Empowering

After I joined the ".. .." team,

it felt like a surreal dream.

Working for the solution,

maintaining human evolution.

But in the general absence of care,

rampant denial of responsibility

despite apparent acts of stupidity,

it all turned into a silly nightmare.

Pointing out the hypocrisy

in the obvious discrepancy

between noble words and foolish action

turned out be an unwanted distraction.

So I can only put my trust into the land,

as another of my stories comes to an end.

Fox in socks on the rocks

You told me about your desire to heal,

but that's not really what I can feel.

You provided me often with food,

and also your fast-changing mood.

Now I stand here with an empty hand,

still don't know what I had to understand

of the obstacles created in the distant past,

which stopped the chance of our story to last.

So my heart fills again with sadness,

walking alone through a world of madness,

waiting for love's resurrection,

another heart-felt connection.

I stay connected to you, my beloved fox,

hope you're happy after putting me in a box.

One day before being homeless

Some bags of clothing are packed and ready to go, the rest of my earthly belongings waits for a pickup in a garage. I'm not looking forward to the uncomfortable back seat of my car, yet it is the only 'home' I can be certain of until I find someone giving me shelter.

I didn't really feel at home in the place I'm leaving tomorrow. How did it all begin to fall apart? When I arrived, there was still a big recliner in front of the entrance, forcing anyone willing to enter through a narrow gap. It wasn't as straight-forward to remove this obstacle, and probably the last obstacle I managed to remove collaboratively with my house mate.

I could have gotten used to the mixture of things - spices spread over various cabinets, glue and packaging in the fridge, tools in the utensil drawer, or bread in the freezer. What made my life tricky was the flux in things used on a regular basis - having found a useful item in a specific place never warranted to find it there again.

While I got 'my' room, I had to share it with someone else's belongings. If space isn't abundant, donating half of the hanging space in the wardrobe to someone not really wanting to get their stuff back, didn't make me feel comfortable at all. Especially as this someone turned out to be more nosey than I expected. 

As it didn't really unpacked my things, getting ready to leave was easier than ever before. I have no idea whether I can make use of the things I want to use and how long they can remain in the damp, insecure garage, but I can't really care much.

On the one hand, there's all these things, tools, memorabilia, books, and on other hand there's my sanity. It's the second time I chose to live out of convenience with someone not wanting to live with me. I got seriously depressed after the first time, and I see similar things emerging now.

What's the pattern here? Living with someone having problems with their life, but no willingness to change. Offering help, without it being requested. However, I know now that I can facilitate change in people willing to change, which adds a different kind of frustration to the situation.

Nevertheless, I have more urgent things to care about. I haven't heard back from the guy that rear-ended my car, I still have no idea when I will have a space as shelter again, I'm running out of money, and haven't figured out how to earn some money while being a nomad.

It's hard to maintain equanimity when facing a situation where elementary needs are no longer met. I know that my situation could be much worse, yet that thought doesn't spend much solace. I can only trust that I'm an arrow being pulled back, before I get released with full force, right onto the target.

I'm a refugee from a country that has given up its sovereignty to an unelected banking consortium, with no idea of individual freedom left or even promised. But as hardly anyone on this continent cares, people react rather hostile to the knowledge of my 'legal' situation.

I leaned out of the window, and now need to learn to fly so that I don't just plummet  to the ground. Having no bed for tomorrow, and hardly anyone whose hospitality I want to stretch, that doesn't feel too comforting. It was okay to spend a night or two in a car before, but it's not really a practical way for something that deserves the name home. My comfort zone of having shelter is gone.

As my car is pretty wrecked, and as there are some phoney laws prohibiting sleeping in a car, I guess I'll have to move around a lot. Which contradicts my dislike for driving, especially for no good reason. Instead of firmly establishing myself in a community, any community, I now have to fend for myself on a daily basis for the essentials. 

Only if I find a new place to live, shared with others, I will find out what lessons I could have learned from this crazy times in Frankston. It's easy to drop even lower - so far I'm just homeless, not hungry, with some money to feed myself and for petrol. Yet having no home isn't too ideal to do my work, or any odd job for that matter.

I learned to give nourishment to the souls of others, and I truly enjoy doing so. As yet, this hasn't me provided with a livelihood. My own soul is yearning for healing, and I know I can heal myself by doing my work…. which means I need to work enough to sustain myself.

