The ABC’s Australia Talks project aims to stimulate a conversation on a broad sweep of topics — from job security and sexual habits to national pride and personal finances.
The project is based on the results of a representative survey of more than 50,000 Australians.
One question the ABC’s promotional material focused on was “Are you lonely?” And when ABC chair Ita Buttrose was asked what she thought was the most surprising and disturbing feature of the whole exercise, she singled out the data on loneliness.
So, does loneliness deserve this billing? Is it really as important an issue as climate change, the economy, or education? We believe it is, and importantly, results from the Australia Talks survey help explain why.
First, loneliness is a killer. An influential meta-analysis, which collated and analysed the results of nearly 150 studies, underlines the impact on health of loneliness, or more specifically, lack of social integration and social support.
It found loneliness increases the risk of death more than such things as poor diet, obesity, alcohol consumption, and lack of exercise, and that it is as harmful as heavy smoking.
Second, most people generally don’t know loneliness kills. Indeed, some of our own research found when people in the United Kingdom and United States were asked to rank how important they thought various factors were for health, social integration and social support were at the bottom of their lists.
Yet, in a forthcoming paper, we found the quality of social connections is around four times more important as a predictor of retirees’ physical and mental health than the state of their finances.
When people retire, the quality of their social connections is a much more important predictor of their physical and mental health than how rich they are.from www.shutterstock.com
But when was the last time you saw an advert on TV telling you to get your social life in order (rather than your pension plan) before you stop working? When was the last time a health campaign or your family doctor warned you of the dangers of loneliness?
Our ignorance about the health consequences of loneliness is a reflection of the fact that loneliness is not part of our everyday conversations around health.
Hopefully, the Australia Talks project will change that. In the process, its findings also give us plenty of things to talk about.
Who’s feeling lonely?
The most striking finding from the Australia Talks national survey is simply how pervasive loneliness is in Australia today. Indeed, only half (54%) of participants reported “rarely” or “never” feeling lonely.
The survey also finds loneliness is a particular challenge for certain sections of the community. Of these, four stand out.
1. Young people
Among people aged 18-24, only a third (32%) “rarely” or “never” feel lonely. More than a quarter (30%) said they felt lonely “frequently” or “always”.
This compares sharply with the situation for older people, over two-thirds of whom (71%) “rarely” or “never” feel lonely. The fact that our image of a lonely person is typically someone of advanced years suggests we need to update our data (and our thinking).
The second group for whom loneliness emerges as a particular problem are people living in inner cities.
Compared to people who live in rural areas, those in inner metropolitan areas are less likely to say that they “never” feel lonely (15% vs 20%), but much more likely to say that they “occasionally”, “frequently”, or “always” do (50% vs 42%).
Again, this runs counter to much of the discourse around loneliness, which often focuses on the plight of those who are physical remote from others.
Interestingly, a third group that reports disproportionately high levels of loneliness is One Nation voters. Nearly one in ten (9%) of Pauline Hanson’s followers report being lonely “always” compared to around 2% for followers of each of the other parties.
Perhaps the most stark finding concerns the fourth predictor of loneliness: poverty. While 21% of people who earn less than A$600 a week feel lonely “frequently” or “always”, the comparable figure for people who earn more than A$3,000 a week is less than half that (10%).
This speaks to the more general (but often neglected) fact that around the world poverty is one of the biggest predictors of poor health, especially depression and other mental illnesses.
It also speaks to our observation that if you are fortunate enough to have a lot of money when you retire, then one of the key things this allows you to do is to maintain and build social connections.
So, there is a lot here for us to talk about when it comes to loneliness. This discussion also needs to ask what we are going to do to address a social cancer every bit as alarming as cancer itself.
This is a world where all types of community — families, neighbourhoods, churches, political parties, trade unions and even stable work groups — are constantly under threat. So let’s get talking.
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Pep Canadell, Chief research scientist, CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere; and Executive Director, Global Carbon Project, CSIRO
Nitrous oxide (N₂O) (more commonly known as laughing gas) is a powerful contributor to global warming. It is 265 times more effective at trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide and depletes our ozone layer.
Human-driven N₂O emissions have been growing unabated for many decades, but we may have been seriously underestimating by just how much. In a paper published today in Nature Climate Change, we found global emissions are higher and growing faster than are being reported.
Although clearly bad news for the fight against climate change, some countries are showing progress towards reducing N₂O emissions, without sacrificing the incredible crop yields allowed by nitrogen fertilisers. Those countries offer insights for the rest of the world.
N₂O concentrations (parts per billion) in air from Cape Grim Baseline Air Pollution Station (Tasmania, Australia) and air contained in bubbles trapped in firn and ice from the Law Dome, Antarctica. N₂O concentrations from these two sites reflect global concentrations, not local conditions. Source: BoM/CSIRO/AAD.
The Green Revolution
There are a number of natural and human sources of N₂O emissions, which have remained relatively steady for millennia. However, in the early 20th century the Haber-Bosch process was developed, allowing industry to chemically synthesise molecular nitrogen from the atmosphere to create nitrogen fertiliser.
This advancement kick-started the Green Revolution, one of the greatest and fastest human revolutions of our time. Crop yields across the world have increased many times over due to the use of nitrogen fertilisers and other improved farming practices.
But when soil is exposed to abundant nitrogen in its active form (as in fertilizer), microbial reactions take place that release N₂O emissions. The unrestricted use in nitrogen fertilisers, therefore, created a huge uptick in emissions.
N₂O is the third-most-important greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide and methane. As well as trapping heat, it depletes ozone in the stratosphere, contributing to the ozone hole. Once released into the atmosphere, N₂O remains active for more than 100 years.
Tracking emissions from above
Conventional analysis of N₂O emissions from human activities are estimated from various indirect sources. This include country-by-country reporting, global nitrogen fertiliser production, the areal extent of nitrogen-fixing crops and the use of manure fertilisers.
Our study instead used actual atmospheric concentrations of N₂O from dozens of monitoring stations all over the world. We then used atmospheric modelling that explains how air masses move across and between continents to infer the expected emissions of specific regions.
We found global N₂O emissions have increased over the past two decades and the fastest growth has been since 2009. China and Brazil are two countries that stand out. This is associated with a spectacular increase in the use of nitrogen fertilisers and the expansion of nitrogen-fixing crops such as soybean.
We also found the emissions reported for those two countries, based on a methodology developed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, are significantly lower than those inferred from N₂O levels in the atmosphere over those regions.
This mismatch seems to arise from the fact that emissions in those regions are proportionally higher than the use of nitrogen fertilizers and manure. This is a departure from the linear relationship used to report emissions by most countries.
There appears to be a level of nitrogen past which plants can no longer effectively use it. Once that threshold is passed in croplands, N₂O emissions grow exponentially.
N₂O emissions from agriculture estimated by using the emissions factors approach of the IPCC (blue), the calculated emission factor in this study (green), and the average of the atmospheric inversions in this study (black).Thompson et al. 2019 Nature Climate Change
Reversing the trends
Reducing N₂O emissions from agriculture will be very challenging, given the expected global growth in population, food demand and biomass-based products including energy.
However, all future emission scenarios consistent with the goals of the Paris Agreement require N₂O emissions to stop growing and, in most cases, to decline – between 10% and 30% by mid-century.
Interestingly, emissions from the USA and Europe have not grown for over two decades, yet crop yields across these regions increased or remained steady. Both regions have created strong regulations largely to prevent excess accumulation of nitrogen in soils and into waterways.
These areas and other studies have demonstrated the success of more sustainable farming in reducing emissions while increasing crop yields and farm-level economic gains.
A whole toolbox of options is available to increase nitrogen use efficiency and reduce N₂O emissions: precision applications of nitrogen in space and time, the use of N-fixing crops in rotations, reduced tillage or no-tillage, prevention of waterlogging, and the use of nitrification inhibitors.
Regulatory frameworks have shown win-win outcomes in a number of countries. With intelligent adaptions to different nations’ and regions’ needs, they can also work elsewhere.
Australian teachers are in the thick of producing end-of-year reports. In many schools, the report writing process begins several weeks – or even months – before reports are eventually released.
This process has significant costs, including time spent away from teaching.
For the past three years, the Australian Council for Educational Research has been investigating how effective parents, teachers and students consider report cards to be, and whether alternative designs might provide better information about student learning. We have analysed student reports and consulted students, parents, teachers and school leaders from several states.
The final report of our Communicating Student Learning Progress project, out today, shows parents and teachers are dissatisfied with aspects of the way report cards communicate student achievement. For example, parents and teachers generally agree grades, such as the most commonly used A-E, don’t sufficiently show student progress.
Grades are poor indicators of progress
The Australian Education Regulation 2013 specifies schools must produce reports that give an accurate and objective assessment of the student’s progress and achievement, including an assessment of the student’s achievement:
against any available national standards
relative to the performance of the student’s peers
reported as A, B, C, D or E (or on an equivalent five-point scale) for each subject studied.
Our analysis showed that, with few exceptions, Australian schools tend only to report achievement using A-E grades (or similar). Students’ learning progress is less-commonly communicated.
Many parents said they wanted information from teachers clearly indicating their child’s growth. Several said they would like to receive “a report that shows growth from the last report” or a report that “includes a line graph of a student’s progress over the year”.
Parents also wanted to better understand the significance of grades in relation to each other and to state or national standards. They wanted to know how grades compare across different classes, teachers, subjects and schools.
One parent said: “I don’t understand the A-E scale”.
Another asked
What does “Outstanding”, “High”, “Sound”, “Basic”, “Limited” actually mean? Is “Outstanding” best in the class, or operating 12 months ahead of expected level?
Teachers also told us they were concerned about the inconsistency of standards for grades. One teacher said that at her school
[…] grades are calculated on the cohort average: a 60% can be a C in one subject/test but a 70% could be a D in another.
Grades alone can also mask progress and be demotivating for students. A student who receives a D each report might conclude they are making no progress at all. But they may actually have made more progress than a highly able student who continually receives an A but is not being stretched.
One teacher we spoke with said:
A to E doesn’t focus on growth, and students can sit on a D or E for years and their report doesn’t demonstrate their growth or communicate their effort.
The timing is off
Australia’s education legislation mandates reports must also be “readily understandable” and received by parents and carers “at least twice a year”.
The majority of teacher comments we analysed generally avoided jargon and communicated in plain language. But parents and students told us they also appreciated comments that were personalised and explained both what a student has, and (crucially) has not yet, been able to demonstrate.
Reports don’t do a good job of communicating growth: how much a student has learnt or how much they need to learn.Author provided
They indicated they wanted comments to outline specific steps the student and parent should take to assist the student to progress. An example of this from a report we analysed is shown below.
Sarah demonstrated her clear understanding of how to structure an essay through the use of paragraphs, topic and linking sentences, and an introduction and conclusion. She wrote a meaningful and informative essay with strong relevant arguments […] A future goal for Sarah is to include more complex sentences, adding variance in sentence length to better engage the reader.
The timing of reports was an issue for parents too. Those who only received twice-yearly formal reports said they wanted more frequent information about their child’s learning.
Information in half-yearly reports is often outdated and can no longer be acted on, in most cases.
Teachers frequently mentioned that the rush at the end of each semester to finalise assessments and begin writing reports is often out-of-step with the rhythms of their own curriculum and assessment cycles.
One teacher said
We should not assess the students all at the same time – it’s stressful for students. Different subjects have different assessment blocks and could report when they have information to report on.
Students also expressed feeling overwhelmed at these peak periods of assessment.
How can we do it better?
Formal reporting can have significant costs. We asked one principal to calculate the costs associated with report writing at his primary school, which has 14 classes and 345 students. He estimated the total cost per semester, in 2019, was just over A$99,000.
His estimation included actual costs, as well as opportunity costs such as time spent by teachers writing reports before and after school, during lunch breaks, on weekends, and on holidays.
Schools are more often using online student and learning management systems to serve a range of functions. Teachers can use these systems to continuously report on student achievement throughout the school year. This provides parents and carers with information closer to each point of assessment, and often at little extra expense.
A significant number of teachers we surveyed suggested continuous reporting adds to their workload. But most teachers emphatically agreed continuous reporting is more useful to parents and students than semester reports.
Online continuous reporting has the potential trade-off of a reduced workload at the end of each semester, as semester reports can be generated automatically.
As more and more schools adopt continuous reporting, and place greater emphasis on assessing and reporting learning growth, semester reports as we know them will either become redundant or will need to change.
Our research suggests all forms of communication (semester reports, continuous reporting, parent-teacher interviews, student-led conferences, portfolios) should work together, as a system, to communicate a coherent picture of a child’s achievement and progress.
Concrete is the most widely used man-made material, commonly used in buildings, roads, bridges and industrial plants. But producing the Portland cement needed to make concrete accounts for 5-8% of all global greenhouse emissions. There is a more environmentally friendly cement known as MOC (magnesium oxychloride cement), but its poor water resistance has limited its use – until now. We have developed a water-resistant MOC, a “green” cement that could go a long way to cutting the construction industry’s emissions and making it more sustainable.
Producing a tonne of conventional cement in Australia emits about 0.82 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO₂). Because most of the CO₂ is released as a result of the chemical reaction that produces cement, emissions aren’t easily reduced. In contrast, MOC is a different form of cement that is carbon-neutral.
MOC is produced by mixing two main ingredients, magnesium oxide (MgO) powder and a concentrated solution of magnesium chloride (MgCl₂). These are byproducts from magnesium mining.
Magnesium oxide (MgO) powder (left) and a solution of magnesium chloride (MgCl₂) are mixed to produce magnesium oxychloride cement (MOC).Author provided
Many countries, including China and Australia, have plenty of magnesite resources, as well as seawater, from which both MgO and MgCl₂ could be obtained.
MOC also has many superior material properties compared to conventional cement.
Compressive strength (capacity to resist compression) is the most important material property for cementitious construction materials such as cement. MOC has a much higher compressive strength than conventional cement and this impressive strength can be achieved very fast. The fast setting of MOC and early strength gain are very advantageous for construction.
Although MOC has plenty of merits, it has until now had poor water resistance. Prolonged contact with water or moisture severely degrades its strength. This critical weakness has restricted its use to indoor applications such as floor tiles, decoration panels, sound and thermal insulation boards.
How was water-resistance developed?
A team of researchers, led by Yixia (Sarah) Zhang, has been working to develop a water-resistant MOC since 2017 (when she was at UNSW Canberra).
Adding industrial byproducts fly ash (above) and silica fume (below) improves the water resistance of MOC.Author provided
To improve water resistance, the team added industrial byproducts such as fly ash and silica fume to the MOC, as well as chemical additives.
Fly ash is a byproduct from the coal industry – there’s plenty of it in Australia. Adding fly ash significantly improved the water resistance of MOC. Flexural strength (capacity to resist bending) was fully retained after soaking in water for 28 days.
To further retain the compressive strength under water attack, the team added silica fume. Silica fume is a byproduct from producing silicon metal or ferrosilicon alloys. When fly ash and silica fume were combined with MOC paste (15% of each additive), full compressive strength was retained in water for 28 days.
Both the fly ash and silica fume have a similar effect of filling the pore structure in MOC, making the cement denser. The reactions with the MOC matrix form a gel-like phase, which contributes to water repellence. The extremely fine particles, large surface area and high reactive silica (SiO₂) content of silica fume make it an effective binding substance known as a pozzolan. This helps give the concrete high strength and durability.
Scanning electron microscope images of MOC showing the needle-like phases of the binding mechanism.Author provided
Although the MOC developed so far had excellent resistance to water at room temperature, it weakened fast when soaked in warm water. The team worked to overcome this by using inorganic and organic chemical additives. Adding phosphoric acid and soluble phosphates greatly improved warm water resistance.
