Manly Cemetery Doubles Up as a Dog Loo

There are few cultures in the world where a public space such as a cemetery doubles up as a dog loo.

There appears to be no land-use conflict between the "sleeping place" of dead people and pet owners liberating their canines off leash into the Manly Cemetery Heritage.

Mourners probably do not want to linger amongst the tree-less and unkept burial grounds full of dog poop.

Maybe it is a new cultural convention of pet society where dog deities as protectors of the deceased fertilise the public green space with their feces and urine. Once locals have emptied their pets they get chauffeured back into the manicured back gardens with the help of a lot of fossil fuel.

On the connection of the living and the dead

Egyptian dog-headed god Anubis attending the deceased.

Sculpture disappearing, Wildlife snatched...

If it is in a public space it is lifted - wildlife or sculptures (pdf) . The 'Crawl' swimmer donated by Loui Fraser at the Manly Surf Pavillion at South Steyne is now head-less.

Buy Nothing Day - Give the Earth a Break

Buy Nothing Day
is a halt from converting the earth into a junkspace, whilst eyeing for spare planets to exploit. Unravelling our own biosphere on Earth and replacing it with artifacts sprawling over the globe: human biomes. The anthropocene, a geological age of our own making might engineer us out of a place hospitable to life - as we know it. The ecological destruction and the mass consumption of Homo consumes is threatening the survival of all humans and life. Meanwhile other species are being pushed off the planet, as 'we' already consume beyond the capacity of this planet. The externalities are generously socialised for all to come.

Homo consumens' habitat
The corner store is eaten by shopping streets, they are in turn swallowed by 'towns', shopping towns are gobbled up by malls. The storage space in Mc Mansions' Bland-burbia is never enough. The combustion vehicles bloat in size to transport the cargo. Mega-cities burst at the seams. "The world in which we were trapped is in fact a shopping mall..." The privatised artificial buyo-sphere controls 'appropriate behaviour' via CCTV, 'advertising' (unsolicited messaging), security personnel and urban 'design'. Space for citizens and human beings shrinks rapidly. Niches get occupied by commercialised 'recreational activities'. "In the end, there will be little else for us to do but shop".

"If space-junk is the human debris that litters the universe, junk-space is the residue (hu) mankind leaves on the planet’ The virus ascribed to junkspace is in fact the virus of shopping itself; which, like Disneyfication, gradually spreads like a toxic moss across the known universe. "

'Shop till you drop' - Having or living?
Having outsourced self-management and creativity to infotainment and traditional culture, it's an easy ride. Just follow the 'must have', 'must do', 'must go', 'must eat' etc track like a zombie. Benchmark 'identity' via consumption patterns. Become an array of designer labels and body hacks. Jump start the casino machinery. The pathological addiction to shopping, is usually accompanied by other forms of addictive consumption.
Wasting one's life, 'killing time' leaves a void amongst all the stuff. "There is a certain sickness in this drive for ever-increasing consumption and the danger is that, by being filled with a need for consumption, the person does not really solve the problem of inner passivity, of inner vacuity, of anxiety, of being depressed -- because life in some way doesn't make sense."

Give the earth and yourself a rest – Buy Nothing!

Immerse yourself in Life!

Links
Fredric Jameson, Future City, New Left Review 21, May-June 2003
Rem Koolhaas, Junkspace, OMA
Erich Fromm , On Being Human- Homo Consumens, 1997
The photographic art of Chris Jordan depicts Grand Canyons of our rubbish on this planet.

Buy Nothing Day, UK
Video, Manufactured Landscapes
Video, Piggy consumes the earth
Affluenza and downshifting in Australia, Wikipedia
The Story of STUFF, Free Range Studios, a teaser:

Marine Conservation and The Use of Beaches

Marine Parks - the only way to go
The battle over 'No Take' and 'Grab it all Now' is grinding along Australia's coastline. Moreton Bay Marine Park , rich in biodiversity is having 16 % of the Bay declared free from fishing and boats have to "go slow" to not continue injuring the dugongs and turtles. It is " home to 750 species of fish, 120 species of coral, an abundance of dolphins, migratory whales and the world's largest population of dugong next to a capital city.""Each year some 200 turtles are found dead, sick or injured in Moreton Bay Marine Park and an average of 15 dugongs die from human impacts." The Australian Marine Conservation Society says that at least 30 % of the bay should be protected. "It exposes actually a whopping 84 per cent of the marine park to intense fishing pressure".
Manly Cove, Sydney Harbour and the Pacific hugging the Northers Beaches should also go 'slow' and have an effective 'no take' Marine Park to conserve some of the biodiversity for the future.

An observant person on Bribie Island wanted to report a loggerhead turtle stranding. He rang the Environmental Protection Agency's hotline just to be diverted to a call centre in Indonesia. The stranding was never followed up. Sounds soo familiar... abc 201008

A whale sanctuary has been created off Chile's coast, ensuring save passage for the cetaceans migration over 3,400 miles (5,500 km). Here, news of entanglement, starvation etc is almost daily. Noisy obstacles, such as human infrastructure off shore probably do not aid the journey of the giants.

