Bella Counihan February 26, 2010 - 9:31AM
Peter Garrett is a man under pressure. Everybody knows that. But when you start to speak like the Ruddbot, as our PM is so affectionately termed, then I think you're in real trouble. As the insulation debate goes around and around in circles, Garrett seems to be surviving the interminable questions admirably, but at the same time he's losing his former sense of lyrical clarity. When the hard questions come, the polispeak goes up like a shield of armour.
Garrett, as we all know, has a long history of intertwining political and artistic strands. Midnight Oil will always be a great Australian band because of the lyrics that combined art and politics. Beds are burning, oddly enough John Howard's favourite Midnight Oil song, has clear lines of prose communicating the injustice of the Aboriginal land rights issue. Take for instance the verses describing the red centre:
Out where the river broke
The bloodwood and the desert oak
Holden wrecks and boiling diesels
Steam in forty five degrees
And then comes the catchy refrain:
The time has come
A fact's a fact
It belongs to them
Let's give it back.
It paints a picture of the desert land which Aboriginal communities are trying to hold on to and why it should be returned. But Garrett speaks more these days of "transitioning programs" and the "totality of advice" given to him. It's fine that the content of what he's saying has changed, he's no longer the rock star activist and nor should anyone expect him to be. But it is a shame that the lyricism of Oils' songs has been replaced by distorted political language, akin to Rudd on a good day. I guess dodging answers to questions is easy enough when no one can understand what you're saying.
After scrapping the insulation program last week, Garrett was confronted with some of the criticisms of the new program by Ticky Fullerton on Lateline. He confirmed safety was the priority and that "we have always wanted to make sure that risk management was one of the primary goals of delivery in terms of what we required from people in the program."
Sky News' David Speers asked earlier whether Garrett would acknowledge that he got it wrong. His answer, or lack there of, was: "In relation to the overall question of was the system, in terms of both delivery and terms of guidelines, in terms of training, sufficient to be able to deliver that level of risk management that we thought - and I believe - is necessary. The answer clearly is we encountered some issues there which said, no, it's not going to deliver that on the basis of advice that I've just received."
Earlier in the day at his press conference, he was asked about how many homes now had safety issues. After a long ramble this little beauty came up: "The sum total of my remarks to you is this, being faced with that advice, having gone through those various stages, continuing to amplify and build strength into our regulatory approach, and still finding on the basis of the most recent advice that has been outlined to you, that there is still an unacceptably high level of risk, I have taken the step that this program should not continue in its current form. And we will apply the necessary rigours and measures for a program in the future to delivery safely."
No musical intonations in that sentence. It's hard to even decipher what "continuing to amplify and build strength into our regulatory approach" actually means. Don Watson would be appalled.
All of the above Ruddisms have come when Garrett was at the pressure peak of the insulation fiasco. In fact if we drew a graph of the Rudd-like phrasings and the pressure Garrett was under, the two lines would surely meet at around this point last week.
But once upon a time there was less pressure, when Garrett was a fresh faced shadow minister for Arts and made a speech. In "The Politics of Art" he promoted the importance of music in our lives. He went on to say "... the fact is my public life has been, and still is, immersed in the politics of art." Perhaps, now more than ever, he should put the art back into politics.
This story was found at: http://www.nationaltimes.com.au/opinion/politics/put-the-art-back-into-politics-garrett-20100226-p6le.html
Friday, February 26, 2010
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Put the art back into politics, Garrett
BELLA COUNIHAN February 26, 2010 - 9:31AM
Comments 1
Peter Garrett is a man under pressure. Everybody knows that. But when you start to speak like the Ruddbot, as our PM is so affectionately termed, then I think you're in real trouble. As the insulation debate goes around and around in circles, Garrett seems to be surviving the interminable questions admirably, but at the same time he's losing his former sense of lyrical clarity. When the hard questions come, the polispeak goes up like a shield of armour.
Garrett, as we all know, has a long history of intertwining political and artistic strands. Midnight Oil will always be a great Australian band because of the lyrics that combined art and politics. Beds are burning, oddly enough John Howard's favourite Midnight Oil song, has clear lines of prose communicating the injustice of the Aboriginal land rights issue. Take for instance the verses describing the red centre:
Out where the river broke
The bloodwood and the desert oak
Holden wrecks and boiling diesels
Steam in forty five degrees
And then comes the catchy refrain:
The time has come
A fact's a fact
It belongs to them
Let's give it back.
It paints a picture of the desert land which Aboriginal communities are trying to hold on to and why it should be returned. But Garrett speaks more these days of "transitioning programs" and the "totality of advice" given to him. It's fine that the content of what he's saying has changed, he's no longer the rock star activist and nor should anyone expect him to be. But it is a shame that the lyricism of Oils' songs has been replaced by distorted political language, akin to Rudd on a good day. I guess dodging answers to questions is easy enough when no one can understand what you're saying.
After scrapping the insulation program last week, Garrett was confronted with some of the criticisms of the new program by Ticky Fullerton on Lateline. He confirmed safety was the priority and that "we have always wanted to make sure that risk management was one of the primary goals of delivery in terms of what we required from people in the program."
Sky News' David Speers asked earlier whether Garrett would acknowledge that he got it wrong. His answer, or lack there of, was: "In relation to the overall question of was the system, in terms of both delivery and terms of guidelines, in terms of training, sufficient to be able to deliver that level of risk management that we thought - and I believe - is necessary. The answer clearly is we encountered some issues there which said, no, it's not going to deliver that on the basis of advice that I've just received."
Earlier in the day at his press conference, he was asked about how many homes now had safety issues. After a long ramble this little beauty came up: "The sum total of my remarks to you is this, being faced with that advice, having gone through those various stages, continuing to amplify and build strength into our regulatory approach, and still finding on the basis of the most recent advice that has been outlined to you, that there is still an unacceptably high level of risk, I have taken the step that this program should not continue in its current form. And we will apply the necessary rigours and measures for a program in the future to delivery safely."
No musical intonations in that sentence. It's hard to even decipher what "continuing to amplify and build strength into our regulatory approach" actually means. Don Watson would be appalled.
All of the above Ruddisms have come when Garrett was at the pressure peak of the insulation fiasco. In fact if we drew a graph of the Rudd-like phrasings and the pressure Garrett was under, the two lines would surely meet at around this point last week.
