Hippy, Hipster - Gypsy, Gypster - Boxes, Society and Getting a Message Across

A mainstream media use of the word 'Gypsy'

After posting the following on my facebook page I received a reply from a now 'unfriend' that I was engaging in offensive cultural misappropriation regarding the use of the word 'Gypsy':

Alright peeps listen up! I've got the solution to this not quite right fitting in the box hipster thing. I was never a true hippy so I could never be a true hipster, which is the consumer evolution of the hippy. But I am a gypsy in many senses of the word and so the natural consumer evolution of a gypsy is well, guess what? You guessed it! I'm a f***ing Gypster!

Go the Gypster Revolution!

**Edit - Discussion question: Is using the word 'gypsy' in this sense offensive cultural misappropriation? If so, is using the word Nazi to describe a fanatic of something also cultural misappropriation? What is evolution of a language, what is western exhorbitance and what is appropriate? I've been pulled up on this so please, let's start a discussion about it.

I decided to ask someone from Eastern Europe, as I have a friend in Macedonia and this is the response:

for western europe i suppose it is not something offensive, because actually they don`t have gipsies since 60-70 years... slowly they died away, fade away... and people there don`t know what exactly is gipsy, for some of them it is even smth exotic... but in eastern europe it could be offensive, or you could be misunderstood if you say you live like a gipsy... but anyway, it will not cause you any real problems, just people here have a lot of prejudices about gipsies

So while I won't be reprimanding anyone for the use of the word within western europe if used on myself in either a positive or a negative tone, for myself I'll probably just use the word - Nomad.

The problem being here is that Nomadster is no where as phonetically attractive and I'm back to square one, and that is the square of having no square. Where is my box? I need a box to put myself in because all the derogatory boxes I naturally fall into in society work against me.

Hippy, anarchist, punk, bludger, free-loader - I may just have to stay with hipster and attempt to be more hipster. I represent a freedom that to many should not exist and a natural response to this is to negatively label me - Including the label of a drug addict or an alchoholic.

It's natural for a person such as myself who is in the public eye constantly to have high psychological defences. I also have learned about myself that I am a mimic and sometimes I conform to people's projections and expectations of me without conscious effort. This can work for me when I am around people that love me but it can work against me when I'm around people that despise me. I feel and see energy in the sense that I'm aware of a flow or a non-flow of it on the street and it has a great effect on my playing and singing and also the way I am received. I'm an unwilling shaman.

Unfortunately, I'm being serious about this, if I want to be heard I have to be seen in a positive light as an equal in society. The mass is controlled by public perception and this includes the convenient security of putting people in boxes.

While I want to encourage people away from the behaviour of automatically putting people in boxes, this is so far an ingrained conditioning that to assume I can get rid of it in one generation is a sensational fantasy. 

So to those of us that see the game and are serious about playing it we can see that being an 'individual' in the western sense of the word is a product of consumerism. 

I'm quite happy to sacrifice my 'individuality' in order to make my message and my voice heard.

My Hipster Breakfast and I

I've got my certified hipster breakfast here. Seeing as it is the hip thing to take pictures of your food especially if it is a hipster meal. Except I haven't yet got a selfie stick (aka Hipster Fail) to show that it is authentically my breakfast, and that it is indeed I that is consuming it.

Besides this, let's just presume that this IS my breakfast and I DID eat it this morning. Hipster excuses... jees.

Well, I've got my local hipster free range eggs, which are cooked just right without the eggs being runny, and mushrooms and my local farmer's market bought hipster tomatoes and guess what? You guessed it, it's gluten free because I did the hipster thing and left out the bread!

Beside this, it wouldn't be a certified hipster breakfast if it wasn't cooked in a hipster town like Margaret River and guess what else?

I've covered the entire dish with a hipster super food. Dulce flakes.

So I'm making the hipster improvements to my life and being a true hipster in the best hipster fashion I can be.

I was a hippy, and now I'm a hipster - and I'm reaping all the wonderful benefits that go with it. (well technically I was an extremely dark, anarchist hippy/ verging on crusty punk, but as long as I clean my dreads with coconut oil (organic!) I'll be able to turn by crusty punkedness into hipster certification!)

There's just one problem with this meal that everybody missed and unfortunately I'm going to tell you and let all your hipster bubbles down. Here it is.

I used coles brand pre-sliced mushrooms and coles brand packet lemon juice and coles brand uber processed the fuck out of salt. I also cooked it in a teflon pan which was made of the very un-hipster substance ALUMINIUM! (Sounds like ILLUMINATI but one thousand times worse!)

Well, this is a hipster fail in the unwritten Bible de la Hipster...

But you can't say that I didn't try.

Bu bow.

Finding Equlibrium

There are three factors for my way of thinking that divide my behaviour:

- Chemical/Biological: Coffee, Masturbation, Alchohol, Weed.

- Social: Friends, family, work, sex, groups.

- Astrological: Stars, Planets, Sun spots and flares, moon.

How do you decide what percentage of the above is affecting you in a time when you're having it hard or having a high?

