Open letter to Kevin Andrews MP, Minister for Immigration and Citizenship
Dear Mr Andrews,
Please do not allow the 21 unprotected Afghan asylum seekers on Lombok to be forced back to a war zone.
It would be inhumane to force the return of Hazara Afghan asylum seekers at a time when the United States of America and Australia are planning to send more troops to Afghanistan to curb the violence of the increasing Taliban insurgence. The Taliban is notorious for persecuting the Hazara minority.
The 2006 Edmund Rice Report established that a number of asylum seekers who had been coerced into returning to Afghanistan had been killed or had to flee the country again after being tortured and otherwise mistreated. One Hazara Afghan deported after 16 months in Australian detention, despite his pleas that he and his family would be killed, lost his two children, aged six and nine. A grenade was dropped on their house four months after they returned to Afghanistan.
The families and single people presently threatened put their lives in the hands of people smugglers to escape the torture and killings of the Taliban. They arrived in Ashmore Reef in 2001 but were forced back to Indonesia by the Australian navy then taken to Lombok.
They have lived there for over five years without the basic human rights of work, travel, family reunion or study. For unstated reasons, these 21 people were not granted refugee status and are now illegal immigrants in Indonesia; a country which has not signed the Refugee Convention. They are now vulnerable to arrest and have been threatened with quarantine, where families, including babies, have reported being locked up in a single room without a mattress, on starvation rations, for an indefinite period of time.
I ask that the 21 women, men and children, who have suffered uncertainty and deprivation on Lombok for over five years, be allowed to share their culture and work skills with the Australian society as they are fairly assessed for refugee status and become valuable, contributing members of our community.
Yours sincerely,
An open letter to Look Bicycle Products, makers of Look Keo pedals
Dear Look Cycling Products,
I am a keen recreational road cyclist and have been a fan of Look Bicycle Products for several years. I am also a fan of the cyclists who endorse Look products, particularly Thor Hushovd and my favourite cyclist Robbie McEwan. I love how fast they can ride even after they have been riding all day.
It was my understanding that Look Cycling Products such as the KEO Sprint Road Pedal are of a high quality. This perception is re-enforced by your high-end prices. I am a discerning consumer, and I certainly don’t mind paying more for a product if there is a benefit of doing so. In the case of the KEO Sprint Road Pedal I considered there was.
I saved up some money and in August 2006 I purchased a brand new pair of red KEO Sprint Road Pedals. I got the red ones cause they match my bike nicely.
I rode with the pedals about 2 or 3 times a week for 2 months before the left pedal broke. I was a bit surprised by this but “these things happen” and it was only a small bolt or pin that broke and could not cost more than a few dollars and maybe 20 minutes of labour.
I took my broken pedal to Brunswick Street Cycles. Only to be told that because I purchased the pedals in the USA that Look would not honour the warranty. (That’s he last time I be honest when taking something back). The boys at BSC took up my case anyway and despite their lobbying you have refused to fix the pedal, a fix that would literally take you a few minutes. Probably less time than it takes to respond to this letter. Furthermore I was told that these pedals hardly ever break, so I doubt you would have a backlog of broken pedals to fix. At least I hope not. Edit: Actually Look does have a large amount of these pedals to fix. Nearly two years after I wrote this letter these pedals have finally been recalled. See the comments below for more information.
To compound the ridiculousness of the situation I weigh 65kg. I cannot be considered too heavy for your pedals. I am clearly not at fault for the pedal breaking.
What exactly is going on here? Has my pedal miraculously transformed as I left the USA? Is Look Cycling Products not the same company south of equator? Why can’t you guys stand by your products and support your customers? I am not trying to be nasty. I just want a fair go and for you to not be so mean spirited.
Here’s another experience I’ve had lately. One of my Full Speed Ahead carbon crank arms was faulty and had to be replaced. FSA replaced the crank arm within a few days at no cost and no questions asked. They were not concerned that I purchased the product in the USA and FSA proclaim that they happily stand by their products and offer a world wide warranty. I imagine replacing the crank arm would have been expensive and I am very impressed by the way FSA have looked after me. If FSA made pedals I would purchase some.
The question I have for you is… Other companies in the cycling industry are able to stand by their products and customers. Why can’t Look Cycling Products do the same?
An e-mail to Peter Garrett
TO: Peter Garrett MP
CC: Fiona Richardson, Alex Bhatal, Greg Barber
Dear Peter
Thank you for your letter earlier this week regarding Greens preferences in this weekend’s election in Victoria.