But once upon a time there was less pressure, when Garrett was a fresh faced shadow minister for Arts and made a speech. In "The Politics of Art" he promoted the importance of music in our lives. He went on to say "... the fact is my public life has been, and still is, immersed in the politics of art." Perhaps, now more than ever, he should put the art back into politics.
Comments 1
Peter Garrett is a man under pressure. Everybody knows that. But when you start to speak like the Ruddbot, as our PM is so affectionately termed, then I think you're in real trouble. As the insulation debate goes around and around in circles, Garrett seems to be surviving the interminable questions admirably, but at the same time he's losing his former sense of lyrical clarity. When the hard questions come, the polispeak goes up like a shield of armour.
Garrett, as we all know, has a long history of intertwining political and artistic strands. Midnight Oil will always be a great Australian band because of the lyrics that combined art and politics. Beds are burning, oddly enough John Howard's favourite Midnight Oil song, has clear lines of prose communicating the injustice of the Aboriginal land rights issue. Take for instance the verses describing the red centre:
Out where the river broke
The bloodwood and the desert oak
Holden wrecks and boiling diesels
Steam in forty five degrees
And then comes the catchy refrain:
The time has come
A fact's a fact
It belongs to them
Let's give it back.
It paints a picture of the desert land which Aboriginal communities are trying to hold on to and why it should be returned. But Garrett speaks more these days of "transitioning programs" and the "totality of advice" given to him. It's fine that the content of what he's saying has changed, he's no longer the rock star activist and nor should anyone expect him to be. But it is a shame that the lyricism of Oils' songs has been replaced by distorted political language, akin to Rudd on a good day. I guess dodging answers to questions is easy enough when no one can understand what you're saying.
After scrapping the insulation program last week, Garrett was confronted with some of the criticisms of the new program by Ticky Fullerton on Lateline. He confirmed safety was the priority and that "we have always wanted to make sure that risk management was one of the primary goals of delivery in terms of what we required from people in the program."
Sky News' David Speers asked earlier whether Garrett would acknowledge that he got it wrong. His answer, or lack there of, was: "In relation to the overall question of was the system, in terms of both delivery and terms of guidelines, in terms of training, sufficient to be able to deliver that level of risk management that we thought - and I believe - is necessary. The answer clearly is we encountered some issues there which said, no, it's not going to deliver that on the basis of advice that I've just received."
Earlier in the day at his press conference, he was asked about how many homes now had safety issues. After a long ramble this little beauty came up: "The sum total of my remarks to you is this, being faced with that advice, having gone through those various stages, continuing to amplify and build strength into our regulatory approach, and still finding on the basis of the most recent advice that has been outlined to you, that there is still an unacceptably high level of risk, I have taken the step that this program should not continue in its current form. And we will apply the necessary rigours and measures for a program in the future to delivery safely."
No musical intonations in that sentence. It's hard to even decipher what "continuing to amplify and build strength into our regulatory approach" actually means. Don Watson would be appalled.
All of the above Ruddisms have come when Garrett was at the pressure peak of the insulation fiasco. In fact if we drew a graph of the Rudd-like phrasings and the pressure Garrett was under, the two lines would surely meet at around this point last week.
But once upon a time there was less pressure, when Garrett was a fresh faced shadow minister for Arts and made a speech. In "The Politics of Art" he promoted the importance of music in our lives. He went on to say "... the fact is my public life has been, and still is, immersed in the politics of art." Perhaps, now more than ever, he should put the art back into politics.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Godwin Grech's Home up for inspection this Sat
34 Carter Cres available for a sticky beak this Saturday, 1.15 pm
Malaysia holding conference on whether caning women is ok
My kind of conference. Let's cane 'em all I say.
Sarah Palin Speech opens 6th seal
Gates of hell open as everyone says 'gosh' a lot.
http://tiny.cc/UCrxK
http://tiny.cc/UCrxK
Was Joyce on the loo during an interview?
Sounds like a toilet flush in the background. listen here http://tiny.cc/VPXi0
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Naan Violent protest
BELLA COUNIHAN
If food represents culture then Australians may well be like their own meat pies - one has only to lift the lid, add a little tomato sauce of feeling and the majority of us are not like the crusty exterior. On the inside we are just a gooey mix and this is perhaps why Mia Northrop, organiser of Vindaloo against Violence, felt she had to do something about the violent attacks against Indians in Melbourne.
As protests go, it's a fairly strange one. VagainstV asks its 16,000 participants from New York to Melbourne to stop for a curry at their local Indian or cook their own Indian food at home. In a kind of reverse boycott, everyday people who are appalled at the violence in Melbourne, send a message through sheer numbers. This is designed for people who would not usually be bothered going along to muddled lefty student protests or get hassled into signing a petition against the occupation of Palestine. Instead Northrop has got people involved via social media like Twitter and Facebook to send a message of compassion, to Indian media, to governments and to the Indian community itself. As Northrop said in The Age, "It's a small gesture, but when it's made by thousands of people simultaneously, I think it sends a really powerful message."
But there are concerns, some more legitimate than others. One blogger was not impressed, worried that "[the protest] has a tendency to reduce the cultural presence of Indian people in Australia to those jolly service industry folk dishing out butter chicken and saying, "Thank you, come again!" A simplistic view perhaps but the blogger reminds us of the site Stuff White People Like's section on 'awareness' protests. Stuff White People Like blogger Christian Lander writes that 'awareness' protests mean participants "keep doing stuff they like, except now they can feel better about making a difference." Noting that it is difficult to criticise 'awareness' despite its streak of self-congratulation.
How do you criticise something like this when hearts are in the right place and when there is a bit of community oomph behind it?
There are clearly lots of people getting behind it. The Victorian Premier John Brumby and the Minister Assisting the Premier on Multicultural Affairs James Merlino will join a group of Indian students for lunch in Melbourne to support the initiative. The dining hall in Victorian Parliament, which is sitting this week, is changing its menu to serve Indian cuisine. The Victorian Multicultural Commission and the Victorian Police are lending their official support by having lunches and dining at Indian restaurants. Julia Gillard will not be able to attend but a spokesperson said she supports any initiative that has the potential to reduce the incidence of violence in our communities and encourages Melburnians to get involved.
