"Government doesn't listen to us blackfellas anymore"

In a recent conversation I was told: "Government doesn't listen to us blackfellas anymore."

Four and a half months after Labor won federal government, it is unfortunate but not exactly surprising that this feeling still exists here on the NSW North Coast.

 

Labor MPs Janelle Saffin and Justine Elliott and Nationals MP Luke Hartsuyker would do well to consider that it takes more than bi-partisan token gestures to bridge the divide perpetuated and often deepened by previous governments and parliaments.

 

Apart from Andrew Hegedus as a Clarence co-facilitator, how many people from local indigenous communities actually attended the two Labor sponsored three-hour Clarence Valley 2020 local summit meetings held on 4 & 5 April 2008?

 

Whatever local summit media release went out after these meetings obviously didn't contain much about Clarence indigenous views because nary a word from this perspective appeared in the online news media or any newspapers which came my way.

 

I await media coverage of the Lismore 2020 local summit next week with interest.

Perhaps that media release might also tell those without the means to attend exactly who was there creating the documents supposedly carrying our collective voices to Canberra at the end of the month.

Dr. 'I'm listening' Nelson fails to rate a blip on Google Trends this month

Poor Brendan Nelson didn't even raise a blip on this Google Trends graph covering worldwide searches for his name compared to that of Kevin Rudd, starting 30 March and ending 6 April 2008.
It seems his listening tour is not inspiring anyone to find out more about him.

* "kevin rudd" * "brendan nelson"

A waterfront opportunity Labor may find too hard to resist

Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Federal Labor are said to be considering eventually revoking those 'conclusive certificates' the former Howard Government slapped on documents covering the Australian waterfront dispute and mass sackings by Patricks Stevedores.

Won't that set the cat among the pigeons ten years down the track!

Perhaps we will be able to find out the truth of the rumour that John Howard 'engineered' this dispute and used $150 million of taxpayers money to underwrite those sackings.

At least we would probably get to see the 1998 ACIL-I aka Waterfront Strategy reported to be authored by consultant Paul Houlihan.

Howard and Reith may have led the charge to bring down the Maritime Union, but many of the current Coalition front bench were around in 1998.

Little Brennie Nelson was an MP at the time and became Secretary, Government Members' Employment, Education and Workplace Relations Committee in that same year.

And you thought cricketers played for the love of the game

Ever wondered what motivates a bloke - okay, and the odd sheila - to don the creams and play cricket? Well, Aussie cricketer Stuart MacGill (pictured below - thanks, Sydney Morning Herald!) has let the cat out of the bag.


According to MacGill, "People have many different motivations. For some it's ego, some it's for appearances, some it's for cash, for some it's to be a pain in the arse and for some it's to get out of the house."

However, MacGill reckons money is the primary motive for some of Australia's cricketers to play the game.

"I don't think it's a problem - provided the guy does his job I don't care what the motivation is."

Confirming just how out of touch Australian cricket's establishment is Australia's chairman of selectors, Andrew Hilditch, rejected the idea that players were driven by money despite a survey, commissioned by the Australian Cricketers' Association, showing that 47 per cent of national and 49 per cent of state players would consider an early retirement to play in lucrative Twenty20 tournaments.

Read more about this matter in today's Sydney Morning Herald here.

The global warming fencesitter's dilemma

Playing devil's advocate to win from http://xkcd.com

Cease & Desist requests - one of the less travelled paths during the Obama v Clinton v McCain contest

It would appear that blogger allegations of Republican sexism and racism have entered the US presidential race, resulting in this little missive.

February 26, 2008

Sender Information:
SurveyU
Sent by: [Private]
[Private]
New York, New York, USA

Recipient Information:
[Private]
[Private]
New York, NY, 10009, USA

Sent via: Email
Re: Inaccurate article at http://jdel.tumblr.com/post/27338177

[Private],

We are SurveyU, authors of the survey reproduced in your post of February 26th at http://jdel.tumblr.com/post/27338177.
We are the sole author of the survey and received no payment or other consideration from any organization, including the one identified in your post, to create and distribute the survey. It is our intention to publicly release our analysis of the results.

We therefore request that you immediately amend the post to indicate those facts.

Without regard to your incorrect inferences as to whether this constitutes an attempt to architect attack strategies or create 'push polling', the survey uses a number of constructs commonly used by psychologists to measure attitudes toward race and gender (attached), and does not evidence any pre-determined bias or desired result. We used these constructs to attempt to measure whether race and gender are underlying motivators behind the voting intent of college students.

In a separate section of the survey a series of statements made by Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton were randomly assigned to one of the candidates or the other. This research technique is used to uncover any underlying bias that students have toward each candidate by seeing how the electability/appeal ratings differ when the same statement is attributed to each of the candidates.

Since you posted the article without any attempts to verify the accuracy ofyour information, we've gone out of our way to explain the survey methodology and intent to you, however, it appears that your motives are not to understand the research, but instead to draw attention to yourself.

SurveyU is proud of its use of scientific methods of gauging college students sentiment for the purpose of contributing to public discourse. We have produced a number of surveys for this purpose, all of which can be downloaded from http://www.surveyu.com/press_room.php

You are on notice that you have made false implications as to our motivations and our intent. We request that you either remove the post or reprint this letter in its entirety in the body of the post.

[Private]
Co-Founder SurveyU
--
[Private]
SurveyU - The Voice of the American Student

Copy of this request found at Chilling Effects along with a revealing secondary 'related link'.

Writers blogging 'til they drop? Not here in an Antipodean paradise

The New York Times is convinced that the world of web comment is one of 24/7 stress.

 

Two weeks ago in North Lauderdale, Fla., funeral services were held for Russell Shaw, a prolific blogger on technology subjects who died at 60 of a heart attack. In December, another tech blogger, Marc Orchant, died at 50 of a massive coronary. A third, Om Malik, 41, survived a heart attack in December.

Other bloggers complain of weight loss or gain, sleep disorders, exhaustion and other maladies born of the nonstop strain of producing for a news and information cycle that is as always-on as the Internet.

To be sure, there is no official diagnosis of death by blogging, and the premature demise of two people obviously does not qualify as an epidemic. There is also no certainty that the stress of the work contributed to their deaths. But friends and family of the deceased, and fellow information workers, say those deaths have them thinking about the dangers of their work style.

The pressure even gets to those who work for themselves — and are being well-compensated for it.

"I haven't died yet," said Michael Arrington, the founder and co-editor of TechCrunch, a popular technology blog. The site has brought in millions in advertising revenue, but there has been a hefty cost. Mr. Arrington says he has gained 30 pounds in the last three years, developed a severe sleeping disorder and turned his home into an office for him and four employees. "At some point, I'll have a nervous breakdown and be admitted to the hospital, or something else will happen."

 

I am tempted to say life's not like that in Australia, but what I will say is life's not like that on the NSW North Coast.

For most of us blogging is tempered with various combinations of family, work, community volunteering, gardening, fishing, reading, walking, crossword puzzles, music, films, t.v., chinwags over coffee, shopping, creating art or crafts, home renovations, beer with mates, football, cricket, swimming and just plain lazing about in a little piece of paradise.

 

But then, I suspect that this is the case for most Australian bloggers. After all it only takes a nanosecond on the Net before pollies like Liberals Senator George Brandis offer up pure dross like Rudd didn't respect the Queen enough: Brandis demanding a prime ministerial 'necking'.

 

Hats off to Ken L. over at Road to Surfdom for alerting the southern hemisphere to the dangers of blogging with his post on the subject.