NEW TIMOR-LESTE NEWS SOURCE

The Dili Weekly newspaper, a conventional 24-page publication, has just posted its first trial online edition for comments . The official launch is expected to take place the third week of September. The Dili Weekly began on January 31 , 2008, due to the efforts of Otelio Ote and Emanuel Braz. It is the only weekly bi-lingual English-Tetum newspaper written by Timorese journalists .

Readers are invited to visit www.thediliweekly.com and make suggestions how it can be improved. The vision of the publication is to enable international and national communities living and working in Timor-Leste to be “on the same page” when it comes to information that may well affect the way in which policy and development initiatives are being undertaken.

It strives to provide good quality news according to international journalism standards and is self-sustainable through revenue from limited advertising content and subscriptions . A legal entity, it has been registered with Timor-Leste’s Ministry of Trade, Commerce, and Industries as a media organisation business since 2009.

It is to be hoped that the Darwin media will take a greater interest in reporting Timor-Leste affairs once it has an easy online news source with which to refer. Despite the long involvement with Timor going back to the days when it was a Portuguese colony, WW11 and the Indonesian invasion of the country, Timor-Leste receives scant attention by the Darwin newshounds -preoccupied with flim flam like crocs, UFOs, coffee, tits , tinnies and truffles, gigs, gardens, grub and grandstanders .

Little Darwin humbly suggests it would be nice if the Darwin media considered regular news from Timor -Leste, perhaps extracts from The Dili Weekly and other sources for a Timor On Tuesday spot. After all, there are many Timorese living here in Darwin and there are troops from Darwin over there.

ASSANGE EXCLUSIVE ISLAND REPORT

The online newspaper, Magnetic Times, which is a shining example for an alternative newspaper in Darwin, has just posted an international scoop- the personal account of Christine Assange, mother of Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange, dealing with her life on the island with her son . It includes early photographs of Julian , one with a dog in a truck tyre and a sketch she made of him when he was four years old . The story was written by the Magnetic Times editor, George Hirst, who alerted Little Darwin to the upcoming article a week ago.

We arranged to run a Julian Assange cartoon by Hirst , dealing with the proposal to erect a statue to Julian on the island, once he posted the major story. Mrs Assange says she had been approached by journalists from all over the world , but gave Hirst her exclusive story because she was impressed by the quality journalism in Magnetic Times and trusted him. In the detailed account she denies she was a hippy when she lived on the island, and did not take drugs. Sensation and distortion had surrounded the life of her son and Wikileaks, she says, and lists four sites where the facts can be obtained. View http://www.magnetictimes.com/ for the full story .

THINGS WE HEAR OVER LATTE

THERE ARE explosive allegations about goings on in a Darwin institution which if aired will cause an almighty uproar . *** WISE BUT SAD WORDS : Ink-on-paper books, with their second-cousins, newspapers, are destined for the haunts of historians, collectors and atavistic technophobes ***DARWIN MEDIA seems oblivious to happenings in beleagured West Papua where shots were recently fired at people and it is feared Indonesian proposals for palm oil production there will lead to land confiscation and large scale clearing of vegetation. It makes you wonder if there still is an Overseas Correspondents Club in Darwin, its superior members fined for writing anything about crocodiles , a subject which mesmerises local hacks. If so, do any of its illustrious members pen anything at all about the more important life and death , oppression , environmental degradation and poverty issues just across the waters ? *** Comments by the Dalai Lama’s envoy about the timidity of Australian politicians in respect of relations with China are applicable to Darwin’s pollies and media , especially in connection with the French oil company,Total, partner in the Inpex proposal, which deals with the murderous Burmese military junta, many times worse than the Gaddafi regime, China also siphoning off the Burmese energy resources.

THE POETRY OF YOUTH

Sleeve of ONCE AROUND THE SUN , and other verses by young Australians , above , a circa 1970 long play record , introduced by John Clements , recorded in the Radio 6KY studios , Perth, WA, an oddity recently discovered by Little Darwin in the Nightcliff Uniting Church Op Shop. Clements , a peace activist and social historian, toured Australia taking poetry to schools with readings and cassettes, according to the Murdoch University Library . The sleeve is a design by artist , Koloman Sokol , born 1902 ,described as one of the founders of modern Czechoslovakian graphic art .

