Dave Grohl Saved My Life.

Rarely, if ever, have I considered people of celebrity to have anything useful to say. Other than promoting their product - their film, T.V. show or their album - I usually find anything they utter beyond that is just hot air, filler, bullshit. Unless of course they've put in an appearance on the now defunct British T.V. institution 'Parkinson' then I kinda think 'Well, yeah...if they're intelligent enough to submit to an hour being quizzed by, arguably, the finest interviewer in the world then I'll take notice. 


Otherwise their only requirement as an entertainer is to entertain me, not give me a running commentary on the geopolitical ramifications of climate change, or the morality of government commitments to foreign aid or whether I should eat meat or not. Go make an album, let the appropriate people handle those other issues.

There are few people who I admire in this world because I'm not really into the kind of vacuous hero worship of celebrity, movie stars, performers or sports people. I think it stems from a couple of instances where I was disappointed as a kid. Like, I met some character from a kid's show from the 1980's - I think it was the kangaroo from Shirl's Neighbourhood' - who, none of you outside of Australia will have any idea of what I'm talking about. But anyway, he turned out to be a complete arse and I do remember being brought to tears - I was 6 years old remember.


And most sports people then, as they are now, are just plain dumb - unable to converse much beyond delivering stupid cliche's during interviews - and that's when they're not busy putting their foot in it.


But I do and have made particular exceptions.

Early in 2005 I was going through a pretty awful time. My marriage had fallen apart after seven years, of which most of the years - I thought - were happy. In the months leading up to the separation, I had been diagnosed with severe depression and I was being treated for it.  Up until that point, I had placed a supreme amount of importance on marriage and I valued it greatly - even though I will admit, that there were times where I totally sucked at it. There was a weight of expectation that I'd place upon myself to succeed and when it all fell apart - my castle, the structure that I had built to house all those expectations collapsed spectacularly. My life, in the first few days and weeks after my wife ended our marriage, spun out of control in a predictable fashion. 


The tranquil life that I had known for the past seven years was suddenly gone, I became withdrawn. I locked myself away from everybody. I indulged in far more red wine than I ever did before and then I discovered brandy so I hit that pretty hard too. I live in a different state to my family so I apart from the phone, there was no one I could talk to face to face which was really isolating. I was essentially alone in the beginning. 


During the very worst of it all I seriously considered suicide numerous times - even got to the point of actually preparing to go through with it. I had a plan - a way out and I had come to a strange kind of peace with it. When your entire world crumbles around you and you feel as though you're left with nothing at all, not being here anymore becomes an attractive option.

So there I was, sitting in the lounge room of the home I was about to lose, half wiped out after a dozen or so brandy and drys, a bottle of pills on the table before me and then Andrew Denton comes on. 


Andrew Denton is Australia's equivalent to Michael Parkinson. For an hour or so on a Monday night Andrew Denton would conduct one on one interviews with anybody of note in a style that really does pull back the layers of the onion and delves into the person before him in a really satisfying way. Denton's list of interviewees over the years have included the likes of Bill Clinton, Helen Mirren, Sir David Attenborough, Jerry Seinfeld and Rudy Giuliani.

He has also interviewed Dave Grohl.

I've always liked The Foo Fighters though my love from them...(their music I mean)... really solidified around the album 'There Is Nothing Left To Lose'. Personally, I don't think the Foo Fighters have ever released a bad album. And I think that they have only improved with age. Aside from being one of the most disciplined outfits going around, the band also has a sense of humor about them; they've never taken themselves too seriously in the way alot of bands do. It comes through in the many interviews they have done - including their most recent documentary "Back & Forth" - as well as a handful of their music videos, which are basically huge piss takes on the notion of rock stardom. It's totally refreshing.

So yeah, there I was, sitting on the couch in my three day old boxer shot, clutching a bottle of brandy, my mind as black as the night outside and I was kinda half listening to the interview. And the the interview turned a sudden and unexpected corner. Andrew and Dave started talking about Kurt Cobain, the circumstances surrounding his suicide and the impact that it had on Dave Grohl. Through the fog of my grief there was a sudden clarity as my mind switched to the conversation on screen. I knew that Dave had avoided talking a lot about Cobain's suicide in the past, so it was significant that he would begin opening up about it here. 

