What a time to be in the US. The panic on Wall Street is trickling rather than flooding down to “Main Street”, as the Presidential candidates said so frequently in last night’s first debate. (The Australian tabloid term “Struggle Street” would be considered way too negative to American ears.) The shops still seem full of people flashing credit cards, and the restaurants busy. (Perhaps they are tourists, buying with Euros. I have noticed that every time I so much as look at a piece of merchandise I’m offered a discount.) Although I did get a chill walking past Merrill Lynch HQ in midtown on Friday – following a meeting at Rockefeller Brothers Fund - to realise the only sign of life therein was a solitary security guard pacing the polished marble floor.

When you consider the possibility of Sarah Palin having the nuclear codes come January, the long global financial winter ahead of us, and let’s not forget the war, there is something of the perfect storm about the US right now. A strong theme of anger and embarrassment is running through my conversations with friends. One explained how she felt about her country’s situation like this:

It’s like if you had someone coming to stay at your house, and you had a totally dysfunctional family, and you just had to keep apologising for them all the time, because their behaviour is so embarrassing.

It’s only been six months since last I was in my old neighborhood of Prospect Heights in Brooklyn, but since moving back into my glorified storage unit, ahem, small bedroom in a friend’s apartment, I’ve been quite astonished at the multiple signs of change, to wit:

The refurbishment of the Brooklyn Public Library’s entrance is now complete. Tables and chairs dot the impressive stepped sandstone walkway, which is triangulated due to its commanding position at Grand Army Plaza and opposite Prospect Park. Water fountains bubble, a DJ plays on Saturdays for shoppers at the farmers market *** Grand Army Plaza itself is more pedestrian-friendly due to some strategic new crossings, so I’m not terrified of being run over any more *** An empty taxi is still an uncommon sight, but not as rare as it was last year – I managed to flag one down to get to Billyburg last week, just one block from my apartment (this never happened in the year I lived here) *** A film crew had blocked off the street one block further down, on a quintessential brownstone-lined avenue *** An ice-cream shop opened, with the secret weapon of a children’s play centre in the room out back – thus ensuring a constant supply of children, parents, and therefore ice-cream eaters ***The infamous smelly corner shop, known to several locals as “the cat-piss bodega”, is about to reopen after a complete refurbishment.

All of this constitutes change, yes, but does it constitute development? That’s for others for judge, and I suspect there are very different views, depending on how long you’ve lived in Prospect Heights.

While it’s always pretty terrific to touch down at JFK, the long-haul flight comes at a reasonable cost to one’s equilibrium. The anxiety-inducing minutes at the immigration desk straight off the plane at Los Angeles International Airport, the mind-numbing contemplation of other people’s luggage at the baggage carousel, the indigestion caused by eating too many in-flight meals out of sheer boredom and the self-recrimination that automatically ensues, and the inevitable jetlag.

After a 12-hour sleep my first night, I awoke refreshed and chipper, and met some friends for dinner later that evening. Unfortunately I only got about two hours’ sleep last night, which caused me almost to tip forward into my brunch this morning. I hurried back home and dozed on and off all through the afternoon, while the late summer sun beamed through a cloudless sky and everyone else played outdoors.

Almost 100 people braved a suddenly chilly Sydney evening last night to celebrate Indigenous Literacy Day at the State Library of NSW, where Sydney PEN and the Indigenous Literacy Project had joined forces to host a panel discussion inspired by selected performances from the Macquarie PEN Anthology of Aboriginal Literature, which was published earlier this year. 

But this was no ordinary Q&A session. For one thing, the panel featured award-winning writer Tara June Winch, playwright and national treasure Wesley Enoch, and the passionate and articulate Dr Chris Mead, whose arguments in his recent monograph on the state of Australia’s writing for the stage complemented the pride in Indigenous storytelling evinced by the first two conversants.

The discussion was moderated by the excellent Julianne Schultz, editor of Griffith Review. While I had suggested the inclusion of pieces from the anthology in the event, it was her idea to shape the discussion from the ideas of the performed pieces – beginning with the first known piece of Aboriginal writing, a letter by Bennelong to Mr Philips, through Kevin Gilbert’s poem “Redfern”, and ending with a poem by Samuel Wagan Watson, “Cheap White-goods at the Dreamtime Sale”. Two NIDA actors expertly performed the pieces, which riveted the audience and brought to life the visceral quality of so much Indigenous writing.

The event raised money, collected by the Fred Hollows Foundation, for distribution of literacy resources in approximately 30 remote Aboriginal communities.

I’m delighted to advise that I’m now working with Enrich Australia, a company that provides philanthropic consulting, research and training services to a variety of clients in the financial services sector and also to some not-for-profit organisations. Enrich Australia is fully accredited with the Financial Planning Association of Australia, so by undertaking relevant practical training courses, financial advisers accrue points towards their professional development.

I’m very pleased to be aligned with Enrich Australia as I have a great deal of respect for the work Tim Hardy and Mandy Lamkin have done in establishing and building this important business. The latest Enrich newsletter includes the news of my joining their team as well as an update on other activities of the company.