Don't worry, be happy. I expected the silver lining for so long, but I didn't encounter much of it in the last few years. And I got tired of the misperception of being alone in this challenge… I totally want to join some collective to go through life till its over. Don't worry, be happy.

So what's next? The big unknown. Total trust in universe. Sink or swim. After lots of domestic drama it's time for comedy. Happiness begins within, although the environment helps a lot to maintain it. I'm balancing a cliff face, with desperation lurking beyond me...

City ambassadors or pseudo police?

It took nearly an entire year to reconstruct Swanston Street, one of the most frequented bits of Melbourne's CBD. Most of the time, hardly anyone could be seen actually working on the reconstruction, and most passers-by were busy enough to squeeze through the narrow bits of pavement left for the pedestrian part of the population.

Unlike many European City centres, traffic is still allowed to pass through, not only Melbourne's iconic (privatised, over-aged and not build for capacity) trams, but cars can still make their way through as well. The planners came up with a solution for cyclists that only convinced car fans can conceive, having a bike path between the waiting area for tram passengers and the tram lines.

In good old Australian fascist fashion, markings on the pavement tell the pedestrian what they should do. The bike path is marked with dozens of 'KEEP CLEAR' stencils, large signs for cyclists order them to stop and let tram passengers pass at the four stations along the reconstructed area. As it takes a while to re-educate the population to a new set of rules, I take a lot of care while using the bike path on my unicycle, as it's often taken as convenient short cut to cross the road, or as waiting area despite the 'Keep clear' markings.

The latest station to be finished is in front of the RMIT, and many students have sufficient attention deficits to bumble into the bike path, which really doesn't bother me much, as I'm not too fast on the unicycle.

The architectural preference of Europe in the 80s dominated the station design: cool metal and glass, and strange blue lights potentially as tribute to the 21st century. I haven't waited in rainy conditions for a tram there, but I guess the idea of sheltering waiting passenger is meant rather symbolic than practical, like at many tram stops in Melbourne.

The benches, made of thin steel bars, are not only cold and uncomfortable, they are outright dangerous as I had to find out today. I got distracted on my way to one of them, and hit my knee against the side of a bench. Although I was moving in a rather slow pace, the sharp profile of the thin bars poking out at the side of it left a gashing wound. I guess many people will be injured by this stupid design, which ironically happened while I observed some activity most likely intended to increase the safety at the newly build stations.

Melbourne has some volunteers acting as city ambassadors, wearing bright red shirts and caps, available usually to answer questions. They usually roam Swanston Street in pairs, the pair I asked about the spy cams at the intersection I met them didn't even know about their existence in first place. Unlike described on the city councils website, the cameras that look eerily similar to those that became more familiar after the reporting about Trapwire, there's no signage indicating their presence. As the MCC promotes the pervasive CCTV surveillance to increase the feeling of safety, I wonder how this can be achieved when hardly anyone notice them.

Today, however, two ambassadors approached cyclists and pedestrian who didn't follow the proper rules of making use of the redesigned tram stop in front of RMIT. When I saw them ganging up on a cyclist for rolling a bit along the tram, I tripped into the bench as I couldn't really believe what I saw.

I didn't even notice the bleeding until after I sat down - hitting your knees always hurts a lot, but this was the first time I ran into something that sliced the skin so easily. After telling the cyclist off, the ambassadors continued to have a watchful eye on everyone passing through their area of righteousness. The older one of them even walked after a guy in suit for 10 metres or so to inform him that he went on the 'wrong' part of the tram stop.

Give a man a uniform, and he turns into a fascist, drunk by power and self-importance. I wonder whether they acted out of their own idea to preserve law and order at the tram stop, or if the ambassadors are now trained to interfere with the dangerous elements of society that lack obedience to the writing on the pavement, and in an incredible act of defiance, walk on the bike path.

The most liveable city on this planet, now with power-tripping ambassadors, 'free' bikes that only cost a couple of dollars (not refundable), soon without single tickets for public transport, instead with a Myki that can be conveniently ordered and sent to your home for only $10 (non refundable). If you dare not to understand the PT ticketing system, gangs of ticket inspectors might detain you for a while, and after some weeks of using stations like Flinders Street or Melbourne central you will find your way around, and no longer complain about the lack of signs towards the platforms or the exit.

