He Shrugged, Soiled At Soul

*

The water was quite warm. It was that marvellous transparent blue, flecked with silver, but the sand at the bottom looked gold; when you kicked with your toes there rose a little puff of gold-dust. Now the waves just reached her breast. Beryl stood, her arms outstretched, gazing out, and as each wave came she gave the slightest little jump, so that it seemed it was the wave which lifted her so gently.

"I believe in pretty girls having a good time," said Mrs Harry Kember. "Why not? Don't you make a mistake, my dear. Enjoy yourself." And suddenly she turned turtle, disappeared, and swam away quickly, like a rat. Then she flicked round and began swimming back. She was going to say something else. Beryl felt that she was being poisoned by this cold woman, but she longed to hear...

Katherine Mansfield, At The Bay.

And then, as if to the slaughter, as if all was shadows in a braoder world he was barely allowed to enter. He was shocked, he didn't mind admitting, by the sudden change in his fortunes, the old skin, the crumbling veneer. He came from a much longer lived place, from a species that survived for millenia, there amongst the ancient Martian rocks. All was not lost, he knew that now, but the slender thread of conscioiusness was wavering; and might not last for long. It had seemed, what subjectively had been only a few minutes but in fact had been a number of years, that time was infinite, lazy, there was no need for concern. It had seemed, briefly, as if he would always be there. That there was plenty of time to evolve into one of this race's great sharmans, to be everywhere, everything, strong.

And then he blinked and all those opportunities were gone. He remembered the cave of his birth; time and again it came to him. He remembered the dry air, the cold cold desert which stretched outside, the concern of his parents. He had been so disgusted by the pack mentality of both the left and the right; more particularly now, as they were ascendant, the pack mentality of the left. He wasn't sure how to find his soul; he had been stuck in this murky place for so long, the heat, the noise, the endless compromises of this chaotic race. He was homesick for the dry desert plains of his birth. He was preparing, in some almost unconscious way, for the cessation of this form, for the neat tricks through which he would change bodies, for the disassembly of this one he had once held so much hope for.

There was room for repair, even salvation. But their forms were shallow, fragile, easily disgarded. There was little connection between their brains and their frames; and he made sure there would be plenty of tomorrows. Now that he was awake again, contacted by the governing intelligence, there was time to plan. These forms were so fragile, so imperfect, he found himself dreaming constantly of that cave of his birth, and didn't know why. There would be another path; another future; but it had been a long time since he had seen any of his own kind. Normally he would pick it up just by talking to them; the piercing gaze, the dislocated, abstract air, the immediate sense that here lay a greater intelligence than human. But years, during which he had been mostly sleeping, he had not seen a single other soul.

And so it was that the homesick images now played constantly in his brain. A simple cave. An open entrance. A stark desert landscape. He remembered how heart broken he had been when he discovered that Ray Bradbury was a conservative; he didn't think anyone with any imagination could be anything but left, a voice of the people, a sterling soldier standing in the cold. Reporting on injustice. But injustice took many forms, and was most often prosecuted by courts and bureaucracies; and all these human densities and failings, he had lost heart. When he had first arrived on this dense, warm, crowded planet, so different to his own, he had been full of hope for the adventure which lay ahead. Optimism had kept his heart warm for thousands of years; even when he made the shift to younger forms, even during war time.

What had changed? The aging of this frame he had once been so devoted to, so optimistic about. The failings that he saw all around him? The devious dishonesty that was everywhere; the entire lack of thought, of intellectual rigour? Most humans would rather die than think, one of their philosophers Bertrand Russell had said. Most humans would rather die than think, and many of them do. He stared into their cow like eyes. He was searching now for the companions he knew had taken a different course, been involved in different nations, travelled the Earth. They must still be here, unless they had failed to make the leap from body to body, which was always possible, it was not an easy thing to do. But every person he met, he gazed intensely into their eyes, hoping to see a shred of recognition, some flicker of another intelligence, some acknowledgement of superior brain power. Instead their cow like eyes reflected stupidity, greed, prejudice, obsession with their selves, and the longer he searched the more frightened he became. Maybe he really was the last, after all these thousands of years.

