An economic-cultural crisis is in the works

Guy Rundle has a couple of articles up on Crikey in which he proposes a post-capitalist system that "reverses the current relationship between culture/society and market/economy so that the former determines the latter and not, as currently happens, economy dictating to society and culture."

A neat excerpt:

2) Relocalisation and decommodification -- the current culture economy web of capitalism is based on an implicit social contract, that no-one ever signed up to. Under this contract you work longer and harder, while the price of essentials -- especially home ownership -- are ramped up into lifelong servitude to payment to institutions. The pay-off? Cheap consumer durables and entertainment services.

Forget the civilisational critique of this for a moment -- on its own terms, it pitches the whole society into trembling economic fragility in which a whole way of life is based on Xmas sales, and shopping becomes an essential patriotic activity.

Of course this can't continue -- but the expectations it has raised in people cannot be assuaged by any shift to a harsher economy. A half-century ago, you could get people to work 48 hours a week for a weatherboard, a radiogram, a pub counter meal once a week and three course meal when their daughter got married. Any breach of the current contract -- 50 hours in the office partition for $12 cocktails and DVD box sets -- ain't gonna fly.

Protestant capitalism cannot be re-established after consumer capitalism. And consumer capitalism cannot continue to sustain the Western economy. An economic-cultural crisis is in the works.

and later he says..

a left vision grounds itself ethically on the notion -- promulgated in the great religions, secularised by Kant – that humans should treated each other as ends, not means.

This is from the final part (part three) of Guy Rundle’s rather in-depth but interesting musing on the state of the modern Left, and it's vision of the future.
Part two - "The past and future of the Left" and part one - "The Australian can’t tell its left from right" are also online at Crikey.

smile!

I've stuck up a few photos of our Sydney travels (Surry Hills and a capoeira roda in Newtown) on Facebook if you want to check them out. We're currently in Melbourne for new years adventuring... photos will be sure to follow.
More importantly, tomorrow i'm off to the MCG for the final day of the test match against Australia... where SA will (hopefully) make history and win the series! Who would have thought this possible after our dismal batting on day two? Forgive me if i have a smug grin on my face for the rest of the week!

the longest day

On Sunday I'm playing in the Longest Day Beach Ultimate Tournament on Sydney's North Narabeen beach, with some friends from Canberra. Billed as Australia's top beach tourney, I'm looking forward to it - especially the boxes of fruit that they bring in for refreshments! Beach, sun, ultimate, fruit, ocean, summer... aah.. what more could one want?
Seeing how much we enjoyed Sydney last time, Julie and I are going to make a weekend of it. We found some budget accommodation at the Quaker House in Surry Hills, so are leaving tonight. Tomorrow we will squeeze in a capoeira class with Mestre Roxinho, window shopping on the colourful Oxford street, dinner in Surry Hills and maybe some more big city excitement.
Today is also the last day of work before the Christmas break, so this is a great way to celebrate the end of the year. Woohoo!

the Ultimate YMCA national convention

I back on the Frisbee pulpit again this weekend.
(I'm assuming that to mean that my previous 'sermon' went down well.)
Australia's YMCA are having their National Convention in Canberra this weekend, including a multi-faith experience/service on Sunday morning. As the convention’s theme is ‘Active and Involved’, Gordon (who seems himself to be active and involved everywhere) thought it would be good to have a Frisbee ‘stall’ alongside the Hindus, Buddhists and Muslims.
So, after the Aboriginal smoking ceremony, and a welcome by Julia Gillard (deputy Prime Minister of Aus), delegates can pick two of the five ‘experiences’ to attend for this multi-faith service: Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism or Ultimate Frisbee!

Here’s my little blurb for the flyer:

Active and Involved – Ultimate Frisbee
Frisbee: (friz-bee) n. archaic – ancient fertility ritual involving graceful movements and the symbolic passing of a upturned round bowl. Accompanied by negotiations over alleged infringements or errors. Long abandoned by civilised societies.

“We used to say that Frisbee is really a religion - 'Frisbeeterians,' we'd call ourselves. When we die, we don't go to purgatory, we just land up on the roof and lie there” Ed Headrick, inventor of the Frisbee.

Ultimate Frisbee is not really a faith, but it is followed and played with as much devotion as if it were. Learn about the ‘spirit of the game’, how to play, and why it’s a great devotion to have. Perfect for being ‘active and involved.’


I’m interested to see who chooses the ‘Ultimate path to enlightenment’! ;) If you want to, we’re at the National Convention Centre in Civic spreading the good news of frisbee. The program starts at 9:00 this Sunday.

BrisVegas here i come!

Tomorrow at 6am I, and 44 other Kaboom compadres, make our way from the ACT up to the fabulous BrisVegas for the 2008 Australian Ultimate Mixed Nationals tournament. 24 teams from around the country, 3 days of competition, 3 games per day... and a casino themed party on Sunday night - should be a really good time!

Canberra is sending 3 teams along to mixed nats... pretty good going for a small city. I managed to make it into the Kaboom A team - playing alongside some very talented folks. Follow the news on the mixed nats site, or look for a report on our blog. And, if you are in Brisbane (what are the chances!) look out for us in our smashing yellow shirts:BTW - I've no idea why Brisbane is fondly called BrisVegas. Canberran's don't have much idea either. Someone told me that it may be because there are a lot of neon lights in the city. I'll have a look and tell you.

