Media

My wife says that media... as we know it through the Mainstream Newspapers, radio and commercial Television is nothing more than institutionalized gossip.

I disagree. It is more than institutionalized gossip; although it is definitely gossip. There seems to be a greater malice behind our media.

Having been more or less unplugged for the past couple of months I find myself overwhelmed by the angst, scandal and emotional leverage used by all regular forms of media. When I accidentally happen to glance at a Newspaper, or find myself in a waiting room with at least one of the now apparently obligatory plasma screens blasting crap at a captive audience I am overwhelmed.

People around me seem unaffected by the imposing aggressive style but they are not. They are actually absorbing and believing the crap that is presented to them as news via the network or tabloid!
Just as in Orwell's '1984' people today appear to have lost their capacity for critical thinking. So many people's opinions appear to be formed as if they are carbon copies of whatever their favorite news reader or celebraty currentaffairs host has told them.

I remember debating the possibility of climate change with a friend several years ago, at a time when many scientists considered the theory pretty close to an indisputable fact but some doubt still existed. There were still a bunch of skeptics around who refused to accept the theory, I'm sure they were heartily supported by the Public Relations departments of all kinds of polluting industries.

As time rolled by and theory became fact (or pretty darn close to it), those who possessed the powers of critical thinking moved on to discussing how Global Warming could be combated in order to protect the future of us all. Sadly my friend along with probably half the population were still not ready to accept the theory of Global Warming...
Why? because the media were still broadcasting pro and anti Global Warming theory as equally valid arguments! Even though it was clear to anyone capable of independent though that the media were playing games with the subject and giving far too much credit to scientifically unreasonable arguments against the theory. People just lapped it up and continued on in their blissful cocoon of media misinformation.
I personally know several people who only actually believed in the existence of Global Warming when their favorite TV presenter told them the rumors may actually be true! The really scary thing about this is that even though they had believed there was no such thing and no amount of information or logic could convince them otherwise, all it took for them to change their mind was for the news to start telling the story differently! Yes it is possible to change the attitude of a huge proportion of the population simply by feeding them the information through the media resource they are used to taking their directions from!

I'm dead sure of it! But if you really want to make sure you've converted them to whatever story you're pushing you might want to use the other trick card in the deck. Tell them that all the other viewers/readers/listeners now believe the story you are feeding them and they are bound to jump right on board!

Yes!

The media is more than just Institutionalized Gossip!

Do you think the revolution will be televised? See link below

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Revolution_Will_Not_Be_Televised_(documentary)


Australians will laugh at dicks in 'Blackface' and say it's only fun. It must be funy humourous a gag, a giggle, because Daryl said it's so. We are innocent surely!
And our media ask, through public forum and internet comment pages, the divisive question; Biased by consumer viewer loyalty, to the darlings of high rating TV Ausie icon status buffoonery and irreverence.... "Was it so bad?"
And the Jury will be formed thus! Through forum posts by maliable fools the pupets of popular oppinion and zomby slaves to media endorsed bigotry and anglophilic oppression. The riddle solved and fools absolved of any crime committed!
No panel of ethics will be needed. The audience will decide when they recieve their brief right after these important messages from our sponsor.

I wonder what Gil Scott-Heron would say? But I think he already said it!

(Youtube video removed) Sorry bout that....

One less Car

I've got about 5 minutes to post this before I have to go and punch the dough... (Baking Bread again!)

So here it is! When I first started seeing my Sam she'd just bought a second hand Ford Festiva. It was her first newish car and she was very happy to own it. It then became our shared car and we have had many an adventure in the little 1.3 liter Coupe. A couple of trips through the centre of Australia the East Coast and a trip across to Broome proved that you don't need a large car to travel long distances.



(Our little Festiva... but not for long)

After a couple of years of marriage we had our first child and managed pretty well with the three of us in the car. As the old girl got older we have had to spend more money to keep her going and alas we lost the airconditioning and that was the final straw for me. I declared that I would not pay to have that fixed (It uses heaps of fuel) and after about 11 years of service we decided to get a new car.
About a year and a half ago we had the opportunity to get a small station wagon at a reasonable price and so we became a two car family... (Not really in line with my low impact beliefs)

As you may know I am quite concerned about environmental issues and attempt to ride my bicycle as much as possible, however we have family visit from interstate fairly regularly and the second car has been handy.

