Homesickness and the Bali Bomb

[Tony Hartin <t.hartin@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi all,

Had to share my impressions as a homesick Australian in London on
hearing the news of the car-bombs in Bali. First of all had to admit to
a surge of emotion - despite all my anti-nationalist training...i put it
down initially to simply being homesick - similar thing to what I felt
going to the Walkabout in Soho to watch the aussie rules grand final a
few weeks ago.

My second impression was shock...have got quite used to thinking of
Australia as a bit of a sleepy hollow. Mind you - not in terms of
protests, strikes and all round rebelliousness - I feel very proud of
the left-wing tradition in Australia. How good was it to see 50,000
marching through Melbourne on the same day against the obscenity about
to be conducted in the Middle East - that would have to be the biggest
anti-war protest for 10 years.But the shock has more to do with thinking
that Australians would be immune from this sort of car bomb thing....
this was obviously a fools paradise...but it led quickly to my third
impression

My third impression is anger. Anger at what our fucked up ruling class
has led us into...anger at how they are going to use this to justify
further obscenity. Does this not underline how much more and how quickly
we have to push the anti-war movement forward? I want very much to hear
from Gary, Tom and other Australians as to how this being taken back
home.

I know conspiracy theories are already being floated. In a way we don't
need to believe them to make a very strong anti-war argument. But we do
know that the US DOES engage in conspiracies, we do know that the CIA
abroad have been let off the leash and we do know that a lot of the
terrorist bombings of the 70s were carried out by the right in order to
discredit the left. Like others I feel very suspicious of things like
the bombing of that French oil tanker...why the fuck would Al Qaeda do
that when the French are wavering??
Likewise the anti-war sentiment in Australia has been very strong.

yftr,
Tony Hartin



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