Oct 21, 2009

Wilmingburg Murder-Suicide a Marriage Indictment

When Jose Wilmingburg held the gun to his head at 8:17am on a Monday morning, he ended the life of a family that by all accounts should have been happy. Jose was a CAT scan technician at his local hospital, where he'd met his partner 25 years ago. Jose married the oncology nurse and the couple raised four beautiful children. The children were average, regular kids. In fact the eldest, Frederico, was a young up-and-comer in his school football team. The coach later spoke to the press, explaining how Jose would drop Rico off at training and stay around to watch, speaking to the coach in order to get the best tips for his son's practice later at home. From Rico to the second youngest were all boys - George and Robert. They all adored their youngest sibling, a two year old girl, Vanessa, and made sure her every waking moment was overseen by one of her brothers. A neighbour joked they treated her as if they were her bodygaurds on rotating shifts.

Their home life was normal and Jose's work at the hospital started for the most admirable of reasons - he simply wanted to help people. Raised by his grandmother and father, Jose saw the effects of degenerative Alzheimer's slowly rob his Nana of her mental faculties, and he vowed to learn how to prevent the same fate from befalling others. His marks at high school and college were modest, but his pleasant attitude got him into the local hospital and under the eye of his supervisor. Mr. Geraldo saw his employee's aptitude for gadgets and encouraged him to join the technician's field. From there, Jose picked his favourite machine, the CAT scan, a device used to pick up irregularities in the brain, and continued working with the machine for 10 years. Jose's workplace was normal.

The only abnormality was his partner, the oncology nurse Maria. Jose was married to a woman.

"I admit, I thought it was odd to say the least, but he's my son, so I supported him 100%." Mr. Jose Wilmingburg Sr is the spitting image of his deceased son, only the ravages of time have tanned and wrinkled his face. He looks at a photo of his son as we compare it with an old photo of himself. "I'd heard the stories from town and some of the more nosy family members actually wanted me to intervene. Especially when they decided to have kids. Oh lordy, my sister was horrified. But like I said, he's my son, and I loved those grand kids, no matter how strange it was that Jose raised them with a mother."

It's all these regularities that might throw one off the scent of why Jose took a shotgun to his wife and four children, then took his own life. Money wasn't a problem, but it wasn't free flowing either. The couple had both been fired just a month before for forging a supervisor's signature in order to get the children into a publicly funded child care centre. But surely this isn't enough to throw Jose off the deep end and commit an act considered the most unnatural - the murder of his own offspring and the person he loved most. The woman he loved most.

I think it wouldn't be a shock to admit that the family wasn't normal. A man living with a woman and raising children isn't the most sane of ideas. The debaucherous elements of the couple's 'lifestyle,' couldn't be hidden from the absorbent minds of their kids. Even the most avid TV watching child is aware of what mummy and daddy are doing in their bedroom. It's not just celebrities who are weak against their own dark appetites or damaging habits.

Jose and Maria, by all accounts, were completely normal except for one glaring difference. The family, despite their particular penchant, were described as happy and healthy by even the most ardent protesting neighbours. A happy, healthy family man does not creep into his children's room and pull the trigger.

We cannot and would not dream of diminishing the dreadful circumstance, most of all for the surviving grandparents who now must see their children and grandchildren buried, but another sadness of this tragic story is the blow struck to the happy-ever-after myth of heterosexual marriage.

Not all male-female couples are cast from the troubled, some might some depraved molds of Bonnie and Clyde or Michel 'Virgin Hunter' Fourniret and his wife Monique Olivier, a heterosexual married couple who, over the period of 16 years, lured virgin girls into their midst so that Fourniret could rape and murder them while Olivier watched. But the murder-suicide of an entire hetero family forces us to ask some serious questions about the viability, morality and at the very least, safety of a male-female marriage.

It would seem that yet again the quiet peace of the suburbs is ruined by the steady seep of a dangerous and uncertain lifestyle. Perhaps the Wilmingburg family is the wake up call we all need.

