Crux - the Southern Cross

My original thought for naming this blog Southern Exposure was that since I’ve spent almost my entire life in the northern hemisphere and I’m moving to Australia and spending an extended time in South America, it would be my exposure to the southern half of the planet.

My TPunk friend Nick suggested a similar name that I liked even better…so I’m now calling it a southern crossing.  It makes sense since I’m traveling from Argentina to Australia.  The Southern Cross is also a famous constellation, visible year-round in the southern hemisphere.  It features prominently in flags of Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, and a few provinces of Argentina.  And it has cultural significance to Argentine Gauchos, the Maori, and the Aborigines:

A tradition that is widespread in Australia is that of the “Emu in the Sky”, a ‘constellation‘ that is defined by dark nebulas (opaque clouds of dust and gas in outer space) that are visible against the milky way background, rather than by stars. The Emu’s head is the very dark Coalsack nebula, next to the Southern Cross; the body and legs are other dark clouds trailing out along the Milky Way to Scorpius.

Cool.  Thanks Nick!  I like it.

Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman get romantic under a big Australian sky.

(20^th Century Fox) Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman, Brandon Walters, David Wenham, Jack Thompson, Bryan Brown, David Gulpilil. Directed by Baz Luhrmann

The land down under is equal parts mystery and intrigue to American audiences. Beautiful beyond description, her history is more or less ignored here in the States. Most of us know little about the land and the history of Australia beyond what we’ve seen in the Crocodile Dundee movies.

Lady Ashley (Kidman), an English noblewoman, has taken the long journey to Australia to discover the truth to the rumors about her husband, who it has been said is philandering. He is in Oz to run a cattle ranch called Faraway Downs. He is in direct competition with a cattle baron named King Carney (Brown) for a government contract with the English Army. It is 1939, after all, and World War II has just begun and the English Army will need beef and plenty of it.

When she arrives, she finds that her husband is freshly murdered and that she is now in charge of a cattle ranch that is larger than some European countries. When she dismisses Fletcher (Wenham) for cruelty to the aboriginal staff, particularly a young boy named Nullah (Walters) she finds herself in a terrible position.

The prim and terribly English Lady Ashley is an afternoon tea, croquet on the front lawn sort of gal, totally ill-equipped to deal with the rough and tumble Australian cattle industry. Although most of the English in Darwin are urging her to sell the ranch to Carney, she realizes if she can get the 1500 head of cattle to Darwin she might still save the ranch. Without any experienced hands to drive the cattle, she enlists Drover (Jackman), a roguish sort who is at first skeptical of their chances but despite the best efforts of Fletcher (who now works for Carney) to torpedo them, they get the cattle to market and win the contract.

Ashley and Drover are also falling for one another despite all the odds against them. She prevails upon him to manage the ranch which he does reluctantly, leaving from time to time to earn money driving cattle. In the meantime, Nullah has also won her affections but he spends much of his time dodging the authorities who want to remove him to a missionary home, a common practice in Australia until 1973. His grandfather, King David (Gulpilil) who is also the man accused wrongfully of murdering Lady Ashley’s late husband, wants him to explore the aboriginal side of his culture and he’s torn between the two worlds.

But as in most epic love stories, the real world intervenes. The Japanese are preparing to invade Australia and Darwin will be the target of a massive bombing raid. Can Lady Ashley survive the Japanese bombs and keep her unique family together?

Director Baz Luhrmann, a proud Aussie, is both meticulous and avant garde in his filming. While he has done critically acclaimed movies like Moulin Rouge and William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet (neither of which I’m terribly fond of by the way), he has gone in a completely different direction here. He stated that he wanted to make the Australian Gone with the Wind and there are certainly elements of that here. One can’t fault him for his ambition.

The problem with ambition is that sometimes it leads to a lack of focus. Luhrmann has quite the stew here, with elements from all sorts of genres; westerns, war movies, romances, historical epics, social dramas and comedies. As nice as all of those things are, sometimes too many tastes can ruin a stew. It takes a deft hand to blend all that together and from time to time, Luhrmann shows he has that hand. There are other times when the mix can be overwhelming.

He does make a great use of the Australian countryside; you get a real taste of the vastness of the land there. It’s also refreshing to get a glimpse into a place in history that is rarely seen by American moviegoers. In all honesty I can’t say I’m all that familiar with Australian history and while this is a fictional piece, some of the elements here are historically accurate.

Given that the romance plays a central part of the film, the leads have to have chemistry. Fortunately, both Kidman and Jackman are appealing and do have the kind of romantic chemistry needed to make the movie work overall. Wenham and Brown make fine villains, and Gulpilil, who savvy moviegoers might remember from 1971’s Walkabout is a fine actor who is seen all too rarely these days.

The juvenile actor Walters is fair enough but he is used far too much here. He is meant to be the bridge between the aboriginal and white worlds but he narrates the movie and shows up in nearly every scene. A little less kid goes a long way.

While I’ve never been a big Baz Luhrmann fan I did quite enjoy this one. It’s got many of the qualities that I love about big, grand big-screen movies. This is the kind of movie that you can sit down happily, munch your popcorn and drink your soda and be transported to another place. If that isn’t the reason they invented movies, I don’t know what else for.

WHY RENT THIS: Depicts a period and place in history that Americans aren’t that familiar with. Leads, particularly Jackman, are appealing. Use of Australian scenery is compelling.

WHY RENT SOMETHING ELSE: Walters is overused and sometimes derails the movie. The film is too much of a mish-mash; part Western, part war movie, part epic, part social commentary.

FAMILY VALUES: A little bit of sex, a little bit of language, a whole lot of violence and child endangerment.

TRIVIAL PURSUIT: Stock footage from the 1970 war film Tora! Tora! Tora! was used for the scenes depicting the Japanese attack on Darwin.

NOTABLE DVD EXTRAS: The DVD has no special features although a special edition is expected eventually; the Blu-Ray does have a feature that compares the events in the movie to actual Australian history, utilizing archival footage.

FINAL RATING: 6/10

TOMORROW: Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby

Behind the house in Missouri, www.carolineallen.com

In the following blog, I use tarot to explore spiritual issues facing the world today. Today’s blog is about difficult visits with family over the holidays. I know many people have loving holiday visits, but the cards I pulled approach the process as a difficult one. The assumption is that if your holiday visit is loving and wonderful, you wouldn’t need to consult the tarot for clarity.

Here’s reading:
When a person has been doing spiritual and healing work for years, how do they approach being with family over the holidays when that family 1) sees the old you and not the new and 2) isn’t doing spiritual or healing work as often or deeply as you are (or not at all). How are you supposed to act, when who you are, who you’ve become, just doesn’t seem to fit anymore?

The cards pulled are listed at the end of this blog.

