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WHITE WELFARE
Something I’d have added to this column, if I’d thought of it at the time: being aware (one presumes) of welfare dependency’s destructive effects on Aboriginal communities, why does Australia’s arts community think more welfare is such a good idea for our artists?
UPDATE. “Come on, people! Did Ghostbusters teach us nothing?”
Brian ... I’m shocked, shocked.
Can we maybe pay them to NOT create anything? That would support the arts…
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2008 04 21 at 08:37 PM • permalinkI think Rudd’s crush on Cate is more than a bit odd, and reminds me of the adoration you see from some males for Madonna or - for the older school - Barbara Streisand. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Posted by Margos Maid on 2008 04 21 at 08:42 PM • permalinkThe problem is that the left doesn’t believe that welfare has a negative impact on Aboriginal (or other) communitites. They would argue that the problems faced by these communitites is a result of not enough Government spending.
Same thing goes for the arts, the failure of modern art isn’t because the artist isn’t producing work that the public wants to spend their hard earned dollars on but because the artist doesn’t have a big enough government grant to make their artistic vision a reality.
I am afraid that I cannot write anything quite as stupid on this subject as crikey
Perhaps the thing is not to focus on the quality of ideas produced, but rather on the fact that a forum was constructed around the notion that ideas are important building blocks of our national future.
Posted by Margos Maid on 2008 04 21 at 09:15 PM • permalinkI notice that according to Cate, art “liberates demons”. While I’m not really in a position to argue this, never having pursued art to the point of unleashing the armies of Hell, I think I am entitled to ask if we as Australians really think demon liberation is an activity we wish to encourage.
I mean, come on, people! Did ‘Ghostbusters’ teach us nothing?
Posted by blandwagon on 2008 04 21 at 09:15 PM • permalinkTim, you don’t get it.
It’s irrelevant whether welfare is bad for the people who receive it.
What matters is, it’s good for the people who pour other people’s money into it.
Posted by Rittenhouse on 2008 04 21 at 09:19 PM • permalinkTmT—Like, er, hell it is! Those, er, damn demons drive down wages for honest hardworking rightwing death beasts.
Plus, they vote for Huckabee.
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2008 04 21 at 09:22 PM • permalinkI’m not sure I would put it quite so boldly, Kae, but let’s just say this whole Cate ‘n Kevin thing causes a blip on my gaydar.
Posted by Margos Maid on 2008 04 21 at 09:41 PM • permalinkShe was right about liberating demons. Check out Michael Connor on our politicised theatre (Quadrant, March) it is all demonisation of the subhuman conservatives. Very heart warming if you have that point of view but hardly spiritually elevating, inclusive, nation building, creative or true.
Yes, they think welfare is good for everyone, not just them, they are consistent and inclusive in that respect. And it probably warms their hearts to think that way. Pity about the victims.
Call me old fashioned, but I will continue to support great artists by purchasing DVD’s from road side vendors in Asia, downloading music from shareware sites and throwing copper coins at buskers.
Eat a dick, Hugh Jackman. Oh, what’s that, you already do? Carry on.
Posted by Infidel Tiger on 2008 04 21 at 09:49 PM • permalinkwhy does Australia’s arts community think more welfare is such a good idea for our artists?
I may be wrong, but I suspect that most of that “arts community” are WHITE.
And as
leftistswe all know, whitepeopleartists aren’t as suscesptible to “welfare dependency’s destructive effects” as are thoseinferior abo’sof a darker hue./sarcasm
(but it’s the damn truth about the left’s so-called “thinking")Posted by Barbara Skolaut on 2008 04 21 at 09:52 PM • permalink#6
I was ignorant of ghostlyness until I heard:
Dr. Peter Venkman: This city is headed for a disaster of biblical proportions.
Mayor: What do you mean, “biblical”?
Dr Ray Stantz: What he means is Old Testament, Mr. Mayor, real wrath-of-God type stuff.
Dr. Peter Venkman: Exactly.
