Marea With an E

The not so clever country

Do Australians really get the politicians they deserve? I’m pondering this question as a result of the research for my feature story on “e waste”. If you’ve never heard of it you wouldn’t be alone but it just refers to all the old computers, TVs, mobile phones and MP3s and the like that end up in landfill. Anything that was once plugged into an electrical socket or has batteries in fact. In places like the EEC they’ve had legislation that sees the great bulk of these obsolescent goods recycled for scrap and the precious metals they contain. It’s viewed as a resource rather than as a waste stream. What happens in the so called clever country I hear you ask? Well not much apparently. It seems our politicians just can’t get their act together to mandate the recycling of these items on anything remotely like a national scale.

Arrh politicians. Very keen to be seen supporting V8 car races around our very own Olympic Park ,or kissing babies come election time, but seemingly incapable of coming to an agreement when the environment is at stake. And we all had such high hopes for Peter Garrett but it looks like he’s been left with camping grounds to open - Penny Wong gets to handle much sexier issues like climate change and carbon emissions trading. Please don’t let your eyes glaze over! These are important issues! Really!

Back to e waste. I’ve been following this story since earlier in the year when all the Environment ministers got together. Greenies everywhere were optimistic that a national scheme would be formulated whereby the manufactures of computers and whitegoods would have to take back products at “end of life” for recycling. Just like what happens in the EEC and even some states in consumption obsessed USA. It just seems like a “no brainer” but maybe brains aren’t a prerequisite for passing environmentally sustainable legislation?

There’s another meeting coming up in November and once again there is no guarantee that the state and federal Environment Ministers will put the issue of e waste on the agenda. I for one am not holding my breath.

Meanwhile if you have an old computer or TV and wan’t to dispose of it properly check out the Total Environment Centre or Planet Ark or your local council website for places where you can take your unloved and outdated items and feel good about it. It sure beats dumping it on the kerbside in the dead of the night and it is sure a whole lot better for the environment

If this isn’t recycled it all goes into landfill. Image courtesy of Google.

Warrior or just garbage?

Was lucky enough to score some free tickets to see Garbage Warrior documentary this week, although nothing is actually free once you factor in the parking, choctop and coffee. But that’s being churlish because I don’t get the opportunity to go to the movies on a Monday night (a school night no less) all that often. I took my 13 year old son because, like a lot of kids, he’s interested in the environment and it’s going to be his generation that will be cleaning up the mess in the coming years if we don’t get off our lardarses and do something in the next five minutes. I should explain that Garbage Warrior is a doco about a slightly (no, very) eccentric architect, Michael Reynolds, who has been trying to build sustainable housing in the US for the past 30 years.

The powers that rule the planning roost in New Mexico have gone to some lengths over the years to dissuade Reynolds from his dream of constructing houses from old tyres, bottles and cement. Hard to fathom what their problem was because the flat arid landscape where he was building his “experiments” seemed of little use to anybody else. Like most “genius eccentrics” he pushed the envelope a little too far and the movie catalogues his railings against a system that he sees as non-visionary, wasteful and unnecessarily expensive. Interestingly the 2005 tsunami survivors who he volunteered to help found no problems in embracing Reynold’s architectural and building concepts. They had plenty of rubbish to work with and were desperate for shelter and clean water. The UN built them corrugated iron boxes. Reynolds showed them how to build housing with plastic bottles and gutters that collected water in tanks beneath the structure. The sheer resilience of the people stunned Reynolds and his team and contrasted beautifully with the belligerence of the New Mexico legislators who seemed incapable of an original thought because they were fat and happy living within the status quo. Then came hurricane Katrina, then Rita and the penny dropped. Suddenly Reynold’s ideas weren’t so off the planet afterall, in fact they might just help save it or at the very least show people an alternative way to live within their own footprints.

Apparently Reynolds has always been “different” (his words). According to his wife he needs very little sleep and is “a magnet for weirdos”. He’d probably be diagnosed with ADHD if he were a child today and be stripped of his individuality by Ritalin. I really took away from this movie that we need eccentrics, experimenters, people who dare to push the envelope with planners and regulators and even their own professions. All Reynolds wanted was the space to experiment, to make mistakes, some trial and error so that his ideas could be tested and refined. Like he said “we have test sites for atomic bombs why can’t we have test sites for housing?”. Why not indeed.