Examples of building products made using MOC.Author provided
Over three years, the team has made a breakthrough in developing MOC as a green cement. The strength of concrete is rated using megapascals (MPa). The MOC achieved a compressive strength of 110 MPa and flexural strength of 17 MPa. These values are a few times greater than those of conventional cement.
The MOC can fully retain these strengths after being soaked in water for 28 days at room temperatures. Even in hot water (60˚C), the MOC can retain up to 90% of its compressive and flexural strength after 28 days. The values remain as high as 100 MPa and 15 MPa respectively – still much greater than for conventional cement.
Will MOC replace conventional cement?
So could MOC replace conventional cement some day? It seems very promising. More research is needed to demonstrate the practicability of uses of this green and high-performance cement in, for example, concrete.
When concrete is the main structural component, steel reinforcement has to be used. Corrosion of steel in MOC is a critical issue and a big hurdle to jump. The research team has already started to work on this issue.
If this problem can be solved, MOC can be a game-changer for the construction industry.
It is difficult to make predictions, especially about the future. (attributed to Danish physicist Niels Bohr)
The difficulty of making predictions has long been known, but the rise of the internet means that it is getting harder to hide the gaps between predictions and reality.
Perhaps the most significant example of repeated failed projections has been the International Energy Agency’s projections of the importance of renewable power – the proportion of electricity generated by solar and wind and other renewable sources other than hydro.
Beginning in 1994, when generation from these sources was negligible, the Agency has produced estimates of the future share of renewables every two years.
Every two years, with striking regularity, the previous estimates have been exceeded (hugely) and the new set has been revised upwards. But never by enough. Each time the upward revision has been inadequate.
This graph, prepared by Paul Mainwood from IEA reports, illustrates the point:
Projections versus reality
Reality versus repeated projections of renewables share of electricity generation (ex hydro).Paul Mainwood, Quora
The dashed lines represent successive projections from 1994 to 2016.
The solid red line represents the actual growth of non-hydro renewables as a share of total electricity generation.
What can be seen is that eleven times in a row the projected growth in renewables was far too low and had to be upgraded. Eleven times in a row the upgrades weren’t big enough.
As a joke (indicated by the green line) Mainwood “corrected” the 2016 projection for the typical under-projection:
Projections plus “corrected” 2016 projection
Reality versus projections of renewables share of electricity generation (ex hydro) plus 2016 projection corrected for typical undershoot.Paul Mainwood
Projections often understate change
Another striking example relates to religious belief. In 2015 the Pew Research Institute released a report suggesting a gradual decline in Christianity in the United States.
The headline finding for the US:
Christians will decline from more than three-quarters (75%) of the population in 2010 to two-thirds (66%) in 2050.
Yet only four years later in 2019, Pew released another report with this headline finding about the US:
In 2018 and 2019, 65% of American adults describe themselves as Christians when asked about their religion, down 12 percentage points over the past decade.
Thus, a decline expected to take forty years had taken place inside ten.
Moreover, Christian affiliation is highest in the older age cohorts, very few members of which will be around in 2050. Looking at the younger cohort born after 1981, only 49% claim a Christian affiliation, a proportion that has declined by 16 percentage points in a decade. Unless that trend is rapidly reversed, or later cohorts experience a religious revival, Christians will be a minority well before 2050.
They enable modellers to escape responsiblity
Faced with outcomes of this kind, modellers often defend themselves by drawing a distinction between “predictions” and “projections”.
A prediction (Latin for “foretelling”) is a claim about what is most likely to happen in the future. By contrast, a projection (“casting forward”) is a model output derived by extrapolating past trends, holding some parameters constant and allowing others to vary.
The International Energy Agency projections were characterised by the assumption that the costs of renewable energy would change only slowly, rather than continuing the extraordinary decline that began in the 1970s.
In the case of the Pew projections, the crucial parameter is conversion rates – the frequency with which people brought up with one religion (including “no religion”) change to another. The Pew projections were based on the assumption conversion rates will remain unchanged.
It is the opposite of the widely-held but controversial “secularisation hypothesis” which states that modernisation leads to increased conversions to “no religion”.
Predictions force them to take responsiblity
Projections are useful in the development of models. All models are based on past experience and have to assume that in some respects the future will be like the past. By examining the projections generated under particular assumptions about which variables and parameters will remain constant, it is possible to understand how models works and make modelling choices.
But projections of this kind are of no use in informing people not familiar with the material. They mislead casual readers of the Australia’s budget.
The budget uses both predictions and projections.
For the two years following each budget the Commonwealth uses “forecasts” which it is prepared to stand by, then for the next two it presents mechanical “projections”:
When asked to defend (for example) its wage growth number of 3½%, the treasury points out that it is a mechanical projection rather than a forecast, a distinction lost on all but the most enthusiastic of budget devotees.
In practice it is impossible to separate the two.
Even though both the International Energy Association and Pew describe their estimates as “projections” they are almost invariably treated aspredictions.
Since any statement about the future will be treated as a prediction, the only serious option for modellers prepared to be truthful with the public is to bite the bullet and make predictions.
It means working hard to make the best possible estimate of the future paths of all model parameters, and using judgement to take account of everything else.
It’s what those of us looking to experts for guidance deserve.
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Claire Smith, Professor of Archaeology, College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, Flinders University
The Stuart Highway in the Northern Territory is dotted with around 300 termite mounds, dressed as people. They are reminiscent of giant, ochre coloured “snowmen” in their distinctly human forms of decoration.
These tall, colourful mounds variously sport scarves, caps, singlets, shirts, sunhats, bras, hard hats and even a beer can. They start just below Darwin, near the Noonamah Hotel, and occur all the way down to Kulgara, just north of the South Australian border. This covers around 1,800 kilometres.
Different categories of people as depicted in the NT termite mounds.Author provided.
The snowmen are an irreverent, larrikin, Northern Territorian phenomenon. But who created them? And what can they teach us about fundamental human behaviours?
Termite mounds occur naturally. They are made of clay, soil, sand and other natural materials, bound together with the saliva of termites. They occur globally and can reach as high as five metres.
In the NT, the first snowmen appeared during the 1970s. More quickly followed. They appear on both public and private land, lining major highways and rural roads and extending into national parks.
The snowmen are on both public and private land.Author provided.
Over the years, many people have made these snowmen. Some were made by roadworkers, staying at roadside camps along the highway, with limited access to towns and entertainment but plenty of work clothing. Some were made by the owners of rural and remote properties. Some were made by fisherman traversing to remote fishing locations. Some may have been decorated by tourists.
The first ‘snowmen’ appeared in the 1970s.Author provided
The manager of the Royal Flying Doctor Service Tourist Facility, Samantha Bennett, is a Territorian born and bred. She says of the mounds:
Sometimes the clothing is changed according to festive calenders. They don’t do Halloween, but they definitely do Christmas and Australia Day. They dress them up with flags and high viz clothing, which is cool because you can see them from a distance. Sometimes, they are used to help with directions. They mark the location of a driveway in a remote area or turnoffs to secret fishing spots.
Social markers
The snowmen are actually snow people – men, women and children. Some are arranged in family groups. Gender is marked by clothing. Economic status can be discerned through the use of silk scarves, resort wear or hard hats.
A snowman wears a natty silk scarf.Author provided
Representatives of the Northern Territory’s renowned beer-drinking culture.Author provided
The wider NT cultural landscape
The snowmen are part of a wider cultural landscape in the NT. If you go to the Coburg Peninsula and lose one of your thongs, you put the remaining thong on the thong tree: a tree covered top to bottom with old rubber thongs.
Then there is the “fence of shame” on Andreas Avenue at Dundee Beach, west of Darwin. This is where you put your fishing rod if you have broken it during your trip.
Ageing snowmen and a slightly ageing family group.Author provided
There is material evidence that the snowman tradition has some longevity. In some cases, the clothing is in a dilapidated state. In others, the termites have renewed their building efforts on top of the clothes.
Aboriginal traditions and termite mounds
It is unlikely that the snowmen were created by Aboriginal people. As Barunga resident Isaac Pamakal explains: “Aboriginal people don’t do that, because that might make people sick.”
Termite mounds are woven into NT Aboriginal belief systems. In some areas, there is a belief that anyone who knocks over a mound will get diarrhoea. Indeed, powerful Indigenous people have been known to put someone’s clothes onto a termite mound in order to make that person sick. The intended victim would be identified by the sweat on their clothing (which contains their DNA). (This link between sweat and DNA is an example of Indigenous science, which is increasingly being drawn on.)
However, termite mounds are mostly known, in the NT and around the world, for their medicinal properties. They contain high proportions of kaolin, used for the treatment of gastric-disorders in both traditional and modern pharmacologies.
Francoise Foti has conducted research in two NT Aboriginal communities, Nauiyu Nambiyu (Daly River) and Elliott. She records people consuming small quantities of termite mounds to deal with gastric disorders or after eating certain foods like yams, turtle or goannas. Similarly, termite mound material is sometimes eaten during pregnancy or lactation as it contains iron and calcium.
A global phenomenon
The urge to humanise inanimate objects is a global phenomenon – through both time and space. For thousands of years, humans have had a penchant for making animals and things look like people.
This is most clearly shown in a style of rock art known as therianthropes, which depicts beings that have both human and animal characteristics. It also manifests in depictions of mermaids, centaurs and other mythical creatures.
So while they are special, the snowmen of the NT are not unique. They are simply another example of a human need to reinvent the world in our own image.
This past weekend, The New York Times’ China correspondents, Chris Buckley and Austin Ramzy, published an expose of over 400 internal Chinese government documents relating to Beijing’s mass detentions of Uighurs, Kazakhs and other Muslim minorities in the far-western region of Xinjiang.
This trove of documents includes 96 internal speeches by Chinese President and Communist Party (CCP) Chairman Xi Jinping, as well as hundreds of speeches and directives by other CCP officials on the strategies of surveillance and control implemented in the region.
The documents confirm previous analyses by researchers on key aspects of the Chinese government’s so-called “reeducation” system for Uighurs. They also reveal new details on both the timing and rationale for the mass detentions and the extent of opposition within the CCP to this approach.
Most importantly, however, the documents confirm Xi’s high level of personal involvement in driving the campaign of repression in Xinjiang.
What the documents confirm
A number of Xi’s internal speeches confirm previous assessments of the reasons behind the implementation of the government’s mass detention and “reeducation” policies.
It’s clear from the documents that fears of potential connections between violence in Xinjiang and Islamic extremism in neighbouring Afghanistan and the battlefields of Iraq and Syria played a key role in Xi’s call for a “people’s war on terrorism”.
In one speech, for instance, Xi remarks that with the American troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, “terrorist organisations” would be “positioned on the frontiers of Afghanistan and Pakistan” while
East Turkestan terrorists who have received real-war training in Syria and Afghanistan could at any time launch terrorist attacks in Xinjiang.
In this context, a number of high-profile terrorist attacks that have occurred in China in recent years, including a train station attack in Kunming and a bombing at a marketplace in Xinjiang’s capital, Urumqi, appear to have confirmed such fears.
As Xi asserted during a visit to a counterterrorism police unit in Urumqi the same month as the marketplace attack, the party must “unleash” the “tools of dictatorship” and “show absolutely no mercy” in its eradication of “extremists”.
Police investigating the knife attacks at Kunming’s train station in 2014, which left 31 people dead and 140 wounded.Sui Shui/EPA
The documents also demonstrate that the CCP’s recent tendency to frame both “extremists” and religious believers more broadly through the language of biological contagion or drug addiction comes from the top.
Xi himself states that those “infected” by “extremism” would require “a period of painful, interventionary treatment”, lest they have
their consciences destroyed, lose their humanity and murder without blinking an eye.
This language of paternalistic state intervention is not mere rhetoric, but concretely guides policy on the ground.
This is evident in one document prepared to assist local officials in the city of Turpan respond to queries by Uighur children of relatives sent to “reeducation” camps.
If officials are asked why those sent to the detention centres cannot return home, for example, they should answer by noting the party would be “irresponsible” to
let a member of your family go home before their illness was cured.
Rather, children should be grateful to the state for the detention of their family members and should
treasure this chance for free education that the party and government has provided to thoroughly eradicate erroneous thinking, and also learn Chinese and job skills.
The Turpan document also confirms the link between “reeducation” and forced labour. It notes family members undergoing “reeducation” can
find a satisfying job in one of the businesses that we’ve brought in or established.
As American researcher Darren Byler has detailed, detainees are often compelled to work as low-skilled labour in factories either directly connected to re-education centres or, upon their “release”, in nearby industrial parks where Chinese companies have been incentivised to relocate.
Key revelations in the reporting
There are several major revelations associated with the documents, as well. Most significant of all, according to the Times, is the fact the documents were leaked
by a member of the Chinese political establishment who requested anonymity and expressed hope that their disclosure would prevent party leaders, including Mr. Xi, from escaping culpability for the mass detentions.
Beyond such a (presumably) high-placed official, the leaked documents and reporting also reveal a greater level of dissent and uncertainty within lower levels of the party than previously understood.
Internal party documents note 12,000 investigations in 2017 alone into party members in Xinjiang for “violations” in the “fight against separatism and extremism”.
The leaked documents reflect Chinese President Xi Jinping’s personal involvement in driving the campaign of repression in Xinjiang.Andre Coelho/EPA
According to a “confession”, the local party chief in Yarkand in the far south of Xinjiang initially followed central policy directives by zealously building “two sprawling new detention facilities, including one as big as 50 basketball courts” and “doubling spending on outlays such as checkpoints and surveillance”.
However, fearing mass detentions would negatively impact on economic development goals and social cohesion – key benchmarks for achieving promotion within the party – Wang “broke the rules” and released thousands of detainees.
For this, he was removed from his post in 2017 and in an internal party report six months later was openly castigated for his “brazen defiance” of the “central leadership’s strategy for Xinjiang”.
Wang’s case demonstrates the existence of competing incentives at the local level in the implementation of centrally dictated policy.
His “brazen defiance” was not a principled stand against mass detentions but rather a pragmatic consideration of the potentially negative effects on his career should detentions undermine broader policy goals.
In this regard, it feels like a fairly typical experience of a low-level official in any authoritarian or totalitarian regime around the world.
It is this mundane quality that gives at least a kernel of hope the naked self-interest of party officials may play a part in pressuring the leadership to eventually reverse course on its Uighur detention policies.
However, given the stark and cold-blooded language revealed in the documents, this may prove to be a forlorn one.
This past weekend, The New York Times’ China correspondents, Chris Buckley and Austin Ramzy, published an expose of over 400 internal Chinese government documents relating to Beijing’s mass detentions of Uighurs, Kazakhs and other Muslim minorities in the far-western region of Xinjiang.
This trove of documents includes 96 internal speeches by Chinese President and Communist Party (CCP) Chairman Xi Jinping, as well as hundreds of speeches and directives by other CCP officials on the strategies of surveillance and control implemented in the region.
The documents confirm previous analyses by researchers on key aspects of the Chinese government’s so-called “reeducation” system for Uighurs. They also reveal new details on both the timing and rationale for the mass detentions and the extent of opposition within the CCP to this approach.
Most importantly, however, the documents confirm Xi’s high level of personal involvement in driving the campaign of repression in Xinjiang.
What the documents confirm
A number of Xi’s internal speeches confirm previous assessments of the reasons behind the implementation of the government’s mass detention and “reeducation” policies.
It’s clear from the documents that fears of potential connections between violence in Xinjiang and Islamic extremism in neighbouring Afghanistan and the battlefields of Iraq and Syria played a key role in Xi’s call for a “people’s war on terrorism”.
In one speech, for instance, Xi remarks that with the American troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, “terrorist organisations” would be “positioned on the frontiers of Afghanistan and Pakistan” while
East Turkestan terrorists who have received real-war training in Syria and Afghanistan could at any time launch terrorist attacks in Xinjiang.
