Monday 23rd of December 2024
Home » Blogs » Gus Leonisky's blog

a very hidden soul...

museum australia

To say that Canberra is one large suburb says nothing at all. For Canberra’s suburbs are unlike any others in Australia; they are planned, and far more sedate and neatly obedient than those of Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane. There is not a corner shop in sight. The streets are themed, with pockets named after explorers, politicians or cultural heroes of one type or another, lined with identical plantings of deciduous exotics or eucalypts and pervaded by a stillness that takes on an eerie quality in the furnace of a Canberra summer, when the city empties out ‘down the coast’ and even the dogs stop barking.

Today, it is commonplace to hear locals say that Canberra’s virtues are hidden. ..

http://www.themonthly.com.au/nation-s-capital-turns-100-growing-pains-mark-mckenna-7369

-----------

Gus: Indeed...

The architectural "soul" of Canberra seems to have gone walkabout into the mysterious Lake George's mud flats... Despite what some people try to say and profess their love about it, I find Canberra quite "flat" in spirit... I have been told of restaurant strips that would rival say Newtown and I have been told of lovely suburbs that would put Balgowlah to shame... I doubt it. I only see a small country town that has not been able to find its soul, as if it sacrificed its centric secrets for one to get lost for the good of the nation... Note: I am an atheist and don't believe in soul nor spirit, but I absorb the atmosphere in which purpose, attraction and appearance are matched — and in which my own stylistically grown knowledge and habits define my perceptive appreciation.

I can't even rave at the structured parliament house, mostly hidden beyond a circular forest of native planted trees and interminable lawns... It seems to me, the place has not been able to create its own patina as new benign buildings propped up around without character or in conflict. I remember once strolling in the garden of the Art Gallery or was it the high court, and the message was clear... The place was modern — which in itself is not a sin — but it had already aged without reaching adulthood.

I would suggest that despite its important purpose, Canberra has not been able to emerge from her heavy duty, despite trying somewhat... Canberra seems to be on valium, not sleeping pills. Buildings have little unified coherence, and even if I really enjoy diversity in architecture, the Canberra mix appears quite poor. The low level character, as if intended not to hide the hills around, takes some time to get used to — as one gets used to second rate because first rate is not available...

I don't think that my impression has something to do with its original planning but in the subsequent alterations in which this low level planning has gone half-way up as if hesitant in its growth or has been decidedly unfinished or compromised... It's a bit as if Canberra's intended lovely character had to be diluted to accommodate its expansion in the surroundings, and the wide intended vistas  had to later be interrupted by trees in the middle strips of roads...

It could simply be the weather or the oaks making the place's ideals come and die with the seasons... It could be the ugly politics where the human reality is misunderstood by most —especially by an Abbott and a couple of Bishops with a coterie of delusionist conservatives— and the petty foible are magnified by a provincial press that has grand illusions about itself and its role in force-feeding us with crap... Even the beer the political journos drink is highly pretentious.

Happy Birthday, Canberra — may you emerge from your cocoon...

 

 

 

 

 

town planning

http://www.idealcity.org.au/town_planning-1.html

 

http://www.idealcity.org.au/

king dork...

An old Australian saying goes: When do you put in the boot? When somebody’s down. Which no doubt explains the all-Australian attack on our hapless [Gus: Julia is far less hapless than Rudd, Tony or Malcolm] prime minister over issues which should be Labor’s strengths: health and education.

Victoria’s Ted Baillieu and Queensland’s Campbell Newman in particular have decided that it’s a good time to distract voter attention from their own shortcomings with a solid bit of Canberra bashing. Their reasoning is probably sound: while they may be getting a bit on the nose, Julia Gillard is clearly now so noisome that she is headed, irrevocably, for the tip.

That being the case, it is a good time to assert their independence by tearing up what slow progress has been made towards national reform in hospitals and schools, and indulging in a bit of parochial breast-beating about how, quite clearly, they can do anything better than Gillard. It is a formula that has worked in the past, as a result of which our cumbersome federal structure has become increasingly unwieldy, with enormous and unnecessary overlaps between the states and the commonwealth.

In the old days, leaving areas such as health and education to the states made a bit of sense: the vast distances involved and lack of reliable communication networks made a centralised administration impractical, and in any case the population was pretty stable; crossing state borders was a major undertaking. But in 2013 neither of these considerations applies; we are able to swap information at the speed of light and travel around the country with ease – indeed, we are constantly urged to do so by the governments themselves.

...

So when in doubt blame everything on Canberra and demand more money but insist on keeping total control. In the present situation it will probably work: Gillard’s government is in no position to win a public brawl with anyone, even unpopular premiers. And their thinking is, presumably that when Tony Abbott comes to power, their fellow conservative will leave the status quo as it is.

But they may be wrong. Abbott in the past has shown alarming centralist tendencies himself; indeed, he once proposed a total commonwealth takeover of the hospital system. He was slapped down by John Howard, but after September he could well be unstoppable. And the premiers may find that they have exchanged King Log for King Stork.

read more: http://www.themonthly.com.au/blog-blame-canberra-mungo-maccallum-7646

If it was only the premiers who'd have to worry, I could not care less about this useless lot of Liberal (conservative) double-dealers, but we'd be fed to the crocs as well as being molested by King Stork — should Tony, King Dork, place his mitts on the levers...

