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Today's
Stories
February 20 / 22, 2004
Ghada Karmi
Sharon is not the Problem
February 19, 2004
Cecilie Surasky
Anti-Semitism
at the World Social Forum? That's Not What I Saw
Ray McGovern
Iraq
Hawks and Deceptive Intelligence: Did They Really Think They'd
Get Away With It?
Tariq Ali
How Far
Will Bush Go in Iraq?
Ralph Nader
Whither
the Nation?
Wayne Madsen
Would Kerry Purge the Neo-Cons?
Norman Solomon
The Collapse of Dean's Cyber-Bubble
Christopher Brauchli
Cheney, Halliburton and the NYT
Mike Whitney
Bush's Iraq Strategy: "I Hope They Kill Each Other"
Lewis Carroll
Bush the Mighty Helmsman from Yale
Website of the Day
Sex Toy Horoscope
February 18, 2004
William Wilgus
Bush:
AWOL and Dereliction of Duty
William Blum
Mush-Minded
Liberals
Dave Lindorff
Bush's China Syndrome
Greg Weiher
Why
is Kerry Getting a Pass?
Mike Griffin
Killing the Messenger: the AFL-CIO's Attack on Harry Kelber
Mark Hand
Kerry Tells Peace Movement to "Move On"
February 17, 2004
Mike Ferner
The
Countryside Murders in Iraq
Mokhiber / Weissman
Corporation
as Psychopath
Marjorie Cohn
DrakeGate:
a Victory for Free Speech
Kurt Nimmo
Bush's
Endgame: a Review of Chalmers Johnson's "Sorrows of Empire"
Greg Bates
Nader Ambush: a New Low for The
Nation
Ximena Ortiz
A Bush
Doctrine, of Sorts
Gary Leupp
Whatever Happened to Gen. Khazraji?
Sen. John Kerry
"The Cause of Israel is the Cause of America"
Steve Perry
Kerry
1, Drudge 0
February 16, 2004
James Johnston
Huddling
with the Cheeseheads in a NASCAR World
Sara Eltantawi
To
Wear the Hijab or Not
Bruce Anderson
Kevin
Cooper and the Midnight Needle
Elaine Cassel
Feds
on Campus: the Drake Subpoenas
Rahul Mahajan
Bush,
Is the Tide Finally Turning?
Kevin Cooper
The Ritual of Death
Stan Cox
Goodbye, Howard Dean
Larry David
My War
Steve Perry
Bush and the Guard: the Cover-Up's the Thing
Website of the Day
Prison Patriots: Help This Vital Film Get Made
February 14/15, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Milk Bars, Hollywood and the
March of Empires
Jeffrey St. Clair
Oil Grab in the Arctic
William A. Cook
Faith-Based Fanatics
Stan Goff
Beloved
Haiti
Dave Marsh / Lee Ballinger
Rock, Rap & the Election
Hughes / Weiher
Tupac, the Patriot Act and Me
Michael Colby
Bush v. Kerry: the Power Elite's Dream Ballot
Mickey Z.
Michael Moore's Lesser Party: the General and the Lieutenant
Josh Frank
Dean's Demise No Big Loss for the Left
Peter Wolson
The Politics of Narcissism
William James Martin
Clean Break with the Road Map
Daniel Estulin
Religious Extremism in Africa
Standard Schaefer
The Privatization of Culture: an Interview with Michael Hudson
Dave Zirin
Maurice Clarett Gets Off the Plantation
Tracy McLellan
Oprah's Birthday Greedfest
Poets' Basement
Holt, LaMorticella, Guthrie, Subiet and Albert
Website of the Weekend
Progressives Scorecard: Where Do the Dems Rank on the Issues
That Matter?
February 13, 2004
Alan Maass
Kevin
Cooper's Fight to Live
Karyn Strickler
McCarthyism in the Sierra Club
Annie Higgins
On
a Street in America
Adam Federman
Democratic Snipers Target Nader
Mike Whitney
George W. Faces the Nation
Brian Cloughley
Our Imperial Leader Has Spoken
Website of the Day
Lying Action Figure Doll
February 12, 2004
Ray McGovern
George
Tenet's Spin Cycle
Robert Jensen
Bush's
Nuclear Hypocrisy
Saul Landau
Elegy to the Salton Sea
February
11, 2004
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Hail, Kerry: Senator Facing-Both-Ways
Steve Perry
Bush
v. Bush?
