Your heirarchy’s more heirarchical than mine!

Recently the MSA’s interaction with the Wholefoods Collective has been one of antagonism and somewhat amusing bickering. Most of the argument that has any real substance centres on the application of differential pricing in the cafe and canteen-thing. That is, the MSA has brought out their community card (that has ‘benefits‘ for those willing to pay the hundred and something dollars and is discussed by kernel here) and was trying to get/force Wholefoods to charge $2.40 for my coffee and $2 for those weirdos with community cards. Mr. Haywood and the Wholefoods Collective emphatically said ‘no’ a few times, had their new coffee cart taken by the MSA (behold the might, the power… oooooh boogy boogy) (see this right-wing, but amusing and pertinant rant about hippies, Wholefoods and the coffee-cart) and eventually (I discovered this semester early one morning) started charging me $2.40 for ’strong’ ‘lattes’. Apparently one collective member has gone on strike but in such a way that means either the other wholefoods employees do his work for free, or (as has been happening) he comes into work anyway without being paid. (Recently, more recently that the writing of the above text, another collective member is striking – they have a long letter too, it says they’re a woman)Aaaanyway, for a long time Mr. Haywood has referred to many members of the Go!, alp-alligned faction, as ‘Go!-bots’ – a reference to the existence of ‘headkickers’ and a ‘heirarchy’ of ideas and influence within Go!. In turn, Go! members have referred to Mr. Haywood as Chairman Glen – alluding to his despotic, i suppose, control over the Wholefoods Collective. Surely no one is saying there has to exist absolute equality of contribution of faction members, and for equality of having-ideas-considered or something. This argument has gone nowhere for a long time! Why not try and critique eachother’s actual actions? However, thrown into the debate for the first time since the engagement or whatever, Zoe had a go at Mr Harwood’s “1950s-esque” relationship with “missus” Kellan. Mr Useless has complained of not being ‘bullied like this since highschool” and needing a good cry. What a nice sensitive man. Why can’t he be left alone to run his ‘ethical business’ with his friends and family?

“The Chairman Under Fire For His 1950’s Lifestyle”.

“I have read the sexist dribble from Chairman Glen for months now and chosen to ignore it because its only purpose was to create sensationalist opposition to the current decisions of the MSC. However Iam sick of the assertions that men are pulling the strings in Go! and that somehow I’m just a stupid little girl go-bot who does whatever David Taft tells me. For starters Glen, you want to see a hierarchy and the patriarchy in action watch the mahinations of the Wholefoods Collective. You speak and everyone jumps; that’s a hierarchy! Yes there’s a hierarchy in the MSA, there’s a President, and a clear change [sic] of command, but one that is accountable to democratic structures, student council and a student general meeting. I believe in open, visible hierarchies, because they also bring responsibility and accountability.

I take responsibility for every decision I make, and I’m not going to hide behind other people. Its possibly time you fess up and join the liberal party, because moving in with wifey, and spouting Pro VSU propaganda is all looking a little too 1950’s Australia.

Your comments are sexist, no one is pulling my strings. I like all members of Go! come to MSCas a free individual who chooses to exercise a right to vote collectively at MSC on the political platform we were elected to pursue. Go! is not a boy’s club, which is more than I can say for the last Activate administration who had an all male executive (2005- Nick, Jonno and Ollie). So don’t call me a Go-bot and don’t say others are making my decisions. Women may defer to men in the politics that your’e involved in (and by that I mean the Greens and the Young Libs), but in my caucus the matriarch is strong.

Zoe Edwards
President of the MSA”

Well, I think ‘Chairman Glen’ is an inappropriate term for Mr Haywood. Wholefoods Collective is more like a gang; with a family head and disposable hired-hands. As everyone knows, work makes us free. And all my friends are lazy.

*

Last year the Wholefoods Collective was responsible for the exclusion of a Monash student, the constant targetting of this student by security and the daily presence of security at Wholefoods. This was ostensibly concerning his attempt to break into the Wholefoods office when he was locked out. You’d have to say that this ‘break-in attempt’ was part of a protest, given this students prior treatment, and I think it’s fair to say (now) that Wholefoods is against this kind of protest. Well, at least not against the use of security in settling disputes.