Dr Ray Stantz: Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies. Rivers and seas boiling.
Dr. Egon Spengler: Forty years of darkness. Earthquakes, volcanoes…
Winston Zeddemore: The dead rising from the grave. Dr. Peter Venkman: Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together - mass hysteria.I think we should pick up the phone and call the professionals… Ghostbusters.
To liberate us from the demons.Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 04 21 at 10:08 PM • permalinkWelfare for the Aboriginal Communities will be relabelled as “Indigenous Arts Financing” in the next Federal Budget.
The rape and abuse of children will be reclassified as;
“Cultural Studies”.The brutalisation of women, the addiction to drugs, alcohol, glue and petrol sniffing and pornography will reclassified as;
“Socialisation History”.The investigations into Obesity, Diabetes, Venereal Disease, Glaucoma and other health problems endemic in Aboriginal society will be reclassified as;
“Arts in Education”.Socialisation History Grants will be available to all Aboriginals without the need to apply.
Cultural Studies Grants are to be reserved for community Elders and those whom the Elders agree have shown an aptitude for Future Intensive Training in Cultural Studies. These Grants are to be available alongside the Socialisation History Grants to those deemed eligible. Thus providing two bites of the Arts apple.
The Arts in Education Grants will be made available on an “as needed basis”. These Grants will also be paid alongside any, or all of the other Grants to those deemed suitable.
The only condition placed on these Arts Grants is, that none is to be made available to children under the age of ten.
#20
Rudd signals major shake-up of tax system."I won’t commit to the next two years ... but I think it is time we actually looked at a root and branch reform *of the Australian taxation system.
“But we will come back formally on that later in the year.’’
Mr Rudd said the current system was too complex and criticised the former Howard government for failing to overhaul the system despite 12 years in office**.
*I have a fair idea of who’ll be rooted by this “shake-up”.
** Yeah, Howard didn’t do anything while he was in, did he, Kevvie? Just left such a shit-heap for you to sort out.
*POP* goes the weasel.
More demons at large:
A teenager is to face court over an attack with a tomahawk on a security guard at a Perth bus terminal.
Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 04 21 at 11:16 PM • permalinkSomeone posted a quote yesterday, here or ABs -When Politicians steal from Peter to pay Paul- Paul will never complain and will keep on voting them in. Ditto the yartz, ditto all those new public service committees and commissions and hangers ona nice little earner for life no real work and pension too, more and more Labor voters.
Read this and weep.
Total government funding for cultural activities was $5.4 billion in 2005-06 ($5,449.7m), a rise of 9.1% on the previous year. The Australian Government contributed $1,878.4m (34.5%) of the total cultural funding and the state and territory governments contributed $2,598.1m (47.7%). Local governments provided $973.2m (17.9%).
Correct me if I’m wrong, but $5.4 billion dollars divided by the population of Australia (about 20 million) means that every man, woman and child in Australia made a compulsory contribution of $270 to the Yartz in 05-06.
Can anyone here think of something they would rather do with $270?
Posted by Margos Maid on 2008 04 21 at 11:20 PM • permalinkPerhaps the thing is not to focus on the quality of ideas produced....
MM, that ought to be engraved on a titanium plaque, and then launched on a deep space orbit so that future civilizations might find it and wonder how such a inventive species could be so stunningly stupid.
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2008 04 21 at 11:29 PM • permalink#35 More likely the former than the latter.
Posted by Margos Maid on 2008 04 21 at 11:44 PM • permalinkWoman gang raped.. All men are said to be aged 20 to 25-years-old, one of them is of Mediterranean appearance, the other two Caucasian.
We await SMH report.Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 04 22 at 12:02 AM • permalinkI wonder if Cate was meaning the Ancient Greek “Daimon” (Latinised as “Daemon") - a lesser deity, more along the “Muse line - but was too ignorant of Greek pronunciation to get it right.
A Yartist ignorant?? Heaven forbid!
