I saw Donny Darko

I saw Donny Darko over the weekend...

What an intriguing film... I mean, apart from not really making any sense plot wise it's a really nice portrayal of teenage life...

My review: Highly ambitious but lacking in message... a bit like looking at the mona lisa... you know it's meant to be significant, there's something to it, but you can't help thinking that it's just a painting of a woman looking directly at camera. Anyway, if nothing, I recommend you see it... Like the UN and world peace, you want to believe in it, you want it to work. At the same time, you know something just isn't quite right, but you'd rather look at the screen and say "cool" and believe in it than acknowledge the fact that it's all utterly confusing.

Anna begins...

Everyone please welcome my neice ANNA PIGOTT to the blog.

She was chairing the local land care meeting in Berry and managed to take the opportunity to model the latest headware.

I think she will be a swimmer. Look at those flippers!

Go Anna, It's your Birthday, We got the Deathstar, It's your Birthday, We got the Deathstar. (Big shout out to Andrew J)

Why you should always comb the back of your head...

The Secretary-General of the UN recently came to visit the ICTY and addressed some of the staff in the foyer on his way out to the limo... I managed to get a pretty good possie for the press photos. Let's face it... this photo is all about me. I couldn't have made Ban Ki Moon any more insignificant in this photo if I tried. (Ok, everyone. Smile- No-... No. Mr Ban Ki Moon, maybe if you just turn around so we can't see your face... yeah... that's better... yeah... yeah... bit more.. yeah... bit further... perfect.)

Like the curse of the new Australian cricket captian, who for the first year of his captaincy will, regardless of his performance have countless articles written about him which generally amount to "yeah he's alright, but he's no Steve Waugh" (previous incumbant), the moon-meister was subject to some rampant "he's no Kofi" comments amongst the interns. However, I think, considering he'd already visited and had talks with the International Criminal Court and all its judges, the International Court of Justice and all its judges, the ICTY and all its judges (not to mention Carla Del Ponte) and it was only 10:30am... he was doing ok.

Sorry for the lack of posts... but to be honest... there's been a lack of posting by you guys as well so i figure unless you pick up your game I'm really only keeping an online journal of my life that some 13 year old american kid in wyoming who makes a spelling mistake whilst trying to search "Fender" is going to chance across.

Your sooky little boy,

Jamesy Wamesy no friends blamesy.

My Favourite Song #3

This song has one of the most beautiful guitar solos I've heard. So simple but so heartfelt. It's by the ex-guitarist of PULP. Have a listen.

Enjoy!

Baby You're My Light - Richard Hawley

Other Artists that you should be investigating if you want to still be friends with me.

• Swan Lee
• Blue States
• Beth Gibbons
• Sufjan Stevens
  

Politics v Law: The Game of the Century.

I'm currently going through a dilemma as to which field I would like to assert myself in professionally. International Law or Politics ? That, my dear friend Mr Shakespeare, is the question. When I talk of Politics I mean everything policy driven outside Law. That is, everything that is based on diplomacy and inter-governmental negotiation. When I talk of law I mean international law, international treaties and the struggle for realistic internationally applicable, binding and "upholdable" rights.

I feel like I am at the stage where I have learnt a bit (not enough) about both, and I can see the impact that both have and it is now up to me to choose a path. I want that choice to be based on ensuring that what I do with my life can have a maximum impact in bringing about the possibility of real global change at a high level. I think globally beneficial change is most possible through political negotiation, but is most probable through law, if you follow what I'm saying.

What I mean is that, global change, for better or for worse, is ultimately brokered through political negotiation. However, political negotiation or "realpolitik" will always be based around notions of power. Those with power will rarely if ever negotiate themselves out of power and will rarely if ever make concessions that might give more power to those without power. In this sense, "unchecked" politics leads to a self perpetuating hierarchy of state power.

Law, on the other hand, can guarantee fair negotiation, but perhaps not effectiveness. That is to say, whilst law can provide a fair process, and demand equal standards for its players, law is often determined/interpreted/dictacted/violated/or just plain ignored, by real politik. The Rule of Law is often at the mercy of the hierarchy of power created by politics (and is thus weakened in its effectiveness).

So the choice is between:

Law, a system that is slow, little respected, often unrealistic but wholly binding and the sole tool that can, in theory, enable true equality of arms in negotiations between all states.

AND

Politics, a system which is by its very nature based on power relations and thus a system that will always be wholly biased towards powerful states, but a system that nonetheless determines the world in which we live.

