narrating kayoz

"If millions of reinforcing signals say a woman's work is less significant, something will eventually begin to stick."

This article explains why I participated in the Australian Women Writers challenge this year.

It is also part of why I was so, so pleased with Julia Gillard's speech in parliament this week, openly accusing the opposition leader of sexism, and even more so with the subseqent interview Penny Wong gave on the 7:30 report.

In the interview Senator Wong points out that the PM being called "precious or a victim" or the equivalent is par for the course when a women speaks up against sexism, and is part of how we continue to we silence women in this country.

We need to be having this conversation in mainstream Australia. We need to be having it in the media.

'Women who do speak out—whether against sexism in the literary world or in the church or in the academy or in politics—are often accused of "whining," and then, like children, they are punished. But I am convinced the risk is worth it.

'...

'Author V. S. Naipaul recently claimed in an interview with the Royal Geographic Society that there was not a single female writer he considered his equal—not even Jane Austen, whose work he dismissed as "sentimental."...

'It might be possible to dismiss Naipaul's blatant sexism as the ravings of an arrogant misogynist if there were structural equality in the publishing industry, but there isn't. For the second year in a row, VIDA: Women in Literary Arts released a series of pie charts (the VIDA count) showcasing annual data comparing the rate of publication between women and men in the writing world's most respected literary outlets—and things don't look good for women who write.² VIDA reports that in 2011, The Atlantic published 184 articles and pieces of fiction by men and 64 by women; 18 of their book reviewers were men and 8 were women; and 24 of the authors reviewed were men, compared to 12 women. Harper's Magazine published 65 articles by men and 13 articles by women; 23 of their book reviewers were men and 10 were women; 53 of the authors reviewed were men, 19 were women. The New York Review of Books published 133 articles by men and 19 by women; 201 of their book reviewers were male and 53 were female; and they reviewed 75 male authors and only 17 female authors. I could go on. The New Yorker, The New York Times Book Review, The New Republic, The London Review of Books—all pay more attention to books and essays and articles and poems and short stories written by men than they do to those written by women.

'Gendered responses to women's writing have led several women to create alter egos in an effort to determine whether it is their ideas that generate hostile responses or whether simply being a woman with an opinion is enough on its own, no matter what they write. In "Disagree with Me—But Not Because I'm a Black Woman," Hannah Pool describes creating an online white male alter ego, Harry Pond. "I went on to a couple of threads. The opinions were my own, but the name a fake," she writes. "Unsurprisingly, Harry Pond received no racism and no sexism, in fact very little of anything by way of comment. People engaged with 'Harry' in a grownup manner, without the need for insults. Is this what it's like to be a white man? Having people accept your right to a difference of opinion?"³ In 2009, researcher Emily Glassberg sent out identical scripts to theaters in the United States, half with a male name and half with a female name. She found that those believed to have been written by women were rated significantly worse by artistic directors and literary managers than those written by men. "This was even the case when many of those artistic directors and literary managers were women."⁴

'I am beginning to understand why Mary Ann Evans changed her name to George Eliot.

'...

'[Author Dani Shapiro described] a recent post by Tim Parks on the The New York Review of Books blog in which Parks explores how "the writer's job" is currently understood and illustrates how this conception has changed over time. Parks mentions many writers—Sophocles, Virgil, Pope, Petrarch, Chaucer, Byron, Shelley, T. S. Eliot, Rushdie, Pamuk, Coetzee. "It was on second read that it occurred to me that there were no women. Not one," Shapiro said. "This was written by someone who simply doesn't have female writers as any kind of reference."

'What does it mean that a supposedly historical account of the writer's job can ignore all female writers? Most contemporary statistics suggest that women are writing more books than men are writing, and women are reading more books than men are reading, and women are buying more books than men are buying, and yet our work, our very existence, is regularly made to disappear. What effect does this erasure have? On women? On writers? On readers? Theater critic and novelist Alison Croggon writes, "If millions of reinforcing signals say a woman's work is less significant, something will eventually begin to stick."

