Saturday, February 23, 2008

Lately I've been

Listening to...
Amy Winehouse (fabulous, and made me dig out my old Etta James cassette - yes, I said cassette, which just shows you how old it is. And that was a reissue.)
Cat Empire (still not sure whether or not I love it)

Reading...
Geraldine Brooks' new novel, The People of the Book. It's not as brilliant as March nor as compelling as The Year of Wonders. The voices aren't as strong, and they are, after all, her forte. But she's still my current hero.
(Next up, Anne Enright's The Gathering)

Writing...
A little. Not enough.

Eating...
A gazillion tomatoes from the garden. Best ever.

Saturday, February 16, 2008

History in the making

A big week.
The first week in Parliament for our new government and we're off with a bang, with the extraordinary and intensely emotional apology to the Stolen Generations.
I watched it on the big screen in one of the public spaces at work, with about 100 other staff, bawled my eyes out and will never forget it.
Will never forget, either, these years of shame and anger under Howard; his hectoring of the reconciliation convention; that march across the Harbour Bridge and the apology written across the sky.
Mind you, I did think the apology was supposed to be about much more: about colonisation and dispossession and two centuries of squalid treatment. But let's not quibble just now.
May never forgive Brendan Nelson for attempting to diminish the impact of the words. Tosser.
(That's my level of politicial engagement nowadays - which makes me realise that blogging is little more than an online form of shouting at the telly.)
Perhaps one day our collective gaze will grow wide enough to take in the detention centres, the other great source of shame and international embarrassment.