Archive for the 'Current Affairs' Category
Hey America: Don’t vote!
Elizabeth October 3rd, 2008
Palin’s Facebook page
Red Cross plea for blood donors
Elizabeth September 30th, 2008
I mentioned last week that blood supplies for the Australian Red Cross are critically low. Today I spotted this article in The Age which confirms that the problem is getting serious.
If you are eligible to give blood, now is the perfect time to do so. Take a friend, spend 10 minutes in a relaxing chair and enjoy the free food and drink afterwards!
Red Cross plea for blood donors
The Australian Red Cross Blood Service is urgently calling for new blood donors to come forward after supplies dropped off over winter.
Demand for blood across the country is placing extreme pressure on already low blood stocks, particularly group O negative, the service warned today.
“This demand means that hospitals urgently need more blood to continue life saving treatment for a wide range of conditions,” a statement said.
“Blood stocks have not been able to recover from the effect of winter coughs and colds on regular donors to a level that would usually be provided to hospitals, despite the generous support from existing donors and some recent new donors.”
The services said one in 30 people donate blood in Australia, and yet one in three Australians will need blood at some point in their lives.
The Australian Red Cross Blood Service is also encouraging existing donors who may not have donated for sometime to come back and make another life-saving donation.
To make a donation appointment or to check your eligibility to donate, call 131495 or visit www.donateblood.com.au
China recycling used condoms as cheap hair bands
Elizabeth February 29th, 2008
Used condoms in southern China are being recycled into hair bands and they are selling well in local markets and beauty salons.
But they could spread sexually-transmittable diseases the condoms were originally meant to prevent, state media reported today.
Rubber hair bands have been found in local markets and beauty salons in Dongguan and Guangzhou cities in southern Guangdong province, China Daily newspaper said.
“These cheap and colourful rubber bands and hair ties sell well … threatening the health of local people,” it said.
Despite being recycled, the hair bands could still contain bacteria and viruses, it said.
“People could be infected with AIDS, warts or other diseases if they hold the rubber bands or strings in their mouths while waving their hair into plaits or buns,” the paper quoted a local dermatologist as saying.
A bag of ten of the recycled bands sells much cheaper than others on the market, accounting for their popularity, the paper said.
China’s manufacturing industry has been repeatedly tarnished this year by a string of scandals involving shoddy or dangerous goods made for both domestic and foreign markets.
From The Age, via Meg at Dipping Into the Blogpond
I’m speechless again, which makes for terrible blogging.
So it’s over to you guys: what would you do with the used condoms of 1,321,851,888 people? Let’s see if we can drag standards just a little lower!
Woman hangs from tree, gives birth
Elizabeth February 26th, 2008
A pregnant Papua New Guinea woman who hung from a tree after being accused of sorcery gave birth to her baby while struggling to free herself, local media reports.
Nolan Yekum and her husband Paul were dragged from their house and hung from a tree by fellow tribesmen who accused them of sorcery after the couple’s neighbour suddenly died.
Their ordeal occurred in Kilip village near Banz in Western Highlands Province, PNG’s newspaper The National reported today.
The woman and her newborn baby girl, her third child, were doing well in Mt Hagen Hospital after two weeks in hiding, the report said.
Her husband said men entered their house in the middle of the night with a rope and tied it to their necks, accusing them of sorcery over their neighbour’s death.
They were dragged outside and hung from a tree, he said.
“We managed to loosen the noose to get our feet on the ground … we were able to free ourselves.
“My wife, who was about seven months pregnant, delivered the baby while struggling to free herself.
“It was a painful experience for me and her,” Yekum said.
He said he pleaded with fellow villagers to wait for his neighbour’s post-mortem and he accused local police of failing to act.
The couple vehemently denied practising sorcery.
I don’t have the words.
I’m sorry.
Elizabeth February 13th, 2008
For 11 years Howard’s government refused to say sorry for past injustices towards our Indigenous people. Today’s address by our new Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is truly historic, and for the first time properly acknowledges the hardships that Aboriginal and Torres Trait Islanders have faced in the past, as well as the divide that still exists in the areas of health, life expectancy, education and opportunities.
This is probably the first time I have felt proud of our leadership in my adult history. I truly hope that this is the beginning of a new era for Australia, and that the healing process can now begin for those who have suffered the atrocities of our past governments.
Photo by Spud Murphy
Today we honour the Indigenous peoples of this land, the oldest continuing cultures in human history.