In this context, a number of high-profile terrorist attacks that have occurred in China in recent years, including a train station attack in Kunming and a bombing at a marketplace in Xinjiang’s capital, Urumqi, appear to have confirmed such fears.
As Xi asserted during a visit to a counterterrorism police unit in Urumqi the same month as the marketplace attack, the party must “unleash” the “tools of dictatorship” and “show absolutely no mercy” in its eradication of “extremists”.
Police investigating the knife attacks at Kunming’s train station in 2014, which left 31 people dead and 140 wounded.Sui Shui/EPA
The documents also demonstrate that the CCP’s recent tendency to frame both “extremists” and religious believers more broadly through the language of biological contagion or drug addiction comes from the top.
Xi himself states that those “infected” by “extremism” would require “a period of painful, interventionary treatment”, lest they have
their consciences destroyed, lose their humanity and murder without blinking an eye.
This language of paternalistic state intervention is not mere rhetoric, but concretely guides policy on the ground.
This is evident in one document prepared to assist local officials in the city of Turpan respond to queries by Uighur children of relatives sent to “reeducation” camps.
If officials are asked why those sent to the detention centres cannot return home, for example, they should answer by noting the party would be “irresponsible” to
let a member of your family go home before their illness was cured.
Rather, children should be grateful to the state for the detention of their family members and should
treasure this chance for free education that the party and government has provided to thoroughly eradicate erroneous thinking, and also learn Chinese and job skills.
The Turpan document also confirms the link between “reeducation” and forced labour. It notes family members undergoing “reeducation” can
find a satisfying job in one of the businesses that we’ve brought in or established.
As American researcher Darren Byler has detailed, detainees are often compelled to work as low-skilled labour in factories either directly connected to re-education centres or, upon their “release”, in nearby industrial parks where Chinese companies have been incentivised to relocate.
Key revelations in the reporting
There are several major revelations associated with the documents, as well. Most significant of all, according to the Times, is the fact the documents were leaked
by a member of the Chinese political establishment who requested anonymity and expressed hope that their disclosure would prevent party leaders, including Mr. Xi, from escaping culpability for the mass detentions.
Beyond such a (presumably) high-placed official, the leaked documents and reporting also reveal a greater level of dissent and uncertainty within lower levels of the party than previously understood.
Internal party documents note 12,000 investigations in 2017 alone into party members in Xinjiang for “violations” in the “fight against separatism and extremism”.
The leaked documents reflect Chinese President Xi Jinping’s personal involvement in driving the campaign of repression in Xinjiang.Andre Coelho/EPA
According to a “confession”, the local party chief in Yarkand in the far south of Xinjiang initially followed central policy directives by zealously building “two sprawling new detention facilities, including one as big as 50 basketball courts” and “doubling spending on outlays such as checkpoints and surveillance”.
However, fearing mass detentions would negatively impact on economic development goals and social cohesion – key benchmarks for achieving promotion within the party – Wang “broke the rules” and released thousands of detainees.
For this, he was removed from his post in 2017 and in an internal party report six months later was openly castigated for his “brazen defiance” of the “central leadership’s strategy for Xinjiang”.
Wang’s case demonstrates the existence of competing incentives at the local level in the implementation of centrally dictated policy.
His “brazen defiance” was not a principled stand against mass detentions but rather a pragmatic consideration of the potentially negative effects on his career should detentions undermine broader policy goals.
In this regard, it feels like a fairly typical experience of a low-level official in any authoritarian or totalitarian regime around the world.
It is this mundane quality that gives at least a kernel of hope the naked self-interest of party officials may play a part in pressuring the leadership to eventually reverse course on its Uighur detention policies.
However, given the stark and cold-blooded language revealed in the documents, this may prove to be a forlorn one.
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Janet Stanley, Associate professor/Principal Research Fellow, Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute, University of Melbourne
It’s hard to comprehend why someone would deliberately light a bushfire. Yet this behaviour regularly occurs in Australia and other countries. We would go a long way to preventing bushfires if we better understood this troubling phenomenon.
Experts estimate about 85% of bushfires are caused by humans. A person may accidentally or carelessly start a fire, such as leaving a campfire unattended or using machinery which creates sparks. Or a person could maliciously light a fire.
This criminal behaviour is not widely recognised or understood by the public, fire authorities or researchers. This means opportunities to prevent bushfires are generally being missed and resources devoted to tackling the cause are far from commensurate with the devastating consequences.
The 2013 fire at Wallan, Victoria, was thought to be deliberately lit.MARK DADSWELL/AAP
Profile of an arsonist
Research has shown about 8% of officially recorded vegetation fires were attributed to malicious lighting, and another 22% as suspicious. However, about 40% of officially recorded vegetation fires did not have an assigned cause. When unassigned bushfires were investigated by fire investigators, the majority were found to be maliciously lit.
But official fires are just the tip of the iceberg: the actual number of bushfires in Australia is thought to be about five times that recorded. Virtually none of these unrecorded fires are investigated.
Young men comprise the largest group of people who maliciously light fires. These youth are usually troubled, likely to have absent fathers and little home supervision. They are likely to have experienced child abuse and neglect and associated with an antisocial peer group. Lighting fires may give a feeling of excitement, defiance and power, or it may be an expression of displaced anger. Some offenders have an intellectual disability.
Offenders may make no attempt to extinguish the fire, and give little consideration to the consequences. Some may have no feelings of remorse or fear of punishment. Others may never have intended to create such wide devastation.
Older males who light malicious fires also have a history of social and educational disadvantage, poor family functioning in childhood, low self-esteem, and often a pathological interest in fire. However the older the person gets, the less likely they are to light fires.
Convicted Black Saturday arsonist Brendan James Sokaluk arriving at the Supreme Court in Melbourne.Julian Smith/AAP
Media attention on a fire’s cause is generally scant and the public rarely hears much beyond initial charges being laid. This is in stark contrast to blanket news coverage of the consequences of bushfires.
A staggeringly low apprehension and conviction rate for offenders – less than 1% – is a further barrier to public awareness of the problem. Conviction rarely leads to a substantial punishment.
Fire brigades in most states offer a limited education course for some children who light fires, usually led by volunteers. But there are few targeted treatment programs for those who light bushfires.
Firefighters near Sydney in November 2019 conducting controlled burning – a common fire mitigation method.Jeremy Piper/AAP
Rethinking the bushfire problem
Rather than tackling the cause of the problem, the major response to bushfire in Australia is mitigation. This largely involves one blunt approach: hazard reduction burns to reduce bushfire fuel loads. This is an increasingly difficult task as climate change makes weather conditions more unsuitable for controlled burns.
A much greater focus on prevention would require a significant rethinking of the bushfire problem. This would include collaboration between government, business, non-government organisations, communities and others.
Victoria’s Gippsland Arson Prevention Program provides a promising model. Through public education, media engagement and other means, it informs communities on how to help prevent arson. The committee includes Victoria Police, government and fire authorities and local power generators.
In one example of an on-the-ground response, local authorities organised the removal of dumped cars, which are commonly seen by bored and troubled youth as an invitation to start a fire.
Arson prevention also includes addressing long-term problems such as youth disadvantage and unemployment, especially in rural-urban fringe areas where most human-lit fires occur.
Shorter-term approaches include providing support and treatment to at-risk youth, and situational crime prevention such as good lighting and cameras in places vulnerable to fire lighting.
We must open up a society-wide discussion of bushfire prevention, which includes listening to local communities about what they value and what can be done about the problem. As climate change worsens – and bushfires along with it – a radical rethink is required.
Former prime minister Paul Keating has launched a scathing attack on the Australian media for its coverage of China, denouncing “the nominally pious belchings of ‘do-gooder’ journalists” who live on leaks from security agencies.
Keating told Australian newspaper’s strategic forum on Monday: “The Australian media has been recreant in its duty to the public in failing to present a balanced picture of the rise, legitimacy and importance of China”.
Instead it preferred “to traffic in side plays dressed up with cosmetics of sedition and risk”.
Current relations between the Chinese and Australian governments have been strained for some time, with a range of tension points, including the issue of Chinese interference in Australian politics and universities and the government’s response.
In his speech Keating once again had in his sights what he sees as the sway of security agencies in foreign policy especially on China, a point he made forcefully before the election.
“What passes for the foreign policy of Australia lacks any sense of strategic realism,” he said. “The whispered word ‘communism’ of old, is now being replaced with the word ‘China’.
“The reason we have ministries and cabinets is that a greater and collective wisdom can be brought to bear on complex topics – and particularly on movements of tectonic importance.
“This process is not working in Australia, ” he said.
“The subtleties of foreign policy and the elasticity of diplomacy are being supplanted by the phobias of a group of national security agencies which are now effectively running the foreign policy of the country.
He targeted particularly The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age for their China coverage.
“Drops to journalists by the [security] agencies about another ‘seditious’ publication in a particular university or the hijinks of another Chinese entrepreneur is passed off as the evil bearing of the Chinese State.”
He said he did not know how Scott Morrison or the government permitted this state of affairs.
Keating said big states were “rude and nasty,” and referenced instances of American behaviour. “But that does not mean we can afford not to deal with them – whether it be the United States or China”.
“It is the national interest and its long run trajectory which should guide our hand and not the nominally pious belchings of ‘do-gooder’ journalists who themselves live on leaks of agencies unfit to divine a national pathway.
“Organisations which lack comprehension as to magnitude or moment or the subtleties and demands of a dynamic international landscape.”
Keating said it was in Asia’s interests, including Australia’s interests, that the US remain engaged in the region.
“Closer US political and commercial links with the countries of the region should help establish a web of self-reinforcing, cooperative ties which over time, should assuage Chinese concerns that a structure is being built with the express purpose of Chinese strategic containment.
“Indeed, such a cooperative structure should encourage China to participate in the region rather than seek to dominate it.
“We want a region which gives China the space to participate but not dominate.
“Australia, for its part, should be actively involved in the development of such structures, while being wary of being caught up in a policy by the United States, should the United States come to the conclusion, that the rise of China is broadly incompatible with its strategic interests.”
Keating said President Trump had no instinct for a military skirmish with China – which was good news – but he would not be setting a new international model.
“At the moment the current model is in serious decline. Global institutions are crumbling. Look at the WTO. The global system is under stress.
“And regional institutions are being marginalised into the bargain. For instance, the President did not attend the recent East Asia Summit. He did not even direct his Secretary of State to attend,” he said.
“On the broader point, whether the United States can assume it retains strategic guarantor status in East Asia is open to debate.
“What is not debatable is that we need the US as the balancing and conciliating power in the region.”
Keating said after this presidency the US would not return to being the state it was, regardless of whether the next president was Republican or a Democrat.
Not only was the US withdrawing from Asian arrangements – it was doing the same in Europe.
Australia would be left in the “deep blue sea” dealing with the great powers of the US and China over the next 30 years.
Unfortunately debate in Australia about China had degenerated, with two propositions contributing to this, Keating said. One was the unstated assumption that somehow China’s rise was illegitimate; the other was China was not a democracy. He dismissed the accuracy of the first and the relevance of the second.
China would be – was now – the predominant economic power in Asia.
“That position will not be usurped by a non-Asian power, either economic or military.
“How does Australia respond to this?
“Is it to help divine and construct a set of arrangements which engages China but which also prevents China from dominating the region?
“Or do we seek to insulate or remove ourselves from this enormous shift in world economic power, by allowing our singular focus on the United States and our alliance with it to mark out our international personality?”
A parasite is an organism that lives in or on an organism of another species.
Three main classes of parasites can cause disease in humans: protozoa, helminths, and ectoparasites. Protozoa and helminths largely affect the gut, while ectoparasites include lice and mites that can attach to or burrow into the skin, staying there for long periods of time.
The majority of protozoa and helminths tend to be non-pathogenic (meaning they don’t cause disease) or result in very mild illness. Some, however, can cause severe disease in humans.
Faecal-oral transmission, where parasites found in the stool of one person end up being swallowed by another person, is the most common mode of transmission of parasitic protozoa and helminths.
The initial symptoms tend to be gastrointestinal symptoms like diarrhoea. When parasites invade the red blood cells or organs, the consequences can become more serious.
Protozoa
Protozoa are tiny single-celled organisms that multiply inside the human body.
The protozoa giardia, for example, has a classic two-stage life cycle. In the first stage, called trophozoite, the parasite swims around and consumes nutrients from the small bowel. In the second stage it develops into a non-moving cyst.
Cysts excreted in faeces can contaminate the water supply, and ingesting contaminated food or water results in transmission. Close human to human contact and unsanitary living conditions can promote transmission.
Symptoms of giardia can include severe or chronic diarrhoea, abdominal cramps, fatigue, weakness and weight loss.
Once the parasite has been diagnosed, it can usually be treated effectively.From shutterstock.com
Other important protozoa are the plasmodium species. Plasmodium develop in mosquitoes, and infected mosquitoes transmit the parasite to humans by biting them. Plasmodium destroys red blood cells which impacts organ function and causes a disease in humans known as malaria.
Malaria causes the most deaths of all parasitic diseases. In 2017 it was estimated malaria resulted in 435,000 deaths globally, most of them young children in sub-Saharan Africa.
Helminths, often called worms, are large multicellular organisms usually visible to the naked eye in their adult stages. As a general rule, helminths cannot multiply inside the human body.
One major group of helminths are flatworms. Flatworms literally have flattened soft bodies. Their digestive cavity has only one opening for both the ingestion and removal of food. It’s thought 80% of flatworms are parasitic.
Tapeworms are one type of flatworm. The most common human tapeworm in Australia is the dwarf tapeworm. The prevalence of dwarf tapeworm in isolated communities in northwest Australia is estimated to be around 55%.
Infestation in humans comes from ingesting dwarf tapeworm eggs. Transmission from person to person occurs via the faecal-oral route. As with other parasites, the major risk factors are poor sanitation and shared living quarters. Symptoms include diarrhoea, abdominal pain, weight loss and weakness.
Some parasites, like plasmodium, which causes malaria, are transmitted to humans via mosquito bites.From shutterstock.com
Another major group of helminths are nematodes, commonly known as roundworms. Nematodes are the most numerous multicellular animals on earth and can be found in almost every environment. Unlike flatworms, they do have a digestive system that extends from the mouth to the anus.
The eggs or larvae of these nematodes usually develop in soil before being transmitted to the human host. For this reason these nematodes are often called soil-transmitted helminths. A good example are hookworms which infest humans by penetrating the skin from contaminated soil. So wearing appropriate footwear is an important way to prevent hookworm transmission.
The pinworm Enterobius vermicularis has a different life cycle to the other nematodes. Pinworm larvae develop in eggs on the skin near the anus or under the fingernails.
Pinworm, also known as threadworm, is the most common helminth parasite in Australia. Itching around the anus is a major symptom of pinworm. Pinworms are easily passed from one person to another and it’s common for entire families to be infested.
Ectoparasites
The term ectoparasites generally refers to organisms such as ticks, fleas, lice and mites that can attach or burrow into the skin and remain there for long periods of time.
Scabies, for example, a contagious skin disease marked by itching and small raised red spots, is caused by the human itch mite. Scabies usually is spread by direct, prolonged, skin-to-skin contact.
Head lice are small, wingless insects that live and breed in human hair and feed by sucking blood from the scalp.
Head lice, a type of ectoparasite, are common in children.From shutterstock.com
Prevention and treatment
Some parasites can lie dormant for extended periods of time. This can make the diagnosis of parasitic infestation challenging as there may be no symptoms, or symptoms can be vague and non-specific.
The good news is we have very good medications to treat many different kinds of parasites once they’ve been diagnosed. These medications do have side effects but on the whole are very effective.
Treatment of parasites should be accompanied by preventative strategies such as improving sanitation and ensuring the availability of appropriate clothing and footwear in affected areas.
