Well, In The Beginning...

*

Stay, I'm burning slow
With me in the rain, walking in the soft rain
Calling out my name
See me burning slow

Brilliant days, wake up on brilliant days
Shadows of brilliant ways will change all the time
Memories, burning gold memories
Gold of day memories change me in these times

Somewhere there is some place, that one million eyes can't see
And somewhere there is someone, who can see what I can see

Someone, somewhere in summertime
Someone, somewhere in summertime
Someone, somewhere in summertime

Moments burn, slow burning golden nights
Once more see city lights, holding candles to the flame
Brilliant days, wake up on brilliant days
Shadows of brilliant ways will change me all the time

Somewhere there is some place, that one million eyes can't see
And somewhere there is someone, who can see what I can see

Someone, somewhere in summertime
Someone, somewhere in summertime
Someone, somewhere in summertime
Someone, somewhere in summertime
Someone, somewhere in summertime

Simple Minds.

And then, as if nothing had happened, on a high sandstone cliff, invincible, as if nothing in these tawdry streets could ever effect him, as if the distance was all that was ever meant. Glazed over. He swanned with every tiny gesture, he encouraged the forlorn swamps to reach up into the present, he sugested that causual tragedy lay behind every move. The adoption of a farce. He was cold and the flu was worse than ever, and ancestors had crouched in winter caves forever. And felt the same sense of confinement. He was bored and restless and sick of the cold. And on those high cliffs, where everyone could seek the truth, the shadows in the memory of the summer heat, the dark cold present, the distant drum beat, the thought disorder, all of it came back.

Things went wrong which should have been routine. Shuttup you slack c..., the 14-year-old boy shouted from the centre of his mates to the girls on the other side of the road. He waded through the gaggle of swearing and shouting children; a grey spectre, old, from a distant world. Where was the confident stride? They barely noticed him as they moved either side of him, like the bow of a ship. They should never have been that concerned. They shouldn't have tried to mount a rescue. He shouldn't have listened to his own conscience and tried to rescue others. They sat in circles. They pretended. He could hear their voices even now. When the whole city meant nothing and the villages of yore were nothing but trace memories, race memories. Different worlds. Distant worlds.

So he reached down and they chanted; just for today, oh gracious fog. Just for today wipe away the cobwebs and the glaze; and be forever cherished. Treat yourself as your friend, he said to the scrawny love-torn dyke after she had once more confessed to him. Girl-on-girl action, don't you love it, he teased, when love, nature, circumstance took hold and provided the love interest she so desperately needed. So desperate to grieve. So cavalier in fashion. So roasted in intent. Sometimes he barely knew what they were, these cascades? As he heard the wind blowing and the music emanating from the computer room. And he thought of solitary confinement; and he almost died. This was the destiny. Oh black heart.

So it was that he ccame to be on yet another precipice. The story of the man who had taken his wheelchair bound wife to the edge of the cliffs and pushed her over had been in all the papers. In those brooding dark mountains to the west of the city. They called them the blue mountains, because of the blue mist that hung over them from a distance, but in reality the dark wet canyons had frightened the indigenous people, and black spirits lived there still. He had taken her out, way past the road, the public lookout, the fence that so neatly protected people from the dizzying fall, as they looked out across the once drowned valleys full of prehistoric sounds, the man; and according to the courts had pushed her. He said it was an accident. It was a very unlikely accident.

But in every neighbouring house, in every neighbouring room, through thin simple walls and down infinitely tricky side walks, terrible things were happening. He was frightened, he was sickened, he could not face it; and instead slank back to the couch and the televison and ignored the cold winter glares. He cold see people falling apart up and down the street. He could track their slow demise almost by the day, the unlikely tales of their latest eccentricities, their hefty sessions at the beloved local. He watched them disintegrate like cars in slow motion; a brief segment of a soap opera he had been summoned to watch; and faced the same guilt as a war photographer: do I intervene?

THE BIGGER STORY:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/05/23/2578903.htm?section=justin

Most residents of the northern New South Wales town of Kempsey are fleeing the flooding as the Macleay River continues to rise.

The Bureau of Meteorology says major flooding in the town is expected to peak later this afternoon.

It says the Macleay River was near 10.9 metres at Georges Creek at 6:00am and rainfall of about 30 to 50mm is expected for the region today.

The latest evacuation order is for residents in the Kempsey CBD, Smithtown, Gladstone, Kinchela and Jerseyville.