We reflect on their past mistreatment.
We reflect in particular on the mistreatment of those who were Stolen Generations – this blemished chapter in our nation’s history.
The time has now come for the nation to turn a new page in Australia’s history by righting the wrongs of the past and so moving forward with confidence to the future.
We apologise for the laws and policies of successive Parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians.
We apologise especially for the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, their communities and their country.
For the pain, suffering and hurt of these Stolen Generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry.
To the mothers and the fathers, the brothers and the sisters, for the breaking up of families and communities, we say sorry.
And for the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry.
We the Parliament of Australia respectfully request that this apology be received in the spirit in which it is offered as part of the healing of the nation.
For the future we take heart; resolving that this new page in the history of our great continent can now be written.
We today take this first step by acknowledging the past and laying claim to a future that embraces all Australians.
A future where this Parliament resolves that the injustices of the past must never, never happen again.
A future where we harness the determination of all Australians, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, to close the gap that lies between us in life expectancy, educational achievement and economic opportunity.
A future where we embrace the possibility of new solutions to enduring problems where old approaches have failed.
A future based on mutual respect, mutual resolve and mutual responsibility.
A future where all Australians, whatever their origins, are truly equal partners, with equal opportunities and with an equal stake in shaping the next chapter in the history of this great country, Australia.
I want to share a poem that I came across yesterday, written by Camilla Percy from Public Polity. Follow the link to read about the experiences that led her to write this poem.
I think it serves as a reminder to us all that we can’t simply blame past generations for the damage done to our Indigenous people. We are all complicit in perpetuating the divide that exists between us. We are all responsible for, and capable of, contributing to the healing process.
From the white man to all Indigenous Australians – Why do I do what I do?
I am complicit in the violence of misrepresentation.
I want to be comfortable: my privilege unchallenged.
I say you are equal, ignoring what is institutionalised.
I cover my privilege with “we’re all the same”.I continue to divide our histories
Because I want to forget the injustices of the past
I want the tragedies to be yours only.
It helps me to deny the injustices of today.I essentialise you, portray you as one people with one culture
not recognising your many nations.
This gives me the power to make you what I please
while denying you the power to represent yourself.
I don’t want to listen to a story that might shake my foundations.I call you traditional
and unknowingly denigrate your culture as past.
If it is fossilised, with only a few remaining who truly practise it, you are white when I want you to be and ‘we’re all the same’.This is why the men who represent all of us say you are not sovereign
that you are citizens of this nation.
They choose to ignore that we are only citizens by your pain.I have a notion of normal that is everything you are not.
I call you alien, an other, not part of the ‘us’
so I can push you to the edge of my consciousness as ‘too different’
and forget your disadvantage and my obligations to you.I make you invisible.
I leave you out as though the Mabo decision was never made.
It makes me uncomfortable to acknowledge your place as ‘first’,
To think that I might have to do things differently if I truly embraced equity.Why can’t I know you?
Because I don’t know myself.
My culture is invisible to me – it is normal, taken-for-granted, unquestioned.But now that I’m a fish out of water
I can examine that which sustained me.
I can breathe the air of enlightenment.
The Miniature Earth
Elizabeth January 31st, 2008
From Miniature Earth:
The text that originated this movie was published on May 29, 1990 with the title “State of the Village Report”, and it was written by Donella Meadows, who passed away in February 2000. Nowadays Sustainability Institute, through Donella’s Foundation, carries on her ideas and projects. The Miniature Earth project was first published in 2001, since then more than 2 million people have seen this website.
The statistics have been updated based on specialized publications, and mainly reports on the WOrld’s population provided by different resources, like UN publications, PRB.org and others. Bear in mind that these are only statistics, and consequently changes might occur after a few months or only after years.
Please see them only as a tendency, and not as accurate.
If we could turn the population of the earth into a small community of 100 people, keeping the same proportions we have today, it would be something like this…
61 Asians
12 Europeans
8 North Americans
5 South Americans and the Carribean
13 Africans
1 Oceania50 women
50 men47 lives in an urban area
9 are disabled33 are Christian
18 are Muslims
14 are Hindus
16 are non-religious
6 are Buddhists
13 practice other religions43 live without basic sanitation
18 live without an improved water source6 people own 59% of the entire wealth of the community
13 are hungry or malnourished
14 can’t read
only 7 are educated at secondary level
only 12 have a computer
only 3 have an internet connection1 adult aged 15-49 has HIV/AIDS
The village spend more than US$1.12 trillion on military expenditures and only US$100 billion on development aid
If you keep your food in a refrigerator, your clothes in a closet, if you have a bed to sleep in and a roof over your head, you are richer than 75% of the entire world population
If you have a bank account you’re one of the 30 wealthiest people in the world
18 struggle to live on US$1.00 per day or less
52 struggle to live on US$2.00 per day or lessAppreciate what you have
And do your best for a better world
RIP, Heath Ledger.