The World Health Organisation has recommended periodic medical treatment (deworming) to all at-risk people living in endemic areas, but widespread implementation remains challenging.
You’re driving down an unfamiliar street on a clear spring evening. You’ve been invited to a friend of a friend’s party, at a house you’ve never been to before.
Tracking the street numbers, you see you’re getting close, so you (almost automatically) turn the radio down. Finally, with all that music out of the way, you might actually be able to see the house.
Why is it that Cardi B must be silenced so you can better see the address of your party? For that matter, why do we have a convention to read silently when in a library?
One response might be: “When we need to concentrate a little more, like when we’re looking for a house in the dark, we often try to get rid of distractions so we can focus.”
This answer is intuitively appealing. It’s also exactly the kind of answer cognitive psychologists try to avoid.
The words concentrate, distractions, and focus all point towards something (attention) that is left undefined. Rather than detailing its properties and how it works, we just assume people intuitively know what it means.
This is a little circular, like a dictionary using a word in its own definition.
Hashtag nofilter
When you have a problem that seems inseparable from intuition, one way to get a handle on it is to a use a metaphor.
One of the most important metaphors for attention was provided by psychologist Donald Broadbent in 1958: attention acts like a filter. In his metaphor, all sensory information – everything we see, hear, feel on our skin, and so on – is retained in the mind for a very short period simply as physical sensation (a colour in a location, a tone in the left ear).
But when it comes to bringing meaning to that sensory information, Broadbent argued, we have limited capacity. So attention is the filter that determines which parts of the torrent of incoming sensation are processed.
It might seem like this broad description of a filter doesn’t buy us much in terms of explanation. Yet, sadly for Broadbent, he gave just enough detail to be proven incorrect.
A year after the publication of Broadbent’s book, the psychologist Neville Moray found that when people are listening to two simultaneous streams of speech and asked to concentrate on just one of them, many can still detect their own name if it pops up in the other stream.
This suggests that even when you’re not paying attention, some sensory information is still processed and given meaning (that a mass of sounds is our name). What does that tell us about how this central bottleneck of attention might act?
Radar love
One answer comes from a remarkable 1998 study by Anne-Marie Bonnel and Ervin Hafter. It builds upon one of the most successful theories in all psychology, signal detection theory, which describes how people make decisions based on ambiguous sensory information, rather like how a radar might detect a plane.
One of the basic problems of radar detection is to work out whether it is more likely that what is being detected is a signal (an enemy plane) or just random noise. This problem is the same for human perception.
Although apparently a metaphor like Broadbent’s filter, signal detection theory can be evaluated mathematically. The mathematics of human identification, it turns out, largely match those of radar operation.
A perfect circle
Bonnel and Hafter recognised that if people have a finite amount of attention to divide between vision and hearing, you could expect to see a particular pattern in certain experiments.
Imagine attention as an arrow of a fixed length that can swing back and forth between sight and hearing. When it’s pointing entirely towards sight, there’s no room for any focus on hearing (and vice versa). But if a little attention is taken up by hearing, that means there is less directed towards sight. If you graph this relationship, the tip of the arrow will draw a neat circle as it swings from one to the other.
Sure enough, the data from their experiments did indeed form a circle, but only in a certain case. When people were asked simply to detect whether a stimulus was present, there was no trade-off (paying more attention to vision did not change hearing performance and vice versa). It was only when people were asked to identify the specific stimulus that this circle appeared.
This suggests that while do we indeed have a limited capacity to process information, this is only the case when we’re processing the information for meaning, rather than being aware of its presence.
Our own research suggests this pattern indicates some deeper constraint at the heart of the way we perceive the world.
The circle represents a fundamental limit on processing. We can never leave that circle, all we can do is move forwards or backwards along it by choosing to focus our attention.
When our visual task becomes difficult – like finding a house number in the dark rather than simply scanning the road – we move along that circle to optimise the signal from our visual system. In many cases, we can only do that by turning down the input to our auditory system, by literally turning down the radio. Sorry, Cardi B.
“To be dead,” wrote the 20th century French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, “is to be a prey for the living.” Even Sartre, though, would have struggled to imagine casting James Dean in a movie 64 years after the actor’s death.
The curious announcement that Dean, who died in a car crash in 1955 having made just three films, will star in a movie adaptation of Gareth Crocker’s Vietnam War novel Finding Jack, has been met with outrage.
It would be a remarkable CGI achievement for any studio to resurrect an actor who has been dead since the Eisenhower administration.
True, the Star Wars movie Rogue One featured the late Peter Cushing “reprising” his role as Grand Moff Tarkin. But the new role given to Dean would reportedly be far larger and more complex. Cushing, at least, had already played Tarkin while he was alive.
Grand Moff Tarkin’s Death Star, Rogue One.
In Finding Jack, “James Dean” will supposedly be starring in a film based on a novel written 80 years after he was born, set near the end of a war that started after he died. He will reportedly be reanimated via “full body” CGI using actual footage and photos; another actor will voice him.
The reaction to this goes beyond mere scepticism, however. Nor is it simply the now-familiar post-truth anxiety about no longer being able to tell what’s real and what isn’t. The rise of “deepfakes” presents a much greater threat on that front than bringing dead actors back to life.
What’s at work here is another pervasive challenge of the online era: how we should live with the digital dead.
These issues only get thornier once you add in the prospect of reanimation.
For most of this decade, digital immortality was confined to press releases and fiction. A string of start-ups promised breathlessly to let you cheat death via AI-driven avatars, only to disappear when it became clear their taglines were better than their products. (The Twitter app LivesOn’s “When your heart stops beating, you’ll keep tweeting” was undeniably clever).
“Be Right Back,” a 2013 episode of the TV series Black Mirror, imagined a young woman who signs up for a service that brings her dead partner back to life using his social media footprint: first as a chat bot, then as a phone-based voice simulator, and finally as a lifelike automaton. It was brilliant, bleak television, but thankfully, it wasn’t real.
Then in late 2015, 34-year-old Roman Mazurenko died in an accident in Moscow. As a tribute, his best friend, fellow tech entrepreneur Eugenia Kuyda, built the texts Mazurenko had sent her into a chat bot.
You can download Roman Mazurenko right now, wherever you get your apps, and talk to a dead man. Internet immortality might not be here yet, not quite, but it’s unsettlingly close.
Between remembrance and exploitation
Sadly, it’s not an immortality we could look forward to. When we fear death, one thing we particularly dread is the end of first-person experience.
Think of the experience you’re having reading this article. Someone else could be reading exactly the same words at the same time. But their experience will lack whatever it is that makes this your experience. That’s what scares us: if you die, that quality, what it’s like to be you, won’t exist anymore. And there is, to mangle a famous line from Thomas Nagel, nothing it is like to be a bot.
But what about living on for other people? The Mazurenko bot is clearly a work of mourning, and a work of love. Remembering the dead, wrote Kierkegaard, is the freest and most unselfish work of love, for the dead can neither force us to remember them nor reward us for doing so. But memory is fragile and attention is fickle.
It seems reasonable that we might use our new toys to help the dead linger in the lifeworld, to escape oblivion a little longer. The danger, as the philosopher Adam Buben has put it, is that memorialisation could slip into replacement.
An interactive avatar of the dead might simply become a stopgap, something you use to fill part of the hole the dead leave in our lives. That risks turning the dead into yet another resource for the living. The line between remembrance and exploitation is surprisingly porous.
That is what’s ultimately troubling about resurrecting James Dean. To watch a James Dean movie is to encounter, in some palpable way, the concrete person. Something of the face-to-face encounter survives the mediation of lens, celluloid and screen.
To make a new James Dean movie is something else. It’s to use the visual remains of Dean as a workable resource instead of letting him be who he is. Worse, it suggests that James Dean can be replaced, just as algorithm-driven avatars might come to replace, rather than simply commemorate, the dead.
We’ll know in time whether Finding Jack can live up to its likely premature hype. Even if it doesn’t, the need to think about how we protect the dead from our digital predations isn’t going away.
Just a few years ago, virtual reality (VR) was being showered with very real money. The industry raised an estimated US$900 million in venture capital in 2016, but by 2018 that figure had plummeted to US$280 million.
Investments in VR entertainment venues all over the world, VR cinematic experiences, and specialised VR studios such as Google Spotlight and CCP Games have either significantly downsized, closed down or morphed into new ventures. What is happening?
Recent articles in Fortune and The Verge have voiced disdain with VR technology. Common complaints include expensive, clunky or uncomfortable hardware, and unimaginative or repetitive content. Sceptics have compared VR experiences to the 3D television fad of the early 2010s.
As a VR researcher and developer, I understand the scepticism. Yet I believe in this technology, and I know there are “killer apps” and solutions waiting to be discovered.
Last week, Western Sydney University hosted a global symposium on VR software and technology, at which academics and industry partners from around the world discussed possible ways forward for VR and augmented reality. Among the speakers were Aleissia Laidacker, director of Developer Experience at Magic Leap; University of South Australia computing professor Mark Billingurst; and Tomasz Bednarz, director of UNSW’s Expanded Perception and Interaction Centre.
Juggling on Pluto, anyone? Jindrich Adolf from the Czech Institute of Informatics, Robotics and Cybernetics describes an otherworldly VR experience.Western Sydney University
Virtual reality, literal headache
One problem discussed at the symposium is the fact that VR experiences often cause health-related issues including headaches, eye strain, dizziness, and nausea. Developers can partially deal with these issues at the hardware level by delivering balanced experiences with high refresh and frame rates.
But many developers are ignoring usability guidelines in the pursuit of exciting content. Gaming industry guidelines used by Epic, Oculus, Marvel, and Intel recommend that games completely avoid any use of induced motion, acceleration or “fake motion”, which are often the main cause of discomfort and motion sickness.
Yet the vast majority of available VR experiences feature some kind of induced motion, either in the form of animation or by basing the experience on user movement and exploration of the virtual environment.
I have met many first-time VR users who generally enjoyed the experience, but also reported “feeling wrong” – similar to enjoying the clarity of sound in noise-cancelling headphones but also having a “strange sensation” in their ears.
Killing creativity
Queasiness is not the only turnoff. Another problem is that despite the near-limitless potential of VR, many current offerings are sorely lacking in imagination.
The prevailing trend is to create VR versions of existing content such as games, videos or advertisements, in the hope of delivering extra impact. This does not work, in much the same way that radio play would make terrible television.
A famous cautionary tale comes from Second Life, the virtual world launched in 2003 which failed spectacularly to live up to its billing. Real-world businesses such as Toyota and BMW opened branches in Second Life, allowing users to test-drive badly programmed versions of their virtual cars. They lasted mere months.
Why would we prefer a humdrum virtual experience to a real one? No one needs a virtual Toyota. We need to give users good reasons to leave their reality behind and immerse themselves in a new one.
There have been some notable successes. Beat Saber, made by Czech indie developers, is the one of the few games that have explored the true potential of VR – and is the only VR game to have grossed more than US$20 million.
Beat Saber has been praised as great mental and physical exercise.
The VR Vaccine Project helps to take the sting out of childhood needles, by combining a real-world vaccination with a superhero story in the virtual world, in which the child is presented with a magical shield at the crucial moment.
The VR Vaccine Project: making needles less scary.
I really hope VR is on its way to becoming more mainstream, more exciting, and less underwhelming. But we scientists can only present new technological solutions, to help make VR a more comfortable and enjoyable experience. Ultimately it is down to VR developers to learn from existing success stories and start delivering those “killer apps”. The possibilities are limited only by imagination.
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rowena Maguire, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Law, Institute for Future Environments, Queensland University of Technology
Over the past two weeks, bushfires have raged across New South Wales and Queensland. While the narrative appears focused on potential causes and political point-scoring, what’s lost in this discussion is the role of post-disaster recovery, and specifically how it relates to gender.
Disasters have gendered impacts. Generally, disasters disproportionately affect women and girls, with women and children 14 times more likely to die in a natural disaster on a global scale.
In the Australian bushfire context, research shows women are more likely than men to want to evacuate, and men are more likely than women to want to remain and “fight the fire”. This means men are three times more likely to die in bushfires compared with women.
But the gendered impacts of bushfires also affect the aftermath. There’s a growing awareness in Australia among researchers and those working in women’s support services that natural disasters amplify conditions leading to incidents of domestic violence.
Yet climate, disaster and environmental law and policy is “gender blind” – they don’t mention or recognise gender as an issue.
Gender violence after disasters
People struggle to cope long after a disaster has settled from significant levels of family disruption, including displacement, social isolation, psychological trauma and financial despair.
The current bushfires have destroyed many houses and led to widespread trauma, which means longer term repercussions, such as the financial ramifications of loss of property and halted economic activity, will build.
These impacts carry with them an emotional toll that can place pressure on household dynamics and bring families to breaking point. If history tells us anything, this will include an increase in gender-based violence.
Following Hurricane Katrina, a study found a 98% increase in violence against women as measured from before and after the disaster.
A study conducted following the 2004 Whakatane flood in New Zealand found police callouts doubled and the workload for domestic violence agencies tripled in the aftermath of the flood.
Similarly, the Women’s Health Goulburn North East organisation (a specialist women’s health service) reported in the wake of the Black Saturday Bushfires in Victoria in 2009 an increase in the incidence of domestic violence against women during post-disaster recovery.
What’s more, women already living in an abuse relationship may experience greater severity post-disaster, because they may be separated from support systems like family and friends that offered some protection. These women may be forced to rely on the perpetrator for survival, or access to services.
Addressing gender in climate law
Climate law remains largely gender blind in Australia. In 2017, following years of lobbying, women’s groups were successful in getting the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to adopt “gender action plans”.
Gender balance is defined as being achieved when there are approximately equal numbers of men and women participating in international environmental negotiations.
Gender responsive policy requires governments to identity, understand and implement initiatives aimed at addressing gender gaps in the environmental sector.
The creation of these UN gender action plans means governments, including the Australian government, should start identifying and responding to the gendered impacts of climate change. But the Australian government has yet to bring these recommendations to its climate policies.
Australia doesn’t adopt UN recommendations
The key organising international text on disaster management is the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, a 15-year non-binding UN agreement, which requires countries to apply a gender sensitive approach in preparing and responding to disasters.
But Australian disaster policies don’t do this. For example, Queensland’s State Disaster Management Plan is effective in terms of physically responding to a disaster, but the policy remains gender blind. It does not adequately consider the effects of sudden or slow onset disasters at the household level.
Not only does the Australian government need to adopt a gender sensitive approach in disaster policy and planning, but also it should better fund groups at the front line responding to gendered violence following a disaster.
This includes groups providing legal support like Womens Legal Services and Legal Aid and should extend to groups providing accomodation, counselling and other support for women impacted by gender violence.
The National Sexual Assault, Family & Domestic Violence Counselling Line – 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) – is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week for any Australian who has experienced, or is at risk of, family and domestic violence and/or sexual assault.
At menopause, a woman’s ovaries lose their reproductive function. Eggs are no longer released and the production of the hormones oestrogen and progesterone falls. It’s the lowered levels of oestrogen after menopause that gives rise to troublesome postmenopausal symptoms.
Most women experience menopause between the ages of 45 and 55. It’s a natural event, but for many women it has significant health consequences.
Typical symptoms include hot flushes, night sweats, anxiety, low mood, disturbed sleep, joint pain and vaginal dryness. These symptoms can be debilitating.
The fall in oestrogen also leads to bone loss and an increased risk of fragility fractures. And women going through menopause have increased central abdominal fat, even without an increase in weight. This contributes to a heightened risk of diabetes and heart disease.
An absence of symptoms doesn’t mean bone loss and other metabolic changes aren’t occurring, as these develop silently.
Menopausal hormone therapy (MHT) – which used to be known as hormone replacement therapy, or HRT – is the most effective treatment we have for menopausal symptoms. Yet many women and health-care providers remain confused about the benefits and risks of MHT.