The zombie apocalypse has already begun, people leave their common sense at home because in public it's neither required nor appreciated. If you break the rules, someone in uniform will fine you so that sufficient memory traces for obedient behaviour are burned into your neurons. As neither Orwell nor Huxley got it 100% right, the mixture of 1984 and Brave New World is now normal Australian behaviour - distracted by sex and drugs, permanently surveilled and bossed around by people in uniform just following orders. Hooray!

Strolling through the most liveable city of 2012

I happily admit that I fell in love with Melbourne. Some of the weirder experiences I had here lately make me wonder whether the title of most liveable city on this planet really applies. If so, the planet must have turned into some really unpleasant place.

Collection of cameras in less than 5 minute walking distance around the main motive,
no duplicates, many omissions

Anyway, I went on a mission to investigate a little bit whether I could find some surveillance equipment that could fit into the #Trapwire technology. The internet research unveiled no direct links into Victoria, however, the government here committed to have stricken a deal with SAIC, another one of the global paranoia players providing the technological equipment for total population control.

Williams Str 91

On my way to the city I enjoyed some blue skies and a bit of sun, which I hadn't seen thanks to Melbourne winter for a while. The familiar sight of chemtrails made me aware that soon the sun would vanish behind some hazy clouds. I knew from Google Maps to look for a building with an ANZ branch in it, close to Collins Street, and soon I arrived at the building, inconspicuous like most of the farms for people in suits in this area.

Eagle House

While looking for the location of the Melbourne office on the web, I noticed that SAIC also has an office in Pine Gap, a well establish spy base close to Alice Spring, not mention being located in plenty of US military bases around the world. Some of the bases had strange names often with 'Eagle' somewhere in it. Not that I don't like eagles, but in a way it's interesting that this company shares their favorite animal with the Nazis.

Tenants of the Eagle House, (highlight by PS)

Although there weren't any current job adverts, SAIC had already spread out in this building to another floor. Varec Inc might be just another company belonging to the web of 'security' companies that like to use as many disguises to remain looking harmless, and warrant a high level of internal compartmentalisation.

Collins Street

Now that I knew my way to yet another place where millions, if not billions of taxpayers money is spend against the population, I continued to look around for some dome cameras as they are used for #trapwire. I didn't have to go far.

Collins Street again

Most intersections along Bourke Street had one dome camera, hidden in plain view as most people frequenting this area don't pay much attention to anything around them. The council might explain them as 'traffic' related, although they differ a lot from typical red-light or speed cameras.

ANZ Bourke Street

This scenic view however, doesn't show a traffic cam - unless you can break the law easily as pedestrian. It captures the entrance of the ANZ building, but basically has a splendid view along the pavement of Bourke Street.

Close up ANZ Bourke Street camera

Hmm. Looks exactly like some the cameras attached at intersections, and although it kind of blends into structure, it looks like being attached after the building was finished.

Parliament House Station

Now that's what I call a convenient location for a surveillance camera - directly at the entrance to a train station, and it seems to be the same kind of model as the one in front of ANZ.

Colourful stretch of Bourke Street

The upper part of Bourke Street has a lot of gastronomy, cosy little buildings framed by the skyscrapers in the background. Outdoor areas to have some food and drinks, meeting with friends, having a yarn, while someone might a great view into the cleavage of guests from above.

Close up from scenic Bourke Street view

Or, depending on the resolution of this camera, which can pan, tilt and zoom, you might even read laptop or mobile phone screens over the shoulder over the user, without raising suspicion with your smelly breath when this still had to be done in person.

Less scenic Bourke Street view

I admit, this photo doesn't really look good. It's as chaotic as a lot of the views in Melbourne's inner City, but maybe you can guess why I took it.

Close up less scenic Bourke Street view

Yet another one of those nicely shaped surveillance cameras, like many others not really planned to blend smoothly to its attachment, yet again nearly invisible due to its height. Basically another perv cam, in summer time many women working in offices show off their cleavage in their business customs, maybe that's one of the perks for the poor souls condemned to spy on their community.

Witty caption (forgot the location)

Okay, call me boring, there's a diversity of camera models in public, not only the dome type that looks so much like the photos I saw in some of the TrapWire stories. At some point, I noticed that especially ANZ branches had cameras directed on the public, but hey, I'm sure it's a coincidence that SAIC has its office in a building shared with ANZ. And claiming that jumbling the letters and adding an I makes ANZ Nazi would totally undermine any credibility to this story, so I don't.