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Ten Years On

So,Google is ten years old. Hard to believe we ever lived without it. Just like sliced bread, clingwrap and mobile phones Google has slipped effortlessly into our lives and changed them forever spawning a diversity of diversions from Googlewhacking to Google Earth and Google Maps. The internet existed before Google Inc. of course but for a lot of people both terms have become interchangeable. The verb “to google” appears in The Oxford Dictionary (“google” was word of the year in 1999) afterall and most school students wouldn’t dream of going to an actual library to do an assignment when a whole world of resources is but a “click” away in a “Google Search”. Who can blame them really? Libraries still have a bit of the aura of dusty books, maiden aunts and SILENCE. Wouldn’t you rather be in the comfort of your own home, wired for sound with your mp3, MSNing, SMSing with one eye on the TV and the other on the computer screen?

At the risk of sounding nostalgic (and very old) I sort of miss some aspects of PG (pre Google). There is something of the Indiana Jones quest about going to a library, looking up catalogue (no card files anymore, don’t miss them), scribbling down a list of Dewey numbers and rushing, in delicious expectation, to the shelves. Will the book be there? Has some dastardly person got there before you? Yes. No. There it is, all mine, the Holy Grail in my hot little hands! Wow! I hadn’t realised I was so competitive but, there you have it, the thrill of the chase is what’s missing from a Google search.

It’s probably best not to get me started on travel PG. I suspect some people don’t actually travel anywhere, they just spend their time “googling up” exotic destinations in the safety and comfort of their own sedentary minds. Others plan their trips to the finest detail -all with the help of Google- you wonder why they feel the need to travel in the first place. After all they know it all before they get there - what seat they’re sitting in on the plane, what movie will be showing, what food they’ll be eating. What happened to the excitement of turning up in a strange city and discovering the inner strength to navigate the laneways and befriend the locals in a foreign lingo? That’s the thing about nostalga - you expunge the bad experiences and recall only the good times.

Forbes magazine asked noted luminaries for their thoughts on Google, “Has Google changed the world?” I particularly liked celebrated travel writer Paul Theroux’s comment that “now as we sit navigating at the computer I often wonder “Why aren’t we smarter?”.

Dress rules...OK

It’s not surprising people are moving away from newspapers to online. Not only is the quality of hard news stories on the decline but they can’t even keep their “lifestyle supplements” up to scratch. Case in point is the SMH “essential” insert that appears every Thursday. Originally a “Science and Health” section this lasted little more than 12 months before morphing into a fashion and homewares free-for-all. It’s been on a downward spiral ever since which is frustrating because I used to enjoy the frippery after being assailed by death and destruction in the preceeding pages.

Last week’s edition (September 4th) had a front cover which must have been put together by the work experience person and the matching article on “Dressing to suit your age” was hackneyed and recycled, squandering an opportunity to provide some real information for readers. That’s just my opinion of course but I really don’t need to be informed that “as you age your skin tone and hair lose colour” or “In your 40’s well-tailored pieces are your friends, as figures tend to soften a little”. Really? How about telling me something i don’t already know!Apparently in your 20’s you can “experiment and have fun” but beyond that it’s all over baby.Don’t even think about turning 50 because you don’t exist in the eyes of the Fashion Police.

Well how about some practical advice? Maybe a list of affordable local designers with stockist and web details? That would be a good idea. Not only could you showcase the local talent but it might also make it easier to buy stuff. Afterall isn’t that the endgame? To be fair there was a list under “Ageless designers” but they were the usual suspects and I can’t afford Akira just yet. I’ll have to wait until I can access my superannuation for that.

I’m sorry I can’t provide any links to the object of my dummyspit so you could judge for yourself. The SMH link for essentials leads to a dead end despite the smh..com.au/essential link in the supplement. They do have a reader feedback email though. Wonder if I can be bothered to offer my constructive criticism? Then again they probably wouldn’t be able to read it, afterall I don’t exist.

eDemocracy- a new model?

