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As everyone knows, ever since the end of apartheid in South Africa, Australia has stepped in to assume the role of world leader in white racism.

Amazingly, Australia recently accused an Indian cricketer of racism when he allegedly called this Aussie player a monkey:




The judge appointed to decide the case has now ruled that the Indian player is innocent of the charge, because he didn't actually say the dreadful word monkey, he only called the Australian by the Hindi term 'teri maki' which simply means motherfucker. That's alright then.

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This controversy may now be over, but another one is coming up. The new Australian Prime Minister has vowed to open parliament with a formal apology to the Aboriginal community.




While some well-meaning commenters believe that "a government sorry means that Aboriginal people can get on with making their lives better", others are wondering what will happen if Aboriginal leaders refuse to formally accept the apology. It's going to be very interesting. This debate has come along just in the nick of time for the Aussie media - for a while there it looked as if they might have to start focussing on international events.

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Last time I was in Australia, I was stopped in the street and asked whether I was for or against saying sorry. I said I was strongly in favour of the British PM apologising for the Battle of Culloden and the Scottish highland clearances.

tourist information about New South Caledonia

This scenic cablecar is one of the many tourist attractions here in New South Caledonia. I haven't tried it yet but they say the experience is quite electrifying.

a year's worth of social life

My New Year's Resolution to spend even less time with deifheids was trashed on January 2nd.

What a big day it was! First off, we met up with the pictish hordes from Australia, and it all worked out fine. I was so excited to see these people after 16 years, at one stage I thought I was going to faint. We walked for an hour, then breakfasted for an hour, then walked some more. Just long enough to exhaust all that we had to say to each other. Any longer, and it would have got boring. We'll need to wait another 16 years so that we can forget the whole conversation and talk about it all over again. And paying for their food was a rite of passage for me, after all the freeloading I did at their place.

In the afternoon we met up with El Hermo, and I must say he was in better shape than the last time, 2 years ago, when he had just split up with his Spanish woman. You have to watch this guy though, like many people who have had serious drug careers. When he heard that my bliss partner is going away for 2 weeks, he said he'd move in at my place, because "you'll be lonely". I had to explain that I never get lonely, and besides the home brew is alco-free.

Then in the evening there was a birthday party for acquaintances-becoming-friends. I hate parties but this one was relatively low-key, and after 2 hours of wallflowerdom I got into party mood and the partner had to drag me away. There was 20-year-old eye candy, there were flirtatious 50-year-olds for playful conversation, and there was a guy who told me how I could make a packet doing what he's doing. He does specialist IT work that I only teach about, but I've taught it so often that I could probably actually do it in a company. If I could ever be bothered.

I think maybe I'm beginning to understand one reason why people go to parties: in one hit, you fill up your tank of social contact, then you don't have to see anyone else for months. That's a great return on investment.

PS - don't you hate it when someone you told about something years ago, forgets that you were the source of the info, and tells you all about it? Two years ago I recommended bliss pills to El H. Now he's recommending them to me.