February
10, 2004
Kurt
Nimmo
Inquisition in Iowa
Ron Jacobs
Politics and the Beatles: Don't
You Know You Can Count Me Out (In)
Elizabeth
Schulte
The Many Faces of John Kerry
Mickey
Z
Meet the Oxmans: "The Rich
Shouldn't Sleep at Night Either"
February
9, 2004
Michael
Donnelly
Will Skull and Bones Really Change
CEOs? Inside John Kerry's Closet
Chris Floyd
Smells Like Team Spirit: the Bush
B-Boys Replay Their Greatest Hits
Bill
Christison
What's Wrong with the CIA?
Dr. Susan
Block
Janet Jackson's Mammary Moment:
Boob Tube Super Bowl
February
7/8, 2004
Kathleen
Christison
Offending Valerie: Dealing with
Jewish Self-Absorption
Jeff Ballinger
No Sweat Shopping
Dave
Lindorff
Spray and Pray in Iraq: a Marine
in Transit
Alexander
Cockburn
McNamara: the Sequel
February
6, 2004
Ron
Jacobs
Are the Kurds in the Way?
Joanne
Mariner
Anita Bryant's Legacy
Saul
Landau
Happiness and Botox
Kurt Nimmo
Horror Non-fiction: A How-To Guide
from Perle and Frum
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
The Real Intelligence Failure:
Our Own
February
5, 2004
Benjamin
Shepard
Turning NYC into a Patriot Act Free
Zone
Khury
Petersen-Smith
A Report from Occupied Iraq: "We Don't Want Army USA"
Mokhiber
/ Weissman
The 10 Worst Corporations of 2003
Teresa
Josette
The Exeuctioner's Pslam? Christian Nation? Yeah, Right
David Krieger
Why Dr. King's Message on Vietnam is Relevant to Iraq
Christopher
Brauchli
Monkey Business: Of Recess and Evolution in Georgia Schools
Norman
Solomon
The Deadly Lies of Reliable Sources
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Presenting President Edwards!
February
4, 2004
Brian
McKinlay
Bush's Australian Deputy: Howard's
Last Round Up?
Mark
Gaffney
Ariel Sharon's Favorite Senator: Ron Wyden and Israel
Judith
Brown
Palestine and the Media
Frederick
B. Hudson
Moseley-Braun and the Butcher: Campaign for Justice or Big Oil's
Junta?
Kurt Nimmo
Bush's Independent Commission: Exonerating
the Spooks
M.
Junaid Alam
Philly School Workers Fight for Fair Contract
Fran Shor
Whose Boob Tube?
Kevin
Cooper
This is Not My Execution and I Will Not Claim It
February
3, 2004
Alan
Maass
The
Dems' New Mantra: What They Really Mean by "Electability"
Nick
Halfinger
How the Other Half Lives: Embedded
in Iraq
Rahul
Mahajan
Our True Intelligence Failure
Neve Gordon
The Only Democracy in the Middle East?
