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2020-04-22
Jan Fran- Text From Facebook Post
I have included Jan Fran’s name in this only because the facebook post was public and she is an established political commentator, but I was somewhat anxious about publishing her words in this way. When I first saw this facebook post it honestly probably took me about a week to get over my sheer rage at the amount of money Jeff Bezos has personally made profiting from the pandemic, which wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t for that fact that his personal wealth is so staggeringly incomprehensible already. I read the other day that he has pledged a billion dollars to charities in the wake of coronavirus, which is just under a third of his personal wealth. How is it that one man can accept brownie points for donating a billion dollars in a context when he can justify keeping nearly two billion dollars in personal wealth while income inequality is a driving force in the deaths of over a hundred thousand people in his own country alone. How can anyone can claim to have ‘earned’ or ‘deserve’ such a staggering amount of money in a world rocked by a global pandemic is just so incomprehensible. Jan’s point about this false trade-off between the health of the economy and safety, which is made on so many levels above and beyond public health in a pandemic (because funding free education is bad for the economy rather than billionaires) is so striking, and I can only hope there are enough people who are more disgusted with the two billion dollars Jeff Bezos decided to keep than there are wanting to pat him on the back for donating the one billion. -
2020-05-26
Homeless being turned away as cool weather pushes Safe Space shelter to capacity
As Tasmanians, saturated in the flood of online media content, look on at the state of the world, feelings range from extreme anxiety, compassion with those in crisis centres, to smug repose (“at least we are not in that country”). This last response seems particularly rife today, but it struggles to conceal an inherent coldness which we don’t otherwise normally like to attribute to ourselves. Not only does this attitude overlook that fact that we have our own dead, or that the cost of life is of a value that far outpaces numerical value (comparing our figures with death-tolls in other places), we ignore those without home in the very place in which all of us are meant to dwell together. Prior to the lockdown, Tasmania’s capital city Hobart underwent a housing crisis. But as we wait on Canberra to get things moving along - exactly as they were before or, even better than before - we should keep in mind that not everything is possible just because money is behind it. To return to the housing crisis: this challenges all of us to think about our responsibility towards those forgotten in our own home. Genuine responsibility begins with compassion, not money. I feel like, too often, we reverse the formula. -
2020-04-26
The Awakening
The awakening of the collective; mind, body, soul and the beginning of the end of industrial society - a New World Order I was living and working casually at a children's outdoor education centre one day I was sitting on my sofa the next I was on the street. Week 1 - all casuals laid off Week 2 - All full-time staff cut back to half hours Week 3 - all staff living on centre given eviction within 72 hours Week 4 - homelessness and couch surfing Week 5 - Self Isolation & Family Week 6 - Family Feuds & Domestic Violence Week 7 - A run in with Police whilst living out of my Car Week 8 - My own place new beginnings Although life has thrown many curveballs I struggle with mental illness and addiction - now the world knows how it is to feel in social isolation - depressed, alone, unmotivated, unwanted, uninspired and ironically for those of us who have lived with mental illness our entire lives are no longer alone in our suffering. I shaved my head to symbolise being reborn into a new world order - one of hope, health, compassion and understanding with the soul & spirit being central to our livelihood.