFO abduction via Video, Lighting, Japanese people, and of course Techno music.

Brandon Astor Jones

2005-10-23T11:43:00.000+08:00

The brief biography on his website explains:

"Born in Indiana Harbor, Indiana, on February 14, 1943, Brandon lived much of his early life in Chicago and Markham, Illinois. He has four adult children, and at last count, fifteen grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Brandon has been on death row in Georgia for twenty-five years. With only a fifth grade education, he has nevertheless reached out to the world through his writing. Trading prison meals for postage stamps, he started sending articles from prison for publication and has since been published in America, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom. He has built a network of correspondents around the world who have found in Brandon a remarkably warm-hearted, intelligent, sensitive and generous friend."

&

"His essays and articles are compelling and enlightening. Readers from all over the world communicate with him in response to them. He receives recognition and support from diverse people and organizations such as Maya Angelou, Michael Marcum (Assistant Sheriff of San Francisco, City and County), the Reverend R. B. Cottenreader (Southern Christian Leadership Conference), Professor Noam Chomsky and Professor Emeritus Howard Zinn (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Amnesty International and the Quaker Society"

Check out his debut novel without war.

saturday

2005-10-22T10:09:00.000+08:00

Nat & Charlie

I feel like a fraud

2005-10-17T19:51:00.000+08:00

Download track

Mother

2005-10-13T21:04:00.000+08:00

Congratulations Puss Puss..

..on becoming a mum to 6 cute little kittens. We love you.

My horrible sickenss is retreating to regain strength in other poor souls.

I managed to get through cricket training without dying.

I feel like playing music again.

I have energy, life is good.

Sick

2005-10-08T16:03:00.000+08:00

Man this penicillin is good. 24 hours after it being prescribed I have had that much pussy green snot come out of my nose, it really is a little disturbing to think that this has been residing in my lungs for the past few days.

Send you to sleep

2005-10-05T11:12:00.000+08:00

Thats my dad, and he has nothing to do with the title, although he does love to sleep.

This blog is probably the most self indulgent thing I have ever done, I am therefore proud to present works from my soundlab. If one were more pedantic than two one would never put such live electronic ramblings up for public consumption.

Enjoy

Monday

2005-10-03T19:09:00.000+08:00

Mitch Walcott

2005-10-01T20:15:00.000+08:00

A nice listen indeed

.Registration is a requirement.

28 minus 3 hours & 21 min

2005-09-29T20:34:00.000+08:00

Image upload is not working and I have nothing to say

Eagle Bay

2005-09-28T22:17:00.000+08:00

Why Australian Rules Football is annoying

I don't mind watching this game when I am drunk and it's grand final day, Ala Saturday @ Eagle Bay. But even in this fuzzy state of mind I tend to get quite angry at the amount of fumbling that goes on in this game. I know the shape of the ball really doesn't help but man it pisses me off when I see well played sportsmen spending the best part part of 100+ min's trying to unsuccessfully pick the ball up off the ground.

Brother From Another Planet

2005-09-20T18:23:00.000+08:00

claudeyoung.net

Go to the mixes section and be taken somewhere.

37

2005-09-10T14:07:00.000+08:00

37 :: 37 mins :: 34.5 mb

Play loud & enjoy

Cameje feat Walter Phillips - Midnight

Jeff Mills - Kat Race

Cameje - Cameje feat Walter Phillips - Midnight (After Midnight Mix)

John Thomas - Orbital

Cameje - Cameje feat Walter Phillips - Midnight (Midnight Madness Mix)

Dave Clark & Arthur Baker - This feeling

The Bucket Heads - The Bomb

Dave Clark - Dave Clark & Arthur Baker - This feeling (8-Bit's Grindhouse Mix)

DJ HEll - Keep on waiting

td5 vs Voiteck - Black Music

DJ Hell - Follow you.

TB-303

2005-09-08T00:06:00.000+08:00

What more can be said that this has to rate as one of the top ten most awesome software released ever. Yep it's up there with Galaga and Ghilser's Total Commander (which is still going strong).

While note being a physical TB-303 its close enough given the cost involved in bying the real thing. The funny thing is some of the best electronic music was made back in the late eighties with nothing more than than a 808 drum machine and a 303. Names that come to mind include Larry Heard and off course Derrick May.

So in terminating its software cycle its very nice of makers of Rebirth to release it for nada. http://www.rebirthmuseum.com/

Hide

2005-09-06T19:12:00.000+08:00

Ad free Free tracking

This applies to freestats.com

Post sign up grab the code snippet provided and dump it in the body section of your template and save

View your blog only to find the sexy adverstising

Go back to your template and wrap this around the code snippet:

<div style="display:none;">free stats code goes here...</div>

View blog again sans advertising with working site stats

Africa

2005-09-05T20:07:00.000+08:00

Mmmmm, as soon as I saw the sleeve, this record was as good as mine.

My favourite track on here is probably MAW feat Wunmi doing their thing. This song is every bit as good as their colaboration on the Ekabo track from a few years ago.

Gilles Peterson in Africa

The soul

Oscar Sulley - Bukorn Mashie

Peter King - Ajo

Feqadu Amde-Mesqei - Asmarina

Mulatu Astatqe - Mulatu

Letta Mbutu - Mahlalela

The Spirit

Masters at Work feat. Wunmi - MAW Expensive (A tribute to Fela)

Thievery Corporation feat David Byrne - The Heart's a Lonely Hunter

Konono No.1 Lufuala NDonga (Edit)

Lekan Babalola - Aso Kere (IG Culture Mix)

I highly recommend this baby.

Old Song

2005-09-05T19:39:00.000+08:00

Kittens

Hello werld

2005-09-04T22:37:00.000+08:00

hello..