This election has featured intense levels of racism and homophobia.

To which locals will say “duh, it’s Queensland” [Non-Oz followers, we have a reputation kind of like being the Texas of Australia]. To which I’d say, yeah and even by THESE standards, it’s been ugly.

Racism -  Wild Rivers came under siege, with Aboriginal traditional owners being dismissed by media andeveryoneelse in favour of the LNP using Noel Pearson as their mouthpiece to mask racism again. The usual white vegan lefty suspects in Brisbane aided this by taking the conflicts over illegal dugong hunting up North into a crusade against “racist” Aboriginal elders and the “racist” laws that protect traditional ownership of marine territories and hunting rights.

Quality company you’re keeping there white vegans. A quick google would inform you that no, elders don’t and never have condoned hunting in ways that damage the survival of the species. But blame some elderly ATSI men up north for the actions of a few underemployed ATSI poachers, Oz white profiteers and Asian tourist seafood diners they target for all of global species extinction. You smug bigots.

I may be a bit defensive and rambling atm. ANYWAY, on to….

Homophobia - So some people are congratulating themselves that the homophobic ads run by the Katter Party resulted in them getting only 2 seats instead of 6-8 as expected. But it wasn’t those ads that cost them. They just lost seats in the overall ‘don’t use preferences, Vote 1 LNP only’ backlash that hit everyone.

In reality a mismanaged, right wing, intensely white nationalist, “wave the Eureka Stockade flag, hate gays and migrants”  party has gotten close to the same votes as the major left/democratic party. This is akin to, in the USA , some newcomer militia fashion wearing, conspiracy theorist homophobe getting nearly as many votes as Obama AND Bush being re-elected. Being an actively campaigning Green gay I was really feeling it when the factional scapegoat-seeking got ugly.

BUT I’m so proud and warmfuzzyhugyouall at how quickly we rallied. Everyone in any faction that wasn’t UglyWhiteLNP blowback, was saying that the queers were the only people giving bigbeyondpartisan support to campaigners and community group people against the massacre today.

Next 3 years, anyone blames gays or Aboriginal people for the state of Queensland - I’m gonna come at you so hard you’ll cry.

green-home:

Wood-Shed Love: Alex Holland sent in a picture of his man shed at 750ft above sea level in the Cambrian mountains. The roof is a 16ft long clinker built boat made between 1900 - 1910. The walls are recycled wood and wattle and daub. The windows are from a 1940’s caravan. v: wood-yeah

baba yaga’s place (by Tina Bell Vance)

folkyou-:via 3.bp.blogspot.com

When Hobbits take interior design cues from the Death Star.

grrlandog:

Kathrin Ollroge:Small Home Stories

Throughout our lives we are influenced by the environments in which we grow uo and live. The rooms we inhabit in order to develop and flourish can be seen as future stage sets.

In “Small Home Stories”, dolls houses are the stage sets reminiscent of domestics interiors. Scenes like a kitchen with a cup of coffee left on the table present a world bordering between fiction and reality. Singe objects - chairs, tables, cupboards…from different time periods were collected and re-arranged - as metaphor for our collective memory of private surroundings, invinting the viewer to create their own stories.

deafmuslimpunk:

SQUATTERS’ RIGHTS: An Indian policeman and an activist from the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti clashed during a demonstration in Gauhati, India, Wednesday. The protesters were demanding an end to the evictions of squatters from bamboo huts built into the hills around the city. (AFP/Getty Images)

Harry Barber’s Miniature Castles (1920s-66) (by origamidon

Throughout South Hero, Vermont USA • For over thirty years, gardener Harry Barber found a unique way to blend his native country of Switzerland with his new home in Vermont. He created miniature buildings from local Vermont field stone. Five castles, three houses, and several garden structures remain in the Islands. They vary in complexity. Some castles feature glazed windows, interior fireplaces, or dungeons. Others are wired for electricity and have the capability of running water in the moat. … All his creations are privately owned, and public access is not permitted; however four out of the five castles can be seen from the road. – From a brochure issued by the Lake Champlain Bikeways.

