2012.

2012. 

What. a. year. 

The words change and growth come to mind. 

It is so hard to fathom the scope of things that have come and gone this year. I moved out of home.

Started and finished my first year of university.

Decided what I'm going to do at Uni. 

Lived a year at college. 

Spent extended periods of time away from my family. 

Had my closest friends disperse to all corners of the world.

I have...

met new people

made new friends

read books 

watched movies

worked at a market

been elightened by the world of lectopia

skyped a great number of times

listened to jjj

sat and stared out my window 

enjoyed the breezes my room is opportune to

sketched

listened to the likes of ben howard, birdy, ed sheeran, ellie goulding, the script, swedish house mafia, lady antebellum, keith urban, florence and so many more

sat more exams

handed in more assignments

been out to clubs

danced

dressed up

celebrated dads 50th

tried a lot of new sports

gone for runs

met people for lunch

laughed

cried

been back to church

gone to the gym

drank multiple cups of tea

subscribed to magazines

tumblr(ed)

gone to a campdraft

been inspired

2012 has been a slight whirlwind. Every week has just seemed to glide by and now suddenly I'm a week away from being completely finished with uni exams, about to begin an epic summer of 3 months. So much time on my hands to play with. Whilst I intend to work for a large chunk of it, I'm looking forward to lying on the beach, reading books under the shade of trees, blasting jjj and spending time with the friends I have missed so much as they each return from their individual adventures. I'm looking forward to Mum's cooking and Dad's conversations, to Sabrina's presence and Jed's chats. to Pippa's energy :)

I am so grateful to have been lucky enough to have had the opportunity that the entirety of this year sums up thus far. And with the things it has taught me I feel even better placed to get stuck into my Arts degree next year, to hopefully reignite my passion for social justice, to be involved in helping to create change once again in whatever that may be. 

In the hope that the remainder of 2012 will be filled with smiles and happiness. 

For the final time,

x.peace

Jour1111 - Lecture 12

One last lecture...

Investigative Journalism. 

"...what somebody somewhere wants to suppress, the rest is just advertising..." - Lord Northcliffe

What does it mean to 'investigate'?

-must be intelligent

-informed

-intuitive

-inside and intimate

-invest in your stories/the issue

The two aspects that particularly interested me from this lecture and which I feel are extremely significant in the regulation of society are the roles investigative journalists and journalism plays in providing a voice to those who have none and in it being a custodian of conscience. 

I feel it i extremely important that all people within society have the freedom to speak and the means to be heard and I feel it is this that investigative journalism is able to do and in which I would be interested in pursuing if I were to go further with a career in journalism. They are the stories I find grab my attention and hold it most easily and which always seem to have me asking questions of myself and others afterward. 

The act of being society's custodians of conscience is the second pivotal aspect investigative journalism has the power to influence. As the slides and Dr. Redman elaborated on, it has the potential to take society's morals and norms and hold those who breach them up to public scrutiny, the key concept behind this being EXPOSURE. Exposure allows for the issue, problem, breach, facts and so on to be known to the greater majority so as to let them make up their own opinions and thoughts regarding them. This I believe is imperative if we are to have a society in which there are a diverse number of interpretations and ideas about things rather then a society whose interests and thoughts are influenced and controlled by a few. 

The topic of WikiLeaks arising, being listed as an investigative journalism 'trailblzaer', in other words, revolutionary, game changer, is also of interest to me. I find hearing and reflecting upon a diversity of opinions in regards to the concept of wikileaks extremely beneficial as they help me to gain a greater understanding of it as a whole and in the process allow me to move closer to coming to a standpoint on it in my own opinions as I am yet to decide whether I feel it is an entirely good thing or not. It seems impossible for stability within government, for safety of operations and behind the scenes decisions to be made and carried out without some level of secrecy. I don't feel there is necessarily a right or wrong stance to take on this topical debate however. 

