The Parting Glass

This is posted, gentle reader, for two reasons.

One is that it is a moving and evocative piece of music.

The other because a member of my extended family (my nephew) is a member of the Brisbane based choir, Voices of Birralee, which is currently on a WW1 commemorative tour in France. they are performing at Amiens, Villers-Bretonneux and Bullecourt, among other locations.

This performance was recorded in L’église de la Madeleine in the 8th arrondissement of Paris.

The lyrics -

 "The Parting Glass"

Of all the money that e'er I had

I've spent it in good company
And all the harm that e'er I've done
Alas it was to none but me
And all I've done for want of wit
To memory now I can't recall
So fill to me the parting glass
Good night and joy be with you all

Of all the comrades that e'er I had
They are sorry for my going away
And all the sweethearts that e'er I had
They would wish me one more day to stay
But since it falls unto my lot
That I should rise and you should not
I'll gently rise and I'll softly call
Good night and joy be with you all

Unique, Incredible & Iconic

 These three words are driving me spare!

It is impossible to read or watch media without each of them being misused, overused, or simply dropped into the text or dialogue without any care or understanding of their meaning and usage.

Let’s begin with “unique”.

The dictionary meaning is “the embodiment of unique characteristics; the only specimen of a given kind.”

Yet how often is it applied to something slightly unusual, and more frequently than not, an adjective is attached, so we end up with stuff like – “very unique”. What part of “only” is not understood? Something is either unique or it isn’t. 

In that sense, it’s a bit like “pregnant”.

Then there's "incredible". The word means “so extraordinary as to seem impossible”.

To me, the extraordinary thing is the frequency with which it is applied breathlessly to some situation or performance of note. It seems to be one of the few descriptive words known by your average sporting commentator. Taken literally, we’ve seen a rash of extraordinary and/or impossible performances recently. 

Perhaps these performances have become so commonplace that before too long a whole new lexicon will have to be invented. The sky’s the limit.

Perhaps we can begin to use words nicked from other languages. How about “giaman”? (Pidgin). 

It doesn’t mean “incredible”, by the way.

But the one that really gives me the irits* is “icon”.

The funny thing about this word is that it lay dormant for a very long time, and then suddenly (about five years ago, I reckon), it exploded on to the scene.

Years ago, when I was studying comparative religion, was the first time I remember coming across this word. It was presented in the context of artistic renderings of religious symbols and was usually applied to representations of Christ, the Virgin Mary, or a saint, usually painted in oil on a wooden panel, depicted in a traditional Byzantine style and venerated in the Eastern Church.

So how did it come to be applied to people who have become well known? What is religious about celebrity? That’s quite a semantic stretch.

I guess that celebrity worship, often driven by marketing, has become a product of contemporary culture in the absence of more traditional belief systems.

But the change in meaning is an enormous leap from the original.

I know – English is a living language, but that doesn’t excuse treating well established meaning like yesterday’s food packaging.

Don’t get me going on the packaging industry………….

*Maybe if I use this it will become fashionable.

Playing for Change

My sister (a music teacher) posted this on Facebook.

I thought, gentle reader, that it was worth sharing.

It says, in music, what words cannot.....that what we have in common is more important than what separates us.

Music is universal.

Labour Day

The labour day holiday has been restored to its rightful calendar date in Queensland.

This follows the Newman government’s attempt to airbrush this very significant date (May 1^st) from Queensland history.

The LNP looks askance on the facts of history behind the labour day observation.

It doesn’t sit well with their dodgy value system to acknowledge that the Labor movement was born during the 1891 shearers’ strike which heralded the development of a political force which became the ALP.

They probably would prefer not to be reminded of the success of that movement, and its achievement of political power at both state and federal levels.

It seems that the workers of Australia, especially those who are casual employees, and who come from the most disadvantaged groups (students and backpackers) need the protection of unions to redress the stark power imbalance that holds them in thrall to their employers, whether they be labour hire companies or multinationals.

