and the entertainment of the festival was alluringly close, but I must admit, I gave it a miss with one exception one night and worked my way back into daily life in Green Point Palace.
An article in the Sydney Morning Herald caught my eye. The writer was telling the story about two gay guys in their early twenties, who were all so over Mardi Gras and the main hoopla, like the parade and party and really could not see the point why all the fuss was made about it. this prompted me to write the following letter to the editor of the SMH
1st March, 2008
Letters to the editor@smh.com.au
Re.: SMH, 1st March, 2008, Opinion, Robert Reynolds, More than gay, the young ones move on
As a gay man, born in 1948 and more or less active in the gay movement over the last 30 years – 26 of those in Australia and now also Africa, I agree with the general observation of Robert Reynolds. His interviewees Dave and Andrew live normal and legal gay lives in Australia and so they should.
One should not forget, however, that their ability to do so has – to a not insignificant part – to do with the existence of organisations such as the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras and comparable gay organisations. And, equally importantly, courageous individuals such as Rodney Croome and Nick Toonen, Bob Brown, Michael Kirby, the late Don Dunstan to name but a few, for whom the backing through the 'gay community' in general and gay activist organisations were supporting factors in their fight for equality and respect for gay rights which, in my understanding, are human rights.
Over the last 25 years, in a decidedly secular country such as Australia, we only ever had to deal with one or two religious fundamentalists. And to laugh off Fred and Elaine Nile and their gaggle of followers may have been an amusing pastime for Mardi Gras organisers and float designers over the years. Somehow the numbers were always in our favour and not in theirs. Those numbers always meant something because the groups who made up those numbers were and still are visible and identifiable.
However, I am afraid to say, this can change. Over the last few years we have seen the religious right organise themselves socially and politically. Family first, born again Christians, Hill Song to name but a few exponents of that movement, have realised that they have to become involved in the political process in order to be able to make their fundamental views of how we should live our lives more acceptable and, ultimately, reflected in law.
As we have seen in our labor laws and agreements, nothing is cast in stone for ever. If you had told some of the older union members that their achievements with respect to working hours, penalty rates, overtime compensation etc. could be eroded and done away with, like we have seen in most recent history, they might have told you: … it will never happen, we can't go back to the 'old days'…. And, as a natural consequence of that thinking, union memberships dropped. That is until recently.
In the books of those religious fundamentalists, gay rights and freedoms are very high on the 'reform' list. And given general developments in at least some parts of the developed world – the USA being a prime example – those 'reform' lists have a good chance to mutate into law amendments being considered by our national parliament.
If or when this day comes, I hope Dave and Andrew still know who to turn to and who their friends are. Because once Dave and Andrew become a defining majority amongst the gay and lesbian people in Australia there won't be a Mardi Gras or gay rights lobby to collectively speak on their behalf.
Democratic politics is a numbers game and 1 + 1 only makes 2 if you and everybody else knows what you are adding up.
By the end of March, we reached a point in our working lives, where there was a little break and I had the opportunity to attend to a few things around the house, like cleaning up the block,
removing all the leaves and dead branches, which mother nature – represented by her many trees – tends to disperse quite liberally over roofs and the ground. I have to do such a clean up about twice or three times a year, also with a view towards reducing fire hazards for the bushfire season in December, January.
Green Point Palace 26th March, 2008
letter to a friend
…….After 6 months of hectic in the office, peace and quiet has returned to the palace, well at least for a few weeks. The next survey is planned for mid April. That means, I have been working a bit in the garden, cleaned all the roofs and now starting to reign in some of the very wild growth of some of my plants. They are getting a bit out of hand.
In Kampala we just finished a survey on mobile telecommunication. Can you imagine, in Kampala around 90% of people with a minimum household income of $200 per month (which is sort of a moderate income which allows for some consumerism) have one or more mobile phones!! And those guys afford themselves 5 mobile phone service providers!!
At the moment I am working also on a new business idea – well it's minor at the moment - the idea came to me in Cape Town whilst sitting in a street café with my thoughts wondering around God knows where – and that is the key word here. I am designing some t-shirts with an atheist message. I am really slowly but steadily getting more and more sick about religious nutcases of what ever persuasion. So I'll have some t-shirts with an atheist theme, fairly simple really. I thought that the catholic world youth day which takes place in July in Sydney would be a good marketing opportunity for something like that. (talk about viral marketing!) Nothing wrong with a bit of healthy competition!.......
The quiet weeks at the end of March made me decide that I should get a new PC since my old one would be worthwhile shipping to Kampala. And since it had some ten years on its back, the chip was a bit slow and therefore a new PC did not seem to be too extravagant and expense in order to keep up to date with the times
Green Point 19th April, 2008
letter to a friend
…… My well oiled office in Green Point Palace is currently severely hampered by the arrival of a brand new computer. The bloody thing drives me perfectly nuts. I picked it up on Thursday and during the first 24 hours, everything seemed to be ok. Then, all of a sudden, it decided that, if I want to open a folder within my directory tree, it changes to the search function – you know the thing with the little puppy dog wiggling its tail (stupid dog!)
And windows has indulged in further “help features” And those go beyond the little (stupid) paperclip figure which used to cheerfully ask you, whether you need help with writing a letter or so. Every bloody word document opens with a right hand side bar which allows you to do all sorts of incredible things which American business people seem to indulge in, sharing their memos, prioritizing documents, adding timelines and meeting notes, tracing changes etc. etc. It very much oozes the American managerial culture of silicon valley. And you can imagine how that goes up my Teutoaustralian nose!
And I must say I am afraid to tinker too much with all sorts of settings etc. because I don’t really know what I am doing. We have the word in German Verschlimmbessern. and that would probably exactly be what I would do. So I have to wait for Paul to come up here next week and teach this silly computer a few lessens in humble behaviour.
I just simply do not accept a machine to pretend it is cleverer than me. One reason why, for example I have never owned a calculator with scientific functions. I don’t like a calculator which can do things, which I cannot do on paper as well.
Anyway, there is not a lot of frustration which could not be mellowed with a nice glass of Sauvignon Blanc or the likes! Or, more appropriate for this time of day, a little afternoon nap…….
Life went on and we were starting to prepare for winter – well what’s called winter in Australia anyway.
