And it is with disdain that those that have been taught English in the Commonwealth, with it's strange idiosyncrasies  and quirks which we love so much, have come to acknowledge. English is being replaced by the trimmed down, ultra efficient American English and the most recent example of this can be seen in the firefox (tht's the web browser) spell checker, which checks words according to American English. It wants to take away my U's and change my S's to Z's, when i write a perfectly correct sentence i see squiggly red lines under everything i do. Apparently there is a way to change this, but who can be bothered with that? It's going to bring the demise of English English I tell ya, and i don't like it.  . . read more

Well according to the data apparently not, for a highly motorized and developed country we have a relatively low ranking by comparison, 81 per million population, less than most other countries.

So why do we portray ourselves in such a poor light?

Is it a strive to always better ourselves?

Or is this a morbid way to justify government road revenue? . . read more

I thought originally that this was to do more with him rather than his subject choices but upon giving it much thought after the shock and horror that others seemed to exhibit when faced with a film fan that doesn't care for Luhrmann films that I just wasn't interested in a pimped out Romeo and Juliet, anything to do with ballroom dancing or the Moulin Rouge. Simple as that, and no amount of lavish production was going to move me on that.

So when I saw that he was making a film about Australia called Australia, I admit I groaned inwardly and wondered if we were going to be faced with another ‘Welcome to Woop Woop' (if you have never seen this film I envy you).

Then I saw the trailer, a couple of times on TV and began to imagine a world in which I like a Baz Luhrmann film, it wasn't a bad world and with every new piece of footage I've seen it seems to be ever likely.

Of course I also thought about the flip side, what if this film is horrible, boring and just plain bad? What if I am the only Australian who doesn't like Australia? Will they deport me? Will I need to lie? Will I be made watch Neighbours over and over and over and arrrrrrg...

Is it un-Australian to dislike Australia the film?

It looks good so I'm hoping this won't be a dilemma that I'm forced to face but I was watching one of the morning shows (ironically this morning) and saw that reviews are in fact torn, with certain newspapers that belong to certain media empires calling it boring or cliched whilst the other side of the media applauded and proclaimed the film's magic. The thing that struck me is that the bad reviews were kind of dismissed as just being a bit un-Australian.

Me I generally dismiss any film review that complains about the use of a cliche, cliches can be great if handled well, it is the not the cliche that hurts a film it is the execution of one. So to point out that a film has cliches is a little like saying it has actors, all films have them you just don't realise you're watching one.

Article by Lee from Quit Your Day Job.  . . read more

Both policies work out at $1bn per annum and you’d expect the compromise package from the sitting government will need to be extended beyond the two year frame.

The big issue, however, is not stunts for winning votes but ensuring the competitive edge which technology can give our cities. Forget the bush, it’s what is happening in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane that really counts. Has either party created scenarios for the global future of our major conurbations before offering solutions?  . . read more

Following that, James Anaya, a special envoy from the UN Human Rights Commission, publically came out and said the policies of the intervention were ‘racist' and that they broke many of the articles of ‘the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples'.

One of the clearest Articles broken reads:

Article 19: ‘States shall consult and cooperate in good faith with the indigenous peoples concerned through their own representative institutions in order to obtain their free, prior and informed consent before adopting and implementing legislative or administrative measures that may affect them'

How embarrassing. International condemnation and refugees in a first world country.

Yet, White Australia is silent. Most of us can reconcile that it's a far away problem, with people we've never really connected with. We might feel bad occasionally but at least we don't steal the children anymore.

And, even if it is bad being Aboriginal at least the intervention is something, at least we're doing something.

And for most of us that's it, it's just a problem we can push further into the back of our minds, and a people we can push further toward the extinction our ancestors always wanted.  . . read more

And yet John Howard, the now self-defined ‘climate change realist’, persists with the same policies and the same thinking that has failed Australia for the past decade. And Kevin Rudd shows little sign of making that seismic shift in thinking required to address the most urgent matters confronting Australia today – climate change and water security.

John Howard’s so-called ‘good’ economic management has produced [a] growing disparity between his prosperous and comfortable Australia and the millions, including pensioners, who are struggling with huge burdens of personal debt... Meanwhile a small but growing number of Australian corporate executives take home pay packets in the millions of dollars...

Howard won government with the slogan ‘For all of us’. We now know this was a sham. It was not true for Indigenous Australians, for pensioners, for people with disabilities and their carers – and for millions of other Australians who watch as the cost of living rises and their pay packets shrink by comparison. Under Howard’s watch, Australia has become more like America, and more divided than before. . . read more

First in the subjugation of the Aboriginal peoples of this land, and later in how we dealt with the various waves of migrants to our shores. We all know we had a White Australia Policy until the late 60’s, with bipartisan support. We have had a rather uneasy relationship with Asia for much of the postwar period. Phrases such as “the yellow peril” and “two wongs don’t make a white” exemplify the darker tendencies of our history.

Over the years this relationship has matured, as our self perception has broadened. But this aspect of our history can still resonate today.

Part of Senator Penny Wong's maiden speech to parliament in 2002. . . read more

Similarly hundreds of freeze-dried fans of Luna Park, Oz and The Yellow House turned up to pay homage. And this they did in style for a hero who came among us like John the Baptist with a message rather than the urban spaceman from the ‘sixties.

The exhibition room, with its high ceilings and very narrow floor area, makes hanging the work an impossible challenge but you come away with a strong sense of Sharp’s vision. The ethos of Wolfe’s The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby comes to life in a celebration of pop art which both reflected and changed the world we lived in – whether in Sydney or London, New York or Berlin.  . . read more

Ultimately, people will make choices which harm themselves, whether they involve diet, smoking, drinking, lack of exercise, sexual activity or pursuit of extreme sports. In all these instances, the Government rightly takes the line that if these activities are to be pursued, society will ensure that those who pursue them have access to accurate information about the risks; can access assistance to change their harmful habits should they so wish; are protected by a legal standards regime; are taxed accordingly; and – crucially – do not harm other people. Only in the field of drugs does the Government take a different line.

The case is overwhelming. But I fear that policy will not catch up with the facts any time soon. It would take a mature society to accept that some individuals may hurt, or even kill themselves, as a result of a policy change, even if the evidence suggested that fewer people died or were harmed as a result. It would take a brave government to face down the tabloid fury in the face of anecdotes about middle-class children who bought drugs legally and came to grief. [More]

Julian Critchley was the former director of the UK Anti-Drug Co-Ordination Unit. . . read more