The record makes the claim that it is the world’s first recording of poetry written by young people and spoken by secondary and primary students. The titles of the verses give an interesting insight into the subjects which inspired the youth of that time - When I Am Alone, Old People, Witches, The Rabbit, The Crocodile, The Kangaroo , The Dingo, The Gangster, Jokes, Me , Garbage Tin, Frog In A Fog, Black Progression , Hitler’s Dream, Decimals Arithmetic, Drought, Haunted House , Butterfly Catching, The Billboards, etcetera.

Clements , son of a Cambridge solicitor, educated at Cambridge and Oxford , after being disillusioned by “sharp” business practices in London and the General Strike of 1926, sailed for Australia in 1929, arriving in the Depression.

After working on the land , he unsuccessfully stood for parliament on the Douglas Credit ticket .With a love of language and a cultured voice, he obtained a job as an announcer at the ABC in 1936. He became a member of the Communist Party and remained so until the 1968 Prague Spring which ended in the Soviet invasion ; he was watched by ASIO for 25 years . Over the years he was involved in many community development and social justice projects.

In Western Australia he campaigned for establishment of a kindergarten and library at Bassendean, where he lived with his wife and four children in an old house on an acre of land with a large garden ,chooks and a milking cow . He was president of the Children’s Book Council and headed the WA Peace Council for many years. An active member of New Theatre and the Fellowship of Australian Writers , he was associated with FreVideo, which became part of the Film and Television Institute and was manager of the World Record Club .

Murdoch University has the John Clements oral history collection consisting of interviews with a wide range of interesting people – WA Aboriginal politician , Ernie Bridge; Vivian Bullwinkel , only survivor of a Japanese massacre of nurses; controversial journalist , Wilfred Burchett ; British unionist ,Tony Benn; Communist author , Katherine Susannah Prichard ; sprinter Shirley Strickland, who became the WA governor ; American singer,activist, Paul Robeson,addressing the WA Peace Council in 1960; artist Jack Lindsay; Arthur Scargill of the British National Union of Miners ; King Wally Umbilgurri re techniques of playing the didgeridoo; activist actress Vanessa Redgrave.

Subjects covered include... Early days of the BBC and the ABC ; Aboriginal languages; Noonkenbah and mining; POW experiences ; Spanish Civil War; early WA airlines; socialism; Fremantle jail; Turkey’s history and the position of women; Brazil as a young republic ; Peru; nursing in Africa; the Anti Fascists League ; early WA theatre; WA radio from 1924.

Nursery rhymes is the subject of an interview with UK literary identity Norman Isles, who wrote Who Killed Cock Robin? , nursery rhymes and carols restored to original meanings , which revealed the pagan origin of Xmas carols and midwinter festivals.

TERRITORIANS IN HURRICANE SHUTDOWN

New York : Latest information from Darwin firemen here as part of the 9/11 anniverary is that power is expected to be cut off soon in their accommodation near Times Square . The party was in one of the last planes into New York and during the flight there were a few medical emergencies among the passengers .Some have already been to ground zero . Weather was described as being like a rainy day in Darwin during the wet . The street wise Darwin firemen were about to load up with food from a nearby take away food outlet before the power cut .With lifts out , the firemen would have to walk to and from accommodation six floors up. Flooding expected in parts of the city. The claim that New York never sleeps is proving wrong as more and more parts close down. UPDATE : Little Darwin told by NY journalist that the blow was a damp scrib , despite some flooding, compared with a full-blooded Darwin thunderstorm.However, the hurricane is seen as a wake up to global warming as the high ocean temperature fed the tempest, enabling it to draw up huge amounts of moisture, and Texas is in the grip of a fierce drought .