We all know we revert to being a child when we’re around relatives. Accept that, but also ask yourself: How can I act like an adult? What could I do that would reveal the new more spiritual and by extension more loving me? When a conversation comes up that seems negative, what can I say that’s positive? How can I steer the conversation to love?

Know that the people around you are going through their own lives, their own difficulties, their own disappointments, and do not add to their burdens by judging them. Don’t be a narcissist…some spiritual work seems to turn people into self obsessed do-gooders. There are other people in the room. Extend yourself into their lives. Don’t just think of yourself and your own heightened spirituality. Think about them. Go up to them. Ask about their work and kids. From this spiritually healed place you believe yourself to be in, give of yourself.

Create an altar space in the room you’ll be sleeping in. This doesn’t have to be obvious. Objects like favorite stones, a photograph, a luxurious piece of fabric are fine, especially if you feel your Quan Yin statue might not go over well. Set up a little space in the room where you’re staying, so that when you go to bed at night and wake up in the morning, you’ll see a piece of yourself there. This will evoke home. The home of your soul.

Meanwhile, if you’re being triggered, keep a journal. Call it a Journal of Honesty. Vent. Scream. Bitch. Kvetch. Be honest with yourself about what’s bothering you. Let it rip. Get it out of you, so it doesn’t spill on everyone else.

Ask yourself:
1. Where is love lacking in this family? Where is love lacking in me?
2. What is triggering me and why?
3. In what specific ways that I see lack of growth around me in my family can I choose to work on in myself. If your family is judgemental, you may choose to look at how you’re judgemental and work on that spiritually.
4. What does success mean to your family and conversely what does success mean to you? Write down how they may judge your lack of success. Write down how successful your life has been outside of their expectations of you.
5. Expect to be triggered. There’s no easy way to be around people who are in your cells when you are trying to change and grow and heal and they are not. Use that triggering. Bring it back with you. Explore the rich vein of power that’s invoked by a visit to the people who’ve known us our entire lives.

Cards for this reading, from the Voyager deck:
Seven of Wands reversed, Universe reversed, Man of Worlds reversed, Nine of Cups, Child of Cups reversed, Five of Cups reversed, Ten of Wands reversed, Three of Cups reversed, Eight of Crystals, Tower reversed.

I’m selling gift certificates for the holidays. Half-hour readings for $50, 45-minute readings for $75 and full hour readings for $100. Gift certificates are sent in high-end photo cards. See my website for more details. www.creativetarot.com

I’ve been reading about Kevin Rudd’s visit to India. Apparently people waited with bated breath to see if he’d apologise for the ‘racist’ attacks on Indian students earlier this year. People are probably going blue in the face, because the Aussie PM stopped short of saying sorry, but accepted responsibility for law and order Down Under…or words to that effect.

I’m not trying to say that Australians are not the apologetic type. In fact, I admire the way they are quick to say they’re sorry if they think your feelings have been hurt, or they’ve done wrong. Earlier this year the Jackson Five were spoofed by a group of singers with black-painted faces on Hey Hey It’s Saturday. It was Australian humour (still a mystery to me), and people probably found it funny. Harry Connick Jr., the guest judge, was not amused. The incident made the morning news, and probably made Connick Jr. famous for the first time in Oz. The presenter apologized at once, of course.

The PM himself has, in fact, been making formal apologies this month to the Forgotten Australians, the former inmates of Fairbridge Farm School. Years ago, a large number of under-privileged children were brought over to Australia from the UK, with the promise of a better life and a brighter future. Unhappily for the kids, many of them were abused, put to work, and in short had a childhood that left them traumatised. Many completely lost contact with their families when Australia ‘adopted’ them. It was something of a legalized almost-kidnapping. A sorry tale, well deserving a prime ministerial apology.

Last year Rudd apologized for Australia’s mistreatment of the Aborigines. There is a whole ‘Stolen Generation’ of Australian Aborigines who were taken away from their families as children. Hmm…I begin to see a theme here. What is it with the Australian government and children?

Still, while begging their pardon is a public acknowledgement, I’m not sure what purpose is served. I’m reminded of those Indians who want the Queen to apologize for British colonization. Would that wipe out two hundred years of British heritage, the Indian railways, and English education? I’m not going down that road…. Suffice to say that with Australians, sorry only seems to be the hardest word.

I should point out that Indians and Australians have a history of apologies though. It just takes a few cricket matches and Harbhajan Singh… need I say more?

Strange stuff.

Anyone know what to make of this stuff? I think they are onto something, except for maybe the last paragraph.

I don’t know what to say about this other than compared to the usual whacked out theories like this, this one actually seems to have something to it. I don’t agree that these people were IE speakers. At least some of them probably spoke something similar to Basque or Etruscan.

People have been cruising around on boats for a long time. The first OOA folks, 75,000 YBP, left Ethiopia and sailed the 16 miles to Yemen. By 60,000 YBP, their boats had taken them to  Australia.

Humans settled the Philippines, apparently by boat, as early as 30,000 YBP.

The first modern Aborigines, the Murrayans, arrived in Australia, probably from Thailand around 16,000 YBP. They must have come by boat. These seem to have been a proto-Ainu type people related to the Jomon. These same Jomon left Thailand and sailed up to Japan around the same time, where they eventually became the Ainu. Along the way, it looks like they stopped off in the Philippines.

Later, around 12,000 YBP, a group called the Carpinterians left Southern India and also populated Australia. They could only have gone by boat. This was a Veddoid-type group.

6,000 years ago, Siberians left Asia and came to America, giving rise to the Na-Dene. The latest theory is that they came by boat down the Pacific Coast, settling first in the Pacific Coast finger of Alaska that extends southeastward.

Lovely cartoon.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd issued a … apology Monday to … British children shipped to Australia with the promise of a better life, only to suffer abuse and neglect thousands of miles from home.

At a ceremony … attended by tearful former child migrants, Rudd apologized for his country’s role in the migration and extended condolences to the 7,000 survivors of the program who still live in Australia.

“We are sorry,” Rudd said. “Sorry that as children you were taken from your families and placed in institutions where so often you were abused. Sorry for the physical suffering, the emotional starvation and the cold absence of love, of tenderness, of care. Sorry for the tragedy – the absolute tragedy – of childhoods lost.” via (Apology for kids shipped from Britain to colonies).

The Daily Express adds: -

there is growing anger that the British government should have been the first to apologise … who sent the children there in the first place … aimed at relieving the burden on Britain’s children’s homes and filling Australia with “good white stock” … the children were sent to Australia without the knowledge or consent of their parents and were told – falsely – that their mothers and fathers were dead … many of them were institutionalised in religious or charitable organisations where they were subjected to neglect and abuse … Under pressure from those whose lives were ruined by child migration, Gordon Brown … said, “the time is now right” for the UK to apologise for the actions of previous governments. “It is important that we listen to the voices of the survivors and victims of these misguided policies.” (ellipsis mine).

