It’s Getting Stupid Hot

Source: Science NET

The issue of climate change is not limited to Australia, rather a cause for global concern. So it seems only natural that such an issue would be at the forefront of political agendas…

Well, it isn’t.

A comprehensive assessment before the most recent G20 summit held in China this month was undertaken, resulting in Australia not only receiving a rating of ‘very poor,’ but more significantly, being ranked the worst country amongst the G20 collective (Slezak 2016).

In the past twelve months, our earth has had its hottest year in recorded history, with Australians having suffered through their warmest autumn on record (Readfearn 2016).

‘The aversion to talking about climate change during the election campaign reflects a wider problem: our concern for this issue has fallen even while it has become larger and more urgent’ (Steketee 2016).

So we’ve established there is a very real problem, and Australia is sorely lacking in its approach to this issue. I mean, that has to be the general consensus right?

Wrong.

Enter Malcolm Roberts; the man who recently secured the 12^th and final Queensland Senate seat on the back of only 77 first preference votes (Graham 2016). The outspoken Senator made his inaugural speech in parliament only days ago, one in which he not only compared himself to classical Greek philosopher, Socrates; but also flat-out denied any evidence of the human influence on climate change.

At the press conference immediately following his speech, Roberts had stated, ‘there is not one piece of empirical evidence anywhere, anywhere, showing that humans cause, through CO₂ production, climate change’ (Greenshack Dotinfo 2016).

The Senator then went on to promote ‘conspiracy theories that the CSIRO and Bureau of Meteorology are corrupt accomplices in climate conspiracy driven by the United Nations’ (Cook 2016).

Don’t believe me? You can watch it here.

Source: Greenshack Dotinfo

It seems to me that before tackling climate change, there needs to be an attitude change.

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References

Cook, J 2016, ‘One Nation’s Malcolm Roberts is in denial about the facts of climate change’, The Conversation, 5 August, viewed 23 September, http://theconversation.com/one-nations-malcolm-roberts-is-in-denial-about-the-facts-of-climate-change-63581.

Graham, R 2016, ‘Why Malcolm Roberts’ demand for ’empirical evidence’ on climate change is misleading’, The Guardian, 9 August, viewed 23 September 2016, https://www.theguardian.com/environment/planet-oz/2016/aug/09/why-one-nation-senator-malcolm-roberts-demand-for-empirical-evidence-on-climate-change-is-misleading-bunk.

Greenshack Dotinfo 2016, Qld PHON Sen Malcolm Roberts: “I am a scientist! Do you know what a scientist is?”, online video, 3 August, viewed 23 September 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhy58cCtdqg&feature=youtu.be&t=39.

Readfearn, G 2016, ‘Tragic lack of leadership puts red hot climate change out in the cold’, The Guardian, 29 June, viewed 23 September 2016, https://www.theguardian.com/environment/planet-oz/2016/jun/29/tragic-lack-of-leadership-put-red-hot-climate-change-out-in-the-cold.

Science NET 2016, Brian Cox Baffled By Ignorance of Climate Change Denier Aug 15, 2016, online video, viewed 23 September 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaxVu3Uq6OI&feature=youtu.be.

Slezak, M 2016, ‘Australia worst among G20 when it comes to action on climate change, report finds’, The Guardian, 1 September, viewed 23 September 2016, https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/sep/01/australia-worst-among-g20-when-it-comes-to-action-on-climate-change-report-finds.

Steketee, M 2016. ‘Climate change has dropped off the political radar (and this is a big problem)’, ABC News, 15 April, viewed 23 September 2016, http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-04-15/steketee-climate-change-has-dropped-off-the-political-radar/7328538.

 

Jerusalem Quartet; One Night Only

Source: Zeal NYC

7pm and the stage was set; It was a one night showing by the critically acclaimed Jerusalem Quartet. Only it happened last night, and chances are you missed it.

The stringed ensemble played to the local classic and contemporary music fans of Brisbane at the Queensland Conservatorium Theatre in a celebration of their 21^st anniversary. Fortunately for music lovers, the intimate evening was recorded for broadcast on 4MBS FM.

The four piece consisting of two violinists, a viola and cello have won numerous awards such as ‘the Diapason d’Or, the BBC Music Magazine Award for chamber music’ (Jerusalem Quartet 2015). The manufactured ensemble was something of a “boy band” when they first started performing together, put together by the Jerusalem Music Centre (Moffatt 2016)

Two separate programmes have been prepared for the brief Australian tour, of which the quartet will alternate between at each individual showing. The audience in Brisbane was privileged to a night of composers Haydn, Edwards and Beethoven, the last of which the group is most renowned for performing.