For example, if I over indulge in a chemical behaviour alterant, I can at least hang my woes on a hook that I know isn't going to be there for very long if I just sit it out. 

Then there are times, the group I'm hanging out with are having a collective low or high and I share it with them as an isolated field of consciousness.

And then there is the reality that all is frequency and the stars, sun, moon and planets in different arrangements affect my behaviour and the greater mass of the whole population of the earth, in varying degrees.

Where do we decide to what effect each of these factors influence our behaviour and how can we be accurate to pinpoint the cause of a low or a high, or a highly intuitive period. At what point is it individual, communal or macrocosmic?

To see this clearly for me is to have security in the fact that even if I am low, it will pass and I just need to be patient with myself whatever the cause. Also at times, I will go so high that I feel I am over extending myself and can feel it will cause a greater low later to fly too high. 

I, like many people I'm sure, wish to find some sort of equilibrium.

To know the cause of each of the parts assists in this process greatly.

Monti

Music as a tool to release energetic blockages

I'm havin' a cup o' tea next to the river

An older lady stopped and had a chat to me while busking at the IGA yesterday and she told me she was a jazz singer. So we got on a bit and I asked her to sing for me. She didn't know any of my songs so she sang some scat ('da doo da doo da-s') for me over top of a jazzy chord progression and it was awesome. She left the experience full of energy, like when people don't know how to contain themselves, all bubbly and such.

Love to do that to people, fill them up!

A beautiful spanish girl came and sang with me at the farmer's markets the day before, extremely shy but looking for a way to participate, and with a little time and some guidance got her to break through a barrier to sing in public... I bumped into her for coffee later and she was very thankful for the experience of releasing that blockage describing it as a block in the solar plexus to the heart. This is what music is about for me, opening people up and giving them the opportunity to feel themselves in music.

Music is an energetic healing practice just like reiki or similar energy work methods. When we remove elitism from music and be open for participation, the musician is a magician, a wielder of life changing frequencies - the great work of music is a shamanistic art.

Monti

Australian Detained in the UK

A wing of Brookhouse detention centre from outside the razor wire fences.

(Letter abbreviations are provided instead of names to protect the identity of the individuals referred to in this article, part of this article was written while in Brookhouse as an email to myself, thus why present tense is used in some instances)
(This article is Creative Commons, you are welcome to post it on your website or journal, please use it in its entirety and provide attribution, thanks)

On the 28th of February, 2017 I was stopped by UK Home Office (border control) when I attempted to get on a ferry from Belfast to Scotland and then detained in a temporary centre in Larne, Northern Ireland for three days. I'm not allowed entry in the UK via an on-entry tourist Visa anymore due to my overstaying my last visit (approx. 3 years ago for 11 months). Many have told me I was unlucky to have been picked up at this port in Belfast. I have good friends in Scotland and England and I was keen to see them again, continuing my international busking tour without borders. But instead, I was detained and forced to ride the rollercoaster of being a detainee and getting deported back to Australia.  All in all, I'm greatful for this opportunity to meet other detainees with worse plights than mine and more legitimate reasons to reside in the UK, a great opportunity to hear their stories face to face.

Three days is the maximum stay in Larne as it doesn't have many facilities to give detainees an acceptable level of captive mobility. There is room for up to 19 people, rooms are shared with up to three in each room. A simple phone is provided to detainees to contact loved ones in replacement of their camera phones. There are two TVs - one in the dining area and one in an activity room, highly restricted internet on two computers, a small library, puzzles and games and a small courtyard/smoking area which can only be accessed while supervised.  Detainees are given a 5 minute phone call to anywhere in the world. Pay phones are also provided. Meals are basically TV dinners with Halal options. There are snacks available all the time and an instant coffee machine. The staff were lovely but that's just Irish people in general. It's a temporary stop for people not allowed entry, usually by ferry to Scotland or Liverpool.

On arrival at Larne I was asked if I wanted to voluntarily buy a ticket or if I wanted to try to claim bail and seek legal advice to stay in the UK. I don't travel with much money, busking as I go and I was not expecting to fork out the money for an expensive ticket to Australia without notice. I chose not to pursue legitimacy to stay as I thought I had no grounds to do so and I did not desire a long stay in detention.

Larne Detention Centre near Belfast, Northern Ireland

At Larne, people detained with me included: an albanian man, a hungarian, a lithuanian, two kurdish men, a chinese man, an egyptain man and a nigerian man. One by one we waited out our three day period and were flown by escort to a larger detention centre on mainland UK.

After my stay in Larne, I was transferred on a flight from Belfast to Gatwick via the private company Tascor who operate an escort to ride on the plane with me, transferring me to their collegues at Gatwick airport. The small detainment centre in Larne is also owned and run by Tascor. Tascor, amongst other things, is an escort company who provide secure service for transport of detainees.

All go ahead with a flight arriving back in Australia on the 9th of March courtesy of the UK. I'm now in Brookhouse at Gatwick Airport, the same detainment centre I was detained in for 11 days when I was deported three years ago for overstaying. The issue that got me deported three years ago was trying to gain entry to volunteer and volunteering is considered paid work in the UK. I was ordered to return after to Barcelona one day after entry but decided to stay on instead. 11 months later I wanted to leave the UK and handed myself in at the airport I was meant to return to originally. This led to my first incarceration in Brookhouse in 2014.