Edit: Unsure what triggered this blog post? See here.

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Oct 10, 2009

Australian Racism

There's a prevailing attitude among the everyday people of Australia that the Hey Hey Jackson Jive skit was not in fact racist, and that it's a storm in a tea cup. Meanwhile, the rest of the world is displaying emotions that range from curious amusement, disappointment, right up to outrage that this skit appeared on live TV. The host Daryl Somers, Channel 9 and the lead performer himself, Dr Anand Deva have all apologised. All three have taken up the shield of ignorance, stating it was never their intention to offend.

There can be no denial the performers were in blackface, but maybe a lot of Australians don't truly understand what blackface is? Here's a definition from Wikipedia:
Blackface ... is a style of theatrical makeup that originated in the United States, used to take on the appearance of certain archetypes of American racism, especially those of the "happy-go-lucky darkyplantation" or the "dandified coon ".[1] Blackface in the broader sense includes similarly stereotyped performances even when they do not involve blackface makeup. White blackface performers in the past used ... shoe polish to blacken their skin and exaggerate their lips, often wearing woolly wigs, gloves, tailcoats, or ragged clothes to complete the transformation. Stereotypes embodied in the stock characters of blackface minstrelsy played a significant role in cementing and proliferating racist images, attitudes and perceptions worldwide. In some quarters, the caricatures that were the legacy of blackface persist to the present day and are a cause of ongoing controversy. By the mid-20th century, changing attitudes about race and racism effectively ended the prominence of blackface makeup used in performance in the U.S. and elsewhere.
The Jackson Jive was a blackface performance. It was originally performed 2 decades ago, during the 1980s - a time, clearly, when racism was more present. Today, Australia lives in a globalised world with the United States one of its most dominant economic and military powers. In this world, our leaders are or should be trying to puch us further towards the centre of stage. Ours is a lucky country with potential and intelligence. But how can we be a part of the world and ignore our strongest ally's own advancements in civil rights? The nation now has a Nobel winning black President, in a land where blackface originated and where black people were lynched.

And here are five Australian men, an Australian TV network and a television show known as a national institution doing blackface. What. Were. They. Thinking? Whether they meant to offend or not, it was racist. What were the producers and the network executives thinking? Or, in what era were they thinking from? One of my biggest complaints has always been that the gatekeepers of Aussie arts and entertainment are old men with outdated, foolish attitudes to the world. No more clearly is this represented than when a TV exec or producer, someone who should be fully aware that YouTube, viral videos and the Internet means that what you put on a national screen has every possibility of being seen by the world for weeks to come, and who have chosen an American actor and singer to appear on the show, would then put blackface in front of the cameras.

It reminds me of your old uncle, in his late fifties, making all sorts of racist jokes at the Christmas dinner table. And you know he's (probably) not being malicious, he just honestly doesn't know any better. He's the product of his time. You might smile thinly or leave the room, but you find solace in the notion that maybe he says these things, but he'd never turn his back on a lynching or shoot an Aboriginal in a carpark if no-one was looking and he knew he'd get away with it. Growing up, this example was everywhere, with all the people I met in my outer suburb childhood. The attitude towards people of different skin was also hostile, negative, but thinly veiled and only ever in the privacy of homes, during family dinners or in front of the TV. But it was there, and I got the feeling it was in the majority of homes in Australia. I worried, most certainly justifiably, that it was something in me, from my own upbringing. And it made me sad.

Sad that as a nation, we stunt our own growth. I hope that this country can be a shining beacon, a nation who became strong without wars to liberate, but who used education and social responsibility to export both goodwill and knowledge along with traditional trade, to become recognised as a peaceful, happy, friendly, strong country of advancement and civility.

But let's look at the buffoons who stand in the way of that hope.

