THIS IS THE LAST GOODBYE
Coniston Graveyard, NSW, Australia
Fetched, the lyrical flow, if he could have caught it when it happened, but it was gone, stumbling down lonely streets, before he even had the chance to swipe it from the air. "The thing I don't understand about Australia, is, when did the wowsers win?" he asked.
"Political correctness won," came the answer from someone not in a position to know. Who had never been anywhere.
"You can't do anything anymore, you can't even make a noise."
Well that was the Christmas that had gone, and with it the circus.
Nothing he said held any resonance for anyone. They talked about things so mundane he couldn't even kick the gravel.
As if, as if, just in the air, out of the sky, out of universal acceptance, then came something that could touch them, the village, the feeling of being loved, appreciated, recognised. He had never belonged here, and now belonged here even less.
Subsumed into the circus, there was no place to go.
They had moved on to other prey, leaving a cold husk. And as he regrouped, for the umpteenth time, a cold pit, discomfort, filled his stomach. There was so much to do; and so little time; and yet in the delinquent glory, in the heroic dissolution that had been their past, these feats went unrecognised. They were never meant to be here; here in the future. And so he smiled; crossed his legs, didn't care anymore what they thought. If nothing else, he was done with hiding.
THE BIGGER STORY:
A generous car-buying incentive program has hit a major pothole in Thailand, which touts itself as the Detroit of Southeast Asia—presumably referring to the auto manufacturing, not crushing levels of government debt—in the latest in a string of questionable stimulus programs.
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The $2.5 billion car-buying scheme was similar to the US “cash for clunkers” plan, but without the clunkers—first-time buyers simply received a tax refund of up to $3,200 in an attempt to encourage lower-income Thais to buy domestically made cars.
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Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra launched the program after massive floods in 2011 hit the country’s auto industry. Thailand is a regional hub for many car companies, especially Japanese manufacturers such as Honda, Mitsubishi, and Toyota, and autos comprise 12% of the country’s GDP, and at first the plan seemed to work like gangbusters, with 2012 auto production skyrocketing 67% from the previous year.
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But the problem with encouraging low-income buyers is they often can’t make their car payments. Reuters reported this week that more than 100,000 new buyers have defaulted on their loans, with their cars seized by finance companies. With the resulting used-car glut and the absence of the subsidies, demand for new cars has cratered, threatening the very industry that the plan was meant to help.
LABOR'S blood feud between Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd is set to spill over into the literary arena as the former prime ministers pen their memoirs.
The poisonous rivalry between the two ex-Labor leaders is set to reignite: Ms Gillard confirmed her memoir - to be published in October 2014 - will comb her “political and personal journey”, and Mr Rudd is also shopping around plans for an autobiography
The Mandarin-speaking Mr Rudd - who was ousted by Ms Gillard in 2010, before returning as leader in June - is also hoping to have it published in China.
The prospect of duelling memoirs will not be welcomed by Labor MPs hoping they could bury the poisonous rivalry between the former PMs.
''We are about to start the 'history wars','' one Labor MP said.