At The Edge Of The Clearing

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Life's fairly tough on The Block - poverty, despair, lives without much hope. But it does not deserve the reputation it has; most permanent residents are good people.

There are always new faces around, some scared, most penniless, many with an addiction and others who are just plain lonely, all trying to fit into a very small, very harsh environment. Crime is rampant and quite often the people responsible are the visitors who use The Block as a lawless refuge.

Redfern still is a sad place, although occasionally some good things have happened there. Once we had some rap dancers from America come in big limousines. Cathy Freeman, Muhammad Ali and Michael Jackson have been. For many, The Block remains a curiosity. Celebrities go there just to see what all the hype is about.

The really important people are not those in limousines. The important people are those who have been forgotten, whose voices and faces are not seen or heard - the dispossessed, the poor, the stolen generation, the addicted and homeless. When curiosity becomes generosity these people may have a chance.

It is no exaggeration to say The Block has often been an unsafe place for unaccompanied white people. Occasionally, someone unknowingly takes a short cut and will be bashed or robbed.

Things have improved since the new community centre opened but it is still not safe for white women to enter The Block unaccompanied at night, and even driving through there is not advised. Some non-Kooris come there trying to buy drugs but usually end up injured and without their money.

Trust is not something that is extended to many people. If you are not accepted, you are a "them". This applies to all colours and races. It is the same for the police. They are always treated as outsiders. This is unfortunate as there are some very decent police, but too many locals have had bad experiences with them.

Bill Simon in the SMH.

And so it was, in clouded circumstance and clouded days, that he became successful in what he did, his taut face and piercing eyes everywhere as he watched each movement in the bar, as he drank in the scene and the hysterical cast of characters. Wave upon wave of ecstasy. Normal people did not experience alcohol or drugs like this, but he did, and he sat on the bar and caught every flicker of connection, every wan joke, every flirtation. Later, in Gerch's derelict house, he realised that this wonderfully intelligent and entertaining man did not even know who the Deputy Prime Minister of the country was. Er, Julia Gillard. The Prime Minister, well every one knew that - Kevin Rudd, Mr Sheen as he was now known, after the advertisements which had melted into all our consciousnesses: wax as you polish with Mr Sheen. An egghead cartoon character. A parody of life.

He entered into the church. He drowned in their dogma. He dodged the zealots but was caught up in his own despair, in his own search for a way out. Clarify, clarify, rang the bells, but in those toning cries across the misty Thames, in the freezing dark of his ancestor's lives, in the journey into hope that he had just begun, all of it was cruel, embattled, nonsensical. He didn't know where his weary heart would take him, the tired tramp of soldier's feet, the terrible mud, the cold dawn, the very real possibility of death. Their camaraderie was built around black humour. And in later life, he longed for their company. He wanted to be a normal person. He wanted to stand at a bar and drown not just his sorrows, but his entire consciousness, his entire life, all those regrets.

It was not to be. They circled, the sick feeding off the sicker, until they realised how deeply compromised he had become. Don't waste time on people, the voices cried around him. Don't waste time on things you don't understand. He reached down, he was shattered, and the tears flowed uncontrollably, and they talked of Bob Hawke and his famous crying episode. Margaret had just got off the plane from England back in the eighties and there was this man on the TV screens, blubbering away. Who's that? she asked. The Prime Minister, she was told. Him, the one that's blubbering away up there, and she pointed at the screen, ignoring the crowds of holiday makers around her. Yeh, him, he's the Prime Minister. What's he crying about? His daughter's a heroin addict.

What, and he only just found out? But what's he crying about. They tried to explain. He's a hero of the people, one of us, not a bad bloke. That was his qualification for office. Bright, people accepted that, but one of us. For a brief moment, in this city's dark streets, Hawkie was a hero in every taxi. A working class man had made it to the Lodge. And he carried the nation's best wishes with him. And we were all applauding - one of us, one of us. Take our hopes, dreams, aspirations, take them with you, fulfil your destiny. And the shadows which were stalking him flickered faster, shredding the light. Oh sweet Jesus, come and save us from this terrible sense of dislocation, from ourselves. Save us, redeem us, marry us with the spirit.

