BLAIRE: The Journey Issue

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Jour

the passage betwe Photo Fabienne Neff

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EMILY EATON EDITOR Emily@blairemagazine.com SARAH LONG CREATIVE DIRECTOR Sarah@blairemagazine.com MONICA JANKOWSKI MUSIC DIRECTOR monica@blairemagazine.com ALECZANDER GAMBOA SUBEDITOR MEGZ NOEL LAYOUT / DESIGN

ENQUIRIES / SUBMISSION _________________________ Sarah@blairemagazine.com

ABN: 62359130068 www.blairemagazine.com

Photo Fabienne Neff

EDITORIAL CONTRIBUTIONS ___________________________ ABBEY BRANDENBURG LIFE JOSH HEDGE PHOTOGRAPHY CHRIS MILLS LIFE MATT HOPKINS ARTIST INTERVIEW BRADLEY COWAN MUSIC REVIEWS MIA BEVERLEY FRANCISCO LIFE ISABELL HEISS ARTIST YEN LI WONG LIFE BONNIE ARBITTIER PHOTOGRAPHY MONICA JANKOWSKI LIFE

Contents 089 007 It’s All About Colour 015 Josh Hedge 025 Can’t Control Cartel Country 029 Josh Pyke 035 Music Reviews 037 Man vs Virus 041 Isabell Heiss 057 UN: The Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing 063 Quote 065 Poem: D 071 Bonnie Arbittier

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It’s all about colour Author Abbey Brandenburg Photos Megz Noel

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‘ Life is a sad hump in the dark, lonely and gone too soon

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A middle-aged man, weathered and hunched over a walking frame, boards the subway and addresses the overcrowded carriage: ‘Good morning ladies and gentlemen. I don’t want no trouble but I have no food, no shelter, no money. Anything you got, big or small, will help.’

‘If anybody else could help?’

‘If anybody else could help?’

‘If anybody else could help?’

‘If anybody else could help?’

He shuffles the length of the carriage chanting, almost singing, the same phrase over and over and over. It is a song – a sad tune – that stays floating around my head for days, threatening to roll down to the tip of my tongue and escape. The man wants money and despite his persistent calls and pleading eyes, very few people reach into their pockets, and those who do only produce a few lint-covered coins. I stare blankly into the distance as he passes where I am sitting – wedged between fat sweaty businessmen and children who’s bulging eyes stare unashamedly at the limping man.

He moves slowly, pausing, waiting, hoping. When he gets too close I lower my head, suddenly very interested in the floor. Stained. Dirty. I am surprised to see that the shuffling man is wearing unmarked, shiny black shoes. Glancing up I take note of the earrings hanging from each lobe – thick silver hoops and round sparkling studs. His clothes, although crinkled, don’t look that old, and he wears an oversized coat that is surely a luxury during a New York winter. He stands patiently by the carriage door, waiting for the next stop, waiting to board the next carriage, then the next and the next and the next. Day in, day out. Until he has enough money. The woman opposite me rolls her eyes and mutters under her breath about the newness of the mans shoes, his walking frame, the sad reality that he probably only wants money for drugs.

Afterwards I wondered – how had this man gotten here? What choices, what decisions – what mistakes – had led him to spend his days wandering these musty carriages? What had his life entailed so far? Had his journey been smooth, winding, bumpy?

It’s interesting (and incredibly overwhelming) to sit down and think, really think, about life and ones personal life journey.

American essayist and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson is credited with giving us the phrase, ‘Life is a journey, not a destination’ – a phrase that, no doubt, has snuck into one or two of our Instagram hashtags or Facebook statuses. Mrs. Gump informed Forest that, ‘Life is like a box of chocolates… you never know what you’re going to get’.

There are countless quotes and phrases and poems and metaphors and stories and images relation to the journey that is life. Interestingly, if you type ‘life journey’ into Google images you are bombarded with photos of roads and nature-y-ish scenes – but mostly roads. Here are a few: I have a friend – he’s a musician. He’s studied anthropology. He’s grungy and intelligent and very philosophical. When I asked him what ‘journey’ meant to him, this is what he said:

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‘Objectively life is a sad hump in the dark, lonely and gone too soon.

But objectivity isn’t important. It’s the romance that humans live for. It’s not about the moments or about the journey or the destination but how we retell them and remember them, it’s how we glamourise past loves, girlfriends we remember better than they probably were, we narrate our lives to make them more meaningful, it’s all about colour. Life is science fiction. Part fact and part romance.’

It’s all about colour. It’s all about colour.

Another friend of mine, who grew up in Zimbabwe but has lived in Australia for the last decade, handed me a diagram when I asked him

the same question: Naturally, I looked at him quite blankly when he handed me the piece of paper. But, after some discussion, it all came down to journey being a process. A process that results in an outcome based on positive and negative influences. I was surprised that his response was quite mathematical, an equation of sorts.