'...

'What can be done?

'First, buy books written by women. Novels, memoirs, theology, political nonfiction, scientific explorations, poetry, history, mysteries. Put yourself on a diet of books by women and see what happens. Read them with your book groups. Review them online. Disagree with their ideas. Critique their arguments. Revel in the power of their words.'

For more (including 2nd & 3rd things to do): Sarah Sentilles: The Pen is Mightier: Sexist responses to women writing about religion.

What is coming in the wake of the record ice melt... is unlikely to be pleasant

In its last assessment, published in 2007, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change noted that “in some projections, Arctic late-summer sea ice disappears almost entirely by the latter part of the 21st century.”(4) These were the most extreme forecasts in the panel’s range. Some scientists now forecast that the disappearance of Arctic sea ice in late summer could occur in this decade or the next(5,6,7).

As I’ve warned repeatedly, but to little effect, the IPCC’s assessments tend to be conservative. This is unsurprising when you see how many people have to approve them before they are published...

I have no idea what is coming to Europe and North America this winter and next summer, in the wake of the record ice melt, but it’s unlikely to be pleasant.

~ George Monbiot More here

Queensland looking at biggest reversal of gay and lesbian legal rights, ever

From Blue Milk today

Queensland is looking at the biggest reversal of gay and lesbian legal rights in the world, ever. Your adorable queer parenting community needs help. And here is how to help them from Queensland lesbian mama friends of mine (they sometimes comment on my blog and you’d love them if you knew them, and god knows it is a small world and you probably do):

"We need your help.  In 2010 the law changed in Queensland so that children of same-sex couples were able to have both parents recognised in law and named on their birth certificates.  Many of you helped with that campaign and it’s a pity we need to ask you to help again. Unfortunately it looks like the LNP Government is going to reverse that reform, as well as the reform to the Surrogacy Act.  This means that our unborn child would only have one legal parent.  If the laws are retrospective, our existing child could lose his other mother as his legal parent.  We find it heartbreaking that these rights could be taken from our children.

"The changes are expected to happen fast and with very little or no consultation.  Parliament sits again next Tuesday, 10 July.  In considering the legislation in the party room, the elected LNP representatives need to be aware of their constituents’ views so that hopefully cannot ignore these views when they speak for them."

More at Blue Milk. And Rainbow Families Queensland.

'The first wave of real Abbottism''

"Campbell Newman, with his disdain for process, his early embrace of culture wars, his combative temper, and his perverse decision to deny funding to a major solar project on the grounds that the federal government had a carbon price (while later signalling a challenge to the legislation itself) represents the first wave of real Abbottism to hit the nation."

What a thoroughly depressing concept. From The Pirate Queen's Panopticon, Kim Jameson's new blog (late of Larvatus Prodeo).

Yes they did.

Just because I am currently preoccupied with my beautiful second daughter, by the way, doesn't mean I don't still follow... well, at least some current affairs.

And so I don't think I can let this day go by without just pausing to acknowledge that in America today, they finally achieved "the greatest social achievement" (for America) "of our time". The healthcare reform bill passed. Not without some fairly serious compromises, but it is a start. This, as Obama says, is what change looks like.

One more year till it will be illegal for midwives to attend homebirths in Australia

I was just rather belatedly pleased to discover that my open letter to Nicola Rixon on cover for homebirth midwives was included in the Twelfth Down Under Feminist Carnival, back in May.

And on that subject...

A quick refresh:
Two pieces of legislation are combining to mean that midwifes will be unable to legally attend homebirths in Australia from 1 July 2010.

July 4 - that's next Saturday - is a national day of action organised by the Maternity Coalition. (The link takes you to a facebook page about it, which is all I can find so far).

And on Monday Sept 7,  Homebirth Australia has a major rally planned, in Canberra (outside Parliament House) from 11.30am.