What is menopausal hormone therapy?
MHT replenishes oestrogen supplies in the body to treat the symptoms of menopause. Taking oestrogen causes thickening of the lining of the uterus, so progestogen (which acts like progesterone) is added to MHT to stop this.
This is important because a thickened uterus lining may undergo cellular changes that have the potential to develop into uterine cancer. For a woman who has had a hysterectomy (surgery where the uterus is removed) MHT will be oestrogen-only.
Oestrogen is usually taken in tablet form, but can be applied as a skin patch or skin gel, or as a vaginal pessary. Progesterone is taken as a capsule. There are a range of single formulations and combinations, so the dose and formulation of MHT should be tailored to each woman’s health profile and personal preferences.
Women shouldn’t take MHT if they have a malignancy sensitive to oestrogen, like breast cancer, or have undiagnosed vaginal bleeding.
Unless there’s a specific reason they can’t, it’s especially important women with early menopause take MHT to optimise their health. This is true regardless of how severe their symptoms are.
Menopause before age 45 is classified as early menopause. Prematurely menopausal women are at significantly greater risk of osteoporosis and fracture, heart disease and premature death.
Menopause normally happens between age 45 and 55.From shutterstock.com
For women going through menopause at the usual time, the choice may be less clear-cut.
Importantly, MHT cannot be seen in one dimension; that is, as only having one benefit or one risk. To make an informed choice, it’s essential to evaluate the total effects of MHT, including how it influences the risk of premature death, heart disease, fracture, other cancers, and of course, well-being and quality of life.
Balancing the risks and the benefits
Clinical trials have found specific formulations of oral oestrogen with progesterone result in a small increase in breast cancer risk. One study reported roughly a 1.25-fold increase in risk. This is equivalent to about four extra cases of breast cancer per 1,000 women per year in women who were taking this specific MHT formulation before and during the study period.
However, this risk estimate may be incorrect as the women in this study who had never used MHT prior to starting the study had no increased breast cancer risk compared with the placebo group. So some degree of uncertainty as to the risk remains.
There was no increase in risk for oestrogen-only therapy, and whether these risks apply to non-oral therapies is not yet known.
These risks should be balanced with the benefits. Women who take MHT gain less abdominal fat and are less likely to develop diabetes. MHT prevents bone loss and therefore the risk of fragility fracture, an effect that continues after treatment is stopped. Oestrogen alone is associated with reduced heart disease risk, while oestrogen plus progestogen also lowers the risk of colon and uterine cancer.
The most comprehensive summary of the safety of MHT is from the Women’s Health Initiative study in which 27,347 participants were randomised to receive MHT or a placebo for five to seven years. The researchers followed up to see if death rates differed between women who had taken MHT compared with the placebo.
After 18 years, cancer mortality and death overall from any cause did not differ between the groups, irrespective of whether the MHT was oral oestrogen-only or oral oestrogen plus progestogen.
So if we add symptom relief to the equation, the benefits of MHT will outweigh the potential risks for most symptomatic women who start MHT within ten years of menopause (the time frame measured in this study).
Some women using MHT will continue on the treatment for five or ten years to manage their symptoms. More than 40% of women aged 60 to 65 still have hot flushes and night sweats, and one in seven of these women describe their symptoms as “severe”.
The length of time a woman uses MHT for will depend on her symptom severity and individual needs, which should be re-evaluated alongside her risk profile every year with a health professional.
The alternatives aren’t evidence-based
Claims over-the-counter or internet-purchased nutritional supplements or herbal tablets will “balance your hormones” and relieve symptoms cannot be substantiated.
Studies have consistently failed to show meaningful benefits of nutritional supplements or herbal tablets over placebo for hot flushes. And these treatments do not prevent bone loss or protect against heart disease.
Further, unproven therapies can also have side effects. Women considering herbal or naturopathic remedies should have a face-to-face consultation with a qualified therapist (as opposed to internet-based communication) to ensure their full symptom and health profile, as well as medication use, are documented to minimise adverse effects.
The transition from preschool to school is a big deal for many children and parents. Over the next few weeks, many preschoolers will take part in a transition program, designed by their teachers, to prepare them for school.
They’ll meet their foundation teachers, spend some time in a classroom and hopefully make some new friends.
These children’s education has so far focused on play-based learning. This means they’ve learnt through exploring and playing, supported by skilled early childhood educators.
But they’re about to enter a world of formal learning. Although play-based learning does happen in schools, there tends to be a stronger focus on instruction.
Many educators and researchers argue more play in the early years of school could better support children’s transition and learning. Parents think so too. In a recent survey, 93% of parents acknowledge the benefits of play and 72% said the first years of school should focus more on play-based learning.
If we’re genuinely committed to improving outcomes for all children – and we know play benefits learning – we need to better integrate play-based learning into schools’ formal learning structures.
How do we learn through play?
Increasing play-based learning in schools means changing how we think about playing. When many of us think about play, we probably think of free play, which is unstructured and directed by children, usually without adult involvement.
Play-based learning, though, is more usefully conceived as a spectrum, with free play at one end and teacher-guided, playful learning at the other. In between are a variety of methods either entirely based on play, or incorporating elements of it.
For example, a skilled educator can help children discover new ideas when they play with water. The educator might encourage children to playfully experiment with water tubs and toys in a way that allows them to develop their own hypotheses about how water behaves in certain situations and why.
The educator could work with the children to test their hypotheses, questioning and talking to them about what they observe during their play.
Playing with water can be a learning experience.from shutterstock.com
Quality depends on warm and responsive relationships with skilled educators and an environment that facilitates exploration and learning. It also involves a developmentally appropriate learning program.
The skills children learn through play equip them to engage with formal, academic learning. When children start to develop and harness these skills, research shows they’re better able to cope with the demands of formal learning and thrive later on in school.
There are a few policy options that can support more play-based learning in the early years and ensure it is integrated into education in the middle years of childhood and beyond. These options include:
Increasing school starting ages by law would involve governments and parents meeting the significant cost of an extra year of early education and care. Research shows most parents want less break time at school, and schools are already finding it difficult to adequately cover the curriculum in the time they have.
While some policy options are likely to gain more traction than others, there is strong support for increasing play-based learning in schools. This will require teachers, governments and families to all be on the same page about the benefits of play for children’s learning.
Expansive suburbs of single-family, freestanding housing are ubiquitous in countries such as Australia, the US and the UK. Most Australians still aspire to own a large detached house in the suburbs.
Public resistance to so-called infill development is unlikely to be overcome without a major change in how cities approach urban densification. We advocate greenspace-oriented development, or GOD, which provides substantial, public green spaces to serve surrounding higher-density neighbourhoods.
Greenspace-oriented development correlates urban densification with significant, upgraded public green spaces.Author provided
The “Australian dream” of owning your own home is often automatically associated with a detached house on a block of land. It’s seen as a mark of having “made it”.
For instance, a study in Perth found that, if they had the money, 79% of people would prefer a separate dwelling and 13% a semi-detached option. Only 7% preferred flats, units or apartments.
Evidently, the suburban dream runs deep in the Australian cultural psyche. Australia is not alone in this. As a result of widespread preference for suburban living, globally we are not in the age of urbanisation but rather the age of suburbanisation.
The problems of sprawl: contractors clear once biodiverse land on the edge of Perth for a new suburb.Author provided. Photo courtesy of Donna Broun, Richard Weller
To limit urban sprawl, the emphasis in most cities worldwide is on increasing urban density. In pursuit of infill development, planning strategies have focused mostly on transit-oriented development. This approach focuses on higher-density development around public transport nodes and corridors.
Despite the widespread adoption of this ideology in Australia, many cities are not achieving their infill targets. In part, this is because transit-oriented development strategies suggest an “inflexible, over-neat vision” of cities at odds with their “increasing geographical complexity”.
Much of the infill that has been achieved is through indiscriminate and opportunistic subdivision of individual suburban lots by “mum and dad” investors. This “background infill” fails to achieve infill targets, does not reduce car use, erodes urban forests, and aggravates local communities. This has led to community resistance (the NIMBY factor) and what one council official referred to as a “public sullenness”.
The principles of transit-oriented development are well established and valid. However, we contend that we need a complementary strategy, greenspace-oriented development, for achieving infill development. This approach would correlate urban densification with substantial, upgraded public green spaces or parks that are relatively well served by public transport.
Greenspace-oriented development builds upon the now well-recognised array of benefits of green spaces for urban dwellers. Most importantly, it underpins approaches to making our cities more sustainable and liveable.
Australian suburbs do generally contain a reasonable number of parks. But these are typically underdesigned and underused. Many parks offer minimal amenity, often little more than large stretches of irrigated lawn and a scattering of trees.
Before and after: in greenspace-oriented development, density and natural amenity are interwoven. Images courtesy of Robert Cameron.Author provided
We suggest redesigning parks to increase the naturalness, ecological function and diversity of active and passive recreational uses, which in turn can support higher-density urban areas. Indeed, it should increase the value of neighbouring real estate. With rezoning, this should enable greater local densification that is both commercially viable for developers and more attractive for residents.
Residents would then have an incentive to support well-designed infill development. When completed, each of these upgraded parks operates as a multifunctional, communal “backyard” for residents of a surrounding higher-density urban precinct.
Before and after: parks become multifunctional communal ‘backyards’ for people living at a higher density around the park.Author provided
The lure of suburbia clearly remains strong for people around the world. If planners are to deal with the problems of sprawl, they need to increase urban density in a way that resonates with the leafy green qualities of suburbia that most people desire (at very least in Australia).
Transit-oriented development ideology relies on a false presumption that residents will trade the benefits of nature for the benefits of urbanity. We require a new vision of urban densification that responds to the urban, societal and ecological challenges of the 21st century and aligns with people’s preference for suburban living near nature.
Like any eight-year-old, Ryan Kaji loves to play with toys. But when Ryan plays, millions watch.
Since the age of four he’s been the star of his own YouTube channel. All up his videos have gained more than 35 billion views. This helped make him YouTube’s highest-earning star in 2018, earning US$22 million, according to Forbes.
That’s more than actor Jake Paul (US$21 million), the trick-shot sports crew Dude Perfect (US$20 million), Minecraft player DanTDM (US$18.5 million) and make-up artist Jeffree Star (US$18 million).
Ryan is apparently living the dream of many kids – and adults.
According to a Harris Poll/LEGO survey covering the United States, Britain and China, 29% of children aged eight to 12 want to be a “YouTuber”. That’s three times as many as those who want to be astronauts.
Other polls suggest an even higher percentage of teenagers aspire to fame and fortune via YouTube or another social media platform. An eye-grabbing news report out this month suggested a whopping 54% of Americans aged 13 to 38 would become an “influencer” given the chance, with 12% already considering themselves influencers.
These numbers might be questioned, but given the apparent fortunes to be made by goofing around, playing games, applying makeup or unboxing toys, it’s no surprise so many are besotted with the influencer dream.
But there’s a stark divide between the glossy façade and reality of this new industry. The fact is most wannabe influencers have as much a chance of walking on the Moon as they do of emulating Ryan Kaji. They’ll be lucky, in fact, to earn as much as someone working at fast-food joint.
Let’s take a look at the numbers.
Marketing’s new foot soldiers
Marketing literature defines an influencer as someone with a large following on a social media platform, primarily YouTube and Instagram.
As people consume less traditional media and spend more time on social platforms, advertisers are increasingly using these influencers to spruik their products. A mega-influencer like Kylie Jenner, with 139 million followers on Instagram, can reportedly charge more than US$1 milllion for a single promotional post.
Kylie Jenner uses her remarkable social media profile for the betterment of humanity, or in this case to flog sneakers.Adidas
In 2017 an estimated US$570 million was spend globally on influencer marketing. In 2020, according to the World Advertising Research Center, it will be between US$5 billion and US$10 billion.
A key driver of this booming market is that about half of consumers use ad-blocking technology, which limits the reach of traditional advertising.
One company to really embrace the social influencer trend is cosmetics giant Estee Lauder. In August the company’s chief executive, Fabrizio Freda, said 75% of its advertising budget was now going to social media influencers, “and they’re revealing to be highly productive”.
In a sense these celebrity deals aren’t much different to what the cosmetics company has done for decades with the likes of Gwyneth Paltrow, Elisabeth Hurley and Karen Graham.
Elizabeth Hurley on a promotional tour of Australia for Estée Lauder in 2004. The company’s marketing through ‘influencers’ is hardly new.Paul Miller/AAP
Unpaid internships
So far most of the indications are that the new economics of influencer marketing are not too different to the old economics of marketing.
As in the acting, modelling or music industry, there’s a tiny A-list of superstar influencers making millions. Then there’s a somewhat larger B-list making a handsome living. But the vast bulk of influencers would be better off getting an ordinary job.
In 2018 a professor at the Offenburg University of Applied Sciences in Germany, Mathias Bärtl, published a statistical analysis of YouTube channels, uploads and views over a decade. His results showed that 85% of traffic went to just 3% of channels, and that 96.5% of YouTubers wouldn’t make enough money to reach the US federal poverty line (US$12,140, or about A$17,900).
Cornell University associate professor Brooke Erin Duffy suggests the lure of being a social influencer is part of a larger myth about the digital economy providing the opportunity for fulfilment, fame and fortune in doing what you love through developing your “personal brand”.
Indigenous voices are finally being acknowledged as important voices in Australian galleries and museums.
Since 2014, I have worked as an advisor to Western Australia’s New Museum, a A$450 million project and one of the largest museums currently under construction globally.
From the outset, a diverse Noongar and Whadjuk Indigenous working group contributed to every aspect of the museum, from large-scale planning through to exhibition design detail.
An artist’s impression of the New Museum Perth.New Museum Perth
This year, I was invited to contribute to the creation of a new cultural and knowledge centre, community space and contemporary art museum on Minjerribah (North Stradbroke Island) led by the Quandamooka people.
Quandamooka Art, Museum and Performance Institute (QUAMPI) is imagined as a space to express a uniquely Quandamooka experience of land and sea, seasons, animals, plants and people. A place of engagement and discussion. First Nations people are not exhibits, but curators, guides, storytellers and visitors.
My close involvement in these projects has caused me to consider and question the role of museums in contemporary Australian society, particularly how we present and engage with First Nation culture.
A disturbing colonial history
The historical relationship between Australian museums and First Nations people is marked by thievery, and a desire to view Indigenous culture as an object of curiosity and collectability.
taking materials from country also served Europeans in claiming possession, both emotional and physical, of the land […] As settler colonies were built on the dispossession of Indigenous people, the removal of cultural materials became part of the appropriation of land.
Museums are grappling with how to handle collections built through theft, and how to position themselves in addressing inequity between non-Indigenous and Indigenous Australia.
Could the museum of the future be an enabling space, culturally dynamic and future focused, rather than categorising First Nations culture as a relic of our Colonial-Settler past?
Could a radically re-imagined museum become a place for genuine exchange, reconciliation and restitution?
Museums aren’t just buildings
The formation of a First Nations museum is not just a bricks and mortar issue. The idea of a building as a singular space for collections is incongruous with an Indigenous experience of knowledge and living cultural practice grounded in Country.
Empowered engagement is key. A First Nations museum must be foremost an act of co-creation, where traditional cultural custodians have a voice and are heard first and foremost. Art as the conduit to past, present and future is critical.
Cultural agency must be a foundational touchstone. Elders and their communities must be central to real decision making processes. Their agency must lead all aspects of delivery.
How else could a museum be reconfigured from a non-Indigenous construct to one centred on Indigenous knowledge, lore, law and ceremony?
How else could a museum be reconfigured to be embraced by First Nations people, whose experience of the built environment over the last two centuries is one of exclusion, assimilation and annihilation?