Personally, I think our life journey is influenced by, and made up of, both experiences and personal reflection. Everything we do and see and smell and touch and remember is like a Lego block.

And sometimes they will fit together to create something awesome and sometimes they won’t. So, basically, for me, life’s journey is

represented by a series of Lego blocks.

I try not to over-think life too much – it’s such a big concept for a fourlettered word. I’m part of the YOLO generation (God help me), but, in all honesty, I just take each day as it comes and that in itself is a pretty exciting journey.

At the end of the day – after all the philosophising and debating and discussing and whatever else it is we humans do – I think this guy has the right idea!

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It’s all about colour

JOSH HEDGE feature photographer

Josh Hedge is a self-taught photographer, vegan and life-lover. Aspiring to tell a story with each of his images, Josh set out to achieve new heights with his career. At the age of 19, after he bought his first camera, an old DSLR Canon 40D, he discovered the passion for photography and started sharing his view of the world with others. He started a blog that is filled with never ending self-portraits, sunsets, people, nature and happiness portrayed in both analogue and digital formats. Because of the inspirational nature of his work, he began receiving a lot of positive feedback that resulted in the gain of many new fans. And what started off as a hobby has at the end given him the great opportunity to do what he loves for a living. So many opportunities have arised: traveling overseas and across Australia for work, to shoot covers of magazines, editorials, album covers, solo exhibitions, joint exhibitions, meeting people he’s looked up to his whole life and connecting with companies he’d never thought of even being in the same room with; let alone collaborating with them. A free-spirit that loves to inspire others by exploring new places and being grateful for every aspect life has to offer.

Words by C-heads magazine.

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www.joshhedge.com www.joshhedge.tumblr.com Instagram @joshhedge

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Can’t Control Cartel Country The Narco story is as real today as ever Author Chris Mills Photos Megz Noel

13 December, 2015 saw global collective action from a group of people generally not known for significant political activity: surfers worldwide organised paddle-outs, whether there was actually ocean around or not, in tribute to Australians Adam Coleman and Dean Lucas, who were shot and set alight in their van in the middle of the night in the Mexican state of Sinaloa the previous month.

Sitting in our homes in Australia, watching Netflix documentaries about brutally bloody South American drug wars two decades in the past, while planning out nice summer holidays to Mexican resorts, the realities of life in parts of the country seem like fantasy. The news reports about the drug lord ‘El Chapo’ who fled his maximum security prison cell through an elaborate tunnel only feed the Narcos myth, and the real drugs that flood our parties are never traced back through the bloodshed that brought them to the Australian nostril. And then two 33 year-old surfers, who were hunting waves and traveling the world, are brutally murdered, and we have to be able to start connecting these dots. Real people are fighting real battles, not just against drug trafficking and organised crime, but even for the simple right of being safe at night in your own town.

Navolato is a municipality on the Sinaloan coast, facing the tip of Baja California across the Gulf of California. This location places it in the central heartland of one of the largest and most feared drug and crime operations in the world – the Sinaloa Cartel – where the real power comes not from the government but the gangs. While Joaquín

‘El Chapo’ Guzmán and his drug cartel is the most notorious and well known of these criminal operations, it is now clear to the world that other small operations run amok in the area under their umbrella. The Mayor of Navolato, a man who sounds beleaguered and dismayed by the situation he presides over, described his own province as the ‘Bermuda Triangle’ of Mexico. Such is the danger of the area and the propensity for cars to disappear from the local highways.

The Mexican Executive Secretariat for Public Security publishes live national crime statistics, and reports 160 incidences of car robbery with violence in Sinaloa for October alone, not to mention 76 intentional homicides. The very need of such published metrics, and the detailed infographic nature of how they are presented, signifies the severity of the situation in Mexico. Like with the Sinaloan local governments their rhetoric is blunt about the situation – efforts do not seem to be improving it, and in reality, they are not in control in Sinaloa.

The question has to be asked: what were Coleman and Lucas doing driving on this dark Navolato highway in the middle of the night? They must have had some inkling of the inherent danger, but took on fate as many young backpackers do across the globe. Their tale begins months earlier, and many countries away, as they followed a well-worn path of waves, fun and freedom.

The two West Australians had been based in Edmonton, Canada, but traveled in and around Central America throughout the year. Adam

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Coleman and Lucas doing driving on this dark Navolato highway in the middle of the night?

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Coleman had met a Mexican girl in February when they were previously in the country, and she told media he would return regularly and had also been in El Salvador. This particular journey, driving south from Canada through the States and in to Mexico, was supposed to take up to a month.

As someone who has traveled in the region, through Mexico by bus and parts of the States by car, the appeal is undeniable. It is a rite of passage for many Australians to do these trips, and living in the region would have been the cherry on the cake for these gents. The ABS reports trips by Australians to Mexico increased 14% year on year to 13,000 in 2013, and while much of that would be to resort territory, anecdotally I am sure many of us can attest to Australians being found in unusual places on their own journeys.

