Posts

Here, we take Coronavirus seriously.

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A while ago, I heard culture was defined as “what we do here”. It’s a simple and easily recognisable concept; you can think about it from a scale as broad as global geo-political trends all the way down to what each of us call a potato scallop. Every country in the world is developing their own response to the Covid pandemic, built on the backbone of their culture. Each society is developing responses that will create our expectations from our government and how we will hold each other to account. In Australia, Victoria has led the way in developing our culture – people in other states may not have lived it yet but they know what’s in store when there’s another outbreak, because now they will also know what it takes to succeed. Another part of our culture: Australians like winning. Australian culture helped us to set a national focus for how we would manage this pandemic. We decided that we wanted to prioritise protecting our citizens from an increased chance of death from this ins
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For my Meme Posting Friend

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To my friend who posted All Lives Matter-type memes.  I spent this morning making you something that I hope helps you. I didn’t feel like engaging in a Facebook tit for tat – I didn’t feel like the tension it brings, I didn’t want to drag this out into the open for everyone to scrutinise and generate an arena for nasty judgmental commentary. I want to encourage you to think differently. Here goes. 1.   There were massive and devastating injustices to people of colour throughout history. I think you know about some of this – so I’m not going to spend a lot of time here. I think you know that hundreds of thousands of people were taken from their homes, separated from their families, bought and sold like livestock to live as slaves to the benefit of others much richer and more privileged. I want you to re-read that last sentence though, and think about all of the suffering contained in it, because this is where today’s suffering started.  The suffering started whe
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Distilled Disaster

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A fireman and a koala regard the destruction of both of their environments When you make the decision to move away from your home country, you know that you can come back. You know that if this decision to uproot your life goes tits up, the worst is that you just simply move home. It’s your safety net. You move away and you’re a novelty – your accent is different. Australians are loved overseas – we’re known for our animals (both cute and dangerous), the reef and the outback. People know it’s a long way away, and they often want to come and visit… one day. It’s easy to be proud of Australia’s uniqueness. We’re a safe Western society on the other side of the world. We have such an interesting mixture of environments, animals, cultures and beauty. We have more of an Asian influence than most other English speaking countries, we are a total curiosity. People are often shocked when they understand that the land mass of Australia is roughly equivalent to that of the contin
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Unburning Down the House

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Scott Marsh's brilliant Merry Crisis was sadly painted over but happily raised >$90k for firefighters. Scott Morrison is the most recent of 6 Australian prime ministers in the last 12 years. Originally a marketer, over the past couple of years he underwent a re-branding evolution. From his ‘stop the boats’ rhetoric and his utterly cruel and soulless reputation as Immigration minister, to the more business-minded, coal loving treasurer, to the “oh whoops how did I get here” daggy dad Prime Minister. In May 2019, he won an election based on a marketing message – he wasn’t the opposition leader, Bill Shorten. He had no other real policies other than something about franking credits and some bullshit about an Opposition death tax. Based on the fact he had no policies, and that he had been so behind in the polls that he had fuck all chance of winning, he put his election win down to a miracle. So what’s wrong with winning an election with broad brushstrokes and a se
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America, You're Wasting Our Time

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We all know someone who’s overly dramatic. They carry on like everything is about them and they are powerless to overcome the incessant shit show they have in their lives. They suck the oxygen out of every conversation as they wax lyrical about how they have such a bad time of things, they’re pretty sure nothing is their fault and they don’t believe they will ever get a break. America, I’m talking about you. I’m fucking done with your mass shootings. I don’t care if you think this is unsympathetic – it takes a real friend to tell you that your shit is fucked up and it’s about time you got it together. I refuse to be sucked in to the stories about Las Vegas. Refuse. I won’t read about the tragic human story where someone called someone to say goodbye and they got shot… by legally attained automatic weapons. I won’t read about the gunman and his befuddled family who have no idea how this could have happened. I won’t read about how this incident has been portrayed in the medi
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Defeatism: Progressives' Greatest Challenge

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At March in March there were a number of signs stating that people were so dissatisfied with our conservative government that they couldn't fit all of the reasons onto one sign. They just left it at that. From #MarchinMarch - @tonesperth Instagram There’s a reason for this. Prior to the election, the Abbott-led Coalition made broad, non-specific statements about policies they would introduce, or in most cases, repeal, without giving any real guidance on how exactly they were going to do this. Since being elected, the Government has launched a full-scale repeal of progressive policies. Election promises have been broken, the electorate has been betrayed. We don’t hear a lot about this in the main stream media, because it largely suits the needs of those who control it. As a progressive, you need to actively look for different, often independent, media sources to get the full story and to try and keep track. So many changes on such a broad scale means it’s hard for prog
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An open letter to Tanya Plibersek - why I'm not voting Labor

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Hi Tanya, On so many levels, I'm disappointed in the Labor party's stance on gay marriage. I spoke with you about this in person at the Rozelle Markets some years ago. I am incredibly  disappointed  that Julia Gillard didn't introduce the bill (and I thought that she was our best shot at getting this across the line). Now Kevin Rudd is playing politics by promising a bill, but not stipulating that it won't be a conscience vote that is defeated just like the last 2 bills. It's sneaky and disingenuous.  I will not be voting for Labor at the upcoming election. I really wanted to vote for you because I think you have been an outstanding minister, a strong performer in the media, and I have followed your progress closely over the years. However Labor's stance on gay marriage, asylum seekers and the environment leaves me cold and I will be voting for the Greens. I also despise Kevin Rudd only slightly less than I despise Tony Abbott, and I can't support a
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