Going away for a few days to see the Surrealists and catch up with family.
But before I go, Tony Abbott’s nasty little game of threatening to deny pairs when Craig Thomson wants to see his baby born could well incur bad karma. What if a whole bunch of Coalition MPs go down with a lurgy just when he needs them most? Oh, I feel a plot coming on – selective botulism in the parliamentary dining room?
See you next week.
The family unfriendly plan – female perpetrated family abuse neglected by the new National Plan to prevent violence against women and their children – ABC The Drum today.
Sorry, for some reason the Comments option isn’t functioning properly on the blog – am sorting. Cheers jennifer.
Always find out where your women’s health advisor is coming from Read it at the Drum Opinion today.
News just in from my friend Professor Baden Offord, Chair in Australian Studies, Centre for Pacific and American Studies, Institute of Advanced Global Studies, Graduate School of Arts, Tokyo University.
Baden is presently living in Tokyo with his partner Christopher for a 10 month
appointment as Chair (Visiting Professor) in Australian Studies at the
University of Tokyo. Baden and Christopher live in the University of Tokyo International Lodge.
Dearest Jennifer,
Here’s the latest… we are a bit overwhelmed at the moment, monitoring the situation.
We live in Meguro, which is south west Tokyo, not far from Shibuya.
We just received news from Japanese friends that the meterological service of Japan is predicting a further earthquake of 7.0 in the next 3 days. This, and the escalating news about the nuclear power plants 250 kms north of Tokyo, is not good. We are now seeing whether we should fly out of Japan and will seek advice from the Embassy.
It is honestly a strange time here as the city in many ways seems so normal. But, you can sense concern beneath the surface and the supermakets are gradually being emptied of food. Lots of empty aisles now.
As a precursor to the quake on the 11th, you might be interested to know that there have been small quakes or tremors for the last couple of weeks. A couple of weeks ago, for instance, during my Japanese lesson there was a strong tremor, the wall moved, the table shook and so on.
Japan has a total of 100,000 tremors each year, of course most are neglible. Every elementary school in Tokyo has a seisometer to register any ground movement. But, apparently, there is no good science yet to predict when a quake will occur.
On Friday 11th, I was with my friend and colleague Professor Toshiko Ellis when the quake hit, about to have lunch with her in a neighbourhood cafe near the University where we work. We left the restaurant when is started to shake violently and everything was falling. Most of the people went under tables. It was an old building (just outside the Komaba campus where I work).
The street scene was absolutely surreal. It was like being on a ship that was rolling all over the place. We held on to each other as the poles and buildings swung back and forth, not sure of where we should go for safety. It lasted for several minutes, which is the thing that I will remember for the rest of my life. It seemed ages before the ground stopped moving.
Mobile phones did not work for hours. Finally Toshiko got through to her 12 year old son at a phone booth. He was alone at home – he was crying and thought she had been injured (Toshiko’s aunty died in the Kobe quake). Only the landlines worked, thankfully.
After the 3 mins or so of the main quake we walked back to Shibuya station (no trains) and then Toshiko went to find her daughter (she got home several hours later) and I walked back to the University lodge (normally 45 mins by public transport from uni) to find Christopher. He didn’t turn up for hours as he was in a different part of the city when the quake hit. He was on the 7th floor of a building in Ginza and clung to a metal stair case while it happened. The restaurant he was in was damaged quite a bit. They escaped out the stairs.
The streets on the evening of the quake were surreal as everyone was quiet. Thousands and thousands of people in Shibuya (a huge station) for example, all very sober and quiet, orderly and stoic. Huge lines for public phones. … as I write this email there is an aftershock.
Today it is eerie. There’s a run on food in the shops, we got some of the last milk and bread available in local store. The infrastructure in Tokyo is very well prepared in most ways for such an event. Most shops have been closed today, but some trains have started to run again.
People are incredibly well mannered, polite and helpful, even in the pressure of something like this. Though, for most people, including my friend Toshiko, who is 53, this was the ‘big one’ as she described it to me. You really felt the awesome power of the shifting earth. I think people are in shock.
There have been aftershocks every hour, and we are prepped to leave our apartment (on 4th floor) if it becomes bad again. Sometimes the aftershocks are quite strong. We have no gas, but at least electricity at present – though there is talk of blackouts
because of two nuclear stations being in emergency shut down. The temps are about 5 degrees.
Otherwise, blue skies outside. These moments show you how fragile life is.
Funnily enough, I was at the Australian Embassy last week at a dinner to welcome the 5 Australian Leaders part of the Young Political Leaders Exchange Program to Japan (you may have read they were trapped on board a bullet train yesterday for several hours). Anyway, I was speaking with Murray McLean, the Australian Ambassador at dinner, and the story he told me was about the fact that he was in Beijing when the Tangshan Earthquake struck.
Estimates are that more than 250,000 people died in that quake.
He said it was the worst experience of his life for him, his wife and small child. Ironic that we had this quake now in Japan as he finishes his term as Ambassador in a couple of months.
Much love, Baden.
In the New York Times tonight, Julian Assange will appeal the London court’s decision to grant Sweden’s extradition order for Assange to face charges of sexual molestation in that country.