So this is my second time detained at Brookhouse detention centre, a prison operated by the private security company G4S.  Brookhouse at Gatwick is one of many detention centres in the UK. There are 12 detention centres in the UK all up. Two are in Heathrow, two are in Gatwick (men, and women and children are kept in separate centres). The centre I am in now holds 448. The centres in Heathrow hold 615 and 408.

On arrival in the evening of the 3rd of March after waiting in the van for my reception to be ready, I was brought into a white room, my weight and height were recorded and I was frisk searched and asked to take off my shoes, then I was put through a metal detector. All my belongings were taken from me. I was put in a waiting room which others were in as well. I was given some food left over from lunch and I waited with the others, sparking a few small conversations. A quick medical check was done including blood pressure. I did all these things at the other centre in Larne, I asked why I had to do them again and they said a different company owns this centre to the one in Larne. I was eventually brought to a desk, I retrieved some belongings that were permissable to enter (clothes and a notepad) and given an ID card with a bar code. I had my guitar with me but it is kept with a tag on it in the centre's storage, I'm not allowed to bring that in or use it. Then I was brought to one of the four wings, B wing, which is where all new detainees start out and then given a room and some sheets and toiletries.

I got little sleep that night as J, a Northern African man with family in Manchester, spoke loudly in another language on his phone until very late, incessantly calling many different people one after the other. He decided not to engage with me socially in a room sized 3.5 by 5 metres and as politely as I could I let him know I'm very tired and needed to sleep. After the phone calls he performed random hygiene things in the middle of sleeping periods which kept me up. Brushing teeth really loudly and slapping some cream on his body erratically, then the stench of the product gave me a headache. This is neurotic behaviour that naturally comes from being locked up in a prison away from his family and friends. By no means I am saying everyone has these particular habits but everyone reacts in a different way. I didn't get angry, I know some of these people have been through a lot and I just waited it out locked with him in the room. We're all human and this is how a normal human being plucked out of their lives will react to this sort of situation. I can't blame him or any other of the detainees for some of their strange behaviour, they all have their own issues and many just want to be with their families outside in the UK whom many have lived with for years.

I asked for a room change this morning. I need sleep. The officers are generally accomodating to the detainee's needs. They are workers working for a company that has been contracted to run this prison, and not immigration staff. In this centre I get the impression they're 'just doing their job'. They also have families to go back to and lives to live and this job is just a means to an end, it's not necessarily a power trip like it can be for prison screws or police officers.

Brookhouse is contracted to G4S

There are lots of ex-cons here. Most have been detained here after serving small sentences in jail for minor drug offences. A common story is six months in lock-up then their visa is revoked so they go straight into detention after release from incarceration to either wait for a flight back to be booked or fight an expensive legal battle to defend their right to be here. Got a real sort of dark feeling from a few on the way in, in the waiting room. I get the feeling many have been through a lot for not much.

Brookhouse is presently detaining many Albanians, Lithuanians and eastern europeans - people looking to get a better life, anywhere, anyhow. A lot of these guys have been picked up for minor drug offences. Many common citizens believe that legal means right in every case, apparently happy to put down the cold hand of the law and say that these people's actions are not justified and they should be punished unreservedly. But having spoken to many of these detainees personally and understanding their experience from their perspective as an equal, they cannot honestly stay in their country and survive without economic oppression. It's natural human behaviour to desire an alternative and search for a way to be free. We all want to be happy. Many detainees also resist deportation due to facing oppressive situations on re-entry to their home country, this ensues a lengthy stay in places like Brookhouse, up to a year. They do what they can with what they have.

A, an Albanian man I was escorted with, was being sent back to Albania after two months in prison for a minor drug crime. He tells me that if he works long hours in his country he can make just enough to eat and pay rent for a simple dwelling. These people are fine, their behaviour is a natural reaction to an unequal system.

I feel good to be in here because by being here I show them that their dreams of making it to Australia or some other cashed up country and making it big have some fundamental flaw in them. So many wish to go to some place where they can make good money, be happy, have a family and grow, creating good memories. These are simple desires and the world has the resources to provide this for everyone. It is not wrong to want to these things, it is wrong to believe that relying on a money system that separates us from one another is the only way we can do it.

As well as ex-cons there are also many detainees without criminal convictions that have lived in the UK for periods of over ten years but are detained with their legitimacy of residency in question. A common story is, three years out of detainment and then they get picked up again having to prove their legitimacy again. This is not fake sensational news this is the real experience of many people that are detained at Gatwick who are not native to the UK but have immigrated here. They have families on the outside in the UK waiting for them to come out. But this requires a lengthy legal battle which is also expensive. Eventually they do get out, and often, only a few years later are detained yet again without due cause. Actions like this by the UK government prove to create distrust of the government by the detainees. But naturally these people have no power to change anything within the society they have begged to be a part of, so they have no choice but to do what they are told or face the risk of being sent back to an oppressive situation.

