Monday, April 30, 2007

More Baltic politics..


Tallinn Red Army Monument
Originally uploaded by mrlederhosen.
Once again, there is conflict between Estonia and the Russian Government. The Estonian government has inflamed the Russian authorities by removing a statue that commemorates Soviet soldiers from its location in the centre of Tallinn to a nearby cemetry. Emotions are high and the mess of 20th Century history and post-Soviet empire politics have bubbled to the surface once again. I have found a few comments from the net that express the situation, and probably better than i'd be able to say it. I'd be keen to hear what people have to say.


The Financial Times online edition (www,ft.com), dated 28/4/07, reports:

"For Estonia's ethnic Russians, as for Russians elsewhere, the memorial marks the sacrifices made by Soviet forces in the second world war. But many Estonians see the monument, in its central location, as a triumphalist symbol of communist oppression that lasted until the end of the Soviet Union.

Tensions flared at the memorial in May last year when Estonian nationalists clashed with ethnic Russians. Fearing May 9 this year would see a repeat, Andrus Ansip's centre-right coalition opted to move the memorial. Following a general election victory in March, Mr Ansip decided to act quickly despite protests from ethnic Russians, from Moscow and the opposition of Edgar Savisaar, the Tallinn mayor."


From the BBC World "Have your say" discussion, dated 29/4/07, Jaana from Tallinn states:

"Ivi Masso, columnist of the Estonian daily Päevaleht makes a statement that is roughly translated as: "It is difficult to imagine someone saying to descendents of Jews, victimised by nazis, that they should be tolerant to a statue of a nazi solder standing on one of the most prominent squares of their capital city, because the statue is an important symbol of German identity." And this statement is followed by a brilliant article.
Think about it."


And from the blog-site "Itching for Eestimaa", here is an exerpt dated from 11/1/07, before the riots began. Read the entire article on:
http://palun.blogspot.com/2007/01/ai-ai-ai.html

"..the Russian Federation's inability to take accountability for what happened in 1940 and 1944 and to continue to attempt to represent its "compatriots" abroad while at the same time demanding blanket foreign citizenship for them, only fuels the Estonian-Russian crisis in relations. When you constantly deny acts of hostility against a neighbor, and then attempt to include yourself in your neighbor's domestic policies on behalf of a local minority, you only sew fear and mistrust in your neighbor's country. Hence, an old war memorial still means something. Also, how can Estonians be expected to respect the dead of the Soviet Army, when the Russian government won't even hand back its morbid souvenir from Päts' death - his presidential regalia?"


There are pages and pages of discussion on this topic. I hope it's alright to quote other people's works here, I have sourced them so hopefully there's no copyright issues.. If there is, contact me and I'll remove it. I have put it up here because I find it very interesting.

Post colonial politics have always been a source of endless conflict. One nation mourns the loss of control whilst trying to maintain influence, while the smaller nation tries strengthen its independence. Colonialism has brought so many problems to the world. The concept of colonialism sounds to me like the school bully demanding lunch money, or a triad/mafia gang demanding 'protection' money, but on a national scale. It's as simple as that. World history just keeps repeating itself. Every history book I ever read is about a bigger power stomping on a smaller power, and then causing a heap of troubles when they aren't in charge anymore. And then a new big power appears and it starts all over again.

*Sigh*.. no wonder countries that aren't fighting wars love sport so much. Sport is a way of being king-pin of the world and having a strong sense of nationalism without having to invade anyone. Being a sports hero is a much safer than being a war hero, and you still get to use up all that testosterone! I guess that's why I love seeing huge sporty crowds, even though i'm not really into sport that much.

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Music is tops


Best album ever
Originally uploaded by mrlederhosen.
Last night I finally put on my shiny new dvd compilation of all of my David Bowie albums, and lay down on the bed and listened to it for about two straight hours. Some people meditate, others play sport. When I feel I need to recharge, I get comfortable, I darken the room and put on my favourite music and put the volume at that perfect just-right level.

