Waiting for Garnaut Packs a Punch

Jonathan Biggins, Phillip Scott, Drew Forsythe and Amanda Bishop

Only true masters of satire could confront the darkest reaches of the human experience and hit back with humour so clever and defiant and funny, it makes you laugh till you cry.

Such is the Wharf Revue’s latest offering, Waiting for Garnaut.

Nine years into their partnership, satirical stalwarts Jonathan Biggins, Drew Forsythe and Phillip Scott are joined this season by triple threat troubadour Amanda Bishop.

In a nod to Waiting for Godot, the revue’s first and last scenes feature a rag-tag of characters awaiting the arrival of a uniting presence – in this case, Australian climate change economist Ross Garnaut.

The writing and performances are arguably at their best when tackling the governments of the day. One rapid-fire sketch sees a hopelessly inept Dr Iemma and Nurse Reba Meagher losing their stricken patient, New South Wales. The cast also has loads of fun at the expense of the Rudd government, but the real marvel is in their well-honed, finely-tuned impersonations of Kevin Rudd (Scott), Julia Gillard (Bishop) and Paul Keating (Biggins).

Bishop matches the stellar talents of the troupe’s veterans blow for blow with deft comic timing and delivery. Her latte-swilling rich bitch lands a few good punches on rampant consumerism (neatly tied to climate change) and socialism for the rich: “Welfare’s too good to be wasted on the needy!”

Conservative ideologues are gleefully lampooned as imperious nineteenth-century hangovers: Piers Akerman, the crusty old codger; Keith Windschuttle, the top-hatted dandy; and Miranda Devine, the delicate flower in bonnet and bow. The fine acting and costumes here are especially impressive.

Equally unsparing are parodies of iconic Aussie expats John Pilger, Germaine Greer, Clive James and Robert Hughes, who bursts to life with a brilliantly melodramatic treatment by Biggins.

The music, lyrics and singing are exceptional throughout. Most memorable is the African folk music-inspired performance of the ‘Harare Gospel Choir’ who belt out a spirited satirical song about corruption and oppression in Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe – only to change their tune when an unseen assassin starts picking them off from the shadows.

Given the overwhelming strengths of Waiting for Garnaut, it’s easy to forgive the odd misfire. The portrayal of Barack Obama as a gold-encrusted, hip-hopping rapper falls a bit flat, but then again, no one has worked out how to effectively satirise Obama – just ask The New Yorker.

Other skits seem to end a tad too soon – for example, one piece where two penguins waddle about in confusion, surveying their disappearing habitat. Here, the comedic deliveries give the characters such a winsome charm that even predictable lines hit their mark with heart-rending resonance: “Used to be an ice sheet here.” “Oh yeah … Oh bugger.”

Speaking to Vertigo, Biggins showed little patience with the inertia obstructing a real response to climate change, the over-arching dark force that haunts Waiting for Garnaut.

“I find it extraordinary that we’re having a conversation about climate change and people are complaining it’s going to cost more,” he says. “Well, of course it’s going to cost more! It’s like Waiting for Godot, all this existential angst. We’re waiting for someone else to come along and solve this, to take responsibility. We blame the traffic while we’re sitting in a car.”

Does he think humanity will reach a ‘tipping point’ when climate change and climate-related pollie follies just won’t be funny anymore?

“No, it’s always funny,” says Biggins. “Humour is the great saviour of the downtrodden, the oppressed. It’s always been the role of someone to tell the unpleasant truth using humour. Court jesters and fools were given a license to say things, and it was palatable when they said it. But at the same time, it was the truth.”

That may go a long way in explaining the true genius and timeless appeal of political satire; Waiting for Garnaut leaves no doubt that Biggins and his truth-telling cohorts are indeed masters of their craft.

Waiting for Garnaut is now playing at Wharf 1, Sydney Theatre Company, Pier 4 Hickson Road, Walsh Bay until 6^th September.

Bookings: 9250 1777 or www.sydneytheatre.com.au.

First published in Vertigo

Wisconsin Deputy Named In Shooting Rampage

Seven young people are dead and one critically wounded following America’s latest shooting rampage, which has left a small Wisconsin town numb with grief.

The gunman has been identified as 20 year-old Tyler Peterson, an off-duty Forest County sheriff’s deputy and part-time City of Crandon police officer.

The town of Crandon is located 180 miles north of Milwaukee and is home to 2,000 residents.

At about 3 a.m. on Sunday, Peterson allegedly stormed into the home of his former girlfriend, Jordanne Murray, and shot her dead along with five other friends who had gathered for pizza and movies. One critically wounded teenager remains in hospital.

Mr Peterson himself was later killed by a sniper from the Crandon SWAT unit on Sunday afternoon.