An open letter to Nicola Roxon (Federal Health Minister)

Dear Minister

Just after I discovered I was pregnant with my first child, almost eight years ago, the insurance rug was pulled out from under Australian midwifery's feet. Midwives operating outside of hospitals were suddenly unable to find insurance in Australia.

Before I fell pregnant I had read Michel Odent's Birth Reborn, and was excited about the idea of being pregnant and of giving birth. How distressing then to discover that in Canberra my only option for midwife led care was the birth centre at the Canberra Hospital. But I was lucky - I found a place at the birth centre despite not booking in until I was seven weeks pregnant. I have friends now who have been put on the waiting list after calling the day they found out they were pregnant.

And now the situation in Australia is set to become even worse. From July 2010 midwives will not be able to practice in Australia without insurance. Private midwives will have to cease homebirth practice, move overseas to work or face prosecution. You know women will still have homebirths, but they will be more likely to be unattended by skilled support. And many other women will end up clogging the hospital system simply because they cannot find a midwife to work with them at home.

Please Minister Roxon, do something about this. All the research shows that homebirths are at least as safe as hospital births for pregnancies of normal risk. And that midwife led care leads to lower intervention and better outcomes for women than obstetrician led care. The Government supported private obstetricians with insurance - make this happen for midwives as well. Not for their sake, but for the sake of women all over Australia.

[letter ends]

I just found out about this, over at the rachel papers (thanks Rachel).
What you can do:

1. Please sign this petition.

2. Watch the "Save private midwifery" video at Homebirth Australia.

3. Write to the Health Minister, Nicola Roxon and your local Federal MP.

It's Freedom to Marry Week

It's Freedom to Marry Week 2009.

I haven't managed to join in with Robyn's blog carnival, but at least I can link to it!

The 2009 Victorian bushfire Fund

Over 600 750 1800 houses destroyed, whole towns gone, at least 116 126 181 people dead, including many found dead in their cars or in the ruins of their homes. Thousands more have lost everything they owned.

"A lot of people did panic and jumped in their cars at the last minute. It came on that fast. They had 15 minutes between when they saw it over in the far distance, 25 kilometres away, before it hit." (Michael Vincent for AM, in the remains of Kinglake)

The worst bushfires in Australia's history, and at least some of them - including the one that flattened Kinglake, believed to be deliberately lit. People astound me sometimes, but I believe we can be astoundingly giving too.

The 2009 Victorian bushfire Fund to assist individuals and communities affected by devastating bushfires in Victoria has been launched by the Premier John Brumby in partnership with Red Cross and the Federal Government. Donations can be made using our secure online donations form or by phoning 1800 811 700.

http://www.redcross.org.au/vic/services_emergencyservices_victorian-bushfires-appeal-2009.htm

edited to add: And it's not over yet.

Please don't divorce my friends

"Fidelity": Don't Divorce... from Courage Campaign on Vimeo.

Watch the video and if you're American sign the letter.

"Not a day to be out and about"

Listening to the ABC radio coverage of the Victorian bushfires (online) the announcer says people should stay in their houses in a particular area as it is now too late to evacuate, or that people shouldn't travel, the roads are potentially unsafe.

Her dispassionate voice is at odds with the import of what she's saying - the news reports of people found dead in their cars, overtaken by fire, or the cars abandoned, owners' whereabouts unknown, tell the story of how really unsafe the roads are. Not to mention whole towns burned down.

We have friends who had to evacuate yesterday (though they are back home and safe for now), and houses burned down in my sister's far Eastern surburb of Melbourne. And other friends in country Victoria whose towns I haven't heard mentioned, so I hope they are okay.

Yes we can!

Yes we can.

Yes
We
Can.

I'm really bummed about Prop 8 though (though there's still a slim hope, I think).

And because I just I love it, here's the song again:

Enoughness

I came across the idea of 'enoughness' recently, when talking with a colleague who studied sociology with Ian Hughes at the Australian National University (ANU) some years ago. Apparently Hughes (who was an anthropologist & sociologist - odd mix I know) did some work in Papua New Guinea, where he came across this concept.*

In a particular community he visited there, people actually lived the concept of enoughness. They had an idea of how much was enough - enough to see them through with a little extra for a slow year - and then stopped accumulating more. Instead they moved to putting their energy into cultural improvement - creating, adding to their culture.