The plethora of scams revealed during the last couple of years bears this out.

Remember, these are the tip of the iceberg. For every rip-off revealed there are probably half a dozen that remain hidden.

It's worth recalling William Kidston's words -

Then keep your heads, I say, my boys; your comrades in the town
Will help you yet to win a vote and put your tyrants down.
Throw your old guns aside, my boys; the ballot is the thing
They did not have to reckon with when George the Fourth was king.
The ballot is the thing, my boys, the ballot is the thing
Will show these men how long it is since George the Fourth was king. *

*Kidston later became Premier of Queensland.

What Led to Brussels

The national and international media is full of the atrocities in Brussels.

 These tragedies are the culmination of a series of events beginning with the action taken in 2003 by the Coalition of the Willing.

They also remind us of the four thousand plus casualties suffered by the Americans in this abject failure of policy and decision making. Unfortunately, and to our eternal shame, Australia was part of that coalition.

At the time, I made a small personal protest that made the front page of the local rag, and there were demonstrations both in Australia and overseas. The invasion went ahead, of course, and what we’re seeing in Brussels now, what we saw in Paris last year, and what we will continue to see, even if ISIL is overwhelmed in a military sense, can be sheeted back to that action in March 2003.

Of course, many mistakes have been made since by administrations other than the Bush Whitehouse, but it goes back to 2003. The arrogance, ignorance and naivety demonstrated by the Bush administration, and by proxy, administrations in London and Canberra, beggar belief.

It’s telling that none of Bush’s inner circle (Rumsfeld, Rice, Wolfowitz, or Cheney) had combat experience in the military. The only one who did (Colin Powell) had reservations, but expressed them only in private, and they were ignored.

There were no Arabic speakers in that inner circle, and the person they relied on for advice and guidance, Ahmed Chalabi, became a convicted criminal.

The video above provides a very clear narrative.

Read it and weep.

Goodbye Chainsaw

Our local federal member, Ian Macfarlane, has announced his retirement from politics.

I’ve had a fairly long and interesting relationship with this bloke. The first time I met him was when he came to my school to present us with a new flag. He managed this with ease and grace. Not every politician is comfortable in the company of people with disabilities. Chainsaw was.

The next time was in 2003, when he was handing out commemoration of national service medals in Toowoomba. I believed at the time (and still do) that the timing of these presentations and Australia’s commitment to the Coalition of the Willing in Iraq was more than coincidental. In hindsight, that commitment was a mistake, as was the whole Iraq debacle, but there you go. I reckon that the medal presentations were part of gingering up the electorate to support our intervention, and resented being used again (as I had been in 1970) as political fodder. Consequently, my public refusal of the medal made the front page of the local rag, with a photo, and chainsaw was the unwitting victim of my small protest.

I always felt a little uneasy about this, so when I was ready to publish “Jellybeans in the Jungle” and was looking for someone to write an introduction, I asked him for a meeting. He agreed both to the meeting and the introduction, which was generous behaviour given what had preceded it. He was an honoured guest at the launch.

Since then, he has been shafted twice by his party, but each time, took it in good grace, and doesn’t appeared to have harboured any grudges. He is indeed, a rare bird in national politics, in that he has always been fair dinkum in his quest for good and honest government, and though I have never voted for him (he’s in the wrong party), I respect his integrity and common sense.

Like Guy Fawkes, Chainsaw was one of the few who has entered parliament with honest intentions. Unfortunately, not many contemporary representatives seem capable of mature and respectful behaviour, and if the trend continues, our political life will eventually begin to resemble the circus that we see across the Pacific.

Goodbye, Chainsaw, and good luck. You will be missed.

A Ghastly Possibility

This might be seen as a joke, but it is frighteningly real, gentle reader.

If this lunatic gets the GOP nomination, Australians should agitate for a vote in the presidential election.

Can you imagine this as the leader of the free world?