From the various articles I read online, the most infuriating parts came from the comments section, where these everyday Australians cemented the current world view of our nation (all quotes are sic):

K from Mackay 
Well, the fun police strike again Harry needs a uniform,baton and a whistle! i thought it was hilariously funny and i'm a black fella!
Luke from Melbourne 
Harry is not suited to Hey hey, hes too uptight, he needs a dose of reality and clearly has the typical USA mentality.
Scott from Adelaide
Where was the racism? The comment prior to the Jackson Jive coming on was "a tribute to the Jackson Five". So that, for all the people claiming it was racist, should have told them otherwise prior. Get over your arrogance. They respected Michael and his family, but you don't.
Certain Australian news sites also had user polls, asking variously if the sketch was racist, tasteless, funny. The results were either divided down the middle or skewed in favour of the notion that the skit was not racist or offensive. Some might say, "Well, see, the poll says no." I say, why do you even need to poll on that!? Of course it was racist, and the very fact that our nation can be divided on that in the first place is both sickening and sad.

Yes, the sketch was based on one that won Red Faces 20 years ago. That's the point! Shouldn't we be watching this from 20 years ago and thinking, "Oh god, that's embarrassing, we used to think that was OK." That sort of racism used to be acceptable, but now it's not. All that argument does is show that the arguer is stuck in some bizarre time warp where the rest of the world didn't realise they were being horrible to black slaves and started trying to repair the damage done. If thinking like an American means I find racism offensive, then someone give me a greencard! Do you really want to revel in that sort of thing? Do you really want to shrug off the evil connotations and horrid history of blackface by saying, "Nah, it was just a joke!" What sort of person does that make you?

Harry Connick Jr. was on the show and he did not like it. He stood up and demanded satisfaction. He did what thousands of his countrymen for hundreds of years did not do: he stood up for civil rights and against mocking and patronising and other instruments used to demean and keep down an entire race.

I think this whole debacle exposes that inherent racism in the Australian character. A racism born from isolation and cultivated by ignorance - a special sort of ignorance. For while we educate ourselves in science and medicine and technology, the education in social responsibility and global understanding is lackluster. Being clever in other areas lets us keep the racism hidden. Australians live in a multicultural country, but yet I say we're racists? It's a strange sort of racism, an amorphous blob that only takes shape when events like these pop up. It's racism by stealth. It's a bottom-up racism. Our leaders, our public people, they wear the badges of moral and social responsibility so that we don't have to. A politician openly encourages multiculturalism. An Australian citizen tolerates it, buts mocks it ruthlessly behind closed doors.

Look at the culprit, one Dr Anand Deva. I truly don't believe he fully understands what racism is when he says:
I am an Indian, and five of the six of us are from multicultural backgrounds and to be called a racist ... I don't think I have ever been called that ever in my life before. Anyone who knows us as a group, we are intelligent people, we are all from different racial backgrounds so I am really truly surprised.
When asked whether he would have performed the act in the US, he replied:
Absolutley not!
He just doesn't get it. He seems to think that just because he's Indian and his cohorts were from different backgrounds, then they are exempt from being racist - the idea of which is in itself racist! My point is, he doesn't seem to understand. A lot of Australians don't, and I think they need to be educated. Better, they have the internal drive to learn and educate themselves. Racism isn't something restricted to the borders of the USA. It isn't something that exists only between white Westerners and African descended black Americans. It's a worldwide plague that is very simple in its thinking, but lethal in application: to discriminate or negatively affect in any way one person or group of people based on the colour of their skin or cultural background, because it is different from your own. That is racism. That sort of thinking caused blackface to become popular, as white Americans slapped their knees during minstrel shows and remarked boorishly, "Oh ho! Look at that stupid nigger!" The Americans realised, finally, in the 1960-70s with civil rights movements and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr right up to now, with the first black President, that that sort of thinking was wrong at the most fundamental level of humanity.

And now, here in 2009, Australia shows a bunch of ignorant fools doing blackface.

I'm not saying we should surgically remove our sense of humour; that we should batten down the hatches and become a police state. I just think there are parts of our national character that need work, just as the most stable and respectable person is constantly striving to better him or herself. We are a great country, but to ever be as great as our potential, we need to be able to look at ourselves and make changes. We need to think more, to intellectualise, to drag ourselves out of the slow, sometimes backwards crawl of our social advancement. We need to look to those that have shown the way, and we need to be open to the idea that we can and have failed, but that we can learn from those mistakes and rectify our future.  Australia is a country of greatness, but it could be greater still. Isn't that something you want to be proud of? Isn't that something we can acheive?