TOP BANANA BLOGSPOT

BLOGGING TOWNSVILLE is well worth a look. Little Darwin recently came across it doing some research during the witching hours . In its own words, it provides critique, comment and assorted conversations from a small rural city somewhere east of Mount Isa , its logo including a well balanced banana . Among the interesting items is a contribution -THE MURDOCH LAMENT , with apologies to John Farnham and the writers of YOU’RE THE VOICE , which gives the media empire the rough end of a Queensland pineapple treatment . Also spotted is a poll asking readers if a yearly subscription to the digital edition of the Townsville Bulletin ( a Murdoch paper) is worth twice the cost of the New York Times with its stable of talented writers . Apart for a box saying YES , there is one for ARE YOU KIDDING ? and another cheeky WHAT’S THE NAME OF THE TOWN ? The majority of respondents were in the kidding spot.

Linked to the blog is THE MAGPIE'S NEST, providing robust commentary on the local media, the council and other tasty morsels.Reading Magpie's columns you realise that the Territory is a sheltered workshop when it comes to scrutiny of and commentary about those who think they are masters of the local small universe , including the media.

Little Darwin awards this coveted piece of banana trunk art ,above, to Blogging Townsville for a job well done. It is from a Magnetic Island plantation, which is also east of Mt Isa, and is our equivalent of the Palme d ’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. If only there were blogs like the Townsville one in Darwin. You would think that in a university town like Darwin with an array of activists, dissatisfaction with the local media, many important issues going untouched or poorly covered, there would be a flowering of powerful , spirited , even interesting , innovative and challenging blogs and websites. But no.

ASIO WATCHES TERRITORY EDITOR AND COMMUNIST SA LAWYER

Crusading Communist lawyer, Elliott Johnston , who died in Adelaide this week at the age of 93 ,had a close association with the late Territory editor James Frederick Bowditch, pictured right. Johnston , a QC, became a judge of the SA Supreme Court and headed the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.

As editor of the Centralian Advocate, Bowditch chaired an Alice Springs Peace Council meeting held by Johnston’s sister , Marjorie , in June 1951. Miss Johnston had recently returned from an international Peace Congress in Warsaw. With her in Alice was Mrs Esther Meaney, president of the Darwin Housewives Association, who was to accompany Miss Johnston in the Territory. Mrs Meaney, the wife of a waterside worker, had been the NT delegate to the 1950 Australian Peace Council in Melbourne , attended by the Dean of Canterbury,dubbed the “Red Dean “ because he had written favourably about Russia .

The Alice meeting was attended by the ASIO Darwin chief ,Mr Mooney, and his secretary who took notes throughout. Also present was Bowditch’s longtime friend,lawyer Dick Ward ,who became a judge of the NT Supreme Court . It being the time of the Korean War and the Menzies Government trying to abolish the Communist Party in Australia,it was a controversial meeting.

In February 1952, Bowditch , facing a crisis in his life following the break up of his first marriage , drove to Adelaide, uncertain of his future. ASIO records seen by Little Darwin show that Bowditch was kept under surveillance and that he was "believed" to be temporarily residing at the Elliott Johnston residence .The Bowditch car was observed parked outside on three nights from early morning until late at night, when surveillance was discontinued.

In 1983,John Mortimer , the lawyer and writer who created Rumpole of the Bailey, met Elliott Johnston in Brisbane, just before he was to be made a judge of the SA Supreme Court . Mortimer subsequently wrote that Johnston’s appointment , without him not having to sever his connection as a paid up member of the Communist Party, was a sign of enlightenment in Australia. His appointment would show that some Communists were not “little Red monsters from outer space” or moles in endlessly incomprehensible English spy stories.

Bowditch was often called a “Commie”, as was Dick Ward –dubbed “ Red Richard” – and both ,like Johnston, his late wife and his sister, fought to make the world a better and safer place and to improve the lives of working people. Penelope Debelle wrote RED SILK The Life of Elliott Johnston QC, published by Wakefield Press. (More details of Bowditch’s involvement with the Johnstons and ASIO comments will be supplied in the continuing Little Darwin serialisation of the Bowditch saga .)