In my first detainment period of 11 days in 2014 I spoke with C, a Venezuelan man who had been in the country for about 16 years, and every 3-5 years he gets detained with his status in question. He then proceeds to go through a legal battle. A couple of weeks and a few thousand pounds later he is released. He owns a building company so he can afford the inconvenient unnanounced legal battle but there are many in the same situation without the immediate availability of the necessary capital. Some free legal aid is provided for detainees but less money means a longer legal battle and a longer detainment sentence.  This isn't just one case, I've heard from many who share this experience - people that come in and out of the detention centre on a regular basis having to yet again prove their legitimacy to reside in the UK.

I spoke with T, a Kurdish man held in the Tascor centre in Larne and he had been here for 14 years and has a family here. He was making a trip to Scotland to visit some friends when like me he was picked up by the customs officers questioned and ended up in the detainment centre to be processed like a product until he gets released having his time and his dignity robbed from him. He decided to make a stand against his detainment by refusing to eat and so he was watched by the guards while he slept. Unfortunately the system is so well comparmentalised that the people he was punishing by doing this were just regular people with families and jobs that pays the bills working. He spoke of humanity and sharing and that anything he has, he shares, and if he meets another Kurdish person on the street they will take him in as a brother. He related this to western culture and all the abundance we have and how we hold it to our chest, keeping it from those in need. In Australia, we are in a position to assist people and we do nothing with it, claiming to be protecting our country from national security threats. We should assist everyone that comes with a legitimate request for help. We have the resources, we can do it. Let them in.

There is always a chance a 'security threat' will come in, but if a threat did exist, it would already be in the UK and not in a place of hopelessness called a detention centre where needy defeated people pan out a pitiful existence in hope of a better life. Those that wish to prolong their stay at Brookhouse because their alternative is not a choice are reduced to the equivalent of kneeling at the feet of the government and begging for entry. Anger is not an option. If anything, the government is creating its own threats by detaining people that have no intention to harm the system.

So many detainees have laughed at me asking, "Why on earth is an Australian being detained at Brookhouse?" There's this mystique about Australia, being so far away and out of sight, as the land of golden opportunity having rivers flowing with milk and honey with cupids playing harps and unicorns hopping over hills. Many have asked me, "Why do I want to be here in Europe?" I say things are changing everywhere, not just here, and not to believe everything they hear about Australia. Yes, it's true, I tell them, there are still opportunities in Australia but the window is closing soon and security is tight. There are opportunities in Australia but like everywhere else in the western world, the economy is on a decline and right wing politics are make the fall faster for a harder reality check for the people at the bottom. I have reminded some that a desire to work hard for money no matter what price, if it is not your desire to do so, is still slavery. I am called insane for thinking this way. I don't wish to be another brick on the wall. I have been told since birth I can be what I want in an individualist society and by actually trying to grab it, have discovered how difficult this assumed privelege really is to achieve and maintain. I travel the world and play music, this is my thing, I make enough to live and that's enough for me, I'm living my dream. Some respect it as an occupation and an important role in society and others treat me like a begger no matter what standard or style of music I play. Though having said this, just by being born in Australia, I have the luxury to culture these alternative views and maintain this perspective on life without any immediate threat to my survival.

In Brookhouse there are benefits that make it different from a regular prison: You get a simple phone which you can use your own money to recharge to make phone calls. IT rooms are available with outdated facilities and very limited slow internet access (no social media but special exceptions through request for getting legal information for a case). There are less facilities in the centre than three years ago, the 'games room' is closed which means friends from different wings have only three tables to play Dominoes or other table games with in the shared areas; the music room doesn't have a time roster anymore which means it's not open consistently and the garden outdoor area is closed and under renovation which may take months.

One of the four wings containing two-share concrete cells which line the sides of these walls with large lockable metal doors with peep holes for role counts and wellfare checks.

You can work while you stay here doing various jobs around the centre including work in the kitchen, cleaning and laundry work. You get paid one pound per hour for this work which is put on your ID card which you are given on entry to the centre when you are processed. When the centre is working at its best, the orderlys that are the prisoners do a large portion of the menial work. It does give longterm detainees some occupation to keep the mind busy, this is why I chose to work in the kitchen in my first detainment in 2014. The chefs were nice enough and anyone wanting to work in the kitchen needed to have a security check. They often gave us things we could take as extras including a cold drink or a special meal at the end of the four hour shift. If detainees have no access to money outside, this is a way to buy tobacco. Besides work, 74 pence is put on every detainees ID card every day as part of detainment to spend at a small shop with basics in the centre. Workers are put in their own wing and have a small gym in the wing for their personal use. Detainees are only allowed to enter the wing they stay in.

My first experience in the kitchens was peeling and  slicing onions for the entirety of the four hour shift. More than once I was assigned to peel and chop onions and only onions. There's a lot of detainees and a lot of food to be made, so naturally there's a lot of onions that need chopping. But I was happy to do the work as it kept me busy and gave me some money to buy some basic luxuries.