Elizabeth January 23rd, 2008
Heath Ledger is dead. It’s so unexpected, although so much has come to light over the past 12 hours about his recent personal struggles. It really goes to show how little we know about the private lives of celebrities, even in this age of blogging and instant “news”.
But whatever his state of mind, I find it hard to believe that there was anything deliberate or sinister about his death. He was sick with pneumonia when he died, had a history of sleeping difficulties, and was found with a bottle of sleeping pills on his nightstand. His death is all the more tragic because it appears to have been so accidental.
I’ve probably read a bit too much commentary on this news today, but it’s also been pretty hard to avoid. The whole situation is so sad, and I am truly sorry that we will never see his potential as an actor realised.
On a related note…
I’m normally pretty forgiving of Britney Spears and all her faults, but today I’m angry with her. A talented actor and father lost his life today because of one careless mistake, and as a result his little girl will never know him. Britney needs to get her shit together before her own two babies find themselves without a mother. I don’t care if it’s hard, or if rehabilitation takes time, this bullshit needs to end.
Amy Winehouse can screw up her life as much as she wants for all I care, as long as she doesn’t bring children into it. It’s time for Britney to realise that her life belongs to those little boys now. If she continues to make a joke of her messy life I will lose all respect for her. For good.
Maybe Britney’s state of mind is somewhat justified by the pressure placed on her by the media, but that doesn’t absolve her of responsibility to get it under control. She has the time and money to move out of LA and away from the cameras, to treat her addictions and to get professional help to manage her mental instability. All of this is achievable.
To do anything less is a slap in the face to people like little Matilda Ledger, and the other people that Heath has left behind.
Calls for Australia Day to be abolished
Elizabeth January 16th, 2008
In what could be considered his most controversial suggestion ever, Sam Kekovich — Australia’s lamb ambassador — will be calling for Australia Day to be abolished.
In his hugely anticipated 2008 address to the nation Sam will express his desire to have Australia Day scrapped…and replaced with Australia Week.
“It is my solemn duty to inform you that it’s time to abolish Australia Day. Our annual lamb fest hasn’t stopped unAustralianism racing through the land like horse flu through a Japanese jockey club,” Sam says.
“Australia Day has had its day. We need Australia Week — a seven day lamb-athon to properly celebrate our great nation.
“Instead of one public holiday, we need seven. Instead of one lamb barbie, we need 21 lamb meal opportunities – not including snacks.”
In a bold move, Sam plans to take his message straight to the top — to the Prime Minister — and has asked for the help of ordinary Australians to help the message get through.
“I’ll be petitioning our new PM to officially recognise Australia Week,” Sam says.
“Stack the fridge full of lamb, take the week off, and celebrate with me. Any boss that won’t let you is a bum. Just chuck a week of sickies instead — what could be more Australian than that?”
Sam’s call to can Australia’s national day is just the tip of the iceberg, with well known footballers, New Zealand’s Prime Minister and “weed worshippers” all copping a spray in his annual address.
Here’s what he’s had to say in the past:
Australia Day 2007
Australia Day 2006:
Christmas 2005
Australia Day 2005 (in which Sam angers several minority groups in under 2 minutes)
I can’t write too much about our plans here just yet, because I have a few surprises up my sleeve for Tim’s first Australia Day. All I’ll say is that it will be AWESOME, and that there will be no shortage of lamb chops!
Kerry O’Brien pranked
Elizabeth December 6th, 2007
This is the main reason I am sorry to have missed the tv coverage on Election Day this year. I wonder if that person still has a job?
I especially love the reference to Rudd’s ear wax video, below. And that Rudd has maintained his sense of humour about what is some seriously embarrassing footage.
But let’s face it, in less than a fortnight as Prime Minister he has committed to saying “sorry” to Aboriginal Australians for past atrocities, and promised to ratify the Kyoto Protocol.