There are, however, still concerns from the Indian community particularly that this event does not actually formally raise money, although the organiser hopes that the restaurants "will channel the community spirit and "pay it forward" by donating to relevant charities. Gautam Gupta, spokesman of the Federation of Indian Students of Australia, points out that even some of the profit that Indian restaurants will generate "could pay for the legal representation of tens of thousands of Indian students who now urgently need to legally challenge unjust and retrospective immigration changes. The idea of VagainstV has its appeal but it lacks substance." Northrop notes, however, that Gupta had previously expressed support for the initiative. She also says that because it is a grass roots intiative done on a whim, funding issues would have been overly complex, the focus of the event being more about giving a "virtual hug" than addressing all the Indian communities issues at once.
I suppose the proof will be in the curry pudding, as it were. If the Indian community feel that hug and if restaurants pay the money forward that will go a long way to making the idea a success. And there are little other positive alternative ideas out there, especially ones as community oriented as this. So in the end, if it's a choice between having a vindaloo together or doing nothing, I think I'll go with the vindaloo.
If food represents culture then Australians may well be like their own meat pies - one has only to lift the lid, add a little tomato sauce of feeling and the majority of us are not like the crusty exterior. On the inside we are just a gooey mix and this is perhaps why Mia Northrop, organiser of Vindaloo against Violence, felt she had to do something about the violent attacks against Indians in Melbourne.
As protests go, it's a fairly strange one. VagainstV asks its 16,000 participants from New York to Melbourne to stop for a curry at their local Indian or cook their own Indian food at home. In a kind of reverse boycott, everyday people who are appalled at the violence in Melbourne, send a message through sheer numbers. This is designed for people who would not usually be bothered going along to muddled lefty student protests or get hassled into signing a petition against the occupation of Palestine. Instead Northrop has got people involved via social media like Twitter and Facebook to send a message of compassion, to Indian media, to governments and to the Indian community itself. As Northrop said in The Age, "It's a small gesture, but when it's made by thousands of people simultaneously, I think it sends a really powerful message."
But there are concerns, some more legitimate than others. One blogger was not impressed, worried that "[the protest] has a tendency to reduce the cultural presence of Indian people in Australia to those jolly service industry folk dishing out butter chicken and saying, "Thank you, come again!" A simplistic view perhaps but the blogger reminds us of the site Stuff White People Like's section on 'awareness' protests. Stuff White People Like blogger Christian Lander writes that 'awareness' protests mean participants "keep doing stuff they like, except now they can feel better about making a difference." Noting that it is difficult to criticise 'awareness' despite its streak of self-congratulation.
How do you criticise something like this when hearts are in the right place and when there is a bit of community oomph behind it?
There are clearly lots of people getting behind it. The Victorian Premier John Brumby and the Minister Assisting the Premier on Multicultural Affairs James Merlino will join a group of Indian students for lunch in Melbourne to support the initiative. The dining hall in Victorian Parliament, which is sitting this week, is changing its menu to serve Indian cuisine. The Victorian Multicultural Commission and the Victorian Police are lending their official support by having lunches and dining at Indian restaurants. Julia Gillard will not be able to attend but a spokesperson said she supports any initiative that has the potential to reduce the incidence of violence in our communities and encourages Melburnians to get involved.
There are, however, still concerns from the Indian community particularly that this event does not actually formally raise money, although the organiser hopes that the restaurants "will channel the community spirit and "pay it forward" by donating to relevant charities. Gautam Gupta, spokesman of the Federation of Indian Students of Australia, points out that even some of the profit that Indian restaurants will generate "could pay for the legal representation of tens of thousands of Indian students who now urgently need to legally challenge unjust and retrospective immigration changes. The idea of VagainstV has its appeal but it lacks substance." Northrop notes, however, that Gupta had previously expressed support for the initiative. She also says that because it is a grass roots intiative done on a whim, funding issues would have been overly complex, the focus of the event being more about giving a "virtual hug" than addressing all the Indian communities issues at once.
I suppose the proof will be in the curry pudding, as it were. If the Indian community feel that hug and if restaurants pay the money forward that will go a long way to making the idea a success. And there are little other positive alternative ideas out there, especially ones as community oriented as this. So in the end, if it's a choice between having a vindaloo together or doing nothing, I think I'll go with the vindaloo.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Friday, February 19, 2010
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Romney and Rapper fight on plane
Rapper Sky Blu from LMFAO didn't put his seat up, so Morman Republican Mitt Romney let him have it.
Hanson in the USA
BELLA COUNIHAN February 19, 2010 - 8:51AM
Comments 6
Pauline Hanson was going. Then she was staying. Then, according to her real estate agent, she was going to the UK just for a holiday, stating "she does not want to become a Pom". But phew, the real estate agent was wrong and Hanson confirmed again that she was to leave Australia indefinitely. But Pauline has made a mistake. No, I'm sure she knows where she's going better than her real estate agent. Hanson made a mistake in choosing her destination - the motherland Britain as her new home. Not just because, as Goanna pointed out, their might be too many brown faces and burkas for Pauline's liking but because she's missing out on political opportunities elsewhere.
Let's just say we put Pauline, single mum and ex-fish shop owner in the global context, one can see an obvious home for her. A place where the right wingers are marching in the streets? Where else but the good ol' US of A. After suffering the indignities of jail, a fake nude photo scandal and failure to be re-elected four times, where better to start over and get some political purchase but the land of opportunity itself.
This is especially true when you consider that in the US right now the Tea Party movement with ex-McCain running mate Sarah Palin as sponsor is really gaining ground, with millions marching in the streets. A strange amorphous organisation, the Tea Party (not actually a political party) is collecting up all those voiceless and often exclusively white masses from the right and letting them speak their conservative minds on a range of issues including debt, big government and health care. Pauline herself talking to Woman's Day about her plans to emigrate complained of Australia's "overregulation, increasing taxes and lack of true representation." These are the very same issues expressed by her political soul mates in the US.
The other affinity Pauline and the Tea Baggers (no irony to its slang meaning) have is a vehement denial of prejudice. This is despite Pauline's stance on migration and the Tea Baggers' personal attacks on Barack Obama, which would say something to the contrary. After all, comparing Obama to an African Witch Doctor or holding up a sign that says "Obama's plan=white slavery" does not scream tolerance.