Last year for my Blog Action Day post, I wrote about consumerism, and my efforts to avoid the indoctrination of my children with the materialist ethic of our culture. Blog Action Day last year was about the environment. This year it's about poverty, but I find myself writing about almost the same subject.

Imagine if everyone in Australia had, and practiced, the concept of enoughness. Instead of constantly wanting more, we could say, that's enough - and then give of ourselves to our community. There wouldn't be any unemployment, because people would be working less. Community organisations wouldn't be struggling for lack of volunteers, because people would have plenty of time to give back - helping out at a soup kitchen or running a protest rally or listening to kids read at school or whatever.

I struggle personally with this concept all the time. I am as materialistic as the next person, and though I try to resist it, I often fail. And I don't mean that I just fail to avoid consuming. What I mean is that I fail to avoid wanting. You may say there's nothing wrong with wanting, if you are able to avoid acting on the want. Sure - it's our actions we are responsible for, not our emotions. There's something to that, but I'd sure like to be able to overcome the emotion too. To figure out exactly what it is that drives the want, and to beat it.

But back to enoughness. How do we know when something is enough? At the moment, Chris and I both work part-time, so that one of us is (almost) always home with Mikaela (and Liam after school). Of course, we always feel that we are struggling a bit with money as a result, but really we're not. We just can't buy the things we want.

Things like a bigger hard drive so we can put all our music into iTunes and onto our iPod. We don't need that but we really want it. Things like a bike for Chris so he could ride with Liam, and maybe even work up to riding to work (we both usually take the bus at the moment). Hey, maybe even a bike for me. Of course there's also non-material consuming like dinners out or going to see a movie (either of which we can really afford to do *occasionally* anyway).

And then there's the really big one: things like a bigger house (with a bedroom for each of the (planned) kids, and maybe even a study as well), with a bigger yard. Why do we feel we need that? Because it's what most of our friends have, or at the very least expect to have within the next few years. We have bedroom for each of the kids at the moment if we give up the study. But we are hoping to have another kid (isn't two enough? I hear you ask), so then two kids will have to share *and* we'll have to give up the study.

But you know what? So what? Kids share all the time. We could put the computer in a corner of our bedroom. But I grew up with my own room from the age of six (when my Dad moved out and I got the study!), most of Liam's friends have their own rooms (or will have within a few years, base on their parents intentions), and well... it seems good. I mean, really.

For Liam and his friends to be able to go build lego in Liam's room is really good at the moment, because Mikaela wants to follow Liam everywhere, but she just is not fun for him to have around when he's trying to build lego space ships. At the moment Kaely is still in our room (and we're still in the study!), but that can't last if we have another baby. So yeah, I would love to have another bedroom so they could each have their own.

But if I gave up on that plan? I would suddenly feel immeasurably richer. And then the presure to work more would diminish a little. And if I could give up on all the other wants, the pressure to work more would diminish a whole lot.

The blog action day theme is poverty, and here I am talking about my own richness and desire for more. But what I'm really thinking is that if everyone who had as much as I do (or more), stopped, if we all said "that's enough", and started using the rest of our time and money to contribute - be it by writing a book, painting a painting, planting trees, or continuing in our seventy-hour-a-week jobs but donating our excess income to helping people who don't have enough  - well, I wonder how long it would take to eliminate poverty around the world?

_________
* A google search hasn't turned up any information, so I'm not entirely sure of my facts here, but for the purposes of this blog post it doesn't really matter.

Befuddled and bothered by climate change and colds

I read a(nother) scary article on climate change the other day - how it's happening faster than experts were predicting, etc, and how dry continents like Australia specifically will be impacted over the next forty odd years. I must say it was sobering to realise that in forty years I'll be rather past my prime, but even more sobering to think about the world my kids will be trying to make their way in.

