ragbag.

Ragbag not ratbag.  ( there is a mouse plague atm)

So.. ..  its about 6 months since I returned from India where I spent a little time travelling around.. I want to say that while I have no plans to return, I am very glad that I went.   It’s a difficult place to interpret but I certainly got my money's worth despite my bad manners and complaints.  My advice for anyone like me is to learn from its ancient literature and if you have the need to become involved to help a developing country you may  think of India or Nepal.  Once the ganga ran clean. maybe it will one day again .. maybe.

So I have been out camping on the mighty murray river mostly the past few months..  and I feel compelled to speak a few words on behalf of it.   It is the river that drains the oldest continent and so the oldest river.  Mighty river indeed.. it has been in flood recently (like a 100 year flood).. the waters have just receeded downstream and out to the great southern ocean already to bless the planet.  I rave about it as it my birth place and no-one is happier that one living at peace in her native land.

Just a couple of notes.. I am staying in a forest in the Riverina central nsw.  Last night I heard emu running around  (thats awesome in fact)      ..emu prints in the mud this morning.. emu.*. they need space to live.. and bring up chicks.  Otherwise they will be gone forever.  Same goes for koalas.. wallaby etc.different breeds..   loss of habitat is the problem.. but not just the physical forest.. it’s the peace of the forest they need.. the birds especially  .. they will die if they cannot sing their calls in the peace of the forest..   two things disturb the song.. the boom of the pig guns.. and the dirt bikes on the weekend.. robs the forest of peace and robs the wildlife of its peace habitat.



murray flow.

The mighty murray meanders much.

The oldest river.. the sacred river.

The flood that came through,

well,  no-one living can recall a higher level

…. some of the dead perhaps

…

it left the floodplain clean .

the billabongs -- full of trapped fish

jumping pitifully at night.  into the cold air..

who strayed too far from the flow.

*absolutely nothing to do with european monetary unit..

ancient regime.

Ancient regime.

There was a radio show on ....  a doctor of the law ( a real one) talking about the changes to the constitution needed for Australia to move to a republic.  It’s a familiar enough script..    society hidebound .. grub in a cocoon becoming a butterfly under the influence of the suns rays.. .. harder to stay in than to burst out..   but if it stays in .. then obviously it will be worse for it than just death.. it will be the thwarting of an opportunity for the self-expression of a beautiful thing.   It’s a saga independent of locality or point in time..  rather.

What is so surprising is that the debate is necessary ..   well it is..  here and other places that are due for resolution. (revolution is way incorrect).

I'm not a particularly literary person..and have read very little Balzac and no Mollière at all.. but…  its a famliar enough cycle.. revolution.. >new order ..> despotism ..> revolution.. >new order .. >despotism…

In this case it is the despotism of conservatives who will not pass beyond the confines of earlier founding fathers..  its bizarre twaddle actually...... change or die!

So,,,  the ancient regime was that before the modern times.. the king .. the knights.. the slaves.. basically.. the French got the model from the romans.. and it was streamlined into the form of growth economics by the time it grew up in the usa.  Dazzling the world.. putting a man on the moon..true.. i'm  not just looking at america and  extrapolated supply/demand economics models. (ahem) .. but  as with all things.. this too shall pass.

  The question is.. what next?

Well.. I tend to go with the archangel metatron  and koothoomi.. but to each her own.

the pen

Pentrige

In coburg there are the remains of a prison built in 1850 to house Victorian prisoners.   its bluestone walls like that of a medieval castle are partially removed to make way for  housing develoment  ...the prison having being decommissioned in 1997.

My current address is close by.  Its an oppressive part of melbourne.  I don’t like walking past the old jail..   the ruined lives.. the prisoners hanged..  I can even recall the last hanging there in 1967.   It was a controversial affair.

The ghosts of the past haunt the place..  I don’t like walking past it. Call me a wimp.  Go ahead!

I lived in Melbourne in the 1980s for a few years as an undergrad.. .i recall driving by the prison then a few times on my way some place else..  guards armed with rifles were at attention in the turrets on the medieval walls .   It was fierce..  guns pointing both in and out.. intimidating everyone.. inside and out.

People called it ‘the pen’.   enough to make your hair curl.

The message was clear.. forget the enlightenment.!. forget the renaissance…!!  we have a subtext!!.. the real text taken from the book the inquisitors had in spain.. (and elsewhere) --- one is to know that behind these walls.. if you transgress the rules here and get caught.. behind these medieval walls -- things happen.............  that you will never know about ..  i can just about hear machiavelli's laughter rising (or whatever it is he does that sounds like laughter.)

It has been in the press more recently as the prison that Gregory david roberts .. aka shantaram escaped from in 1980.    A talented author to say the least.

Its closed.. the pity is that the ideology has not closed but is alive and well....and transferred to places like villawood detention centre.. and Christmas island .. the Australian answer to Guantanamo and abu graib.

let me make myself perfectly clear.. i am not calling for the overthrow of this or any other regime (at the moment at least)   but i feel perfectly within my rights to call attention to the fact that there is at least one incubus at the round table.  hehehehe..