We are locked up at night from 9pm until 8am and also half an hour before lunch and dinner for a role count.

There is a small library with books in different languages. There's a medical centre where prescription drugs are heavily controlled. There's an art room which is only open at certain times of the day during the weekdays. There's a shop which you can use your own money to buy basics including tobacco. There's a cultural kitchen open at certain times during the week that detainees that pass a security check can access to make a favourite food. There's pool tables, table tennis and table soccer in the wings. As well as larger TVs which are often used to broadcast football or loud music.

The wing I was in had someone who had obviously been there for a while, getting up earlyish after breakfast and putting one of the TVs on full volume on a pop music channel. I hated it, the sound reverberated through the whole wing. I've always hated pop music. But it felt right in a way, my indian room mate B couldn't stand it, so he didn't spend much time in the room when the music was on. The people need expression, their rights have been taken away, we all understood the need for the music by the person that put it on and most times just let them have their music.

A small TV with some cable TV channels is in each room. There's normally an outdoor area with a small garden which is closed for renovation currently. There are some other small outdoor areas for kicking a ball or playing cricket in the activity times. Normally only one of these areas is open as they require supervision by an attendant. There are three rooms for religious purposes: muslim, christian and a multifaith room with services respective of the traditions on the different days of worship and rosters of the times these services are on are displayed clearly in each wing.

People are placed two residents per room, some rooms are smoking rooms. The room is a basic concrete room with a large metal door, a high ceiling, a toilet, a sink, a shared desk with a bed on either side.  There is a window with bars and shock proof glass, looking out onto the outdoor areas, walls of windows in adjacent cell wings and razor wire lined fences with English heath beyond. Residents can do washing as they need in the 'activity times'.

The residents do what they can to entertain themselves, Numerous notices around the centre and in the rooms warn of taking artificial cannibanoids as legal highs due to health risks including heart failure and death. This doesn't stop a bored mind from wanting to take itself away from this livid situation. Considering that none of these side effects are found in the use of using real marijuana, it shows another symptom of a broken society. There are now strict laws which make it illegal to have these substances in any prison in the UK. It's the popular thing. Some detainees make a simple alchohol from anything they can find.

I moved rooms regularly in my first stay in 2014 and I first stayed with a Jamaican man, J. He read the bible a lot and always had it open on the table. He was overly obsessed with hygiene to the point of pouring bleach in the corners because he said I was farting too much. He liked to watch movies with animals in them. He loves animals. I got a room change not being able to stand the smell of bleach.

There are many different countries' peoples here at Brookhouse: Northern African, Jamaican, Eastern European, South American, Europeans of any country that lost visa status through being incarcerated, Indians, Sri Lankans and Chinese. Detainees have so many different reasons for being here - including people arrested at their weddings for the state being convinced the weddings were for immigration purposes only. I have spoken to some of these people and from their perspective their wedding was legitimate and Home Office overstepped its mark. On my first stay I met a large group of seven Sri Lankan men who were all arrested at their weddings. Young people wanting to make a new life. H, the one I spoke to first, was young and vibrant. He told me his wedding was legitimate. No surprise for me, they were all surprised to find me in the detention centre.

When I was due to fly out of Brookhouse on the afternoon of Tues the 7th at about 3:30pm, I was taken to a waiting room, then retrieved, had my immediate belongings searched. I was then taken to another room, I took off my scarf, jacket and shoes, then frisk searched. I then signed for my belongings, and the money remaining on my ID card was refunded and placed in a sealed bag. I was then taken to a transport vehicle like before, white on the inside, audio and video recorded inside the van. The van seats five people maximum. The van detoured to pick up some other Tascor employees who were being sent to France to pick up escort someone from Paris and so they also needed to get to Heathrow. We drove for an hour, arrived at a Tascor depot and I was told to wait in the van for another van to arrive because another man was being deported directly from jail and he was being taken to Heathrow on the same trip. Given water and snacks I waited in the locked van for 45 minutes. He arrived, He was an albanian man who had been in jail for two months for a minor drug offence. We then went to an initial baggage check at a private facility. All bags x-rayed, shoes off, jacket, scaff off, frisk searched and metal detected. Some 'hold' stickers were put on the baggage going in the hold of the plane. Then with bags checked we went to the airport, I got off first and said goodbye to Mr Albania who was very friendly, and into the airport to some secure rooms behind the customs area. I got a chance to sort my bags for the flight then I was shoes, jacket, scarf off, frisk searched again by a Tascor employee. They had an argument because the man escorting me was late with my arrival. Then I was taken to the airport security check, all bags x-rayed, shoes, jacket, scarf off, full body x-ray wonder machined then frisk searched the last time before being taken to the gate and given a seat in wait of the flight. I waiting with a malaysian lady who was speaking to herself while I had a chance to use my laptop and do some quick social networking. My passport was held by the cabin crew once on the flight and given to me in Kuala Lumpur at the transfer to the next flight directly to Perth. All in all, I was searched four times at four different places. Feeling just a little like cattle.