In many ways these are the American version of Hanson's people. The same that got her up and running as a local member for Oxley way back in 1996 on a platform of fear. The Tea Party movement is in many ways a clothed One Nation with less focus on immigration and more focus on the scary black president who, didn't you know, is a "socialist," a "Muslim" and a "thug"
The only comparable far-right organisation in Britain, the British National Party, a strongly anti-immigration party, has welcomed Hanson. But she's not going to get the same political mileage out of those guys. Griffin has even declared that she is not a "sponger", as good a job offer as you are ever likely to get. But the BNP only has about 11,000 members and has even stopped discriminating with its membership. A recent vote at a general meeting means they now let non-whites into the organisation. One Sikh man has even joined the party worried about Muslim migration - a previous concern of Hanson's in her 2007 Senate election campaign. But the point is when discriminatory organisations in Britain can no longer discriminate, the political future for Pauline with the Brits does not look good.
A dream of her running for the BNP or as a sponsored candidate for the Tea Party is in the end unlikely - there are of course rules about how far you can get politically in American when you weren't been born there. And she has confirmed only this week that she will never again enter the world of politics. But imagine for a moment that it was Pauline who ran with McCain in the 2008 US electoral campaign. Palin and Hanson do have a fair amount of cross over - they both pandered to grass roots conservatism, neither were the sharpest political tools in the shed but both had mass appeal. Palin flourished in US conservative soil, where as Hanson's political energy in Australia petered out. An idea emerges - if US citizen Pauline had entered into American politics then maybe she would be in Palin's place.
All I can say is I don't like the idea at all, I just don't like it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4tZRZSGxcE&feature=player_embedded
Comments 6
Pauline Hanson was going. Then she was staying. Then, according to her real estate agent, she was going to the UK just for a holiday, stating "she does not want to become a Pom". But phew, the real estate agent was wrong and Hanson confirmed again that she was to leave Australia indefinitely. But Pauline has made a mistake. No, I'm sure she knows where she's going better than her real estate agent. Hanson made a mistake in choosing her destination - the motherland Britain as her new home. Not just because, as Goanna pointed out, their might be too many brown faces and burkas for Pauline's liking but because she's missing out on political opportunities elsewhere.
Let's just say we put Pauline, single mum and ex-fish shop owner in the global context, one can see an obvious home for her. A place where the right wingers are marching in the streets? Where else but the good ol' US of A. After suffering the indignities of jail, a fake nude photo scandal and failure to be re-elected four times, where better to start over and get some political purchase but the land of opportunity itself.
This is especially true when you consider that in the US right now the Tea Party movement with ex-McCain running mate Sarah Palin as sponsor is really gaining ground, with millions marching in the streets. A strange amorphous organisation, the Tea Party (not actually a political party) is collecting up all those voiceless and often exclusively white masses from the right and letting them speak their conservative minds on a range of issues including debt, big government and health care. Pauline herself talking to Woman's Day about her plans to emigrate complained of Australia's "overregulation, increasing taxes and lack of true representation." These are the very same issues expressed by her political soul mates in the US.
The other affinity Pauline and the Tea Baggers (no irony to its slang meaning) have is a vehement denial of prejudice. This is despite Pauline's stance on migration and the Tea Baggers' personal attacks on Barack Obama, which would say something to the contrary. After all, comparing Obama to an African Witch Doctor or holding up a sign that says "Obama's plan=white slavery" does not scream tolerance.
In many ways these are the American version of Hanson's people. The same that got her up and running as a local member for Oxley way back in 1996 on a platform of fear. The Tea Party movement is in many ways a clothed One Nation with less focus on immigration and more focus on the scary black president who, didn't you know, is a "socialist," a "Muslim" and a "thug"
The only comparable far-right organisation in Britain, the British National Party, a strongly anti-immigration party, has welcomed Hanson. But she's not going to get the same political mileage out of those guys. Griffin has even declared that she is not a "sponger", as good a job offer as you are ever likely to get. But the BNP only has about 11,000 members and has even stopped discriminating with its membership. A recent vote at a general meeting means they now let non-whites into the organisation. One Sikh man has even joined the party worried about Muslim migration - a previous concern of Hanson's in her 2007 Senate election campaign. But the point is when discriminatory organisations in Britain can no longer discriminate, the political future for Pauline with the Brits does not look good.
A dream of her running for the BNP or as a sponsored candidate for the Tea Party is in the end unlikely - there are of course rules about how far you can get politically in American when you weren't been born there. And she has confirmed only this week that she will never again enter the world of politics. But imagine for a moment that it was Pauline who ran with McCain in the 2008 US electoral campaign. Palin and Hanson do have a fair amount of cross over - they both pandered to grass roots conservatism, neither were the sharpest political tools in the shed but both had mass appeal. Palin flourished in US conservative soil, where as Hanson's political energy in Australia petered out. An idea emerges - if US citizen Pauline had entered into American politics then maybe she would be in Palin's place.
All I can say is I don't like the idea at all, I just don't like it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4tZRZSGxcE&feature=player_embedded
Politician caught playing with phone in Parli
Northern Territory MP denies he was playing games on his phone during a parli session.
Westpac "oh so very over it today"
Accidental Tweet by Westpac "Oh so very over it today". Or maybe this was intentional. Maybe this is Westpac's cry for help?
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Nailing our happiness colours to the wall
BELLA COUNIHAN
Happiness. Love. For most of us these are all lovely notions, floating in balloons of abstraction in the stratosphere; limited to art more than science. Measuring these thing looks like too hard basket material. But more and more that's exactly what we try to do. We want to know who is happier? When are we happier?
Just when this is about to give us a headache, social media comes once again to save the day. The USNational Happiness Index, landed on the shores of Facebook, will let us know for certain the peaks and troughs of positivity and could be a new frontier in "happiness science". It analyses anonymously the words used by US users in Facebook status updates and assesses their positivity and negativity, giving us a pretty graph of how the US is feeling on any given day.