When I was a 13 year old, the first proper music record I ever bought (other than my pre-pubescent purchases of 'Chipmunk Rock' and 'Sunglasses at night'), was David Bowie's 'Scary Monsters' album. Little did I know then, but that album revolutionised my entire life. It represented the beginning of my teenage life. I played that album every day. Soon, I had to have more! Next I bought the live Ziggy Stardust farewell concert, which drove my Mum crazy on many occaisions, and then I bought what I still believe to be one of the best albums ever made: David Bowie's 'Low' album from 1977. Even today, when I feel a little run down, tired, sad or need rejuvenating, I put on that album and shut my eyes.

Shortly after that, while scouring the second hand section of Dada Records in Perth (which incidentally has not changed at all in 20 years) I found a crusty old 1979 pressing of his next album "Heroes". To this day, I think that song itself has got to be one of the best pop songs ever written, not to mention the rest of that searingly intense album. Every time I hear it, it gets to me. It is musical perfection, as far as I am concerned.

It was only a couple of years later when my musical tastes had moved on to all sorts of crazy stuff did I realise that those two 1977 albums were co-authored and produced by Brian Eno, and had Robert Fripp playing guitar. Eno and Fripp, for the uninitiated, were some of the leading exponents of electronic music in that era. Brian Eno is kinda like the godfather of ambient music - he even allegedly was the first person to use the term "ambient music", and Robert Fripp, well, he was the creative genius behind the awesome band King Crimson, from the prog-rock era of the early 70s, and he created this wacky sound known as 'Frippertronics'.

Music is freakin' awesome, I love how every time I go searching for the good stuff, the more I find. Hehe, I think I've just decided what to play on my next Ambient Zone show, so tune in! Oh yeah, I'll be doing my next set on Sunday 6th of May, on RTR FM 92.1

Incidentally, this photo is the 12" single of the German release of Heroes, titled "Helden". For some reason I think it sounds better in German, probably because he was living in Berlin when he wrote it.

Monday, April 23, 2007

obturator nerve pathway

Ooh, i've got a great controversial topic today! None other than that prize winning guaranteed-endless-disagreement debate topic: religion!


I was on my way to have dinner with some friends of mine the other day, and as we were walking through the city on our way to Taka Restaurant for ourtight-arse budget Japanese dining extravagansa, and just as we had successfully avoided the singing Christians, we came accross a group of preaching Scientologists who seemed to zoom in on us like mosquitos. Seems like a normal night out? Sure, it usually is. But this particular friend of mine is one of those people that just seems to attract fanatics. I kid you not, but we have been walking along the street on previous occaisions, and randoms have walked up and started harassing him, be it either Christian fundamentalists, aggressive beggars (the ones who insist you give them a minimum of $2), gang members or muscled up thugs and fubu-and-bling-wearing types just yelling out abuse and looking for a fight.


I have formulated a theory that it has something to do with the fact that he'san uber buff weight lifting bloke who works out regularly, and he's got that square jaw tough-guy look about him. If you mix that with a vigilante '"i hate injustice / seeing people getting picked on" mentality, he can never just ignore dickheads like most people do.


But, I digress!.. anyway, as I was saying, the next thing we know these two Scientologists are telling him that he needs to get off thepharmeceutical drugs that are messing up his mind and stop watching "the media"and to wake up to himself. I'm not quite sure where they got the idea that he was on drugs from, but it all got kind of narky and they were all raising their voices and telling each other they were fools (and something about all humans coming from the planet Zorgon or something like that..). If there is one thing i've learned in this world, its that you should never challenge a preacher of any kind into a theological debate. You can never win, as the precise reason they are preaching is because they believe so firmly in what they say.


After we had extracted our friend from the standard religious vs. non-religious debate, we trotted at a fast pace to Taka's, because by now there was a monster queue out the front waiting to polish off the final stocks of their scrum-diddely-umptious sushi. I'm not sure who actually said it, but by the time we got up to Shafto Lane someone had described the whole concept of religion into one simple sentence, and it has stuck in my head ever since then:


"Religion is necessary for so many people because it provides them with simple answers for complex questions".


That statement kind of ended the debate, and before long we were chatting about more important stuff like food, politics, movies, girls wearing short-shorts in winter, guys who wear speedos (are they undies or bathers?) and music - in other words all the other regular important Friday topics of conversation!