We Australians must learn from our mistakes as a young country trying to carve out our identity. We get out of people what we put into them. We have to stand together to make a noticeable difference and change this system at its core. It isn't going to change on its own. We all have so many talents and abilities that when we put them together we have the potential to be truly unstoppable.

These prisons were all government run at one stage but since the 1980s have been privatized. Privatization allows for the exploitation of government funds, many times with politicians having key connections with major share holders of the corporations that take the job to run these institutions. There is big pressure on government by corporations for the privatisation of these institutions because the decision results in them receiving multi-million dollar and even billion dollar contracts funded by the tax-payers.

Detention is no way to treat a human just doing what they need to survive. We are human full stop, nationality is superficial. Admittedly, the UK treat these people much better than other countries do and detainees do have some legal rights here and the right to free legal advice. Australia with recorded human right abuses at Manus and Nauru islands (run by private companies for billion dollar government contracts) is far behind other first world countries in the care and treatment of our asylum seeking international community.

Above the door on the inside of the centre when I was first escorted into the secure zone at Brookhouse, ready to be processed, is this quote in large writing, "We're all just one big family, whoever we are." This was apparently written by a detainee. I'd much prefer this definition of family extended to people between people of different cultures outside of detention centres instead of inside one to feel this family belonging. I understand the sentiment of whoever at G4S that decided this being the first thing you see when entering Brookhouse was a good idea, but I highlight the fact that if the statement were true - we wouldn't be in here.

I make the point here, it is no longer enough to be white and be born in the 'right country'. So many a social situation in my travels reminds me of the social status I hold just by being a white Australian. One must also have been born in the right family and have enough money to throw at any legal wall that gets in the way of survival. Money comes with hard work for some, provided the country you're doing your work in pays well, but if you were born into monetary privelege your road is paved with gold and state imposed obstacles become largely obsolete. I say this because too many an Australian I have spoken to are convinced this economic turmoil will blow over and not effect them. It is racist that I receive an advantage in my travels through my birthplace and skin colour. I seek to use this advantage to expose the system and allow others to see a clear path for effective integrative change.

G from Spain, who had been in the detention centre for seven months told me that there was a rush in the UK to get as many people out of the country before March 15th because this was the cut-off date for the change in immigration rules due to the implementation of Brexit. All new entrants from the European Union would then require a Visa to enter the country. Brexit is also causing a divide in Scotland and Northern Ireland. The millions of people that voted for the independent state of Scotland have increased momentum with their claim, not wanting a part of Brexit. People from Northern Ireland have very real fears of the threat of the re-emergence of the violence between the IRA and the Loyalists which did not stop all that long ago. The land borders are down at present but with the possibility of Brexit they may be re-erected and this will ignite new violence, which may lead to a stronger republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland re-unification movement.

Many of the asylum seekers on these refugee camp islands in Australia are boat people. That's people that have risked their lives in substandard conditions on damaged vessels - a trip that can take weeks. No one gets on a leaky boat for this long because they don't feel like they're getting enough luxury in their lives. No, they get on that boat because they're running from oppression. Many times the people that organize the boats charge a premium for a place on the boat. The patrons work hard spending life savings or selling family heirlooms for that ticket, all for a chance to get out. Boats are often crowded and not all boats make it all the way, many capsize in turmultuous sea conditions and hundreds die at sea. These people just want to live in a safe country, live good lives and be happy having come from an oppressive situation. The law is a blanket of control that doesn't necessarily serve the needs of the individual or understand their struggles.

A poster for a recent event to stand against the human rights abuses on these islands, photo taken in North Fremantle, Westeren Australia. [click to enlarge]

My recent involvement in performing fundraising gigs for the grass roots aid organisation Whistles for Refugees in Ireland and briefly traveling through North-Western France has given me a much greater perspective on the magnitude of the refugee situation we are facing internationally. As well as refugees from war torn countries like Syria or Yemen, there are economic migrants like those from Eastern Europe and Northern Africa; climate change refugees have also begun to rise in numbers, this being an even greater threat on the horizon as environmental catastrophes become more common and sea levels begin to rise with coastal cities becoming uninhabitable. Consider that a majority of Earth's human population live in coastal cities.

If we don't organize a better international plan to help asylum seekers fleeing from whatever oppressive situation, then conflict will be guaranteed because people will be reduced to fighting for their survival, one man over another. One thing is certain: inequality breeds crime, violence and desperate survival motivated behaviour. We still have so much abundance in Australia, we should use it.

We must stop putting up high defences and propogating fear through terror campaigns in the media. We must be better than this and rise above it. We have the resources. We can share.

We can work together and make this work for everyone OR we can hold our hands to our chest and fight for our bare survival because regardless of how much abundance we have, it takes a large amount of energy to 'protect' these resources from people who we perceive to be a threat just by needing assistance. The future is not certain and things are changing internationally, we can die apart in isolation from each other or we can survive in a thriving co-operative community and build ourselves up in the spirit of tolerance and sharing.