I am a bit confused about the second paragraph which states that “If you’re thinking of voting for the Greens in Northcote you should be aware of the preference deal between the Greens and the Liberal Party which greatly increases the Liberal’s election chances in a number of critical seats.”
Having received your letter I looked through the ‘How to Vote’ information on the Greens website (http://www.vic.greens.org.au/2006Election/how_to_vote).
In Northcote the Greens first preference is, understandably, for their own candidate, followed by an independent 2nd, the ALP candidate 3rd, the Liberal candidate 4th and the Family First candidate 5th.
If my reading of the Greens’ ‘How to Vote’ information is correct, the Greens are preferencing the ALP candidate ahead of the Liberal candidate in 60 out of the 88 seats in the Legislative Assembly. In the remaining 28 seats I would classify the Greens preferences as neutral- they either outline the options of voting Greens with ALP or Liberal preferences or direct voters to put the Green candidate first then number all the remaining boxes in the order of the voter’s choice.
I don’t understand how this “greatly increases the Liberal’s election chances in a number of critical seats.”
Have I misunderstood something? Are you aware of other information that I’ve not been able to access?
For myself the question is somewhat academic. Having studied the Victorian electoral system in Grade 5 at Melton Primary School I will, as always, make up my own mind about my voting preferences without relying on any party or candidate’s how to vote card. However I am concerned that others may be similarly confused and possibly even misled by your letter.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Your sincerely
Campbell
address, etc
Read the fine print
Further to my tome about the theft of a favourite old white car, I thought I would share some of my hard-learnt knowledge about insurance and what you don’t get if you are in the unlucky position of making a claim for a stolen car. I will refer to them from now on as GOLDEN RULES .
Here’s how my tale unfolded:
1. Car stolen
2. Contacted insurer
3. Sent many documents proving ownership and condition of car
4. Wondered out loud to phone rep how long this will take, but noone willing to outline timeline
5. Negotiated perceived market value of car
6. Received cheque for market value amount MINUS excess (fair enough) AND the rest of the year’s insurance premiums (as I had elected to pay monthly)
7. Still waiting for compensation for contents lost, having spent an afternoon touring retailers asking for ‘quotes’ for items, even though my insurer will not pay replacement value. A mystery algorithm will be applied to item value and age of said item, resulting in the amount to which I am entitled. Hoping I will receive the maximum of $550 to replace the $1300 worth of stuff hidden in the boot of my car for the 40 minutes it took for the *insert expleeeetive here* person to take my four-wheeled friend.
Point 6 troubles me, even though it is in the fine print (which we all know noone reads). Name another industry where you pay for a service you don’t receive? I am going to write to the Insurance Ombudsman Service to voice my disappointment with this ‘industry standard’. Stay tuned re outcomes.
On a happier note, VicRoads gets a round of applause for the good sense that governs their policies - they will return a percentage of my registration for PUF, as she will not be on the road under the care and guidance of her rightful owner for the remaining 9 months of the year’s registration that I paid in September.
I must say I feel safe that my car-that-is-no-longer-in-my-possession will be insured until July 2007. If a crazy person ploughs through a red light and t-bones me in my imaginary car at an intersection, I will not have to worry. I will be insured. It’s a weight off my mind. But wait a minute, my imaginary car will not be registered.
I am told that my experience lines up with ‘industry standard’, but I think it sucks anyway.
GOLDEN RULES for jaded:
GOLDEN RULE 1: Document car services for future reference to prove state of repair/mileage (thus assisting calculation of market value)
GOLDEN RULE 2: Check your policy - will you be returned a percentage of premiums paid if you make a claim?
GOLDEN RULE 3: Grab the car hire offered to you as soon as you report the car gone. I decided that I would wait (as noone could tell me how long the claim would take to process) and 8 days later was told I was too late as on that very day they were finalising the payment. Efficient but mean spirited.
GOLDEN RULE 4: Check your policy - will your insurer give you cash for the items that are in your car when it gets stolen? Do they offer replacement value or depreciated value? To what total value?
PUF the magic pony
My car got stolen. PUF was there, then she wasn’t. It is a strange state of affairs. Not the worst thing that can happen to a person, I know, but it’s not the nicest either.