Antonia Lopez, a portrait from the Colonias series by

Colonias, impoverished communities along the United States’ southern border -date back to the 1950s when ruthless property developers created unincorporated subdivisions on agriculturally useless land that usually lay in floodplains. They failed to put in any infrastructure and then sold the plots to people seeking affordable housing at hugely inflated rates of interest. “Miss one payment,” says Lionel Lopez who runs the South Texas Colonia Initiative, an advocacy group for residents, “and you have to start all over again.” Colonias didn’t really hit the headlines until 20 years ago. It was incredible then that people in the United States were living without running water, electricity or sanitation. It’s even more incredible that it’s still happening in 2011.

via Destitution North of the Border - - National - The Atlantic

Not sure if this qualifies as squalor pron, given that it shouldn’t really be surprising or news to anyone that significant inequality exists in USA living conditions along lines of race, disability, class, citizenship status, regional location etc. [as with other wealthy nations]. 

Then again, a lot of people still watch Fox news, so I guess the article’s well intended as politically informative photojournalism.

prettybirds:

Male Baya Weaver

Former luxury hotel home to thousands of squatters - CNN

It’s the hotel where many guests have lived all their lives and some may never check out.

Once one of the most luxurious hotels in southern Africa, the Grande Hotel, in Beira, Mozambique, was abandoned by its original owners five decades ago.

It’s now home to between 2,000 and 3,000 people who live in squalid conditions, without running water or electricity. Yet for these people the crumbling building is a self-contained community where they sleep, eat and work.

The once-luxurious lodging is the subject of a movie by Belgian filmmaker Lotte Stoops, which has just had its world premiere at the Rotterdam Film Festival.

If ‘we’ have poverty porn, are the surge in articles about squatting and revitalizing abandonded cities some kind of regional rent market porn?

Reblog, because I feel squatting generally gets a glib or harsh representation, compared to the reality of capital flight, infrastructure investment neglect and how much initiative it takes for residents to adapt their habitats in those global mid-tier cities which are [or once were] urban and wealthy enough to attract that kind of structural development - but not enough to retain the wealthy renters.

Homelessness is way more common even in the wealthiest of urban centers than is acknowledged, so I dunno what’s so ‘wow, novelty’ about residents rehabitating a usable but market abandonded structure.

awesomespaces:

Perform my standard public holiday housecleaning routine, of reviewing and attempting to drastically cut back/rearrange my followings on tumblr, RSS reader, dreamwidth, wordpress, failbook, Ning etc. etc. …as part of my resolution to be more mindful of how I use online time this year [and every year].

If we mutually follow, and you have a literature or fandom account on dreamwidth instead of tumblr [my prefered cultural appreciation time black hole] please don’t ask, but do tell me. Thanks!

queerfatfemme:

[fierce foodie: Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha] 

brownroundboi:

We have the power to heal ourselves by going back home and making new ones.—-Leah.

name/preferred name: Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

preferred gender pronoun(s): she/her
 

age: 35

however you identify (race/class/gender/sexual orientation /size/ religion/ nation oforigin/ability/craft): queer cis femme curvy working/lowermiddle class Sri Lankan mixie crip writer mama-to-be survivor teacher Aries/ Taurus cusp poet performer.

 
describe yourself in five words: Speedy, loving,stubborn traveller/homebody storyteller/dreamer.

 
any foods you have a crush on right now? the gingermocha I’m sipping right at this second, made with homemade ginger syrup. HOLY SHIT. my morning breakfast of cooked brown and wild rice toppedwith pomegranate seeds and/or apple/pear, withyogurt, cinnamon/cardamon and maple syrup on top. I make a big batch of the rice on Sunday, and witha big cup of coffee, it’s the perfect no-brain complexcarbs and protein and probiotics before my morning jog/walk between the ocean and 80 West.

 [Amir & leah]
my homeslice Amir Rabiyah’s pumpkin curry,but really anything Amir makes- I am still reeling fromhis oranges and fresh figs in orange blossom water,honey and mint salad of last spring.
 

continue LEAH’s fierce foodie contribution here.
recipes for the people (RFP).

Leah = love, love, love!