beneath the sombre pall that descended after the lavish turkish feast that was last night’s dinner…
[ lavish turkish feast interlude ]
it was the first birthday party of the boy’s sister’s kid, a smiley half australian-half turkish boy who grabs at my glasses whenever we meet. there was a kid’s party in the park with rolled-up jam and vegemite pinwheel sandwiches (not in the same pinwheel) and avocado and shredded carrot finger sandwiches, and pass-the-parcel with a jackson five live tape soundtrack, and bubbles, oh — and kids. so many kids. and then there was a grownup party back at the house with dolmades and olives, pide with a mean beetroot dip, four kinds of shish kebab: beef; chicken; veggie, with mushroom, green capsicum, asparagus and haloumi; and seafood, with scallops with the roe on, and green capsicum. and salads, including one with green beans and broad beans in yoghurt. and a great dome-shaped pavlova sandwiched with yoghurty cream and raspberries and rose syrup and covered in sugared rose petals. yes there was.
…we awoke this morning, confused. the words, “very depressed”, were put forth by a member of this household, in a tone of voice that could not have been flatter or sadder. but the confusion was because, despite the fact that everyone i know and most people in this country whose blogs i read appear to vote for not john howard (and also not any of those loopy christian / family values / otherwise insane parties), and despite the awful campaign ads and the shouting and pointing and jutting-out lower lip and overall less-niceness of the man, and um, the stuff that’s been done in the last few years… going to war, locking up children behind barbed wire, that sort of thing… it is john howard who’ll be putting on his tracksuit and power-morning-walking his victory lap for [undisclosed period of time] to come.
how can it be?
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9:24PM…nearly 24 hours later and I am still bummed. Its been such a weird day. I have tried to put it behind me and get on with all this uni stuff. But then I get pulled to all those post mortum articles and the sadness grows.
It happened because people are gripped with fear, are up to their eyeballs in debt and care only unto themselves. This is yours and my Australia. I wonder what the case will be when interest rates rise in 6 months time. Howard will only have to deal with his fellow countrymen at the oldies home.
And this post is too long. Sorry.
I was listening to a wise person on the radio talking about the whole terribly sad election thing. He said that in winning the 1996 election, Howard learned that Australians no longer cared about *big* issues like reconciliation and closer ties with Asia. People had opted to look inwards and could see no further than the credit card statements sitting on the kitchen table.
It’s so so awful.
So awful… and to think so many of us were filled with hope.
a friend of the boy voted liberal solely on the basis of their apparently good business immigration policy, because he is a migration agent and it will be good for *his* business. what the bloody hell!?
at least we can banish hope for, i hear, the next six years.