Comments on: The roadshow continues http://antonyloewenstein.com/2006/10/24/the-roadshow-continues/ Wed, 17 Mar 2010 10:59:16 +1100 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Leo Buddha http://antonyloewenstein.com/2006/10/24/the-roadshow-continues/comment-page-1/#comment-18122 Leo Buddha Thu, 26 Oct 2006 01:32:18 +0000 http://antonyloewenstein.com/blog/2006/10/24/the-roadshow-continues/#comment-18122 <blockquote>Naturally, both received (understandable)criticism from Arabs as well as some abuse from more chauvinist Israelis, but the project continues</blockquote> So it should. Nurturing peaceful coexistance is the aim. That is not what "The Ant" and his patronising patrons do.

Naturally, both received (understandable)criticism from Arabs as well as some abuse from more chauvinist Israelis, but the project continues

So it should. Nurturing peaceful coexistance is the aim. That is not what “The Ant” and his patronising patrons do.

]]> By: Paul Walter http://antonyloewenstein.com/2006/10/24/the-roadshow-continues/comment-page-1/#comment-17532 Paul Walter Mon, 23 Oct 2006 16:51:25 +0000 http://antonyloewenstein.com/blog/2006/10/24/the-roadshow-continues/#comment-17532 Back again! Just had an epiphany of sorts catching up on some reading elsewhere; in this case a tale of educative value offered in the weekend "Age" from the pen of Terry Lane. Encompasses every thing the book launch was about, good and bad; positive and negative. Told of the friendship between the seminal thinker Edward Said and Israeli virtuoso and maestro Daniel Barenboim and their attempt to build bridges, in the form of a youth orchestra including all nationalities from the region. Naturally, both received (understandable)criticism from Arabs as well as some abuse from more chauvinist Israelis, but the project continues. Back again!
Just had an epiphany of sorts catching up on some reading elsewhere; in this case a tale of educative value offered in the weekend “Age” from the pen of Terry Lane. Encompasses every thing the book launch was about, good and bad; positive and negative.
Told of the friendship between the seminal thinker Edward Said and Israeli virtuoso and maestro Daniel Barenboim and their attempt to build bridges, in the form of a youth orchestra including all nationalities from the region.
Naturally, both received (understandable)criticism from Arabs as well as some abuse from more chauvinist Israelis, but the project continues.

]]> By: Paul Walter http://antonyloewenstein.com/2006/10/24/the-roadshow-continues/comment-page-1/#comment-17522 Paul Walter Mon, 23 Oct 2006 15:57:04 +0000 http://antonyloewenstein.com/blog/2006/10/24/the-roadshow-continues/#comment-17522 Fascinating, that book launch! Am not an intellectual and this was the first occasion of this sort I can remember attending, although I recall hearing a bitter attack by exiled journalist Margo Kingston on the mess that is mass-media in this country; sentiments reiterated by Loewenstein. So, a small gathering of people open-minded enough to meet our later-day Niemoller and each other, and anticipate and hear an informed "take" on mid eastern affairs, had turned up. I felt a bit sorry for Tony, who I met for the first time, in his efforts at consciousness-raising, when a city of a million and a quarter people could only provide a hundred people or so for a virtual discussion concerning this most pivotal of issues. After observing and meeting some of the vivacious, dignified Levantine people who had organised much of the thing and who turned up often replete with anecdotes of life in the modern Middle-East, I feel we can start thinking of not only the vast and needless loss of life of Middle-Easterners of various types, but the jeopardising of the soul- the very soul- of the West and Westerners. I went a way with the distinct impression that the people I was privileged to meet are the modern day inheritors of the quiet, strong spirit once possessed by the pitiful, heroic Auschwitz victims or, say, British endurers of the Blitz of 1941. So, where has the ignorant spirit of fascism also migrated? Sad and disturbing, isn't it, if you have reached my conclusions. There were, of course, two issues at stake as far as the launch itself was concerned. First and formost a gathering of willing free-spirits were confronted with a metaphorical elephant in the room - the stupefying realisation of the scope of the shameful realities of the prolonged middle-eastern disaster. The issue travelling parallel was the sense of embarrassment and shame felt by Anglo-Irish and Jewish Australian citizens living in this privileged little oasis of ours, inexperienced as to the grim realities of a lonely, agony ridden and turbulent world beyond our safe, sandy shores, but uneasily complicit in our comfort. What worries me is; that once upon a time, Jews, free-thinkers and so many otherinnocent people in pre-Hitlerite/Stalinist Europe felt this comfortable. Two hundred years ago free Australians indigenes felt, no doubt, a timeless comfort (compared to today). And more recently Israelis and even more so; Lebanese, Iraqis and Palestinians, remember the lost, lazy glow of an Australian sort of sunshine. What can this augur for those sunbaking or playing a leisurely round of deck-tennis (with beer and pretzels!) aboard a modern-day "Ship of Fools"? Fascinating, that book launch!
Am not an intellectual and this was the first occasion of this sort I can remember attending, although I recall hearing a bitter attack by exiled journalist Margo Kingston on the mess that is mass-media in this country; sentiments reiterated by Loewenstein.
So, a small gathering of people open-minded enough to meet our later-day Niemoller and each other, and anticipate and hear an informed “take” on mid eastern affairs, had turned up.
I felt a bit sorry for Tony, who I met for the first time, in his efforts at consciousness-raising, when a city of a million and a quarter people could only provide a hundred people or so for a virtual discussion concerning this most pivotal of issues.
After observing and meeting some of the vivacious, dignified Levantine people who had organised much of the thing and who turned up often replete with anecdotes of life in the modern Middle-East, I feel we can start thinking of not only the vast and needless loss of life of Middle-Easterners of various types, but the jeopardising of the soul- the very soul- of the West and Westerners.
I went a way with the distinct impression that the people I was privileged to meet are the modern day inheritors of the quiet, strong spirit once possessed by the pitiful, heroic Auschwitz victims or, say, British endurers of the Blitz of 1941.
So, where has the ignorant spirit of fascism also migrated? Sad and disturbing, isn’t it, if you have reached my conclusions.
There were, of course, two issues at stake as far as the launch itself was concerned. First and formost a gathering of willing free-spirits were confronted with a metaphorical elephant in the room – the stupefying realisation of the scope of the shameful realities of the prolonged middle-eastern disaster.
The issue travelling parallel was the sense of embarrassment and shame felt by Anglo-Irish and Jewish Australian citizens living in this privileged little oasis of ours, inexperienced as to the grim realities of a lonely, agony ridden and turbulent world beyond our safe, sandy shores, but uneasily complicit in our comfort.
What worries me is; that once upon a time, Jews, free-thinkers and so many otherinnocent people in pre-Hitlerite/Stalinist Europe felt this comfortable. Two hundred years ago free Australians indigenes felt, no doubt, a timeless comfort (compared to today). And more recently Israelis and even more so; Lebanese, Iraqis and Palestinians, remember the lost, lazy glow of an Australian sort of sunshine.
What can this augur for those sunbaking or playing a leisurely round of deck-tennis (with beer and pretzels!) aboard a modern-day “Ship of Fools”?

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