But here, the question is less about the why for their journey – waves, girlfriends, good times – and more about the why for the one particular night. They must have been in a hurry; Adam had been texting and calling his Mexican girlfriend regularly throughout the USA and down the Baja Californian coast. At 11:30am on 20 November 2015, they boarded a ferry from Baja towards the Sinaloan coast. They were spotted in a few towns, and even buying a map in a convenience store. Perhaps they knew explicitly of the potential danger and thought it was a nonissue, or maybe they believed that two obvious Aussies – surfboards, dreads, a bicycle on the back – would not be on the radar of locals, so they pressed on and drove through the night. Almost everything we know after that point comes from apparent confessions from gangsters who have since been arrested.

At 2:23am the van was seen on CCTV passing a tollbooth, and soon after that a Jeep Cherokee approached from behind them flashing police lights. They pulled over, and were confronted by the men inside – all dressed as Mexican federal police. The men attempted to rob the Australians, who are believed to have tried to fight back and prevent them from entering the van. Whether through paranoia or simple lack of regard to life, the gangsters then shot both the Australians, ransacked their possessions, removed their number plates, and set the van alight off the highway with the bodies inside.

Cold blooded, largely pre-meditated, random in their targeting, and brutal.

Described as the Sicily of Mexico by the New York Times – in climate and social influence – Sinaloa has been the birthplace of many of the country’s most notorious narco-traffickers. Estimates of the actual number of people involved in the crime organisations are hard to come by, but the same article puts the possibility as high as 150,000. In the state the narco organisation provide the public goods, and public safety – for locals at least – in return for silence and participation.

Australians and travellers from everywhere else in the world will continue to come through Mexico, and so they should. It is a beautiful country, with amazing food, scenery, people, and culture; but as with any journey it is clear that there are some risks that may be too far. Who knows the exact details from that night. It is possible that the degree of the international outcry prompted the cartel to give up those responsible, as they have cooperated in full, and avoid a prolonged manhunt that draws more attention on the state.

The global paddle-out and signs of solidarity from around the country and world show that people do care, and people do want change. The fact that we may not hear much about the modern cartel outside of the escape stories and the smuggling tunnels does hide the brutal reality of the trade, and may have lulled Adam Coleman and Dean Lucas into a false sense of security about their journey. They were good people on all accounts, living the dream with little worries, and perhaps there is a silver lining that we are all a little wiser, and people who can make change, will be prompted into enacting that change.

We hope.

Josh Pyke

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Interview by Matt Hopkins Congratulations on your latest album But for all These Shrinking Hearts, it’s a fantastic record. After five studio albums, do you find that your writing process has been different each time?

Thank you! Yeah it is different every time, particularly in the sense of the more you do something, the more you refine your process. I think in that regard and also having a studio at home, my process has just kind of become more developed and I trust my instincts more so I don’t labour over things if it doesn’t feel right, but I pursue things really doggedly if they do. I think that’s the biggest thing, just trusting my instincts and that just comes with experience. There’s nothing sort of dramatically that’s changed it’s just a slower evolution of trusting myself I guess.

The artwork for the album is pretty interesting as well, where did the idea for that come from?

I was going to get a tattoo of a perpetual motion machine. I just thought that would be a cool tattoo to kind of be a reminder to myself to keep moving forward, but I was looking at images online of drawings of perpetual motion machines, and I came across one which was done by a guy called Charles Redheffer, he was a guy from The States in the 1800s I think and he made a fake perpetual motion machine and he was charging people a dollar a pop to go see it and then somebody discovered a man in a closed off room in the background actually cranking a wheel and making the machine go. So it was all fraud, and from that I realised that scientists haven’t actually figured out a way to make a perpetual motion machine work and I just thought that this Charles Redheffer story was a really interesting visual metaphor for how I kind of perceive the world at the moment, you know? We’re all just kind of working our way onwards in an unsustainable way while these old bored men are behind closed

doors, cranking the wheel. It seemed pretty perfect so I got an artist – Chris Welsh – to make that image a reality and that’s how it came about.

Excellent! And I believe one of your sons features on one of the songs on the album, Hollering Hearts, he must be pretty stoked to contribute to your work.

Yeah, I mean he’s really young, he’s only five and he was four when he did it, but he just basically sang into my phone. The song had been finished but I just felt it needed one little high voice in there to make this chanting section work so I got him to sing it and then emailed it down to John Castle who was mixing the record at the time. He plugged it in there and yeah, he’s stoked to be on there, he enjoys that kind of thing, it’s a bit of a novelty for him at this point [laughs].

Absolutely. Do you think he’ll follow in dad’s footsteps?

Umm I don’t know, it’s up to them. My kids are only five and two so I don’t know yet [laughs].

Yeah early days! So you and Young Henry’s Brewery are looking for lemons, what’s the deal there?

