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In Defence of Flavour
On the off chance that you, informed leftist, had not heard, I hereby nudge you toward food ethicist Michael Pollan His work, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, is a staple in the pantry of ethicureans. His new work, In Defence of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto engages with consumer practice. The genesis of the text, apparently, was this wildly popular piece in the New York Times. “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants,” he begins in order to combat both unsustainable gutsing and the all new disease of orthorexia.
No. I hadn’t heard of it until today either.
This disorder describes the condition wherein an individual is excessively fascinated with the nutritional value of their food. It’s the by product, Pollan suggests, of an additive happy culture. Extra Folate, More Omega 3 and Reduced Fat are symptoms of a harmful and burgeoning western obsession. Which itself is the upshot of corporate cooking.
“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” Do this and bypass the packaging, the blank promises and scant nutritional merit of food marketing.
The true lure for me of an urging like Pollan’s is its powerful simplicity. Food ethics represents the concurrence of flavour with action.
Tags: health Comments (0)
Papal apology?
The Pope had a lot to say about sexual abuse when he was in America recently. It’s now being reported that there’s “pressure” on him to repeat his apology to victims specifically in the Australian context, when he’s out here for World Youth Day. I have no doubt Benedict will, and I suspect the pressure in this instance isn’t needed. While an apology promotes healing for individuals directly damaged by clerical sexual abuse, it doesn’t address the broader problem, and nor do the protocols the church now has in place for dealing with complaints and reparations, welcome as they are. What should be quite familiar to Benedict is the concept of “structural sin” - something originating in liberation theology which he in his incarnation as Cardinal Ratzinger acknowledged as a valid manifestation of human evil and wickedness, even as he disagreed with the political and some of the theological overtones of liberation theology as theorised and practiced in Latin America (and in - significantly - Germany).
The Pope would also know very well that in Catholic sacramental and moral theology, an act of contrition and indeed an act of reparation are worthless without an awareness of the fault that led to a sin, and a genuine intention to “go and sin no more”, as Someone or other put it rather pithily. All this raises the question of whether the conditions of possibility of sexual abuse are genuinely being addressed.
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Australia’s disaster preparedness
As aid finally starts to filter into Burma in the wake of Tropical Cyclone Nargis, the Australian Stategic Policy Institute has published a timely paper warning that Australia is far from prepared should a similar natural disaster strike here.
Entitled Taking a punch: building a more resilient Australia, the paper examines Australia’s disaster preparedness and finds it wanting. Despite Australia’s relatively good performance in dealing with minor disasters like Cyclone Tracy, the Ash Wednesday fires or the Bali bombing, Australia is in fact poorly prepared, argue the paper’s authors, David Templeman and Anthony Bergin.
Australia has in fact never had to face a natural disaster of the scale of Hurricane Katrina, the 2005 Tsunami or Tropical Cyclone Nargis. Templeman and Bergin argue that our emergency services and public hospital systems are ill-equipped to deal with the massive surge of casualties caused by a “big one,” and that Australia’s ageing population and reliance on volunteers mean the problem is likely to get worse. Moreover, while many Australians assume the Australian Defence Force is equipped to deal with natural disaster response, in fact the ADF does not see this as its core business.
In the wake of the hysteria generated over terrorism in the Howard years, it’s a timely and sobering paper.
Tags: refugees , environment , defence Comments (0)
George Megalogenis and Kevin Rudd: Anti-culture warriors
I’m quite the fan of George Megalogenis’ journalism, for a number of reasons. Unlike too much of the instant analysis which passes for political commentary which almost always sticks to a singular press gallery script, Megalogenis has an eye both for longer term political trends, and a desire to connect psephological and political observation with social research. My caveat would be that his matching of census data with electorate level voting patterns is methodologically flawed in two ways. Correlation doesn’t imply causation, and the selection of particular variations doesn’t make them necessarily independent or even intervening variables. But, nevertheless, Megalogenis does two things which are praiseworthy - he tries to tell a bigger story than the horse race, and tries to relate the horse race to bigger changes. That’s actually something Paul Kelly used to do well, albeit with a big dash of neoliberal orthodoxy colouring his interpretations. These days Kelly appears to have well passed his use by date, so it’s good to see Megalogenis has taken the step from newspaper punditry to book level analysis.
But for all that, if you’ve already read his The Longest Decade, I wouldn’t recommend spending another 30 bucks for the revised edition, which promises to take the story up to the Rudd victory. You could save your pennies and click this link, because the essence of the few chapters Megalogenis has tacked on to the end of his story of the rivalry between Howardian and Keatingite versions of Australia is summed up in one relatively short blog post.
But there is one insight in the new bits of The Longest Decade that Megalogenis hasn’t excerpted in the shorter short version, which is a pity because I think it’s key to the difference between politics John Howard style and politics Kevin Rudd style. Continue Reading »
Tags: polling , media , brendan nelson , liberal party , democracy , labor , john howard , federalism , culture wars , kevin rudd , coalition Comments (0)
Miley Madness!!!
