Amra Pajalic

Went to the Melbourne Writer’s Festival yesterday and bumped into a few people I knew. Also recognised a few others that are players in Melbourne’s literary establishment. I’ve been going to these things for years and usually I walk away with a tiny little nugget of interesting information, but yesterday something happened that’s never happened before.

I felt like I was part of a club that I’d never known existed. Instead of going to the Festival and feeling overawed by inadequacy because I usually don’t recognise half the panelists or know any of the attendees, instead I felt like I was a part of something.

Attended a fabulous session Any resemblance is purely coincidental. It was one of the best sessions I’ve ever attended. Each of the panelists was incredibly charismatic, had fabulous stories to tell, were respectful of each other in terms of not going over allotted time. All of the books sounded fascinating and I’ll be following them up to read.

The Panelists were:
Geoffrey Cousins – The Butcherbird
Kathleen Mary Fallon – Paydirt
Helen Fitzgerald – Dead Lovely
Meme McDonald – Love Like Water

The second session I attended was about the death of the short story, a session that is constantly repeated in different formats. The theory is that markets for short stories are drying up and its up to the panelists to discuss. One of the panelists had a really monotone voice that I found impossible to pay attention to. My friend and I were writing notes to each other to keep awake. The other two panelists were interesting.

Cate Kennedy was on the panel. She’s one of Australia’s most renowned short story writers and her collection Dark Roots is a must read. I pretty much attend any session with her in it. This is the second event I’ve attended in a couple of months that she was in. Afterward I went up to her and told her I was her groupie.

Been reading authors who were shortlisted for the Victorian Premier’s Awards so that at the dinner next week I can fawn over them. Have discovered some amazing authors that I’ll be following up on and will enjoy talking to them. I met Simmone Howell who wrote Notes from the Teenage Underground and loved her book. Also read David Metzenthen’s Black Water which was amazing. Set in World War I in Australia which is a period that holds much facination for me. Both these authors were nominated for the Young Adult category. Have a few more books on hold at the library and just waiting for them to drop into my waiting arms.

Also this article appeared in my local paper. Yep, I’m milking my five seconds for all their worth.

The Wog Manual has been shortlisted in the Victorian Premier’s Awards for Unpublished Manuscript. So what does this mean?

Firstly, that I have a one in three chance of winning $15,000. Secondly, exposure. I’ve already had two editors make contact wanting to see my manuscript. It really might happen. I might get published!!!

Other cool things that happened today:

• Someone thought I was 20 years old. Yes, this counts as fabulous news too.
• There was a titter in the room when my nomination was announced at the State Library today. That felt pretty great too.
• Someone told me they didn’t recognise me because I look demure compared to the photo featured on the shortlist. Mmmm, my edgy profile is working.

I’ve used the afternoon to milk this news in every opportunity possible. Called the local newspaper to get my mug in there and contacted the editor selecting stories for the Best Australian Stories Anthology about the news because I entered an extract of the novel. Regardless of whether I win or not, I’m hoping this will lead to other things. In the meantime I’ll keep dreaming about all the ways I can spend $15,000 until reality intrudes and I find out who won on 3 September.

Had a surreal thing happen last night. Mum was visiting. Received a call from my stepdad that hubby answered. Stepdad asks for our street number. Says someone is coming over and promptly hangs up. We’re gobsmacked, kind of like one of those weird movies where it’s a poignant silence loaded with meaning as everyone meets the other person’s eye and looks away. Mum picks up the phone and calls stepdad to find out who’s coming. Some guy that we all hate, who used to be loosely releated to us by marriage, until his wife passed away.

We make a plan. We’ll say we’re going out. He knocks on the door. Doesn’t recognise me. I say we have to go out. He comes in, his second, much younger wife and one year old infant follow. They sit down, we go through awkward stilted coversation. I’m fuming in silence at these strangers invading my house who I want to kick out. Hubby knocks on the door and starts loudly talking about how we have to leave. Feel embarassed and shush him, sending him on his way.

Mum gets up and puts on her coat. The guys asks me where are we going. To a girlfriends I answer. He gets up and they get out. Mum is scared to walk home by herself. Starts looking for hubby to walk her but unknown to us he’s hiding in the spare room of our house. The guy offers to drive Mum around the corner to her house. Mum says it’s okay, doesn’t even finish her sentence before she starts running for her life.

I kept chuckling all night at the image of my Mum running like a scalded cat. Welcome to another episode of This Wog Life.

The last month has been hot running hot with news of the developments in the case against Mohamed Haneef, an Indian-Muslim doctor, who was brought up on terrorist charges by the Australian government.

From the word go the case against Haneef by the government has been laughable. The whole basis of the arrest was the discovery of Haneef’s sim card except, woopies, the sim card was not actually in the wreckage of the UK bombing as the government claimed, but hundreds of kilometers away. The case against Haneef was eventually dropped, he was deported, yet the Immigration minister still claims that there is suspicion to tie him to the terrorist plot which is why his visa will not be reinstated.

Let’s review shall we, there isn’t enough to charge him with terrorist, but there is enough to indicate he still is a terrorist and not to reinstate his via. Yeah, I’m buying this.

Some gems that the Immigration Minister has quoted as proof of Haneef’s guilt was the speed with which he left the country. Umm, this is after he was deported and told by the government to get out as quickly as possible.

To understand the reason why this happened requires the need to review the Australian political landscape. Basically we have a Prime Minister who has won all his elections on the basis of political posturing in creating sensationalist headlines and tricking the public.

His 2001 campaign was won on the basis of a refugee boat being intercepted where asylum seekers tried to force the government into giving them refugee status by throwing their children overboard.

In the end it was found out that no such thing happened and that the government knew it, but they won the election, the asylum seekers suffered hell, and the Australian public has changed ever since.

We’ve become much more gullible and lulled by xenophobia into believing Howard is the great messiah who will care for the economy and bring us to prosperity and fuck the rest of the world, especially those pesky asylum seekers who are clogging up our detention centers with their hard luck stories and expectations of a hand out.

I’m praying that this is the election Howard does not win. From the headlines it seems the tide of opinion is swinging against him and the polls support this, still it’s not a sure thing. There are a lot of people out there who want to believe simple fairy tales about terrorist boogeymen and the tough guys like Howard who will keep them away.

I worry about the future of Australia and the world. With Muslim becoming the new codework for terrorist and threat, how far will our government, and the rest of the world, push this line?

A few years ago The Siege was boycotted by Muslims all over the world. The movie centres on a Muslim terrorist attack on New York and the rounding up of all Arab-Muslims by the military where they are subjected to torture. Sounds familiar? Interestingly the movie was made in 1998, 3 years before the terrorist attacks and the reshaping of the world after September 11.

I wonder how far away are we from the future The Siege predicted?