May, 2011

According to the Shitbox Rally organisers “it isn’t a race”. But from what I saw over these two days last week some of the contestants thought that the Stuart Highway was their own personal dragstrip. Throw in – as on this past Thursday – a setting sun drilling straight through your bug-encrusted windscreen, more than a few triple-trailer road-trains and the plague-locust army of caravans – travelling at 80 km/h – that infests the Stuart Highway at this time of year and it can be a positively dangerous stretch. Particularly for those – such as most of the Shitboxers – that have never driven the road before.

National Sorry Day is on Thursday 26th of May – The slogan for this years event is ‘SORRY. Still Living On Borrowed Time’.

Mr. Justice Mukesh R. Shah: “Nobody has a right to inflict pain or suffering to others inclusive of the animals and birds. Even birds can not be kept in cages by which they suffer a pain. To keep birds in cages would tantamount to illegal confinement of the birds which is in violation of right of the birds to live in free air / sky. It is the fundamental right of the bird to live freely in the open sky.” As stated above, it is the duty of every citizen to see that there is no unnecessary pain or suffering to any animal or bird,”

I think that this building stands alone as being a thing of absolute beauty. After a while you lose the other buildings crowded around it, instead being drawn to the subtle and ever-changing play of light on the stainless steel walls.

These are of the guests at a wedding…I missed the event itself but these were taken in the (very) early hours of last Saturday morning. Your thoughts are, as ever, welcome.

I gave up attending conferences without presenting at them a long time ago and this year I’m giving two presentations tomorrow in a session dedicated to ethnoornithology and titled “Birds in historical, cultural & archaeological context” where we will “examine birds and human culture in a variety of contexts, including birds, humans and fire, birds and archaeology and what happens when birds, birders and sacred and ancient grounds meet.”

A guy came in here from the Navy the other day and…I asked him if they’d taught him how to stop these from going off…and I handed it to him like this. He looked at me…for a split second his training crept in and he goes like “You’ve just given me a bomb”

“With my small pocket camera I managed to film young people protesting against Ben Ali. To be able to photograph such things was impossible in the past. I also had the opportunity to join people calling for Ben Ali’s removal. The people’s demands were simple. We Australians take a lot of those simple demands for granted – like free elections and freedom of expression. Tunisians have never enjoyed such freedoms and were not used to being in a position to even demand such things.”