We did that on Tuesday night actually. So I’m partnering up with Young Henry’s to release my own beer which I’m really excited about! I’ve been a home brewer for a while and I’ve kind of developed my own summer ale which I was calling The Summer. I approached the Young Henry’s crew to see if we could do a joint venture surrounding the upcoming tour.

So one of the ingredients is just a little bit of lemon zest in

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all fraud, and from that I realised that scientists haven’t actually figured out a way to make a perpetual motion machine work.

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the beer. So yeah, we had a zesting session, we sourced some locally grown lemons and then we just got ten or twelve competition winners to come down to the brewery and I played some songs and we zested the lemons. That zest will end up in the beer and it’s really exciting for me but it’s also daunting because the minimum brew they can do is 4000 litres as opposed to like 10 litres [laughs]. But yeah, I’m really excited!

That’s so cool! I live in Newtown myself so I look forward to heading down to the brewery and giving it a whirl.

Yeah man! It’s going to be a nice one I reckon.

You’re also an ambassador for The Indigenous Literacy Foundation and have held numerous Busking for Change events to raise money. Can you tell me a bit about how all of that came about?

I’ve been an ambassador for those guys for a long time now. I think maybe eight years or something. Basically my wife used to work in the publishing industry and she told me about this organisation that had been born from that industry and it just really appealed to me because having a high level of literacy has been important in my career and it’s sort of made me reflect on how important having a good level of literacy is for everybody in everyday life, not just for writing songs or books. Even simple things like reading instructions on medicine bottles and prescriptions and reading the timetables for transport and stuff like that.

So it’s a step towards self-determination for people in remote indigenous communities who don’t have access to a lot of stuff like that so the ILF delivers books into these communities, only ever with the blessing of the elders.

They have great results and there was no other agenda to it which is something that really appealed to me. There’s no religious agenda, there’s no government agenda, they’re just an independent organisation that sends books into the communities which is, I think, a really cool thing and it just appealed to me so I started this event Busking for Change to raise money for them. Yeah, I think we’ve raised over 50 grand now which is cool. I try to do it every year but it’s quite hard to fit in every year but yeah, I do it when I can.

That’s amazing! So you’re playing Woodford Folk and Falls Festivals at the end of this year as well as some shows throughout January and February. Do you think you enjoy bigger festivals or smaller shows more?

so good and it’s so much fun and performing is still probably my favourite thing to do but you get to the end of an hour and just want to keep going but you have to get off and make way for the next band whereas, you know, in my own shows I probably play for an hour and a half, sometimes a bit longer and you have a bit more freedom to play for longer which is the main thing [laughs].

I guess it’s a little more intimate as well, whereas festivals can seem a bit more distant in a way?

Yeah it can be, although I do find, you know, whether or not you’re playing to ten thousand people like at Woodford a couple of years ago, or a thousand people at a club show, I don’t know, you can kind of engage with the audience in the same way and I think if you choose to, it creates a more intimate experience no matter how big the crowd is.

Yeah definitely! Have you ever had anything really weird happen to you at a show?

Nothing too weird, thankfully. I mean, particularly at festivals there’s often people doing weird things in the crowd. I remember there was a guy at Pyramid Rock Festival a couple of years ago who had cut the arse out of a fluorescent pink Lycra onesie and he had a pink Lycra mask on, i mean that’s pretty weird [laughs].

What are you listening to at the moment man? What’s on high rotation?

Well I’ve just recently re-discovered a bank called The Notwist which is really cool. Gab from Japanese Wallpaper reminded me of them, so I was checking them out again. And also the most recent Surjan Stevens album is just beautiful and has been on high rotation ever since it came out.

Yeah nice! And what are your plans for next year? Writing album number six already?

I’m always writing but I’m really not going to focus on that or put any pressure on myself to think about that, so I’m just focusing on the tour next year which kicks off on the 29th of January and then we’ll expand that out regionally as well. I do have a project for the end of next year which is going be awesome but I don’t want to talk about that just yet, but that’s going to be really fun.

They’re such different beasts. I think if I put it all in balance I probably still prefer my own shows, just because you can play for longer. At festivals you play for an hour and I always find I get to the end of an hour set and I’m like, ah this is

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Music ReviewS

By Bradley Cowan

Beach Slang The Things We Do To Find the People Who Feel Like Us

Beach Slang’s debut, full-length studio album, The Things We Do To Find the People Who Feel Like Us, would have slotted in perfectly to the soundtrack of The O.C. It’s just a shame that that TV show was popular ten years ago, just like the style of this four piece from Philadelphia.

They describe their type of music as punk, which is a fair claim if you consider Fallout Boy or Simple Plan to fall under that same umbrella.

The vocals from the raw throat of lead man James Alex, are what you would expect from a band created to target fourteen-year-old girls dressed head to toe in black with heavy make-up and fake lip piercings.

Unfortunately the only memorable aspect of this release is the laughably cliché lyrics ie: ‘Carve my name soft across your lungs.’ Give it up guys, the emo phase died out many moons ago.