The Facebook data team is even using the index to assess who is happier. After Valentine's day, the team analysed questions of love, including whether people in relationships are more likely to be positive. According to Facebook, the result, sadly enough for those lonely hearts, is that those partnered up are generally more happy, and those in a marriage are even happier than those simply "in a relationship". Curiously those in "open relationships" - whatever that means - are the least happy of all, sadder than even those who list themselves as widowed or "it's complicated". If you don't disclose your relationship status at all, then heaven help you
The science of happiness is actually an already established field. In economics and social research there have long been efforts to quantify and qualify our feelings. In Bhutan there is even a Gross National Happiness Movement, a philosophy and policy hybrid where the king and the Bhutanese government keep an eye on a gross national happiness index (as opposed to gross domestic product). The Bhutanese know that to improve national happiness you need to know how to measure it.
To a scientist of happiness, Facebook updates are a wet dream of data with 100 million posted words a day. One can analyse these to find who, where and when and how we are feeling. The creator of the index, Adam Kramer, a social psychology student at the University of Oregon (who happens to be 72 percent happier than the average American Facebook user) explains on his blog; "every day, through Facebook status updates, people share how they feel with those who matter most in their lives. These updates are tiny windows into how people are doing." From this angle it looks like social media could be the brave new frontier of the science of happiness.
But there might be a few problems with using this kind of social networking data to assess "happiness".
First, data sourced from status updates may well overstate positivity. Our Facebook updates, because of their semi-public nature, may prompt us to appear happier than we might otherwise be; a Facebook face to meet the faces that you meet if you will. Apologies to T.S Eliot there. The other issue is that not everyone uses their Facebook updates to actually say how they are feeling at that very moment. Status updates can also simply be links to other things in the news or quotes from somewhere else. A user, also a hip hop fan, may well pick out lyrics and use that as an update. For example Busta Rhymes' lyric: "Break ya f*ckin neck b*tches" as an update is seemingly negative but this could well be our user appreciating the Brooklyn rapper's confrontational style. Anyway, said user may be in enough trouble having committed one of the cardinal sins of Facebook - lyric updating.
Another issue might be categorising words as positive or negative. A few example of words used in the Facebook happiness index were "yay" and "awesome" for the positive indicators and "sad" and "tragic" for negative. But words depend on context not understood by a computer anonymously searching for terms. A word like "tragic", deemed to be an "unhappy" word, could be used in the context of Bill " is a Depeche Mode tragic" - not necessarily a negative thing. Or the word "yay" could easily be used in the context of Bill "has to go to work today. yay." Sarcasm underlies an unhappy day of work for Bill there.
But it is interesting to reflect on why we want to measure happiness in the first place. This index is a part of a wider trend among social researchers, economist and the Bhutanese, to nail our happiness colours to the wall. We want more and more to quantify, qualify, compare and even attribute a dollar value to abstractions like happiness. Why we are happy? When we are happy? Who is the happiest? It might be wise to remember that the analysed life is not always the happiest one.
http://twitter.com/Becoon
Happiness. Love. For most of us these are all lovely notions, floating in balloons of abstraction in the stratosphere; limited to art more than science. Measuring these thing looks like too hard basket material. But more and more that's exactly what we try to do. We want to know who is happier? When are we happier?
Just when this is about to give us a headache, social media comes once again to save the day. The USNational Happiness Index, landed on the shores of Facebook, will let us know for certain the peaks and troughs of positivity and could be a new frontier in "happiness science". It analyses anonymously the words used by US users in Facebook status updates and assesses their positivity and negativity, giving us a pretty graph of how the US is feeling on any given day.
The Facebook data team is even using the index to assess who is happier. After Valentine's day, the team analysed questions of love, including whether people in relationships are more likely to be positive. According to Facebook, the result, sadly enough for those lonely hearts, is that those partnered up are generally more happy, and those in a marriage are even happier than those simply "in a relationship". Curiously those in "open relationships" - whatever that means - are the least happy of all, sadder than even those who list themselves as widowed or "it's complicated". If you don't disclose your relationship status at all, then heaven help you
The science of happiness is actually an already established field. In economics and social research there have long been efforts to quantify and qualify our feelings. In Bhutan there is even a Gross National Happiness Movement, a philosophy and policy hybrid where the king and the Bhutanese government keep an eye on a gross national happiness index (as opposed to gross domestic product). The Bhutanese know that to improve national happiness you need to know how to measure it.
To a scientist of happiness, Facebook updates are a wet dream of data with 100 million posted words a day. One can analyse these to find who, where and when and how we are feeling. The creator of the index, Adam Kramer, a social psychology student at the University of Oregon (who happens to be 72 percent happier than the average American Facebook user) explains on his blog; "every day, through Facebook status updates, people share how they feel with those who matter most in their lives. These updates are tiny windows into how people are doing." From this angle it looks like social media could be the brave new frontier of the science of happiness.
But there might be a few problems with using this kind of social networking data to assess "happiness".
First, data sourced from status updates may well overstate positivity. Our Facebook updates, because of their semi-public nature, may prompt us to appear happier than we might otherwise be; a Facebook face to meet the faces that you meet if you will. Apologies to T.S Eliot there. The other issue is that not everyone uses their Facebook updates to actually say how they are feeling at that very moment. Status updates can also simply be links to other things in the news or quotes from somewhere else. A user, also a hip hop fan, may well pick out lyrics and use that as an update. For example Busta Rhymes' lyric: "Break ya f*ckin neck b*tches" as an update is seemingly negative but this could well be our user appreciating the Brooklyn rapper's confrontational style. Anyway, said user may be in enough trouble having committed one of the cardinal sins of Facebook - lyric updating.
Another issue might be categorising words as positive or negative. A few example of words used in the Facebook happiness index were "yay" and "awesome" for the positive indicators and "sad" and "tragic" for negative. But words depend on context not understood by a computer anonymously searching for terms. A word like "tragic", deemed to be an "unhappy" word, could be used in the context of Bill " is a Depeche Mode tragic" - not necessarily a negative thing. Or the word "yay" could easily be used in the context of Bill "has to go to work today. yay." Sarcasm underlies an unhappy day of work for Bill there.
But it is interesting to reflect on why we want to measure happiness in the first place. This index is a part of a wider trend among social researchers, economist and the Bhutanese, to nail our happiness colours to the wall. We want more and more to quantify, qualify, compare and even attribute a dollar value to abstractions like happiness. Why we are happy? When we are happy? Who is the happiest? It might be wise to remember that the analysed life is not always the happiest one.
http://twitter.com/Becoon
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Liberals nearly had no option left for leader
Truck nearly takes out Abbott funnily enough at a doorstop on road safety. No joke.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Since when do the discriminatory organisations stop discriminating??
