Plus que ca change
The desert is Bastani Akhbar-Mashiti (a Persian variation on rosewater ice-cream) on Baklava which I made for dinner on Wednesday, apropos was the Smoked Duck in a Szechuan style. Aussie Aussie Aussie, 150 years young.
Elsewhere:
- Ed's gone and done us all a great sevice with the Tomatom Definitive list of Australian food bloggers.
- Masterchef Noodle Cook has left several Olympic games looking shabby by comparison in hosting Paper Chef.
- Trevor Cook has done food bloggers proud with "Eater's Digest" - Food and Wine blogging and podcasting
- give the gift of a goat.
- Bugger I've gone and missed EoMEoTE #13. A very special suggestion for the next one from a reader next time, promise.
- still doing my Thursday night duffering. Managed to get off to a swell start by taking the the amount of water in the bread as gospel and spending 30 minutes kneading it into something resembling bread. Deboned 12 quails in what seemed like as many hours. But was called in to do the sauce for plating up on the mains for 6 plates. Kinda facked it up a little but it was like getting to drive the tractor. The coconut souffle is rather good too.
- Plus: You should get over to Pim's to raise some money for UNICEF and win some great stuff
posted by Anthony at Friday, December 16, 2005
9 Comments:
Very disturbing news. It is growing everywhere don't you think? Or at least people do not hesitate to voice their racism any more. Todays news in France: 24 per cent of the population agree with the ideas of the National Front (our local extreme right racist party)...
12/16/2005 06:08:00 pm
The progressive view is that we move on from these things but they seem to hang around dormant. I'm reminded of Camus' The Plague where the plague is defeated but never resolutely. I think racism has to be opposed whenever ot arises. Recently it's been coded in terms of groups that "don't fit in with our particular culture" or latched on to and generalised with some atrocity in the news. But really it's opportunism of the same patterns of villifying an outside group but generalising their negative aspectsb while at the same time holding an imaginary and rosy view of their own culture if it wasn't for "them". There's been great defensiveness about calling people bigots with their views taken as the authentic view of ordinary people. Our Prime Minister won't even accept there's racism in Australia.
Australia is still a very successful culture. My work involves people of numerous cultures and it's great to seem them making their way in our country like my family did a few generations back (Croat-Slovenian-English-Irish-Bulgarian). I tend to have a more positive view that people whose contact seems to come from watching the tv. We're still dealing with small group of racists but a slighty larger group that tolerates it . This is what we need to work on. When people appropriate national symbols or wrongs for their own racist agenda, it needs to be fought.
I'm sorry that so many people agree with the agenda of scumbags like the National Front.
12/16/2005 07:22:00 pm
Yes you are right, same here, small groups of people but more and more who tolerate their ideas and actions. For years I have closed my ears, I didn't want to get into fights with the people around me, work, family, neighbors. But we all have to speak up now, before it is too late.
12/16/2005 08:03:00 pm
Today I was casually brousing through my copy of The Walkley when what am I confronted with, an interview with Anthony Ceorgeff - woo-ooooh, la de dah! Congratulazione Anthony, moving upmarket very rapidly, soon spiceblog will have to be pay per view ;}}
Sorry about the break in topic - you may now resume normal transmission...
12/16/2005 10:12:00 pm
Hey Liz
: )
I was kind of under the pump when it came out so I didn't make much of a fuss of it but I guess it is a pretty big deal really. I'm retrospectively chuffed about it all.
Ultimately I'd like to see a what-the-butler-saw-spiceblog at all fairgrounds.
No worries for the break in topic, I was actually hoping that we'd be discussing goats.
Gracianne
With time it becomes an established paradigm for viewing the world. I tend to see every animal in terms of a recipe, the racist sees every event in terms of race, typically in a self-serving fashion. This linkage with problems tends to get people to see themselves not as bigots but problem solvers and having societies interests at heart. What we need to get back on track is viewing problems as human problems - crime, poverty, education and so on. Blaming race or ethnicity does nothing and this needs to be pointed out.
If it was just bad people I'd suggest the solution lies in a quick whack with a shovel or whatever comes to hand but yes it is in speaking out and as you said this can be friends, neighbours and colleagues. When I returned to Australia after seven years in Japan, we went to buy a sofa and my wife and I got told that it was good I didn't marry an asian woman and that we should get busy having white/Aussie babies. I was too stunned to say anything but should have. These are the attitudes that become accepted if we confuse peoples right to an opinion with sitting back and accepting that opinion.
12/17/2005 11:12:00 am
well I hope you didn't buy a couch from them!
The Walkley is just a wee bit of a big deal, yes. But they are very lucky to have gotten an interview with thamanthatcooks - you should have asked for prime positioning - a cover or something.
12/17/2005 10:34:00 pm
Ha! As if, it was ludicrously overpriced in the overwhelming sense of heritage derived self-worth and entitlement that characterises jingoists.
Being recluse, they were lucky, I insisted that the inetrview be done by telegram.
12/18/2005 12:09:00 pm
Ahh - I would have thought carrier pigeon, a-la Ghost Dog would have been more your style, or maybe morse code :}}
12/19/2005 11:50:00 pm
Gah pigeons [stop] Horrible things [stop] Would rather eat a rat [stop]
12/20/2005 09:31:00 am
Post a Comment
<< Home