Nadia Reid Listen to Formation, Look For Signs

It seems that after the world domination of teen sensation Lorde, there is little room for another female, kiwi vocalist to make it on a global scale. Artists like Tiny Ruins and Broods have perhaps not received the attention their music has deserved due to most of the worlds obsession with an album that came out over two years ago. Nadia Reid’s new release Listen to Formation, Look for Signs is another example of an incredible record that is more than likely (and unfairly) to fly under the radar. Reid’s vocals are dreamy, they have a slight twang almost reminiscent of a southern American state. ‘Some are Lucky’, a favourite from the album has an environmentally romantic vibe, with a tempo to match deep, slow, relaxing breaths. Listen to Formation, Look For Signs is the sound of a solo summer road trip, it draws attention to the artists the mainstream world will never give a second look.

Adele 25

It would be ridiculous to not allow Adele’s latest album a place in this months music reviews. It’s only been just over a month since its surprise release and already it’s sold over five million copies in the states. Although the songs all follow down a relatively similar path, each one holds something that basically everyone over 25 can relate to; heartache. You must have been living under a rock if you are yet to hear the lead single ‘Hello’, a track that could force tears from even the most macho of men. Even without the beautiful melodies of the music created for each track this album would still be an epic seller with just Adele’s powerful vocals and touching, relative lyrics. It’s not exactly a Friday night party album, but definitely a soundtrack to a Sunday night pity party. When it comes to music, it seems Adele can do nothing wrong, and doesn’t the world know it.

Fleur East Love, Sax and Flashbacks

The best way to start a music career without an ounce of credibility is by auditioning for one of those talent shows that the mainstream world cannot get enough of. However, Fleur East has given her everything to prove this theory wrong after delivering one hell of a party album, Love, Sax and Flashbacks. After failing to win the 11th season of the U.K’s X-Factor, everyone probably expected this songstress to fall of the side of the earth but instead she did the opposite, giving us a few bangers to shake our hips too. ‘Sax’ is an absolute party track that could even give Beyonce a run for her money (huge call… I know), just try and listen without out letting the rhythm of this possess your entire body, it’s close to impossible. We have no idea who actually beat Fleur East in HER season of the X-Factor but whoever the hell it was MUST have been sleeping with at least one of the judges.

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Man Vs Virus Are we becoming too immune to antibiotics?

Author Mia Beverley Francisco Illustrator Megz Noel When I was younger and had terrible colds or contagious viruses, my folks told me to sleep, rest, eat good food, and drink plenty of water so that my immune system could repair itself and kick in when needed.

I wasn’t offered any medication, unless taken to the doctor who was extremely adamant that I take my pretty little tablets. I grew up with parents who had to be at death’s door before they even considered glancing at a packet of Panadol. So, as an adult, I have to be hanging off a hospital bed with a monster wreaking havoc within me, before I will agree to taking something to make me better. Nan always used to say, ‘don’t interfere with nature,’ which has its pros and cons. I for one am not going to let a natural disease kill me, if modern science can save me.

I don’t have any issues with people who constantly need tissues. I am, however, slightly concerned that the human race is propelling itself into the point of no return where being too immune is not a good thing.

Science says that antibiotics are losing their effectiveness, as people have become too reliant on them. I think we all know a couple of people who prefer to run off to their local GP for some help fighting an illness than to let their own body do what it was built for. Alarming to think that over time we will be making ourselves more at risk of contracting deadly viruses and superbugs, all because we were too careful. Or just really pedantic.

Jared M. Papworth, a believer in letting the human body tackle bugs before antibiotics, had quite a few wise words to share on the matter: ‘I do think this generation, and the next to follow, are becoming too immune; aside from the young, who have yet to obtain a full working immune system. It seems the masses flock to the nearest doctor for their dose of antibiotics at the mere sound of the ‘v’ word (virus) as a sure fire cure to every plague ever known to mankind. As I’m lead to believe, the more you take, the less effective it becomes. I have witnessed so many close to me on the GP’s hot-seat constantly topping up their meds only to fall ill again as soon as they run out! Maybe it’s the cold-virus loop of a town that they call home, maybe they don’t roll in the dirt often enough, or maybe it’s just me, but I never take antibiotics and my immunities are in tip top shape! My fear is that one day a super virus will blow in and wipe out whole communities leading to widespread hysteria. That’s just what we need in this day and age!’

I personally think that if advanced medicine in the year 2015 can save me from something nature cannot – then I am all for it, but if people opt for antibiotics over letting their own immune system do it’s job, then that is where I have a problem. If a human is unwell, science and medicine proves that their immune system is still required to finish off the battle with a virus, even if they have taken antibiotics for the job.

Between you and me, I know way too many people who pop a pill to

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making ourselves more at risk of contracting deadly viruses and superbugs, all because we were too careful.

