Floating Life

The garage here at Elizabeth Street has been unlet for far too long. Happy to report the Indian neighbours, both students of IT at UNSW and UTS respectively – yes, Indian students – have just corrected that for me.

These things matter to a pensioner like me.

Very uncharacteristic!

But first the local good news: the South Sydney Rabbitohs beat the premiership favourites 41-6 on Saturday. Sirdan was pleased.

Now the news with wider import: Hazem el Masri’s final day for the Canterbury Bulldogs.

After yesterday's game

More pics at Zimbio.

We won’t talk about the Cronulla Sharks – out of sympathy with my grand-nephews who are very sad today.

One Daily Telegraph (our most right-wing daily) reader notes on hearing of Hazem El Mazri’s retiring from Rugby League:

I teach in China, Italy and the UK, and when my students start talking about who my sporting hero is, I always say, without hesitation… Hazem El Masri. Not the greatest player, probably the greatest goalkicker, but more importantly, one of the greatest men on or off the field. A tribute to real Muslims, immigrants, loyalty, discipline, family values and the Bulldogs. You are a legend Hazem El Masri, we will miss you!

It is fair to say such an opinion is pretty much universal here in Sydney. See for example El Masri’s army salutes its inspirational leader.

El Masri’s popularity isn’t restricted to the boys who, like him, have Muslim backgrounds. He appeals to them all. Helal is a Muslim boy, as is nine-year-old Adam Abdulwahab. Eight-year-old Andrei Bakhos and eight-year-old twins Michael and George Tabet are not Muslims, but it makes no difference. They all love El Masri.

Most of them have met the Bulldogs winger because he gives so much of his spare time to the community and they enjoy the way he kicks goals from everywhere and scores tries, but perhaps more importantly they can tell he is a good person.

“I hope he wins the comp this year,” Andrei said. “He deserves that. I follow the Bulldogs. My dad’s a member of the football club, so we go to all the home games. Hazem’s my favourite player. I play wing or fullback, but I want to be a winger when I grow up.”

In the Brisbane Courier-Mail Mike Colman writes:

… Some want him to enter politics.

When I told my wife that she said, “Well, he’s got my vote” and for my wife to say that about a rugby league player, much less a Bulldog, is saying something.

Hazem and his wife were so delightful it was hard not to feel uplifted by the experience.

One thing summed him up perfectly. After Fatty Vautin had urged league supporters to get along to ANZ Stadium this afternoon to “say thank you” for all the pleasure he had given them over the years, Hazem insisted on having the last word.

“It’s not really about people saying thank you to me,” he said, “it’s about me saying thank you to them for all the support they’ve given me.”

The label doesn’t matter – league player, Bulldog, Muslim, human – it comes down to one thing: He’s one great role model.

Football great Steve Mortimer has this to say:

“It’s an absolute privilege to be mentioned in the same sentence as Hazem El Masri,” Mortimer said.

“For me, rugby league is the greatest game of all and it just seems with all the hardships we’ve been through, Hazem has been a shining light his entire career.

“He’s a silent hero, an unsung hero, who has played the most number of games for the Bulldogs and been a wonderful servant for rugby league.

“With his religion and his faith, he’s just an absolute role model not only as a player on the football field, but as an Australian citizen as well.

“I’m proud to say I know him.

“He’s a very humble man and an absolute star.”

And again: Man of God whose greatest deeds are done off the pitch.

There will be many fine things said about Hazem by footballers, coachers, pundits and the Premier in the coming weeks, but you get the feeling it all washes over the kid from Tripoli who made Sydney his home at age 10.

He’s playing for are the kids in blonde-brick apartment blocks around Bankstown and Punchbowl, the ones who attract police attention quicker than an Everlast hoodie.

Very few people can claim to have made a real impact on their community. But when tensions between Lebanese and Anglo Sydneysiders spilled into the streets during the Cronulla riots, it was Hazem who played the crucial role in bringing his community back from the brink. Unlike some Muslim clerics who should have known better, Hazem spoke the language of respect and not revenge. With hindsight, we all recognise things could have been so much worse without people like him.

When Hazem El Magic runs out on Sunday, we’ll honour a footballer, peacemaker, teacher and philanthropist.

And here he was on Stateline in 2004:

Here at Holroyd High School in Sydney’s west — a school with a large number of students who are refugees — he’s come to draw the winning raffle for a school fundraiser.

But his visit is more than just a celebrity appearance.

In this discussion with the school football team the conversation soon turns to one of the boy’s experience of being discriminated against for being Lebanese and Muslim.

HAZEM EL MASRI: The whole community suffers because of a small minority, you know, and what upsets you sometimes is that the culture and the religion and all of that doesn’t promote such a thing but we end up copping a fair bit against it.

I always say to people, “The best way to go about it is let your actions do the talking.”

You know, around the footy and that and a lot of the guys know anything happens outside I don’t get teased about it or I don’t — because they know the type of person I am, the lifestyle I’m living.

I’m trying to lead by example and show them that’s how it’s done, basically.