Anyway it's crunch time and I've finally decide to be true to my ideal of reducing our impact on the planet and would dearly like to wear my One Less Car T-shirt without feeling like a complete fraud! So we've decided to give the car away to a friend! Yes we are giving it away! Basically they need it... we rather try living without it so it works out just fine.

Farewell little MOJO Mobile (The car's name). Thank you for 11 years of wonderful service and great millage.

I will now rely on my bicycle for all (Most) personal trips and endeavor only to use the automobile for family travel and emergencies.

(Primary Transportation Unit .1)

Great video. 350! How we gonna do it?

Linguisticaly Barren

Last night 4 Corners (The ABC's real current affairs program) did a feature story on the threat to dismantle the bilingual education program in NT Schools.
Once again this is an issue of extreme importance and relevance to the future of several Australian cultures and languages that most Australians don't seem to be remotely aware of or even care very much about.
The 4 corners website has posted the whole story including additional interviews and a whole bunch of associated articles on the web page for this story that is well worth looking at.
"Going back to Lagamanu"

Although I am not an educator and as my friends and the education departments of Victoria and NT will attest... Barely Educated. I am interested in the concept of Bilingual Education and also in it's perceived failures.

From what I can tell after having to research it for a school report a few years ago and speaking to some people who'd hoped their kids could be taught the basics of language in their mother tongue; not to mention a couple of teachers whose skills are no longer relevant to the NT education department. There are some obvious failings in the System!

Yes it seems quite obvious that there are some extremely serious problems that can't be resolved and therefor the dominant culture has determined that total assimilation or annihilation is the only course of action! Someone's gotta take the blame for the fact that children in Aboriginal communities aren't achieving academically so it makes perfect sense that the Government and the Education department are choosing to hold Aboriginal Culture as the only culprit!

Is the bilingual approach really the failure? Or could the failures really lie in the lack of meaningful support from the education department? lack of real commitment and understanding from Government? What if appropriately trained teachers were available? If educators sent to communities had even an inkling of the culture they were about to enter prior to arriving? If senior administrators and principals worked in partnership with local communities? If the multitude of social problems faced by the communities were addressed successfully? If basic health and nutritional needs were adequate? If Australians didn't just want to relegate Aboriginal language and culture to the corner of some cute anthropological stage show for tourists!

I recall the discussion I had with my teacher back at TAFE when I discussed the program with her. I was surprised by her own hostility toward the bilingual program. What I sensed was a lack of appreciation for Aboriginal Language and the importance of culture. But most noticeable was her apparent resentment that the bilingual program required more funding than other schools. As a teacher I expect she had witnessed the whittling away of resources for education. Unfortunately rather than fighting the common enemy when times are tough, desperation seems to lead people to turn on their neigbour. Resentment and bitterness well up if there are perceived inequities and the State or education department are too big to fight so wham blame those who might receive more funding. Since teachers, according to my observations, are highly political animals, I'd say bilingual schools received more than their share of unsympathetic staff. There would have been opponenets on the payroll all the way back to it's inception.

I think I know why the Government finger is pointed at Bilingual Education. It is because bilingual education can be easily used as a smoke screen for quite great injustices before the eyes of the generally ignorant voting masses. The smoke screen would be something like this:
"They're not even speaking English! No wonder those kiddies aren't making the grade! Bilingual Education stands in the way of our benevolent education system and government from educating the poor little black kids. It hasn't succeeded in turning around the multitude of problems faced by people in remote communities and therefore must be responsible for them!"

Personally I think the Government is just trying to eliminate the program because it is a clear indication of their own failure! The real question should not be 'has bilingual education failed?' But rather "Why did out Government and Education department Fail the bilingual program by not fully supporting and engaging with Aboriginal communities in a mutually respectful way?"


Dear Mr Henderson. Please don't say hello to me again in the street, or at the local market. Don't attempt to shake my hand at the next Multicultural day or kiss my babies if I see you on election day. You've blown it.