Dave Grohl at one point said to Andrew Denton "OK, life is so delicate, so short that you really have to take advantage of every day...I am lucky enough to wake up this morning, even if it's the worst day of my life, I still get to be..."

For some reason - those words cut through to my very core. They weren't especially ground breaking words, I mean you hear stuff like that all the time. But, I guess, at that moment it was what I needed to hear.

Grohl went further, "It has a lot to do with why I started this band, because I wasn't done yet. I might die tomorrow, but as long as I spend every day like it's a gift, then I will be fine". I was struck by the quiet intelligence behind those words and the sincerity of the emotion that betrayed Dave's eyes at that moment. For me, he had moved beyond being a fun kinda guy, a cool muso with a sense of humor and had become one of those rare people who a in touch with their own psyche, are aware of their own human condition and have tried to understand it. It is a quality that is common to many creative people and one that resonated with me. For years, I had struggled with trying to become a writer and during those months in 2005 I had all but abandoned it.

There is a moment, a point in the cycle of a negative seismic event like the one I went through where you can either go one way or you can go another. Upon hearing those words from Dave, I decided to choose a path that would be long and hard, filled with set backs and pauses. But, somehow, I knew I had to try and rediscover the best of myself because I sensed, even then that it would ultimately be rewarding.


I began to clean myself up, gradually and I abandoned any notions of leaving this mortal coil. My creative love took a little while to recapture but I did begin to contemplate it again, some I hadn't done for several years.

Depression, deep depression is an affliction that can take years to come out of. I don't know why that is. I'm not sure anybody does. Even now, some six years after I was first diagnosed I still suffer from bouts of deep depression. I don't know where it comes from, it is overwhelming and can often take weeks to come out of. 


But there are certain words that stick in my mind that help me to overcome the dark times that threaten my well being. Dave Grohl's chat with Andrew Denton back in May 2005 was a critical moment in the journey that enabled me to go forward. 


And though I will probably never get the opportunity, I want to say here and now that in a small way Dave Grohl saved my life. And for that I guess I’ll always be thankful...


DFA.

The Ethical Geek.

I make no secret of the fact that I love technology - specifically, consumer technology. I am writing this now on my Samsung Galaxy Tablet which has almost become my primary device for interacting on the interweb and conducting my online life. When I'm not using the Tablet, I am sitting down with my Dell XPS M1530 laptop which is at the core of my career as an author in both the print and digital media. I make calls on my Samsung Omnia i8000 smart phone and listen to my favorite show Keith & The Girl using it in tandem with my Nokia BH-501 bluetooth headset. Just the other day, I bought the new Lego Star Wars 3 game for my Sony Playstation Portable console and my son and I have been having a huge amount of fun romping around in the Star Wars Lego universe. I could go on but, for the sake of your sanity, I'll surmise that you get the idea.


I love geeking out on the latest releases in the world of smart phone technology because I don't yet believe that I've seen a device that ticks every single box in terms of THEE feature set that I would love to see (although the Tablet comes really, really close). I love to play around with these new toys when I can afford to buy them or my cell phone provider encourages me to recontract with them - in which case I can usually score a new device for free (as part of said contract). I marvel at the advancements developers have made in their quest for faster, lighter, more powerful and more interactive. But I have given no thought to hands that have wrought these devices into being. The fingers that soldered the wires to the circuit boards or turned the tiny screws or packaged them into the boxes that take them from the factory to the retail outlets that whip their customers into a frenzy with the next anticipated release.


I subscribe to a magazine called New Internationalist which hits my letter box once a month. I always enjoy getting my copy. The New Internationalist takes a deeper look into the geopolitical climate globally and examines human rights issues, poverty, ethical industries, non ethical industries and global justice. And when it arrives each month, I love nothing more than to sit down with my copy in the afternoon and get right into reading it with a cup of coffee. Today was one such day.