THE BIGGER STORY:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/06/11/2594928.htm

Unrest has continued for the third night in a row in Sydney's west involving Indian students angry about violent attacks.

Police have broken up a stand-off at Harris Park between about 70 Indian students and two members of the Lebanese community.

The stand-off came after Parramatta Council held a meeting tonight with police, India's consul general and members of Sydney's Indian community.

The organiser said the meeting had been a success and Indian students have promised to stop protesting.

Earlier the chief executive of Universities Australia Glenn Withers echoed calls for an end to unequal treatment of international students.

Many international students believe policies of state and federal governments are partly to blame for the attacks.

In New South Wales and Victoria, state governments do not give international students travel concessions, like they do for domestic students.

It is claimed that means foreigners are more likely to walk home at night, and leave themselves more vulnerable to attacks.

Travel concessions

Providing travel concessions to all students is one of 10 action points universities have now suggested.

Dr Withers says such a move would help international students feel more welcome in Australia.

"That travel concession point is one of the things that in exit surveys of international students as they leave the country, they symbolically see as an example that they weren't truly welcomed," he said.

"And so this produces a mentally of 'we are really here as cash cows, we are not really here as welcome guests'."

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25618516-2702,00.html

KEVIN Rudd has pointedly rebuked union leaders by vowing that if they seek to change Labor policy to protect thuggery on building sites he will defy the party platform.

The Prime Minister has also savagely attacked the left-wing Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union as having "real problems" and declined to do anything to prevent unionists being jailed for defying laws put in place by the Howard government.

As union leaders yesterday continued to press him to scrap the Australian Building and Construction Commission, Mr Rudd insisted his first loyalty was to the nation, not the union movement.

"I am the leader of the parliamentary Labor Party and I've been elected by the Australian people as their Prime Minister and I am accountable to the Australian people," Mr Rudd said.

His comments yesterday in Melbourne - the home of the union movement - follow months of tension over his government's refusal to abolish the ABCC, established by John Howard with extraordinary powers to control building sites, including the right to demand evidence from unionists.

Mr Howard created the building industry watchdog in response to a royal commission that found evidence of lawlessness and intimidation involving unions in the sector.

Mr Rudd went to the 2007 election saying he would retain the ABCC until 2010, after which he would roll its functions into the new Fair Work Australia. He guaranteed to maintain "a cop on the beat" in the building sector.

But since he won power, the CFMEU and other unions have demanded Mr Rudd abolish the commission immediately.

Yesterday, as the opposition accused him of feigning anger at unions, Mr Rudd made clear he would not breach his election promises even if the unions used their numbers to change Labor Party policy at next month's national conference.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jz74U5-M7d052GqcbS8hyfPF7GQgD98O05983

WASHINGTON (AP) — An elderly gunman opened fire with a rifle inside the crowded U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum on Wednesday, gravely wounding a security guard before two other officers returned fire. The assailant and his victim were both hospitalized.

The assailant was in critical condition, said Washington, D.C., Mayor Adrian Fenty.

D.C. Police Chief Kathy Lanier said the gunman appeared to have acted alone. He was "engaged by security guards immediately after entering the door" with a rifle, she said.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

WASHINGTON (AP) — An elderly gunman opened fire inside the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum on Wednesday, wounding a security guard before two other guards returned fire. The assailant and his victim were both hospitalized.

The extent of the injuries was not immediately known, U.S. Park Police Sgt. David Schlosser said.

Nor did authorities immediately provide the name or any other biographical information about the assailant, who they said used a "long gun" in the shooting.

The episode unfolded inside the museum, which maintains a heavy security presence, with guards positioned inside and out. All visitors are required to pass through metal detectors at the entrance, and bags are screened.