Laura
Carlsen
Mexico: Two Anniversaries; Two Futures
Terry
Lodge
An Open Letter to Michael Powell from the Boobs & Body Parts
Fairness Campaign
Hammond
Guthrie
Investigating the Meaningless
Website
of the Day
Waging Peace
February
2, 2004
Gary
Leupp
The Buddhist Nun in Tom Ridge's Jail
Justin
E.H. Smith
The Manners of Their Deaths: Capital Punishment in a Smoke-Free
Environment
Tom
Wright
The Prosecution of Captain Yee
Winslow
Wheeler
Inside the Bush Defense Budget
Lee Ballinger
Janet Jackson's Naked Truth
Leonard
Pitts, Jr
For Blacks, the Game of Justice is
Rigged
Jeffrey
St. Clair
The Hollow Candidate:
The Trouble with Howard Dean
Website
of the Day
Resistance:
In the Eye of the American Hegemon
Jan. 31 / Feb 1, 2004
Paul
de Rooij
For Whom the Death Tolls: Deliberate
Undercounting of Coalition Fatalities
Bernard
Chazelle
Bush's Desolate Imperium
Jack
Heyman
Bushfires on the Docks
Christopher
Reed
Broken Ballots
Michael
Donnelly
An Urgent Plea to Progressives: Don't Give in to Fear
Rob Eshelman
The Subtle War
Lee
Sustar
Palestine and the Anti-War Movement
George
Bisharat
Right of Return
Ray
McGovern
Nothing to Preempt
Brian Cloughley
Enron's Beady-Eyed Sharks
Conn
Hallinan
Nepal, Bush & Real WMDs
Kurt Nimmo
The Murderous Lies of the Neo-Cons
Phillip
Cryan
Media at the Monterrey Summit
Christopher
Brauchli
A Speech for Those Who Don't Read
John
Holt
War in the Great White North
Mickey
Z.
Clueless in America: When Mikey Met Wesley
Mark
Scaramella
The High Cost of Throwing Away the Key
Tariq Ali
Farewell, Munif
Ben
Tripp
Waiter! The Reality Check, Please
Poets'
Basement
LaMorticella, Guthrie, Thomas and Albert
January 30, 2004
Saul
Landau
Cuba High on Neo-Con Hit List
Michael
Donnelly
Bush's Second Front: The War in
the Woods
Elaine
Cassel
Worse Than Jacko: Child Abuse at Gitmo
David Vest
More Halliburton News, Brought to You by Halliburton
Mike
Whitney
The Kay Report: Still Defending Aggression
David
Miller
The Hutton Whitewash
Sam
Husseini
How Many People Must Die Because of This "Mistake",
Senator Kerry?
January 29, 2004
Patricia
Nelson Limerick
John Ehrlichman, Environmentalist
Ron
Jacobs
Homeland Security and "Legalized"
Immigration
Rahul Mahajan
New Hampshire v. Iraq
Greg
Weiher
Bush Calls for Preemptive Strike on
Moon and Mars
Norman
Solomon
The State of the Media Union
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Does NH Mean Anything?
January
28, 2004
Kathy
Kelly
Bearing Witness Against Teachers of
Torture and Assassination
Hot Stories
Alexander Cockburn
Behold,
the Head of a Neo-Con!
Subcomandante Marcos
The
Death Train of the WTO
Norman Finkelstein
Hitchens
as Model Apostate
Steve Niva
Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
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Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click Here
for More Stories.
|
Weekend
Edition
February 20 / 22, 2004
An Aboriginal Boy
Dies, Chased by Cops
This
Week in Redfern
By VANESSA JONES
There is a boy dead in a city morgue. A teenager.
Thomas "TJ" Hickey. Dead at 17. How do you write about
death? About riots? About an issue no-one in power seems to want
resolved? The mad scramble of Australia as it is today. Inner
city Sydney Redfern. Put on some music. Whatever is on the player.
Hi 5 and Paul Kelly. And try and describe what happened this
past weekend. Before time and more life fades.
THE SCENE: Sydney, Australia. Feb 14,
Valentine's Day: An Aboriginal youth- Thomas "T J"
Hickey, aged 17 years. On his bike. Ends up impaled on a fence.
How did he get stuck on a high metal fence? He dies the next
day in hospital, from his injuries. Aboriginal people of Redfern
get angry. People say he was chased by police. Tensions boil
over. A riot takes place on Feb 15.
THE LOCATION: A slum corner of Redfern,
central Sydney. Eveleigh Street. A one way street. Runs parallel
to the railway line. Terrace houses, known as 'The Block".
Expensive area. Except for the block. Aboriginal housing. Dispossessed
people. Broken. Police on their backs. Lack of opportunities.
Fracture. Poverty. Drink. Crime. Violence. University students
getting the train in from leafy suburbs to Redfern pass Eveleigh
Street on the way to Abercrombie Street, on the way to uni. On
the way to a better world, a better future, by-passing Eveleigh.
