Logging On

Great and remarkable things happen in clusters, some good,
some bad; all driving at each other in a seeming anarchy of
energy and co-incidence. It sometimes happens in our
personal lives and at other moments in the history of humanity itself.
Now is one of those times for our species.
A dark symphony of neglect, criminality and disgusting self absorption
written and performed by business leaders wallowing in
a fetid swamp of their own arrogance and immorality, feeding their
bloated incomes and personal lives from the mouths and lives of
the decent, hardworking and trusting people who rely on those
banks and businesses to provide their daily sustenance. A
disgusting cadence matched in offensiveness by politicians and
regulators who at best are ignorant and dangerous incompetents –
and at worst, criminally colluding in the corruption.
It’s hard to work out whether George Bush fits into the first or
second category, but it would have been some small satisfaction to
see one of those shoes hit home. Dick Cheney and Rumsfeld are
definitely in the second category with John Howard and Tony
Blair the pooches on their very shabby porch. Between them, in
collusion with financial speculators they have composed the
greatest destruction of wealth ever seen in the history of civilization.
At the same time they have knowingly plunged the world into one
of the most morally indefensible, destructive and grievous wars of
the post-World War Two period, for no other reason than to feed
the insatiable appetites of the
gluttons of the military industrial
complex and an elite selection from
the finance and hydrocarbon
industries. Like Halliburton, and
many more alongside.
The supercilious and slightly
bemused (or perhaps retarded) look
on Bush’s face as the shoe whistled
passed his lug was a look of an
imbecile who is probably unable to
cope intellectually with the human
tragedy and mayhem he has visited
upon the Iraqi, American and many
other peoples by his
administration’s savage
guardianship, a legacy that will
continue to play out in mindless
violence and damage to countless
more innocents in years and
generations to come. Good
riddance you pack of morons,
crooks and cannibals.
In that whirlpool and tempest of
their dark and sinister
compositions, other music has been
written and performed and has
affected us, not with silent, cold
and torn bodies, empty bank
balances and lengthening
unemployment lines, but with the
inspiration and hope for better
times and things to come.
Barack Obama and his vision have
been swept to the highest position of power in the world on the
trust and desire of better things from our existence. Racial
tolerance, social and civic responsibility, moral accountability.
Inclusive and transparent social and economic management. To
hear his articulation of a country and world where value is
measured in the decency and quality of every individual’s daily life,
in the meeting of their rights to health, home and material
wellbeing is a chorus of sweet and resonating tones that only
sharpens the offensive clamour of his predecessor.
What an extraordinary development to see a black man on the
road to his home in the White House. All of those who, with
courage and determination, walked the road to freedom with
Martin Luther King and the many women and men who shared in
his vision have been given a gift that was almost unimaginable such
a short time ago.
The colour of his skin though is irrelevant to the great heart and
hope that he now brings to people of all races. A quiet, but
growing awareness around the world that this man will make a
difference and does believe in his words, and will translate them
into actions. Actions for peace. Actions for the many and not the
few. Actions for the weak and not the strong. Actions that join and
heal, not break and rape.
With our own change of political leadership in Australia, and the
arrogance and destructive political hubris and self interest of the
Howard years now a memory and not a stench in the hooters of
working people and families, we can continue to campaign for our
rights at work and at home, our rights in old age and sickness, our
right to a cleaner and more sustainable world and know that it is a
melody waiting to be played again and again as long as we continue
to find our voices and the determined action to follow them up.
That’s a season to be jolly.
On behalf of the union I wish all our members and friends, our
staff and officers and your families my warmest best wishes for a
new and decidedly better New Year.