I wondered - if we really took this seriously, would we be trying to have another baby? Not for the reason I remember my peers spouting back when we were in our teens - that the world was just too nasty a place subject them to - but more just in terms of the added burden more people place on the planet's resources, and more specifically on our own resources.

Well, we are still going to try for a third baby, climate change (and many other practical considerations) be damned. But we're also going to sit down and plan out a bit more concretely what we should/can/will do to climate-change-proof our own lives. We already turn off things at the wall, use (mostly) energy saver lights, and will have replenished our roof insulation within the month. But bigger projects we've talked about like getting a big tank put in, a proper grey water system (as opposed to the hose out the window type), solar panels - those things we can't afford right now, but can be more seriously about planning for. And then there are other things like putting in as many fruit trees as we can fit and getting better at growing our own food.

Of course, some of these depend on whether we are really staying in this house for the long haul or not. It is west facing, on a weird shaped block which gives us little good sunny yard space and has one less bedroom than we'd like. But it's got a great view, it's in a good location for our needs, it's got some lovely things about the yard as well, and one less bedroom means a smaller carbon footprint anyway.

That is some of the sort of conversation we've been having in our house over the past few days. Interspersed with conversations about planting heirloom tomatoes, getting another Silky chook or two and why we have come down with yet another cold. But much time and many kid-focussed activities have passed since I started writing this post this morning, and additionally my brain is now anti-histamine befuddled.

Yes we can.

Have you see this yet?

As I said to Trish, on the day when we have an Labor government sitting in Parliament House again, on the day that opened, finally, with the long awaited Apology - Yes we can is really pretty exciting. Can we? Can they? God I hope so. 

I'm Sorry

There's a group on Facebook called "I'm Changing My Facebook Status to "is Sorry" on February 13". It gave me goosebumps to see so many of my friend's status messages all saying 'I'm sorry'. Today is really an important day for this country.

"The journey to live a simpler...more sustainable existence"

In searching for information on golden nugget pumpkins* this morning I came across two interesting sites. One is the blog of a woman who describes it as a "diary of her home and family on a journey to live a simpler, more thoughtful and more sustainable existence". It's called The Tin House. The second was a SMH article by Jackie French called "Self Sufficiency on a Balcony" (though she covers a back yard as well).

I haven't finished reading either of them (not that you ever really finish reading a blog, but I've really only skimmed a few posts so far), but the idea, particularly of the blog, got me thinking. Maybe I should do a similar thing here. Not that I don't still use this blog as a baby book, memory dump, soap box, etc, but maybe I should also use it to document our efforts to move towards a more sustainable, ethical life.

Because documenting things can often be enough to motivate one to do them better. It works for me anyway (that's how I've lost 12+ kilos in the past seven months, bringing back to my several-years-pre-pregnancy weight).

The thing is, as soon as I came up with the idea I started getting cold feet. Why? Because of all the things we could be doing but aren't, or are doing but could be doing more or better. It's frankly embarrassing.

Things we are doing to some people seem great, to others seem token. Things we aren't doing to some people seem over the top and to others seem essential.

For instance, we decided to buy a freezer last year, so we could buy in bulk and cook in bulk and have somewhere to put it all. But we spent many months over the project because we wanted to buy a second hand one, for environmental as well as economic reasons, and we didn't want it to be too old or the lack of energy efficiency would make the whole exercise a little pointless (we figured). So that's good right? We're trying to teach Liam that to reduce or reuse is better than to recycle. But in the past year we also bought (new) an iPod dock, various picture frames, large plastic boxes (for storing hand-me-down clothes till the kids grow into them), a plastic drawers thingy for storing stationary, a plastic water jug, a toy pram for Mikaela, a baby monitor and no doubt a thousand other little things that I don't happen to be able to see from where I'm sitting. Oh, and this laptop upon which I am typing.

Whereas my sister and her husband made a pact at the beginning of last year to buy nothing new but groceries and underwear. I don't know for sure how well they've done, but I know they are still doing it.

