Staring Out The Window At Siam Paragon

*

That was all they found, a sporadic array of voices, tough shots walking. You no good. You not same same me. Insert Name of Boy. Name of nothing. Girlfriend. Obsessions followed to their ultimate conclusion. His lungs ached after he had briefly relapsed on the cigarettes. Too old, too old now. Configure that, baby. As if all else had failed. As if nothing belonged where it was placed. As if his own good fortune deserved no quarter. As if the myriad landscapes were blessed with demonic brilliance; and his abandoned state was destiny itself. You’ve done nothing but get stoned and hide out in your room; and you expect me to give you money, to rescue you, he thought, as he walked away from the classic Bangkok apartment block, all cheap rooms and cheap floors and people coming home from work. Well that wasn’t going to be his solution. He wasn’t going to make out on the carpet. He wasn’t going to rescue him this time around. He would pay for certain services and that was that. Life was tough in a big city without money. Particularly when you weren’t bothering to get up and go to work. And wasted every last cent you ever got.


He walked away for the hundredth time. Pallid intellectualism, Ian had snorted. And now he was settling into his new gigs. A mansion by any standard, well his standards, anyway; and cheaper than the modern apartment he had just left. Pay to take care. He could hear the argument raging somewhere; and decided to stay well away. Broken lives were not his to mend. The Cambodian boy rang yesterday. I miss you, I want take care of my family, can you send me money. He thought about it for awhile but did nothing. One too many people had asked him for money lately. Maybe he needed some rich friends who could take care of themselves. It was insufferable. He heard the mattresses thumping on to empty floors. He saw the inside of empty buildings. He heard what could have been rats scurrying just out of reach. He made as if to answer, but there had been no question, just disjointed scraps floating in the ether: you no good, take care, take care, you no good. Bury me not, on the lone prairie. Country song, Thai country song, many year old, they said, when he expressed admiration for a folk tune. Hah sip bee, 50 years, came the response, when he asked for details. And outside the city collapsed; indifferent to their fate.

He found himself in these private reaches without even knowing why. Now there was a different place, the sound of a suburb waking. Even the sound of a rooster. Doors closing. A moto-cie in a nearby soi. An aching heart. A promise unfulfilled. Flesh rung out. Desire drained. Every excess ignored, fading into normality. As if he cared anymore. The future was not bright, how could it be? Not when you’re old. Only one destiny awaited all of us. So he heard the house next door awakening and the sound of early morning birds. It had been a while since he had noticed that; not in the grey and steel condo with its dedicated fax lines and high speed internet, air-conditioning in every room and sleek black TV. If you should only ask, I’d be there for you. But every love had decayed into convenience; and so now he embraced convenience as a source of comfort. There weren’t going to be any great heights of passion. Or obsessive little sex secrets. Just convenience, comfort. A nice house. Good company. Everything taken care of. A walking dynasty, having passed through so many lives. Life is long, he assured the crazy girl, who couldn’t stop the path she was on. Same same me sometime, before, he said. But he walked away from the giant decay that was the apartment block and their disordered, descending into chaos lives, and woke up looking at his own garden in a quiet back soi near Bangkok ‘s business district and thought; sometimes in life you get what you deserve. But whether he deserved this comfortable house; and they deserved their gloom laden chaos, he was not sure. Just walk away my friend. Good morning, the current boy declared cheerfully, you hungry? Nick noi, a little, he answered, and they smiled together for what they had built together; jaw clenched dawns infested with shivering pleasures and profound despair were for someone else entirely.

THE BIGGER STORY:

Labor lost a vote on the floor of the House yesterday - and not for the last time in this term.

Tony Abbott has come out swinging this morning, defending his plan to "wreck'' the National Broadband Network and the Wild Rivers legislation that he has proposed.

On the Wild Rivers legislation ("a nonsense, an insult"), which is designed to overturn Queensland Government legislation and has the backing of Indigenous leader Noel Pearson, the Opposition leader said, "we have to give indigenous people more control''.

The "reality check" that is the 43rd parliament is dominating the political correspondent's coverage in the papers today following Julia Gillard losing a vote on the floor of the House: Phillip Coorey's take here, and Matthew Franklin's take here. Phillip Hudson says the parliament is fragile. Annebel Crabb says parliament was polite after "the preceding 24 hours [when] a multilateral pestilence of stiffings and welshings".

