ideas: from the world
How faith, and America, can heal
The Trial of the Catonsville Nine is many things Australians dislike about Americans: political, patriotic and preachy. But unlike the worst of the United States, the play is also deeply questioning of its place in the world. It prosecutes American exceptionalism and the greyness of, and uneasiness between, faith and justice.
TRIP: Food Lover’s Guide to KL
MALAYSIA DAY 10-12: I feel like Maeve O’Meara (and if you don’t know the reference, shame on you). I’ve had my Food Lover’s Guide to Malaysia, and it was delicious. A wok toss away from the so-called Golden Triangle entertainment district around KL Tower, this food market is where the locals come to eat and shop. You just follow your nose to the best makan (food).
TRIP: Crazy KL and gentle Albert
KUALA LUMPUR DAY 7-9: The Petronas Twin Towers are grandiose monuments to modern architecture and a modern city; all steel and glass reaching to the clouds and glinting in the sun. They were built, shamelessly, as a sign to the world that this city, and this country, had come of age. Yet in so many ways that seems premature.
TRIP: Snake-wear is hot in the City
SINGAPORE DAY 5-6: Way to make friends when travelling alone: wear a boa constrictor like a scarf in front of a couple of hundred people. Instant acclaim, serious kudos. It was my own fault for sitting in the front row of the Night Safari’s Creatures of the Night show. (It was magic.)
TRIP: To shake, or not to shake
SINGAPORE (DAY 3-4): Don’t shake hands with anyone. Ever. After almost 48 hours in Singapore, I feel I can speak with authority in offering this crucial piece of advice as a hapless foreign tourist. Nothing is more important.
TRIP: If you never, never go…
DARWIN (DAY 1-2): I think what all this shows, definitively, is that Darryl Sommers can’t be trusted. Frankly, at least when it comes to Darwin, if you never, never go, what you’ll never, never know is possibly not worth knowing.
Life, art under Belarus’ iron rule
Real democracy never came to Belarus. When the USSR collapsed and the landlocked race declared sovereignty in 1990, its people were subjected to more Soviet-style uncompromising rule. It is the only dictatorship left in Europe, with a human rights record to match it would seem. The clampdown on civil society by the ‘elected government’ has, for many, been brutal. And yet a small theatre group risks prison and beatings to speak out.
The importance of ideas
“Just once in a while let us exalt the importance of ideas and information.” Those are the words of pioneering American newsman Edward R. Murrow. I love the quote, and his many others like it. It may sound a particularly high-minded agenda for what will inevitably be another inconsequential blog-of-consciousness. But I reckon it’s a good place to start.
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