Stories from Quick Reads and Australia
Gay penguin parenthood stories ruffle some conservative feathers
From Australia to United States, some conservatives are blocking the inclusion of gay penguin stories in schools and libraries.
Call for Urgent Climate Change Action After Cyclone Pam Devastates Vanuatu
Following the devastation of Pacific islands nation Vanuatu by Category 5 Cyclone Pam, John Englart (aka @Takvera) looks at links with climate change: Vanuatu has suffered its worst disaster on record with the impact of Category 5 Tropical Cyclone Pam, with the President of Vanuatu blaming climate change for extreme...
Indigenous Tweets Highlight International Mother Language Day in Australia
Wamut,aka @kriolkantri on Twitter, and blogger of ten years, shared indigenous tweets on Storify: “February 21 is International Mother Language Day and this year, Australians showed off Aboriginal and Islander languages in a spectacular way and highlighted the amazing-yet-fragile linguistic diversity found across the continent”. Happy International #MotherLanguage Day! We're...
Questions About Australian Media Freedom After Egypt Releases Peter Greste
Max Chalmers, from Australian independent online media site New Matilda, welcomes the release of Al Jazeera journalist Peter Greste after 400 days in Egyptian prison. He also calls for “the speedy release of Greste’s colleagues who remain behind Egyptian bars”. However, he questions Prime Minister Tony Abbott's support for media...
Covert Surveillance ‘Project Speargun’ Fires Up New Zealand Election
ANNA MAJAVU of Pacific Media Watch reports for The Daily Blog on an extraordinary event in Auckland on 15 September 2014: NEW ZEALAND Prime Minister John Key has been accused of allowing the secret installation of equipment that would enable spooks to tap into New Zealand’s undersea fibre optic cable...
Accessibility and Lack of Appreciation for Young HIV Carriers Fighting AIDS
Under the premise that AIDS is the second cause of teenager deaths in the world and the nvisibility for vulnerables populatons in this field, Puerto Rican journalist Natalia A. Bonilla Berríos writes about the participation of L’Orangelis Thomas Negrón, HIV carrier from birth, on the XX 2014 AIDS International Conference...
Deported Sri Lankan Asylum Seekers Speak of Mistreatment by Australian Authorities
Thirty seven Sinhalese and four Tamil asylum seekers from Sri Lanka sailed in a boat towards Australia and were intercepted west of the Cocos Island late last month by Australian authorities. They were returned to Sri Lanka, their point of origin, and they appeared in a court in the country's southwest...
Protecting Journalists’ Sources: Don't Take Your Smart Phone
Mark Pearson of Journlaw.com interviews Cameron Stewart, National security reporter and associate editor at The Australian newspaper. They discuss the challenges facing investigative journalists in the era of technological surveillance. Among other gems of advice: leave your smartphones back at your office when you are meeting confidential sources. More at:...
East Timorese Protect Land Rights Against Australian Cement Plant Deal
The announcement of a new cement plant project by an Australian company in Baucau, northeast of East Timor, has led local community groups to set up a non-governmental organization “to protect and preserve the communities’ rights to their culture, development and traditional land rights.” According to the community organization, Kapeliwa, the government...
AC/DC Call It a Night After 41 Years
Daryl Mason pays tribute at The Ostrahyun blog to iconic rock band AC/DC following reports that they will retire after 41 years. More than a month ago, founding member, rhythm guitarist, co-producer and co-songwriter Malcolm Young had a stroke, which left a blood clot on his brain. Confirmation may come...
Australia's #MarchInMarch Street Party Protests
Prolific tweeter @geeksrulz reports on the No Fibs citizen journalist website about Melbourne's part in the nationwide marches against the Australian government: Melbourne #MarchInMarch Street Party Protest A grassroots movement that started on Twitter managed to get tens of thousands of people onto the streets away from their keyboards. That...
Seeking Asylum in Australia Is ‘Getting Real Ugly’
Gary Sauer-Thompson pulls no punches in his assessment of the latest crisis at Papua New Guinea's Manus Island asylum seeker detention centre. It is part of the so-called Pacific Solution. In a post for his blog Public Opinion, it's getting real ugly, he calls it a concentration camp… designed to...
Australian Journalist Peter Greste Caught in Egypt's Media Crackdown
Writing in Working Life, Andrew Casey highlights the risks to media freedom in Egypt as international journalists and other media workers face terrorism charges. Among them is Australian Peter Greste, an Al Jazeera journalist.
Young Romanian Builds First Car Entirely Made of LEGO Blocks
20-year-old Raul Oaida from Romania has built what many dreamed of as children – the world’s first life-size LEGO car. The car, including the engine which actually runs, was built using 500,000 LEGO pieces. The vehicle can only achieve a speed of some 20 to 30 kilometers per hour, but...
Australia: ‘What Happens When A Politician Pisses Off The Internet’
Controversial Australian senator Cory Bernardi's latest book ‘The Conservative Revolution’ has enraged many netizens, especially his views on abortion, single mothers, IVF and same sex marriage. BuzzFeed Australia staffer Jenna Guillaume complied reactions in Oz in This Is What Happens When A Politician Pisses Off The Internet.
Australia: Celebrating International Day of People with Disability
3 December 2013 is International Day of People with Disability. Award winning blogger Carly Findlay writes about her experiences as a person with the skin condition ichthyosis in Disability has meant finding my tribe: Disability is showing them – the underestimators. It's a sense of community. It's friendship and a...
VIDEO: “Myths and Murals” of East Timor
East Timorese and Australian artists have come together to reflect and create around Myths and Murals, “promoting a common sense of national identity through art and story and collaborative strategies for engagement”. The cross-cultural public art and literacy project, between artists from Melbourne and the East Timorese free art school Arte Moris, takes...
Sydney Bushfires Spark Climate Change Brawl
Takver Takvera examines the devastating spring bushfires in the Australian state of New South Wales that have destroyed nearly 200 homes so far on his Climate Citizen blog: Raging Bushfires surround Sydney with early start to Fire season: Is there a link and is it appropriate to air the debate...
New Australian Government: Where are the Women?
On her YaThink? blog, Noely Neate asks why there is likely to be only one woman minister in Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott's new government. Where are the “Women of Merit”?: Married, unmarried, Gay, children, no children, minorities… The previous Cabinet, particularly under Ms Gillard, including both women AND men,...
Australia Elects New Abbott Conservative Government
Australia has a change of government. Labor Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's brief return ended on 7 September 2013 with the election of Tony Abbott's conservative Liberal/National coalition. Michael Taylor, a staunch online advocate of Labor, reflects on life under the new government in his post Should I really care who...
Police Backup for McDonald's in Local Burger War?
McDonald's may soon be turning up the heat against angry online and offline protests against the opening of a new restaurant in the Tecoma suburb of Melbourne, Australia. Independent media website Crikey reveals leaked handwritten notes from conversations with police, allegedly by a McDonald's executive.