Gleeners Paradise

Yes for just a few days of the year Darwin becomes a Gleaner's Paradise!
Due to the fact that we are in a Cyclone prone part of the world our local council has deemed it necessary for the sake of public safety to have a special garbage pickup day.
They encourage everyone to clean up their yards and throw all their unwanted junk onto the nature strip. Anything that could become a projectile in a Cyclone should be tossed out if it is not needed.

So for a couple of days at this time of the year you can wander down almost any street and find all kinds of useful things that other people no longer want! Old bikes appear on just about every pile! This year there were heaps of washing machines too and I noticed quite a few gas BBQs.

A lot of stuff is actually junk but in a country like Australia where we have access to tons of really cheep consumer items you can find all sorts of gear that really only needs a bit of TLC and it is perfectly useful! There is also a plethora of stuff that would appeal to artists or those who like to invent things.

I am currently trying to create an extendable aluminium frame for my Xtracycle. I found a few useful pieces but not enough to start putting anything together. Although I am a hoarder of bike parts (Which has saved me a fortune in new gear) I only bothered to collect a couple of pieces that suited my immediate needs. One of which was a complete bike that only needed a bit of dust wiped off and some air in the virtually new tires!

Living in this country I doubt I would ever need to buy anything new. I even managed to score a perfectly good door handle to replace the one in our bedroom that I had to brutally remove when it refused to be unlocked after an hour of twisting, banging, scratching and screaming!

I love fixing up old stuff! I love getting things I would never buy new just so I can check out how they feel or how they work! I guess I just love Gleaning!


If you dig gleaning check out The Gleaners and I by Agnes Varda. (I fell in love with her style)
http://www.abc.net.au/arts/film/stories/s424327.htm

Tinpan Orange do it again!

There's a band out there called Tinpan Orange and if you haven't heard their music you are seriously missing out! (You can hear a sample on their website. link above)
I knew the band was coming to Darwin for the Festival well in advance and at no time did I ever doubt that I'd go to their show...

Did I see them? Neoooooooooooooow!
I'm still scratching my head and wondering why I never figured that the combination of their growing popularity, only one official performance in Darwin and time slipping by like a 5 year old on a waterslide in January... Would lead to tickets being SOLD OUT!

On Sunday 23rd August my favorite band played at the Darwin Festival and I had to sit outside on the lawn to Listen. (actually the acoustics were pretty good out there, but darn it! It's just not the same thing!)

None the less it was a great show and the new songs were absolutely beautiful, instrumentals were great! I love the sound of the various stringed instruments, the mandolin sounded wonderful and the guitar solo was pretty awesome too. Emily Lubiiz voice and lyrics are just the most irresistibly beautiful and dangerously enticing combination that I've ever heard!

Tinpan Orange's new album 'The Bottom of the Lake' Most of the songs on this album could be hits! The only one I've skipped a couple of times was song 4 Chinese Whispers, it felt a bit too repetitive after about the 10th time I listened to it. I've listened the album at least 20 times now and I'm only falling more in love with it!
I don't suppose it would do any justice to describe my reaction to each of the songs but most of them made a pretty big impression on me. Romeo don't come was a great song to hook the listener, song 2. the title song is weighty melencholy and beautiful. La La La is so romantic painful love but so much fun too. These are hits! I love them. Yes I've come close to losing myself in Fitzroy St too. Lovely... Is. The song for Frida Kahlo is eqaul to Don McLean's Stary Night but is no imitation! It's original and beautiful. The final track Saudadeds besides introducing me to a wonderful new word also manages to capture the very essence of Saudadeds with the sweet notes of the violin, guitar and the slow languish tones and lyrics of Emily's beatiful voice!

Anyway I am just a fan, I have no real technical understanding of music. I am Mystified by the spell they have cast on me... Others may know better. I suggest you get out there and buy a copy of this CD before stock runs out! Take it home and when it's quiet at night and you're on your own just put it on and listen. If not completely satisfied repeat this process until you realize that this will be one of the best albums produced in this country in 2009!
I bet you'll love it!