Hope behind the trigger

The cogs in my head have been turning of late, a dangerous past time, i know. but i feel as though my understanding is increasing and i might be on the brink of something.

originally, i wanted to write something condemning the current political climate in Australia. the mud slinging, the name calling, the lack of action. but instead I want to put my head in the sand a few minutes more and look at how lucky we are in comparison to our American friends.

Don't get me wrong. i think America is the most amazing country in the world. they have been thrust into positions of authority, often, without them wanting to be there. their consumerism, lifestyles and political sway make them the strongest nation and despite the soft rise of China, Brazil being thrust into prominence and Russia well and truly on the comeback trail,  America will always hold an audience captivated.

overnight, the worst thing happened. It is impossible to imagine how it must feel for the families, friends and communities in Connecticut right now. i have seen the facebook statuses of friends, American and Australian, displaying clear dismay and anger at it. anger centred mostly at America and the short-sightedness. This is where Australia is lucky. after the Port Arthur massacre, John Howard showed perhaps the greatest leadership we have seen since Gough (biased view of author :P) in saying we can not stand for such freedom of gun ownership. there was the gun buyback scheme, more stringent laws set as to who could own guns and how they could get them. and, perhaps the most important aspect, it became, socially, a huge thing for someone to own a gun. Guns were seen as something evil. something which only brings negative things and should only be held by police and used as a last resort. this social awareness and social backlash has meant that me and all of my friends have been able to grow up not worrying about hearing gun shots at night or finding bullets on the street.

there is no point in pretending that guns in australia are like snakes in Ireland. there is a black market and gun fights do happen. See Milperra, bikie wars and the Melbourne gang wars (which were glamorised on television - a bad look). However, there is still that shock of a shooting, it is not a normal occurrence. they are harder to come by and, as a result, people are a lot less likely to get shot. simple, right.

America is unfortunately, hesitant to change their views on this. there is no doubt there would be a wide range of support to gun law reforms but it would be so radical that the government would be in danger of losing a lot of support. citizens claim it is unconstitutional to not have a gun. it comes to fear. there is fear in American citizens and this fear is only quenched by possessing a gun. when, of course, people would be a lot safer should they not have guns. Obama is in a unique position at the moment. The GFC is not over but is waning and i am confident that congress will see the "fiscal cliff" approaching and do the best thing for their country. they kind of have to seeing that the democrats are in a position of strength. so, economic reform (and hopefully a post-keynesian foundation) is a very real possibility. but, in his second term, can Obama do the unthinkable and bring in gun reform? it is suggested. deep down, i think the people know it is coming one day. the whole world is shifting further and further left and guns will be right up on the agenda alongside gay marriage, human rights and immigration.

socially it needs to become a bad thing to possess a gun without it being necessary. people need to be educated. about the consequences, about the dangers, about what they have the potential to do. education brings aspiration. i am a firm believer in that. there needs to be an example made in schools and there needs to be tougher restrictions on who can get guns and what type of gun it is.

a lot is said of people killing people and not guns but, if you take away guns, it becomes a lot harder to kill someone. mental health issues are often unaddressed in America and  "crazies" are able to get a hold of weapons. yes, it is bad that these issues go on without action but the underlying point here is they are able to get a hold of weapons. even if people were just checked more closely it would be able to make such a difference. on top of this there is the automatic weapon issue. no one needs an automatic weapon. simple as that. they should not be available.

hopefully the children killed will not be lost in vain. the anger will turn to a need for action. in this world we can do that. look at what is going on in England with the poor nurse who has committed suicide and the Aussie DJs copping a bucketful. i don't find prank calls funny but their actions do not at all deserve the treatment they have received. they were stupid. that's it. they would be so embarrassed and upset now and that is more than enough punishment. but, the more people talk about something, the more publicity is brings. the more it is viewed as being important. people just need to keep talking, to keep stressing that gun laws need to be reformed. America is not in the dark ages any more. the king of england is not going to walk into homes and push people around.

i could write forever about this. there are so many facets to cover that it never feels as though everything is said. racial issues, mental health, economic disparity, short sightedness due to religion, status, race... the list goes on. but, at the end of the day, if the guns are not there. if they are not made, sold and available. this sort of stuff does not happen and twenty bright futures are salvaged this morning.

America, and its inhabitants, are among the most wonderful. i have had a love affair since i first landed in Honolulu and met the people. this sort of stuff always makes me think of Xavier Rudd's song GBA. indeed, god bless america. they are able to do anything. they can change the world. they can give themselves a better tomorrow. the question is, will they step in and do this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hw5MubBO7Z0

"Yes you have the funds and size and power to make some change 
What you have will break their smiles 
so many people so many ways 
each Child who walks their line 
should be free to run their race 
it's such a shame that all this shit exists here on this earth, this magical place"

my grandparents would turn in their graves...

if they saw the issue that was raised today and became prevalent on facebook... ANZAC day being cancelled. immigrants saying it is insensitive. those immigrants not accepting that we can celebrate our glorious dead. them having a problem with us remembering the brave men and women who fought in wars.

yep. my grandparents would have an issue with it i think. Granddad, who i never met, was a serviceman and, from all reports a wonderful husband and father. his wife, my nanna, was the most generous, amazing caring woman i think i ever met.

and if they saw the way people were talking about immigrants and blowing this issue totally out of proportion in a rapid fire of aussie pride and bogan rights, i think they would be very disappointed with how Australia see issues such as this.