Australia has a greater lesson to learn than any other nation in this regard because we have had it so good for so long. There are so few of us and we have so much. Our monetary advantage through our resources boom gives us the opportunity to enjoy the luxury of socially isolating ourselves from other countries. Our choice not to assist asylum seekers in a dignified manner is going to work against us in the future because the abundance we have now, no matter how much it is, if not shared to all humans that need it freely and unconditionally, will be a bitter taste in our mouth when we are the ones that are desperate and need a helping hand.

A major change in the world economy is coming. Do we want to live in regret of decisions our politicians have made on our behalf because we sat and did nothing to stop this abuse? The answer is not to hold our hands to our chest and defend but to share to all who need what we have equally. The scarcity mindset is a product of an economic system based on constant growth. The level of responsibility of having so much resources in this time of great need is a great burden because it takes great intelligence, compassion and organisation in a collective effort to distribute these resources effectively and equally for the benefit of as many people as possible.

Unfortunately, this an accurate depiction of the 'people's share' in the world economy run by international banking cartels

Our governments are corrupt. They are not working in the people's favour. Let's no longer sift over the delusion that anyone presently in power is affected in the same way that our boat people are by their oppression; that they have any idea what these people have gone through or are going through. The councils and government houses are manned with the elite of society who have more than enough and use their wealth to hover above the billions of people subject to this economy. They have no first hand experience of what these people are going through, and yet they make decisions on our behalf for their lives, dictating their experience. It is proven because of their actions and willing ignorance of wealth inequality that our politicians are obsessed with power and control, many have strong ties to major corporations operating a form of corporatocracy under the guise of equality and modern democracy we were raised to believe exists. In Australia, we have lived in a grey-class-state for so long that we've been deceived to believe that the class system does not exist here like it does in Europe. The truth is, it has always been here and it will become more visible when money, jobs and welfare get tight. Already we are starting to see the cracks in our system and many reputable political spectators have forecast the worst. Could we really have expected to have it so good for so long?

So let's change the system from the bottom up and make things work for all people requiring our resources, by working together and by destroying fear of what we don't understand through compassion for one another. Let's let our defences down, both psychological and physically, and let people in. Indiscriminate of age, sex, religion or birth place, let's work together to create an equal society that we are all an integral piece. Only we can do this for ourselves, as quite clearly, the government is not going to do it for us.

Things to do to get involved with the wave of change overtaking the globe at the moment:
- Get involved with grass roots activism
- Be innovative and creative about the way you make your voice heard
- Stand up for your rights respectfully in the workplace, on the street and uphold them in your home
- Seek to extend these rights to all person's equally
- Love yourself, love other people, speak to a stranger
- Blur the lines between race and religion and find ways to be inclusive of all
- Start community projects - eg. community garden, open spaces where skills can be shared in free volunteer run classes, free shops with second hand clothes full moon ceremonies around a campfire.
- Start a community group that runs a free meal once a week, or a movie night with an illuminating documentary
- Trade a pair of knitted socks for a bunch of home-grown spinach
- [your suggestion goes here]

Community Gardens - a pillar of community ethics to encourage sharing and inclusiveness

The more you get involved, the greater the capacity for change and the more ideas that will start to flow. It doesn't have to be a violent change. When people hear, 'take down the government', it doesn't necessarily mean riots with screaming people, setting off bombs and throwing motolovs. At this integral time these methods are counter-intuitive because they give the system of control a reason to control us more, disproving our legitimacy for the ability to control ourselves. Instead 'take down the government' means love another, be compassionate to differences, sharing what we have and finding new and creative non-violent ways to be independent of this control. Make control of the economy the responsibility of the community by implementing change at a grass roots level. Do what you can with what you have and the ball will start rolling, accumulating into a grand epic vehicle of global societal change. Welcome to the new millenium are you ready for a new age of tolerance and acceptance?

We can do this together and together our power is unimaginable.

In Unconditional Love,

Montikarus

High Defences

High psychological defences, from my experience, is not uncommon to those born in Australia. We live on an island away from the rest of western culture, claiming to be part of western culture, harbouring some of the harshest environments in the world, having started from prison camps populated from the results of an unjust UK legal system and having the yoke of the genocide of a vast majority of the indigenous population anchored in our history; that and, we also own a king's share of the earth's resources with a hundred countries digging their claws in to claim a cut. I'd say there is good reason for our high defences.

I had trouble growing up in Australia. I am an extremely sensitive individual to the point where I have called myself a mimic. I have worn many masks, suppressed anger - having used anger as an emotional threat to make others see things my way or to leave me alone; and in the past have taken on a false personality of overt manliness in order to conform and protect myself to keep my social opportunities open. I'm a tall poppy and my ideas and desires have had the necessity to be cultured alone, away from the prying, cynical eyes of the Australian public.

Having traveled extensively in Europe, I have found there is another way. That instead of knocking down ideas and denigrating people for standing out, we can work together and maintain openness working in concert to achieve a greater goal. While this exists in every culture I've only ever found it in small groups in Australia.