To break it down, for me, the difference between politics and international law is this:

International Law is like a cricket team that has great potential, a team which (if adhered to) would obliterate the best side in the world, a team which everyone in the world would be proud to watch and call their own. But for some reason International Law is a cricket team that continues to turn up to play in a park cricket competition in Mudgee on Saturday afternoons rather than playing in the international arena. Predictably, International Law always wins its matches against the Mudgee Bears 4th grade team, but it's a hollow victory, and those who watch them play (a dedicated bunch of supporters who call themselves The International Lawyers) always have the feeling that they're watching a side show, rather than the main stage. Sometimes, late at night, when The International Lawyers are really honest with themselves, they realise that hardly anyone has heard of their team, and quite frankly, probably never will.

Politics, is the cricket team's manager. It realises that it could make a lot of money if it entered its cricket team into the international arena instead of forcing it to play in Mudgee. But for the moment, Politics is making more money by running a gambling syndicate at Mudgee race course. Unfortunately, the syndicate is rigged. The members of the syndicate don't have an equal share, so the wealthier members always win more than the poorer members. The wealthy members aren't completely unreasonable though. They often offer to pay for all the poorer members' beers whenever they go to the races, provided of course the poorer members, with their significantly inferior cut of the winnings, buy cocktails for the wealthier members next time.

Politics sometimes feels a tinge of guilt about running its rigged gambling syndicate, most especially, when it sees the poorer members rifling through the bins in front of the local RSL looking for money to pay for the mounting number of cocktails they owe. Be that as it may, although Politics feels that its gambling syndicate membership may not be the best thing in the long run, just for the moment, it can't argue with the odds.

For me the choice is about what offers us the most hope. And it's there that I get confused.

James

Bienvenue chez moi a DEN HAAG!

Hey all,

Sorry I have been a bit slack with the old blog. I have arrived safely in The Hague, a place so important it needs two capital letters. After the first week of my internship here at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia I have to say that the work is really interesting, the people are really nice, and generally things are going pretty well. If only the weather were better! It has rained pretty much non-stop since I got here. And when it's not raining, it's windy and cloudy, or windy, cloudy and rainy...

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I've attached a solitary photo which is taken from the front balcony of my apartment and shows my street. My apartment is pretty well situated. I'm about ten minutes bike ride from the tribunal in one direction and about ten minutes bike ride from the city centre in the other. Having lived at least an hour from school and work in Sydney, it is a real pleasure to be home in ten minutes after leaving work at night. (Note: that's ten minutes of rain time)

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One of the great things about these internship experiences is that you tend to meet a lot of really interesting people and that has certainly been the case here. Most of the other interns have already completed or are in the process of finishing a masters or Phd in international law and have plans to work in the international law field. The melange of cultures is really stimulating and I've been trying to benefit as much as possible from this unique opportunity to speak, listen and learn about ways of approaching global justice from a global perspective.

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If you would like to get in touch with me here my address is:
Van Diemenstraat 94

2518 VE Den Haag
The Netherlands

I also have a new mobile number (for those of you who had my french number I will be keeping it for when I return to Paris so don't delete it) My home phone is communal so please, no 3am phone calls and lame "oh I'm sorry I couldn't work out the time difference" excuses. ; )

Mobile: +(31) 6 16 837 049
Phone: +(31) (070) 355 18 63

More to come soon...

Five things you don't know about me...

I was tagged by my cousin Andrew to write five things you don't know about me. So here goes..

• I used to have epilepsy.

• I once sang in front of 15,000 people on the Sydney Opera House forecourt as part of a Sydney Festival show I was in called "Kelly's Republic" in 1997. I have a video of it which my parents have often threatened to play in front of my friends.

• I once pierced my ear for grand total of three days. I was on holidays with my mate Andrew in Italy and it seemed like a good idea... but somehow an earring didn't go with my personality.

• I would love to act in a cult film (think The Big Lebowski) but I would hate to have to be in all the hopeless dud films recquired to get famous enough to finally get cast.

• I can often cry when watching slow motion sport montages set to emotional music with the original commentary in the background... (Steve Waugh's 100 at the SCG or Kieren Perkin's swim are dead certain tear jerkers).

Skiing in Switzerland

With food supplies having been packed (literally) into the back of the trusty german-made volkswagen golf, I was off to Switzerland, as you do, to "get in a spot of skiing", with some (8) of Cecile's friends, one of whom's aunt had a chalet in Switzerland.

