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These are the first pictures from Australian airspace of Indonesia’s front-line jet fighter, the Sukhoi SU-30, four of which landed at Darwin’s RAAF base earlier today to take part in Exercise Pitch Black 2012.

If, in the Crowd, there’s one who’s not forgot me,
If there’s one, perhaps who asks how I am,
Say I’m alive, but deny that I am well: That I’m even alive is a gift from a God.
(Ovid, thanks to Paul Kelly via Chips Mackinolty)

I can’t think of a single incident in the past in which the Warlpiri residents of Yuendumu have not respected non-Warlpiri residents’ neutrality in such matters. They respect our right to be kept out of it. This respect is not reciprocated by “mainstream” society, that has the arrogant belief that it is entitled to interfere and dictate to remote Aboriginals how they should live their lives. The Intervention epitomises this arrogance.

Two years ago Kevin Rudd, in what appears to have now faded into a largely symbolic apology to Aboriginal Australia, told the nation that: …symbolism is important but, unless the great symbolism of reconciliation is accompanied by an even greater substance, it is little more than a clanging gong. It is not sentiment that makes [...]

Maybe the last word on what “fake”, “authentic” and “genuine” all mean should be left to ADC’s Tony Athaniou. Athaniou told Yuko Narushima and Joel Gibson of The Age that: “The thing is there’s various interpretations of authentic. Authentic to me means that it is hand-painted.” “Ubanoo is not a real name, it’s a pseudonym for the artist to paint that style.” “The fake or misleading advertising I’ve been doing is for an artist who doesn’t even exist.”

Will, as Penenberg suggests, groups like “Speak English or Piss Off”, “Fuck Off, We’re Full” and “Mate speak English, you’re in Australia now” continue to grow like virtual weeds across the internet? This rapid growth may well be an accident of science or nature, may have been a total surprise to those behind these Facebook pages or may just be an incident of either the inherent virality of Facebook or of the content at these sites.

No-one in NT Chief Minister’s Henderson’s now-marginal, single-seat majority government has the intellectual or moral wit, rigour or vigour to think outside of the prevailing assimilationist paradigm that now runs in Australia’s management of indigenous affairs.

What does distinguish the members of the so-called outlaw motorcycle gangs from the general population are the strong bonds of loyalty and trust between fellow club members in particular and to others that share their lifestyle more generally – some might argue that these are admirable qualities that the rest of us could use more of.