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“cure” themselves of their ailments. Runny nose? Quick, get some meds for that. Bit of a tummy bug? What will you do? Oh, look, there is Antibiotics in its red cape flying in to save the day. Let’s also not forget that vaccines and immunisations, which research says ‘arm the immune system by providing it with a clear picture of the enemy, so that the immune cells are ready’, are important and essential when boosting one’s immune system from the very beginning during infancy.

But vaccine’s are a whole other topic that will most definitely open up a can of worms. Whatever your beliefs on antibiotics and whether or not humans are becoming too immune and therefore more at risk when a serious bug swoops in, have a squiz at these scientific fun facts… maybe it’ll help you make your mind up. * Our immune system has evolved to eradicate infecting microorganisms (the baddies). * Traditionally, antibiotics only kill one type of microorganism in the body, whereas the immune system can stand tall against many. * Harmful microbes; the nasty guys that can cause disease, are said to be the leading major cause of human suffering and death. * Some infections and bacteria are antibiotic resistant. * Dr Peter D’Adamo says, ‘Antibiotics only reduce the level of infection.

Your body’s immune system is still required to finish the battle.’

Interesting, hey? A tad scary, yes. So where does this leave us?

Well, according to the facts: in a dark and scary place where we have nowhere to run, no place to hide, from the frightening superbugs that await us. Our only true and loyal weapon will be our immune systems – so time to start treating it right!

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It’s all about colour

ISABELL HEISS feature artist

Originally from Germany, I came to Australia in 2011 visiting a friend and am now living and working in Byron Bay. Growing up as the daughter of a blacksmith and Artist, my association with arts and crafts started early on, working mainly with metal, coal and acrylic.

Through my studies at the college of Art and Social Science in Munich and Nuernberg I discovered a fascination for photography, which got me to work as an action Photographer in the sports industry. This allowed me to travel and is now a great influence in my artwork that has been showcased in several exhibitions in Munich, Nuernberg and Augsburg.

Despite the challenges I experienced in my early twenties, coming to live in Australia has been the most encouraging change in my creative life. Painting and photography are an integral part of my practice and I have participated in several group exhibitions in Sydney and Byron Bay over the past 4 years.

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Photo Kamila Meela

UN: The Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing We’re made to believe that the UN peacekeepers are on a journey to help in other parts of the world. But that’s not necessarily the case.

Author Yen Li Wong The United Nations was born on 24 October 1945 through concerted efforts by the world’s leading countries ‘to promote international cooperation and to achieve peace and security’. Whether these targets have actually been met remain largely to be seen. The optimist in us could probably say that the United Nations has done a truckload of good in the 70 years since it’s inception. No one can fault that the UN’s World Food Programme, the UN High Commission on Refugees and UNICEF in particular have been instrumental in providing aid and assistance to impoverished countries around the globe. However, like weeds that grow unabated, certain social diseases can spread faster than the common cold during flu season.

unwittingly invites the murderous killer into her house. The awful realisation one minute after being stabbed that just maybe the person you’ve trusted is the one who’s knifed you in the back. I’m not going for shock value by the comparison with horror movies. The truth is much worse than tales of the boogeyman, vengeful spirits and demons: there is real life horror going on in the world today – and it’s the good guys that are doing the really bad stuff. I would love for this to be fiction but sadly it is not the case.

What am I talking about? Exploitation. Sexual abuse. Child prostitution.

Wait – aren’t these sickening crimes the reason the United Nations are called in to help in the first place? Unfortunately, sometimes, the perpetrators are the ones we’ve embraced and called our saviour.

This is almost akin to the scene in horror movies where the heroine

20,000 troops from all around the world – which costs us approximately $1.3 billion annually – were sent to Congo in 1999 for ‘peacekeeping efforts’. By 2005, allegations of sex abuse and child trafficking were rife.

UN personnel were accused of raping girls as young as 12 and paying them with money or food in exchange for sexual favours. During the

Democratic Republic of Congo

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‘ The next

generation is bearing the brunt of the UN’s inability to control their men who can’t keep their dicks in their pants.

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investigation, 63 soldiers were found guilty of those crimes and expelled from the mission. When you take into consideration that more than 150 accusations were raised, this means less than half of the perpetrators were even punished for their crimes. The United Nations initiated a zero tolerance policy with the aim to safeguard local citizens from being harmed, threatened and exploited by peacekeeping troops. This is such an automatic self defense mode that it makes me sick.

Because the question still remains. What happened to these 63 fuckers who thought that their blue helmets gave them immunity and power over local girls – most of whom had already been denied a normal childhood because they had the misfortune to be born and raised in a war torn country. Just being stripped of a job is surely no deterrent to the crime they have committed. Meanwhile, some of the girls are still living with the burden of these atrocities. Having been forced to perform sexual acts, impregnated, and then later abandoned, these girls’ bleak childhood seems to continue well into adulthood. And this time, the next generation is bearing the brunt of the UN’s inability to control their men who can’t keep their dicks in their pants.

