Filed under: Zeitgeist
Photo Credit: Gilfer
Comprising just 2% of the population, they make up an estimated 12% of the homeless, 19% of the prison population, 31% of people living in “improvised dwellings”, 41% of child abuse and neglect cases and 50% of inhabitants of dwellings with 10 or more people.
The imprisonment rate for adults is 14 times higher than it is for the non-Indigenous population, while the unemployment rate is nearly three times higher, around 23%, compared to 8% in the general population.
We have concentration camps for refugees. We are racist.
But we have a sense of beauty and also a sense of humour.
I’m sorry for what we have done. I celebrate who we are.
Filed under: Digital Strategy
Sandy over at Purple Wren, inspired (as we all are) by Mack Collier and his Z list blogger meme.
I can’t tell you how chuffed I am to be there with David Armano, Evil Paul, the ever lovely CK and the tremendously silly and supportive Gavin Heaton. My soapbox just wouldn’t exist without his prompting.
You can click on all the pictures and find some new blogs and great ideas. I’m four across and three down.
This is of course put into perspective by the fact that one of my biggest referrers is a site that contains not much more content than short videos by a naked cowgirl. Odd but strangely apt.
Filed under: Digital Strategy
Reported by WARC today is this:
CANBERRA: The Australian government is to launch a multi-million dollar campaign to persuade the public that regional access to broadband is not, in Rupert Murdoch’s words, a “disgrace”.
The attack appears to have stung communications minister Helen Coonan into action – that and the prospect of a general election later this year. She says the government expects to spend up to A$5 million on the campaign, including advertising
The Australian Government has now raised $45.8 billion from the three Telstra sales. The country’s average broadband speed ranks at 25th among OECD countries. Over 80% of Australians live in 6 urban centres.
How about spending some of that cashola and investing it in the services that Australian people want to use and need to have in order to to remain competitive?
My vote for the Dumbass of the Week Award goes to Helen ‘I’d rather spend your dollars making a tiny part of the population feel better than fix the problem’ Coonan.
Filed under: Zeitgeist
There are two things that I really love that I don’t remember learning how to do. One is swimming, though a thousand mornings of getting up at 4am to eat endless laps changed my passion for it. The other is reading, but no matter how much, or how long, or how intently I do this my affair with words has remained unchanged.
Last year when I spent a heap of time in China I had my first experience of being illiterate. Through travel and the kind of work I do I’ve had plenty of experiences of not being able to make myself understood and not understanding what people are saying around me. If Creating Confusion were an Olympic sport I could represent the country, but I’d always been able to read the signs.
In China I’m illiterate, innumerate, I can’t read a map, and I can’t even match word shapes. While your options become very limited, there’s a sort of freedom involved in the experience too- your attention is not pulled by the millions of hungry words contained in the urban streetscape. You are free to attribute meaning as you go.
I’m finding that I have a similar reaction to brands in the States. I can’t read them. I don’t know what they mean. I can’t put them in a hierarchy. I don’t know the difference between Nordstrom, Bloomingdale’s, and Macy’s intuitively. In a supermarket isle I don’t know how to make a decision between the hundreds of types of cereal.
I will make decisions as a consumer, and again it’s a freeing experience. I’m not bound by the heritage of the brand, or by what my friends say about it- only the signs that the brand uses to communicate with me will make the difference.
Filed under: Zeitgeist
Today when I woke up there were rabbit tracks in the snow across the driveway. I could track it’s journey right around the house. My very first sparkly blue sky morning in a world of white.
Tonight when I came home I found I could see my own perfectly preserved footprints from the morning- careful measured steps from not wanting to slip in my first day at work clothes.
This means, I’m told, that it didn’t get above zero centigrade.
I loved having an experience of exploring the yard on bunny feet. And I like being reminded of the notion that you leave a mark by your passage to contemplate later.
Will it make me more careful? My friends know that I am the Mistress of Spectacular Stacks, so probably not. But I will be able to capture the crash scene perfectly.
Filed under: Digital Strategy
Well here I am in Chicago. I’ve left behind the Sydney shore, where you wouldn’t be prosecuted for being on a beach without lifeguards. And there probably isn’t much of a likelihood of snow either. At least not on the shore.
I’ve been here for a couple of days now and have mostly got over the jet lag. Mind you, with the drone of the central heating, it can still feel like I’m on the plane.
The Bears are still in the playoffs, I’ve found a great organic market and the backyard is white with snow. Bring it on Chicago!
