Death Penalty

A day of sadness and shame for the Asian-Oceanian region

There is surely no excuse for a a modern state: Asian,  European , African, American....and certainly not Oceanian...to support the death penalty

On a day when we are all concerned about the heaving casualties of great human tragedy in Nepal....our hearts are opened to  "a country like this......a  city like this" .
Our common humanity should remind us that we are citizens of a Common World. where  it is convenient to suggest we are privileged to live in security.

We will forget most likely about Sukumaran and Chan, executed this morning in Indonesia,......the stupid boys who became men in prison and then were slaughtered.

While there is some evidence to suggest that the 'ordinary' Australian community still has a hefty proportion of people who think it's OK to execute people.....if nothing else good has come out of this latest injustice in Indonesia it is that Australian political will appears to have been galvanised.
 against the death penalty. Equally well there is a serious issue about the way popular media has or has not aggravated this situation

One moderate commentator said this morning when the argument that "they had been rehabilitated" was again being put forward....'Well they were not there to be rehabilitated but to be......." and the conversation sort of tailored off.
I presume he was going to say punished!
Having been to Gaol in the last couple of weeks (here) I tried to talk about the process of reconciliation that the modern gaol is supposed to be on about. Mobilong Gaol seems to be doing pretty well in rehabilitating others.

Gaol is not just about punishment....though that is legitimate....we also should be about rehabilitation.

Both Chan and Sukumaran  appear to have been seriously and wonderfully rehabilitated...almost against all odds... there seems little reason to think that this is anything but genuine.

There are bigger questions too:  China continues to be the biggest executor . Dare we confront this powerful trading partner
The US, our most powerful ally,  is the most shameful and strident country participating in executions.  Where is our criticism of them?

There is much more to be said about this.

There she blows!

The State Opera Company's production of Jake Heggie's Moby Dick was truly amazing. (There are only two more performances if you can then do go and see it)
I always know when we go inside the Festival Theatre how fortunate we are to have such a facility.
But, in this electronic age it is also the effects and the staging that is the 'hero'.
The picture above is of the whaling boats and is essentially an electronically projected image. It allows all sort of things to be done on stage which could otherwise never happen. And someone actually asked me today if I felt seasick. And ion the great climactic scene at the end I swear I did.
The music is not melodic, but is powerful and rich. The ASO were truly excellent.
The  (all but one) male chorus were excellent...and drawn essentially from local talent it makes you proud. Their sound was phenomenally coherent and deeply moving .


For once, too, the story made sense which is more than you can say for most of the film versions of the novella. I suppose it seemed to me that it's about heaven and hell here on earth (or at sea in this case), about how we are driven and how we drive others. Rivetting stuff.
I think everyone who has seen it has been affected (two people in front of us left at half time). I found myself wondering about how all this fits in with the great tragedies that the world faces at this time. The famines, the wars, the imminent climate collapse....and of course whales are ever close to us as a sign of man's inability to grapple with creation
Yet some how art interprets life so profoundly that we all know that we need it to stay alive.

And so it passes

People seem to have spent the last year saying "Where has this year gone?", and here we are on New Years' Eve.

On this day last year I blogged about the price of petrol complaining that it had gone up from $1.18 to $1.33...I note that this year it appears to have been an even greater leap to $1.39. Being blamed on the Northern cold snap. I remain unconvinced now, as I did then, "that local petrol stations can act so responsively to international fluctuations"

In January 2010 the unsexy country of Haiti had an awful earthquake, there was awful flooding in Pakistan and of course there was the usual drivel from the meanest amongst us in this 'lucky country' that we should give to our own. I asked then, as I ask now "n the end that human/religious principle... do to others what you want to have done to you....

might cause us to ask what we would like others to do for us if we were subject to earthquake, flood or fire."

Today, indeed, to the north some of us this day will have the awful catastrophe of flood, while in SA it is a 'catastrophic' fire day.

I suspect that the meanies will find an excuse to not give to those either

During February I managed to blog from Adelaide Airport, Singapore Airport, Bangkok, the Phi Phi Islands, Phuket and then again in Singapore. Good trip.

In March we had a State Election...the first of a number of elections, making us a bit testy and bored with the process. I wondered if God had an opinion on who should win (other than, of course, simply agreeing with me).

ANZAC Day 2010 came in a year when there seemed to have been death after death of our servicemen ( and indeed of countless others) in theatres of war. I noted that the ''great" thing about the Great War was that a number of young poets, many like Wilfred Owen killed in action, challenged the glorification of war naming it rather as what old men require of young men. A shocking thing for the Empire.

One of a number of theatre/music highlights of the year was the visit of Ute Lemper, it is always amazing to see performers who are world class. W& J who were also there didn't think it was very good. Sarah and I thought she was amazing. Also Patricia Piccinini's "Big Mother" in the Art Gallery of SA is an amazing sculpture which was well worth the visit.