And in my haven of deeper thought and focus upon the global issues that define my generation, I came across an article that stopped me in my tracks.


The article was about a corporation in China called Foxconn which is, apparently the largest manufacturer of consumer electronics in the world. Foxconn produces the iPhone, the iPad - both 1 and 2 - and its components can be found in computers and hardware and technology the world over. In fact, by the middle of 2011, Foxconn will have captured 50% of the global market in consumer electronics. I've no doubt that much of the compnentry inside my Samsung Tablet that I'm writing this on now came from Foxconn.

The article in the New Internationalist examined the working conditions inside Foxconn's Shenzhen factory, which is described as a city within a city, occupying some three square kilometers of Chinese real estate. Somewhere in the region of 1 million workers are employed by the corporation. They live and work in the factory and, according to the article, are ruled over by the corporation bosses like a super government that exerts absolute control over their lives.


Disturbingly, there has been a spate of suicides at the factory - 18 officially reported deaths in 2010 alone. Workers as young as 17 and no older than 25 have taken their own lives as a result of the draconian conditions they endure inside the factory.

Their every moment is monitored, tracked and watched over by a security service that would rival the Secret Service. They have strict production quotas to meet and the failure to meet those targets results in harsh disciplinary action which is often humiliating. They are forced to adhere to a strict regime of assembling before the bosses each day and declaring that they are good -  "Very Good, Very Very Good" when asked by their bosses to state how they feel. Their work schedules are relentless, their pay pitiful and their lives monotonous, without hope or direction. In an interview with the magazine, workers - who spoke on the condition of anonymity - reported feelings of helplesness, of despondency and of feeling as though they have no future. These are workers with college educations, graduates who have studied to better themselves to seek a better life. They are not surprised that these feelings have lead some of their colleagues to resort to drastic and often tragic measures...


...All so that we in our comfortable western lives can line up in front of a local Apple store at 2 in the morning on release day for the latest iProduct...

Our insatiable appetite for 'the product' has contributed to this disturbing and tragic phenomenon and, having admitted to being a total tech geek, I myself feel part way responsible for it. As a writer who has, belatedly, embraced the idea of digital literature as a means of income and a portal for my published work, I am rendered uncomfortable by accounts like Foxconn's and it's workers. But I'm not about to lay down my Galaxy, Omnia 2, Sony PSP or Nokia headset in solidarity with these workers either, because I believe that would be counter productive.

The thing is, I appreciate the quality of the product that I hold in my hand and NI's article leads me to think about the hands that constructed this device. Despite China's rapid emergence as 'the' super power of the 21st century, there remains vast poverty and inequality among it's people. Jobs - occupations - are hungrily sought out by its citizens because the alternative to working would be desperate poverty, which is as bad as the situation that has been described in Foxconn's factory.


The solution is therefore simple. Our insatiable desire for cheaper and cheaper consumer electronics in the longer term is not sustainable, if we are to have any regard for the plight of workers at corporations like Foxconn. In fact, I think there is a moral and ethical imperative on our part to demand that we accept higher prices for these devices and ensure that the beneficiaries of our willingness to pay more are those very factory workers. Corporations like Foxconn should not be allowed to continue operating unchecked. It should be held acconutable for the deaths that have occurred inside its factory. 18 suicides in 1 year cannot ve dismissed out of hand. It chilled me, reading this article today and I had visions of scenes from George Lucas' 1970 film "THX-1138" where an entire society was depicted in very much the same Orwellian way that the NI article reported the conditions inside Foxconn.


And that was a work of fiction.

There are some encouraging signs of a fledging movement that is agitating for workers rights inside corporations like Foxconn but they are going up against not only a corporate behemoth but a Government whose track record on human rights is arguably, appalling. My conscience  will very much form a part of my focus on promoting my written works in digital media. I believe the two can co-exist. 


I encourage you to think deeper too, about the hands that constructed whatever device you are reading this article on right now. Would you be prepared to pay more? Would you be prepared to help defend the human rights of those hands?


I am...

DFA.