Here is a newsflash for you. ANZAC Day is not going to be cancelled. it will never be cancelled. i have heard this about Christmas and Easter too! for all those secular people out there i think you still get your four day weekend in a couple of weeks and i am pretty sure on december 25th you woke up to presents. and it is quite funny, in your secular means, you all care so much about a religious holiday.

i see why ANZAC day is a more sensitive issue. war is a despicable thing and Australians, ever since WW1 have been celebrated for their bravery and selflessness. i am proud to be an australian and so proud of the men and women who went out to bat for future generations and protected the nations. one thing strikes me though. soldiers do not choose to go to war. they follow instructions from those higher up then them. and war has been something of an economic pursuit for a very long time. Germany started WW2 on the back of a dwindling economy and USA and Japan have both been able to reap huge economic benefits from war. i needn't mention the current war on oir... or terror or whatever it is... my point is, soliders all believe they are doing the right thing. that's right, even the ones on the opposite side to us. the germans, turks, japanese, soviets, etc etc! everyone we have ever fought against all thought they were doing the right thing by their people and their country and, probably, the world! even today, what we call terrorists refer to themselves as freedom fighters!

Today, if you listen to facebook, we had a whole bunch of people complain to our prime minister and say, "ANZAC Day needs to be scrapped. we are all immigrants, mostly muslims and we don't like it." did this actually happen? of course not. in fact, i found nothing even mentioning Anzac Day in the paper today... i had to go to the Daily Telegraph to find anything about it at all!! turns out the words "culturally sensitive" were used. in the bogan language, this term can often lead to a cronulla riot. however, i believe all this means is that immigrants would like the opportunity for them to honour their own dead. Australia are renowned as a laid back place full of laid back people. most of you probably do not realise that when the Japanese prime minister visited the Australian War Memorial in Canberra about a decade ago he was moved to tears when he saw the shrine to the Japanese midget submarine bombers who invaded Sydney Harbour. yep. it is there. these people lost their lives and we are commemorating it. who has been to complain? feels offended? or now is going to use the fireworks you buy in canberra to blow the place up?

surely this is all that people from different cultures really want. and surely this will not be any issue for ANY australian. if anything it would provide an excellent opportunity to further assimilate people from other cultures. we are all Australians and we all deserve the right to remember our heroes from war.

long story short. people need to do some reading. people need to investigate. going off the telegraph, a current affair or someone else's facebook is never ever going to teach you anything. i know a lot of you only value ANZAC day for the day off, two up and excuse to get royally drunk, but perhaps, if anything, this has made you think a little bit more about the meaning of the day.

i know media control a lot of what you think and i wish an ethnic couple would go on my kitchen rules or something to give you all a bit of tolerance. but don't lose sleep. this will be forgotten by the time ANZAC day comes along. it has just allowed people to show themselves are severely racist and bigoted. racism looks and sounds so ugly. does not present you in a good light and makes people question your intelligence. i wish people would practice what they preach and refuse to use products, buy things or communicate with, anyone of ANY other descent or culture. you'd starve or something before too long and Australia would be better off.

on another topic. i hate the lack of respect shown to our Prime Minister. Julia Gillard has to suffer from jeers of slut, whore, bitch etc. and i am not too sure why. i don't like her dress sense and i think she has an annoying voice. i notice she has red hair and is in a de-facto relationship. but i also see that she is governing a pretty efficient and successful party pretty much against all odds. i understand it is fashionable to dislike whoever is in power but if you are going to have an opinion, it would be so much better if it was based on some sort of policy or fact.

Kony Island Rollercoaster

Okay, perhaps the title was tactless. apologies if this is so. Basically, i am doing what everyone is doing and putting my thoughts down in an open domain about the phenomenon sweeping the world.

i felt i had no choice but to watch the video. just like everyone else. at first, i cried. and this continued almost throughout but it was for a very different reason. at first it was due to the atrocities taking place and the sweet innocence of the creator's son. then it was out of pride for humankind and the enthusiasm and emotions that people were bringing to the cause. it truly was amazing. but, the more i thought about things the more level headed i feel i became and the more i moved away from the emotions which were evoked and towards the facts and realities of what it means and what is going on.

don't get me wrong. i think it is remarkable how social media has reeled in so many to be aware of this cause and so many people are willing to do something. it truly made me proud to be a human being.

there was something awfuly Michael Moore-ish about the documentary. it was definitely expertly made and sensationalised. even the way he spoke sounded a bit like MM at times. now i am not trying to say MM did not convey a valid message and did not do good. but he did misrepresent several aspects of his findings. i recall meeting some very smart men from Detroit who detested him as he represented their community in a really bad light. like MM's movies, the invisible children's campaign seems to neglect a lot of facts and omit certain information to make it sound like the situation is worse than it is.