I find that my mind is starting to work like the internet. I start exploring one rabbit hole and can’t stop until I either find what I’m looking for or end up nearly as mad as The Hatter or as dazed as Alice. So it was that the recent sackings at Fairfax Newspapers meant I tuned into the resultant debate about quality journalism, its place in the Fourth Estate and the part it plays in maintaining our democratic system. Eric Beecher, now editor of Crikey.com believes we are seeing the disappearance of the “big” newspaper model where organisations employ 300-400 journalists. Crikey.com employs 40 fulltime journalists which only allows them to cherry-pick stories of the day. Quality investigative journalism, the type that throws up a Wollongong Council or an Australian Wheat Board scandal, the argument goes, needs quality journalistic resources; as advertisers move to online, newspaper revenues fall and journalists get the sack.

Depressing? Undoubtedly, but Getup, an Australian independent grass roots advocacy organisation is about to launch Project Democracy as a way of getting participation back into democracy. Modelled on the highly successful UK TheyWorkForYou.com ProjectDemocracy is being described as the “ intersection of technology, new media and politics”.

How does it all work?

In “Plugged-in politics hits our shores” Ed Coper from Getup believes these sites are “redefining the relationship between the electorate and the elected”. Sites like TheyWorkForYou.com allow constituents to follow the performance of their local members in parliament via automatic emails. Coper describes “digital dossiers” where a politician’s parliamentary performance, financial interests, even their expenses are conveniently available to interested people including, I would have thought, journalists.

How did this all start?

Searching TheyWorkForYou.com quickly and easily leads you to mySociety.com and UK Citizens Online Democracy a UK charity that is funded mainly by large Charitable Trusts of the type that don’t seem to exist in Australia. The sites are run by volunteers who use open source code to develop the applications that allows a group of like minded people to link up. Whilst Tom Steinberg founded TheyWorkforYou in 2003, a number of people, including James Crabtree had explored the concept of e-democracy where citizens would be able to help themselves through mutual aid to overcome civic problems. In an article “Civic hacking:a new agenda for e-democracy” Crabtree sets out his vision about self-help through public investment and online reciprocity, about “connecting ordinary people with other ordinary people”. It seems he started a landslide and mySociety.org now has a number of projects running including No.10 Petitions, FixMyStreet, PledgeBank, WhatDoTheyknow and HearFromYourMP.

How effective are these sites in supporting representative democracy?

The numbers quoted seem impressive. The No.10Petitions website, for example, has eight million signatures with five million unique email addresses which represents 10% of the UK population. The HearFromYourMP site has been used by over 60,000 constituents and is used regularly by 160 MPs. It appears TheyWorkForYou has become a minor political institution itself with claims that seven million hits were recorded on the site in 2007. I have no idea if this volume of activity has actually changed the course of democracy but at the very least sites like WhatDoTheyKnow (“make Freedom of Information requests and read all about what other people have been asking, and what replies they’ve been getting. You can even subscribe to email alerts when other people ask about things you’re interested in”) go some way to addressing freedom of information issues that are regularly discussed in the Australian media.

What about the nuts and bolts?

In terms of useability  I found these sites to be clear and easy to navigate around. They won’t win any design awards necessarily, they are not image heavy but they are certainly fit-for-purpose. Once you register these sites generally allow users to leave comments. There are also news modules, blogs and RSS feed capabilities. You can donate to charity, suggest a petition, volunteer your services all in the name of  engaging with the democratic process and “keeping the bastards honest” to use the Australian vernacular of Don Chipp. The sites also use lots of imbedded links which gives great transparency and openness. You don’t feel like they are trying to hide behind anything. The content is also written in a very casual even humorous manner which I think would appeal to almost everyone.

Perhaps the thing that amazed me the most was the fact that a lot of the work is done by volunteers using open source code. This effort alone deserves a number of accolades. I’m not the only one who thinks so. According to politicsonline.com the UK Citizens Online Democracy is in the 2008 Top10 list.

So what’s happening closer to home?

Well, it seems Getup was a little less than transparent about YourDemocracy.