British National Party scraps White Only rule
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Kevin's Q & A with the animals
BELLA COUNIHAN February 11, 2010
As the sun rose over the jungle a quiet stirring was to be found. In a clearing, a gathering of young animals waited patiently for the king of the jungle, Kevin the Lion, to arrive. Kevin was only minutes away from greeting the animals of the jungle, his heart was pounding but he strode through the undergrowth confident. "I remember last time", thought Kevin the Lion, "where I was held up by that baboon guy while the circle of life played in the background. Zebras, elephants, rhinos - all the animals of the jungle bowed down before me and I was crowned King. I'm sure this next meeting with the animals will go just as smoothly."
But Kevin the Lion was in for a rude surprise. The jungle animals, especially the young ones who had supported him when he took over the jungle, were not happy with the way he was running the place. The young animals in particular were worried and were ready to take Kevin to task. The lion strode up to the clearing unaware of what was to come.
The first question came from a lame duck who hobbled up and asked about Kevin's campaign slogan. Kevin looked squarely at the duck and ate him up. That was the end of that. But there were more serious questions - "How can we trust you?" asked one little bear. "You haven't done anything you said you would, what about the high road toll for us animals? There's more and more of us getting squished and turned into road kill all the time!"
Kevin the lion was taken aback. He was not prepared for these kinds of confronting questions. He felt the eyes of all the other animals watching and beads of sweat ran down his fur. In the trees, tweeting parrots laughed at the whole scene and thought the animals' silly questions were very amusing. One parrot chirped how bored he was of the meeting and flew off to watch something else.
The rest of the animals continued to squeak and squawk out scary questions for Kevin. He tried to answer the best he could but he was nervous - this was definitely not like last time. Then a penguin rushed up; "what are you going to do about the climate in this jungle? Its getting warmer all the time and most of us can't hack it. You need to change it right away!" One little piglet squealed that he did not believe it was getting warmer in the jungle but he could not be heard among all the snarls and hooting and hollering. The animals were getting into a frenzy. Tony the fox sat in the undergrowth and smiled a knowing smile as he watched the chaos. "Now everyone will forget that I run around with that red-faced baboon Barnaby," he thought.
The animals continued to cluck and neigh and howl. "We're not satisfied with your answers!" bellowed a moose. "You're all talk and no action," gobbled a turkey.
"Calm down!" roared Kevin the Lion. Then he purred, "I'm only one little Lion and I'm doing my best! You guys are just ganging up on me for the sake of it. Most of you don't even live in this jungle. You, the Indian elephant, have you always lived in this jungle?"
"Oooooh!" went the crowd. "You're an animalist!" they cried. "You think some animals are more equal than others!"
"No, I don't", said the Lion, "I just want to know if everybody here lives within my kingdom then I can answer your questions properly." But the Lion could not be heard, his pleas were drowned out by bleats, buzzes and braying of all sorts. The animals whipped themselves up into such hysteria that they ran out of the jungle and rampaged across the valley leaving only a cloud of dust behind them.
The lion breathed a sigh of relief, the tumultuous meeting was over. Kevin the Lion went back into the jungle with his tail between his legs. "I should have heeded the warning", said the Lion to himself, "never work with children or animals."
Bella Counihan is The Goanna.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Monday, February 8, 2010
Does Palin have crib notes?
In a Q and A with conservatives, Palin looks like she's got some cheat notes here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOvQCkrm3Sg
Iran cracks down on journos and bloggers
Iran setting up a special unit within the police to deal with "insults and lies"
North Korea cancelled their paper currency
Big Kim has cancelled paper currency, inflation has gone nuts, people are getting 100 old won for one new won. Citizens are actually publicly showing defiance - http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/kims-bold-korea-move-backfires-20100208-nn9m.html?autostart=1
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Bike Goliath Leaves Others in Wake
BELLA COUNIHAN February 8, 2010 - 12:56PM
Comments 6
I was trying to figure out why I might like Tony Abbott. Was it his frankness? Was it his no-bullshit personality? Was he simply a politician that gave a genuine answer when asked a genuine question? Well, maybe. These things contribute. But more than anything I think it was the bike.
The bike itself is not anything particularly special. Bought in the trading post, this is his main road bike for use in Canberra (he has another allegedly swankier bike in Sydney). Before any of us have even opened an eye lid, the opposition leader has been up Red Hill a Herculean four times. Its retro, heavy steel frame would not make the ride that easy. In the first week back to parliament, looking up one evening on the ABC news, dramatic music accompanied Tony cycling at some ungodly time in the morning - it looked good . But this image of dedicated exercise could be important and could be a real advantage.
It's hard to not make a comparison between Abbott's morning cycle and former PM John Howard's indefatigable jump-suited AM walks, which became a part of his political routine. Howard used it to reinforce the portrayal of Kim Beazely as physically unfit and therefore undisciplined. Howard made sure he was seen every morning on his power walk. Where he went, so went media, a crew of security guards, the occasional protesters and the odd Chaser comedian. Except for the recent picture opportunity, Abbott wakes up too early for many people to be around but he is making his unrelenting fitness a part of his image and for good reason. Devotion to exercise shows a sense of internal drive that people seem to admire. Just like admiring (perhaps secretly) the person who chooses to eat the muesli bar instead of reaching for the fifth Tim Tam.
In Abbott's case, however, its more like a muesli bar covered in thorns. Note last week's fitness timetable for the opposition leader; Friday before the parliamentary session he cycled up and down Red Hill four times along with a one kilometre swim in the parliament house pool. Saturday was an 8K run in Adelaide and Sunday a mere two and half kilometre Ocean Swim (where he was pictured budgie smuggling again despite promises otherwise). Monday was another long run and time in the gym and the last three days of the parliamentary week was the Red Hill cycle and 30 minutes in the gym per day. He is also scheduled to do is annual Pollie Pedal charity ride, to be launched this Tuesday. It involves a cycle from Melbourne to Sydney, averaging about 130 kilometres a day to raise money for indigenous health charity, the Poche centre. There is no doubt that the "mad monk" is bordering on self-flagellating here.