i did a lot of reading since watching the video for a second time. the dodgy use of donated funds did strike a chord. i did several audits of voluntary and charity organisations and can i tell you the rules in Australia are quite stringent... IC probably would not pass them. also, the reports that LRA are out of Uganda altogether and, it seems, in a much weaker position than they were 5 years ago is striking. it appears that IC want to get Kony as he is the face of the LRA. and that is valid. but whether or not it will truly end the LRA's terror is another thing. did you see in the video that Kony is number one on the most wanted hit list? the number two is also Ugandan. i have not researched him but it made me feel that there is more than one man committing the crimes in this nation (especially when you consider Gaddafi was at about 24 from memory).

my take on this is that the more desperate people get the more bad things they tend to do. African nations owe a whopping debt to the rest of the world which starts with bretton woods and post-war reconstruction and flows right through to today. the terms of this loan state that interest should be paid back before they commit cash to health, education etc. the interest accumulates so much that the principal is never eaten into. these children have no access to sanitation, no education and as a result, no aspirations. Jacob in the video said he wanted to be a lawyer but knew he could not. with education, goals become achievable. professions more likely and children start to believe they can reach the sky. someone like Kony probably presents a good case to them about giving them power and they swallow it. he offers a better life. unless the rich countries drop the debt, this will continue to happen. people will not be happy to live in a country which has NO hope to recover or become profitable.

overall Kanye summed it up. "mannn killing's some whacked shit." loss of life. without reason. is unspeakable. doing this to children, the most vulnerable group, is beyond comprehension. i cannot begin to imagine how hard it was for these children to do what they were forced to do. but, it appears it was their life or someone else's. and in desperate times, there is always other people willing to do the dirty work.

when i was about 14 i went to a social justice day at ACU which taught me about the massive financial liability developing countries had. at the time, i mostly enjoyed being away from school, checking out the cute girls from Chisolm, OLMC, et al and also giggling when one of the academics said "Ni-ger". but the cause of the day did stick with me. this debt is what is keeping developing countries down. and although 'the people' can't force the governments to drop it, petitions and word of mouth will assist in raising attention and, hopefully changing the system at least which is in place to become something fairer and where there may be a light at the end of the tunnel.

it is not just africa. these debts in south america have seen drug cartels take over cities. police commissioner's heads are found, without their bodies, on display to show what happens when people stand in the way. until the economy is fairer and exports from these nations ar sold for better price, crime will be the only way people feel they can have a better existence. and the saddest thing is, it is probably true.

 i love that this video has given people a social conscience but perhaps it would be put to better use a bit closer to home. as it seems that IC have no real idea of how to catch Kony, what will be done after he is caught and how it will re-build the area, there are definitely places to donate money which will be a bit more straightforward and the results easily seen.

tonight on the train ride home i passed Kingswood station and saw a Vinnies Van type operation taking place giving people food and a place to socialise. so close to home. poor people who may not have enough to eat and do not have enough friends. i am sure they would appreciate an extra person helping out, to talk to or donating food/coin/clothes. Also, this morning it was banked up at the end of wynyard tunnel due to the torrential rain. people were waiting for the lights to change. towards the end i noticed a homeless man selling the big issue man. he had still come to work. he was still doing his best, and doing it in an honest way, to give himself a better life and perhaps springboard himself into another job.

finally, i am going to use a similar technique as IC and bring up my nephew Ryan. now Ryan and my mum get on very well. they are best mates. and anyone who knows my mum prob thinks she is a saint. and they are closer to the truth than they might think. she has a friend from a village in the Philippines which suffers from extreme poverty. a few years ago, mum organised to get 1,000 pairs of thongs sent over, directly, to the village. all of a sudden people had footwear. money and other essentials also made the trip. the weirdest thing. the total amount it cost to do this was miniscule but the effect was massive. a lot of the money went to the local hospital which is filled with volunteer nurses. anyway, mum made a trip to the vinnies store last week to find some toys to donate this time and Ryan (two years old), acted as a connoisseur of sorts in trying to help out. when mum told him the story of the kids in the village having no toys he said "i am sad for those kids" and tried even harder to find them something which would be good fun. for him to show such empathy at such a young age again gives me hope in the human race. we are all mostly good people.

IC has raised a lot of awareness and i really hope that people are encouraged to do more reading, find out more and discover these things are happening closer to home. i think IC's creator is a hugely admirable guy who has chased a cause and is determined to make a change. but change does take time and maybe his ideas here are being pressed now due to his own pride of 'finishing the job' rather than logical progression to another cause. one man's downfall will not change the world. but if people ride the Kony rollercoaster on to the next ride and continue to show passion for homelessness or poverty or AIDS prevention or anything else which is gripping the developing world, then IC will have achieved more than they could have imagined and we will have the chance to say that we played a part in making the world a much better, happier place.

maybe i am setting myself up for prejudice or something. maybe you think i am wanker if you read this much (maybe you already thought it). all i feel is that, with so much goodwill around, we should do what we can to help causes where we know action will be taken and we will be able to see the results.
love, peace and happiness.