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On the way we managed to make a stop in Geneva and I got to slip in the mandatory shot of me in front of the UN (sporting my new beanie - Christmas present). I didn't intentionally mean it to look like I am handcuffed.

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We were staying at a small Chalet in a picturesque town called Charmey, tucked away in one of the valleys of the Swiss Alps. There wasn't a lot of snow, but having never skied before I couldn't really tell whether that was just by Swiss standards or by Perisher standards. All the French people we were with looked more comfortable on skies than they did without them. In my opinion, when it comes to skiing, the phrase "it's easier than it looks" could not be
more inappropriate. Cecile spent her time trying to teach me the "chasse neige" or snow plough technique which is used for stopping and turning. There's nothing more humiliating than falling over, not being able to get up, trying to regain equilibrium, and as you writhe around on the ground like a small child caught up in the bed sheets, getting skied on by an 8 year old going about 150km/hr down the slope... without any ski poles. Anyway, by the end of the five days I was "chasse neige"ing the hell out of everything... ok, so maybe not... but I do remember on the fifth day as I was "skiing" down one slope I managed to break from the focus on my skis, look up and realise how beautiful the mountains were.

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The Swiss Alps reminded me of my time trekking in Nepal where you were surrounded by a huge awe-inspiring, wholly dominating range of mountains. Strangely you could go a whole day without really realizing they were there. They just sort of seeped into the skyline. It was only later, when you looked back at the photos that you took that you realized just how beautiful they were, and how much you miss them.

Christmas at the Bordes

Yes, I did take photos of the food. What can I say?! It was yummy. Little Octave, Cecile's nephew helped hand out the pressies. He was pretty impatient to open them as well.

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Around the table are Cecile's mum and dad, her brother Augustin and his wife Eleanor and Cecile's friend Marie Pierre.

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Hope you all had a ripping Christmas.

Panorama from Charmey - Switzerland

Merry Christmas

Hey everyone,

I knocked up this video for Christmas. Enjoy!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Let's hope 2007 has good things in store for us all.

James

Panorama from Sacre Coeur over Paris - Winter

Luke and Kath hit Paris

It was great to have Luke and Kath to stay with us this week. Luke was stopping off after his internship in New York and Kath after having spent some time sussing out the life of a Washington foreign correspondent for the abc.

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We managed to sneak in some outdoor ice skating in front of the Hôtel de ville, some Chinese food (a very traditional French meal), a walk around montmatre (obligatory), a beer in the Marais, some really nice home cooked dinner conversations, shopping at Z(th)ara and a trip to the Rodin Museum. More than the things we did however, I can say that for my part, it was just great to have some friends here with whom I have already shared a past and to whom I could show my present.

When you're in a foreign society, I find you have no real sense of perspective, no "standards" to compare yourself and everyone else to. Everything is new, so you have to take it all at face value. You can't judge or stereotype people because all the stereotypes that you have grown up with ( your key indicators "What school did you go to? What are you studying? Where do you live? Phillip Ruddock is cool - Discuss") no longer exist, or at the very least, are different. Having Luke and Kath here gave me, for the first time, something to compare myself to, that is, the me that I was with them in Sydney. Having them here made me realise that I have "changed", or perhaps less melodramatically, "adapted" to my life in Paris since leaving Sydney.

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On the way to Charles de Gaulle airport to pick Kath I remember thinking that 10 years ago I met Kath during rehearsals for the school musical Oliver! and now we were meeting up in Paris for a few days. That's the great thing about old friends. You grow together through a shared history. Bring on the future and many more such friendships.

NEWSFLASH: Walabies' problems answered!

Finally managed to convince Cecile to come along and take some photos of me playing rugby. As you can see, it wasn't the best day to convince a girlfriend to come and stand on the sideline and watch her boyfriend run around in the mud. Having said that, we did have a cheer squad of "Assoiffantes".The team is called Les Assoiffés which roughly translates to "the thirsty ones". It's a french team, which is great. I really enjoy it. There's a great atmosphere in the team because we train and play hard, but at the end of the day, everyone is having fun. If you looking for me in the photos, I'm wearing white headgear and am playing second row. You should be able to make me out in the lineout. We're the team in red and green.