This followed a long debate, for which I was wholly absent, that started with an article that the student had written with the help of Mr Haywood. It concerned religious fundamentalism in the form of Zionism and the state of Israel as an imperial force to be protested. Between this and being expelled from tertiary study by the collective, the student was accused of Sexism (a claim without explaination, and a mystery to me), Racism (in referring to a collective member he had forgotten the name of – who is possibly techniquely darker-skinned than the student in question – as “dark-skinned”) and anti-Semitism (over the article? or over some comments in collective meetings. Not sure, but I would never refer to him as anti-Semitic). These are all extreme charges, and appear to fit more with the polemic nature of arguments used by Wholefoods Collective than with the student’s actual beliefs or actions.

It does not surprise me that I have heard of Mr Haywood’s involvement with the article only a few times, and never from ‘that’ side of the debate.

Welfare

Went to check out the survival centre as i was hungry and hung-over and not feeling up to risking the shops i’m beginning to be recognised in. In there was some packetted soupy things, but they had actual bread this time. I had picked up about eight loaves the other day, so that didn’t inspire me. Finally I saw the survival centre’s greatest prize! Bottled water! There was a sign on it:

FREE WATER!

Bringing clean water to students
living in third-world conditions and
(apparently) dying of thirst!
(Now even more convenient
that regular free water…
it’s bottled!)

-The Welfare Dept.

Which I thought was nice. Possibly the highlight of my day.

Soviet cartoons and sci fi

Here’s an amusing cartoon about Hitler. Ok, not that amusing. It’s black and white and cute and not much else.

Here’s a sci fi cartoon about some sentient planet that gives people magical powers. Not a better analogy for capital exists… HA!

Here’s a sci fi called Andromeda Nebula. There’s only ten minutes of it… couldn’t be fucked finding the rest of it, or the next episode or whatever.

three hundred minute countdown

Ah jesus… there’s like five hours until i can get drugs.

can’t force myself to sleep, too drunk to read, nothing on TV
and i only have like six friends… one is in sydney, one is busy writing the course they will take next semester, one is packing for a trip to italy and the other three are parents and wouldn’t appreciate me coming around to hang around while I wait for my pay to come through at midnight

In other… news… apparently inspired by autonomy, mi goreng and Nietzsche and sounding like “freezing a grape and rolling it in sugar and licking it then taking a bite” is a band known as Abrasive Grape. One of its members (Petite Sirah or Muskat Krymskii, I can’t work out which) is a friend of mine (the one leaving for Italy) who provided me with a whole twenty minutes distraction with this site. They made a CD yesterday.

Back in the Game, Mean Revolutions and more Dr. Katz

I’m still living at my papa’s. With the free rent and food and internet and occasionally money if it’s left lying around. I am trying to move out again, though. Really. With all the enthusiasm I’m capable of.

Dad and Karen are on holidays now. They left last week, and I’m guessing they’re hoping I won’t be here when they get back. They kindly left me some food in the fridge which I ate all of several days before my payday. I also have no tobacco to scab. I stumbled out of bed yesterday to look for food but found nothing but cereal (and no milk). I decided to check ‘kitty’ on the off chance dad left some cash. There was fifty bucks there! So I promptly went out and bought fifty dollars worth of drugs and came home, opened the fridge and went “oh yeah! that’s right… fuck”. So I grabbed my 85 cents and left the house.

I asked several strangers for cigarettes with less than 20% success rate until I started offering money. Nobody accepts your shrapnel, scoffing at how poor that implies they are, but the success rate is almost 100%! Next I stole two mars bars, a kitkat, two potatoes, pasta and 500g of beef from the supermarket. It’s good to have my independence back.

*

The other day someone I know was trying to convince me to vote. At one point they said “I can give you thousands of reasons to do with you being white and male.”
Sure… bet they’re the most fucked up reasons imaginable.
Reasons… I should vote? I mean, we all feel white males are dangerously underrepresented.

*

I was once told that revolution is not morally permissible because it is wrong to take something from people that have become used to owning that thing.
I agree, I mean, with that whole abolishing slave-labour thing those poor slave-owners were really fucked over. People should have waited until they saw the errors of their ways and gave up their slaves willingly.
(The response was ‘no no no, that’s different’, though I could not ascertain ‘why?’.)
It’s that whole moral relativity thing. The ‘what is right depends on your culture, so be all culturally respectful and nice and stuff’ thing that also applies to ‘what is culturally permissible now is right’ that seems to exclude any chance for social change and critique and justifies almost every institutionalised exploitation and injustice.

*

Moralising makes me cry. I hope this fact keeps you up at night!
For every act of moralisation you make, a black baby loses its innocence.