This made me think …

About, the ritual of regret and apology, about their role in the genocidal past. Since, the “Jewish Problem” was solved by Hitler (there are hardly 1 million Jews left in Europe and 5 million in USA), the West and USA has no problems, anymore with the Jews. Australia, Canada and France have tendered their ritualistic apologies – and start demonizing someone else.

Australia struggled for more than 5 years – before they agreed to apologize. I presume, US (to the Native Americans and the Blacks), Belgium (to Congo), Britain (to Kenya), France (to Vietnam), Spain (to the Native Americans), et al will all apologize. A book, The New Rulers of the World, examines the denial of the genocide.

Is this an aberration? Is this nightmare over?

Franz J. A. Romer, Duesseldorf, a 2ndlook blog reader informs us,

In Germany it is all about deduction (removal) of children from their family due to a local town system which is called Jugendamt (in other countries called youth welfare systeme). The Jugendamt is a local authority with no given functional control structure but a depending lawfull structure.It is absolutely easy for the Jugendamt to deduct the cildren into foster families or homes.

Hitler was never alone

Hitler’s biggest mistake – he lost the war.

The genocide with which his regime was charged with was also carried out against the Native Americans in the USA, the Australian aborigines, in Congo by the Belgians.

Post colonial Governments in Kenya and India have ignored the cover-up of the millions killed by the colonial rulers – in the Mau Mau operations in Kenya or the 1857 War in India.

The ‘real’ Roma Gypsy story

In Europe, kidnapping children was considered legal for most of 1500AD-1750AD. On one condition – you had to kidnap Roma Gypsy children! More than 25,000 children kidnapped. No problem. Everybody sleeps peacefully at night. Switzerland was doing this till 1973!

The Romani Gypsies, Sinti have been a favored European target for the last 500 years – by the Vatican, by the Protestant Church, by monarchies and by Republican Governments. In war and and in peace.

Their crime. They civilized (?) Europe. No less.

Looking at the Anglo Saxon Bloc

Linked to this is the fact at the end of WW2, the Anglo Saxon Bloc controlled 90% of gold production and reserves. The largest private gold reserve in the world, India was still a British colony. The Anglo Saxon bloc has 3 of the 4 largest countries of the world; wiped out native populations in these 3 countries, acquired these countries by force, sequestered the world’s natural resources and are united by their will to dominate and exploit the rest of humanity.

They control more than 67% of world gold production and more than 80%, if you include Anglo-Saxon countries, colonies and companies (like Anglo Gold, Barrick, BHP, Rio Tinto, etc).

The interesting question is why do Australia and Canada cling to British skirts?

Modern day demonization

The Western campaign aimed at the demonisation of Islam has replaced the Jewish demonisation (Shakespeare joined in with his anti-Semitic Merchant Of Venice). Without taking responsibility for the destabilisation of the Islamic World by the liquidation of the Ottoman Empire after WW1 – perpetrated by Anglo Saxon countries and the French.

The insistence and resistance

Coming back to the apologies? I have always wondered, why this Western resistance to apologies? I also wonder what difference does an apology make to the victims, as though, the apology is worth anything.

Would an apology from Hitler be worth anything?

Hat tip: Metahound

…

I’ve been meaning to pay tribute to Burn, which was named Photography Magazine of the Year at the Lucies last week. Launched in December 2008 by Magnum photographer David Alan Harvey, the magazine is a showcase for emerging photographers, and it’s a dynamic one at that: Burn publishes new photo essays or individual photos at least three times a week. (As PDN has reported, Burn is the first online-only mag to win a Lucie. Click here for more on that, plus a link to an interview with David.)

The site has been up less than a year, but there’s already a healthy archive of stories on view. Many of them take the form of social commentary, but others are quite lyrical. These are highlights from some of my favorite Burn offerings:

…

Photograph by Anabel Navarro from "La Familia Abrazada," an online exhibition of family and vernacular photography curated by Rafal Pruszynski.

…

From "West County," a photo essay by Talia Herman on Guerneville, a former logging and current resort town in rural Northern California.

…

From "Chica Barbie," Carl Bower's photo essay on beauty pageants in Colombia.

…

Glenn Campbell's series "Homelands" is on aboriginal communities in Central Desert, Western Australia, and Arnhem Land.

…

"Self-Portrait 1" by Carrie Roseman.

…

…

A friend of mine, an anthropologist,
lived in the Australian outback
with an aboriginal tribe for 30 months.
He returned to New Jersey and
one sunny October day
driving along the Delaware River
on Route 29, from Stockton to Frenchtown,

the palisades which claimed the river as their own
looming above on both sides,

he approached the Devil’s Tea Table
a flat, plateau rock outcropping
350 feet above the travelled way
protected by hordes of brown and tan
poisonous, copperhead snakes

There below Satan’s table
on the shoulder of the roadway
he beat the State of New Jersey,
Department of Transportation
contracted Deer Carcass removal company
when he stopped and picked up the body of a deer,
which had lost an argument with another vehicle.

At home, in the farm field
he gutted and skinned the buck
hung the meat to dry
and from the hide fashioned leggings,
sewed for himself a pair of winter snow boots.

The ribs he would carve into his New Jersey
version of an amulet, the rack of antlers
he ground into an aphrodisiac powder,
most of the entrails
he would bury in his garden plot
to decompose as fertilizer.

Whatever litter he left in the field
the scavengers made good use of.
No part unattended
no stone unturned.

When the New Jersey DEP, Division of Fish and Wildlife
learned of his rebellious act, they fined him $ 750
in the Kingwood Township Municipal Court
for procuring wildlife, although dead,
without a permit.

It made no difference that he saved them $ 75 -
the cost the State paid the contractor
to remove each carcass,
hauling the remains to the incinerator in Warren County
where it would add to all our troubles,
its emissions needing scrubbing
before the crisp blackened deer smoke could pollute the air.

While he had been awarded a full professorship
at Princeton
he packed that night, used the satchel he
had tanned from the balance of the pelt -
which they did not notice
when they confiscated the boots and carvings
as the ill gotten gains from his illegal activity
all stored by the State in a warehouse in Trenton
along side the unlicensed shotguns
and racks of antlers from poachers
who hunted with their headlights in the evening.

What remained of the entrails not yet decomposed
together with a portion of the dirt from his garden
he boxed up and posted for
overnight delivery to the Commissioner of DEP,

and thereafter, he left quietly that same night
and returned to Australia.

Ray Brown

For this edition of our semi-monthly Antwuan Dixon face tattoo update, we ask: when might we expect to see some teeth-filing? Or perhaps some horn implants

Disclaimer: This post is inspired by a CNN-IBN story by Paarul on how cricket may perhaps hold the key to race relations in Australia.