Does that mean they don't buy cling wrap? I don't know, but I know we do - I try to minimise it's use (eg using containers with lids to store things in the fridge), but I suppose if I were trying sufficiently hard we wouldn't need to buy it any more.

Also we've changed most of our lightglobes over to the long life fluro ones, we've got water saver shower heads, and small tanks on each down pipe (and a big one to feed water into the toilets and laundry is in the pipeline), which this year are supplying most of the water for our garden. But we also have an evaporative cooler which we use frequently in the summer. And three computers! (One is pretty old, and one is not very new and was bought for us by Chris's dad, but still.)

And we buy some organic produce, but lots of not organic (and some imported), simply because of the money. But of course if we didn't buy laptops and iPod docks maybe we could afford more organic produce. Then again we are doing out best to grow our own. And our chickens are supplying us with all our eggs, but of course, their food isn't all organic either.

 

See what I'm saying? To document our journey towards a more sustainable existence I have to admit to where we are on that journey now.

Anyway, The Tin House has a list of blogs she likes to read with titles like 'Aussies Living Simply' and 'Down to Earth', so I'm off to browse the web for more inspiration.

 

__________
*Because the zucchini plants we bought from Liam's school fair turned out to be some kind of pumpkin - I *think* golden nuggets, or maybe minikins - and I am trying to figure out how to tell, and also how to tell when they're ready to pick.

Today is Human Rights Day

Human Rights Day, from Amnesty International Australia:

Today on Monday 10 December we celebrate Human Rights Day.

This date commemorates the United Nations General Assembly's adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on 10 December 1948.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948
Article 19
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

At a time when millions of Amnesty International Australia supporters around the world are writing letters of support, hope, inspiration and expressing their opinions about human rights -  it is an especially pertinent time to think of those who are not permitted to freely express their opinions.

Still happy, but a bit frustrated too...

So who were all the idiotic people who voted for ALP in the house of reps, but still voted for the Libs in the Senate? In Canberra for instance?!

Yippee!!!

Woohoo! Yay Australia (and about bloody time).

But seriously, Canberra, Gary Humphries for the Senate again? Have we learned nothing from the past three years?

Edited to add: Howard has apparently conceded defeat by phone to Rudd and left Kiribilli House. :)

Edited again to add: meanwhile I feel like I must be the only left wing voter sitting at home alone, without even my husband (who's in Sydney) to celebrate with. This is the first election in my adult life where the government has changed for the better (IMHO) and therefore the first time I really would like to be at a party somewhere.

Still, I'm pretty damn relieved. Even though I really thought Kerry Tucker would get that Senate seat, or that it would at least be close.

Federal government sticks its nose in other people's business again

The federal minister for education, Julie Bishop, has asked the ACT to institute HSC-like end-of-year-12 exams within two years, or risk losing federal funding.

Here in the ACT we have had a system of continuous assessment through year 11 & 12 for 30 odd years, and we like it just fine, thank you very much. There is a single scaling test that students take towards the end of year 12, which allows grades to be standardised across schools, but students' individual results in that test do not impact them.

There is no evidence that an HSC style exam is better. None. The ACT supports the move to a national curriculum. But that doesn't mean everyone has to sit the same test.

Andrew Barr, ACT education minister, has reportedly said that we will not be moving to the exam system, but please show your support. You can email Andrew Barr expressing your support, or send  a message to Julie Bishop or th PM expressing your outrage at their typically meddlesome pigheadedness and bully boy tactics dismay at their shortsighted policy.   

To challange ebay on their new policy...

The best I've been able to find at this point is this page http://pages.ebay.com/help/newtoebay/suggest.html from which you can Send us your suggestion to improve the eBay site.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll have time to come up with something to say, but for now you could just say, bring back second-hand cloth nappies.

Did you know disposable nappies take something like 3000 years to fully break down?

