aquí, ahora:here and now

Getup’s latest campaign is to get a rewriting of Paul Kelly and Kev Carmody’s classic From Little Things, Big Things Grow to #1. It’s a good track, laying spoken word over spoken and purred lyrics, and those around samples from Rudd’s Sorry speech and Keating’s address at Redfern (a far superior oration).

Politics and music is one of my favourite combinations, and this song is ripe for reworking to tell new stories. There’s something about it that I’m just a tiny bit unsure of, though. I think it’s that although a lot of indigenous artists were involved in the singing of it, the peaks of the song are focused on Rudd and Keating. It sort of seems pollie-centric, or something.

After seeing the video clip and having a bit more of a think about it… perhaps I’m just being hypersensitive. It’s not like there are no indigenous voices present, and really, the Apology was about white Australians, and white men in power in particular, taking responsibility for what’s happened.

Rudd: As Prime Minister of Australia, I am sorry.
On behalf of the Government of Australia, I am sorry.
On behalf of the Parliament of Australia, I am sorry.
And I offer you this apology without qualification.

To say sorry means to give respect
It’s long overdue
Now you failed to imagine
What if it happened to you

Now they’re not only words now it’s not just a symbol
Accepting the past, well it’s not always simple
When thinking of yesterday
We live for tomorrow
We can’t face the future now
Till we face the sorrow

Now under the colours
Of red, yellow, and black
We say “Never again”
We’re saying “No turning back”

From little things, big things grow
From little things, big things grow
From little things, big things grow
From little things, big things grow

Lighting up the path
With good in our heart
See the more that you love
The better for all
So he sang as he walked
And together we stand
For us all to stand tall
We must all play our part
[Rudd: “indigenous and non indigenous”]
Tears within our grasp
Yes forward we struggle and all we’ve achieved
Would be nothing if greed was the only motivation of man
So we can love one another, and with respect for each other
Rudd: Reconcile
[Moving?] Forward, together

From little things, big things grow
From little things, big things grow
From little things, big things grow
From little things, big things grow

There are moments in the lives of nations
Where hope and history rhyme
and now’s one of those times
Let’s close the gap and if we truly mean it
we can stare down our future and find
we can see through those eyes
And let us not stand with those who deny

Keating, from the Redfern Address: It seems to me that if we can imagine the injustice
Then we can imagine its opposite
And we can have justice

From little things, big things grow
From little things, big things grow
From little things, big things grow
From little things, big things grow

[repeat]

Indigenous man: All of us are one, because we are human
And if I cut you, you cut me, what comes out?
Red blood, not different colour blood, only red blood. Yes.

The other day I attended the celebration of a donation that the Rotary Club of Cuernavaca Nuevos Horizontes made to a local medical centre.

This centre is located just around the corner from my host counsellor’s house, in a ‘nice, middle class’ area, but the facilities are, if I’m being polite, modest. Around 40 patients are served every day by the three doctors and two nurses who run the clinic. They’re not specialised: they cover prenatal and maternal health, paediatrics, addictions, family planning, dental care, nutrition, and, often, emergency first aid. A consultation costs just over $2.50, but many patients are unable to pay.

The computer that David’s club donated is the first one they’ve had in their 13 years of operation. The idea is that they’ll be able to streamline their recordkeeping, analyse patient data, andd create health promoting material for distribution. As you’ll see below, healthy messages here are often home-made!

It was heartwarming to watch this ceremony, and to see the positive work that my host Club is doing here. I just hope that the clinic staff will receive IT training that will allow them to benefit from the donation.

1. Everything is spelled phonetically, so once you know the rules it’s virtually impossible to mispronounce a word.

2. The regional slang is brilliant. I suppose it’s the same with English, but I don’t notice it in my mother tongue. My absolute favourite word is the Chilean word for ‘mullet’ (the hairstyle): chocopanda. Chocopanda!

3. The word love, amor, is stronger than the English equivalent. We use it all the time, for everything: I love icecream, I love my cat, I love this song. In Spanish, amor is only used between people deeply in love.

Querer  is used in many situations where we’d say love. It means to want, to like a lot, to care for. You can use it with friends or lovers. It’s kind of in between liking someone as a friend and feeling romantic love, and gives you the option of telling someone you like them a lot without having to pull out the L word.

Yet another, gustar, expresses that something is pleasing. Instead of the action being on you, “I like it”, it’s the thing that acts: “it pleases me.”

You know the story about Eskimoes and their many words for snow? What I love (heh) most about Spanish is that they need so many for expressions of caring and devotion. Says something about a culture, I think.

Classmates of a 13-year-old Bangladeshi school girl due to enter a forced marriage have united to stop the ceremony going ahead

It’s always great to see young people — any people! — taking action to right wrongs. Children are among the most vulnerable in any society, but let’s not do them a disservice if by assuming that they cannot or do not break out of passive victim roles.