If it’s ear wax that is fuelling him, then let the man eat!
Kevin07
Elizabeth November 28th, 2007
HOWARD’S gone, Maxine triumphed and McLeod’s Daughters has been axed. Life just doesn’t get sweeter than this. Unless of course, George Bush chokes on his own foot.
But how about Julia Gillard? Hands up who wants to be president of the Julia Gillard fan club? I can’t look at that woman without wanting to burst into tears and give her a hug. Everyone’s making a big deal about her being the first female deputy PM. I think it’s far more significant that she’s in such a powerful position despite the fact she has red hair, because everyone knows that people with red hair don’t have souls. On Saturday night I was hoping Julia would say: “This is a victory for redheads, ‘rangas and carrot tops everywhere.”
…
On Sunday morning I woke and felt like a woman in love. I felt buzzy and post-coital. Do you reckon Kev got lucky? It was a full moon that night. I bet there are going to be a swag of election babies born in August — all with the middle name Kevin. I’m beside myself that I’ll be living in an Australia with a prime minister called Kev. If only we had a deputy called Narelle.
…
Saturday night felt like 10 new year’s eves. I feel as if I’ve started dating another man after being in an abusive relationship for 11 years. But who is this other man? It’s as if we’ve had an intoxicating kiss in the kitchen but still haven’t made it to the bedroom. Who knows what he’s like between the sheets. Is he really conservative or is he into kinky stuff and toys? Will he be sweet and shower me with kisses or will he be unreachable and aloof but behind closed doors like it rough. Who cares? Ding-dong the witch is dead, the fat lady has sung and it was time after all. But time for what?
via The Age
It’s been a long time since I’ve blogged on politics, and there’s just too much backstory to give to my international readers to do it justice tonight. All I’ll say is that I was pleasantly surprised by Australia for giving us a new PM, and for choosing “the devil we don’t know”. It sent a clear message to Howard that we are not prepared to sacrifice human rights, social justice and our environment for a stable economy. The times are changing, and he’s not part of the plan.
The rest of the article above is well worth reading at the source. My election weekend was a strange one, considering that I had to vote a day early and fly to Brisbane and back in 36 hours, and to miss all the TV coverage was really disappointing. This is the year that I really wanted to be in front of the TV, relishing every fallen Liberal seat and soaking in the new era before us. Instead, I quietly checked the ABC news website from my phone during Dad’s birthday dinner, and kept the news to myself.
I know that there are a lot of people who are unhappy with this result, including some of my friends and family. All I can hope is that Rudd earns the trust that we have placed in him, and that he legitimately changes their minds about Australia’s future. Five days into his leadership the terrorists aren’t at war with the unionists, and interest rates have not risen.
We’re going to be okay. We should be excited and proud of ourselves for demanding more. Now to hold Rudd accountable to all his promises, and to start repairing the damage caused by Howard’s divisive and bigoted policies.
For the first time in years I feel really positive about Australia’s place on the international political stage.
Pigs’ heads staked at Islamic site
Elizabeth November 28th, 2007
The heads of two pigs have been found on stakes at the site of a proposed Islamic school in Sydney’s south-west.
About 6am today, police were called to the site, on Cawdor Road, Camden, where they found the animal remains and a number of other items, a police spokesman said.
The pig heads had been “elevated off the ground” using stakes, he said.
The spokesman would not say what the other items left at the site were.
He said he was not aware of any messages being left behind.
The Quranic Society’s plan to build a primary and high school for 600 students at the Camden site has sparked a strong backlash from residents.
This month about 1000 people attended a meeting to protest against the building of the school.
via SMH
I really hope the international community doesn’t think all Australians feel this way. I am disgusted and embarrassed that this happens in my country.
I remember when people threw rocks at a school bus on its way to an Islamic school in Brisbane immediately after Sept 11. It was full of tiny, crying children. It still amazes me that something like that could happen in my own city.
Honestly, what is wrong with people?
Is it November 24 yet?
Elizabeth October 16th, 2007
I know it’s been a while, but I thought this might be a good way to resume blogging. Slightly NSFW, so I made it a thumbnail.
Sadly, I don’t know who to credit. Leave me a comment if you know the source.
And in related news, yesterday Tim saw a 70-year-old man on the tram wearing a t-shirt with Howard’s massive face on the front. The text said “JOHN HUNT IS A COWARD”.
If there is ever an ok time to use the c-word, that’s probably it.
