Wearing My Words On My Sleeve

There’s this road, Through a sore drivers eyes it would seem to be a simple thoroughfare. A potentially helpful convenience for those who are hopeful enough of an early arrival, to naively bypass the traffic and head for clear road to the side of them. From the curb of the path, bright street lanterns are briefly […] “Most days are full of meaningless uninvited interactions with the same kind of…

A Minority of One – Words from Magda Szubanski

“The crucial difference between Lesbian, Gay, Transgender, Bi-Sexual, Intersex and Questioning people and other minorities is this: In every other minority group the family shares the minority status. In fact it is often something that unites them. But gay people are a minority group within the family. A minority of one. It means, among many things, that gay children cannot draw on the collective…

Australia The land of the Young, White, Able Bodied, Heterosexual, Male, Fair Go…..

The question of “Australian Identity” reared its head again this week (as it so often has a remarkable tendency to do whenever this nation gets within spitting distance of an election). At first, due to my overwhelming cynicism of all such notions hoisted  up on behalf of nationalism, I summarily dismissed the question. However upon reflection, I think this time around, it might just be a…

‘Wool’ – If the lies don’t kill you, the truth will. A novel by Hugh Howey

What are the rules and beliefs that knit a society together? What are the commonalities that enable people of different social status’ to successfully coexist with one another, even when stacked in tightly like wheat, one atop the other, and knotted irrevocably into place like rows of wool, that ultimately serve to both shape and create a functioning whole. Would the continued existence of such a…

From Slaughterhouses to Serial Killers

A few days ago I watched a documentary called “Earthlings” (which you can find of a review of here earthlings-a-documentary-not-for-the-faint-hearted/ ) which detailed the disturbingly inhumane ways in which animals in slaughterhouses are being killed for their meat. The documentary is filled with graphic footage of cattle being shot in the head with bolts, (which don’t actually kill them) and…

We can’t insure ourselves against life. All though I’m sure that at some point in time we’ll be encouraged to try doing just that. After all, they’ve already got death covered now haven’t they?

Long ago, insurance was predominantly viewed as being a stop gap measure that was designed to cover you financially should disaster strike you. As with most things back in the way back when, taking out insurance on one’s property was a luxury that only the rich could afford. As such it both gave them a weapon to use against the honest and the poor whilst at the same time providing many with the…

How our Public Housing system is creating Australia’s Public Housing Crisis.

All of you who are over forty and living in housing commission homes whilst working and earning a decent enough income to have new cars, boats, motorbikes, holidays abroad or whatever else your little heart’s desire, it’s time to get your snouts out of the public trough and give young families the same fair go you got when you were first starting out. If you all did the right thing, there simply…

How our Public Housing system is creating Australia’s Public Housing Crisis.

Public housing was never meant to be seen as being a life style choice. Yet unfortunately for far too many, that’s exactly what it’s become. Many politicians and welfare groups consistently claim that Australian’s in need are experiencing a public housing crisis. To further bolster this claim, every year at Christmas time there are ads on TV from welfare groups showing families living in cars…

Australia Day – Invasion Day

“We lose nothing by tempering our own views in such a way as to be able to incorporate within Australia Day, both our gratitude for being able to live in such a beautiful land our acknowledgement that our fortune came at the loss of our Indigenous population. Were we personally responsible for the past? No, of course not. But we are personally responsible for both the present and the future.”

Australia Day – Invasion Day

I am truly grateful to live in this beautiful land. At the same time, I am also honest enough to be able to acknowledge the history of dispossession that shadows our land and hence to seek to understand and honor the feelings of Australia’s traditional indigenous population regarding Australia Day. In so doing, I offering up my humble apologies for the disrespectful way in which Australia was…

Discussion of Autism in A Different Key – Errors and Revelations…

In his latest  article ‘The errors — and revelations — in two major new books about autism’ (http://www.vox.com/2016/1/21/10801846/autism-in-a-different-key) ,Ari Ne’eman brilliantly reviews two very different and distinct portrayals of Autism  within the books NeuroTribes by  Steve Silberman and In a Different Key  by Caren Zucker and John Donvan As Ne’eman unpacks these differences he’s also…