Posted by AlburyShifton on 2008 04 22 at 12:45 AM • permalinkHow much “arts funding” did Peter Garrett recieve to make Midnight Oil a successful musical act?
How much “arts funding” goes into each Hollywood blockbuster starring Cate Blanchett?
etc.Posted by daddy dave on 2008 04 22 at 01:07 AM • permalinkI embrace welfare for artists just as I support the concept that ‘it is art if you call it art’.
As such I all looking forward to quitting my job, poking a stick into a piece of dog shit, calling myself an artist and going up the coast for a year or two in order to do some serious drin...err creating.
I’m sure that there will also be plenty on dole bludgers and drug addicts keen to call themselves artists in order to get additional welfare…I await the Australian renaissance!!
Cate, Hugh, Toni, Bruce, George, Geoff et al. They don’t live in a society the likes of which they advocate, or very high taxes would drain their incomes and be shared among the needy which would include artists.
So where do they draw the line.
Do they earn it and have the right to distribute as they see fit, or do they feed it back into a world where all are equal.
Based on what happened at the Summit, squillionare Cate thinks she can do what she wants with her large income (which I don’t begrudge her for one second) but she feels OK telling the rest of us how to help pay for her lesser equals. Which does shit me. Hypocrite.
#20 Nope, but it’s a gimme with wall to wall Labor, State and Fed.
Posted by Nilknarf Arbed on 2008 04 22 at 05:25 AM • permalinkart. that’s something you like the look or sound of & then buy or pay to go see it.
crap. that’s something some bureaucrat likes the look of & spends your taxes on, even though you don’t want to buy it or go see it
as for madonna, she should pay double tax for being a cretinous, talentless bimbo slut who has produced nothing but vapid derivative garbage for too many decades
> That ugly, talentless, whore, Madonna, was on the radio in London a couple of days back saying that artists should be exempted from paying taxes.
I think she’s right! I just think that everyone is an artist. I’m a database artist.
I’m sure there are some accounting artists here and TimB is a reporting artist par excellence!
There’s plenty of non-subsidised art around and it’s doing fine. TV, film, photography, comics, and so on. It’s everywhere.
Grants and subsidies aren’t for art, they’re for art that’s good for you (but that nobody wants to pay for).Posted by daddy dave on 2008 04 22 at 06:54 AM • permalinkNovelists Strike Fails to Affect Nation Whatsoever
The OnionPosted by daddy dave on 2008 04 22 at 07:01 AM • permalink#57 Kae. Silly me for even considering you’d fall for that.
I do have a plan though.
What about a national Blair summit. You, me, Kev, Habib, Richard and others could kick it off at the Brekkie Ck.
Tim can brief us on what outcomes he’d like.
Then we’ll have a few drinks prelim meetings to plan the plan and then the big meeting with paper and pens like the professional meeteors did in Canbra. All with KPIs.
Some initial topics for consideration:
* the ABC here today. Gone tomorrow.
* Windshuttle for PM.
* Aboriginal apology from those on the gravy train for hurting their own for too long.
* Lenient sentencing laws. Capital punishment retrospective for Ivan Milat.
* Mandatory 50/50 male-female teaching numbers in all schools.
* Lessons in lying by Peter Beattie.A Blair piss up summit in each State followed by a big national one.
What a bang. The gathered intelligence would have to match Krudd’s and the results more beneficial. Paco could be the key note speaker from OS. (we’ll cover the airfares Paco). We could sell seats..the mind boggles. Bolta could report by the minute..and so on. Sense my excitement.
#66
Aunty RN The World Today:one leading tax expert has declared that if the Government is serious, it must consider lifting the GST rate above 10 per cent.
#68 It was from memory...and I did forget about the agreement of the states in the mechanism. Still, the ensuing argument as to which state is more deserving of the spoils should be entertaining. Thanks for the light reading material.
#70 Like the NSW government abolished payroll tax and stamp duty when they received their share of the pie?
#72
There were a whole lot of state taxes and levies in a whole lot of states which were supposed to be removed after they got into the GST pie.How unusual.