With members originating from the Ukraine, Belarus, and obviously Israel itself, their stage name is somewhat misleading, although all members both grew up in and reside in the state of Israel.

The oddly mixed bunch offered a discussion with audience members following the show for enthusiasts of the arts. In this setting and ‘as celebrities function across a number of different media platforms, the ability to speak publicly and present well becomes increasingly necessary’ (Bainbridge, Goc and Tynan 2011 P. 395)

Adult tickets ranged from $40 in the higher sections to $86 for the finer viewing positions.

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References

Bainbridge, J, Goc, N & Tynan, L 2011, Media and journalism: new approaches to theory and practice, 2nd edn, Oxford University Press, South Melbourne, VIC.

Jerusalem Quartet 2015, about Jerusalem Quartet, viewed 23 September 2016, http://www.jerusalem-quartet.com/index.php/about.

Moffatt, S 2016, ‘Jerusalem Quartet are back for heavenly seventh Musica Viva tour’, Daily Telegraph, 21 September, viewed 23 September 2016, http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/newslocal/news/jerusalem-quartet-are-back-for-heavenly-seventh-musica-viva-tour/news-story/28627e62c82ac6d48952c795fc65c58c.

Zeal NYC, digital image, viewed 23 September 2016, http://zealnyc.com/jerusalem-quartet-at-92nd-street-y/.

Flangipanis: Old Rude Flowers

Source: Events in Australia

This evening saw Brisbane punk rock outfit Flangipanis take the stage in celebration of their unofficial tin wedding, (or tenth anniversary). The free event kicked off at 8pm, hosted by the ever infamous and often dubious, Fat Louie’s, on Albert Street.

Predominantly known as a karaoke and snooker/pool bar, the venue has been rather accommodating to the punk scene in recent years. As is regularly the case on nights such as these, a veritable smorgasbord of odd looking patrons turned out for the event, a feat matched by the headliners and support acts themselves.

Supporting the aging local four piece was Le Murd, Hanny J and the equally long in the tooth Black Market. Proceedings got underway with an acoustic set by solo singer songwriter Hanny J, followed by the long awaited return of Brisbane punk pioneers Black Market. Up next was the electronic stylings of Le Murd and the boorish take your clothes off tunes of Flangipanis.

Source: Facebook

While mainstream success has eluded the group, (they attribute this to swearing too often) justifiably (Doria 2016). Flangipanis have something of a cult following in Brisbane. A testament to this can be seen in their community radio station, 4ZZZ’s annual Hot 100 polling. Over the last five years they have found themselves in the #1 spot twice and top three on two other occasions (4ZZZ FM 2016).

If you are wanting to let your hair down and loosen your belt buckle to the aforementioned brand of music follow the Flangipanis Facebook page for notifications on upcoming shows.

Source: Twitter

With the use of instant messaging service Twitter, the group is able ‘to send brief text messages of up to 140 characters to a list of friends and approved followers’ (Bainbridge, Goc and Tynan 2011 P. 38) drawing further crowd interest.

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References

4ZZZ FM 2016, 4ZZZ Hot 100, viewed 23 September 2016, http://www.4zzzfm.org.au/hot100.

Bainbridge, J, Goc, N & Tynan, L 2011, Media and journalism: new approaches to theory and practice, 2nd edn, Oxford University Press, South Melbourne, VIC.

Doria, M 2016, ‘Fresh fruit: Flangipanis’, Blunt Mag, 23 March, viewed 23 September 2016, http://www.bluntmag.com.au/interviews/fresh-fruit-flangipanis/.

Events in Australia, digital image, viewed 23 September 2016, http://www.eventsinaustralia.net/event-10-years-w-flangipanis-le-murd-black-market-and-hanny-j-brisbane-882030.

Facebook, digital image, viewed 23 September 2016, https://www.facebook.com/flangipanis/.

Twitter, digital image, viewed 23 September 2016, https://twitter.com/hashtag/flangipanis.

It’s a Rich Man’s World

Source: Global Justice

Money; it’s the root of all evil, or at least so they say. They also say that it doesn’t bring happiness, and yet I’m sure the men that govern this country delight in making more than their female counterparts. Unlike the male dominated governing body, the workforce in Australia is fairly evenly split;

Of the approximately 10 million employees in Australia, 50.5 per cent are women and 49.5 per cent are men. But men still tend to earn a lot more than women – an average of $1,429.80 for male employees, compared with $940.20 for female employees. That in part is due to the number of hours worked: 76.6 per cent of men work full time compared with 43.7 per cent of women (ABC News).

