>
>Fair go, Cath! I said 'American libertarians' - I hear there are upwards
>of 37 Americans who aren't like that at all!
sure i've heard about them but they're all secluded on a small island somewhere aren't they?
on the olympics:
>And all that bollocks about reconciliation being so advanced by all this!
>In what way, exactly? I mean, what's 'reconciliation' such that getting an
>Aboriginee to light the flame, or cheering an Aboriginee's win, or having
>some themes and 'sorry' bits in the ceremonies, advances it? Shit, we've
>all been thereabouts for years, I reckon. Nothing new in the symbolism
>(after all, wasn't Sitting Bull a fixture at Barnum's Circus?) nothing new
>in Redfern (where people were chased away to keep the area pretty for our
>visitors) or out in the sticks (where they're still dying at fifty).
Yes, to all of this (sadly). I was, though, impressed by midnight oil's sorry costumes, and sorry that i didn't get a shot of Howard in that coverage
>Nothing particularly bad necessarily happened - I'll grant that - but what
>happened that was so wonderfully good? We've had national heroes from
>ethnic minorities for a long time - and casually maligned and marginalised
>their ethnic groups all the while. How the mainstream responds to Ruddock
>and his ilk - there's the measure, and there's the way to advance, I reckon.
interesting note in classes the week after the closing ceremony we were discussing the 'colonial' and 'postcolonial' narratives in the ceremonies and I circulated an article about Ruddock's latest idiocy the students were uniformly contemptuous of and disgusted by his position, and embarrassed by him in general these are not classes where things will be said to 'agree' with me in any sense so i was surprised and, yes, pleased let's hope it translates
>As for the media coverage, I would have loved some of the events if I'd got
>to see them (the football, the handball, proper volleyball, and the water
>polo - the real sports). Channel 7 showed heaps of shit while real stuff
>was happening, and, but for Bruce the Peerless, had commentators whose
>understanding, even-handedness and vocabulary were outrageously lacking.
hmm -- you're applauding Bruce? what are they feeding you in Canberra these days must be something to keep the politicians in line
>...The longer races are okay, because there you get to see
>some thinking and jostling happening, like in real sport.
well i don't have your fine distinction for real sports but the swimming commentary was horrendous
...There are sound
>reasons in Australia for a certain expression of nationalism -
what would these be?
>but it's
>gotta be the right kind (eg. not xenophobia and not adolescent
>insecurity)and it's gotta come from below rather than from on-high (not
>produced by an integrated PR campaign). I just ain't quite convinced
>that's what I was seeing, that's all.
certainly not -- but i still don't see why we want nationalism at all why it's not something to be (yes even anxiously) avoided
catherine