Obviously corner Bourke and Swanston Street

I didn't follow Bourke Street further down south, depending on some more sunshine with less chemtrails I might do this. I wouldn't even be surprised to find less of them, because of the strategic importance of this specific stretch of the city. Most rallies held in the CBD start at the State Library, go down Swanston Street, turn onto Bourke Street up to the Parliament.

Corner Swanston and La Trobe Street, opposite State Library

When Eastern Germany disintegrated, and the files of the Stasi (GDR's secret service) became public, many were shocked to find out that the Stasi was able to track people in East Berlin's centre completely just with surveillance cameras. Not to mention that even toilets had some, just like the idea of contemporary shop owners to have cameras in changing rooms.

TrapWire cam (via rt.com)

Go ahead, coincidence theorists, explain it all as harmless, unimportant or 'conspiracy'. Or maybe someone get issue an FOI to the Melbourne Council, asking for the purpose of the cameras, the money spend on it, the people operating and watching.

The TrapWire story seems to make the Empire nervous, lots of things happened to distract the overly short attention span of average citizens. The trolls on chats eagerly dismissing the importance of Trapwire were of course not at all PsyOp. I mean, the government wouldn't really spend money on engaging in social media, using similar strategies to viral marketing to whitewash their curiosity about every step we take in public.

Evolutionary mathematics

How can a group of people bring about a fundamental shift in society? Can we analyse civil movements with mathematical metrics to improve the efficiency of strategies and the definition of goals?

The occupation in Melbourne is still in its Early Adaptor stage, although it seems to resonate enough with a potentially 'critical' mass that can bring things to a tipping point. Allow me to set out some hypothetical numbers while forgetting about ideological bullshit. Melbourne has roughly 4 million citizens, which means if 5% of the population constitute a 'critical mass', it would take 200.000 Melbournians to liberate this city from its oppressors (if the same thing happens globally).

200.000 sounds like a lot, it's probably more than the 'alternative' parties count as members in whole Australia. But occupy isn't a political party, it's more like a life style choice. So metrics from other areas of life might better reflect such a number can be achieved or not. For simplicity's sake and inspired by sometimes shaky optimism, I assume that theoretically 200,000 could be convinced to commit their alliance to the idea of leaderless, consensual direct democracy.

Between now and 200,000 Melbourne occupiers lies the growth of the movement. Growth happens cyclical, linear or exponential. Although most systems and structures based on exponential growth constitute a big part of the problem, a phase of exponential growth is required to save this planet before the greedy few have wrecked it entirely.

Time for some calculations. Let's take 100 people, committed to contribute to the growth of the movement. The goal for each of them is to find a single ally per week. Even for people with a daytime job this sounds like an achievable target. In a linear model, it takes 2,000 weeks (roughly 38 years) to get our magical 200,000 together. A job for a lifetime, a Sisyphus task. Farewell, Mother Earth, will be late for your rescue as we got sidetracked supporting the system of destruction.

Now let's bring some magic in, exponential growth. Our 100 people win allies, not consumers or subscribers, and show their alliance by doing the same. After a week there will 200 'members', after two weeks 400, and so on. Now guess how many weeks it'll take with this growth rate to get to 200,000. Don't peer ahead and spoil your fun. I happily distract you for a while - isn't distraction the real opium for the masses, be it sport, politics, porn, drugs, drama and media?

Already after two months the barrier to 10,000 allies is broken, and the numbers will jump within the next month (after 12 weeks) over the 200,000 mark. Even with only 10 people as starting point it would take a mere 19 weeks to grow to a number where even a 10% mobilisation rate would exceed the size of most rallyes that took place in recent history in Melbourne.

While this might sound like a pyramide scheme, there's an essential difference. In a flat hierarchy, everybody is allowed to take their share from the gains of the operation. The idea of property, especially of land, contradicts the common interest, especially in highly populated world. And alliance (or membership) wouldn't necessarily mean membership fees (do we really need money on an abundant planet?).

Before we can agree how to heal the planet and to evolve mankind the system of madness needs to be stopped. Dr. ABC, first of all, remove the danger. 200,000 people in Melbourne's streets would certainly bring many things to a stop, and initiate a wave of civil disobedience that potentially brings back justice into society.