Well with that reflection of lecture 12 I will resign my blog to interest stories from now until Friday or until I no longer wish to continue posting in it. It has been an interesting and beneficial experience for me personally as I have been pushed to look further into journalism stories of interest, think about new ideas relating to the profession and it values and aspects and learn to use a new program. I do not feel my blog will simply end with the sending of my link to Ali for the final time. It has definitely grown on me and so hopefully I will continue to record moments of insight here for my own preservation of thought regardless as to whether or not anyone else actually ever reads it. 

Peace.x

Cages.

Cages.

You have to look at the feminist movement, the fight for women's rights and equality, from the big picture. 

Studying up on my feminist theory as proposed in a chapter titled 'Oppression' by Marilyn Frye for my upcoming Political Theory exam, I have been enlightened. I feel the message she is attempting to profess through her eloquent writing is an extremely important one. 

As already a person who likes to advocate the equality of all people, women and men, white and black, atheist and spiritual, rich and poor, being able to study such a topical issue in today's society is something I find extremely rewarding in that it allows my own worldliness and knowledge to grow and expand in order for my voice to become richer for the next time I wish to use it. 

Frye speaks pertinently about oppression, her opinion on it as a reality an interesting read. Using the metaphor of a bird in a cage to demonstrate the obvious oppression of women that still continues to exist within modern society, one begins to see just how every single individual's actions contributes to the immobilisation, reduction and molding of women. It is such a powerful extract that I feel it necessary to quote it here so as to allow your own thoughts on its meaning to develop...

'...Cages. Consider a birdcage. If you look very closely at just one wire in a cage, you cannot see the other wires. If your conception of what is before you is determined by this myopic focus, you could look at that one wire, up and down the length of it, and be unable to see why a bird would not just fly around that wire at any time it wanted to go somewhere. Furthermore, even if, one day at a time, you myopically inspected each wire, yous till could not see why a bird would not have trouble going past the wires to get anywhere. There is no physical property of any wire, nothing that the closest scrutiny could discover, that will reveal how a bird could be inhibited or harmed by it except in the most accidental way. It is only when you step back, stop looking at the wires one by one, microscopically, and take a macroscopic view of the whole cage, that you can see why a bird does not go anywhere; and then you will see it in a moment. It will require no great subtlety of mental powers. It is perfectly obvious that the bird is surrounded by a network of systematically related barriers, no one of which would be the least hindrance to its flight, but which, by their relations to each other, are as confining as the solid walls of a dungeon...'

It is in this light we must consider the subjugation and oppression of women, our struggle for opportunity and equality and the like. Frye goes on to suggest that for men, being a man is something which works in their favour in relation to many of life's goals. She does not believe that being a man will stand between him and anything. On the contrary, being a woman, for a woman, is what stands between so very much and not succeeding or being able to try to. Being a women relates to a higher chance of sexual assault and harassment, is associated with not having equal career opportunities to men, restrains social behaviours and so on and so forth. 

Frye is worth listening to whether you are a die hard feminist or don't care for anything to do with feminism what so ever. This. I believe, because not only does her principle of 'Cages' apply so powerfully to the experience of women, it is something which when one stops and thinks about it, can be applied to many of the major social issues the world faces today in relation to justice, equality and freedoms. 

Don't be a wire in the cage. 

Peace.x

Millie.

Amelia Telford. 

I feel like I am a very lucky person when I think about my life and the people I have been fortunate to meet and have drift in and out of it. Having grown up in the area I consider home, the Far North Coast of NSW, my beloved 'Northern Rivers', I have chanced upon some truly remarkable people who have left their marks on me as an individual. Some of them have shown me what it means to work hard, others the beauty of passion and the possibilities it opens up. 

Millie has shown me both. I have such an immense respect for this girl. A year my minor, in other words my equal, Millie is somebody who inspires me. Having known her from a distance that really wasn't that far, I have witnessed her passion for ensuring environmental sustainability grow in leaps and bounds. This girl has so much to offer. 

Recently, amidst her hectic year 12 HSC regime, she was selected to participate in a programe which involves the grouping of other like minded youth to embark on a journey to Antartica. They will trek the harsh yet completely incredible continent in order to examine the disastrous effects of climate change their so as to then acquire valuable skills to aid them in returning to their various countries to implement sustainable living and environmental management action plans. How awesome!

