Our dear, battling planet is getting so few mentions in this election campaign that here at Gang-gang we, in frustration, feel an urgent need to do our own piping up
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And so since Greenpeace has just gone to the terrific trouble for our planet's sake of lugging a grand piano to Arctic Norway and of lugging a great musician there to play it, the least this column can do is report Greenpeace's feat.
Readers, spectacular as this still picture is, wait till you Google Ludovico Einaudi – Elegy for the Arctic and see the video (greenpeace.smugmug.com/Performance-with-pianist/n-PgFnnh/) from which it is taken! As Italian composer-virtuoso Ludovico Einaudi plays (surely with cold-numbed fingers), ice tumbles down from the glacier into the waters on which he and the Steinway are floating aboard their artificial iceberg.
Greenpeace explains that Einaudi has added his voice "to those millions of people from across the world demanding protection for the Arctic".
"He has done it by performing a new composition, Elegy for the Arctic, on a floating platform against the backdrop of the Nordenskiöld glacier at Svalbard, Norway. He travelled on board Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise on the eve of a significant event for the future of the Arctic: the meeting of the OSPAR Commission, which could secure the first protected area in Arctic international waters.
"Einaudi's new piece was inspired by the beauty of the Arctic and the threats it is facing ... Greenpeace had to build a 2.6 x 10-metre artificial iceberg, made from more than 300 triangles of wood stuck together. A grand piano was then placed on top of the platform. The instrument had travelled from a factory in Germany to the Arctic in the hold of the Arctic Sunrise.
Afterwards, speaking from the Arctic Sunrise, Ludovico Einaudi said, "Being here ... I could see the purity and fragility of this area with my own eyes as I interpreted a song I wrote to be played here, on the best stage in the world. It is important that we understand the importance of the Arctic, and protect it."
This is the second time this year this column has popped in to Svalbard.
Our first visit was as part of our series (using lots of well-travelled readers' testimonies) exploring how the world's airports do a better job than Canberra Airport does of welcoming visitors. Our airport, bewilderingly, controversially, welcomes people with huge advertisements for war-fighting weapons, for sinister submarines, death-dealing fighter jets. Svalbard's airport greets people appropriately with a polar bear, the iconic symbol of the place.
Were we to do a similar thing in Canberra, giving arrivals a taste of the unique fauna of the unique place they have just arrived at, we might dispense with the arms advertisements and instead have a giant stylised sculpture of a pair of Gang-gang cockatoos, this territory's faunal emblem.
Yes it is cold in Arctic Norway. But it is colder still in the hearts of the Coalition and Labor politicians (lots of them daring to call themselves Christians, and so earning Cathy Wilcox's cartoon rebuke) who devise and endorse chilly policies towards asylum seekers. Those policies are a great source of shame for warm-hearted (often sincerely Christian) Australians.
But there are ways in which good Australians can display our society's warmer, fair-go supporting side. Noting that this is National Refugee Week, a coalition of Canberra-based charities is inviting the Canberra community to act with generosity to assist a group of local asylum seekers.
An Anglicare spokesperson for the coalition explains that "There are approximately 150 people seeking asylum and currently living in the ACT. They are awaiting an invitation to apply for a temporary protection visa ... If the application is found not to meet the requirements, it will be refused.
"When an application is refused asylum seekers are no longer eligible to receive government-funded support services. So there is a loss of work rights, removal of access to any Centrelink benefits and loss of access to support through the Status Resolution Support Services program. As such, the community sector refers to these clients as 'asylum seekers without income'.
"Local community groups Red Cross, Marist Youth Care, Companion House, Canberra Men's Centre, Anglicare, Catholic Care, Kippax Uniting Care, St John's Care and the St Vincent de Paul Society Canberra-Goulburn have come together to help support asylum seekers without income with material aid, legal advice, counselling and medical assistance."
Paul Trezise, CEO of the St Vincent de Paul Society Canberra-Goulburn, testifies that "We are extremely concerned that these vulnerable men, women and children will fall through the cracks. So our organisations have come together to be ready to provide them with the basics like food, clothing and shelter".
Jeremy Halcrow, CEO of Anglicare, advises that "Often people who are seeking asylum are most at risk of poverty, exploitation or disadvantage, which is why it's crucial to offer services to help them transition to a place where they can lead thriving lives as supported and engaged members of the community".
And so this coalition is asking Canberrans to "dig deep" and help in the provision of non-perishable food items, clothing and household items to help support these people.
The warm-hearted coalition has sent us a long, long list of Canberra and region drop-off places, a list far too long for this small, cramped column to reproduce. But a good start can be made by going online, for directions, to Anglicare at anglicare.com.au/