Hazam El Mazri and his family

Sydney has been fortunate in having this man, his wife Arwa, and their family in our midst. From the man himself:

Kerry Stewart: How about Hazem el Masri.

Boys: Yes, he’s footy, best kicker in the world.

Kerry Stewart: Is he impressive, do you think?

Boys: Yes, yes.

Kerry Stewart: Why?

Mohammed Nurjaman: Because if you can get religion into the way of his other play, like he’s the only Muslim in the NRL, and he’s a good player, and he’s not there to show them that he’s Muslim, he shows that he plays good football.

Kerry Stewart: But I think he brings his religion to the game.

Boy: He brings religion to the game, yes.

Mohammed Nurjaman: You never see him in punch-ups. Yes, he always keeps it to himself. That’s what Muslims learn from their religion.

Hazem el Masri: Well look, I didn’t choose to be a role model. To me, I don’t like to sort of call that as a role model, I prefer to just to go out there and let my actions do the talking. I try to live a wholesome lifestyle. Early on, I had to take that stance of making sure this is what I’m about you know, the fasting, the praying, the eating Halal food for example, not drinking alcohol, the temptation of ladies, you name it, I try to have fun as well but everything within the limits. I love socialising with my friends and I love going out and I love spending time with my family and all that. But at the end of the day I’m my own person, I try to as you say, set the right example for these kids and hope that they can follow the same footsteps. And it’s a matter of as well, because all the misleading coverage and the generalising out there especially of the Muslim and the Lebanese community, that I’ve taken that stance to show everyone pretty much, that we’re not all the same, everybody’s got their bad and good in them….

Yes, his wife wears the hijab — her choice, not his, as she saw it as marking the next step in her religion: she adopted it about a year after her marriage, very much her own choice for her own reasons. (That was in an excellent Good Weekend profile of El Masri in this Saturday’s Sydney Morning Herald — not online.)

The man — and indeed the family — is a living, breathing rebuttal of all that paranoia out there about the Muslims in our midst.

Finally, read A Winger and a Prayer – Transcript from Australian Story 2007.

This appeared on the photoblog a week or so back. Enjoy. It’s in a Surry Hills side street.

Here are the all-time top sites readers have clicked through to on my WordPress blogs.

Floating Life

1. qlisted.blogspot.com/2007/10/why-am-i… 922
2. belshaw.blogspot.com 856
3. ninglundecember.files.wordpress.com/2… 760
4. ninglunbooks.wordpress.com 741
5. sm9.sitemeter.com/stats.asp?site=sm9n… 675
6. google.com/reader/shared/057430699921… 517
7. neilphoto.wordpress.com 516
8. ninglundecember.files.wordpress.com/2… 333
9. feeds.feedburner.com/NinglunsSharedIt… 332
10. deuslovult.wordpress.com 310

Floating Life Apr 06 ~ Nov 07

1. belshaw.blogspot.com 630
2. anvilbook.com/guestbook.php?neil743 601
3. seeking-utopia.blogspot.com 485
4. thinpotations.blogspot.com 449
5. support.microsoft.com/kb/935448 363
6. talkback.zdnet.com/5208-12691-0.html?… 354
7. neilwhitfield.wordpress.com 314
8. deuslovult.blogspot.com 274
9. photobucket.com 260
10. ianmckellen.org/macbeth/index.htm 257

Ninglun’s Specials

1. artmonthly.org.au/default.asp 708
2. ninglundecember.wordpress.com 321
3. sm9.sitemeter.com/stats.asp?site=sm9n… 188
4. ninglun.wordpress.com 136
5. roslynoxley9.com.au 130
6. ninglun.journalspace.com/?cat=religio… 127
7. cafephilos.wordpress.com/2008/05/29/t… 113
8. belshaw.blogspot.com 104
9. artsycraftsy.com/dore_mariner.html 101
10. anvilbook.com/guestbook.php?neil743 79

English/ESL

1. users.bigpond.com/peterskrzynecki/ind… 1,511
2. neilwhitfield.files.wordpress.com/200… 1,427
3. cwrl.utexas.edu/~syverson/309-fall95/… 1,342
4. hsc.csu.edu.au/english/area_of_study/… 1,159
5. shortstorygroup.com/storytips.htm 838
6. write101.com/shortstory.htm 649
7. litgothic.com/index.html 568
8. neilwhitfield.files.wordpress.com/200… 555
9. eteachers.com.au/Samples/int/Sec/Immi… 535
10. englishteacher.com.au/index.php 506

Neil’s Sydney Photo Blog

The “youngest” blog…

1. ninglundecember.wordpress.com 81
2. citydailyphoto.com/portal/index.php 73
3. ninglun.journalspace.com 63
4. sm9.sitemeter.com/stats.asp?site=sm9n… 49
5. ninglunbooks.wordpress.com 34
6. blogexplosion.com/index.php?ref=ningl… 25
7. sydney-eye.blogspot.com 16
8. boudist.com/archive/2007/05/12/goodby… 15
9. en.wordpress.com/tag/surry-hills 14
10. feeds.feedburner.com/NinglunOnBlogspo… 12

See also Korean War Memorial Moore Park (photoblog).