I've been playing with Les Assoiffés since I got here. Best moment so far would have to be me, ball in hand, driving over the try line and, not realising where I was, forgetting to ground the ball, instead presenting the ball to the halfback like any diligent forward, only to have the ref call "held up". Funnily enough the guys in the team haven't yet let me forget that incident.

Cecile's Christmas Party

Last Friday night Cecile had a chirstmas party at here parent's apartment. Her reindeer ears were possibly the most popular thing on the night. She wore them with pride. More photos were taken of the party later on in the night but they probably shouldn't be posted if I intend to have any sort of future career...

No, in all seriousness, I'm pretty sure I had everything under control.... and that's exactly what I told the policeman who arrested me trying to climb the eiffel tower.

(The above joke, commonly known as the "turned out, I was!" or the "in and away" or "Warney's tap dance" is copyrighted by Tom Gleisner and every single Warrick Todd book he has ever written. Seriously. Every... single... page.)

My Favourite Song #2

Yo everyone.

Was watching an episode of Grey's Anatomy the other day and heard this eerily beautiful guitar riff. I looked up the song on itunes... Unfortunately I can't post it here due to copyright. So can only give you the name. But it's well worth a listen. An oldie but a goodie.

Live and Learn - The Cardigans

What are you listening to at the moment?

Songs that fit the mood... sort of

Some sad news for the Pender family in the last few days. This song by 78 Saab has been on constant repeat on my ipod.

"Did you get too much to wallow in?
Did you get too much...
We'll all get by."

Yeah.

A felt compelled to write something...

Well... great title James! Way to inspire people. Been a while. Sorry for the lag in posts. What I've basically been doing recently has invoved a lot of french classes, a lot of walking around paris, and a lot of "thinking about the future".

It's strange how when we are occupied, when we have littl time to do the things we want to do, all we can think about is that if we had more time we would be able to take those guitar lessons, learn to salsa, study the stock exchange harder (what? I'm trying to cater to everyone's needs here). But when it comes down to having time, or perhaps a little too much time, I have been finding myself a little guilty, as if I should be doing something with my life... strange to say that coming from a guy learning french in paris while living with his girlfriend. Why are we never satisfied?

I was talking with a french mate here, Nicola, who was heading off to Bolivia for a month with his girlfriend. I flippently said to him, "wow, a month in Bolivia, now that's exciting!" He looked at me calmly and said, "shjames, you're in Paris! That's exciting!" I was a little ashamed to appear to be such a spoilt brat. But I guess it was a sign that, a city that two months ago was wholly daunting, foreign and undiscovered, is slowly becoming less so. I'm starting to feel more at home.

I feel I have discovered some great things about living Paris. A wonderful cafe called Fuxar nearby with wireless internet and great view over a quiant little church, the knowledge that around any corner you are likely to find a street you've never been down with a shop/museum/bar/park you never knew about, Mrs Bordes' cooking, sunday morning croissants in bed in front of a dvd, random vegetable and meat produce market streets, an efficient public transport system, art exhibitions, friday night freebies for under 26yr olds at the louvre, the joy of wearing a coat when it's really cold, the joy of seeing the sun when you have forgotton what it looked like, and lastly the satisfacion that comes from communicating with someone in their native language...
Top: I have no idea why I posted these photos.

Above: I was taken to this cafe on top of the le Centre Pompidou modern art museum/library building by a friend of Cecile's. It was great. And yes, it does look like I'm having a date with myself. I didn't quite understand the roses... but the view more than made up for it. Get ready Lukie.

Below: I took this photo about two streets from our place. That's the sacre coeur in the background.

Do it like I told you

This is a sketch that I wrote when I was working for The Ronnie Johns Half Hour. I was trying to have a a go at people who aren't quite prepared to let those Australians that look "different" be fully fledged "Aussies". For those of you who didn't catch this episode... I thought I'd indulge myself and repost it here because I reckon this sketch turned out ok. (Yong Yong Magoo... A childhood full of research went into this I think!)

"I'm the Minister for Defence and Bryan agrees!"

These guys do a skit on the 7:30 Report on the ABC every thursday night. They are often hilarious. I once stumbled across a cd of their best sketches in the Russian Markets in Phnom Penh in Cambodia. If you ever find it, it's well worth a listen. This is a video link to a very funny sketch about Brendan Nelson. John Clarke's face at the end is genius.

Click to link below to view it:
http://www.abc.net.au/reslib/200611/r116132_367124.asx

If this doesn't work go to the 7:30 Report website and download it yourself here:
http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/7.30_clarkedawe.htm