 

*

Mitch Fatel: I’m a great boyfriend, i would do everything for her. coz I’m whipped!
Dr. Katz: uh huh
MF: i never complain when i get sent out on errands. that’s how you know you’re a boyfriend, Dr. Katz, when all you’ll do is just get sent out to get stuff…
K: well…
MF: and you look forward to it, coz you get to see other guys at the store, you know
K: mhmm
MF: I’m walkin’ around and i’m like, ‘hey stan! what are you sent out for? lemme see your note… oh! i need pads too, let’s walk together.’ and when you get sent out to get something, you’d better get exactly what you were sent out for, or you get sent right the hell back! to stand on the line with the other reject boyfriends. and they don’t want to talk to you, you know. like the guy in front of me he’s like ‘what are you here for?’, and I’m like ‘*sigh* *groan* um, i bought a spanish onion and i needed a yellow onion.’ and he’s like ‘what’s the difference?’ and I’m like ‘*sigh* that is not for us to ask! i’m not even supposed to be talking to you!’

Mitch Fatel: some guys have sex with a plastic doll, is there a name for that Dr. Katz?
Dr. Katz: no, not yet.
MF: i would never have sex with a plastic doll! i’d feel so stupid, you know. all my friends’d be like ‘I’m really stupid, I locked my keys in the car.’ and i’d be like ‘thaaat’s nothing, last night i had sex with a balloon!’
K: yeah

Mitch Fatel: i don’t want to just be famous doc, i want to be rich! i want to be like super-rich, you know so like where i could buy anything i want. like if i’m walkin’ down the street and i see a dog i like, i can be like ‘I wanna buy your dog!’, and the guy’ll be like ‘my dog’s not for sale!’, and i’d be like, i’d take out like a hundred thousand dollars, and be like ‘I think I’ll call him harry,’
Dr Katz: right
MF: and he’ll be like ‘go to your new master harry.’

Mitch Fatel on Dr Katz.

*

Louis: anyway, so actually the truth is I was in jail because I was speeding, and um… igot pulled over, and i don’t have a driver’s licence.
Dr Katz: Oh Louis!
L: I never got one.
K: Yeah…
L: well i went to the place, to get… you know… and there was a like line… and you know
K: you need… you need a driver’s license!
L: i kind of like the fact that every time i get pulled over, even if its for a broken headline, they have to take me jail. So i don’t have to kiss the guy’s arse, i have to… get you say anything i want, really. because…I mean, what’s he going to do, take me to extra jail?
K: right…
L: you know, the guys like “d’you know how fast you were going?” “I dunno, like a million!? I dont.. like… Hey! ya fat pig!”
K: mm…

And then the shitty recording on dailymotion stuffs up.

 

Wholefoods. the Forces of Darkness. (some quotes. links. votes. and burning cars.)

I’ve had a few Wholefoods-types talk to me about how the venue can get fined for letting people smoke where stipulated under Victoria’s new laws. AND that this includes the Wholefoods balcony as it has three walls… or something. I mean, the special thing about Wholefoods balcony (even now that we have security presence daily) is that everyone has always got away with doing all drugs in all forms and methods (except the really good drugs and methods of course) and not a single thing has and will happen. I’m… suspicious…

*

There’s a cute little poster ad for Wholefoods volunteering that has an arty picture of a person moving a spoon from a mug to their mouth with a thought bubble that says something like “If only I didn’t have to eat coffee for lunch again.” And then some slogan about volunteering at Wholefoods for a free meal. Wait, listen… And then some slogan about volunteering at Wholefoods for a free meal. Like, hang on… “If only I didn’t have to eat coffee for lunch again.”…

I’m thinking of adding something else that says:

Forced to eat coffee for lunch again? Only enough money to cover your dependency – which we supply – and hope that its appetite-suppressing nature tides you over for the day?

Well have no fear! You can hand over all your cash to your favourite caffeine-dealer and eat by working for us in a special loophole which means we can pay you in just enough food to sustain your existence at uni for today (and ensure that you keep coming back to Wholefoods for your daily fix). Flexible hours!

Avoid the alienation of wage-slavery and subject yourself to direct, grassroots, local-level, democratic, queer-friendly, environmentally sound slavery for bare-minimal sustenance!…

“Volunteer” for Wholefoods today!

What do you think?

Unfortunately the poster was not there when I checked today.

The defense I expected (and heard) when bringing these issues up was along the lines of; ‘Yeah, but that’s not how Wholefoods works, it’s volunteering! People do it because they like Wholefoods.’ The question is… do I bother responding?

I say: no. In fact, I’m bored of Wholefoods already.