Taking the beach away to attract beach holiday seekers
It is interesting to see how far 'developers' in the tourism industry go: They carted their biggest asset away, 500 truck loads of beach sand to build a a $1 billion resort with it. In the absence of the key feature, the project is now on hold. It will take 100 years for the forces of nature to replace the stolen sand. BBC

Choking on the air and pulverised stuff
"Australia's asthma mortality rates are one of the highest in the world according to a new report by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare." HealthInsit.au does not mention car pollution as a 'cause'. It all seems a matter of 'managing' it by medical professionals, not preventing it by involving urban planning. Elsewhere, they have found that tree-lined streets can make a difference.

Privatising public spaces
At dark, Manly's coach-led body-fitness customers are cluttering up the paths, dipping into the doggy lawn and punching into the night. All apparently unregulated. Most businesses have to pay the rent, events have to register and pay a fee, but feral businesses occupying public space with business activities seem to be exempt. "City of Yarra and several other municipalities are following the lead of five bayside councils, which recently moved to clamp down on boot camps that operate on beaches and foreshore parks.But Yarra has gone a step further and proposed a ban on commercial exercise groups of more than six people from 18 public parks in Fitzroy, Clifton Hill and Richmond. Fitness classes will also be prohibited from exercising within 10 metres of playgrounds or 15 metres of picnic sheds and park benches." It might be... "reasonable to pay a fee to conduct a business in a local park", but is it desirable to privatise public spaces?

Ivanhoe Park/ Manly Oval as source of noise pollution

The privatisation and intensification of public spaces is racing ahead in most urban places. Industrial commercialisation seeks out urban places (with infrastructure) where people aggregate. It relieves them of their money and is a 'block-buster' for the adjoining residential community.

Popcorn -Yoo Hoo!
Manly already has lost a lot of public space to sectional interests. At this stage Manly Council “has given its provisional support” to allow late night open-air movies in Manly Oval/ Ivanhoe Park. This small 'green space' already hosts a variety of sport, childcare and alcohol-related activities.
The impact of such a 'movie', blasting advertisements and films over the block would constitute noise trespass for the adjacent residents. Parking and traffic congestion, light spill/glare, littering, garbage, smashed glass and increased vandalism are sure to follow. The pumping noises of the large inflatable screen would further add to the outdoor noise pollution.

24/7 open air entertainment
The issue of noise is a serious health concern for people who live in this area. The strategies are not to prevent noise, but to manage, “regulate” it to acceptable noise intrusions in homes. Initial 'recommendations' , 'restrictions' and practices will find their way to a 24/7 open air entertainment in the end.

Noise kills
Noise complaints already have risen dramatically in the last few years. People do need a place to recuperate and sleep. The suburbs are already very loud and noise simply kills. If you don't like it, you might resort to complain. You can ring till your fingers are numb, if there is a response, then be ready for a bungle of noise experts and the muddle of the decibel haggle and a lot of silent buck-passing. There is no shortage of laws, regulations etc.

Vibrant Manly – Luv it or...
With the degradation of an 'residential area' the most sensible thing is probably to pass on the rest-less 'home' to the “vibrant community” that never sleeps, needs commercial entertainment 24 hrs and only lives off alcohol (and other stimulants). Then Manly is THEIR place!.

What's a park good for anyway?
And there is the poor park, already so built over and ruined by foreign water-loving pansies. It was once renowned for its beautiful native flora. More and more birds and possums get flattend on busy Raglan St. Many people might have moved there, because of the 'quite green space'.The authorities will probably do a professional flora and fauna impact study before further developing the 'park'.

Links:
EPA, Noise Management, NSW
EPA, Noise Guide for Local Governmnt
WHO, Noise & Health, EU
Noise and Health Journal
Noise concerns expressed at North Sydney ,0507(pdf)
'Acoustic Management Strategy' example for “Open Air Entertainment” 0807 (pdf)

Investing in public art and young people in Manly

The trend in Manly's CBD 'to paint buildings in an asphalt colour to merge in with the car parks and roads' was mentioned before. Some local councils invest between $50,000 to $126,000 a year in “removing graffiti from public infrastructure.” In the sprawl-and-mall age, young people seek spaces away from bland sub-urbs.The apparent public space under constant surveillance becomes contested by youth wanting to make a mark. Many hundreds of years ago, it was a common practice here. Now, so it seems only the one that pays can speak and leave their mark in the minds of many. They call it advertisement. This is today's mechanism for inclusion and exclusion of public voice.
Yes, often the graffiti lacks social capital, but one could decide to invest the $126,000 in the education and training of the young 'vandals' and turn out muralists, artists and end up with a unique city. In times the young artists might even bless their place with a contemporary urban interface design.
On Banksy
Mexican Muralist
Northern Irish murals
Convert a digital photo to a multiple layered stencil
Image: 1. Manly CBD, 2. mural in Europe