I couldn’t find any more about the GST etc, but I’m sure some other more serious searcher who doesn’t have to get up at 5am can find much more about the safeguards… haw haw haw.
Repressard McEnroe #9
Those, er, damn demons drive down wages for honest hardworking rightwing death beasts.
I am appalled at the naked
racismuhspeciesismno, wait entityism displayed by this site toward the Inferno-Australian Community ! It is well known that demons and devils are only here..., well, THERE, in Australia that is, to do the jobs that mortal, ghostly, seraphic, cherubic, incubic, and zombie Australians simply won’t do!Posted by formerly Huck Foley on 2008 04 22 at 11:08 AM • permalinkWell, if those zombie Australians would only show a little and/or gormthey’d be willing to do those jobs to maintain their self-respect…
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2008 04 22 at 11:16 AM • permalinkshow a little bottle and/or gorm…
I swear, sometimes I think this computer was assembled by a Labor worker…
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2008 04 22 at 11:17 AM • permalink#81 & 82 I swear, sometimes I think this computer was assembled by a Labor worker
I hear there’s a smart little computer (ASUS Eee 701) out there.... (tee hee) Indentured servants with computers? (tee hee hee)
Posted by Deborah Leigh on 2008 04 22 at 05:03 PM • permalinkMOAT aims to solve this by providing a way for users to define meaning(s) of their tag(s) using URIs of Semantic Web resources (such as URIs from dbpedia, geonames … or any knowledge base), and then annotate content with those URIs rather than free-text tags, leveraging content into Semantic Web, by linking data together. Moreover, tag meanings can be shared between people, providing an architecture of participation to define and exchange potential meanings of tags within a community of users.
err…
hmp, I only THOUGHT I was confused before.Posted by formerly Huck Foley on 2008 04 22 at 07:52 PM • permalink#46
Whatever you think of the loony left politics of Peter Garrett, he is a model of a successful artist. Midnight Oil didn’t rise to fame on the back of Arts Council Grants, they built a fan base by playing night after night to bars full of drunk young men, working their pants off, producing edgy art that people would pay for, and honing their craft.
This is the model that the art world already follows and should embrace: the artist as entrepreneur. Art as a part of the capitalist system.
The problem is that an artist entrepreneur who finds success is then welcomed into the “arts community”, an alternate universe of bureaucrats, wannabes and parasites. The “arts community” convinces the successful artist that they are just like him. They flatter and suck up but also assert their own critical role in society.
In this way, they recruit the artist-entrepreneur as an ally. He forgets his origins, the brutal and uncertain climb to success, the risks he took. His newfound friends don’t believe in taking risks: the life of an artist should be risk free… except for “artistic risk” which is often no risk at all.Posted by daddy dave on 2008 04 22 at 08:51 PM • permalinkThe problem is that an artist entrepreneur who finds success is then welcomed into the “arts community”, an alternate universe of bureaucrats, wannabes and parasites.
In the eyes of the arts community, a successful plumber with a $800,000 house, on a relatively small block in Kellyville, is an ignorant, uncivilised greedhead, while a successful artist with a 2.5 million dollar house in Paddington, and a ten thousand acre country estate, is merely enjoying the by-products of their richly deserved success.
It’s all right for Miriam Margolyes to own five houses, but not for the ‘uneducated’ to anger Gaia with their five bedrooms.
Yeah, I wonder how many Arts Council grants Jimmie Barnes applied for?
I can just see the application now:
“I’d like 200 bottles of vodka and a packet of band-aids”.
Posted by mr creosote on 2008 04 23 at 12:49 AM • permalinkArts Council luvvie:
“What do you want the band-aids for?”
“They’re for your fracking nose, which I will smash if you don’t handover the vodka.”
Posted by mr creosote on 2008 04 23 at 12:50 AM • permalink
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Tim - here in New Zealand there was a special category of unemployment benefit brought in by the Liarbour Government that artists could claim. You wouldn’t believe it but soon there were thousands claiming it.