The group of friends, all aged between 14-20 years of age, had assembled at Ms Murray’s home on Saturday evening to celebrate the local high school’s football victory.

The following victims were identified by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Jordanne Murray, 18 – Ms Murray had until recently been in a long-term relationship with Mr Peterson, and last year had graduated from Crandon High School. She worked two jobs, at the local hamburger and ice cream parlor and at the local Subway sandwich shop.

Katrina McCorkle, 18 – Ms McCorkle was a senior at Crandon High and a keen softball player. She had planned to attend college and had been making enquiries at a number of universities.

Leanna Thomas, 18 – Ms Thomas was also in her senior year at Crandon High School. Her grandfather managed to say only that “She was such a sweet little girl” before tearfully terminating an interview with the newspaper.

Bradley Schultz, 20 – Mr Schultz was a student majoring in criminal justice at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee; he worked part-time at an electrical supply company to pay for his studies. He graduated from Crandon High School in 2005 and had been friends with Mr Peterson since childhood.

Aaron Smith, (age not known) – Mr Smith, called “Chunk” by his friends, graduated from Crandon High School in 2005. His recreational interests included football and fishing. He was also a childhood friend of Mr Peterson.

Lindsey Stahl, 14 – Ms Stahl was a freshman at Crandon High School and worked part-time with Ms Murray at the local hamburger and ice cream parlor. She was passionate about global warming and animal rights.

Charlie Nietzel, 19 – Mr Nietzel was a resident of the neighboring town of Pickeral, but was a close friend of all the victims and the gunman. He survived the shooting and remains in critical condition at St Joseph’s Hospital in Marshfield.

Mr Peterson’s motive is not yet clear, although there is some speculation that Ms Murray had recently ended their relationship and begun a new relationship, which Mr Peterson had not accepted.

One local teenager who knew the entire group of close-knit friends also said that Mr Peterson had a history of being bullied by other students in high school.

Friends and family of the victims were still reeling from the shock of the tragedy.

Kelly Flanery, 15, described Ms Murray as “… like, the nicest person. She was friends with everyone. I didn’t believe it at first. It didn’t like sink in, it really hasn’t.”

Ms Stahl’s half-brother, Ryan Coulter, praised her intelligence, compassion and interest in important issues. “She probably would have changed the world, you know,” he said.

Steve Bocek, the uncle of Mr Schultz, was as baffled and as he was grief-stricken when he heard his nephew had been killed. “He was such a good kid; who would ever expect this?” he asked. “He was just always a nice kid, always polite. He just wanted to come down here to go to school so he could further his education.”  

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel said that streets remain barricaded near the shooting scene, and that “the soul of Crandon seemed to shake with grief”.

“This is affecting everybody in this small community,” said Tom Vollmar, a Forest County supervisor who has lived in Crandon for 57 years. “There’s no family that hasn’t been touched in one way or another.”

Crisis counselors are helping local residents deal with the tragedy at Crandon High School, where school has been cancelled for the day, and at Praise Chapel Community Church.

The church’s pastor, Rev. Bill Farr, received a call from the sheriff’s office at 6.30 a.m. on Sunday asking that he open the church early to give grieving relatives and friends of the victims a place to gather and support each other.

“This is going to take a long time for a community like this to get over,” he said through tears as he stood next to his pickup truck in the church parking lot Sunday night, holding hands and praying with other church members.

“We just really need everyone’s prayers right now,” he said.

Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

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This article was first published at BayouBuzz.com

Petraeus Report: Under bin Laden Backdrop

As General David Petraeus heads into a hostile US Congress this week to defend the troop surge in Iraq, the reappearance of Osama bin Laden in an internet video has ignited fresh allegations that the Bush administration has dropped the ball on counterterrorism and homeland security to focus on the war in Iraq.

The bin Laden video surfaced on the internet on Friday, in the lead up to the sixth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in the US. The 26-minute speech refers to the “vulnerability” of the United States , the “unjust” war in Iraq and the “reeling of many of you under the burden of interest-related debts, insane taxes and real estate mortgages.” He also blamed “global warming and its woes” on “emissions of the factories the major corporations”, and repeatedly urged Americans to embrace Islam.

A voice analysis conducted by the CIA confirmed that the speaker is definitely bin Laden. His references to the election of French President Nicolas Sarkozy and the appointment of Gordon Brown as British Prime Minister further convinced intelligence officials that the tape was made within the last few months.

The White House immediately dismissed bin Laden as ‘virtually impotent’ and the tape itself as ‘propaganda’. Homeland security advisor Fran Townsend told Fox News Sunday, “This is a man on the run from a cave who is virtually impotent other than these tapes.”