Instead he got up and went to work, year in year out, and abandoned his partying ways. Stern eyes looked from every corner. There was hypocrisy everywhere, and he did not know how to match it, to block out the grime which was heading directly for his soul. He didn't know; and briefly he didn't care, thought disordered, multiple images crowding in upon him at every turn. The zealotry, that's what got him, the zealotry of the newly sober and the dark shapes which were warning him: don't go there. Don't give up now. Don't turn back. Be strong, be courageous, have the courage to enjoy your life. He could hear the echoes, muffled from the drugs, and he went back, back, to that gold fish pond in the tiny garden between the high rises; and knew that he had been dissembled, that he was totally unloved, that in order to survive he would have to adopt a persona, be someone, pretend to be real. He breathed deeply, because none of it was real, and knew that all the old rationalities had crumbled with age. There truly was: no way out.

THE BIGGER STORY:

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,25641076-5007146,00.html

PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd was generous in his praise of Peter Costello yesterday, knowing that one formidable political opponent was removing himself from the field of combat.

However, in rising to mark Costello's decision not to re-contest pre-selection for the seat of Higgins, which he has held for the past 20 years, Rudd dwelt on the various international roles Costello successfully played during his nearly 12 years as treasurer.

He omitted to mention the tremendous contribution Costello made to the nation.

Rudd concentrated on the work Costello put in to establishing the G20 finance ministers' meetings in the wake of the Asian financial crisis of 1997-1998, and the development of the G20 in which Rudd places such store during the current global economic crisis.

He should have mentioned the part Costello's policies played in creating a tremendous economic legacy, the surplus which Rudd and his vandals inherited, when they took office in 2007.

Costello's decision to go lifts an unwelcome cloud of leadership speculation that has been hanging over the Opposition.

It has been there since Costello rejected former prime minister John Howard's encouragement on the night of the Liberal government's 2007 defeat to put himself forward for the leadership.

Costello, said Howard, was the heir apparent - but the heir didn't want the inheritance. Not only did he not want it - no one really did.

Being Opposition Leader after a long-running government falls is no cake walk. It fell to Dr Brendan Nelson to take up the poisoned chalice but his leadership, courageous as it was, was always going to be temporary.

The current leader, Malcolm Turnbull, enjoys greater support and is unlikely to be challenged before the next election.

What should not be lost as the current of politics runs its course is that Costello was, in his own right, a great contributor to Australia who helped redraw our political landscape in the 1980s and 1990s.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25642620-2702,00.html

A RESURGENT Malcolm Turnbull is free to go to the next federal election without speculation over his leadership after Peter Costello eliminated himself as a rival yesterday by announcing his retirement.

And as the former treasurer told parliament he would end two proud decades in parliament at the next election, a Newspoll showed the opposition had smashed Labor's long-standing first preference lead to move to within a percentage point of the government.

While Kevin Rudd continues to command strong personal popularity, the poll, conducted at the weekend exclusively for The Australian, has Labor on a primary vote of 41 per cent with the opposition on 40 per cent.

The gap between the government and the opposition has narrowed from five percentage points in the past two weeks, while Mr Turnbull's satisfaction rating continues to rise.

Last night Mr Turnbull, released from the spectre of a Costello leadership bid for the first time since he ousted Brendan Nelson last September, said he would do everything he could to lead the Coalition to victory at the next election, due late next year.

"The Coalition will continue to hold the Government to account for its reckless spending and debt binge," Mr Turnbull told The Australian.

"We will provide a responsible and constructive plan for recovery which will focus on small business and jobs and enable the energy and the enterprise of Australians because it is they, as opposed to government, who are at the centre of economy."

It is understood Mr Turnbull will move quickly to consolidate his new strength by reshuffling his front bench in coming weeks to sharpen his bid for power.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/06/16/2599086.htm?section=world

Shots have been fired at a rally in Iran where hundreds of thousands of people were demonstrating against the result of last week's election.

Unconfirmed reports say one protester has been killed and several more hurt when security forces opened fire.

A local photographer says the protester was shot in the head and that several more were wounded when violence erupted outside a local base of the Islamic Basji militia, which had been set ablaze.

Shooting was also heard in three districts of wealthy northern Tehran.

The violence flared after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's defeated rival Mir Hossein Mousavi appeared in public for the first time since an election that has triggered a wave of protests and rioting.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has ordered a probe into allegations of vote-rigging.

The UN's chief Ban Ki-moon has voiced his concern about the vote.

"When there is an election, the genuine will of the people should be reflected and respected in the most transparent and fair and objective manner," he said.