The Whistleblower The Whistleblower is a 2010 movie starring Rachel Weisz. It is also often dubbed as the movie the United Nations does not want you to see. More reasons for people to actually want to watch the film, if you ask me. The Whistleblower is based on Kathryn Bolkovac and her fight against the system in Bosnia. Bolkovac was a Nebraskan cop who was recruited by DynCorp to work at the UN’s mission in Bosnia. DynCorp, for those not in the know, is the American recruitment arm for the United Nations missions. Bolkovac – who’d hit a wall in both her personal and professional life – was eager to work in a war-torn country. What she saw and heard there shocked her. In Bosnia, Bolkovac was placed in charge of the unit combating violence against women. And then, the inevitable happened. Her work placed her in close proximity to girls – girls who had been lured there on false pretences and empty promises of employment and money.

Upon investigation, she found a trail which led back to DynCorp, the United Nations and local law enforcement agencies. Not only were some of the personnel frequenting prostitutes in brothels operated by traffickers, some of them were even on the traffickers payroll. Clearly, as noted in a review published by the United Nations, ‘… the guardians have to be guarded’. Although warned to lay off by superiors, Bolkovac continued undeterred. She was then fired from DynCorp for allegedly falsifying timesheets and claims. She successfully sued the company for unfair dismissal. Unfortunately, the men she named were pretty much only given slaps on the wrist. Wherever they are, I am pretty sure they are definitely not anywhere near where they should be: incarcerated and emasculated.

Haiti, Central Africa Republic and Beyond It is staggering that as we’re arguing about which nation has the biggest guns, and which world leader has the biggest balls, this shit is still going on practically right under our noses. This year, reports emerged of troops in Haiti who coerced hundreds of women and children into sex. Again, in exchange for food, clothes and other items we take for granted. In Central Africa Republic, a United Nations aid worker has been suspended for passing information to the authorities about abuse of children in the country. The children were as young as nine years old. And the aid worker had only done this out of frustration at the UN’s inability to act against the sexual predators. He faces the possibility of being dismissed from employment for ‘breaching protocol and confidentiality policies.’

Photo Ross Cowan

Happy 70th, United Nations With all these fallacies, in November 2015, the United Nations celebrated its 70th birthday.

Somehow, I don’t think anyone really feels like celebration. After all, what is the United Nations really doing? At this point, I feel that this overgrown and overbloated organisation has moved so far from its initial purpose (if global peace was its main target, to begin with) that it’s really past its sell-by date. Why do we give so much power to an organisation which clearly believes that it is a power unto itself? Why do we still continue taking so much shit from this entity which fails to protect the very people whom it is supposed to serve? Why is so much immunity given to pricks who are exploiting the defenceless and the desperate?

I’m not putting down all the good that the United Nations have done throughout the years. I just think the ends do not justify the means at all. What good is peace if havoc is wreaked from another source? The sad truth is that the United Nations can no longer contain and control their people. In answer to the potential deluge of paternity lawsuits that the United Nations might face from those who claimed they’ve been raped by UN workers, UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon’s suggestion was to ‘set up a taxpayer funded UN fund to support the peacekeeper babies.’ Seriously, why the fuck is this guy even still in charge?

Perhaps the only way to end this article is by sharing the fact that in 2014, a United Nations committee slammed the Vatican for protecting priests whom the church knew were paedophiles and committing sexual acts on minors. Hello, pot, this is kettle on the line. The United Nations would do better to look into its own backyard and clear up their own shit before attempting to do the same for others.

After all of their own cover ups and sexual exploits, having to be guided and judged by the UN’s moral compass is definitely a bitter pill to swallow.

Isaiah Wall UN Building UK

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Quote Martin Buber Photo Megz Noel

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by Robert A Kaufman

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Five hundred years ago, I studied by the Baltic Sea before the pogroms compelled me to sail west to the New World.

Five hundred years before that, I studied by the English Channel before Edward the Longshanks forced me to march east to Slavic city-states.

Five hundred years before that, I studied by the Black Sea before Sviatoslav I of Kiev made me hike north to England.

Five hundred years before that, I studied by the Mediterranean Sea before Heraclius drove me north

to Russia.

Five hundred years before that, I studied in the Kingdom of Judah before Babylonians knocked down T he Temple and made me hide by the Mediterannean.

Five hundred years before that, after almost five hundred years of Egyptian bondage, Moses ascended Mount Sinai and taught me how to study.

T he Hagaddah provides there are four types of children: wise, rebellious, simple, and the one who doesn’t know how to ask.

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T he difference between the wise child and the has nothing to do with intellect.

Both children understand Exodus, but the rebellious child asks, What does it mean to you when you were a slave in Egypt?’

T he wise child asks, ‘What does it mean to me When I was a slave in Egypt?’

She was there.

She still is.