Radio 2GB, The Chris Smith Afternoon Show, 14th February, 2011
by Kahunapule Michael Johnson via flickr
(With thanks to ABC Media Watch, February 21)
On the day before the funerals of the asylum seekers drowned at Christmas Island in December, radio 2GB afternoon host Chris Smith ran a little quiz, with prizes, for his listeners. They had to tell him…
Chris Smith: How many asylum seekers killed in the December tragedy will be buried in Sydney this week? Jason, good afternoon.
Jason: G’day mate, was it nine? Chris Smith: It was not. Geoff. Geoff: 30 Chris Smith: No….David?I don’t know what more proof is required that some mainstream media and their personalities are incapable of seeing asylum seekers as human beings. This puts them in the broad category of sociopaths, sub category: those who can feel empathy for people who are like them, but are terminally incapable of seeing anyone different from themselves as human.
As opposed to psychopaths, who don’t feel much of anything for anybody.
Politicians such as Scott Morrison, Tony Abbott and many others on all sides, fill in the blanks for yourself, also inhabit the category of sociopath in their attitudes to asylum seekers.
This “competition” has neo Nazi echoes. Guess how many sub humans and their babies are dead, and you’ll get free movie passes.
Onya! Valerie. You’re a shining example of Australian womanhood.
—
The decision by Club Troppo and Lavartus Prodeo to cut OLO loose.
I think these decisions are regrettable, though predictable.
As Ken Parish acknowledges, OLO publishes on “hot button” topics and from a wide range of perspectives. This is its strength, and what makes it interesting to those who are not dedicated to the pursuit and validation of particular point of view.
It’s unfortunate that the decision to distance from OLO is based on one comments thread. I cannot agree that Muehlenberg’s article shouldn’t have been published – it was soundly rebutted by myself a few days later,as it was also soundly rebutted by many of the comments. Had it been left to stand alone, or if it had been one of many such articles,that would have been different.
In fact OLO has been responsible for publishing what’s been described as “two of the most powerful and persuasive arguments for gay marriage published to date in this country.”
It’s my understanding that Young is running OLO alone at the moment. That means he is responsible for putting up six or seven articles each day, and moderating the comments on every one of them. This is no small task.
Perhaps if Young did not feel so under siege, he would be more amenable to discussing moderating differences. People tend to harden their attitudes when overwhelmed by opposition, and nobody wants to be seen to be abandoning their principles because of pressure. Young’s commitment to his mission is quite extraordinary, under threat he is likely to defend, even against his own best interests.
It might have been wiser, more considered, and dare I say kinder, to allow some time to pass and for the initial turmoil to settle before cutting him loose. It is not as if he has acquired a long-standing reputation for publishing unacceptable comments. Had this been the case, the actions you’ve taken would be more justified.
I think the aspects of the affair that trouble me the most are – that this decision has been taken at the height of the battle (never a good time to make any big decisions), that it is based on one comments thread, and for some, one article. That it is taken against a publication that has been very popular for a long time, without, as far as I know, any previous history of these kind of complaints.
I’m surprised that some kind of negotiation process couldn’t have been organized with Young, giving heated emotions a little time to settle first, and the decision to maintain the status quo or to cut Young loose being allowed to emerge from that process.
Not as dramatic as what has happened, of course. Not the kind of stage upon which others can strut the high moral ground, as they can and have in choosing this “solution.”
But reasonable. Fair. Just. Calm. Considered.
Second comment to Club Troppo
I make this comment separately as there are so many aspects to this furore, it’s necessary to at least try to distinguish between them.
The complainants have stated that they approached all OLO’s advertisers to withdraw from the site as a “last resort,” when Young proved intractable.
Does this mean they have never heard of the anti discrimination board? A legal body specifically organized to deal with exactly these complaints?
The complainants are not entirely truthful when they state that going after Young’s advertisers was the “last resort.” It was in fact their first.
Had they chosen the anti discrimination path, and had the verdict been in their favour, OLO would have been fined, and a message sent to all those who host comments pages that they are vulnerable to prosecution and punishment. This might have gone some way to cleaning things up across the board. That would have been very useful activism.
As it is, only ONE publication is affected, and it will all be forgotten next week except for those primarily involved. Sites that don’t carry advertising, or don’t carry the kind of advertisers who care, are entirely unaffected and free to carry on as they please.
All in all, an opportunity missed, I’d say.
The freedom of speech issue here is not about the freedom to vilify gay people, as many are assuming.
It is about one group exercising its economic power to close down a site that has been available for all manner of groups to have a voice, thus denying those groups their freedom of speech about their issues by closing down their outlet.
I am amazed at the feedback I’m receiving about the consequences of vilification. As if as a woman I am unaware of these.
Women are vilified every day by an untold number of global media. There is an epidemic of global violence against, and murder of women.
How astonishing then, that those who seek to close down OLO in the interests of preventing vilification and its consequences, are not urgently seeking to close down the myriad of other media that contribute to the violence, rape and slaughter perpetrated on women around the world every hour of every day.
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