While there is a larger acknowledgment on the part of cricket historians, particularly in Australia, about indigenous cricketers and certainly cricketers from other races (be it Asians or others) not being able to represent the Aussies in international cricket consistently, there is also a candid admission there – the very system that is responsible to spread the game in Australia and take it to the masses, has consistently ignored communities such as the Aborigines and even the migrant community. The lack of integration when it comes to cricket can instantly be noticed when we see the lack of players from other communities having represented Australia, so much so that it is the only Test playing country, which hasn’t been represented by an Asian thus far (someone closest who fits into this would be Dav Whatmore – born in Sri Lanka and played Test cricket for Australia).

Australia is perhaps a different case altogether. It’s first cricket team, that toured England in 1868 was not one filled with Whites, but a squad of indigenous cricketers which included players with names like Unarrimin, Bullchanach etc. Not quite Aussie-sounding names these days, considering the Watsons, the Clarkes, the Fergusons of the world. I bumped into two sociologists from the CAIS (Center for Australian Indigenous Studies) at Melbourne’s Monash University, Barry Judd and Chris Hallinan during the ICC History Conference at Oxford University earlier this year, and their presentation on race relations in Australian cricket, especially related to indigenous communities was an eye-opener. Their arguments were largely based on observations, about how that community was completely ignored by the Australian Cricket Board, now Cricket Australia, highlighting that the Board had virtually stopped spreading the game to the areas where the indigenous community in Australia lived. Yet, this year, there was a historic tour by a set of indigenous cricketers led by South Australian first-class cricketer Dan Christian, from Australia during the Ashes to commemorate their first tour 140 years ago, which was indeed well received in the UK.

Apart from this, to ensure integration, there is the Imparja Cup (a tournament which was introduced in as late as 1994) to spread the game to the Aborigines. Unfortunately, the coverage of the Imparja Cup is so little and negligible, that even the most talented indigenous cricketers would find it difficult to get noticed. Cricket as a game, has a historical narrative in Australia too. The colonizers i.e. the whites saw this as a perfect tool to impose themselves over the indigenous communities, and thereby overpower them – by denying them opportunities to play the very game. And yes, cricket is the only game where this phenomenon exists. The Rugby team has a set of indigenous players who represent their country as it is in the case of Maoris in New Zealand (but then they’ve played cricket too. Daryl Tuffey, Ross Taylor among the first names that come to mind.)

During a casual conversation with Barry Judd, I asked him a question, “How can you say the indigenous communities have never been given a chance to play for the Aussies, when Jason Gillespie publicly said he was one ?” His answer was rather simple and straightforward, “Gillespie acknowledged his roots only when he was successful. Never did he go public about his Aborigine’s origin, before he played cricket for Australia. It would have been a different scenario had he done that before getting selected for Australia.” Judd, during the presentation came out with a candid confession, of how the indigenous community in Australia were not Australian supporters, but massive West Indies fans. According to him, they’d support the West Indies because they identified with them, not just racially, but the way they played their cricket. He said, “Every time the West Indies beat Australia, we’d be happy. We’d see it as our victory, not theirs. Unfortunately, we maybe the only set of cricket fans to support another team against our own.” Fascinating revelations, that. And quite simply, Australia needs to do more on this front, encourage young indigenous kids from let’s say Northern Territory and play the game.

Now, about Asians and Australian cricket. This is an interesting phenomenon in the very first place. Let’s document this first – there are not many Asian-Australian cricketers who firstly, play cricket in Australia. With the exception of young Pakistani-Australian Usman Khawaja, Tamil-Australian Ahilen Rajakumaran Beadle and a young guy by the name of Kumar Sarna (originally from Delhi), not many other names spring to mind. Sarna’s case is interesting because he hails from Melbourne (the very scene of these racial attacks on Indian students) and has represented Australia in the Under-19 World Cup in 2008. At one point of time, Sarna was one of the most talented rookies to emerge in the scene, so much so that the Victorian Bushrangers gave him a Rookie Contract. Not satisfied with his performances, Sarna returned home last year, looking for better opportunities in his home town of New Delhi. Without suggesting much, there could be other factors involved in his decision to return home. Ahilen Beadle, represented Australia in the 2004 U-19 World Cup and hails from Sri Lanka – but not much has been known about his progress thereafter. The only promising and prominent name that stands apart from this group with sub-continental roots is Usman Khawaja – an Islamabad born Australian cricketer, who dreams of wearing the Baggy Green one-day. And he might soon too, given his progress as a New South Wales batsman. His record seems pretty neat for a rookie in first-class cricket, scoring 651 runs @ 40.68 from 11 matches, with a top score of 172* (Courtesy: Cricinfo). If Khawaja comes through the ranks and makes it to the national setup, it could give a fillip to not just the bunch of Asian-Australian community in the country, but also let young cricketers from that community go and pick up the bat/ball.

What Australian cricket needs is a policy, where the game goes beyond the race of an individual. Yes, in most cases, it might have turned out to be a critical factor in a player making the grade or not, but the policy in a way must make sure that race doesn’t end up as being the barrier, or indeed the criteria in picking the best. Other nations have stood up, and its time for Australia to do so, before time starts running out. Cricket, through it’s very nature of the game, has been known to do what most sports can’t – bring people together and integrate – as it did in South Africa with much success. Who knows, the next Adam Gilchrist might just be hiding somewhere in Dandenong.

The Background: 

There was an article running in the travel section of Sydney Morning Herald’s online edition a few months ago asking whether or not tourists should climb the largest single rock in the southern hemisphere (if not the world).
The question arises because the local tribes of Aborigines revere it as a god they call Uluru. Perhaps they would rather say it is a spirit if not a god, but reverence and worship lead us to consider it the same thing in context.

The Problem:

Now, where would Judaism sit with this question? The purpose of a Jew is to guide the world to a relationship with the sole G-d/Creator through the example of our own. The oft cited imperative to be an Ohr LaGoyim – a light to G-d’s other children, the nations of the world, make this purpose clear.

Many Jews and Jewesses are ‘celibate’, in this regard, which, when out of intentional ignorance (rare – because it’s not often fully informed intentional ignorance) or due to a lack of decent Jewish education, is a tremendous shame. Besides, we don’t espouse celibacy in our physical relationships – why should we in regards to our spiritual one? Would that more Jews understood what they were meant to do instead of floating around eating kreplach and bagels (the caricatured ‘cultural Jew’), leading lives otherwise indistinguishable from those of our brother nations. Fact remains, 90% of Jewish people today (even amongst the ultra religious, if I may be so bold) pay little or no attention to our overriding responsibilities as G-d’s firstborn.

Most (especially secular) Jews never hear that wonderfully phrased statement ‘you cannot represent the Jews until you know what the Jews represent’. But this is not the topic.