Slight problem, isn't money always? The trip costs a total of $25,000. That is a lot of money for one 18 year old girl to muster up. And so I write this blog in the hope that maybe even one person who reads it may feel inclined to help her by donating any amount they can. Because she deserves it and because I truly believe this girl has the potential to become one of Australia's most important and influential activists for environmental change. Some people just have a spark. Millie has a fire. 

I do not believe we can honestly sit anywhere in this world and not realise just how vital the earth's health is to our own. It is everything, we cannot live without it, we are bound to its future and thus why do so many people still disregard and choose to ignore this fact. Inextricably linked. We depend upon it entirely and therefore should have an absolute sense of respect for it rather than none at all. 

Somebody else who inspires me once said:

'...there is within human nature an amazing potential for goodness...''

-Martin Luther King Jr.

Every single one of us.

Strive for yours. 

Peace.x

http://vimeo.com/52987542

3.15

3.15

Only 3.15 years left to go. On what you may ask? Well that is exactly the problem I feel. 

Here comes a brief history lesson...

In the year 2000, 189 countries from across the world met at the United Nations and set forth an agreement to work towards a set of 8 practical realities for the world and global society by the end of 2015. 

And thus, the Millennium Development Goals were created. 

Whilst it is important to give credit where credit is due, progress having been made towards each of these goals in turn, I feel the urgency and necessary advocacy and action required to see any of these goals come into full fruition by the set period is far from where it needs to be. 

When reading through each of the goals it is easy to feel overwhelmed and wonder why on earth those who created them decided to be so ambitious?

But that is just it, every single one of the goals are PRACTICAL & POSSIBLE! 

In order for their achievement greater stress on what every single one of us can do to contribute needs to be made aware to the greater world wide population and even more than this is for those individuals to make the decision to open their hearts and choose to be a part of creating a world of social and environmental equality and justice.

That choice is yours. 

Those people are you.

Don't ever settle for mediocrity, strive to fulfill your absolute potential and watch yourself change peoples' worlds. 

Peace.x

The New York Times - Pro-Life Article

New York Times Pro Life Article - Friedman, you little beauty.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/28/opinion/sunday/friedman-why-i-am-pro-life.html?_r=1&

What an interesting and powerful read. Such a poignant article on the issue of abortion and the status of being 'pro-life'. And heck do I agree!

Thomas Friedman's recent addition to the New York Times is a very well written, thoroughly significant journalistic piece that I feel should be shared with as many people as possible. It has an extremely important message for all people, whether you consider yourself a supporter of pro-life or pro-choice. 

In relation to one's consideration of the sanctity of life in general, Friedman quickly assumes a tone of almost fierce interrogation, attempting to make his reader feel put on the spot so as to be in thought about not only the scope of general society's issues in terms of this topic, but also their own. It is a skillful manipulation of this style as whilst being straight to the point and quite harsh in regards to the topic, he manages to hold back any personal opinions or vices that may offend and turn the reader off finishing reading all together. It is a technique he has mastered soundly, something I wish to grow better at, however within saying this, I feel it stems mostly from the result of passion for that which he writes. 

The point of the article is to make people realise that to be 'pro-life' should not mean that one simply advocates for the right of the embryo and fetus from the point of conception to birth. Rather, he deems it is something which should extend itself over the full scope of all life and therefore include being in support of such things as an American as anti-gun laws, environmental protection and conservation programs, child welfare and education agencies, basic health care initiatives and so on. It is in this light I feel a strong sense of respect and agreement for Friedman and what he had had the guts to proclaim in one of the world's most famous journalistic arenas. 

Without delving into the controversial topic of abortion on its on accord, to which my opinions are not necessarily black and white, I feel this article and the core message it professes is one to take heed to and try to remember as we go about our day to day lives. 

Thankyou Mr. Friedman for this piece of significant and powerful journalistic brilliance.

Peace.x 

E.G

E.G

Oh Ellie...

So I have a new love in the form of Ellie Goulding's latest album.

So beautiful.
As is she.

<3