*

On a note not entirely dissimilar, I was done by The Forces of Darkness (aka metcops) the other day. Something I said (no doubt something awfully diplomatic) made them respond with “it’s only a job!” which immediately reminded me of the slightly less banal circumstances that led to the wife of an injured g20 cop saying “he was only doing his job” (because jobs don’t ever involve the risk of injury, right? Or shouldn’t? Get back to me when someone has a plan for all police and army positions to be risk-free). So… what then? We go ‘poor working class persons, forced to force me to endure capitalism.’ Does that mean that no-one should be held accountable for their actions if they are employed to do it? So no one has any meaningful choice when it comes to employment and no one has any meaningful control over their own lives. Well, yes, sort of. But I’m very sure that these were not intended consequences of the claim to be ‘only doing one’s job’. I think the interesting point is that commercial news stations thought it was pro-conservative to have someone say that their husband was ‘only doing his weapons-trained, conflict-dependent, violent job’ when those pissy uni students broke his finger (or whatever it was that required something like a stitch and an hour in hospital).

*

In other news… I’m FUCKING poor, thanks to Victoria St., Richmond.

*

the value of TOTO’s vote.

*

Fuck… I had 19 views on my blog yesterday. It must be because I commented on rosa sparx’s blog. She’s a real blogger… in the scary way… Apparently I’m supposed to contact her to link to her site. She also seems to have lawyers… like… for her blog. Still, she’s responsible for one of my favourite quotes (which I stole, without contacting her or her lawyers. oooooh!)… even if her lawyers say it’s just crappy poetry.

*

I am so freakin’ tired. Not sleeping… can’t remember if I had any mix left, but can’t decide whether it’s worth the effort to go and check. Of course, the obvious dilemma is that I won’t know if it’s worth the effort until I check, but I’ll still try and work out the odds… trace my steps… etc.

*

Now that’s an anti-summit protest.

search engine results, stupid quotes and a burning car

I was google-image-searching drugs and found so much inspiring shit.

There were these banal “tests” for addiction that went something like this…
Are you addicted to your drug? A questionnaire test:

Do you ever say “that’s better” after taking ‘your drug’?
Do you ever say “ah, fuck, I’m sober again!”?
Have you ever walked for more than 12 hours to get your drug?
Have you ever devised a plan of more than 20 steps to obtain your drug?
Have you ever committed more than 5 consecutive crimes to get your drug?
Have you ever beat a stranger for more than 7 consecutive hours for withholding your drug?

Surely, if you’ve ever defined “you drug”, you’d be thinking about addiction already.

Actually, in a recent telephone assessment for the provision of an ‘out-worker’ or outreach worker or something, the person on the other end (I don’t remember names on the phone) asked me which of the drugs I consumed on a regular basis was “my drug”. I hadn’t ever felt the need to define which drug is “my drug” – just which I want… in me… now – so I was taken aback and asked “what, like, if I had unlimited money and time and freedom and…” and fell into a brief daydream before answering the question.

* * * * *

Oh man… that’s classic. I found out that one of the few ’search engine terms’ that has lead people to this site has been the words “what is nice about being fat”. Awesome. I hope noone blames me.

* * * * *

emo phillips

“one afternoon when i’m walking home from school and I’m watching some man building a new house. and the guy hammering on the roof calls me a paranoid little weirdo in morse code.”

“I used to think the human brain was the most fascinating part of the human body. then i realise, well, look what’s telling me that.”

* * * * *

I was around abbotsford/collingwood the other day, for the obvious reasons, and was heading to Victoria Park station, via the 24hour safeway petrol thingamie for munchies, and had a little double-take moment when I noticed a flaming sports car casually smoking on the side of a perfectly calm street. If I were a real blogger i would have got out my non-existent camera-phone and taken some shitty photos, but you’ll just have to take my word for it. There was billowing smoke and small explosions and exciting things like that, but no crying owner, no sirens, no authorities, just a bunch of inwardly grinning abbotsfordians. I heard someone on a phone talking to the police, saying things like “what do you mean, ‘is it holding up traffic?’? it’s covering the road in a thick smoke and threatening to explode!” When the tow truck and fire team came half an hour later everyone sighed and rolled their eyes at the person who called the cops and went back to the train station. I guess someone just felt the urge to set that particular car on fire. Just when I was losing faith in the abbotsford/collingwood crew.

I Said the ‘S’ Word…

Do I have to write somewhere here that I actually don’t like Stalin? I wasn’t going to be fucked, but I’m procrastinating so what the hell… I don’t like Stalin. He’s a pretty nasty guy!