TIME: SUNDAY FEB 15th: 9PM: 100 Aboriginal
rioters. Midnight: 250 police called in. 50 police injured. Before
Dawn Monday: Order restored.
MOTHER: The Mother of the dead teenager,
Gail Hickey, says in an AM
ABC radio interview with Michael Vincent on 16th February:
"MICHAEL VINCENT: Can you tell me
what happened when you found out about your son?
GAIL HICKEY: I don't know. I was terrified
and that. Wild and that. I wanted to go up to the police station
and smash the police station up, that's how wild I was. My 17-year
old boy was just coming down to get money off his mother and
then these dogs here, fucking end up killing my son. How does
a fucking 17-year old boy end up on the fucking fence?
MICHAEL VINCENT: Did you go to the police
station last night and tell them how angry you were?
GAIL HICKEY: I went yesterday morning.
I wanted to check the bike, check the bike out he was on. How's
he gonna...his bike, how's he going to get off his bike onto
that fence. These dogs up here done it.
MICHAEL VINCENT: You believe that the
police are responsible?
GAIL HICKEY: I believe it. The police
fucking killed my son.
MICHAEL VINCENT: What happened when you
went to the police station yesterday?
GAIL HICKEY: Oh, they deny it. They never
done it.
MICHAEL VINCENT: Did they show you the
bike?
GAIL HICKEY: Yeah, the chain's off the
bike and it's buckled the back wheel. I believe the bike been
hit by a car.
MICHAEL VINCENT: What happened yesterday
when you came home from the police station?
GAIL HICKEY: I was sitting down here
at Redfern, here all day with my friends and that and all I could
see was police driving round at the top, wouldn't come down Eveleigh,
only one car came down all day yesterday, they were intimidating
us they was.
MICHAEL VINCENT: What happened when that
police car came down yesterday? What happened to that police
car?
GAIL HICKEY: All my son's friends got
wild and that, started throwing things at him. They deserve what
they get."
Residents say they saw Thomas chased
by police. Then Thomas fell off his bike. Then he was impaled
on the metal rods of a tall fence. Died the next day in hospital.
Sunday after Valentine's Day. 17 years old.
SUNDAY RIOTS- WHAT HAPPENNED: Images.
DESIRES OF THE AREA: Developers want
it. Inner city-Redfern, part of it being an Aboriginal housing
area, now eyed off for it's prime inner city real estate value.
Developers. Sold to more upwardly mobile inner city cool high
earning business people, uni lecturers, film makers and designers.
An area gentrified in the past 14 years. Terraces sold for around
$100,000 15 years ago. One train stop away from Sydney's Central
station, a short walk to the prestigious University of Sydney.
But the Aboriginal streets of Redfern are a thousand miles away
from the best of Australia's living standards. Respectable street's
terraces costing $600,000 compared to a national housing average
of $200,000 or $300,000, depending on cities.
Poverty stricken Aboriginal Housing Company
homes. Drug dealing is planted there, goes the urban myth, to
passively destroy the community, in the hope of freeing up the
land for development. It's a meeting center for Aboriginal youth.
Anthony Mundine's Dad's boxing gym is there.
The Redfern Aboriginals hang on, however
dispossessed of dignity. By colonialism, unemployment, crime,
drugs and racism. Homes of disempowered Aboriginals. Burning
, destruction of the railway station. Sunday night. Breaking
window glass with raw hands. Dropping burning bottles onto passing
trains. Trains told not to stop at the station. Anger over their
mate's death. Their brother. Over everything. The last straw.
Police turning on the water hose of the fire truck the firemen
had left behind when they'd exited the scene. The riot squad
were not called in. Wonder why not. Rioting.
CAGED: The poison of being contained
within the occupied system. Dependent on welfare. The maze. The
need to get out, but the incapacity to get through the system
to get the employment/training/loans/self esteem/ self respect/
community's respect. The racism. The lost literacy and education.
The anger and despair. Get the police off your back. The pretending
to be Spanish/Maltese/Italian to get out/get a job/cut your ties,
or be swallowed up in the system that destroys and eliminates
your existence, your people, at the same time as making you dependant.
The social engineering, trying to run out of the maze of it.