Throw Tony Abbott out.

superman's fortress of solitude for wonks and staffers...

A Melbourne writer says he is stunned by the ''operatic indignation'' to a column in which he dared to suggest Canberra has faults.
''It's as if Timothy Leary did 'something' to Canberra's water supply,'' The Age columnist Martin McKenzie-Murray tweeted on Thursday as he fended off a sometimes ferocious online reaction from upset Canberrans to his piece Happy birthday, to a vision turned sterile.
McKenzie-Murray said the outrage essentially proved Canberrans were still insecure about their city.
''The response has been bat-shit crazy. Operatic. Disproportionate. It's cartoonish. It's just surprising what gets people's goat,'' he said.

''I'm not the writer that is provocative  deliberately. I've written on bikies, federal politics, murders, church abuse. Nothing has come close to generating the same the pique and outrage. The indignation is amazing. A friend said to me, people who are secure aren't so vociferous in their outrage and criticism, I think there's a lot of truth to that.''

Read more: http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/batshit-crazy-response-to-canberra-bashing-story-20130307-2fnly.html#ixzz2MrD2V1bc

Cities require imagination and leadership - long-term plans - but in few places in the developed world will you see a city so damagingly beholden to its original vision as Canberra. In open societies, cities normally express the power of pluralism - the fluent vitality of the fullest range of professions, personalities and nationalities.

There is diversity in Canberra, but it's maddeningly, inorganically muted by the concentration of bureaucrats ironically shepherded to a place far removed from the Australians they're meant to serve. It's as if Griffin had unwittingly designed Superman's Fortress of Solitude for wonks and staffers.

Read more: http://www.canberratimes.com.au/comment/happy-birthday-to-a-vision-turned-sterile-20130306-2flhp.html#ixzz2MrDWhoEY

I thought I was quite mild with my description of Canberra ) read at top), but reading the mild stuff from Martin McKenzie-Murray's article, what I said seems to be super-narky...

hey, give the woman a break...

 

Weaker then week
The media have continually referred to Julia Gillard's ''week visiting the western suburbs''. In reality, this ''week'' has been all of three days, Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. Not even a ''working week''.
If the Prime Minister really wishes to start to understand the west, she would do well to read Ross Cameron's article in the Herald on Friday (''Time to lose cliches: the western suburbs are serious business'', March 8).
Mike Cuming Carlingford

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/letters/more-to-teaching-than-high-test-score-20130308-2frby.html#ixzz2Mz82jMQ6

Hey, give our Prime Minister a break... She lives wester of the west!
In Canberra, for goodness sake!...

She lives in a house in need of total renovation — the lodge that is — that still smells of Rattus dropings...
Meanwhile despite a few minor problemos in a sea of bliss, we're still numero uno at the art of whingeing:


The father of measuring wellbeing, Nobel laureate Amartya Sen, saw beyond mere economics into what freedoms empowered people to make choices in the pursuit of a happy life.
The Herald-Lateral Economics wellbeing index builds on his goal of aggregating individual economic circumstances and happiness into a measure of national social progress.
The truth is, as the wellbeing index for 2012 shows, our nation is doing very well, thank you very much. Our wellbeing is 5.1 per cent better than a year ago. Yet many of us keep whingeing about the cost of living, taxes and the latest scandal.
We readily seek scapegoats for any perceived shortfall in our inflated expectations of what we deserve in life. Increasingly we look to government to bail us out.

So why these elements of darkness in our national psyche? Sen's philosophy provides many clues. He distinguished between ''wellbeing'' - a personal achievement - and ''advantage'' - the real opportunities a person has, especially compared with others.
But as Sen made clear in his book Commodities and Capabilities: ''It is possible for a person to have genuine advantage(s) and still to 'muff' them, or to sacrifice one's own wellbeing for other goals, and not to make full use of one's freedom to achieve a high level of wellbeing.''

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/editorial/were-doing-so-well-yet-we-keep-whingeing-20130308-2fr06.html#ixzz2Mz9wQtNo

And, of course, as we're ready ourselves for voting Rattus da Tonicchio to the lodge (but like Rattus the Sneak, Tonicchio wants to live in Kiribilli most of the times), we show that we're gettig too soft in the belly and are in need of a good flogging... Yes Tony Abbott would bring us the pain from the whip — the pain we need to justify our endless supply of whinge...

 

it's not that bad...

Australia's capital city turns 100 this weekend, but Canberra, like so many other purpose-built capitals around the world, is still struggling to convince outsiders that it has more to offer than political hot air, says Madeleine Morris.

"Canberra: Why wait for death?" was Bill Bryson's blistering judgement in his 2000 travelogue Down Under. "Pyongyang without the dystopia," was the verdict of the Economist in 2009.

If Sydney is brash and bold, and Melbourne is cool and classy, then Canberra, at least in the Australian public imagination, is dull and devoid of soul.

"Canberra: it's not that bad" is the caption on a well-known car licence plate in the capital city. Talk about damning with faint praise.

"My friend put it well - Canberra is like going to grandma's house," says Jenna Clarke, life and entertainment editor of the Canberra Times. "Other Australian cities are doing brash, creative things but here everything is wrapped in plastic. It doesn't mean it's bad. Canberra is just very mature and knows what it's doing."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21715754