Australia Day (January 26th) – that nationalistic celebration of the First Fleet's landing which Aborigines refer to as “Invasion Day” – is shaping up as a potentially dangerous event in Camden.

The town on Sydney’s south-western outskirts is the site of a proposed Islamic School and a racist backlash against the plans.

A rally held less than a week before Christmas in opposition to the school attracted nearly 800 residents and high profile conservative politicians. The public strategy of the anti-school lobby has been to oppose the proposal on planning grounds. But the racism underpinning the campaign is palpable.

Angry young men wearing the Australian flag as an accessory hurled anti-Muslim abuse outside last month’s protest meeting. Pigs heads were thrust onto stakes suspending the Australian flag on the site of the proposed school the previous month and last week a car full of men yelled racial abuse and swore at a Muslim woman being interviewed by a Sun Herald journalist at the site. The woman, Jameela Ahmed, was speaking of peace – she’s planning a forum to try to educate the community about Islam and the school proposal, believing much of the opposition is based on fear and misconceptions. "We just want to educate and calm the situation," she told the Sun-Herald.

But while her attempts at building community cohesion are admirable, the President of the Camden McArthur Residents Group, Emil Sremchevich, has defended the right of Australia First - the extremist political party with white supremacist leanings - to hold a rally in Camden on Australia Day. The party was accused of fuelling the 2005 Cronulla race riots and reportedly plans to distribute anti-Muslim propaganda on Australia Day. Racist text messages calling for protests on January 26th against Muslims have already been in circulation.

While Mr Sremchevich said the group wouldn’t officially support the Australia First rally because the media would just focus on the ‘rednecks’, he told AAP Australia Day was an appropriate time for such a rally because it celebrated "what Australia's become, its democratic rights ... and freedom of speech".

Mr Sremchevich denies his opposition is motivated by prejudice but his message is clearly populist. “The majority rules, the governments are elected by the majority ... if the minority doesn't like it, bad luck” he told the Sydney Morning Herald. One can’t help but wonder if his own non-Anglo background may not have caused him to suffer as a minority.

The nationalistic zealotry fueled by former Prime Minister John Howard has made racists more brazen and Camden is a firestorm waiting to happen. Love of country is now confused with nationalism and patriotism has an ugly overtone. Scenes of beer swilling, marauding yobbos desecrating the beaches of Gallipoli on ANZAC Day are now commonplace thanks to the revival of a brand of mass-produced, ignorant, misplaced patriotism. The mob violence in Cronulla tapped into this phenomenon and confronted Australia with its racist underbelly while demonstrating the threat posed to social cohesion by large groups of stupid, loosely organised people exposed to the right triggers for violence.

What happened to Australian identity being expressed in terms of multiculturalism, tolerance and a fair go for all? The xenophobic alternative is an ugly badge I can’t stand seeing my country wear.

The traditional Australia Day fireworks display risks becoming a powder keg in Camden and the opportunities for protective community building in that town are fast running out.    [read more]

It’s been another bad news start to a new year. The aftermath of the assassination of Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan; the bloodbath that continues following a flawed election in Kenya; the deadly quagmire that is Iraq…

It would be easy to become overwhelmed by the human suffering and environmental devastation that comprise so much of our daily news consumption. And sometimes I do feel like shutting the door on the world and retreating into my imagination. But the stuff of life propels me and I’m determined to seek out love and beauty beneath the deep surface cracks of my existence and the world I inhabit.

I’m inspired by resilient people who persevere in the face of hardship. Some of these characters inhabit the subtext of the stories in our news feeds. Among them are the ones who risk their lives for peace and democracy. But I also find inspiration among my students, my friends and family.

Scratch the surface of any life and you’ll encounter suffering. But it’s hope and survival that really interest me. In my own life, I’ve just escaped a decade in which my husband was twice diagnosed with a life-threatening form of cancer and underwent horrendous treatment regimes; I broke my back, watched my ABC career disintegrate and spent years in court fighting an Australian corporate giant while the prospect of bankruptcy loomed; and I lost three babies to miscarriage among the usual twists and turns of life.

Through the negative news filter this story – my story - is a one dimensional, utterly depressing tale. But there’s another angle. I am still here and I’m still laughing and crying and loving and fighting to suck all the joy and experience I can from life. Yes, there were dark patches where the days were as negative as the headlines but there was also friendship and the warmth of the sun on my sore back and sunsets viewed from my front porch with kangaroos in the foreground and birdsong in the air. There were travels as well as travails…sublime moments nestled between the sadness and the suffering.

I was proud to find I had the inner strength and tenacity to survive these experiences and now I’m starting to thrive again. But I marvel at others around me who live full lives in the face of daily struggles where hope for a different outcome is just not realistic.

Witness my sister: the very model of a superwoman. She has two jobs, a husband and two beautiful children, one of whom suffers from an extremely rare genetic kidney disease called Nephrogenic Diabetes Insipidus (NDI). My 3-year-old nephew, Liam, was hospitalised at 12 weeks of age, close to death and with a multitude of symptoms that baffled myriad specialists until he received the dubious honour of being named a boy with NDI - one in four million. This disease - that threatens Liam's life and slows his development - has my sister rising at least three times a night to change her son’s bed-sheets and administer four different drugs.

My sister and her kids stayed with me this week and whenever I witness the burden of the disease first-hand, my astonishment at her extraordinary coping and life-management skills is renewed. Liam is a gorgeous boy, who is thriving despite his illness, and he brings her joy but there is real hardship in caring for him. She is nurse, mother, executive producer, counsellor, sister, friend, wife, salesperson and household chair of the board rolled into one beautiful package. Her perseverance, determination, stamina and strength in the face of this disease inspire me. Love drives her and defines her.

Every story has its inspirational characters and positive angle. I encourage you to look beneath the headlines of your life and the lives of others; to expose what’s rich and beautiful; to follow unexpected paths; to take a risk; to abandon your fear of love. There will be dark and painful days in the year ahead but survival is in waking up and embracing the bright days.

My motto for 2008 is tried and true: Carpe Diem (seize the day)!    [read more]