Yet never quite knowing the way out before it traps you, or the
cop cars chase you, and you are cornered, impaled on the rods
of a metal fence. Already at 17.
MEMORY: As a kid, used to visit a family
friend there. Aboriginal kids knocking on her door asking for
an egg or a bowl of flour. Like neighbors used to everywhere,
when neighbors used to talk to each other. Before supermarkets
were open all weekend and all night long. And she'd talk in hushed
adult tones over a cup of tea about the police coming or a fire
down the road. As we were supposed to be playing outside in the
terrace courtyard. Coming in for a bikky or a sip of lemon cordial
and hearing fragments of conversation about those people down
the road.
Visiting a friend renting a terrace.
A fire in a metal drum in the middle of the street down the road.
Taking my son in, wondering about needles on the ground. Like
St Kilda beach. Searching for star fish- finding them, under
the pier.
SUNDAY- AFTER THE BOY'S LIFE CEASED:
Aboriginal people of Redfern in mourning. Police patrol the streets
insensitively, locals say. No consideration. History of harassment
by police. They won't leave us a lone. Riots broke out. Thomas
died Sunday. In hospital. He was on his way to get $20 from his
Mum. Told his girlfriend he'll be 10 minutes, and she waited.
He went to get money for food and cigarettes.
But he never got back. Police chased him, witnesses say, though
they deny it. Witness saw cops chasing. On Valentine's Day, he
never got back to his girlfriend. Got stuck up on a fence and
died. On Sunday local residents start putting up on telegraph
poles printed posters of most wanted cops. Aboriginal guys, after
hearing of their mate's death, the TV news screen becomes like
the anger of Palestinian guys on TV when someone's been killed
by Israeli forces. The occupied. The occupier. Death.
Boys and bikes. Violence. Flames. Stone
and brick throwing. The next day's/ that day's anger. The anger
of all the years. A brick at a policeman's head. They say police
chased a boy to death who ended up impaled on a metal fence.
Anger. Throwing. Water spray. Arrests. Young men. Shirts off.
Breaking and throwing. Then rounded up and arrested, after shots,
video tape scanned for identifications. Lock them up. The ringleaders.
Deaths in custody. Hatred of police. The cycle goes on and on.
THE LADY DOWN THE ROAD SAYS: "Well,
those dark people are always getting into trouble. Yes, I suppose
they were upset. They are very close, they live like that. At
church, we pray for them. My Minister used to do a lot of good
work for those people. God help us all. It's terrible, life these
days. These things never used to happen. Life used to be good.
Life is not like that anymore. We must pray to God for peace
and an end to all this violence." As Paul Kelly sings beside
me: "I keep my mouth well shut".
STRANGE COINCIDENCES: Last week a state
government train transport disaster. Commuters calling for the
Premier's head on a platter. Train commuters crammed into late
trains like sardines. Hot sweaty days. Late summer. Underfunded
trains delivering sub zero service. Newspapers actually talking
about it. Now riots take over first place in the media. Last
October, Sydney's public hospitals were exposed as under funded
and deadly. Avoidable deaths recorded and reported by brave nurses.
Breaking the silence to a listening media.
At that time, there was the coincidence
of ethnic violence- Lebanese gang shootings- drive by shootings.
Hard to find who was doing the shootings- the mysterious sideshow
detracting attention for government health disasters. First on
the news. Convenient distractions from state political disasters
of Bob Carr's government. Chance.
The chance of Aboriginal or Arab violence,
coinciding with the government's health and transport disasters.
Within 4 months of each other.
Yet one'd better shut up and not link
one plus one equals 2. Not think about the recent council rezonings
of Sydney by that Carr government. Not think about Redfern becoming
part of the amalgamated Sydney City Council and how Labor will
get voted in, with more people in government housing voting Labor.
And wouldn't developed Redfern bring in so many new council rates.
But that's unthinkable. Be positive.
BULLDOZE THE AREA: The opposition leader
of the state, John Brogden says "I'd bring the bulldozers
in." The developers would be cheering from the sidelines.
