70 butchered Congolese: a small price to pay for our blood copper and silver!

70 butchered Congolese: a small price to pay for our blood copper and silver!

It will be a marvellous thing – the true personality of man – when we see it. It will grow naturally and simply, flower-like, or as a tree grows. It will not be at discord. It will never argue or dispute. It will not prove things. It will know everything. And yet it will not busy itself about knowledge. It will have wisdom. Its value will not be measured by ...

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Australia: a parable on authoritative oppression and the nature of conformity

Australia: a parable on authoritative oppression and the nature of conformity

I am not pessimistic. I just see everything as it is. When one lives in a society that is essentially not free, it is the obligation of every thinking person to attack obstacles to freedom in every way at his disposal… Jan Nemec – Director The Party and the Guests (O slavnosti a hostech) O slavnosti a hostech, is based on a novella by Ester Krumbachová. Krumbachová was an artist, ...

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National Sorry Day: Meaningless in the face of racism and sexism

National Sorry Day: Meaningless in the face of racism and sexism

Last week’s discussion of the Jinn combined with this week’s reading about Heraclitus to reinforce my opinion that the treatment of Ms. King and Lucinda McMillan at the hands of the Australian Federal Police are both not only undemocratic, but downright racist and sexist. Heraclitus, the ancient Greek philosopher is credited with the concept that a man cannot step into the same stream twice. He believed that the sun was made ...

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300,000 dead West Papuan’s: a fair price for our golems?

300,000 dead West Papuan’s: a fair price for our golems?

Sydney: city of mystery, city of marvels. Sydney: its foreshores once teeming with Gadigal; now a captive city pregnant with memories, enveloped by memories of a Gadigal Atlantis. The traditional Gadigal are all but gone, however their presence remains. Though brutally murdered, their legend survives. By telling their tale, we resurrect their Atlantis. By reviving their legends, we awaken their spirits. Their souls haunt the city still. Their presence pervades ...

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“Friends” the new tovarisch in Julia Gillard speak

“Friends” the new tovarisch in Julia Gillard speak

You cannot believe how much you have to deceive a nation in order to govern it Adolf Hitler – Mein Kampf Has anybody else noticed how frequently Prime Minister Julia Gillard uses the word friends in her speeches? In fact, she used “friends” twenty-four times during the ALP Campaign Launch in Brisbane on August 16, 2010, coming from the mouth of Julia Gillard the word “friends” rings as hollow as ...

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Beware there be Jinn in the forests: Indonesia and West Papua, a clash of cultures

Beware there be Jinn in the forests: Indonesia and West Papua, a clash of cultures

Last weekend I took a stroll through the Mesopotamia exhibition at the Melbourne Museum. While reading the commentary attached to a number of the artefacts I realised, in a profound way, that what we call civilization is actually a reaction to and against nature. Some cultures, those we choose to call ‘primitive’, ‘savage’ or ‘uncivilized’ attempt to live in harmony with nature, or at least attempt to develop a rapport ...

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Cronyism, racism and sexism, the mottoes of the Australian Federal Police

Cronyism, racism and sexism, the mottoes of the Australian Federal Police

“Coupled with a lack of confidence in the ability of the justice system to deliver positive results, victims may be fearful of the justice system generally or police in particular. This is especially likely to be true for those from communities that have had negative experiences with police or authority figures, such as immigrant Australians who came from countries with oppressive regimes or Indigenous Australian communities who have experienced racism, ...

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Melanesia and Indigenous Australia: white privilege and the ‘rule of law’

Melanesia and Indigenous Australia: white privilege and the ‘rule of law’

Melanesia and Indigenous Australia: white privilege and the ‘rule of law’ … first, I made him know his Name should be Friday, which was the Day I sav’d his Life; I call’d him so for the Memory of the Time; I likewise taught him to say Master, and then let him know, that was to be my Name. Daniel Defoe (1719), Robinson Crusoe In the Nineteenth Century Robinson Crusoe gave ...

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Do as I say, don’t do as I do

Do as I say, don’t do as I do

I’ve debated about the title of this post, torn with an alternative following on from the statement in one’s Aboriginal heritage with a title that would allude to John Howard Griffin using his famous novel as the header, Black Like Me. But whilst I spend time with people of many colours and creeds on a daily basis, having not taken the path of Griffin or more recently John Saffran, I ...

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AFP racism sparks diplomatic row between Australia and Vanuatu

AFP racism sparks diplomatic row between Australia and Vanuatu

On 2nd May, 2012 the Vanuatu Daily Post reported that Private Secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office Clarence Marae had been arrested at Sydney International Airport by the Australian Federal Police (“AFP”) whilst accompanying Vanuatu’s Prime Minister Meltek Sato Kilman Livtunvanu to Israel on a diplomatic mission. Following his arrest, Mr Marae was charged with conspiring to defraud the Commonwealth, contrary to section 86 (1) and 29D of the Crimes ...

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Portia’s Lament: Western greed and the death of the indigenous cultures of West Papua

Portia’s Lament: Western greed and the death of the indigenous cultures of West Papua

Fragments from the Alfoxden Notebook There he would stand In the still covert of some rock, Or gaze upon the moon until its light Fell like a strain of music on his soul And seemed to sink into his very heart. Why is it we feel So little for each other, but for this, That we with nature have no sympathy, Or with such things as we have no ...

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Call me black: Proud to be an Aborigine!

Call me black: Proud to be an Aborigine!

The following verse is to Jean-Michel Basquiat’s painting Jack Johnson, 1982 acrylic and oil paintstick on canvas. Jean-Michel Basquiat died at 27 years old from an overdose. He was the kind of artist who did not let you stand indifferent to his work; for some he was a genius, for others a junkie without talent. However, his paintings still change hands for millions of dollars. BLACK JACK: b. 31 March ...

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A prayer to the Gods

A prayer to the Gods

Watershedd is usually the more moderate of the contributors to Blak and Black. On this occasion Watershedd has shed the veil of temperance and speaks with the raw emotion of one who has witnessed the dehumanizing and destructive effects of the kind of racially motivated hatred Australian officialdom and Ernst and Young have directed towards Bakchos and his family over the last decade. I’ll let Watershedd speak to her own ...

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