Ok, so those were some heavy figures and a lot to swallow in one sitting. More simply, for each dollar a man earns, Australian women earn the equivalent of 83 cents (Khadem 2016).

The resulting gender pay gap nationally stands at 16.2%, and I ask you, is that fair? Across all occupational categories there is biased pay gap favouring full-time working males over full-time working females (Australian Government 2016).

Some reasons for this are:

• A distinct lack of women in senior roles.
• Women offer more time to unpaid volunteer work.
• Discrimination on the part of employers.
• Women are more likely to hold part-time positions than men.

Per finical year, ‘men earn on average $27,000 more than women’ (Khadem 2016). While this is partly a result of the reasons mentioned above, there is a glaring need to increase industry standards. While I’m not convinced the (male) powers that be have a great interest in equal pay, they could at least offer some semblance of it.

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References

ABC News, Fact file: 11 facts about the changing face of the Australian workforce, viewed 23 September 2016, http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-03-19/fact-file3b-facts-about-the-workforce/6322238.

Australian Government 2016, What is the gender pay gap?, viewed 23 September 2016, https://www.wgea.gov.au/addressing-pay-equity/what-gender-pay-gap.

Does it have to be a rich man’s world, digital image, viewed 23 September 2016, http://groups.globaljustice.org.uk/glasgow/2014/02/26/does-it-have-to-be-a-rich-mans-world/.

Khadem, N 2016, ‘Australian women make 83¢ for every $1 a man earns: report’, Sydney Morning Herald, 24 March, viewed 23 September 2016, http://www.smh.com.au/business/workplace-relations/gender-pay-gap-20160322-gnp0vy.html.

 

Extremists vs. Extreme Terrorists

The subject of terrorism; the way the media has portrayed it, the word itself is enough to incite a feeling of terror.

As cited in ‘Islamic State’ magazine, “Kill them on the streets of Brunswick, Broadmeadows, Bankstown, and Bondi. Kill them at the MCG, the SCG, the Opera House, and even in their backyards” (Stephens 2016).

As a public we are constantly bombarded with messages of the supposed Muslim terror threat and the increasing strangle hold these extremists have encroaching on our way of life.

But is this the case in the real world?

Australia has remained relatively unscathed from any such terror activity, much unlike our allies in the United States. However, for all the media hype and speculation a relatively low percentage of these attacks are in fact performed by Muslims and people of an Arabic background.

Source: Global Research

Allow me to offer you two facts that may adjust your perspective further than the above FBI findings:

1. There have been 140,000 terror attacks committed worldwide since 1970. Even if Muslims carried out all of these attacks, those terrorists would represent less than 0.00009 percent of all Muslims. To put things into perspective, this means that you are more likely to be struck by lightning in your lifetime than a Muslim is likely to commit a terrorist attack during that same timespan (Alnatour 2016).

If those numbers were a little hard to swallow, perhaps this will be a little more palatable.

2. 5 out of the past 12 Nobel Peace Prize winners (42 percent) have been Muslims (Alnatour 2016).

Alternatively, the United States government has a checkered history of invading foreign nations in the name of “peace”.  While it is commonly believed that following September 11 and the Bush administration America was no longer a warmongering nation, President Barack Obama ‘runs an unprecedented worldwide campaign of terrorism and murder by drone’ (Pilger 2016).

In Prague 2009, the President delivered a speech essentially promising to help rid the world of nuclear weapons and was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize of his own. However, ‘No American president has built more nuclear warheads than Obama’ (Pilger 2016).

Now I ask you what is more terrifying; some unlikely, extremist terrorizing your neighbourhood, or the horror of having your home country ravaged by the heavy hand of the United States government?

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References

Alnatour, O 2016, ‘Muslims are not terrorists: a factual look at terrorism and Islam’, The World Post, 15 June, viewed 23 September 2016, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/omar-alnatour/muslims-are-not-terrorist_b_8718000.html.

Global Research 2016, digital image, viewed 23 September 2016, http://www.globalresearch.ca/non-muslims-carried-out-more-than-90-of-all-terrorist-attacks-in-america/5333619.

Pilger, J 2016, ‘Silencing America as it prepares for war’, johnpilger.com, 27 May, viewed 23 September 2016, http://johnpilger.com/articles/silencing-america-as-it-prepares-for-war.

Stephens, K 2016, ‘New Islamic State magazine encourages lone wolves to kill Australians’, News.com, 7 September, viewed 23 September 2016, http://www.news.com.au/national/new-islamic-state-magazine-encourages-lone-wolves-to-kill-australians/news-story/c9460ccd304a7cafc598a09e13e11639.

