UNrepresentative

Was it not Hill who isolated the UN and worked with the US to invade Iraq ... and who partly bears the responsibility for the horror and destruction that continues there today?

Am I right in understanding Robert Hill has just been appointed to the UN as Australia's representative??? What's next? Will we be appointing arsonists to run the fire brigade?

The PM Doesn't Apoligise

For those who enjoyed the film entitled The Yes Men, the latest censorship controversay will cause a chuckle. The Prime Minister's Office has ordered a shut down of a satirical site set up to copy the Prime Ministers site at www.johnhowardpm.org. The site published Mr Howards deepest apology for Australia's involvement in Iraq. A pdf of the page shouldn't be missed and can be read at The Age.

Incurable 2

A good book hangs with you like walking through a sticky spider web. Something has stuck and despite the attempt to brush it away every action wraps it further around you. John Marsden's incurable has stuck.

Ellie is faced with a decision like no other. Gavin has fallen down a cliff and clings perilously to an earth mound. It won't hold him for long. He will eventually loose his grip or the earth will break away. Either eventuality will lead to the same outcome. As Ellie looks down she suddenly reaches a new understanding ...

'At some point I realised what was happening. All those stories on the news about drownings ... so often it seemed like one person would get into trouble, be carried out to sea by the rip, and one or two or even three others would jump in to save him, men usually: fathers and uncles and brothers, who could not swim and knew they could not swim, but in their hearts was another knowledge, that they could not stand and watch, they had to be with the person in the water and share whatever was coming to them.'

Quick Thoughts and Questions ...

• Is this a story of the incarnation?
• Does the response to the horror of the immediate outweigh the suffering of the loved ones that are left behind?
• Perhaps love is revealed as the saving grace?

Playing Pokies Invite

The members of the Church of All Nations have exchanged coffee cups for scripts. Here's your chance to catch a glimpse of their talents.

Incurable

I've just finished Incurable: the Ellie Chronicles by John Marsden. Heres a great excerpt.

'For the first time he told me his own stories. I remember writing quite recently about how stories give you an identity. In some ways they give you your life. You think you're a big lump of skin and bones and blood adn organs and cells, an of course you are, but you're also a big lump of stories. You know those pictures they have in butchers' shops showing how sheep and cattle are divided into rump and blade and so on? They should have another one, in bedrooms maybe, showing humans divided into the stories of their early childhood, the stories of their primary school days, the stories of their birthdays and Christmases, the stories of their friendships, and so on.

If you know someone's stories, you know them. If you don't know their stories, you don't know them.'

Perhaps that'as what I miss most about living in Melbourne, people who know my story and the knowing of other's stories.