The process will not be easy – the controversy over the proposed National Indigenous Art Gallery in Mparntwe (Alice Springs) reveals the complexities involved – but it would certainly be worth it.
One of the most unique aspects of Indigenous culture (and possible challenge to a curator) is the secret nature of many ceremonies and business. Imagine the joys in finding ways to reveal to a wide audience, without sacrificing secrecy, the living oral, sung and painted traditions of our First Nations people.
Museums on Country
In contemplating his design of The National Museum of African American History and Culture at the Smithsonian, architect David Adjaye described the traditional museum as “a bit like cinema: You go into a different world and then you come back out.”
Adjaye wanted his museum to exist firmly in the world.
The National Museum of African American History and Culture was designed to integrate outside and inside space.Douglas Remley/Smithsonian
This isn’t the case at QUAMPI; In form and function, the museum will challenge the static ‘black box’ approach to museum design, opening itself to community and embracing a distinctly Quandamooka approach to space
Contemporary art, performance and living ceremony will act as conduits for the sharing of Indigenous knowledge and as a means to interrogate the irrevocable impact of colonisation.
QUAMPI is imagined as a hybrid space: gallery, museum, community centre, performance space, festival venue, gathering place. This mash-up allows culture to be expressed as a living, continuous panorama.
A new understanding of Australia
All Australian museums, with a stated focus on First Nations culture or not, must place Indigenous people in the centre of planning, at the heart of conversation and behind the steering wheel.
They must shift engagement with First Nations culture from something of the past, to something contemporary and continuous.
Hybrid multi-art centres have the potential to reposition First Nation stories within Australian museums and to help shape a more inclusive and rich understanding of our country.
It’s time to shift our focus towards the creation of spaces that act as a Corpus of Country: dynamic, interactive and ever changing collections of stories, knowledge and culture.
The Chinese embassy has lashed out at two Liberal members of parliament, Andrew Hastie and James Paterson, saying they would need to “repent and redress their mistakes” before they would be welcome in China.
The attack came after the pair, strong critics of the Beijing regime, were refused visas to take part in a trip sponsored by the think tank China Matters.
In a statement late Friday regretting they had been refused entry, Hastie and Paterson said they were “particularly disappointed that the apparent reason why we are not welcome in China at this time is our frankness about the Chinese Communist Party”.
They added they would “always speak out in defence of Australia’s values, sovereignty and national interest.”
The embassy hit back, saying:
The Chinese people do not welcome those who make unwarranted attacks, wantonly exert pressure on China, challenge China’s sovereignty, disrespect China’s dignity and undermine mutual trust between China and Australia.
As long as the people concerned genuinely repent and redress their mistakes, view China with objectivity and reason, respect China’s system and mode of development chosen by the Chinese people, the door of dialogue and exchanges will always remain open.
Both Hastie and Peterson said on Sunday they would not be repenting.
China Matters has postponed the study tour, which was due to take place next month.
It said the goal of the tours it sponsored was “to facilitate free-flowing, off-the-record and informal discussions” with citizens in China.
In previous tours “no issues have been left unaddressed, including our concerns about the plight of Uighurs in Xinjiang and the ongoing protest movement in Hong Kong”. It was “unfortunate” the politicians’ names had become public before the visit, China Matters said in its statement.
‘Private trip’
China Matters describes itself as “an independent Australian policy institute established to advance sound policy and to stimulate a realistic and nuanced discussion of the PRC among Australian business, government and the security establishment.”
The government is trying to keep out of the controversy, saying it was a privately sponsored trip.
Labor frontbencher Stephen Jones told Sky:“I think because of the mismanagement of this government, we’ve got relations with China probably an all-time low”.
Concerns reinforced
Meanwhile Foreign Minister Marise Payne said the leak of top secret documents published by the New York Times showing the treatment of Uighurs and other minorities reinforced concerns previously expressed by Australia.
Some of the 400 pages of documents detailing the treatment of China’s Uighur minority leaked to the New York Times.NYT
The New York Times reported that the more than 400 pages, leaked from within the Communist Party, “provide an unprecedented inside view of the continuing clampdown in Xinjiang, in which the authorities have corralled as many as a million ethnic Uighurs, Kazakhs and others into internment camps and prisons over the past three years”.
Payne said: “I have previously raised Australia’s strong concerns about reports of mass detentions of Uighurs in Xinjiang.
“We have consistently called for China to cease the arbitrary detention of Uighurs and other groups. We have raised these concerns – and we will continue to raise them both bilaterally and in relevant international meetings.”
Melanesian Media Freedom Forum – Day two –The second day of the Melanesian Media Freedom Forum began with praise for the work of young Pacific journalists by Professor David Robie and ended with a warning that threats to journalism in the region were increasing.
In between forum delegates heard about the continued problems of female journalists, who continue to be under-represented at senior levels, and debated ways in which international organisations could help.
Many of the discussions took on a strong human rights theme and delegates were reminded that Article 19 of the United Nations’ International Declaration on Human Rights states that “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.”
Professor Robie, who is head of the Pacific Media Centre at Auckland University of Technology and editor of the highly respected Pacific Journalism Review, presented to the forum from Indonesia.
He also gave the pre-conference keynote address on October 28.
In a wide-ranging talk, Professor Robie spoke to delegates about some of the most serious issues facing journalists in Melanesia, including climate change and the independence struggle in West Papua.
– Partner –
Professor Robie has long been a trenchant critic of the way the West Papuan struggle has been almost completely ignored by the mainstream press in Australia and New Zealand.
He praised the work of younger journalists and students in exposing the dangers of climate change in the Pacific and screened excerpts from two student films during his talk.
After the opening session, delegates discussed where and how media workers in Melanesia could look for support from larger global organisations.
A special session on the experiences of women journalists took place later in the morning, with women journalists, editors and free lancers speaking about common problems.
These included demands that they show “respect” for men they are interviewing, a background of violence against women in many places and traditional notions of gender roles.
Statements by conference delegates
Melanesian journalists face growing levels of political and legal threats, physical assaults, illegal detention and intimidation.
In a statement released after the conference, media delegates to the forum said the range and scope of threats was increasing, with prosecutions, restrictive legislation, online abuse and racism between ethnic groups a growing issue.
Female journalists faced the threat of violence both on the job and within their own homes.
The statement said threats to media freedom were having professional, personal and health affects on journalists across Melanesia.
The situation in West Papua was of particular concern with attacks on journalists resulting in deaths and injuries.
The unwillingness of politicians and officials to engage in dialogue was undermining the media’s accountability role.
Public figures were becoming more resistant to responding to direct questions from media, choosing instead to issue media releases, or statements on social media or to preferred media outlets.
In addition to undermining the crucial accountability role of the media, this placed broadcast media (which requires actuality) at a disadvantage.
In the statement, media delegates said the ability of journalists to exercise their professional skills without fear was critical to the functioning of Meleanesia’s democracies.
There needed to be a better understanding of the role of journalism in Melanesian democracies.
The issue of social media and fake news, which had been a feature of discussion on day one, was reflected in the statement, which said the media was ready to work with all parties that wanted to improve the social medialandscape.
“There is an urgent need to for the media to assert its role as a source of accurate and impartial information and to play a role in building social media literacy and public understanding of how to identify credible sources of information,” the statement said.
“The global decline of democracy is making it easier for our governments to silence the media. It is expected this will become a bigger challenge in the future if it is not addressed, as national leaders, media organisations and journalists come under pressure and misinformation campaigns continue.
“Misinformation, propaganda and fake news are a growing problem: there is widespread concern around misinformation and offensive material being posted on social media platforms, sometimes by anonymous sources, some of them state and politically-partisan actors.
“The media’s role as an antidote, and as a balancing source of verified information is under-recognised and under-supported.”
Solidarity
Academics at the forum read out a draft statement expressing solidarity with media workers in Melanesia in their struggle for freedom of expression, security and professional recognition.
The academic statement cited Article 19 of the United Nations’ International Declaration on Human Rights, but also the United Nations’ 2030 development goals, particularly those designed to strengthen peace, justice and strong institutions; climate action; reduce inequalities; and gender equality.
Academic delegates to the forum called for journalists working in Melanesia and across the Pacific, to be guaranteed the following basic rights as professional communicators:
Freedom of expression
Freedom from physical abuse, threats or intimidation in pursuit of their work
Recognition of their status as professional communicators
Security of digital communication
Equality for all media workers in terms of their professional standing, regardless of gender.
Recognition and protection under law of these rights.
Pacific Journalism Review
Pacific Journalism Review, which is produced through the Pacific Media Centre at Auckland University of Technology, will produce a special edition based around the main themes of the forum in 2020.
It will be edited by Dr Kasun Ubayasiri of Griffith University, Professor Robie and Dr Philip Cass.
Papers can include:
The politics of press freedom in Melanesia.
The intersection between custom and indigenous knowledge in contemporary Fourth Estate practice.
Gender and identity in Melanesian journalism.
Human rights journalism in Melanesia.
Reporting climate change and human migration.
Circumventing censorship and restrictions to free and fair publication
Legal safeguards to press freedom.
Related topics that will be considered include social justice, human rights and environmental and climate change reporting in the Melanesian media. The journal also publishes an unthemed section and other papers related to journalism studies, and journalism education, theory and practice will also be considered by the editors.
Author of this report, Dr Philip Cass, is acting editor of the Pacific Media Centre’s Pacific Journalism Review, one of the sponsors of the Melanesian Media Freedom Forum inaugural conference at Griffith University in Brisbane.
University of Canberra Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Geoff Crisp discusses the the week in politics the government’s response to the bush fires as well as the Emergency Leaders for Climate Action. They also talk about what happened over in the Senate this week – including about the government’s so-called “big stick” legislation.
The proposed acquisition of infant formula producer Bellamy’s Australia Ltd by China Mengniu Dairy Company Limited has been given approval by Treasurer Josh Frydenberg.
Strict, legally enforceable conditions, have been set by the treasurer, which have provided critics with a degree of reassurance, although the decision still came under some fire when it was announced on Friday.
Frydenberg indicated he acted on the basis of a unanimous recommendation from the Foreign Investment Review Board.
Bellamy’s sells into China but has had trouble getting the needed Chinese approval for its formula to be sold in retail outlets there, in a period of significant change to China’s dairy industry.
Ups and downs ahead of takeover
It achieved some brand recognition when its product was bought in local supermarkets and shipped to China through daigou, a micro export channel of individual and small buying operations.
Mark Harrison, senior lecturer in Chinese studies at the University of Tasmania, told The Conversation Bellamy’s performance had been “up and down” and it had been through significant management upheavals in recent years. These had opened the possibility of a takeover.
It had brand value but the failure to run a consistent business would have made it an attractive target for the Chinese company, Harrison said.
Frydenberg said the approval “will ensure Bellamy’s can continue to support jobs in Australia and strengthen its ability to expand its domestic market as well as its export opportunities, particularly into the growing Asian market.
“The decision will also provide opportunities for the suppliers that contribute to Bellamy’s products, including Australian dairy farmers.”
The conditions require:
• a majority of Bellamy’s board to be Australian resident citizens
• maintenance of its headquarters in Australia for at least ten years; and
• an investment of at least $12 million in establishing or improving infant milk formula processing facilities in Victoria.
Frydenberg said the conditions would ensure that Bellamy’s maintained its presence in Australia, and that Bellamy’s proceeds with previously announced investment in infant milk formula processing facilities.
He pointed out the conditions were legally enforceable.
Independent MP Andrew Wilkie, from Tasmania, said it was “very disappointing to see another iconic Australian company fall into foreign hands”.
Although Bellamy’s is a relatively new company with a limited physical presence in Australia, … it has achieved a very important role in the supply of high-quality baby formula for Australian consumers.
Bellamy’s is number four by market share in the Australian infant milk formula market.
Wilkie warned against “a repeat of the farcical sale of the Van Diemen’s Land Company, where foreign buyers promised the world but failed to deliver on just about any of it.
The Foreign Investment Review Board must be sure that the Bellamy’s approval is accompanied by an ironclad guarantee that Australian jobs will be maintained, and that the continued supply of baby formula to Australian markets is not interrupted.
Greens Treasury spokesman Peter Whish-Wilson, also from Tasmania, said the decision was regrettable but he highlighted the conditions.
“We welcome the decision to apply binding and enforceable conditions on the sale of Bellamy’s such as compelling local investment and employment”.
‘Regretable’ but conditional
Whish-Wilson said Frydenberg’s move “clearly acknowledges the problems with the previous controversial Van Diemen’s Land approval where promises were voluntary and have not been implemented”.
Pauline Hanson slammed the decision. “Stop, just stop! Enough with the rampant sell off of Australia,” she said on Facebook.
She said this took “another chunk out of Australia’s ability to produce enough food for our own people”.
Shadow treasurer Jim Chalmers said it was up to Frydenberg to explain how and why the the decision was in the national interest.“We need to know more about the undertakings that have been given and that they’ll be followed through”.
Former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce told the Australian he was “disappointed to see yet another piece of Australia sold to the Chinese” but pointed out Bellamy’s was not a monopoly.
He emphasised that there should not be slippage in the application of the conditions.
Suddenly, at the level of central banks, Australia is regarded as an investment risk.
On Wednesday Martin Flodén, the deputy governor of Sweden’s central bank, announced that because Australia and Canada were “not known for good climate work”.
As a result the bank had sold its holdings of bonds issued by the Canadian province of Alberta and by the Australian states of Queensland and Western Australia.
Central banks normally make the news when they change their “cash rate” and households pay less (or more) on their mortgages.
But central banks such as Australia’s Reserve Bank and the European Central Bank, the People’s Bank of China and the US Federal Reserve have broader responsibilities.
Reserve Bank deputy governor Guy Debelle. Extreme events not cyclical.DAVID MOIR/AAP
As an example, the new managing director of the International Monetary Fund Kristalina Georgieva warned last month that the necessary transition away from fossil fuels would lead to significant amounts of “stranded assets”.
Those assets will be coal mines and oil fields that become worthless, endangering the banks that have lent to develop them. More frequent floods, storms and fires will pose risks for insurance companies. Climate change will make these and other shocks more frequent and more severe.
In a speech in March the deputy governor of Australia’s Reserve Bank Guy Debelle said we needed to stop thinking of extreme events as cyclical.
We need to think in terms of trend rather than cycles in the weather. Droughts have generally been regarded (at least economically) as cyclical events that recur every so often. In contrast, climate change is a trend change. The impact of a trend is ongoing, whereas a cycle is temporary.
And he said the changes that will be imposed on us and the changes we will need might be abrupt.
The transition path to a less carbon-intensive world is clearly quite different depending on whether it is managed as a gradual process or is abrupt. The trend changes aren’t likely to be smooth. There is likely to be volatility around the trend, with the potential for damaging outcomes from spikes above the trend.
Australia’s central bank and others are going further then just responding to the impacts of climate change. They are doing their part to moderate it.
No more watching from the sidelines
Peter Zöllner of the Bank for International Settlements launched the Green Bond Fund.BIS
Its purpose is to enhance the role of the financial system in mobilising finance to support the transitions that will be needed. The US Federal Reserve has not joined yet but is considering how to participate.
One of its credos is that central banks should lead by example in their own investments.
They hold and manage over A$17 trillion. That makes them enormously large investors and a huge influence on global markets.
As part of their traditional focus on the liquidity, safety and returns from assets, they are taking into account climate change in deciding how to invest.
The are increasingly putting their money into “green bonds”, which are securities whose proceeds are used to finance projects that combat climate change or the depletion of biodiversity and natural resources.
Over A$300 billion worth of green bonds were issued in 2018, with the total stock now over A$1 trillion.
Central banks are investing, and setting standards
While large, that is still less than 1% of the stock of conventional securities. It means green bonds are less liquid and have higher buying and selling costs.
It also means smaller central banks lack the skills to deal with them.