There was a running debate in all sorts of fora (not over by any means) about the place and relationship of science, art and religion.I don't for the life of me see why these things are mutually exclusive.

There were of course lots of religious stories. Some show that the church can be just ridiculous (see here). And some like the saga of the Murray Diocese which show it is just really, really sad (here ) Our own Bishop works a little too hard and struggles with us as people. I hope he has a productive time away from the Diocese for a few months.

And...we survived. Yes after a rather bloody transition, Australia woke up to find it had not only a woman Prime Minister. But also a 'ranga'

And of course, amongst other things in August, I couldn't resist the temptation to blog about the irrationality of petrol prices again.

I began to feel in the latter part of the year that blogging was getting to be a bit of hard work. So I do apologise to those of you who come back and keep on reading. I am taken aback that you are all over the world, and in all sorts of places and positions.

The cold winter almost killed me this year . Which might explain why I started to endlessly glog about flowers and tomatoes (here and here and here). I think I had lost a little too much weight. Some days I just couldn't get warm. This is not the case since Christmas when I have put on a 'couple' of kilos.

My mother would have been 90 in November. I was going to go and visit her grave but in the end I didn't get there. But we all remember her fondly, as indeed we do our father.

And so the year has gone. A lot of talk about same-sex marriage, and a different-sex marriage in our family have given us much pause for thought about that august institution. I still consider myself to be 'married' even though my wife and I no longer live together. I still wear my ring, and don't consider I am at liberty to enter into another marriage relationship. Should the time come when this situation has to change then I will have to do something more than just go to the Family Law Court which, after all, cannot dispense with my religious vows.

The refugee issue continues to haunt our island nation. It is profoundly confronting. But like most things there are good news stories too!

Happy New Year to us all!

Art, science and religion

Tory Shepherd seems to suggest in the press today that everything should be explained by science. I don’t essentially have any problem with scientists testing the veracity of certain religious claims (if that’s what turns them on). I do have certain issues with propositions like those of Ms Shepherd which seem to suggest that everything can be explained by science, that in itself is essentially a logically unverifiable statement. We simply don’t live in a world that is only scientific, the great works of art are not just scientific constructs.
At some points painters, composers, sculptors, poets and writers can touch the humanity of another person in a way that transcends science. Who would would want the world to be anything less?
I love science and I love art. They are not mutually exclusive.

Oh Mother!

I am not a visual art person so I am always pleased when I do seem to get it. A little diversion into the SA Art Gallery on Sunday last gave me the opportunity to see Patricia Piccinini's "Big Mother".

This curious work is of an ape-like creature nursing a human baby.

It is strangely seductive, with a deep, deep sadness about it.

We are told it is about the whole area of the cross over between the species, but also of orphaned apes being looked after by humans.

I was just profoundly surprised by how deeply disturbing I found this. If you get the chance go and see it.

See, Look, Perceive

I spent last evening on retreat (as I will do on Wednesday and Friday). Called "Glimpses of Glory" and led by Peter Randle who is the artist-in-residence for the Prospect City Council (one of his works here).
Peter invited us to just pay some attention with our eyes. It is always worth noting that when we actually stop to do this sort of thing that we realise that for most of the time we see and hear nothing.

Seeing we do not see, and hearing we do not hear

as one of those old prophets put it.
So today (for half an hour at least...before I forget) I will try to pay more attention

World Music

The phenomenon that is WOMAD, or World Music Adelaide has begun to unfold tonight. Indeed Adelaide is in the grips of Fringe Fever and Music Fever, almost too much to bear.
The Big Boss (His Archepiscopiensis) said to me tonight (he who grew up in the sticks of NSW where it is cooooold oh so coooold, and who lived in Canberrra where the cold night frosts freeze even the brass monkeys...well that's another question....and then went to be Bishop of Gippsland...WHAT land? I hear you say. A beautiful but rugged land of hard working people in a rough, rough climate......ask the fishermen)...well any way he said to me...how long can you go on having such perfect days?
Ahhh Yes I said as I looked far away (thinking of Europe in 7 weeks time), this foreigner has stumbled on the South Australian secret. God herself dwells here. So she caresses the days of March with warmth but chills the night and the early morn, even the washing is damp on the line. And then, lest we forget, this continues to ANZAC day.
So this guy, you know the purple one, he's discovered the secret. It's fantastic here.
Amidst the season of perfect weather we festivalise. Arts, Fringe, Womad...so it goes on.
Back to world music. I was interested in a comment Andrew Ford made last year..."Why does music have to be easy to listen to?". Since then I have tried to allow music to challenge me more.
One of my good parishioners, Peter, got this immediately. Good thing that you are Peter, and sagacious with it. So it may be drums, or African, or Chronos/Kronos Quartet...Flat on your Bacharach or New Guinea Tribal.....let it infuse you. If we get the import of music, I suspect we get close to the import of life.