 

To be Gay and Happy

Source: Google

There’s something very wrong with this image.

This is an antiquated dictionary definition in dire need of updating, and “in some jurisdictions, two people of the same sex” should not be a necessary addition in this day and age.

Seriously, how is this still an issue?

Here I was thinking that Australia was a secular society and yet here we are falling behind devoutly Christian and catholic nations such as the United States, Ireland and Columbia (among many others) on this non-issue.

Source: Financial Review

As the graph presented above shows, same sex marriage has had a majority of public support for several years now, yet…

Given Opposition Leader Bill Shorten called the plebiscite a “taxpayer-funded platform for homophobia”, and The Greens are even more stridently opposed, it’s unlikely they would vote for the legislation to allow a $160 million national opinion poll (Dick 2016).

Confused? You’re not alone.

Firstly, is a vote really required here? Legislation is routinely put into place without consulting the Australian public on far more pressing matters without a consensus of opinion.

Secondly, I found myself taken back at the idea of The Greens not getting behind this; having voiced fears that, ‘a “hateful” campaign could lead to suicides among the young LGBTIQ community’ (Anderson 2016).

Is this really a warranted concern? (While I am in no way condoning this activity in any way), supposing it is a genuine concern; comparatively, are the misfortunes of a few not worth the happiness of many?

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References

Anderson, S 2016, ‘Greens to vote against same-sex marriage plebiscite’, ABC News, 28 August, viewed 23 September 2016, http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-08-26/greens-move-to-block-same-sex-marriage-plebiscite-labor-equality/7788970.

Dick, T 2016, ‘Australia won’t have the marriage equality it wants for at least three years’, Sydney Morning Herald, 3 July, viewed 23 September 2016, http://www.smh.com.au/comment/australia-wont-have-the-marriage-equality-it-wants-for-at-least-three-years-20160703-gpxc30.html.

Financial Review, digital image, viewed 23 September 2016, http://www.afr.com/news/politics/election-2016-majority-of-voters-would-say-yes-in-gay-marriage-plebiscite-20160701-gpwg3z.

Google 2016, digital image, viewed 23 September 2016, https://www.google.com.au/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&rlz=1C1CHBD_enAU690AU690&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=marriage%20definition.

Brisbane Festival!

Source: About Australia

This weekend has marked the official opening of Brisbane Festival 2016, celebrating its eighth year as an on-going arts festival. The three week long celebration of culture began September 3, with the festivities commencing until September 24.

The now modern festival has roots dating back to the Warana Festival, which had been a much smaller scale event beginning in 1961 (Brisbane Festival 2016). The festival as we know it today was introduced in 1996 by the Queensland Government and Brisbane City Council, although it was a biennial affair (Brisbane Festival 2016). However attendees can now revel in the fact that the festival is a longstanding annual event.

As always, the highlight of the event will take place at its conclusion, culminating in the Sunsuper Riverfire. The firework spectacular presented by Channel 9 and Triple M will start at 7pm, Saturday the 24^th, and welcomes the return of the ever popular armed services demonstrations.

‘Spectators will also be wowed by aerobatics from the Australian Defence Force with RAAF Super Hornet and Army helicopter displays’ (Brisbane Festival 2016).

Source: Facebook

The embracing of a peer-to-peer approach to the communication of news, have opened up new possibilities for journalism in the twenty-first century. (Bainbridge, Goc and Tynan 2011 P. 427)

The Story Bridge and surrounding network of roads will be closed for the evening’s festivities and alternate routes will be required to be taken for several hours due to the display. All enquiries regarding the process should be directed to Brisbane City Council’s Congestion Reduction Unit via telephone on 07 3403 4685 (Queensland Government 2016).

For festival information such as times, prices and accessibility refer to the Brisbane Festival ‘What’s on’ page here. http://www.brisbanefestival.com.au/whats-on

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References

About Australia, digital image, viewed 23 September 2016, http://www.about-australia.com/events/brisbane-festival/.

Bainbridge, J, Goc, N & Tynan, L 2011, Media and journalism: new approaches to theory and practice, 2nd edn, Oxford University Press, South Melbourne, VIC.

Brisbane Festival 2016, about, viewed 23 September 2016, http://www.brisbanefestival.com.au/about/history.

Facebook, digital image, viewed 23 September 2016, https://www.facebook.com/BrisbaneFestival/?fref=ts.

Queensland Government 2016, events, Story Bridge road network closures for events, viewed 23 September 2016, https://www.qld.gov.au/about/events-awards-honours/events/story-bridge/.