However, this assessment is not accurate according to an investigative report published on Saturday in the Washington Post which claims that bin Laden is still a central figure in the leadership of al Qaeda. “Today, al Qaeda operates much the way it did before 2001,” says the report. “The network is governed by a shura, or leadership council, that meets regularly and reports to bin Laden, who continues to approve some major decisions, according to a senior US intelligence official.” Another official said, “They do appear to meet with a frequency that enables them to act as an organization and not just as a loose bunch of guys.”

Following the US military strikes in Afghanistan in late 2001, al Qaeda moved its activities across the Pakistani border into the dusty frontier town of Peshawar. There the al Qaeda leadership rebuilt the organization’s operational capacity through fundraising, recruiting and training. Meanwhile, it also “expanded its media arm into perhaps the most effective propaganda machine ever assembled by a terrorist or insurgent network.”

Michael Scheuer, a former CIA analyst who led the intelligence team that tracked bin Laden, believes that al Qaeda’s leadership remains robust, adaptive and dangerously relevant. “All this business about them being isolated or cut off is whistling past the graveyard,” he said. “We’re looking at an organization that is extraordinarily adept at succession planning.”

Opponents of the war in Iraq have long disputed the Bush administration’s claim that the war is necessary to advance counterterrorism and protect the US homeland. The new bin Laden video has drawn a fresh backlash from the war’s most vocal critics.

Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), who voted against the joint resolution in 2002 to invade Iraq, told CNN on Sunday: “Every time I see that fugitive terrorist on television taunting America I think of how wrong this president was in turning away from going after that murderer, who murdered our citizens, and moving into Iraq and not having any way of getting us out.”

Meanwhile, the chair and vice-chair of the 9/11 Commission warn that the war in Iraq continues to drain US counterterrorism and homeland security resources while boosting recruitment and training opportunities for al Qaeda. In their joint opinion piece published in this weekend’s Washington Post, Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton wrote, “No conflict drains more time, attention, blood, treasure and support from our worldwide counterterrorism efforts than the war in Iraq. It has become a powerful recruiting and training tool for al Qaeda … We have become distracted and complacent.” 

Responding on Fox News, Ms Townsend hit back, “It is not a distraction. It is an integral part of the war [on terror] effort.”

Discussing the new bin Laden video, Ms Townsend said, “We do take the tapes seriously. Look at the activities recently in Germany and Denmark. So we know that al Qaeda is still determined to attack, and we take it seriously. But this tape looks — appears to be nothing more than threats. It’s propaganda on their part.”

On the other hand, CIA Director Michael Hayden recently issued this warning: “Our analysts assess with high confidence that al Qaeda’s central leadership is planning high-impact plots against the American homeland.”

Political analysts are still pouring over the new bin Laden video. Citing the absence of any direct threats, some experts say the speech seems to be little more than a morale boost for al Qaeda followers; however, others believe the message has a much greater significance.

Rohan Gunaratna, an international terrorism expert and author of the book Inside Al Qaeda, told Reuters, “Osama’s call to the Americans to convert to Islam is indicative of an al Qaeda attack on US targets. Before the Prophet (Mohammad) attacked his enemies he urged his opponents to embrace Islam. Osama is presenting Koranic injunctions before planning to attack.”

Khalid al-Dakhil, a professor of political science at King Saud University, agrees that there is an implicit threat. “There was a US report warning of a possible attack, then came this,” he said. “The whole message is focused on the United States … this suggests that there is a threat. The more important thing is the message that leaving Iraq will not solve the problem.”

Meanwhile, President Bush seized on bin Laden’s reference to Iraq to reinforce his case for continuing the war. “I found it interesting that, on the tape, Iraq was mentioned, which is a reminder that Iraq is a part of this war against extremists,” said Mr Bush. “If al Qaeda bothers to mention Iraq, it is because they want to achieve their objectives in Iraq, which is to drive us out and to develop a safe haven.”

Those who read more into the message are cautioning that bin Laden’s focus seems far from Iraq. “The message is much more threatening this time,” said Mohamed El-Sayed, Deputy Director of the Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo. “It’s confident, it uses iconic language that suggests, ‘I’m commissioned to wage an unending war against you, and the only way to get peace is to convert to Islam.’ It’s very clear that he took care to give the impression that he’s at ease, he’s on the offensive and he controls the situation. He’s not a fugitive, he’s very comfortable … He’s saying ‘Now I can show you mercy or not.’”

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This article was first published at BayouBuzz.com

Iraq Tours Longer, Iraqi MPs Killed

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced longer tours of duty for US troops in Iraq as violence intensified across Baghdad and living conditions for Iraqis plunged to an all-time low.