All those investors salivating like hungry wolves waiting to
grab a piece of developed Redfern. The Premier of NSW responded
by saying that by next year all "the Block" terraces
will be demolished. And, surprise surprise, development plans
will be finalized over the next few weeks. A riot is the perfect
political launching pad for bulldozing these areas. The electorate
have been revved up and prepared. "Those dark people..."
MY DIARY: That Sunday at 9:30 pm driving
back from Coogee Beach. Across the city. But not through Redfern.
Through McEvoy St, Alexandria. Instead of Redfern. There are
2 places to cut through the city from the sea. Redfern or Alexandria
. We did Alexandria, by chance. By 1 km, missed the riots. Didn't
find out til Monday- when a friend called. The riots. At 2pm
we found out about this city and what we'd missed by a whisker
of a kilometere, last night, with the kids asleep in the back
of the car, after digging sand at Coogee Beach and having a picnic.
Just the other week I'd been lost around Redfern and headed over
the railway bring towards the uni. Lost, but finding my way.
THE RESULT: There's a boy, a young man,
dead in a city morgue. Died after a police chase, witnesses say,
which police deny. A person lost. A boy killed. A boy with his
life ahead of him. Impaled on a metal fence on Valentine's Day.
As I go to bed, I think of his mother,
and how could she feel. And I can't sleep. Toss and turn and
shift. And I know that's why it's easier not to be Aboriginal.
It's easier to sit on the sidelines and watch, and be sympathetic.
To be in it would be unlivable, unable to detach.
Like an Arab watching Iraq blown to pieces.
In it. Occupied- physically or mentally. Attatched, no place
to sit on the sidelines. Your brothers, your Aunts, your people.
No way of sleeping, without feeling part of it.
Cut down in his youth.
Not the first, and, going by our colonial
history, surely not the last.
MEMORIAL SERVICE: On the net I read about
a memorial service, 2 hours ahead on Thursday. I think of going-
call the Aboriginal Legal Service to see if it's ok if non-Aboriginals
go along. "Anyone can come -it's open to anyone". I
didn't know why I wanted to go. Show sorrow/solidarity/justice.
I thought that if non-Aboriginals turned up, it shows people
care.
Like crossing the Harbour Bridge back
in 2000. The bridge full of people who cared about reconciliation.
A cold and windy day. I called Redfern train station to see if
the trains were running - no answer- is it still shut down after
Sunday's riots? I ring another station- yes, they are stopping-
"someone's probably having a smoko at Redfern".
Coming back, off the train, there are
still frangipanis on the tree. The kids are watching afternoon
TV. Some frangipanis on the footpath. I buy a drink on the way
home, it's so hot. The Block, Redfern. People came together on
that patch of earth next to a crumbling, broken down terrace,
with the railway line opposite. Hot sun. Media people. Aboriginals
and non-Aboriginals. A couple of church priests. I see the Aboriginal
politician Aden Ridgeway, in a suit, standing back in the crowd.
I see the Christian politician Fred Nile. He sits under the tent
that's been put up for the elders. I comment to a bloke next
to me how he takes the prime position. "Knows how to use
the media" the man next to me says. But the elders ask him
to move to the crowd, in the sun, to make way for the Aboriginal
elders. No-one is there from the Carr state government. Thomas
Hickey's mother, Gail, sits with grieving relatives, under the
shady tent structure. You can see the city skyline behind, behind
the crumbling brick terraces- Centrepoint tower. As Aden Ridgeway
commented later, the wealthiest and biggest city in Australia.
The man next to me says his parents were
English, and that he'd come to the opening of the Block 30 odd
years ago. 1973. When the then P.M. Gough Whitlam opened it.
Land handed over to the Aboriginal Housing Company, run by Mick
Mundine. He'd done his uni thesis on the taking away of Aboriginals
from their mothers and the brutal treatment kids endured at church
run orphanages. That most of the people on The Block were from
those backgrounds, or from distant rural areas. That the Block
had become a meeting place for rural people coming into the city.
And a focal point for activism.
There were a lot of young kids around.