On the NBN, Labor is defending its plan after Mexican telecommunications billionaire Carlos Slim Helu hit out at the network. Mr Slim said the cost of $7000 for every home was far too high.

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy and his shadow, Malcolm Turnbull, went head to head over the National Broadband Network on Lateline last night.

And Lucy Battersby writes that Telstra chief executive David Thodey was not ''transfixed'' by the government's $43 billion broadband project and would get on with life if it was cancelled.

Graham Richardson, meanwhile, has stood by his claims that Julia Gillard has been forced to keep two cabinet ministers she wanted to dump.

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The wrap of the papers starts with David Uren, who writes “LABOR should expand its resources tax to other minerals and consider increasing the GST as part of a strategy to manage the mining boom."

Tim Colebatch's is here: “AS HOME owners brace for an expected rate rise next week, the International Monetary Fund has challenged the Reserve Bank's forecasts that the economy faces a boom ahead, and implied that it should wait and see before acting.”

Andrew Clennell writes “THE spending habits of poker machine players would be tracked by their fingerprints and memory sticks under a proposal to tackle gambling addiction.’’

Clancy Yeates writes “AUSTRALIA'S population growth has fallen to its slowest rate since 2007, after a sharp decline in migration levels continued into the first quarter of this year.’’

Sid Maher writes "JULIA Gillard has again declined to commit to a timetable for introducing a carbon price.'

Dylan Welch writes “THE analyst who blew the whistle on dodgy pre-Iraq war intelligence and was labelled by the Howard government as ''dishonourable'' and ''unreliable'' may soon be sitting on the nation's most secret parliamentary committee.”

Michael Sainsbury writes “Beijing is angry that Julia Gillard has snubbed China by visiting other Asian nations as Prime Minister first.

Nick Butterly writes “The Federal Opposition says the Government should consider sending attack helicopters, tanks and another 360 troops to Afghanistan after claims Diggers are undermanned and lacking firepower.’’

Lanai Vasek writes “THE first indigenous MP in the lower house used his maiden speech yesterday to thank Kevin Rudd for apologising to the Stolen Generations.’’

Lauren Wislon writes “A JOINT select committee to tackle problem gambling was established yesterday by Labor.’’

THE charging of Australian commandos over the deaths of six Afghan civilians headed off an international investigation into the killings, Dan Oakes writes.

Tom Arup writes “THE Auditor-General has savaged the handling of the government's axed Green Loans scheme but exonerated former environment minister Peter Garrett, who received ''incomplete, inaccurate and untimely briefings '' by his department.’’

Dan Harrison writes “THE Gillard government appears set to overturn laws that banned universities from charging compulsory student union fees.’’

Caroline Overington writes “GREENS MP Adam Bandt says The Australian intends to do all it can to bring down the Gillard government. That's because the newspaper is both immensely powerful, and peeved, he claims.’’

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/welcome-to-the-real-world/story-e6frg71x-1225931993259

NEW Greens MP Adam Bandt says in an interview on the web that his party must now "enact what we believe in".

We reject many of their policies but we certainly agree it is time for Mr Bandt and his colleagues to be judged on their platform. Having long avoided the scrutiny that is routine for other political parties, the Greens are now enjoying the full glare that comes with their pivotal parliamentary role. But based on that interview with The Monthly, Mr Bandt is still adjusting to life in the big school. The member for Melbourne says it is wrong for The Australian to suggest the Greens be voted out at the ballot box. He says we are partisan and that we, in effect, verballed him on September 4 when we wrote that the Greens would introduce a private member's bill for same-sex marriage. Yet Mr Bandt was quoted as saying that "removing the discrimination facing same-sex couples" was among his three campaign priorities. The MP can't have it both ways, campaigning on gay marriage then complaining when this is reported, especially when one of the first things the Greens did this week was introduce the bill. Rather than attacking the media for doing its job, he should get on with his job of explaining his policies to voters. We understand political responsibility comes as a shock to the Greens. But that is the price of power.

Staring out the window at Siam Paragon.