As reported by Crikey it seems that OpenAustralia.org is already operating and you can now access Hansard and current Senate debates. There is a direct link from TheyWorkForYou to OpenAustralia. However Project Democracy is now finally up and running and it is more visually appealing with an interactive model of the Senate chamber, blogs galore and background information about the Senate and how it all works. Good resource for those interested in politics I would have thought.

Wrapping up

Although I don’t plan on being an investigative journalist I’m glad I followed the rabbit hole. I’m going to bookmark these sites for future reference like any good journalist because I’m pretty sure they’ll come in handy one day. I’m also sure they are going to be used by the growing band of citizen journalists as well as the diminishing group of professional ones.

Read this

“The politician, the prat and the political idealist” for an entertaining read about the No. 10 Petition site.

The past catches up with you...

I was going to write a high and mighty blog about the shenanigans at Fairfax so incensed was I at the plight of my fellow journalists, the death of quality journalism and the fall of democracy in Australia. But then I got a phone call from an old school friend (OSF1).

“I’m on Facebook looking at a photo of our 1972 netball Grand Final,” chortled OSF1.
“OMG,” I said. “How did that get there?”.

Turns out another OSF, OSF2, is now a keen “Facebooker”, or “Facebookee”, or whatever the term is and by trawling through High School websites has linked up with a number of the old gang resulting in an email to OSF1 and she phoned me. Of course I now have to go onto Facebook because the suspense is killing me and I am now being forced to eat my words - I have, up to now, been very, very anti the whole social networking thing. Why?

I value my privacy for a start and I resist being manipulated into things just because “everyone is doing it”. My life is no less rich for not having a Facebook account and frankly I quite like ringing my friends (on a landline) and looking through oldphoto albums. If my children had Facebook accounts I couldn’t imagine anything worse than “being their friend”. I’m their mother and don’t necessarily want to see incriminating images of them any more than they want to see embarrassing pictures of me. Still must admit to being a bit curious. Afterall I’m no Luddite and can talk pompously about Blogs, Twittr, Flickr and RSS as well as any Gen Y.All thanks to this Online Journalism course.

So “to Facebook or not to Facebook?”. That is indeed the question because I really would like to catch up with a whole bunch of people who I went to school with and who shared my formative years. I think the past is about to catch up with me afterall. I can feel a reunion coming on - then I’ll get to see people face to face rather than across cyberspace - and that is a good thing.

Milestones

Today I attended my last Bookweek parade as a parent. Hooray I thought. After more than 10 years of suffering I was finally free from the last minute stress attacks associated with this annual drama. Not being handy with a Husqvarna I was running out of creative ways to fashion cardboard, pins and crepe paper into a reasonable facsimile of the most famous book characters of all time. But as I sat watching the Harry Potters, Captain Underpants and Darth Vaders I realised that this was a significant milestone for both me and the kids participating.

The 2008 theme for Bookweek Fuel your mind was meant to evoke images of books nourishing the soul and the intellect. From what I saw today kids find nourishment from mainly visual characters such as Homer Simpson, Luke Skywalker,Indiana Jones and The Joker. Perhaps not what the Childrens Book Council of Australia had in mind and I certainly was a bit disheartened to see so few classic characters like Sherlock Holmes, Oliver Twist and Huckleberry Finn. Perhaps I’m being a bit harsh afterall reading has to be fun and the language of books has to resonate with the reader. Still I couldn’t help wonder what these kids, bought up in this frenetic digital age, will be reading in the next five to ten years. Will anybody ever read Charles Dickens or Robert Louis Stevenson? How will kids keep up with the sheer volume of reading available to them? Will printed books survive or will they all be reading dumbed down bite sized pieces on their iPhones or whatever the latest gadget is?

As one of the teachers said today one of the greatest joys in life is to “curl up with a book and lose yourself in the characters and the story and fuel your imagination”. I couldn’t agree more and after today I realised my duty to Bookweek is not really over it has just changed. I still have a duty to encourage my kids to read whenever they can and in whatever form, be it books, comics or newspapers. I think then there’s a chance they will discover a whole host of reading that they will cherish and maybe even pass on to their own families. I sure would like to be at a Bookweek parade in 2050!