My 16-year-old car has been a loyal steed, waiting patiently in alleys and car parks, weathering ice and sleet and well-aimed squirts from feathered friends. It dozed patiently through my love affair with two wheels - I climbed on a bike and let leaves collect around the pony’s wheels. But a bike don’t cut it on excursions to the market or the odd occasion it rains or if I head out of the city for a breath of fresh air with friends. So I returned, gave her a pat and a polish and we set out on an adventure or two.
So how do I know that the person who decided that he/she should have her is treating her right? Last seen in Richmond, parked safely, I have concocted a theory that she became transport home for someone who had scored their Melbourne Cup eve fix and then needed to head to a familiar place. Or she could be charred and smoking in some forgotten place, having obediently particpated in some circle work (large loops only - no power steering here) and hurtled along at top speed (perhaps 140km/hr), then, proving unsatisfactory to her jockeys, dumped for something with rims and fins.
Either way she is sorely missed. And as I negotiate the paperwork and disappointment of insurance claims, I hope that bad bad karma strikes those who decide that they will have what is not theirs.
p.s. if you see a lost looking Nissan Pulsar Vector (white) with plates PUF 972 please send her home
The Motivation to be a Student
I am just now hoping to enter into a new phase as an institutionalised student. I should preface this by saying that for the past four years I have been working as a Lecturer A for Monash University and during that time embarked on the academic journey towards a Masters degree. I have since stepped off that boat. I must admit, the burden that has been lifted off my shoulders was unexpected but totally welcome.
You see, I was only doing the Masters because it was a requirement of my employment. Due to the astoundingly complex nature of the bureaucratic machine that is a university faculty, my topic (one which I was dearly fond of), was transformed into a painful thought cancer that turned my stomach and leached upon my soul. It took me a very long time to realise the amazingly ironic nature of what is meant by the term ‘research’ as opposed to what I naively imagined it to be. At every turn my motivation was squashed by requirements that had no place in my personal research methodology. Now don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that the system of institutionalised research does not have its place. I am saying that it doesn’t suit me. It took me some time to realise this because I had bought into the myth that as you progress from undergaduate to postgraduate status, you are able to refine your study focus and become immersed in the field of your choice.
Instead, I was faced with teaching responsibilities that were based on an antagonistic relationship between lecturer and student. Most students, in my experience, have become overcome with apathy. Postmodernism has left a stain so thick and stinking that students mistakenly believe that it is ok to have no belief. The stucture of the Masters and PhD degrees restrict the evolution of ideas. As I progressed through my studies, I was confronted with more and more administrative work. I love(d) teaching and I love to learn but I was unable to do either of these in this environment.
I know well the arguments that would be thrown my way in opposition to all of the gripes that I have expressed and they certainly have their validity. Their value though is largely based on the propagation of the current system. I don’t like this system.
“What are you babbling about you idiot?” you may well ask.
“Didn’t you open by saying you are hoping to be an ‘institutionalised’ student again?”
Right you are. I am going to be a student again. I have applied to go to Tafe to study remedial massage. But, I have always and will always be a student. This has nothing to do with schools and qualifications but raher is based on the continual education that is required to remain conscious (I will define consciousness as the experience of existence). Institutions are a resource. They have libraries and interesting people and physical resources. They do not qualify students; being alive qualifies you as a student. If you are not a student then you have either died or were never born. What I am stuggling to express here is the importance of the point of departure for motivation. I believe it should come from a desire to increase and enhance the experience of existence. It is the only thing that can be undertaken with any sense of certainty. Everything else can change.
Exist Now, Love Funk and Learn Eternally.
Pull ‘em up, lads
ok, the gals have just about grown out of wearing trousers that allow bulging bits up, out and over the top of their duds. Now it seems to be the fellas’ turn.
Don’t get me wrong, I like a good set of buns as much as the next girl, but where’s the mystery? And the challenge?
Not good: Studded belt and large expanse of grey standard-issue (probably washed by yer mum) jocks yawning above low slung jeans.
Go on, fellas, give them a tug, pull up yer pants.
No meat
I was pretty excited to hear that Sam Neil was fronting a campaign for Meat and Livestock Australia. Haven’t seen the TVC but here’s my take on the press ad I saw in the Good Weekend the other day.
NO MEAT.
Feel even better.
The next small step.
The next giant leap.
What will be the next stage in our evolution? Just because people have eaten meat for thousands of years doesn’t mean it’s a good reason for us to continue.
If we stopped eating meat we could put an end to world hunger and environmental degradation.
Keeping livestock is an incredibly wasteful way of producing food; only 7-10% of the food energy of grains and other food fed to intensively farmed animals is converted to the food energy available from meat.
