THE PLACES FLED XV
A bench by Lake Illawara, NSW, Australia
Yes, he still felt haunted, but not driven, which was strange for him. All the torment of the soul had evaporated in sleep. He didn't understand why. There was no way out but through, all the old slogans came true in time. When in crisis, deal with what's in front of your face. Instead, he slept, heavy, formulaic dreams which went over and over old ground as if it would never end. Why do that to yourself? Because he had been haunted. Harassed, abused, bullied, but it wasn't up to him to claim victim status. Everything else just went south. But easy does it, closed nights, fervent, fervent hope, as if all was going to come crashing down. He was so sad at what had happened. But the biggest mistake had been the stupidest of all, to believe the world had not changed, that the smiling faces and welcoming attitudes of the 1970s would somehow have lasted into the 21st Century. To not understand that you were despised. To think you could find friends in a place which got more than 20 million tourists a year.
These mistakes were made by many other than himself. Thailand was the single most dangerous destination on Earth for foreigners. Yes, it was taking a while for him to recover; because his brain was filled with coagulated dreams. Because he didn't like being robbed any more than the next person. Because bullies, thiefs and mafia networks should not be foisted on tourists. Because the Land of Smiles was a lie. Because he had been personally hurt, and then jeered at for being hurt. And then here he was, bereft, perhaps, not his own person, a highway nearby. The truck drivers heading down the highway at all hours, radios on, their heads preoccupied with mundane things. In the sweep of everyhing, these were the quietest days. If there was any way out, he did not know what it was. And so he coalesced in a kind of wooden charm, making slow reparation. Against all that had been stolen, against his own mistakes. He smiled woodenly. There was no way out.
In the fragments of what had been, he stood and worked. I couldn't see any doom and gloom in this wooden place. These thoughts, unexpected, strange, as they had always been, he kept to himself. There wasn't any use saying what was really going on. Coaelescing in a brain storm. Carrying past acreage. Flapping at ghosts, as if they were persistent summer flies. Still these dreams kept recycling, although their origins were far gone. So that's therapy? they thought, and laughed. "You crazy." How often had they called him that. No respect. There had been no respect. So he had given them an eyefull, looked terrible, given them a record. These pointless, useless, stupid things; as the Thais scurried to cover their own thieving, their own stupidity. Their own calow, shallow, nasty stealing. How much they had cost, for so little. But that was them, they were always scamming.
That tourists should be protected from tourist scams was an obvious thing. But no action was taken. The police were corrupt. The politicians tainted with the same stupid bravado that infested everything else. They would come to meaning, they would come to dawn. Forgive him, oh Lord, he know not what he say. And equally lost, equally treacherous, swimmling like that famous Australian fish the flathead, in the estuaries, his skin almost perfectly camouflaged, the sun dappling through the shallow water, lighting up the sand. You had to peer very closely, just to see the old monster. Perhaps he spewed forth diatribes when disturbed, but they were mental loops retaining to old flesh, not wise but crafty. It did no good to be wise down here. Sometimes giants walked through the playground, wading in the shallows by the side of the lake. Very occasionally, a few times a year, he would have to swim out of the way. The rest of the time he lay there, watching the antics of his ancestors. There could be no wiser, quieter path, than to stay hidden. That he knew above all. And then, one day, after he had been sleeping, he woke to see a giant standing over him, and could see a net pushing through the water towards him. And he wasn't invisible anymore.
THE BIGGER STORY:
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/no-end-to-the-bill-shock-for-shorten/story-e6frf7jo-1226747830640
TO celebrate his 50 days since winning the election, Tony Abbott made a special meal - of "Electricity Bill" Shorten.
What the Prime Minister did last weekend to the Opposition Leader in just one sentence should terrify Labor. He put a label on Shorten that will stick like Tarzan's Grip, reminding voters Shorten is keeping power bills too high by stopping Abbott in the Senate from scrapping the carbon tax.
"That's what people will be thinking every time their power bill comes in until the carbon tax goes - that's Electricity Bill who's responsible," Abbott said.
Labor's fantasy then shattered.
Since the election, Shorten and Labor have kidded themselves that they lost government just by being bastards to each other - that whole Rudd and Gillard thing.
Otherwise, they'd done a great job.
Truly.
You'd think politicians couldn't be in such denial after such a hiding - Labor winning just 55 seats to the Coalition's 90.
But hear it from Labor Senate leader Penny Wong: "We did not lose government because we didn't manage the economy well ... We have been held to account for our disunity."
Hear this same magic mushroom talk from Senator Doug Cameron: ''I think we lost the election through disunity". Same from Anthony Albanese, who ran against Shorten for the leadership: "You do get marked down when there's a perception or reality of disunity".