In September it launched a green bond fund that will pool investments from 140 (mostly central bank) clients.
Its products will initially be denominated in US dollars but will later also be available in euros. It will be supported by an advisory committee of the world’s top central bankers.
Launching the fund in Basel, Switzerland, the bank’s head of banking Peter Zöllner said he was
confident that, by aggregating the investment power of central banks, we can influence the behaviour of market participants and have some impact on how green investment standards develop
It’s an important role. Traditionally focused on keeping the financial system safe, our central banks are increasingly turning to using their stewardship of the financial system to keep us, and our environment, safe.
The problems of operating in the Pacific and the impact of online news and the emergence of ‘citizen journalists’ were common concerns for all delegates to this week’s Melanesian Media Freedom Forum.
The forum, held at Griffith University’s South Bank campus in Brisbane, drew professional and academic delegates from Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji and West Papua.
During the opening session on Monday, Fred Wesley from theFiji Timestalked about the problems of operating under the Fiji media Act, particularly the provisions which imposed heavy fines and possible prison sentences on individual members of staff as well as the company.
He said he paper had to second guess every day, but was trying to push the boundaries back where it could.
He said theFiji Timesneeded to strengthen its online team and be extra vigilant.The Timesnow needed to be an instant newspaper that operated across several platforms.
Victor Mambor from Jubi talked about the pressures of operating in West Papua and the realities of racism, beatings and constant threats and intimidation from Indonesian security forces.
He told the forum he had had a gun held to his head in front of his wife by Indonesian security forces.
He said a growing problem was online provocations from people spreading distorted versions of events.
When the Indonesian government didn’t like the news it simply shut down the internet in West Papua. It also used the online media to spread false stories and make claims that West Papua was not part of Melanesia.
It also tried to control reporting of what was happening so that people were unaware, for instance, of shootings in Jayapura.
He said anybody could become a member of the Indonesian Online Media association for the equivalent of $5. He said it 400,000 members but only 1000 sources.
Georgina Kekea from the Media Association of Solomon Islands (MASI) said the media in Solomon Islands had played a role in promoting peace during the ethnic crisis and still had a role to play in promoting peace and development.
There was a need to produce positive stories while still holding the government accountable.
She said there needed to be a way of properly defining and regulating who was a journalist.
She cited a recent example of a government delegation to China which was allocated two spots for journalists, only one of which was filled by an actual journalist. She expressed scepticism about the notion of ‘citizen journalism.’
She said people should not be able claim they were journalists without some method of properly accrediting them.
She suggested this could be done through organisations such as MASI.
2. Sean Dorney
Melenesian authorities did not want journalists to do their job properly and things were getting worse, Sean Dorney told delegates to this week’s Melanesian Media Freedom Forum.
Dorney, who is regarded by many as the journalist emeritus of Pacific reporting, told delegates they were at the forefront of upholding democracy in Melanesia.
“Keep the fires burning,” he said.
Dorney, who was accompanied by his wife Pauline, herself a former broadcaster, said recent events in Kiribati with a60 Minutescrew were an example.
He said that despite the version of events that had been circulated the Australian team had done everything it could to ensure it had the proper approvals but were still put under house arrest.
He said the Vanuatu government’s expulsion ofDaily Postmedia director Dan McGarry, who was at the forum, was an example of the same problems occurring in Melanesia.
Dorney said the best option under such circumstances was for members of the media to stick together.
“We don’t have lots of friends in governments,” he said.
“We have to keep up the good fight and keep in touch with each other.”
The work of the media was essential in keeping democracy alive.
“I have nothing but admiration for anybody working in the media in the region,” Dorney said.
The future of many Island states was not guaranteed, Secretary General of the Pacific Islands Forum Dame Meg Taylor told an audience at Griffith University’s South Bank campus on Monday night.
Dame Meg said climate change was the biggest threat to the Pacific.
“We live in unprecedented times of change which will test our abilities to respond,” she said.
“Decisions made now will affect what happens for decades to come.”
However, the islands faced other challenges, such as increasing militarism and Dame Meg expressed concern about the spectre of new or reactivated naval bases in the region.
(China has reportedly expressed interested in establishing a naval base in Vanuatu, which has prompted Australia and the United states to consider re-activating the Royal Australian Navy base on Manus in Papua New Guinea – ed)
In her speech, dame Meg, who is nearing the end of her second term in office, said the Forum’s concept of forging a Blue Pacific identity was challenged by climate change and the need to defend and define the borders of its member states.
She was politely scathing of a remark by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo who, she said, had referred to the Pacific as empty space.
Dame Meg said the Blue Pacific concept was based round control of the islands resources, ownership of the ocean resources, fighting climate change and creating a new era of autonomy.
While individual island economies were vulnerable and based largely on fishing and tourism, acting collectively the islands would be in a better position.
She said there was an urgent need to invest in small scale resilience projects and opportunities in the face of climate change.
She said it was necessary to weight up the cost of such projects against the cost of the effects of climate change.
Author of this report, Dr Philip Cass, is acting editor of the Pacific Media Centre’s Pacific Journalism Review, one of the sponsors of the Melanesian Media Freedom Forum inaugural conference at Griffith University in Brisbane.
Standoff between protesters and the police at Yeung Uk Road, Hong Kong. Image by Studio Incendo - 20190825 Tsuen Wan March. CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=81751531.
Standoff between protesters and the police at Yeung Uk Road, Hong Kong. Image by Studio Incendo – 20190825 Tsuen Wan March. CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=81751531.
The recent surge in social protests world-wide is quantitatively and qualitatively different than in previous ages. The advent of individualised mass communications technologies and the heterogenous range of demands presented in countries governed by political regimes of different ideological persuasions makes the moment unique from an analytic standpoint and challenging for policy-makers, interested observers and participants. In this essay Director Paul G. Buchanan outlines some of the dynamics at play.
It seems fair to say that we currently live in a problematic political moment in world history. Democracies are in decline and dictatorships are on the rise. Primordial, sectarian and post-modern divisions have re-emerged, are on the rise or have been accentuated by political evolutions of the moment such as the growth of nationalist-populist movements and the emergence of demagogic leaders uninterested in the constraints of law or civility. Wars continue and are threatened, insurgencies and irredentism remain, crime proliferates in both the physical world and cyberspace and natural disasters and other climatic catastrophes have become more severe and more frequent.
One of the interesting aspects to this “world in turmoil” scenario is the global surge in social protests. Be it peaceful sit-ins, land occupations, silent vigils, government building sieges, pot-banging and laser-pointing mass demonstrations or riots and collective violence, the moment is rife with protest.
There are some significant differences in the nature of the protests. Contrary to previous eras in which they tended to be ideologically uniform or of certain type (say, student and worker anti-capitalist demonstrations), the current protest movement is heterogeneous in orientation, not just in the tactics used but in the motivations underpinning them. In this essay I shall try to offer a taxonomy of protest according to the nature of their demands.
Much of what is facilitating the current protest wave is global telecommunications technologies. In previous decades people may have read about, heard about or seen protests at home or in far-off places, but unless they were directly involved their impressions came through the filter of state and corporate media and were not communicated with the immediacy of real-time coverage in most instances. Those doing the protests were not appealing to global audiences and usually did not have the means to do so in any event. Coverage of mass collective action was by and large “top down” in nature: it was covered “from above” by journalists who worked for status quo (often state controlled) media outlets at home or parachuted in from abroad with little knowledge of or access to the local, non-elite collective mindset behind the protests.
Today the rise of individual telecommunications technologies such as hand-held devices, social media platforms and constant on-line live streaming, set against a corporate media backdrop of 24/7 news coverage, allows for the direct and immediate transmission of participant perspectives in real time. The coverage is no longer one sided and top down but multi-sided and “bottom up,” something that not only provides counter-narratives to offical discourse but in fact offers a mosaic landscape of perspective and opinion on any given event. When it comes to mass collective action, the perspectives offered are myriad.
The rise of personalised communication also allows for better and immediate domestic and transnational linkages between activists as well as provide learning exercises for protestors on opposite sides of the globe. Protestors can see what tactics work and what does not work in specific situations and contexts elsewhere. Whereas security forces have crowd control and riot training to rely on (often provided by foreign security partners), heretofore it was difficult for protest groups to learn from the experiences of others far away, especially in real time. Now that is not the case, and lessons can be learned from any part of the world.
The nature of contemporary protests can be broadly categorised as follows: protests against economic conditions and policy; protests against central government control; protests against elitism, authoritarianism and corruption (which often go hand-in-hand); protests against “others” (for example, anti-immigrant and rightwing extremist protests in the US and Europe); protests over denied rights or recognition (such as the pro-abortion and anti-femicide demonstrations in Argentina, which did not attract other causes (such as LGBTTQQIAAP rights) in a way that changed the nature of the original message); or mixtures of the above.
The literature on mass collective action often centres on what are known as “grievance versus greed” demands. One side of the continuum involves pure grievance demands, that is, demands for redress born of structural, societal or institutional inequalities. On the other side are demands born of the desire to preserve a self identified right, entitlement or privilege. In spite of the connotations associated with this specific choice of words, greed demands are not necessarily selfish nor are grievance based protests always virtuous. For example, greed demands can involve respect for or return to basic civil liberties as universal human rights or demands for the preservation of democracy, such as in the case of Hong Kong. Conversely, grievances can often be selfish in nature. Thus, although the pro-Brexit demonstrations are construed as demands that politicians heed the will of the people, the underlying motivation is defensive and protective of a peculiarly defined form of nationalism. A particularity of the modern era is that although most of the protests are portrayed as grievance-based, a considerable amount are in fact greed-based and not always virtuous, as in the case of the Charlottesville white supremacy marches and anti-immigrant demonstrations in Europe.
Protests against economic policies and conditions have recently been seen in Chile, France, Ecuador and Iraq. Protests against centralised government control have been seen in Catalonia, Indian Kashmir and Hong Kong. Protests against authoritarianism, elitism and corruption have been seen in Lebanon, Russia, Venezuela, Bolivia, Haiti, Iran, Pakistan and Nicaragua. Protests against elitism are seen in the UK (over Brexit), and against state repression in Greece. “Othering” protests have occurred in the US, Italy, Hungary, Greece and South Africa, among other places. Interestingly, the majority of contemporary protests are not strictly economic (structural) in nature, but instead concentrate on superstructural factors such as the behaviour of government, restrictions on voice and representation and/or the vainglorious impunity of socioeconomic elites.
Often, such as in Chile, the protests begin as one thing and morph into another (starting out as protests against economic policy and conditions and then adding in protests against heavy handed state repression). The more new actors join the original protestors, the more likely the protests themselves will adopt a heterogenous or hybrid nature. That also extends to the tactics employed: while some protesters will choose passive resistance and civil disobedience as the preferred course of direct action, others will choose more confrontational tactics. The precise mix of this militant-moderate balance is determined by the prior history of protest and State repression in a given society (see below). The idea is to clear space for a peaceful resolution to the dispute with authorities, something that may require the use of confrontation tactics in order for authorities to accede to moderate demands. Remember: in spite of the language used, the protests in question are not part of or precursors to revolutionary movements, properly defined. They are, in fact, reformist movements seeking to improve upon but not destroy the status quo ante.
In recent times the emergence of leaderless resistance has made more difficult the adoption of a coherent approach to direct action in which moderate and militant tactics are used as part of a unified strategy (or praxis) when confronting political authorities. This is an agent-principal problem before it is a tactical problem because there is no core negotiating cadre for the protest movement that can coordinate the mix of moderate and militant actions and speak to the authorities with a unified voice and grassroots support. Under such conditions it is often difficult to achieve compromises on contentious issues, thereby extending the period of crisis which, if left unresolved by peaceful means, can lead to either a pre-revolutionary moment or a turn towards hard authoritarianism. That again depends on the society, issues and history in question.
Introduction of new actors into mass protest movements inevitably brings with it the arrival of criminals, provocateurs, third columnists andlumpenproletarians. These seek to use the moment of protest as a window of opportunity for the self-entered goals and use the protest movement as a cloak on their actions. These are most often the perpetrators of the worst violence against people and property and are those who get the most mainstream media coverage for doing so. But they should not be confused with the demographic “core” of the movement, which is not reducible to thugs and miscreants and which has something other than narrowly focused personal self-interest or morbid entertainment as a motivating factor.
The type of violence involved in mass collection action tells a story. Attacks on symbols of authority such as monuments and statues, government buildings or corporate entities general point to the direction of discontent. These can range from graffiti to firebombing, depending on the depth of resentment involved. Ransacking of supermarkets is also a sign of the underlying conditions behind the disorder. Destruction of public transportation does so as well. Attacks on security forces in the streets are a symbol of resistance and often used as a counter-punch to what is perceived as heavy handed police and/or military responses to peaceful protest. In some societies (say, South Korea and Nicaragua) the ability to counter-punch has been honed over years of direct action experience and gives pause to security forces when confronting broad-based social protests.
On the other hand, assaults on civilians uninvolved in security or policy-making, attacks on schools or otherwise neutral entities such as sports clubs, churches or community organisations point to either deep social (often ethno-religious) divisions or the presence of untoward elements hiding within the larger movement. Both protest organisers and authorities need to be cognisant of these differences.
In all cases mass protests are ignited by a spark, or in the academic vernacular, a precipitating event or factor. In Bolivia it was president Morals’s re-election under apparently fraudulent conditions. In Chile it was a subway fare hike. In France it was the rise in fuel prices that sparked the Yellow Vest movement that in turn became a protest about the erosion of public pension programs and and worker’s collective rights. In Ecuador it was also a rise in the price of petrol that set things off. In Hong Kong it was an extradition bill.
One relatively understudied aspect of contemporary protests is the broader cultural milieu in which they occur. All societies have distinctive cultures of protest. In some instance, such as Hong Kong, they are not deeply grounded in direct action or collective mass violence, and therefore are slow to challenge the repressive powers of the State (in the six months of Hong Kong protests three people have been killed). In other countries, such as Chile, there is a rich culture of protest to which contemporary activists and organisers can hark back to. Here the ramping up of direct action on the streets comes more quickly and involves the meting out of non-State violence on property and members of the repressive apparatuses (in Chile 30 people have died and thousands injured in one month of protests). In other countries like Iraq, pre-modern sectarian divisions combine with differences over governance to send protests from peaceful to homicidal in an instant (in Iraq over 250 people were killed and 5,000 injured in one week of protest).
Just like their are different war-fighting styles and cultures, so too are their different protest cultures specific to the societies involved.
The differences in protest culture, in turn, are directly related to cultures of repression historically demonstrated by the State. In places like Hong Kong there has been little in the way of a repressive culture prior to the last decade or so, and therefore the Police response has been cautious and incremental when it comes to street violence (always with an eye towards what the PRC overlords as well as Hong Kong public will consider acceptable). In Chile the legacy of the dictatorship hangs like a dark shadow over the security forces, who themselves have enjoyed a considerable degree of autonomy from civilian oversight in the years since the transition to democracy (in what can be considered, along with the market-driven macroeconomic policies that favour the dictatorship’s economic supporters, another authoritarian legacy). In places like Egypt the repressive response is predicated on belief in the utility value of disproportionate force: any demonstration, no matter how peaceful, is met with degrees of (often extra-judicial) lethality so as to serve as a lesson and set an example for others.
It is therefore in the dialectic between social protest and State repressive cultures where the physical-kinetic boundaries of collective mass action are drawn. Some societies are restrained or “polite” and so too are their notions of proper protest. In others, the moment for restraint ends when protests begin.
Underlying different approaches to contemporary protests is the issue of consent and toleration, or more precisely, the threshold of of consent and toleration. Basically popular consent is required for democratic governance to endure and prosper. Consent is given contingently, in the expectation that certain material, social and political thresholds will be met and upheld by those who rule. When the latter fail to meet or uphold their end of the bargain, then consent is withdrawn and social instability begins. Although it is possible for consent to be manipulated by elites, this is a temporary solution to a long-term dilemma, which is how to keep a majority of the subjects content with their lots in life over time?