Anyway, I just thought I'd share that moment of my Friday night with the world!


Abbey the dog contemplates life whilst meditating and chanting.

A pants rant

It's Monday now, but I wrote the following rant last Friday, at the end of a long week, I was going a bit loopy from being indoors for too long. I thought I'd put it online anyway..


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Well here we are and it's Friday again. I honestly feel like it's Groundhog Day sitting in the office sometimes. Too much of my life is spent at work I tells ya. But not to worry - life is grand, it's Friday and there's tonight and two more days to wreak havoc on the world at large!
Today's rant is that I am very shocked and concerned that I'm noticing a trend in fashion whereby all the young whipper snapper trendies are wearing super high pants again! Surely everyone who has even the slightest memory of the 80s and early 90s - hell, I think ANY time before about 1996, judging by watching old movies and looking at our Grandparents, should know that the world has hadenough of HIGH waisted pants! Remember laughing at Bogart with his up-to-his-armpit trousers? Remember Van Damme with his 80's pleated trousers riding up high, making him look like a clown? It took all of the history of western civilisation to finally come to awareness that pants that sit nicely around one's hips look good! I know the saggy-pants show-your-undies trends of the early 00's have caused this harry-high-pant reaction, but hey! I like hipster pants! They look good, they make one's butt look good, and they justfit the shape of a person's physique and make them look better!
I will have to add this to my list of things to do when i'm president of the world. Item number #297 on the agenda of my new world manifesto: "Jeans and trousers that are worn above the belly button will incur punishment of humiliation by public dakking".


Now that i've got that off my chest, bring on the weekend!

Thursday, April 12, 2007

look into my eyes, not around the eyes but in my eyes..

Heyyy, big news today! I was trying to get away for the weekend by driving up north, when I was called back for a few reasons. Before I knew it, i'd made an offer on a house!

It'll be a few weeks before I get the keys, but I will start planning a house warming party to remember from now. If you get in quick, I might let ya stay on the sofa for the night.. Sheesh it's kinda scary to borrow so much money, but hey, this had to happen now or i'd never do it. No more renting for me, woo hoo!

Monday, April 02, 2007

random ramblings

I just had to get outdoors for the last gasp of summer yesterday. Last week it suddenly got cold after a few months of non-stop searing Perth heat, so I just had to catch some of those rays when the sun came out. Bomi is my ol' pal from Korea, and she's one of those friends that I only seem to meet with every month or so. Being the great Aussie tour guide that I am, I took her down to Point Walter to check out the river spit that she had been told about. Its funny how when you live in a city you sometimes never go to the great local sights and places that foreigners love so much. We walked right to the end of the spit - over a kilometre of a skinny stretch of sand jutting into a bulbous bit of the Swan River. Ahh the sun, i'm gonna miss it when the cold weather kicks in. Perth is one of those cities that I swear is colder than Europe in mid winter.
"Baloney!" I hear you say. But I know i'm right! Because of our mega-hot summers, our houses are designed to be cool, and they just let all that heat out come the winter. I never ever wore jumpers in the house in my little pad in Berlin that Christmas, and I never wore jumpers in that Bachelors Walk dog-box I lived in in Dublin. Yet every winter mr G shivers-his-timbers while he stirs his hot soup next to the gas heater and whines a lot of "brrrrr-its-cccold". And all them exchange students freak out and have to go shopping for jumpers, feeling ripped off cos they're told that its always summer down in Australia. Hehe, I guess that means our tourist brochures as a summer paradise have been working!

I soooooo much want to get back to Southeast Asia this month, but because of the suck-ass recent housing boom, I have to save every penny if I am going to buy myself a (rediculously small) place this year. I say its a suck-ass from the buyers point of view, but I'm sure if you owned a place you'd be loving every moment of the last four years of boom. Anyway, maybe one day I can join the league of the landed gentry, but for now i'm having to be "mr. no-holidays stinge-bag" to save. I don't even really care too much about owning land, but I guess it's the wise thing to do and I know that I will love having my place, the freedom of owning my own place and yadayadayada..

Golly I must be getting old. I'm talking about property in my blog! Aaaaarrrghh! Someone please save me from this!
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