The fitness of pollies, past or present, does not compare. Unless you're thinking maybe Vladimir Putin or perhaps the ripped basketball playing Obama. Rudd certainly does not publicly display his fitness in the same way and our ex-PM Paul Keating, concerned about cancer, used to jump up and down on a trampoline to get the red blood cells moving. Boris Johnson, the mayor of London, eccentrically rides everywhere in a suit, even up to press conferences. All of these create an image and even on a subconscious level, give us an idea and about who these people are.
Despite recent comparisons with the ex-opposition leader Mark Latham and Abbott, their attitude to fitness couldn't be more different. In the 2004 election campaign and after a constant and unrelenting mention of his man boobs, Latham famously challenged two journos to a race along Brisbane river. This was not for charity or for a show of goodwill towards the fourth estate. No, this was about Latham squashing others into the ground as he crossed the finish line first, leaving the Herald Sun's Gerard McManus behind with a torn calf muscle. Both of them may have an aggressive streak that powers them on but Abbott doesn't have a chip on his shoulder.
Abbott's cycling is, in the end, not all for publicity, he does have genuine love of exercise. But it is how he uses that image to his advantage that counts. That old bike, along with his appearance as a straight talker, could get him far.
Comments 6
I was trying to figure out why I might like Tony Abbott. Was it his frankness? Was it his no-bullshit personality? Was he simply a politician that gave a genuine answer when asked a genuine question? Well, maybe. These things contribute. But more than anything I think it was the bike.
The bike itself is not anything particularly special. Bought in the trading post, this is his main road bike for use in Canberra (he has another allegedly swankier bike in Sydney). Before any of us have even opened an eye lid, the opposition leader has been up Red Hill a Herculean four times. Its retro, heavy steel frame would not make the ride that easy. In the first week back to parliament, looking up one evening on the ABC news, dramatic music accompanied Tony cycling at some ungodly time in the morning - it looked good . But this image of dedicated exercise could be important and could be a real advantage.
It's hard to not make a comparison between Abbott's morning cycle and former PM John Howard's indefatigable jump-suited AM walks, which became a part of his political routine. Howard used it to reinforce the portrayal of Kim Beazely as physically unfit and therefore undisciplined. Howard made sure he was seen every morning on his power walk. Where he went, so went media, a crew of security guards, the occasional protesters and the odd Chaser comedian. Except for the recent picture opportunity, Abbott wakes up too early for many people to be around but he is making his unrelenting fitness a part of his image and for good reason. Devotion to exercise shows a sense of internal drive that people seem to admire. Just like admiring (perhaps secretly) the person who chooses to eat the muesli bar instead of reaching for the fifth Tim Tam.
In Abbott's case, however, its more like a muesli bar covered in thorns. Note last week's fitness timetable for the opposition leader; Friday before the parliamentary session he cycled up and down Red Hill four times along with a one kilometre swim in the parliament house pool. Saturday was an 8K run in Adelaide and Sunday a mere two and half kilometre Ocean Swim (where he was pictured budgie smuggling again despite promises otherwise). Monday was another long run and time in the gym and the last three days of the parliamentary week was the Red Hill cycle and 30 minutes in the gym per day. He is also scheduled to do is annual Pollie Pedal charity ride, to be launched this Tuesday. It involves a cycle from Melbourne to Sydney, averaging about 130 kilometres a day to raise money for indigenous health charity, the Poche centre. There is no doubt that the "mad monk" is bordering on self-flagellating here.
The fitness of pollies, past or present, does not compare. Unless you're thinking maybe Vladimir Putin or perhaps the ripped basketball playing Obama. Rudd certainly does not publicly display his fitness in the same way and our ex-PM Paul Keating, concerned about cancer, used to jump up and down on a trampoline to get the red blood cells moving. Boris Johnson, the mayor of London, eccentrically rides everywhere in a suit, even up to press conferences. All of these create an image and even on a subconscious level, give us an idea and about who these people are.
Despite recent comparisons with the ex-opposition leader Mark Latham and Abbott, their attitude to fitness couldn't be more different. In the 2004 election campaign and after a constant and unrelenting mention of his man boobs, Latham famously challenged two journos to a race along Brisbane river. This was not for charity or for a show of goodwill towards the fourth estate. No, this was about Latham squashing others into the ground as he crossed the finish line first, leaving the Herald Sun's Gerard McManus behind with a torn calf muscle. Both of them may have an aggressive streak that powers them on but Abbott doesn't have a chip on his shoulder.
Abbott's cycling is, in the end, not all for publicity, he does have genuine love of exercise. But it is how he uses that image to his advantage that counts. That old bike, along with his appearance as a straight talker, could get him far.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
When I'm 94
BELLA COUNIHAN
February 5, 2010 - 7:20AMA creaking sound comes from an old wooden chair rocking on a porch on Mount Ainslie. Once home to ghouls and evil spirits bent on attacking parliamentarians, two very elderly retired gentleman sit and watch over the city of Canberra. The year is 2050 and the place has changed a bit . . .
"Kevin, who'd have thunk we'd be sitting here in the year 2050 with everything we'd set out to achieve done and dusted. People are working well into their 70s, we're more productive than ever and that 5 per cent target for emissions reduction means we've finally put Canberra on the map as a beach-side town. The rising sea level has had some benefits after all," said the aged ex-Treasurer. In the background, Bay Burley Griffin slowly lapped at the shores of Parliament Hill.
The 94-year-old Wayne Swan continued, "I'm so glad little Rudd and Swan Junior, now running the country, didn't have anything to disturb their progress to the top. The war on binge drinking got rid of people on the piss, the war on drugs cleared up any sneaky reefers or pills hanging around and the internet filter stopped them from watching anything as corrupting as porn."
Paul Keating, now a head in a jar on the porch opposite, yells out "Yeah and the general fun-ectomy that you guys performed on Australian politics means they're the most boring politicians ever! You scumbags look exciting next to them!"
"Oh shut up, Paul," Wayne retorted. "I'm in the middle of reminiscing here."
A wrinkly Rudd looks up at his old running mate, nodding heartily. "Indeed Wayne what an agenda of work we enacted in all those due seasons that we had together. We put that climate condom on a magic pudding for complementarity of synthesis and further developed the multilateral terms of reference. Firstly, our commitment to. . ."