The Myth and the Repugnance of “Toleration”:

What does Jewish law say about respecting other religions’ false gods and idols? Would we not promote harmony by catering to the needs of the Wicca, orthodox cannibals, and indeed any and every cult, sect or full-blown religion that pops up?

Mine is not to affirm monotheism over polytheism at any length. It is self evident that each god comes with his, her or its own code of morality, thereby offering the human a choice of moral code – whichever suits him and his lifestyle best. Absolute morality allows (in principle) for no fragmentation of morality, no dissonance and confusion.
It should be noted, however, that I am a complete novice in the religion of the Aborigines; my greatest exposure was at primary school, learning about their Dreamtime creation stories. So I am ready to be corrected on the statements I make (based on what I believe the Jewish legal code requires us to do – in which I am also a relative novice).

In fact, tolerance can be an unpalatable word, as my controversial take on the matter might be to many – including a great many Jews themselves. Tolerance has the connotation ‘your actions make me physically sick, BUT in the name of the ‘enlightened’ age I will allow you to continue as you do, and even sit next to you.’

It is tolerance that sees righteous nations seated next to violently criminal, despotic regimes at the fundamentally flawed United Nations.
Rather, let’s talk it out- your ideas versus mine, at the dining table with a nice meal in a respectful but unwaveringly truth-seeking manner. Not an easy thing by any stretch, but brotherhood is obviously superior to mere toleration.

If one is to tolerate every other concept of morality without challenge, there really is no morality, in the same way that all colours spun around on a wheel = no colour (white). Judaism cannot ultimately tolerate false spiritual paths because that is in direct conflict with one of, if not the, major objectives. To maintain the pretense is exactly that- intellectually dishonest.
And we see, that Judaism requires us to mock polytheism (NOT polytheists- that distinction is of course crucial) wherever it is found. Just as the prophets did (Elijah openly mocked the priests of Baal all afternoon, in front of the entire nation, and other prophets describe how ludicrous it is that a man chops down a tree, burns half of it into ashes to cook dinner, finishes eating, turns around and bows to the other half saying ‘you made me’).

Open-Ended:

Actually, I think I’ve provided enough data. The question is open, therefore: does Judaism oblige its adherents to march up Ayers Rock if it’s in front of us, to demonstrate that it is nothing but a rock? Or is it less confrontational?

Are we shirking our purpose if we refrain from climbing it? Are we attributing honour and reverence to it if we don’t, thus contradicting this purpose?

From the Huffington Post:

And in the modern world, with the strange and inexplicable discoveries of quantum physics, scientific treatises on the nature of reality sound remarkably like ancient mystical writings. The more we learn about the shocking contradictions and improbable mechanics of the subatomic world, the more it appears that the universe is less like Isaac Newton’s giant clock and more like one giant dream, imagined from within an implicate order that transcends human reason. Such a vision would be familiar to the Sufis of Islam, along with their counterparts among Buddhist masters, Kabbalists and Christian mystics like Meister Eckhart.

So, Muslim, Buddhist, Jewish, and “Christian” mystics all agree on this stuff. Fascinating. In addition, the “dreamtime” religious myths of Australian aborigines can be compared to this also. (Incidentally, Kabbalist means Jewish, as Kabbalism is part and parcel to the accepted Jewish religion. Kabbalism is in no way pseudo-Jewish cultism. Instead, esoteric knowledge and magic are all over Judaism, and is the acknowledged but seldom spoken of underpinnings of the Talmud and other rabbinic Jewish books. Kabbalah, which at best is a syncretism between some elements of the Hebrew religion and the Babylonian pagan mystery religions and is more likely the Babylonian mystery religion in Jewish guise, can be considered “higher Judaism.” Jews are encouraged to master the Talmud and the other books first, and the brightest and most devoted then go on to study Kabbalah. From a Jewish website: Kabbalah is also part of the Oral law. It is the traditional mystical understanding of the Torah. Kabbalah stresses the reasons and understanding of the commandments, and the cause of events described in the Torah. Kabbalah includes the understanding of the spiritual spheres in creation, and the rules and ways by which G-d administers the existence of the universe. More information that “Christian Zionist” preachers and leaders never tell the laymen, though they certainly know about it. So, we should not be surprised that Kabbalists and Muslims agree on this topic, because it is “knowledge” that not only spiritually but also quite literally has the same origin.)

This also seems to correlate to the religious worldview pushed by people such as Dan Brown and George Lucas (theosophy and New Age sorts), where knowledge (or more accurately consciousness), matter and energy themselves are worshiped as god. Reminds me of a couple of articles I read (see below). One world religion anybody? The interesting thing is that this religio-scientific worldview very much accommodates evolution, the big bang theory and similar. As a matter of fact, the article points out that believers in this worldview include Francis Collins, the current director of the National Institutes of Health (Barack Hussein Obama appointee). Despite his belief in and advocacy for evolution, Collins is considered to be an evangelical Christian (and is indeed embraced as one by evangelicals desperate to see one of their own ranks represented in mainstream culture, especially in the elite academic, scientific and government arenas, and Collins represents all three), and is working to get evangelical Christians to abandon their opposition to evolution. I should point out that in this Francis is far from alone, as not a few Anglican evangelical theologians, including Alister McGrath, have been trying to get evangelicals to submit to evolution for decades. And incidentally, you should know that the Roman Catholic Church, with its long history of mysticism, is slowly accommodating evolution as well. Again, one world religion maybe, perhaps?

crossroad.to/articles2/05/star-wars.htm

rapidnet.com/~jbeard/bdm/Cults/newage.htm

It’s caused a big stir in Australia where it occurred, and where they pride themselves as being multicultural–except when it comes to Aborigines or Blacks.

From the CBC:

American performer Harry Connick Jr. was serving as guest judge for a reunion edition of the long-running show Hey Hey It’s Saturday Night and voiced his disapproval over the musical skit, performed on Wednesday.

The “Jackson Jive” performance featured five men with black makeup smeared over their faces and wearing exaggerated black Afro wigs dancing and singing along with another man, who had stark white makeup smeared over his face and was dressed in a costume reminiscent of Michael Jackson.

The men, all doctors, first performed the skit on the show about 20 years ago while they were medical students.

[...]

Connick Jr., an actor and celebrated musician and bandleader from New Orleans, gave the performers a score of zero and noted that if he had known of it in advance, he wouldn’t have agreed to appear on the show.

“If they turned up looking like that in the United States … it’d be like ‘Hey, hey there’s no more show,” the singer said after the skit.

What’s even more interesting is that the Jackson Jive were the brainchild of an Indian plastic surgeon, Anand Deva, who was indignant about charges of racism. Fact is, Asians can absorb racist and color attitudes, inter/intracultural or otherwise, towards Africans and African Americans. Even in Japan, some are loathe to give up toiletries with caricatures of grinning darkies on their labels.