Openness achieves greater levels of happiness and intelligence at the risk of experiencing greater levels of pain and depressions. In the right company, openness can be maintained and defences, no matter now 'useful', can quite often be self defeating. Good friends let us at times walk in ways that might be seen to be a bad path with a bad outcome with the hindsight that the lessons learned strengthen the character and identity of the individual as a valuable part of the community.

There are many lovely groups here in Australia as well - just as there are also many close-minded groups in Europe too, nothing is perfect, I remark on the collective mentality and not at individuals. In my travels I found that my high defences served to isolate me and give others reason to avoid me. In activist circles I believe people have greater empathy and this gave me the chance to see what I'd become. And thanks to my music, I had a ticket to openness, an entry back into myself, the ability to find a way to relate to people wherever I am and forget the importance of the self.

The best life advice I received was from a good friend in Belfast and it goes simply like this,
"You do you, Monti." Usually in response to an expressed insecurity or lack of clarity to a personal decision in a kind loving tone of 'we're gonna make it work, it's gonna be alright.'

This is my perspective of course and everyone else's perspective in their lives may be different - take with salt as required. It is true, I live and have lived a very different life by choice, with life experience that the vast majority of people cannot relate to - as a result naturally I am an outcast but music, something everyone relates to, has been my panacea.



I want to assist humanity in waking up to its greatest potential and I want to assist with the transition into a new age of openness, sharing and abundance. I have been led through a path of self-discovery that has shown me how much in myself needs to be purified before that desire can be genuine without the taint of 'making up for something in my past'.

As well as the music, another lifeline for me has been simply the appreciation of the absurd. Observing the absurdity of culture and looking at it all from a distance within myself, taking a deep breath and letting all that anxiety go.

Society really is terribly absurd. All this wanderings and works we do, all this strange behaviour and mindsets we repeat in the name of culture.

I've spent a fair few months in Ireland and discovered that while close minded people exist (for example: right-wing white supremacists making a rise at the moment due to immigration fears propagated by the media) it is largely due to environmental isolation and ignorance. In general, I felt very little judgement in most circles even if my life proved to be outlandish to them and a level of acceptance of myself as a traveling musician I have not felt anywhere else in the world. Go Ireland! Really fecking friendly people that can look at life from a distance and have a loud belty laugh at themselves as required.

It's possible to be open in Australia. Some resort to maintaining a level of hyper-positivity and safely returning to a social group of people they can be completely open with, that they can trust not to pull them down allowing them grow and flourish. This hyper-positive public personality constantly controls the creation of the reality around them via the law of attraction. This in itself is a defensive mechanism necessary to compensate for what isn't present in the environment. In an open environment, this massive amount of energy expended in maintaining positive control of the environment could be used for achieving our dreams. I don't wish to replace one set of defences for another, I just want to be myself.

Cynicism and judgement has its place but when we all work together for the same cause without personal agendas we become autonomous and high levels of energy are not wasted on keeping up our defences. Through this, we achieve the greatest effect and our energy increases exponentially, providing enough for everyone and more.

Drinking alchohol is a way to involuntarily lower defences as well. There's a healthy drinking culture in both Australia and Ireland. Some keep drinking but the bodies stores run out and then a low is had, and a realisation and fear of how to deal with life without a substance to take all those barriers down. We have to do it ourselves and to change isolationist culture we need to find groups that are open and develop new ways in which we can invite outsiders in and welcome them with sharing and understanding.

My thanks go out to the handful of people in my life that have seen my process of self-discovery for what it was and focused on the thing I would be in the future without all my defences - giving me a reference point to work towards and assisting me to create opportunities to make lasting change in my behaviour. My thanks go out to the people that have blocked me out of their lives, for being honest about what I was, for showing me that from their perspective it wasn't ok to act in that way - all people in my experience have had a place in assisting me to change.

Now my defences are down a fair bit having just returned from a trip to France and Ireland and I want to keep myself from putting those walls up. I want to experience pain because I wish to experience joy - and I'll defend myself in other ways, like not taking people or culture so seriously.

We Australians certainly are an interesting mixing pot of cultures and tastes.

Love you all,

Monti

11 Years Ago I Recorded an Acoustic Album

An artwork drawn of me at Mojo's, North Fremantle by Bay Rigby (RIP)

So my sister has dutifully kept a piece of history of myself of when I was first starting out with my acoustic guitar and vocals music.

It's what I started from and it's a great reference point for me.

I generally sang lyrics adapted from my automatic writing from my pad which I wrote in daily.

This album is self-recorded and I even had a small release at a jam night at the Swan Hotel in North Fremantle.

Then.. I was completely consumed with being original and sounding like no one else. I was also obsessed with only playing original music and was defiantly against playing anyone else's music. I've come a long way since then in my path of music appreciation but my fire for originality early on has given me reliable persepectives from which to expand from.

A preview of this album (Delectable) can be streamed here - http://archive.org/details/delectable

Track list as follow:
1. Better Understand Me
2. Wanton Beast
3. Connected Here
4. Memories
5. Time is in
6. Present Reality
7. Afraid to be
8. Maybe
9. The Chasm We Speak About
10. Waves
11. With Beauty

In Love,

Monti