The mini bus brought them in from school. One local kid befriended
a Channel 7 cameraman, wore his cap and earphones, and the cameraman
let the kid hold and look through his precious camera. Kindly,
and patiently, letting him stand up on a blue plastic milk crate
and see how the cameras worked. Cap on backwards. How the eye
of the media is created. It seemed to sum up what some whites
wanted. To be able to share and connect. It took very little.
But too often there were too few opportunities to do so. Other
cameramen raised their eyebrows. While a musician was singing.
When I arrived, there were a couple of
cops at the station. The windows were boarded up with timber-
where they'd all been smashed on Sunday. A section of the station
was screened off and sealed with timber. The turnstiles were
not working, and people walked through, ticket unchecked. There
were no cops down at the Memorial service. Just up at the station.
It was so quiet and simple. A no frills set up. Just the land,
a few chairs, a shade cover tent structure. The ceremony started
with the playing of the digeredoo. A woman spoke of sensing the
ancestral spirits alongside the people who'd turned up. A dancer
performed a traditional dance. People brought flowers. Non-Aboriginal
people, mainly women, stepped forward to place them in front
of the photo of Thomas.
I think many people had come to express
disgust at the whole history of police connections with Aboriginal
Australia. Police being the power structure which linked law
and land and people. The whole loss. Thomas Hickey's death was
tragic, but somehow to understand this death was to understand
so much of our shared history. One grain of sand within the whole
lot. To show disgust at the whole process was atleast to show
disgust. To do nothing would have been to do nothing.
An elderly woman told me that whites
just don't understand "us", "our" connection
to the land. That they just don't understand. She moves the earth
under her shoe. She says her Mum had lived on The Block. Says
that no-one's addressing the needs of young Aboriginal kids.
Drug and alcohol problems. Half the population
are under 18.
A visiting man brings over 2 six packs
of beer to a local crowd. At the end, people went over to talk
to the mother Gail, to offer their condolences. She was sobbing
with her relatives. The media cameras were clicking as each person
went over, so I just walked away quietly. Up the station, looking
back, once. Then the train I wanted came, and I was gone in a
flash. The warmth of those people speaking together had left.
A businessman opposite me, an Arab guy standing looking out the
window. 2 Asian girls sitting chatting in school uniforms.
The Aboriginal people and even the politician
Aden Ridgeway, spoke of having no powerful say in the direction
of policies. But as the train sped away, I felt that few Australians
had a say in policies that affected their lives. Money had the
say, for access to education and healthcare, and there were millions
of Australians going home from work that afternoon who had little
say in their future, or the future of Aboriginal Australia. Who
could guarantee that they'd get excellent tax payer funded health
care at an emergency admission to hospital?
Who could say that the local primary
school offered equal to expensive private schools? Why is university
education getting dearer and dearer, and those who can pay can
get in before those who can't? We are all tied up in these policies
and results together. It is not only Aboriginal Australians who
are denied good education and skills access. It is a challenge
we must all take up, and realize, for all of our lives, however
weary we are after a hot day at work, on a crowded train home.
Vanessa Jones
lives in Sydney. She can be reached at: post4@bigpond.com
Weekend
Edition Features for February 14 / 15, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Milk Bars, Hollywood and the
March of Empires
Jeffrey St. Clair
Oil Grab in the Arctic
William A. Cook
Faith-Based Fanatics
Stan Goff
Beloved
Haiti
Dave Marsh / Lee Ballinger
Rock, Rap & the Election
Hughes / Weiher
Tupac, the Patriot Act and Me
Michael Colby
Bush v. Kerry: the Power Elite's Dream Ballot
Mickey Z.
Michael Moore's Lesser Party: the General and the Lieutenant
Josh Frank
Dean's Demise No Big Loss for the Left
Peter Wolson
The Politics of Narcissism
William James Martin
Clean Break with the Road Map
Daniel Estulin
Religious Extremism in Africa
Standard Schaefer
The Privatization of Culture: an Interview with Michael Hudson
Dave Zirin
Maurice Clarett Gets Off the Plantation
Tracy McLellan
Oprah's Birthday Greedfest
Poets' Basement
Holt, LaMorticella, Guthrie, Subiet and Albert
Website of the Weekend
Progressives Scorecard: Where Do the Dems Rank on the Issues
That Matter?
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