In some circles in the feminist community, it was called horizontal oppression.

“I am an Indian, and five of the six of us are from multicultural backgrounds and to be called a racist…I don’t think I have ever been called that ever in my life before,” Deva told Australian press.

Deva probably never knew that the Little Black Sambo books were originally a racist caricature of Tamil Indian children and were later turned towards African Americans.

Now offended Aussies are saying that Connick was being two-faced, when he played a jackleg preacher on Mad TV thirteen years back. The problem with this argument is, Connick wasn’t in blackface; he was trying to emulate the black minister from whom he had taken instruction and inspiration.

Blacking up is not the same as emulating motions, voice, or hairstyle. Blacking up means that you are embodying the people you are putting down. You are stereotyping them, distorting who they really are. Such distortions has shaped perceptions of and prejudices about black people even now. Such depictions die hard, which is why so many Aussies are jumping to the side of the Jackson Jive. I know I critique what I watch on television and even talk back to the screen. With some of these Aussies, they’ve grown inured to these racist depictions that they don’t react. They collude with the depiction, which makes one wonder how they continue to interact with Aborigines, even those who are biracial.

Minstrelsy and darky iconography have gone underground in the U.S., but it flares up from time to time in advertising and even on shows like Saturday Night Live. It’s never truly gone away, but it is commonly thought of as racist. If I see it, I have to wonder exactly what the point is. And if I am offended, I am not going to buy it.

I’m glad that Harry Connick, who may be limited even in his understanding of American racism, has raised such a stir, even among Aussie politicians. As far as I am concerned, he was raised halfway right. Let the education begin, and let it never end.

So I am caught up as today is really today, Sunday for me, Saturday for you all as you sleep into Sunday morning. Okay, the time change is hard… 14 hours… no actually 15 hours now as we had Daylight Savings last night so we are at a 15 hour difference as Australia has “sprung ahead” into Spring and we will shortly “fall back” into well, the abyss of Winter. It will then be a 16 hour time difference with the Eastern US timezone and it will be even more difficult to SKYPE with Ian and Jen. It is truly strange being in the Southern Hemisphere at times. John and I have had 3 calls so far and it seems we spend more time coordinating what time we will next speak more than discussing anything else. It is a logistical challenge for sure… but we’ll figure it out eventually.

So today started out as any vacation would… until a certain mother needed the power converter for her curling iron. And you can probably guess what happened next… the 220v step down here to our 110v power needs somehow fried Mum’s curling iron which blew out my power converter. Even better, no power for the laptop or the iPhone. I am dead in the water. And tomorrow is Labor Day here and NOTHING is open. Fortunately I am able to use Ian’s laptop (which I am currently on) to check the occasional work email and work on this travel blog. That is also why you haven’t seen any pictures (mostly in the rain) so far as well (sorry for that) as my camera only hooks up to my laptop. So first order of business will be to get a new converter (if at all possible) and number two will be to get Mum a new curling iron now that she has fried it.

Dodging the rain we took the ferry from Mosman harbor to downtown Sydney. The residents and visitors use the ferries as daily commuting to avoid the crazy traffic over the bridges and tunnels. And at $3.20 per person Australian (that would be less than 3 dollars US) per journey, it is incredibly affordable. So we walked down the hill to the ferry and missed the Sunday hourly ferry by about a minute. Bummer… but in the end we sat at the cafe and had a cup of coffee before taking the next ferry.

Can I just say that the coffee is incredibly good and the Aussie’s take their coffee VERY seriously. Ian tells me that there are only 3 Starbucks in Sydney as the local population pretty much pushed them out in favor of the local mom and pop’s. The coffee is really, really good and I savored the smooth richness of the coffee until the next ferry arrived.

One of the things that I love about Sydney is how they commute to work — very much like Seattle. The ferries are half the size of those in Seattle, but they run all over the area ducking into the small harbors and pick up all walks of life. The best part is that a single fare (one trip, one direction) is only $3.20 AUS. That is a real bargain… and it all comes with a spectacular view as you drive around to the main terminal harbor taking you right in front of the Opera House and the Harbor Bridge. It was a rainy, overcast day (again), but the surreal view of Sydney from this position that you’ve only ever seen in postcards and on TV is quite impressive.

So after disembarking, we walked about 10 minutes to the Opera House. As we got closer we took our traditional tourist photos along with all of the other tourists in the area — looking for that key photo that sums up the entire vacation. Mine will be the one of myself, Ian and Jenny in front of the Opera House laughing our heads off as Mum works the camera. Classic family photo and one I’ll cherish.

As for the Opera House, the exterior is made up of flat, white tiles, so it looks like scales all layered together. The interior is a combination of the cement supports with wood panels. I have to say that minus the wood decorative panels, it reminds me (dare I say) of the RenCen in Detroit. Actually, I think that the structures were built about the same time, so it may not be all that crazy. Ian stayed outside and Mum, Jenny and I took a quick look around and picked up a few souviners at the gift shop and that concluded our visit to The Opera House.

Back again past the Harbor Terminal, we popped up our umbrellas again as another storm approached. We walked up and around the other side of the harbor to the area called The Rocks. The Rocks was named as it is a rocky outcrop, but over the years it has been built up with shops and cafes. We popped into a little cafe for a quick lunch and then came across a weekend market — perfect — shopping! Needless to say my cousin was a good sport, but shopping is the last thing on his daily list of things to do. With three women about, he had little choice

The market is just like any weekend market lined on one side with cafes and bars. It is a popular place with the locals and tourists and the bargains are pretty good. I picked up a few gifts that will travel home well. Throughout the day we saw a number of  Aboriginal works of art — some traditional (beautiful paintings and carvings) and some not so traditional (handbags and pillows). There were also a number of street performers in traditional Aboriginal garb and makeup making music from their long, wooden instruments that make different sounds depending on how you blow through the pipe. The music is very, very different and one that resonates with you after you’ve left the area.

So we headded back to Mosman central via ferry and then by bus. Ian and Jenny live just off the bus route and within a minute’s walk of the village area — it is a great location. Jenny made dinner as Ian watched rugby… she had planned for a traditional English dinner, but didn’t realize that she had bought corned beef insteat of roast beef! I am not a big lover of corned beef and cabbage, but I honestly will tell you that I quite liked it roasted. We now are calling it Beouf Suprise! Ian remarked that it is so revolutionary that it will be a new culinary trend for the future! Calling Julia Child!

Weltweit sind gegenwärtig 443 Kernkraftwerke in 31 Ländern in Betrieb. 48 Reaktoren werden zur Zeit gebaut. Geplant sind weltweit weitere über hundert neue Anlagen vor allem in China, Russland, der EU und in Indien (Statistik vom Nuklearforum Schweiz). Circa 70 Prozent des weltweiten radioaktiven Rohstoffs befindet sich unter dem Land indigener Völker, die dadurch besonders von den Folgen des Uranabbaus betroffen sind. Die größten Uranerzvorkommen befinden sich in Australien, vor allem im Norden des Landes, in dem verschiedene Aborigine-Völker leben.