And Shorten, when he beat Albanese, kept feeding that folly. He spelled out not one change he'd make to Labor other than this: he'd have "zero tolerance for disunity".
It's all madness, of course. Rudd was not sacked by his colleagues in 2010 because they were suddenly disloyal. He was sacked because of what had made them disloyal - his chaotic leadership and dud policies that had Labor support in free fall.
The public had suddenly seen through this monstrously vain man who'd squandered so much money and trust. (Remember Grocery Watch, Fuel Watch, "the greatest moral challenge", the boats, the school halls?)
Same with Gillard. If she'd been a good leader, there would have been no disloyalty. No Rudd.
In fact, she was catastrophically bad and politically poisonous. She broke promises, wasted even more billions, blew the Budget, and bungled everything from border policy to cattle exports.
And of all her policies, none cost her more than the carbon tax - both a needless cost and a broken promise. A symbol of Labor's green extremism and its deceit.
Disloyalty didn't kill Labor. Bad leadership and bad policies did.
But Labor is now so arrogant, so bloated with moral self-importance, that it refuses to admit it's selling what few voters want to buy.
True, Shorten, on winning the leadership at least conceded Labor had made mistakes. But he spelled out none and embraced the worst.
He praised the National Broadband Network, which the Coalition will soon expose as a financial disaster worse than most critics warned.
He also stuck by the national disability insurance scheme, which threatens to become a bank-breaking bureaucratic and welfare nightmare.
Worst of all, Shorten insisted "it's important to maintain a price on carbon pollution". I know Shorten is stuck. If he drops the carbon tax, either as a fixed or floating price, many green-worshipping Labor voters will have his guts for garters.
That wouldn't matter so much if Labor's idiotic new leadership rules didn't now give members half the say in who leads them.
But if Shorten sticks by a carbon price he will be savaged at the next election. Abbott's blast on Saturday was just the first salvo.
How could Shorten possibly go to an election promising to bring back a tax that Abbott will by then have scrapped with the help of next year's new Senate?
Vote for Electricity Bill.
Did Abbott help fool Labor into thinking it could get away with this?
In his first 50 days, Abbott has done comparatively little media, and kept his ministers fairly mute. He's not been overtly political, preferring to send voters the message he's too busy getting on with running things.
Labor might have hoped it could then be the hound and Abbott the hare. It would attack, Abbott defend.
But last weekend something changed. Abbott savaged Shorten for the first time since the election, revealing he still can be the damaging streetfighter he was in Opposition.
Labor must now know it cannot dodge the debate it's refused to have since its defeat. How can it drop the carbon tax and walk from the green faith that ruined two prime ministers and made Labor seem dictatorial?
What new causes should it take up to prove it's still the party for idealists? This is serious work, and Shorten, a smart man, can do it. Electricity Bill cannot. Â
Velvet Underground rocker Lou Reed dies at 71
Updated 7 minutes ago
PHOTO: Lou Reed was considered one of the most influential people in rock music. (AFP: Jose Jordan)
RELATED STORY:Â Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson to curate Vivid
American rock pioneer Lou Reed, whose band the Velvet Underground became one of the most influential in rock by fusing art and music in collaboration with artist Andy Warhol in 1960s New York, has died aged 71.
The singer-songwriter, whose best-known hits included Perfect Day and Walk On The Wild Side, was considered one of the most influential people in rock music.
Music magazine Rolling Stone describes the Velvet Underground as the most influential American rock band of all time.
The band rose to prominence by fusing art and music in 1960s' New York through its collaboration with artist Andy Warhol.
The Velvet Underground never achieved much commercial success, but revolutionised rock in the 1960s and 70s with a mixture of thrashing guitar licks and smooth melodies sung by Reed or the sultry German model Nico, who briefly collaborated with the band at Warhol's insistence.
The band has long been recognised as a major musical influence on punk and art rock, as reflected in a quote often attributed to musician Brian Eno that, "The first Velvet Underground album only sold 10,000 copies, but everyone who bought it formed a band."
An admitted hard drinker and drug user for many years, Reed underwent a liver transplant earlier this year at the Cleveland Mayo Clinic, his wife, Laurie Anderson, told The Times of London, after he had cancelled five California concert dates scheduled in April.
"I am a triumph of modern medicine," Reed posted on his website on June 1, 2013, without directly acknowledging the transplant.
"I look forward to being on stage performing, and writing more songs to connect with your hearts and spirits and the universe well into the future."
Reed's cause of death has not been released.
Online tributes have been pouring in on social media after a message sent earlier in the day on Reed's twitter and Facebook pages read simply "The Door."
More to follow.
ABC/Reuters