Fitted cloth nappies cost something in the region of $25 each, which is still way cheaper than years of disposables, but a lot in one hit. And why should we waste resources growing more cotton/hemp/bamboo when there are lots of nappies out there not being used any more?

Okay, I gotta go to bed. Everyone in my house has a cold which means no one is sleeping well. Please go email ebay for me.

Second hand nappies 'too gross' to sell on ebay

Apparently ebay has decided second hand nappies are too gross to sell. More details on how to protest later. Gotta run to a kid's bithday party now...

Who voted for that man?

How embarrassing it is to be Australian right now.
(thanks to Susoz for the link.)

Too little too late?

Liz Minchin wrote in The Age yesterday that

...the Prime Minister's newly announced industry taskforce on emissions trading has echoes of the past... Environment Business Australia chief executive Fiona Wain was part of the Climate Change Dialogue four years ago, and says it 'was full of people wanting to block any action, who couldn't see how important climate change was'... 'I'm very supportive of this new initiative … but it's important to bear in mind there has to be a tangible, practical outcome at the end of it,' she said. 'We can't afford another report that just sits on the shelf.' (Liz Minchin, "Howard Blows Hot and Cold on Emissions" The Age, 15 Sept 2006)

I do hope that that this time it will be different, and that something will come of this latest taskforce, and that it will be in time, but I am truly worried that in years to come we will look back on the present government (and not only ours) as grossly negligent on this issue - that even if something does happen this time, it will simply be too little too late. And future generations will wonder how we could have allowed it to happen.

An assessment by the World Health Organization concluded that the effects of climate change since the mid-1970s likely caused more than 150,000 deaths in the year 2000. Other analyses estimate 160,000 deaths a year since then. In contrast, terrorism caused 56 American deaths in 2005, the same year [they] spent about $100 billion fighting it and its shadow oil war—even as these investments fantastically increased the real threats to [their] homeland security. (Julia Whitty, "The Thirteenth Tipping Point" in Mother Jones, Nov/Dec 2006)

Kids and Consumerism

Does anyone have any tips or reading suggestions on how to educate young children about the connection between "our personal behaviour and our environment" (see below for full quote)?

We try to talk to Liam about not wasting water, in particular, but of course he doesn't really get it. And I don't actually want to scare him about the state of the planet (according to the Steiner education principles the first life phase - until about age 7 - should have the theme "the world is safe"), but I do want him to get a sense of the importance of not over-consuming - water, electricity, packaging, toys... (And yet I just gave Chris the go ahead to buy an iPod - am I a complete hypocrite?)

"[A] study... from the Earth Institute at Columbia University, found an ominous silence when it comes to educating American K-12 students on the relationship between our personal behavior and our environment: that the size and inefficiency of our cars, homes, and appliances, our profligate fuels, our love of disposables, and the effects of buying more than we need actually undermine our prospects on earth. Slightly more time is spent teaching kids how the environment can affect us, overpowering humanity with floods, droughts, storms, earthquakes, climate change. But in our overall failure to illuminate the interdependence between Homo sapiens and earth we withhold critical knowledge from those whose lives depend upon it most.

"Many of today's kids recreate in the unwilderness of the shopping mall, where messages of prudence and wisdom are overwhelmed by the consumerism that feeds global warming. We send our kids to the mall because we fear the dangers outside. We could hardly be more wrong in our assessment of risk."

Thanks to Suzoz for the link to The 12 tipping points of global warming, by Julia Whitty in Mother Jones.

Liam's famous!

He made the paper after the Walk Against Warming the other week. Except the caption said "A young girl stands among the placards from yesterday's Canberra rally to demand government action on climate change." It doesn't matter what else he's wearing, the hat and the hair get that response every time.

(BTW, I am very excited about and grateful to the American people for the outcome of their latest elections - just haven't had the time or energy for much political blogging lately. Or much other blogging for that matter, clearly.)