In breaking news, it has been reported that a bomb exploded in the heavily fortified Green Zone in Baghdad, where the Iraqi parliament is located, killing at least two Members of Parliament and wounding six others.

Mr Gates told a Pentagon news conference on Wednesday that, effective immediately, all active-duty Army soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan will serve 15-month tours, extending deployments by three months longer than the standard.

The new policy affects only those serving in the US Army. The Marines will continue to serve their standard seven-month tours and Army National Guard and Army Reserve troops will continue to serve twelve months for each deployment.

A number of units in Iraq have already had their tours extended. The new policy will make deployments more predictable and equitable. “I think it is fair to all soldiers that all share the burden equally,” said Mr Gates. “In the end, I believe this new approach will allow the Army to better support the war effort, while providing a more predictable and dependable deployment schedule for our soldiers and their families.”

Senate Democrats slammed the move, which they said imposed an unreasonable burden on US troops and threatened national security.

“Once again the failures of this administration are being underwritten by our troops; the cost of this will fall on the backs of the brave men and women already serving in harms way, and their families.” said Senator Carl Levin (D-Mich.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) stated, “Today’s news that active-duty troops’ tours in Iraq will be extended to 15 months is another in a long line of examples of how the President’s Iraq policies are making us less secure. A bipartisan majority of Congress sees it, the American people see it and military experts see it.”

Senate Republicans expressed similar concerns for national security, as well as the potential erosion of the US military’s ability to recruit new soldiers.

“Having served as Secretary of the Navy when the concept of the all-volunteer force was being developed, and having observed, in the ensuing years, the extraordinary success of that system in providing for America’s security, I feel strongly that we must carefully monitor the possible risks to that system that these extensions may generate,” stated Senator John Warner (R-Va.).

Senator Chuck Hagel (R-Neb) said, “Maintaining this tempo of operations will have drastic and lasting consequences for our nations military readiness and unnecessarily endangers our ability to react to any other crisis in the world. We are on a very dangerous course.”

“Our forces are stretched, there’s no question about that,” said Mr Gates. However, he said this is “a difficult but necessary interim step” to provide enough soldiers for President Bush’s decision to send an additional 21,500 troops to Iraq over the next twelve months, while still giving soldiers twelve months between deployments.

The announcement came at an awkward time for Presidential candidate Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.), who delivered an impassioned speech to rally support for the Iraq war and for his campaign, which has been dogged by his strong support for the unpopular war and the recent troop surge.

Meanwhile, the challenges for troops and residents in Iraq show no signs of easing.

On Thursday at dawn, at least one suicide truck bomb exploded on the al-Sarafiya bridge which spans the Tigris River, collapsing two major sections of the bridge and sending several cars hurtling into the river. An Iraqi Interior Ministry Official said that 10 people had been killed in the attack, with a further 26 wounded, most of them rescued from the water by police. The death toll may rise as more cars are searched by divers and pulled from the river.

Although the al-Sarafiya bridge connected a mostly Sunni enclave, Waziriyah, to a mainly Shiite district, Utafiyah, the bridge had nevertheless been regarded as safe to cross because neither neighbourhood was considered volatile. The bridge was built by the British in 1946 and was primarily used by minibuses and commercial vehicles traveling from central Baghdad to markets in the city’s north.

On Tuesday, US and Iraqi troops engaged insurgents in a blazing day-long gun battle in the al-Fadhil district of central Baghdad, a violent Sunni enclave on the Shiite-dominated east bank of the Tigris River. The battle erupted after four US helicopters were fired upon and forced to return to base. At the end of the day, a suspected 14 suspected militants were confirmed dead by the US military, with a further 8 captured and 12 wounded. Many bodies lay in the streets well into the night, with residents and military personnel unable to retrieve them amid the gunfire and chaos.

On Wednesday, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said the security situation in Iraq is “disastrous” and the humanitarian crisis is deepening. Hundreds of thousands of terrified residents are known to have fled their homes.

The daily violence has dealt devastating blows to the quality of life for average Iraqis: health care services are “stretched to the limit”, food shortages have led to an increase in malnutrition and basic infrastructure for electricity and sanitation have not worked for years in many areas.

“The conflict in Iraq is inflicting immense suffering on the entire population,” states the ICRC report entitled Civilians Without Protection.

“Civilians bear the brunt of the relentless violence and the extremely poor security conditions are disrupting the lives and livelihoods of millions. Much of Iraq’s vital infrastructure is in a poor state of repair, owing to lack of maintenance and security constraints have impeded repair work on electrical power grids, water and sanitation systems, medical facilities and other essential facilities.”

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This article was first published at

http://www.bayoubuzz.com/News/World/Iraq/US/Iraq_Tour_Longer_As_Iraqi_Parliament_Members_Killed__3417.asp