Gary Dean - Posts

Gary Dean

 – From the West, Northward to the East

I was born and raised in Perth, Western Australia, in the pre-Sputnik era, and brought up in a mono-cultural English/British suburban environment. I am a Gemini and a Rooster. My MBTI is INFJ, my blood type B-, and I’m an Aspie. Here’s a snapshot of my genome. My life has largely unfolded across South East Asia, culminating in my migration to Indonesia in 1996. I am an Indonesian citizen. I have a reasonably diverse set of role models: Robert Sapolsky, Gotama, Germaine Greer, and

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An Ungrateful Australian

On Tuesday, 17 December 2002, BM wrote: I think, on balance, that if I am to be ruled, I would much rather be ruled by complete fucking moron civilians than by clever army generals, or religious fanatics for that matter. A friend, who had been a lifelong Marxist until the collapse of the Soviet Union, in a moment of possibly alcohol-induced candour, said to me once that to him a slightly corrupt, partially inept ‘liberal democracy’ is far preferable to a ruthlessly efficient and thoroughly honest socialist dictatorship. Oh shit, I think I feel a polemic coming on… Or maybe it’s that dodgy rendang I ate for lunch… I quite agree, living under a liberal democracy is probably preferable to living under a socialist dictatorship. However, your statements are loaded with some highly contentious and suspect presumptions concerning the alleged relative superiority of lib

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Australia's Place and Influence in Asia

Since the very beginning of a notion called 'Australia' some 200 years ago the European occupiers of this continent have rarely felt at peace with its geography.  As a transplanted, predominantly European, society situated within Asia,[1] far from the homelands-of-the-heart in Europe, Australians have always felt an acute sense of threat from the north.  In nearly every respect, Australia is profoundly differences with the nations of Asia: race, history, culture, social structure, and population size and density, just to name a few.  Australia is truly an oddity within its region; it doesn't really fit.  Separated by vast distances from the other rich, English-speaking, mainly-white, 'Echelon' nations (Britain, the US and Canada), Australians feel an acute sense of isolation in this region, like a 'continent adrift'.[2] It has only been these past few decade

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The Myth of the Jakarta Lobby

Brian Toohey's article, "Time to rout the Jakarta Lobby", was published in The West Australian on 27 September 1999, just four weeks after the East Timorese autonomy plebiscite.  During this period East Timor was in the process of being laid waste by vicious anti-independence militias backed by the Indonesian military. In this article Toohey rampages against a perceived "Jakarta lobby" that allegedly directs Australian foreign policy towards Indonesia.  He accuses it, among many other things, of siding with anti-democratic forces in Indonesia and of being apologists for heinous crimes committed by the Indonesian military against East Timorese. Toohey, in fact, has a long history of hostility towards Indonesia, and towards any policy approach that attempts to view the region through anything else but the eyes of the jaundiced and parochial Australia n

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Security and Australia's involvement in the world

Australians have always felt uncertain about their place in the world.  As a transplanted, predominantly European, society situated within Asia, Australians have always felt a sense of threat from the north.  Profound differences with the nations of East Asia exist in nearly every respect: race, history, culture, social structure and population density.  Within this region, Australia is truly an oddity.  It should be no surprise, therefore, that security issues have always dominated Australian foreign policy.  Separated by vast distances from other rich, English-speaking, and predominantly white, nations such as Britain, the US, and Canada, Australians feel an acute sense of isolation in this region, like a 'continent adrift'[1], or a mere 'province of the English-speaking world'.[2] An Australia highly threatened and highly desired, militarily defenceless a

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The Development of Australian Foreign Policy

It only been these past few decades that Australia has begun to pursue a relatively independent foreign policy, from under the shadows Britain and the US.  Australia's unique historical circumstances have led to the development of a certain set of attitudes and characteristics that underlie its foreign relation's behaviour.  Among other characteristics there has been a dependency syndrome, first with Britain, and then with the US, an acute sense of geographic isolation from the European cultural hearthlands and a corresponding sense of threat from Asia, and an attempt to identify and project an Australian identity to the outside world. Australia's early history was dominated by British outlooks and interests, reflecting the immigrant population that was overwhelmingly of British stock.  Australia was a mere home away from home, a far-flung outpos

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Globalisation and the Nation-State

It is frequently alleged that the nation-state in the 1990's is at a precarious moment of history, poised to somehow inevitably disintegrate under the pressure of globalisation.  It has been a mere decade since this word 'globalisation' started to infiltrate the everyday language of nations worldwide.  And like many new catchwords which suddenly enter a language, it's precise meaning can be lost or obscured in amongst the new, exciting and often stimulating concepts which orbit about it; Internet, Free Trade, Borderless World, Information Superhighway, and many others. In fact, globalisation as a process of world economic integration and interdependency is far from being new, and it could be argued that this process has its roots in time immemorial when humanity first found it advantageous to trade surpluses of goods with one another.  It is sometime

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Airship Over Occussi

 – Songs from 1983

Songs recorded "live" on a cheap cassette recorder at various locations in Fremantle, Western Australia during 1983 (or was it 1984?).  The recording quality in all cases is extremely poor, but the spirit remains audible.  These recordings marked the end of my creative musical life; not long after I gave it away, deciding deliberately and consciously that I had nothing to say. Whilst all the compositions below are original creations, I feel that all creation is a synthesis of past and present experience.  For an individual to take credit for any creation is a silly notion, notwithstanding copyright notices!  Whilst my compositions may be unique, they nevertheless represent syntheses of my experiences and interactions with a particular set of people, circumstances and social environments at a particular time and place.  I have l

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