Oct 9, 2009

Editing

I'm an editor. I do a lot of editing for work. I just came out of editing for months on end, in a row. I mean, there were no weekends, no going home to rest. I'd been editing in a little room without a window. It had just enough space for a desk laden with monitors and drives and a keyboard, then my wooden kneeling-stool fits comfortably underneath. I didn't have a chair because they said it wasn't cost effective, but that's alright. Editing is its own reward, and the kneeling-stool improves my posture. There's enough space, if I push the stool out, to sleep under the desk. If I keep the door closed and the computer on overnight, I keep warm. It's alright though, I'm an editor. We do this sort of thing.

Did I also mention I'm an artist? Yeah, being an editor is the same thing as being an artist. I was being an artist just the other day, in my little room, bathed in the glow of my screen. I was cutting footage and it struck me, "Wow! I am such an artist!" I flashed back to when I first started being an editor, er, an artist...an artistic editor. I felt pretty cramped, pretty yucky being in there all day, but after a few days, I remembered that artists have to struggle for their arts. I totally struggled. My knees are now giant big tree knots. I can't really straighten my legs all the way out. How much of being an artist is that!?

Heaps I reckon.

I finished up editing though. I came out into the light today, blinking tears out of my eyes because the sun was too bright and I wasn't used to it. I noticed the world looked kind of square and pixelly, which is good, because that means I see differently to other people. That makes you an artist too, did you know that? I also thought as I walked home, "Gee, I sure wish I could cut this bit out and jump cut to being home. That'd be neat." As soon as I thought that, I laughed knowingly and gave myself a little high-five, because I realised that now I think differently to everyone else, and that means I'm an artist too. When I got home and greeted my girlfriend for the first time in months, she gave me a really big hug. She was super happy to see me. I was happy too, so happy I didn't even complain when my feeble ribs fractured just a little bit as she squeezed me. We had dinner and went to bed, but I felt like something was wrong. I tossed and turned for a bit but then it hit me: I'm an artist now, but my girlfriend isn't! I got out of bed immediately and signed my girlfriend up for some editing jobs online. There weren't many though, so I also filled out writing applications too. Writers are artists as well, even if they're not as good but, so it's alright if she's one of them.

It might be sad if I have to break up with her because she isn't an artist, but that's what you have to do if you want to be an artist. I am an artist already, so I have to do it. You don't have to be artist, but you won't be as good as me and other people who are artists too. I was told that's not rude, it's just the way it is, so I'm allowed saying it.

Boy, I can't wait to start editing again...does being an artist wear off over time?

She's an artist too!


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Oct 3, 2009

Polanski Can Suck It

RT @droob: Way to be a dick, film industry http://bit.ly/8te6u


What the hell? He raped a kid! He gave up his freedom when he broke the law. So what, just because Polanski goes on to make great films, he should be granted immunity? What the fuck does cultural significance have to do with a rape case? And since when was a film festival a sacrosanct holy land where the law doesn't matter? By their logic, footballers should be allowed to break laws if they win a superbowl a few times, and should never be arrested on their way to a game.


I'm sorry, but Polanski got to avoid facing the justice system for decades. To bitch now is a slap in Lady Luck's face. Now he gets his day in court, and if found innocent, then there you go. If guilty, he committed a crime! And if Scorsese, Lynch, Woody and the gang don't like it, they can pay for his lawyers and appeals - but don't stand in the way of your country's justice system, you arrogant fucks.


Jeez. I mean, who the hell said these filmmaking pricks were in charge of extradition law and court procedure?


Oh, and to top it all off, Polanski’d already pleaded guilty but fled before sentencing, while appeals are still open to him anyway. He's a freakin' fugitive by the very definition of the word.