Illustration Megz Noel

e rebellious one

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BONNIE ARBITTIER It’s all about colour

www.bonniearbittier.com INSTAGRAM: @bonniearbittier

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The Transgender Journey Ever thought about how deeply changing genders can affect a person’s life?

Author Monica Jankowski Photo Beau Corvell Back in the day, African Americans had to fight for their rights. More recently it was the LGBT community. These days, it’s all about the fight for understanding and acceptance for the transgender community. The fight for equality is a journey that all minority groups are forced on. It’s the transgender communities turn. It’s hard to know exactly what its like but some brave people have shared their stories and opened their world to the public in the hopes that their journey will inspire and educate others. Here is a collection of stories that show just how important it is to learn to accept people for who they are and to fight for the rights of those who aren’t treated like they are deserving of it.

As much as we can all moan and groan about the popularity of the Kardashian/Jenner clan, we do have to attribute quite a bit of transgender exposure to Caitlyn Jenner and her journey to freedom.

Transgender celebrities are not a brand new thing. That is not the point to be made here. The point is that now is a time that these people can have a voice and share their stories in order to make it easier for every human being to be their true self. It is time for equality.

transgender transˈdʒɛndəә,trɑːns-,-nz-/ adjective adjective: transgender; adjective: transgendered 1 denoting or relating to a person whose self-identity does not conform unambiguously to conventional notions of male or female gender.

Gender identity is a huge topic of conversation these days. It refers to a person’s sense of self in describing their gender. Social media and pop culture has adjusted to recognise the validity of each and every the of transgender human out there. Awareness and openness is more frequently occurring. But it is still a fight that these people have to struggle with.

The thing that boggles me the most is the lack of acceptance from so many people in Australia. For a country who regards Dame Edna Everage as one of their ‘Aussie icons’ it makes no sense to me why people who identify as transgender have had such a hard time finding

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‘ The thing

that boggles me the most is the lack of acceptance from so many people.

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equality here. The notion of a man dressing as woman in the instance of Dame Edna or even more recently Mrs. Brown (of Mrs. Brown’s Boys) is something that was accepted in its form as entertainment. Why are we so afraid then of that being a reality for people? Why do we accept Barry Humphries but discriminate against Courtney Act? One story that I heard has stuck with me for a while now. I watched Boys Don’t Cry about a year ago and I was completely taken aback.

It’s a 1999 film directed by Kimberly Peirce which was generally well received by the LGBT community. The film recounts the life of Brandon Teena (formally Teena Brandon). He was tortured and killed because of his sexuality. Whilst the people portrayed in the movie believe that the story wasn’t accurately recounted, it still was a true story and a true murder of a dude much like us, who was just trying to be his true self.

Brandon lived in the town of Lincoln, Nebraska before moving to Fall City at the age of 20. It seems like this was his getting away from his old life and beginning fresh in a new place. Getting a chance to start his life as ‘Brandon’. He became friends with a group of teens, including John Lotter and Marvin ‘Tom’ Nissen. He met Lana Tisdel through these friends and began a relationship with her. After John and Marvin found out about Brandon’s female past they attacked him, revealing his female anatomy and raped him. He managed to get away but they threatened to hurt him if he spilled the beans.

Brandon was brave and reported the rape anyway. However, officers didn’t really give him a fair go - whether it was because of his sexuality, no-one can really know but it sure as hell seems like it. It wasn’t fair and no-one was charged. Reading through the transcript of that police interview is pretty insane. It seems as though the police officer in charge, Charles Laux was more interested in de-victimising Brandon rather than accepting that a rape occurred. That allowed John and Marvin to come back for him, killing him on the night of New Year’s Eve 1993. He along with two eye witnesses were shot and then Brandon was stabbed as well.

It’s one thing to understand that there is a struggle but another to see the effect we as society have on the transgender fight. I didn’t know at first that the movie was based on a true story but it is. And it’s heartbreaking. Nobody should have to fear for their life the way these people did because of their sexuality. We may not understand it, or want to be a part of it but we have to be accepting and willing to help these people live their lives as free as we do. Not only is there an emotional journey here but there’s also a physical one and both of these are tough, not only for the person going through it, but their families and friends as well.

Today is easier to be accepted for who we are. Our society is one that is more aware of different types of people and we are more accepting but there are still transgender people who are fighting a tough fight. No-one should be discriminated against for personal preference. No one should have face a journey of struggle for acceptance. The easier we can make it for them, the better, so it might be time for an attitude change. We need to be fighting for equality. We need to help all people on their individuals journeys in life because we can make it harder without knowing it if we’re ignorant to their struggle.

Don’t be the reason someone has a tough life.

I’ll leave you with a retraction printed in a local newspaper that I think is just really wicked. If more people were like this Queensland mother, we’d be in a much better place. Equality for all. Fight for what is right.

News Article Went Viral

Faces of Meredith

by Dani Leever

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JAN / FEB 2016

Photo Fabienne Neff