Oh, and i'm also going to meet up with a high school friend of mine - Jimmy Nixon - who moved to Brisbane 8 years ago. Should be good to see what he's up to.

It's snowtime!

One of the things i really wasn't expecting to find here in Australia-land was ... wait for it... SNOW! I mean, come on! Isn't it a just big desert island with some beaches and good sportspeople? Apparently not. Canberra is actually in an area with a inverting snowline (I'm not really sure what that is... some garden survey guy told me on monday), and gets snow every couple of years. It hasn't snowed in the city yet, but with these freezing cold temperatures, it sure it trying hard. Canberra is also a mere 2 hour drive from the highest hill mountain in the country, which incidentally is also home to the best ski-slopes in the country.
Last weekend there were record snow dumps in the Snowy Mountains, so we joined the Rathbones and headed out to Thredbo to see for ourselves. Julie's three younger cousins (Dayne, Luke & Rory) went really early and spent the day snowboarding, while the rest of us caught a ski-lift up the mountain to see the view and grab some tasty food and Lindt hot chocolate. Jules and i spent a bit of time out in the snow, before retreating back into the restaurant to eat. I'm still trying to get my head around the alpine-like town in the middle of Australia! Just to prove i'm not fabricating the whole story, here is the evidence:

Me, Julie, 'Uncle' Alan,Clyde & 'Aunty' Glynis at Merrit's Chairlift

one of the slopes

idyllic!

Snow in Australia? Who would have thought. Our next little adventure is a weekend trip out to the newly discovered Egyptian pyramids in the Outback (200 miles south of Darwin). Pyramids? Who would have thought!

bungendore...

Glynis (Julie's aunt) took us to Bungendore yesterday. It's a little farming/artist town 40 minutes out of Canberra. It also has a fun name, that rolls off the tongue rhythmically. It reminded Julie of Howick, and reminded me of Dullstroom. Quaint little red brick houses, antiques, brick-a-brack, art and good food. All rather scenic and picturesque and all. Everybody seemed to be enjoying it, from the bikers on their breakfast run to the elderlies on their community outing. We even enjoyed it! We saw some fantastic wood sculptures at Bungendore Woodworks, and mesmerising aboriginal art at a beautiful old house. The aboriginal story is something we are trying to learn more about. How's this painting:
Here's the local hotel and a bookstore:
And here's the road on the way to Bungendore. After a few hills and eucalyptus forests (no Koala Bears unfortunately), you come out into this pastoral scene. Very similar to SA scenes.

the (new) state of gareth...

... is now in ACT.
(Australian Capital Territories, that is. Technically its a Territory, and not a state, but who's being technical?)

Julie and I arrived here two weeks ago. It all happened so fast, so i guess i can back-track some:

The Canberra Journals #1: The prologue
We were exploring working overseas for a bit, tried Seattle, went and got jobs, but the not-so-friendly Dept of Homeland Security wouldn't play along when it came to Jules' visa. So, in the midst of our despair, Julie's cousin (a famous/infamous rugby player) happened to give her a call. "Hey Cuz, we've been looking for someone for our company, the Aussies are not good enough, and we want YOU!" he said, sounding a lot like pre-war Uncle Sam posters. So, we thought about it, and fought about it, and wished it were anywhere but Aus-land.

In the end I got over my issues with Australia, we appeased our shocked friends, and decided to give it a go. The tome of visa papers went in, and 10 days later we had an email in our inbox telling us we had a 2 year 457 working visa. Wow. We weren't too sure what to do with it intially, as it came so soon. But, being the intrepid adventures that we are, we looked at our calendars, Julie resigned from work, I finished CPE, had a week at home with respective parentals, said goodbye and boarded flight Quantas flight QF64 to Sydney on June 1 2008. (phew)

The Canberra Journals #2: The arrival
We disem-boarded in Australialand 17 hours later.

The Canberra Journals #3: First steps
And here we still are! The first few days we allocated to sight-seeing. We covered all the sights in an afternoon and then slept for the next 3 days! I'm exaggerating a bit, but it is a small city and after a few days we pretty much had the inner north, south and civic sorted. Julie started work Monday last week with Healthfutures, and that left me to deal with the cut-throat world of the Canberra rental market. It's crayzeeee! On Thursday we secured a nice little apartment for a not so nice price (prices here are exhorbitant) in Turner - a suburb in the inner north, a couple of block from the city centre, and two houses down from the Quaker meeting house! We move in there on the 24th, sans any furniture or anything! We will start with a matress on the floor and paper plates. Things can only get better from there so watch this space!

G'day mate.

Hello...

... from Canberra. ACT. Australia.

Yes, it's true. This is coming to you live and not-so-loud from the planned, not-so-sprawling metropolis of Canberra, ACT, Australia. It's like DC - a planned capital city with its own state - but not. It's small and quiet and clean and full of bush. Not W. Bush, small 'b' bush. They call Canberra the 'bush capital', because its a city built into the surrounding nature. It's rather pretty, athough cold and dry at the moment. The suburbs remind me of 1960s farm towns, the horses and hills remind me of the Natal midlands and the bush reminds me of the Eastern Transvaal. The kangaroos are just wierd, and i'm still getting over the fact that people actually plant bluegum trees here!

So yeah, that's where i am. Canberra. Hello.