Melbourne cabbies demonstrating how to demonstrate
Congratulations to the cabbies of Melbourne for stickin’ it to the man and standing up for what they believe. Cabbies work long hours for little reward so I am glad to see this go their way. Actually because this demonstration was so effective it had to go their way. The pollies and the councilors had no other option.
Politicians barely listen so we need more protests like this one. Getting their kits off as part of the demonstration was the icing on the cabbie cake.
I appreciate a good cabbie and if he drives safely without being asked to, I always leave him a few dollars as a tip… that’s a hint for any cabbies reading this.
Water for Mulga Bore school
Ms Jenny Macklin MP
Minister for Indigenous Affairs
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
Dear Ms Macklin,
Re. Water for Mulga Bore school
Firstly, congratulations on the Government’s historic Motion of Apology to Indigenous Peoples. Congratulations too on the Government’s commitment to close the gap between Indigenous and non-indigenous Australians in areas such as life expectancy, education achievement and employment opportunities. I welcomed these with all my heart
Today I am writing to you about the water-quality crisis at the school at Mulga Bore in the Northern Territory. According to a report in The Age on February 28, the school is closed because they have no water. According to the report, “drinking water pumped from two bores is so severely contaminated with nitrates that young children, babies and pregnant mothers are at serious risk […] Mulga Bore’s nitrate levels are 1½ times greater than World Health Organisation standards for developing countries.”
It is almost unimaginable that a school here in Australia has been closed because of a lack of drinkable water. It is an image straight out of the third world. Both the symbolism, and the reality of its impact on the life expectancy, education achievement and employment opportunities of the children of Mulga Bore, must be devastating.
Are you aware of the situation at Mulga Bore? What is being done about it?
I would urge you to do all that you can to bring about a speedy reopening of the school at Mulga Bore and to ensure its long-term success.
Sincerely yours
Campbell
The making of the Beijing 2008 Olympic logo
Boys, boys, boys! I’m ready for a good time
harvest
Got back from a week at the beach and was pleased to see that the hot weather hadn’t decimated the vegie patch. Harvest included beans, rhubarb, silver beet, garlic, zucchini, cucumbers, tomatoes, potatoes and eggplant.
a recycled revolution
I am struck by the similarities between Rudd’s ‘education revolution’ and episode 29 of The West Wing. (Hello, my name is Campbell and I am a West Wing nerd).
Basically the White House staff come up with the idea of giving scholarships to teacher trainees who agree to work in inner city public schools. By the end of the episode this grand plan, which is to be the beginning of a ‘permanent revolution’* in education, gets watered down to a possible pilot program that might fund 100 scholarships.
Sorry Kev, giving away laptops to all secondary students is not an education revolution. Improving infrastructure at public shcools and conditions for teachers might be a better place to start.
*The phrase ‘permanent revolution’ is removed from the President’s speech as it apparently comes from Mao Zedong’s ‘Little Red Book’. Which made me think of this clip.
Watching promises kept?
This is merely a short piece to commend an idea and recommend that we all try to contribute to GetUp’s latest initiative - to log promises made by politicians hopeful of being elected on 24 November. The evil plan is to collate and then quote those promises back at the perpetrator and ask for follow through should they get elected (if they don’t get elected we won’t really remember their name, anyway, will me?)
So keep them honest by contributing to the wiki at getup.org.au/promisewatch/
(At the time of blogging 292 promises had been contributed)
The Honorable John Howard, Member for Bennelong
4 out of 6
With six months more training since my last time out, a flatter course and a pair of $30 socks I felt pretty confident about the Melbourne Marathon.
Thinking about it in the lead up, I had set myself the following goals
- Start
Sounds a bit silly, but making the commitment to attempt a marathon is actually quite a mental hurdle. - Finish
Complete the course, even if injured or dehydrated, before they close the race- about 6 hours after the start. - Don’t stop
Run the whole way. I’ve learned the hard way that my body doesn’t like running in the heat or the wind but even if the weather’s nasty I don’t want to walk. - Improve on last time (3:30:31)
Conditions permitting this felt pretty doable (what with the new socks and everything). - 3:15:00
A stretch, but not outside the realms of possibility.
- 3:00:00
A dream.
There is a moment when a freakish combination of traffic snarls, toilet queues and a clothes drop-off point located in the bowels of the MCG conspire to make even goal 1 seem unlikely. We make it to the marshalling point just in time only to hear that the start’s been put off by 15 minutes as they haven’t fully closed St Kilda Rd yet.
The course starts just outside the MCG, goes down St Kilda Rd, around Albert Park Lake, along the beach to Sandringham and then back. We start at the back of the pack of something like 8,000 entrants in the full and half marathons. Simon takes off quickly; it’s very crowded for the first 10km and I find it difficult to settle into a rhythm as I run around slower runners while skirting tram tracks and using the occasional footpath.
Once we hit the bay the field has opened up a bit and I move past the 4hr; 3:45 and 3:30 pacing groups. The turnaround point at Sandringham comes up sooner than I’d expected but having seen the 3:15 group on their way back I know it’s going to be a struggle to catch them. It’s not overly hot but very bright and exposed and I think the loss of fluid is starting to take a toll.
Richard and Penny are waiting on St Kilda and give me a welcome cheer and pep talk. It’s also a relief to be running in the shade for the first time. Then a final burst gets me up William Barak Bridge, around the outside of the G (where Em and the girls, who’ve made it in after all thanks to delayed flight [a long story], are waiting to give me a wave and a cheer) and then onto the ground for a final lap finishing in front of the Members’ Stand.
The clock shows 3:28 as I cross the line. Will get the official time on Tuesday but I reckon there was about 5 minutes beteween the race starting and my actually going over the starting line so it’ll be around 3:23.
I have a blood blister on my left foot that is the size, shape, colour and texture of one of those chewy rasberry lollies.
Burma petition
Burma is ruled by one of the worst military dictatorships in the world. Last month Buddhist monks and nuns began marching and chanting prayers to call for democracy. The protests spread and hundreds of thousands of Burmese people joined in — but they’ve been brutally attacked by the military regime.
This petition calls on Burma’s powerful ally China and the UN security council to step in and pressure Burma’s rulers to stop the killing.