As Rudd trailed off into a characteristic rant, Swan knew that dementia had truly taken hold of the elderly Rudd, although often it was hard to tell the difference. Wayne remembered back when he released the intergenerational report, when they had both looked to the future. "Who could have predicted that we would still be here in the year 2050?" he thought.
But his jittery mind worried. He worried about the burden that he, now an nonagenarian, placed on his own precious economy. He was now among the 23 per cent of people over the age of 65 and despite all his efforts as treasurer he was still felt like just another old bloke putting pressure on infrastructure, health and aged care. Not to mention pressure on his own offspring, already burdened with running the country. "Poor Swan junior", he thought, "how will he cope with all these old people increasing government spending, less revenue coming in from early retirees and debt up to the eyeballs. Even worse than when I was treasurer. Now every third person is working to support old farts like me. It's just not fair. I can't even surf anymore."
"Don't look down Wayne," Rudd senior chimed in. "At least we knocked over Howard, Turnbull and even Abbott. Pity we didn't get Kelly O'Dwyer too. Then we would have really had them. I mean fair shake of the Waltzing Matilda Swan, you and I did our best with the complimentarity . . . and the condom . . . and the wacko the diddly-o . . . zzzz"
As the ageing ex-PM slowly dribbled into his vest, Swan thought maybe the senile Rudd had a point. Maybe getting old was just a part of life, governments would just have to get used to it and cope the best they can. He mumbled to himself "maybe it was better to reflect on your achievements". Rudd continued to babble louder in the background and Paul's head yelled across "would you shut him up Wayne?! He's going on like a thousand-day clock and doing my head in!"
"All right" said Swan, "time to eat your soylent green, Kevin."
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
White Power Likes this - Racist Facebook groups
BELLA COUNIHAN
"Why the Aussies Hate us" splashed across the face of a bruised young man on the cover of Indian magazine Outlookcaused great angst in the hearts of many this week. Are we really racist? As Rudd's nephew and occasional wearer of a KKK robe Van Than Rudd says, do we really have a "dominant culture" of discrimination? Let's look back to Australia Day, with the riot squad on standby, most of us had a quiet one by the pool, or next to the barbie having one too many burnt sunscreen flavoured sausages. But in the background there was something different going on — a Southern Cross tattooee with a shirt proudly stating "We Grew Here, You Flew Here" or a slogan "F--- Off, We're Full" written on some flag-clad 15-year-old bogan's chest. This is usually restricted to those in the herd limited by brain cells and fuelled by the fifth VB tinny. The slogans are ignored and forgotten and we reassure ourselves again that we are not a racist nation until we see it all next time.
But this nationalist prejudice that boils to the surface on Australia Day is kept up year around on the world wide web. Unfortunately, the internet's freedom brings the freedom to be racist and no where is this more apparent than with Facebook groups. From these "hate groups" it would be hard to call Australians anything but racist. Even after all the violence, many refer specifically to Indians, groups like "Stop whinging Indians" and "Australia: Indians, You have the right to leave". There have been increasingly strong calls to ban them. So should we? Would it even be possible? Or should we look at why these "hate groups" have turned up in the first place.
Excluding the Indian specific racist drivel, there are also more broad hate groups (such as "Mate speak English, you're in Australia now", "Im (sic) Australian - We grew here you flew here", "SPEAK ENGLISH OR PISS OFF!!" and "F--- OFF WE'RE FULL") floating around Facebook's environs. And what do they all have in common, apart from some pretty poor grammar and spelling by their participants (particularly ironic in the case of the group "SPEAK ENGLISH OR PISS OFF!!")? They have a lot of members, some even going viral.
The general gist of these groups is to start any sentence on a discussion board or wall post with "I'm not racist but . . ." and then extend the usual elitist anti-PC fuzzy protection of Australian "culture" revival Hansonite "patriotism". This usually extends to telling stories about how an immigrant taxi driver you met once didn't know where you wanted to go so you called him a FOB (fresh off the boat for those who don't know) and told him to go back to where the "f" he came from.
These sites in effect have become a forum for this anger and simplistic nationalism, where members fuel others in back and forth online discussion. Knowing that there are other people as fearful of that immigrant taxi driver as you is a powerful thing. But what can Facebook itself do about it?
The short answer is not much. The popular social media site with more than 350 million active users has extensive terms and conditions that restrict what users can put up. The site directs users to not post "content that is hateful, threatening, pornographic, or that contains nudity or graphic or gratuitous violence". It also stipulates that Facebook can "remove any content or information you post on Facebook if we believe that it violates this statement". But this is definitely the exception rather than the rule — Facebook has only taken down pages inextreme circumstances or when there has been a "direct call for violence". The evidence would have to be pretty compelling, just being offensive to the rest of us isn't enough.
But simply being offensive is not why these groups have come about. It stems from a Cronulla riots type fear that something of "ours" is being taken away; of society disappearing down the rabbit hole of some "other" culture. Even if you're not really sure what constitutes "ours" or who or what the "other" really is. Perhaps this nationalist revival on Facebook is because some are unable to define "our" culture in the first place, possibly because it is and always will be an amalgam of different foreign influences. One member railing on the Facebook group entitled "Australia - The Right to Leave" even mistakenly listed "In God We Trust" as our national motto, oblivious to its American origin. The assimilation of other cultures in this country can get confusing for these guys too.
So do we just put up with looking racist to the rest of the world? On the Facebook level, one can join anti-discriminatory groups. There are plenty out there trying to counteract the hate groups ("1,000,000 Aussies against Racism", "F--- off, Xenophobes we're full" and "Australians against Racism and Discrimination"). You can even go to your local Indian and have a Vindaloo Against Violence on February 24. But in the end, you can't ban a T-shirt slogan or a Facebook group. But you can call it what is, disguised blue singlet racism confused and unable to define the thing it is trying so desperately to protect.
iiNet wins landmark case for ISPs
http://www.theage.com.au/business/iinet-slays-hollywood-in-landmark-piracy-case-20100204-nedw.html
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
France refuses a citizenship over full Islamic veil
Quote from French Immigration Minister, Eric Besson: "It became apparent during the regulation investigation and the prior interview that this person was compelling his wife to wear the all-covering veil, depriving her of the freedom to come and go with her face uncovered, and rejected the principles of secularism and equality between men and women," More here.
Monday, February 1, 2010
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