Of course, we’re waiting for our beloved PM (and now one of the world’s most influential, it seems) to respond to the Miley Cyrus brouhaha. Given the man’s (a) fondness for chic celebrity and (b) bluenosed disposition, it seems only natural that he will soon call Graydon at Vanity Fair and demand an explanation. (And perhaps a good table at Ye Waverly Inn.)
Further to Mr Dumpling’s musings, I wonder aloud: what in heaven’s name is all the fuss about? The average drive to work or journey through an evening of television will reveal images of pubescent women far more wanton. And these young women did not have the opportunity to discuss the nature of their abasement first with Susan Sontag’s widow.
Greer, a visual culture hobbyist, unpacks the image here. Echoing Senor Dumplings concerns (no doubt the polemicist turned to New Matilda before accepting a commission from The Guardian) she says,” It is Disney, after all, that is merchandising this child.” Not Conde Nast.
VF continues to effect what it has so ably for the last fifteen years thanks to the work of artists like David LaChapelle and Leibovitz. Viz. creatively parrot the visual resonance of particular celebrities. Miss Cyrus was already sexed up. In affording her the style of a dirty postcard era, Liebovitz simple made explicit what was heretofore implicit. (Although, I’d argue, not that frigging implicit.)
I do not have children. Due, in large part, to the terrifying fashion choices they are bound to make. If I did, I think I’d happily have their Pixie Fotos taken by the great Annie.
Tags: kevin rudd Comments (0)
Even Annie Leibovitz would have problems with this
The latest Vanity Fair issue finds itself surrounded by a panic stricken media, outraged at photos by Annie Leibovitz of Miley Cyrus. It’s generally agreed these are unbecoming of a 15-year old.
Both Miranda Devine and Andrew Bolt promptly prepared their cut & paste ‘what about the children?’ response. The global reaction is partly because Miley Cyrus is fifteen but it appears also in part because she is Hannah Montana from the Disney stable. Well Daniel Brook at Slate has a picture promoting a Disney product … from a billboard in China nonetheless.
Miley’s pappy, mullet-endeared Billy Ray apparently left the shoot ‘early’ before all the sexualized mayhem broke out. Annie Leibovitz has a well documented history of taking photos of famous people naked. It’s arty, usually tacky and Glenn Close did a great impersonation of her on Will & Grace a few years ago. I wouldn’t leave my daughter with her for three minutes.
I’ve been boycotting Billy Ray Cyrus for years and would be happy to extend this to his daughter and the Disney empire. Makes sense, no?
Tags: online media , censorship Comments (0)
Incest problem? Ask Australia
While reporting the Josef Fritzl scandal in the town of Amstetten Austria, poor old Fairfax Digital appears to have become caught up in the debate which continues to confuse people around the world. That is whether Austria and that other country slightly south of the northern hemisphere are not in fact the same place.
Perhaps police everywhere now recognise Australia as a world leader on such family matters…..
Funny what happens when you retrench all your sub-editors:
Tags: online media , media Comments (1)
Chinese Army playing dress ups?
There is an image doing the rounds of the interweb. Members of the Chinese Army holding what appear to be Buddhist monks robes. Some are saying the photo was taken ‘before’ the riots took place in Lhasa. Make of it what you will:
Tags: china Comments (2)
To those who have, even more will be given
Perhaps our Christian Prime Minister has been reading Luke 8:18. I suppose we’re lucky that those who have little won’t find even the little they have taken away from them, but Andrew Leigh and Peter Martin are surely justified in asking why a fairly dodgy election promise to start with is being implemented in such a way as to disproportionately reward those who are already well off.
The redesigned scheme, due to come into effect on July 1, works like this: Every dollar that first home savers put into an account - up to a maximum of $5,000 - will be matched by a government contribution of 15 cents.
Except for Australians earning more than $80,000 per annum. They will get a government co-contribution of 25 cents for every dollar they invest. Really. …
Unless they earn more than $180,000 per annum in which case they will be blessed with a government contribution of 30 cents per dollar they invest.
That’s right.
Wayne Swan’s made much of creating incentives to save. I can’t for the life of me see why high income earners need public incentives. I thought we’d had enough middle class welfare under Howard. Now it seems we’re to get upper class welfare under Rudd.
Tags: housing , labor , lindsay tanner , wayne swan , liberal party , peter costello , poverty , john howard , coalition , kevin rudd , tax , interest rates , economics Comments (0)
Fantasy Tax
And so, it appears that the lissom Mr McKenney has sought counsel from a source more refined than Lionel Hutts, Attorney at Law. Said replacement may have told Todd to hush. And, perhaps, not employ his radio program as a forum for gags.
This, of course, has very little to do with politics. Nonetheless, such giddy excess does dovetail with the concerns of Kev. One hates to employ the shopworn phrase Nanny State. And the temptation to do so in view of Mr Temperance Union if he did not, in fact, make the average nanny appear like Timothy Leary in contrast.
It was suggested to me by someone who may or may not be a principal of New Matilda that there’ll be a GBH excise before the week’s out. Heh. I laughed.
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