Sustainable population growth would be achievable and world hunger eliminated if we were less focused on a meat-eating diet. The US Population Reference Bureau found, “If everyone adopted a vegetarian diet and no food were wasted, current [food] production would theoretically feed 10 billion people, more than the projected population for the year 2050.”
Environmental impacts of the meat industry are massive. Throughout the world vast areas of natural habitats are being destroyed to create grazing land for livestock. There are also issues of erosion, salinity, effluent disposal, methane production and wildlife extinction (due to habitat destruction) associated with livestock production.
A balanced vegetarian diet meets all our nutritional requirements and has many health benefits.
The American Dietetic Association and Dietitians of Canada found that vegetarians have lower body mass indices than non-vegetarians, as well as lower rates of death from ischaemic heart disease, lower blood cholesterol levels, lower blood pressure, lower rates of hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and prostate and colon cancer.
Then of course there are ethical issues. Hidden from public view is the death-driven meat industry that treats sentient life forms as an economic production commodity where appalling, artificial and cruel conditions and practices completely debase animal life. This, in turn, debases our own lives.
Traditionally, societies have also had slaves and women have been oppressed by men but most people are happy to have seen a change in our value systems and for us to move beyond this.
Education, awareness and understanding make us better human beings. And it is exactly this ability to adapt that has pushed us to explore and to make changes in our societies. So given all the detrimental impacts and suffering associated with meat production, is there any reason for it to continue?
As Albert Einstein said “Nothing will benefit human health and increase the chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.”
No meat. Feel even better.
[I have borrowed heavily from a range of websites for much of this material, but if you use more than one source it's not plagiarism, right?]
Australia’s love of authority
Something I have been focusing on lately is Australia’s love of killjoy authority. When I say “killjoy authority” I mean petty signs that are literally everywhere around our cities and towns.
I understand perfectly well that many signs are necessary. Road signs, directional signs and signs for our safety. E.g. Stop, Mind the gap or Slippery when wet (not the Bonjovi album).
What I can’t understand are the multitudes of signs that tell us the bleeding obvious and furthermore they are overwhelmingly negative. When you pay attention to these signs and the tone they use it make you feel like you are either:
- A fucking idiot
- A child
- In prison
- In one of those uncool countries that has a dictator and stuff.
- All of the above
Most signs in Australia could simply be removed. It would probably make people feel a lot better about themselves and their surroundings.
If a sign cannot be removed then a simple re-wording could turn them from a negative into a positive. Think glass half full.
Next time you are walking round just keep your eyes out for the negative or killjoy signs. I promise it won’t take you long to find one. Which is a shame.
Here are some examples. I did not take long to find them.
A sign outside a park near the main street of Glenrowan, Victoria. Seeing as Glenrowan is one of the biggest shitholes I have ever been to I can’t see why anyone in their right mind would ever camp there.
Outside a toilet block. Are gangs of bicyclists going to congregate around this toilet block and stop other people from using the toilets? Probably not.
Not a very nice sentiment to display to your potential customers.
No fun here sorry. Move along please.
This was on a beautiful riverfront in Bright. It kinda ruined it for me. The only useful piece of information on this sign is the very bottom row, which nobody will read because the rest of the sign is so negative. Also I have never dug a trench in my entire life and if I did I would probably dig it in my own backyard so I could use it for something. I am not sure what I would use it for, which probably explains why I have never dug a trench in my entire life.
United by the moment… if you are a BigPond customer
I don’t have a TV so I have not seen one second of the Commonwealth Games (except for the events that I have attended). I can live with this but I did want to see the highlights of Australian cyclist Ben Kersten winning gold. Ben’s victory was unexpected and apparently it was a very emotional moment. Something that epitomises what competitive sport is all about.
I assumed I would be able to access this footage via the web. I was wrong. Unfortunately the Commonwealth Game organisers decided to strike a deal with Telstra by only allowing video footage of The Commonwealth Games to be viewed by BigPond customers.
I can’t afford to change ISPs just for the sake of being able to access Commonwealth Game footage. It is an expensive and lengthy process. Also what would happen if Telstra BigPond’s level of service were not as high as my current ISP’s? I hate to think.
I do not think this is fair and is a long way from the sprit and values that the Commonwealth Games advertising has us believe.
At least the Brits and the Kiwis have free footage.
Australians all let us rejoice for we are young and free*
*Offer exclusive to BigPond members only.