Nigerian anti-gay legislation to be introduced

From an Amnesty Internation notice I got today:

The Nigerian Federal government is introducing legislation, containing broad and sweeping provisions that, if passed, would not only introduce criminal penalties for relationships and marriage ceremonies between persons of the same sex but also for public advocacy of lesbian and gay rights.

The proposed legislation not only contravenes internationally recognized protections against discrimination, rights to freedom of expression, conscience, association, and assembly, but also undermines Nigeria's struggle to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS.

Join Amnesty in urging the Nigerian authorities to withdraw this bill.

taking responsibility for managing climate change

In an article today in The Age,  'A real plan for warming',  Kenneth Davidson writes:

[Kim] Beazley listed the implications that have been calculated by various authorities of doing nothing to reverse greenhouse gas emissions, these being temperature-related deaths to double to 2500 a year by 2020, dengue fever to spread to Sydney, water supplies to Melbourne and Sydney to drop by 25 per cent by 2030, and rainfall in the Murray-Darling basin expected to fall by 25 per cent and evaporation rates to rise, threatening the viability of Adelaide.

Scary estimates, though not new. He also says that

[a]ccording to Beazley, the debate about whether climate change is real and man-made is over. "And once you accept climate change is real you have to accept responsibility to act."

This seems like a bit of a 'duh!' doesn't it? - who cares whether we caused/are causing it or not. The point is it's happening, and there will be real and nasty consequences. So if we can do something about it (and it seems we can) then we need to act. But we need to act NOW, not in 25 years time.

I was reading a book the other day called Don't bother me Mom-I'm learning, by Marc Prensky, founder of Games2train. I haven't read enough of it yet to make an informed comment about it, except to say that I heard him speak at a conference last week, and some of his ideas were challenging to someone planning to send their kids to a Steiner school. Interesting though.

Anyway, early in this book he tells an anecdote about a 4 or 5 year old who, walking past a school playground with his mother, is able to estimate that it would cost around $20,000 to build, and that it would take a lot of people working for a lot of days to be able to make it. This was based on his experience playing The Sims.

I thought - this is impressive. A pre-schooler who can understand some of the time and effort that goes into creating something.* But you know what I'd really like to see? I'd like to see that child having some understanding of the natural resources involved. I try to talk to Liam about this a little bit too (it's easiest with water) but he doesn't really get it yet. Does The Sims include stuff like carbon taxes? I have no idea, but wouldn't it be great if it could somehow provide that sort of understanding?

*An aside: It's impressive, but is it desirable? On one level, I think certainly it is - I try to impress on Liam that things cost money and getting that money involves me and Daddy working away from him. But do they need - is it really beneficial to have - that level of understanding at that point? I'm not saying it's bad, just questioning whether it's necessarily a Good Thing, something that we should aim for just because it's possible - or was for that child.

Rally

Just before I go to bed, I wanted to state, for the record that I did attend the rally on Tuesday, despite my department sending out the same sort of bullying emails (admittedly based on DEWR's shonky advice) that Loadedog refers to, telling us we wouldn't be granted leave, pre-approved flex leave was to be revoked, any unplanned leave that morning had to be proved to be for something other than the rally etc. or our pay would be docked and presumably we'd be in other, unspecified, trouble, as we'd be deemed to be absent without permission (couldn't take leave without pay either). (wow, that was a long sentence)

Well, since we don't have core hours, according to our certified agreement, just a bandwidth of 7 to 7, I arrived after the rally and still completely my normal hours for a tuesday. And I dare them to try and dock my pay! (Not that my manager would be in the least worried - better not say anything else though for fear of my blog being found out and getting her into trouble too.)

The funny thing is I wasn't 100% committed to going to the rally until I got that email, but that just pushed all my buttons - I will not be bullied. Chris got the same sort of email in his department and was cursing his luck that he doesn't work Tuesday anyway so he couldn't snub his nose at them. But I did hear of people who were intimidated into not going, which completely sux.

Anyway, the rally was heartening - it was nice to be among such a crowd of people who care about the pain this government is inflicting on our country. Let's just hope it makes a difference at the next election.