1. Tweetdeck

This very useful application even has a lawyer’s endorsement.

Facebook and Twitter all in one highly intelligible space. It even rings when something new is added.

2 Telstra

Just recently Telstra “migrated” a lot of its services to a new system. Well, I wanted to do something simple this morning – check my prepaid mobile phone usage online. Not so simple. After half an hour’s Skype-ing with some lovely Indian people I still can’t get to the appropriate page, so I don’t think I’ll bother any more. I can get the info on the mobile anyway…

You can beat your addiction!

Here’s how…

Just say no to social media!

Are you one of the millions of people whose lives have been ruined by a never-ending torrent of tweets, friend requests and ‘Which kind of pasta are you?’ quizzes? Then it’s time you joined the Social Media Addicts Association.

SMAA is run by reformed social media addicts who all had the courage to stand up and admit to their problem. Will you stop poking people you haven’t seen since college, and join us?

Free WordPress.com doesn’t allow audio uploading — not that I am complaining.

So instead I offer you Message 1 mp3.

This is what it looked like when I checked it out in Google Chrome, my VLC Player doing the honours.

Thanks, Kevin from Louisiana, for the post idea.

I am currently reading:

1. Edward Wright, Damnation Falls (US crime fiction 2007).
2. Timothy Clack, Ancestral Roots (Science non-fiction 2009).

I am about to read:

1. Karen Armstrong, The Great Transformation: The World in the Time of Buddha, Socrates, Confucius and Jeremiah (UK non-fiction history/theology 2006).
2. D Michael Lindsay, Faith in the Halls of Power: How Evangelicals Joined the American Elite (US non-fiction politics, religion 2007).

One of the great weaknesses of otherwise laudable desires to avoid racism or promote inclusivism – both desires are mine too – is that in action it tends to become a kind of puritanism, a set of shibboleths which do nothing to promote the true spirit of consideration and compassion that ought to be at the heart of what its detractors label “political correctness”. For example, the pursuit of non-sexist inclusive language by those who are, in my view, tone deaf or linguistically challenged leads to absurdities like rejecting “kingdom” in the traditional version of the Lord’s Prayer but not objecting to “realm” or “reign”, apparently not realising the ultimate root of those words is the Latin “rex/regis” which of course means “king”. Similarly, such folk object to “mastery” but not “domain”, which comes from Latin “dominus” meaning “master”. The most curious one to me is “women” which, believe it or not, has nothing to do with “men”.

Now we have Michael Mansell and others sounding off on the apparent racism of these two busts.

They depict Tasmanian Woureddy and his wife Truganini. I have seen them and to me they are both haunting and beautiful and a reminder of a great Australian tragedy. They are far more impressive than any other depictions I have seen. While it is true that Woureddy and Truganini  used to be referred to as the “last Tasmanian Aborigines” and while it is also true this is not strictly so, as descendants of the Tasmanian Aborigines are alive and well today, they do represent an irrevocable loss, both for Tasmanian Aborigines and for all Australians.

But here ideology takes over – scoring, in my view, an own goal.

Two women from the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre allege they were verbally abused and threatened at the museum yesterday when they demanded the removal of the copies from public display.

The centre’s legal director Michael Mansell says such images convey the extermination of Aboriginal people.

"These images are held up to perpetuate the racist myth that unless you were so called full-blood, untainted by marrying with white people, you weren’t a real aborigine," he said. "The fact that the museum has been displaying a bust of Truganini, along with the busts of other people, is perpetuating the myth. Everybody knows that the image of Truganini conveys to the racist people of the world that she was the last something or other…either the last full blood or last aboriginal. That is a racist perpetuation of a myth and her image is being used to try to exterminate the aboriginal people in Tasmania. For that reason her bust should not be sold just so people can make money out of it. These busts shoud be returned to the aboriginal community in Tasmania without any conditions so that aborigianl people are no longer hurt by the use of the images of a dead woman who can’t protect herself and who, if is she had known about this, would have objected very strongly," Mr Mansell said.

OK, I may share the argument about making money out of them, but the fact is they are also art works and as such may change hands.  But instead of worrying about what the busts convey to the “racist people of the world” we should reflect on what they convey to anyone with an ounce of brains – but I have already noted what they convey to me. What do you think?

They really do not make movies like this any more!  I watched it again on Saturday night.

– You aren’t exactly the sort of a person you pretend to be, are you?

– Why, I’m not sure I know exactly what you mean.

– The schoolgirl manner. You know, blushing, stammering and all that.

– I haven’t lived a good life. I’ve been bad. Worse than you could know.

– Good, because if you actually were as innocent as you pretend to be…we’d never get anywhere.

– I won’t be innocent.

– Good. By the way, I saw Joel Cairo tonight. Do you know him?

– Only slightly.

– You’re good. You’re very good.

Cracker of a script. Great direction. Great acting.