Die Regierung des Bundesstaats Westaustralien hat im November 2008 das Verbot des Uranabbaus von 2002 aufgehoben. Der australisch-britische Rohstoffkonzern BHP Billiton beginnt nun ab 2011 mit dem Ausheben einer neuen Uranmine. Ab 2014 sollen im westaustralischen Yeelirrie – der Aborigine-Name bedeutet Stätte des Todes – jährlich bis zu 8.000 t Uran gefördert werden. Der Konzern plant außerdem den Ausbau der größten bekannten Uranmine Olympic Dam im Süden Australiens. Die Förderkapazität will BHP dort von jährlich 4.000 t bis auf 19.000 t steigern. In den nächsten 20 bis 30 Jahren sollen an der Ostküste Australiens mehrere neue Kernkraftwerke gebaut werden.

1996 wurde gegen den Widerstand der traditionellen Eigentümer im Norden des Landes mit dem Bau einer Uranmine in Jabiluka im Kakadu-Nationalpark begonnen. Der 20.000 Quadratkilometer große Nationalpark wurde von der UNESCO in die Liste sowohl des Kultur- als auch des Naturerbes der Menschheit aufgenommen. Die Mirrar-Aborigines kämpften 16 Jahre lang mit Unterstützung einer Vielzahl von Umweltschutz- und Anti-Atomkraft-Gruppen erfolgreich gegen die Inbetriebnahme der Mine. Im Jahr 2002 stellte die Bergbaugesellschaft Rio Tinto die Entwicklung der Mine endgültig ein. In der benachbarten Ranger-Uran-Mine, das zweitgrößte Uranbergwerk der Welt, geht jedoch die Uranförderung trotz extrem hoher Umweltbelastung weiter. So trat im Jahr 1988 sechs Monate lang unkontrolliert Radioaktivität aus. Auch danach gelangte immer wieder verseuchtes Wasser in die Flüsse der Umgebung. Im Norden Australiens leben noch Aborigines als Viehzüchter, Kleinbauern oder Jäger und Sammler. Wenn ihre Böden und Gewässer durch den Uranabbau unbrauchbar werden, verlieren sie damit ihre Existenzgrundlage.

Vom Reichtum Australiens haben die Aborigines nicht profitiert. Die Minenaktivitäten der Großkonzerne haben ihnen keine erkennbaren strukturellen oder finanziellen Vorteile gebracht. Im Gegenteil wurden in der Folge des Uranabbaus und der Lagerung von radioaktiven Abfällen die traditionellen Siedlungsgebiete und rituellen Stätten der Aborigines zerstört und verseucht. Heute leben über die Hälfte der Aborigines in den Städten. Das tägliche Leben vieler Indigenen wird bestimmt von Problemen wie Arbeitslosigkeit, Alkoholismus und Korruption.

Gegen die fast hemmungslos zu nennende Ausbreitung des Uranbergbaus mit verheerenden Folgen für die Gesundheit der Menschen und der Umwelt leisten indigene Völker weltweit Widerstand unterstützt von einer Vielzahl von Menschenrechtsorganisationen, Umweltschutz- und Anti-Atomkraft-Gruppen.

“Australia is not a racist country.” After apologizing for the government’s stealing aboriginal children, after the Cronulla riots, the Palm Island riots, even after two sober assessments by the Indian ambassador and former Telstra chief Sol Trujillo, it is still denied. Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd initially dismissed it as “ridiculous” rather than acknowledging that Australia does have longstanding problems with racism.

After still more violent attacks on Indians in Melbourne I feel that I have to write something. What offends me most is not the violent outer-suburban racists but the network of tacit support that they receive from other parts of mainstream Australian culture. The support and cover from politicians that denies that Australia is a racist country. The support and encouragement from all aspects of Australian nationalism, for it is nationalist pride that leads to the denials in the first place.

Australia is a racist country, it was established as a racist colonial program and since then racism has been institutionalised in Australian culture. Australia has conducted the most successful program of genocides in the modern world against the aboriginal peoples of Australia, especially the Tasmanian aborigines. Australia’s white immigration policy may have ended but the political sentiment that supported it remains and is now expressed in anti-refugee detention policies and the Aboriginal intervention policy in the NT.

You have to be mentally blinkered to not see the racism in Australian culture. In one of the shared houses that I lived in we had a set of old kitchen chairs that were made in Australia and labelled: “Product of European labour only”. If you don’t believe that there is racist hatred of Indians in Melbourne then let me show you the racist graffiti against Indians scratched in the concrete footpath of Coburg.

There needs to be more action taken on the serious cultural problems, like racism, in Australia rather than denials and public relations management. To deny and mentally repress Australian racism is not the solution and will only create more and new problems. The Australian and Victorian government need to recognize that they are part of the problem rather than deny the existence of the problem. Don’t believe the equivocations, the empty apologies and denials that Australian’s make about racism – look at their actions and inactions.

A new article has come out in Nature Magazine dealing with the Peopling of India, a subject I have dealt with quite a bit on this site. The Indian nationals who hate the Aryan Invasion concept have been jumping up and down for joy over this article. I’m not sure where these people are coming from, but generally, it’s a silly, anti-scientific and reactionary place.

Their argument is usually that the Aryan Invasion could not have taken place since our Hindu texts say that it never happened. Well, there is not much to say to such a powerful scientific argument like that!

Those who oppose the Aryan Invasion theory are generally Far Rightwing Hindu nationalists or Hindutvas. They also tend to be associated with the higher castes, especially the Brahmins. One argument is an Indian nationalist one. This crazy line says that there was no Aryan invasion – instead this was a lie made up by the evil British colonialists to “divide the people of India.” As Hindutva fascism claims (falsely) to be a national unification project, as all such projects do, they rail against the “outsiders who divide our people.”

Problem with this argument is that the Indians themselves and the Hindus in particular had done a mighty fine job dividing up the Indian people themselves into many thousands of insane, cruel, backwards and anti-human caste structures.

Another crazy Indian nationalist argument is that there was no caste until the evil Brits came. Or there was caste before then, but it was nothing. The evil Brits came and made caste so much worse. This argument is favored with high castes, typically Brahmins. It’s dubious. Caste was probably much worse before the British came.

The British, civilized folks that they were, hated the animalistic, bestial, primitive caste system and tried to eliminate as part of the necessary mission of civilizing the Indians. This article notes that caste is as old as India, and that the British did not hoist it upon the unwilling heads of the innocent and pure Indians.