SES controller Bev Davey says they began doorknocking residents at about 1:30am today and most residents are leaving.

"Houses are sand bagging... we have members of the RFS, the New South Wales fire brigade down there helping us at the moment," she said.

It has been a busy night for authorities, with residents being evacuated to Melville and West Kempsey schools.

The SES says remaining residents should leave their homes as soon as possible to risk congestion on roads.

At Woodburn, 160 people have been evacuated with flood peaks expected there and at Coraki today.

There is moderate to major flood warning for the Bellinger Valley, with the township of Bellingen still isolated.

Bill Ship from the Bellingen SES says with more rain forecast they are keeping a close watch on river levels at Bellingen and Thora.

A severe weather warning is current for mid north coast areas, while the bureau is also warning of damaging winds on Lord Howe Island.

The weather bureau says the flood threat is easing elsewhere on the north coast.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/8063409.stm

Few believed him when Sri Lanka's powerful defence secretary said he required three years to defeat the once invincible Tamil Tiger rebels.

When Gotabaya Rajapaksa made the assertion, the Tamil Tigers, or Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam [LTTE], controlled nearly one third of the country, had a well-organised, ruthless fighting unit, sufficient stocks of heavy weapons, a small navy and a rudimentary air force.

They had no problems of fresh supplies as they had enough resources pouring in from their supporters abroad and through their commercial ventures.

Only a handful of military analysts believed that the rebels could be wiped out completely.

Today, Sri Lanka is among the few nations that can say it has successfully quelled a nearly three-decade insurgency by military means.

The entire rebel-held territory has been captured, huge caches of weapons have been recovered and destroyed, and the entire Tamil Tiger leadership is thought to have been wiped out.

So what led to the military success of a force that had been at the receiving end for many years?

'No ambiguity'

"So many factors have contributed to the success of the Sri Lankan forces. There was a clear aim and mandate from the political level to the official level and to the military level to destroy the LTTE at any cost. There was no ambiguity in that," Gotabaya Rajapaksa told the BBC.

The rebels thought the international community, especially neighbouring India, would intervene looking at the civilian suffering
DBS Jeyaraj

When the current president, his brother Mahinda Rajapaksa, came to power in 2005, he made it clear that he would go all out against the rebels if they were not sincere in peace talks.

Once the peace process failed, he gave the go ahead for the war to his brother and the hard line army commander Gen Sarath Fonseka.

A massive recruitment drive for the armed forces was launched (it increased from about 80,000 to more than 160,000). New weapons, including fighter jets, artillery guns and multi-barrel rocket launchers were bought from countries like China, Pakistan and Russia and new military strategies and tactics were evolved.

"That was the time when the international community was totally disappointed with the rebels because of their insincerity in peace talks. So countries like India and the US gave their tacit support for the all-out offensive against the LTTE," says Sri Lankan analyst DBS Jeyaraj.

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,25525755-663,00.html

FEISTY pensioners used deck chairs to fight off Somali pirates who tried to hijack their cruise ship on the Indian Ocean, passengers and the vessel's owners say.

They sprang into action when pirates tried to board the MSC Melody off the Seychelles on April 25.
"Some passengers saw the pirates approaching and sounded the alarm. But the security guard had seen them already. The passengers were taken to their cabins, with lights off," Sarah Longbottom of MSC Cruises said.

"Mr and Mrs Rowlands were on the deck. Beryl Rowlands threw deck chairs at them," she said, adding that the ship had about 1000 passengers and 500 crew on board.

There were 74 Australians on the ship at the time.

No-one was injured in the incident, which came amid a surge in piracy off the coast of Somalia, where ransom-seeking pirates attacked more than 100 ship in 2008 and another 114 so far this year.

The owner of MSC Cruises, Gianluigi Aponte, praised the way the ship's crew and passengers dealt with the attack. "We are very proud that our crew proved to be able to promptly tackle the emergency," he said.

"At the moment of the attack, the ship was 600 nautical miles (1111 km) from the Somalian coast, in an area that is not considered dangerous, and 180 nautical miles (333 km) from Seychelles."

Ian and Jessie Moakes from Mansfield, central England, were on the MSC Melody to celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary.

"Some holidaymakers threw tables and chairs to repel the pirates," Moakes, 62, a retired police officer, told the Sun newspaper.

The Bondi Beach Hotel, photographed on dark while shivering on a pointless job.