No Smoking Please - Part II

It has been about five weeks since I was a regular smoker - or at least smoking at regular events (wednesday night trivia, Friday nights, saturday nights). I have caved a few times in the last few weeks (my sisters wedding, a horrendous Friday afternoon, a stolen smoke on a Wednesday) but have generally been a good lass and stayed away from the dirty butts.

Today is Friday. Joy of the week, knowing that from 6pm tonight I will have 48 hours to do as I please with no commitments that entail the word work.

But it also means I have 48 hours to deny myself the long enjoyed pleasure of relaxing with a beer and a ciggerette. Even the thought of having a beer on the weekend makes me crave one. I'm not sure its actually the nicotine that I crave, but the experience. I know that when I have my next ciggerette I will hate the first one, but the second one wont be so bad, and by the third one I will have lost my taste buds again anyways.

There is nothing worse than temptation. And the only thing that gets rid of temptation is fulfilling it. Am I to be unfulfilled for the rest of my life? When will this annoying craving for a ciggerette go away? I have beat the habit, except for when it requires a drink with friends (who still smoke)... Can you die from temptation?

Cutting the Queue

"We don't want to develop a reputation of having a two-tier immigration system - one tier for legal, law-abiding immigrants who patiently wait to come to the country, and a second tier who seek to come through the back door, typically through the asylum system. We need to do a much better job of shutting the back door of immigration for those who seek to abuse that asylum system."

- Canada's Immigration Minister Jason Kenney read from the same script as the Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. -


Australia (and the rest of the world) stood by and watched (ignored) the genocide of the Tamil people in Sri Lanka for about twenty years. A colleague of mine, Tamil born, began to actively protest the war. The genocide of his people. At first, I thought it a bit strange, a war in Sri Lanka? What's he talking about... The war had gone on so long that the media stopped reporting it. Not only because of the length of time (and loss of public interest) but also becuase of the media black out the Sri Lanka government held over the country. The media had nothing to report, and so didn't. The war was ended in the middle of this year... the Sri Lanka government won, apparently killing the Tamil Tigers leader, and keeping the Tamil people in refugee (prison) camps. All those 'stray' bombs that landed on these camps had nothing to do with the governmetn (apparently). With the war ended, so did the media coverage. Until now, when suddenly the great wash decends on our hallowed shores. People seeking a place to live, so that they dont become a number on the list of victims of the Sir Lankan armies tally. And we, the 'chosen' are saying 'NO!'.

Why? What gives us the right - invaders and land takers from the beginning - to say No to these people who are starving, who are living in squalor and filth, with no medical care, no homes, no humanity!

I understand there is a process, you have to apply for citizenship, you have to go on a waiting list. But, a person coming from Britain, with skills, money and experience, is more likely to call Australia home before a person from Sri Lanka, who has no 'skills' or money. Who only has the clothes on their back, and their family, or what is left of it.

Australia and the rest of the world stood by and watched. Now they are seeing the results of the catastrophe affecting their way of life. I think some sort of pennance is due.

Redundancy

Redundancy.


The word brings images of bankers filing out of big office buildings, with suitcase and a box of personal belongings at the end of 2008. The collapse of Lehman Bros. was big news, and many companies fell, or balanced on the wire with one foot, with them. The Global Financial Crises aka GFC was born, with acronym and doom.

Newspapers spouted updates on the demise, documentig the hoards of people put out of work. Everyone read it in the paper, and then knew someone who knew someone that had been laid off. Soon, it was your friend, your family. Closer still your lover or your husband. Sometimes, it was yourself.

The economist blamed bad debt. Blue-collared-workers and out-of-work-ers blamed greed. Some blamed technology. One suspects, it was a combination of all three.

Technology.

It has also been the instigator of another form of redundancy. The printed word. The book. The newspaper. The Trading Post. The Street Directory. Many newspapers have gone out of business in the USA, some also in Australia. The Trading Post, the icon of Australian second hand selling/ buying/ bargain hunting is now online only. The UBD has been sold off. The Book, now available for free downloading, where out of copyright, you buy book readers instead of books, or iPhones, or iTouches...

As a library worker, and long time lover of the written word, the book shall be missed. Instead of getting dog ears, and bent spines, the worst fear of the reader will be an incomplete download, or file corruption. You will no longer lose books, but can just copy for friends or refer them to the original free download page. Reading in the dark after bedtime just became easier for teenagers under their covers, without fear of being caught, or running out of torch battery.
Technology has brought many wonderful, amazing (stupid) ideas to our world and everyday life. The calculator enables us to not have to use our brain, the computer enables us to not have to write. Lights limit house fires. Telephones mean long distance relationships and 24/7 contact with loved ones.

It makes one wonder if in twenty years times someone will watch The Castle and wonder at the hard copy Trading Post the same way we view the telegraph, or the horse-drawn carriages in movies from the early twentieth century. If a person sitting snugly on a couch reading a book will take a few minutes for the audience to work out "Ah, that must be a book, I wonder how they ever got by back then..."