Another crazy Indian nationalist line is that there was no race structure in India. Race was invented in India by those evil Brits again. The Brits divided the peaceable, loving, brotherly and Kumbayaa-singing Indian people into two races, a northern race that appeared European or Aryan and a southern race that they called Dravidian.

There does seem to be something to the concept of a somewhat bimodal race structure in India. The people of the South are darker and have a different physical type than the Northern Indics, who look more Iranian or even European. Some say that the Dravidians are the remains of a Mediterranean Caucasian Race that moved into India 13-17,000 years ago. That seems reasonable to me.

This article turns that on its head and argues that all Indians are a mixture between North Indians and South Indians. The South Indians are more Asiatic types and the North Indians are a more European type, yet all of the Indian people are thoroughly mixed between the two. This also seems reasonable.

Articles about the piece, especially from the reactionary Brahmin-controlled Indian media, are crowing about “the death of the Aryan invasion theory.” But the Nature piece proclaims no such thing.

The Nature article claims that the South Indians came to India 70,000 YBP. The only remaining pure members of the South Indian group are the Negritos of the Andaman Islands. This part is reasonable enough. The piece also claims that the North Indians (or Aryans) came to India 45,000 YBP. This much is a real shocker, and I do not know what to make of this.

45,000 YBP, there were no real Caucasoid types anywhere. Further, skulls from even north India dated at 24,000 YBP look like Aborigines. So these North Indians must have looked like Aborigines at first. In fact, all Indians looked something like Aborigines until 8,000 YBP when they started transitioning to Caucasian types.

Anyway, there was an Aryan invasion. Or at least, a group of Indo-Aryans moved down from Kazakhstan into Iran, Kurdistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, the Caucasus, Pakistan and North India about 3,500 YBP. They all speak related languages that we can provably trace back to the Russian steppes. We can follow their movements archeologically as they moved down from Kazakhstan into North India.

Now whether or not these folks were “invaders” is open to question. Perhaps they were “migrants.” Maybe they were “undocumented workers.” Maybe they were going on an extended vacation down South. I haven’t the faintest idea. But there was clearly a movement of Indo-European speaking Indo-Aryan folks down from Kazakhstan into Central and South Asia 3,500 YBP. That’s a fact of history, and no sane person questions that. Nor does this paper call that into question.

Another argument that Indian nationalists are making is that Indians are a unique race, a separate race, not part of any other race. If you look at the data, that’s an interesting argument, but skull and genetic data (see Cavalli-Sforza for instance) show that Indians are a member of the Caucasian race, though they are one of the most divergent members of that group.

One interesting finding is that Gujaratis seem to form their own separate minor race in India and differentiate from all the others. I can’t explain that, but it may have something to do with stories about Scythians moving into that area 1,200 YBP.

One of the more sensible dissections of the article is here by Razib of GNXP Science Blogs. Razib is sounding a lot more sensible since he got his better writing gig at Science Blogs.

HISTORIC FICTION:  THE ANGEL OF DARKNESS/Caleb Carr -1997 – Ballentine

When I saw a familiar-looking cover sitting on the top of a trash can outside the Stand in New York, I examined it for dirt, bugs or other assorted unhealthy signs, saw it was relatively clean.  The price was right.  I saw that it was the sequel to Carr’s THE ALIENIST, which I read, liked but don’t remember.  I could see from the sepia cover photo, this book was also set in the late 19th Century in New York.  Great!  I settled in to savor the book.

With the familiar but different setting of New York over a hundred years ago, I was intrigued by the plot line, involving the abduction of the baby daughter of a Spanish diplomat.  I soon remembered the cast of sleuths that appeared in THE ALIENIST:  Dr. Lazlo Kreizler, Sara Howard, the gun-toting feminist turned detective, the Isaccson brothers, two brilliant men dealing in medicine and forensics and attached to the New York Police Department,  Cyrus, a black man turned from crime and living with the famous psychiatrist, Stevie Taggart, a fourteen-year-old former ruffian and John Moore, a well-healed newspaper man.

Sara, who has opened her own detective agency specializing the the problems of women, is approached to help her find her baby daughter.  Mrs. Lineras stresses that she doesn’t want to involve the police.  It is very sensitive and even her husband, a diplomat from Spain, is against involving anyone in the search for his daughter.  The political climate is tenuous and this could prove to spark an international incident.  The baby, Ana, was snatched right near the Metropolitan Museum of Art via a woman who pushed Mrs. Lineras and snatched the baby and disappeared.  Later, the team came up with a bold new idea:  Mrs. Linares had spotted the kidnapper and the child on the Third Avenue El as she stood on the platform.  The idea was to find an artist to draw a sketch from Mrs. Linares’s rather detailed memory.  The plot unfolded and Elspeth Hatch was identified as the kidnapper.  The former nurse seemed to have a suspicious past.  Babies in her care wound up dead.  They followed clues that took her history back to Ballston Spa, New York.  There was talk that she had a past that included a dead husband and two dead children.  One daughter survived but couldn’t speak.  They were dealing with a complex, mysterious, changeable female mass murderer. 

Ultimately, I found this book rough going and quite contrived.  It was very heavy handed in its political correctness, pushing hard an the reader with its use of ideas of feminism, racism, and anti-semitism.

Caleb Carr, who is a master of historical fiction, is meticulous in his detail of old New York and the Saratoga area of New York.  Some of his involvement of real people is just plain silly.  He brings in then Navy Secretary Teddy Roosevelt to enlist the help of sailors to apprehend the suspect, hidden and protected by a local gang near the Hudson.

Although I finished the book, my main objection was putting it in the words of an older Stevie Taggart.  This storyteller, now old and sick because of his smoking addiction (again politically correct) tells this story in a voice and sentence structure that is, frankly, hard to read.  Unschooled, but educated by his street smarts and exposure to the doctor’s world, consistently reveals the mystery, in the broken style of misused words and explanations of his use of big words prefaced by “what you might call…”  I believe that Carr made a bad decision to make Stevie the narrator.  This could have been an excellent book.

wenn uns das mal jemand vor dem urlaub gesagt hätte. auf einem bushwalk auf whitsunday island wurden wir diesen etwa 1 cm großen grünen baumameisen vorgestellt, die aus baumblättern nester bauen:

green tree ant (oecophylla smaragdina)

so weit so unspannend. aber jetzt kommts. die grüne baumameise war für die aborigines eine wichtige vitamin-c-quelle, denn in ihrem “abdomen” ist ganz hoch konzentrierte ascorbinsäure enthalten. und da wir natürlich auf unsere gesundheit achten und auf  gar keinen fall krank werden wollen, schon gar nicht im urlaub, liegt natürlich nichts näher, als …? unglaublich, aber wahr: wir haben den ameisen den po geleckt, wofür diese sich mit einem spritzer supersaurem vitamin-c-konzentrat bedankt haben. lecker.