Contingent mass consent also depends on a threshold of toleration. What will people tolerate in exchange for their consent? The best example is the exchange of political for economic benefits in dictatorships: people give up political rights in order to secure material benefits. But the threshold of toleration is often fragile and unstable, especially when grievances have been festering for a time or demands have repeatedly gone unmet. When that is the case the spark that precipitates the withdrawal of mass contingent consent can be relatively minor (say, defeat by a national football team in a World Cup or the assassination of an innocent by the security forces).
Each society develops its own threshold of contingent consent and toleration. What people will tolerate in Turkey is not the same as what people will tolerate in New Zealand (assuming for the purposes of this argument that Turkey is still a democracy of sorts). In fact, the very basis of consent differ from society to society: what Turks may consider acceptable in terms of material, social and political conditions may not be remotely acceptable to the French. Even outright authoritarians need to be conscious of the threshold of consent and toleration, if not from the masses then certainly from the elites that support them. But that only adds to their governance dilemmas, since pursuit of elite contingent consent can bring with it an intolerable situation for the masses. At that point the cultures of protest and State repression will come into play.
Ultimately, the current age of protest is the product of a global crisis of governance. Belief in the combination of market capitalism and democratic forms of representation as the preferred political-economic combination has eroded significantly. Rapid demographic and technological changes, increased income inequalities and other pathologies associated with the globalisation of production and exchange have undermined the notion that a rising tide lifts all boats under liberal democratic conditions. Authoritarians have increasingly filled the void both in countries that have democratic traditions as well as those that do not. Using the power of the State, they propagate fear-mongering and scapegoating between in- and out-groups in order to consolidate power and stifle opposing views.
The irony is that the turn to authoritarianism may be seen as the solution to the crisis of democratic governance, but it is no panacea for the underlying conditions that produced the current wave of protest and in fact may exacerbate them over the long term if protest demands are repressed rather than addressed. If that is the case, then what is currently is a global move towards reformism “from below” could well become the revolutionary catharsis than recent generations of counter-hegemonic activists failed to deliver.
That alone should be reason enough for contemporary political leaders to study the reasons for and modalities of the current wave of protests. That should be done in an effort not to counter the protests but to reach compromises that, if not satisfying the full spectrum of popular demands, serve as the foundation for an ongoing dialogue that reconstructs the bases of consent and toleration so essential for maintenance of a peaceful social order. It remains to be seen how many will do so.
36 Parallel Assessments provides tailored analyses of political, economic and social conditions in a range of countries, including risk assessments, market intelligence and futures forecasts. Ask what we can do for you by writing the director at paul@36th-parallel.com
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Charles Livingstone, Associate Professor, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University
The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) is going to start asking internet service providers to block certain offshore gambling websites.
The decision follows former New South Wales premier Barry O’Farrell’s 2016 review of the Interactive Gambling Act, which suggested banning access to sites not licensed in Australia.
The review focused on the dangers of these “illegal” sites. The concern was that they didn’t offer consumers the same protection given by gambling businesses licensed in Australia.
In 2017, the federal government empowered ACMA to block such sites, and prohibit online advertising promoting them.
The wild, unregulated internet
The perceived problem with offshore gambling sites is that they’re not regulated according to Australian standards. Also, they don’t pay tax in Australia. Federal cyber safety minister Paul Fletcher claims this results in A$100 million in lost tax each year.
The Interactive Gambling Act also prohibits Australia’s online gambling providers offering any form of gambling apart from wagering or lottery sales. But on the internet, casino-style games, poker, and slot machines are readily available from offshore providers.
However, the extent to which online gambling via offshore sites is a problem may be altogether exaggerated.
At the time of the O’Farrell review, A$400 million was being wagered on offshore sites by Australians, at most. Given Aussies lost about A$22 billion to gambling in 2015, that represented less than 2% of the gambling market.
Most gambling losses are from poker machines. During 2016-17, more than A$12 billion was lost on pokies. This made up just over half of that period’s total losses of A$23.7 billion, compared to A$1 billion lost on sports betting and A$3.3 billion lost on race wagering.
In addition, the 2019 survey of gambling activity in NSW indicated about 0.5% of the population used casino games on the internet, and about 0.3% bet on online poker.
Neither of these are legally available online in Australia. This indicates the population actually using offshore providers may be very small.
It’s whack-a-mole, but not a hands-on solution
In any event, attempting to block access to internet sites is problematic. It requires cooperation with (or coercion of) Internet Service Providers.
Sites needing to be blocked must first be identified, and specific technical information must be provided to ISPs to facilitate the block. Meanwhile, those running the site can change its name or move domains, and start where they left off. It’s essentially a game of whack-a-mole.
That said, this doesn’t mean it can’t be done. The United States has prosecuted multiple offshore gambling providers for breaching its internet gambling ban. But enforcing such a ban chews up precious resources.
At the time, more harm was being inflicted by Australian registered wagering companies than offshore sites. This is probably still the case. Financial Counselling Australia pointed this out in great detail prior to the O’Farrell review, as did others.
The recommendations have now been largely adopted. The states have reformed taxation arrangements for Australian licensed bookmakers, imposing point-of-consumption taxes. This means the gambling tax on bookies is imposed in the state where the bet is placed, rather than where it’s licensed.
This makes allowance for the fact that, although most online Australian bookmakers are licensed in the Northern Territory, most of their business comes from other states. Bookies prefer the Northern Territory because of its low tax regime, which collects only A$7 million out of A$2 billion in wagering losses, less than 4% of revenue.
There’s little doubt online gambling (done offshore or domestically) causes significantharm. It has the potential to cause even more, as an increasing number of people are attracted by bookies’ advertisements.
Gambling companies sponsor sports and sporting teams around Australia, with their logos prominent on sports uniforms, on the field, and on memorabilia. The recent Melbourne Cup carnival was a case in point, as are football finals, the Australian Open, and most other major sporting events.
The submission of the Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation to the O’Farrell review in 2016 argued growth in online gambling was almost certainly fuelled by intense advertising by bookmakers.
We need to re-focus
If we were genuinely concerned about reducing gambling harm, an important step would be to ban or further restrict bookmakers’ advertising capacity.
Currently, “whistle to whistle” bans (five minutes before commencement of play, and until five minutes after play concludes) are in effect for football and other short broadcasts, courtesy of a self-regulatory code.
After 8.30pm, however, gambling advertising is permitted and plenty of young people are still watching at this time, being bombarded with bookies’ ads.
There are also numerous exemptions for advertising during “long form” sports such as cricket, and for racing broadcasts.
As we’ve learned from tobacco, our next step towards gambling harm prevention would be to prohibit advertising and sponsorship. That is, if we really do want to prevent harm.
The Zero Carbon Act (ZCA) is over a week old, but it’s still being heavily debated and analysed. After all, depending on who you listen to, it’s the most significant new law of the year, of this Government, or even of some people’s lifetime. And it deals with a giant issue – climate change. There are also some significantly different perspectives on the new legislation, how it came about, and what impact it’s going to have on climate change and the political environment.
There’s plenty of plaudits being handed out – not only from the politicians to themselves, but from pundits, too. For example, The AM Show’s Duncan Garner gave tribute to both sides of the Parliament, singling out the Minister for Climate Change James Shaw (“his ability to get almost unanimous support”), and National Party leader Simon Bridges (“being constructive, modern and green”) – see: Passing Zero Carbon Bill a sign Parliament has grown up.
Garner says “Mark this week down as the week Parliament grew up, maturing beyond petty politics and personal divisions to put New Zealand and indeed the planet first.” He concludes “Compromise is king. Long live the planet Earth.”
David Cormack praised the ZCA as being good for business: “This is the sort of certainty that helps businesses and research institutes plan for the future. It means they know what the legislative framework will look like so they can make five, 10 even 20-year plans knowing there is certainty. This was why the negotiation was so critical” – see: NZ goes from fast follower to world leader (paywalled).
Cormack also praised the consensus approach: “this is actual progressive legislation that was passed in a mature and sensible way.” And he pointed to the international attention on the legislation: “Already we have seen the ripple effect from other countries from the passing of the Zero Carbon Act. New Zealand had favourable media coverage all around the world, which will hopefully influence other countries to adopt similar laws. US Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders praised it and said he would look to adopt similar measures were he to be successful in becoming President.”
Not everyone is impressed, of course. Greenpeace has been derisive. Amanda Larsson, who is the group’s Lead Climate Campaigner, said the legislation was entirely inadequate: “below the thinly-veiled layer of rhetoric lay no substance. No regulation. Nothing but vague promises to maybe do something about dairy pollution in two to five years’ time” – see: Don’t kick climate to touch.
Another Greenpeace spokesperson, Steve Abel, was even more scathing, labelling the ZCA “bland and ineffective”, and suggesting the Green Party has essentially “joined the consensus on inaction” in their promotion of this as a solution to climate change – see: A weak climate law based on a feeble consensus is no ‘nuclear-free moment’.
In analysing the ZCA, and what was needed, Abel says: “the last couple of years the climate movement has called for: 1) political consensus on a 2) strong and 3) binding climate law. What we got was one out of three. But without being strong and binding, consensus is meaningless.” He adds: “One of the tell-tales of the hollowness of the Zero Carbon Act is that the polluting industries are not crying foul. The reason is, the law barely touches them.”
Greenpeace is not only extremely unhappy with the end product, but also the process that James Shaw and Jacinda Ardern used to get there, which Abel says has been a case of misleadership. He argues that by focusing on finding consensus amongst all the political players, the Greens and Labour have gone with a lowest-common denominator outcome rather than the right one.
He compares it to other landmark political progress such as women winning the right to vote, the creation of the welfare state, banning nuclear ships, and homosexual law reform, and points out these were achieved through strong leadership asserting the best way forward rather than attempts to find compromise across the political spectrum.
Henry Cooke also puts forward this position: “There is a good argument that Shaw should have made use of power instead of sharing it. National rarely obsesses with getting Labour and the Greens on board with changes it makes when it is in power. Sometimes you just have to pass a bill, pray you win the election, and hope that if you don’t, the other guys will find it too hard to undo your work” – see: James Shaw won the battle on climate change, not the war.
The counterargument is that, for the ZCA to endure, it’s better to get the National Party on board and reluctant to make too many changes to the scheme once it next gets into power. Cooke explains Shaw’s thinking: “to get people to actually trust that this structure would remain in place, Shaw knew he would have to bring National along with him. Any new structure which National just promised to tear down when it eventually won office would seem toothless, in his eyes.”
The consensus approach might end up being be very bad for the Greens electorally, according to Matthew Hooton, who says: “With multi-party consensus, those who worry about climate change now have no more reason to vote for the Greens than for Labour, National or NZ First” – see: James Shaw’s victory double-edged (paywalled).
Here’s his main point: “Come election time, Shaw and Ardern may wax lyrical about the new legislation and the Climate Change Commission it sets up, but Simon Bridges and Winston Peters will both be able to say, ‘yep, that’s my policy too’ and move on to immigration, infrastructure, housing or the economy.” Meanwhile, the Greens are likely to bleed more activists.
That makes National the biggest winner from the new law, Hooton says. And the fact that the party signed up was important for getting the law enacted: “National and NZ First are chasing the same provincial vote and so are joined at the hip on issues that worry farmers and agriculture support industries. Had Bridges defected from Shaw’s consensus, Peters would have too, and the bill would have been defeated. Whether out of genuine conviction, cynical political calculation or both, Bridges has therefore chosen to give Ardern a significant short-term win, but that only underlines how powerfully it is in National’s interests to remove climate change from the mainstream political debate”.
Herald political editor Audrey Young certainly regards the whole outcome as very good for National’s leader, saying he “has just had the best week of his leadership and enhanced his credentials as leader for his management of the party’s shift on climate change” – see: Simon Bridges enhances his leadership over climate change shift (paywalled).
Navigating the repositioning in favour of the ZCA was a long-time coming, and not easy for National’s leader: “Bridges had to be mindful of a policy shift that could alienate the rural sector, alienate the urban vote by looking too much like a farmers’ party, give New Zealand First a weapon by botching the arguments, cause strife within his party, and all about an issue which gave leadership rival Judith Collins an opportunity to seek support.”
In the end, Young says, it was entirely in National’s electoral interests to vote for the legislation, and the decision was “more about National’s future and how it wanted to be seen. Had the party voted against the bill, it would have been seen as climate deniers, not reflecting mainstream New Zealand which is caring more and more about climate change, and of being the party of only farmers, not urban liberals.”
She points to battles behind the scenes with NZ First determined to block National’s pro-farmer amendments to the legislation. Young says this also advantaged National: “Now National can legitimately claim to farmers that New Zealand First opposed National’s ameliorating amendments”.
Similarly, Henry Cooke says “In a strange way this is something of a victory for Simon Bridges’ leadership. He came into the leadership promising some compromise climate change” – see: James Shaw won the battle on climate change, not the war.
Cooke argues that National had to support the law, even if it continues to fight against other elements of the Government’s climate change agenda: “National was wedged into a very tricky space. As much as it might like to project itself as the party for rural New Zealand, the truth is there aren’t enough people in rural New Zealand to get the party the kinds of vote totals it needs to win power. National is an urban party as much as it is a rural one, and recognises that climate change is not going away as a topic. Now it can look constructive on the big structural stuff like the Zero Carbon Bill while turning the actual day-to-day climate change issues into proxy culture wars – see the feebate proposal, or investment in public transport.”
Cooke also points to NZ First’s role in watering down the power of the new Climate Change Commission: “Shaw was also keen to make the commission have a bit more actual power – a la the Reserve Bank. But NZ First leader Winston Peters quashed that, and then made sure everyone knew about it.”
Veteran political journalist Richard Harman also focuses on the role of NZ First in shaping the ZCA, reporting that Shaw had to negotiate very carefully with the party, and encountered many hurdles along the way. For example: “Those negotiations were, by all accounts, going well until Shaw’s separate negotiations with NZ First Chief of Staff, Jon Johansson, broke down late last year. There are varying descriptions of what happened, but the situation was so bad that the Prime Minister commissioned former chief of staff to Helen Clark, Heather Simpson, to try and broker a peace” – see: Bridges uses the Zero Carbon Bill to redefine National.
The upshot was that “NZ First demanded that Shaw stop negotiating with National and talk only to Government parties. The Prime Minister apparently agreed with this approach.”
In another column, Harman says “Shaw is understood to have been so frustrated by NZ First’s obstinance that he did not mention them in his speech lauding the bipartisan support for the Bill. Instead, he paid tribute to Bridges, [Scott] Simpson and [Todd] Muller” – see: Bipartisan agreement – except for NZ First.
And National seemed to return the favour, with Todd Muller – who negotiated much of the agreement with Shaw – being quoted in Parliament by Harman giving tribute to Shaw: “There are certain people that you meet in this place who you can connect with. He is one of them. He is a man of huge character and integrity. There were many times in the last 18 months of this process where things could have turned out differently, but for his determination to see this as an opportunity beyond partisan politics, the credit, in no small measure, sits with him.”
Finally, an interesting analysis of the ZCA comes from Thomas Coughlan, who draws on rightwing public choice theory to argue that the new legislation succeeds in taking much of the politics – or democracy – out of climate change, just as Ruth Richardson’s Fiscal Responsibility Act did for debt in the early 1990s – see: Carbon bill might not save NZ from climate change, but it saved democracy from itself. He says, “Get used to hearing forms of the following: ‘Don’t blame me for making you cut your emissions, blame the Zero Carbon Act’.”
To perform an exit is not as simple as it sounds. In fact, exiting a situation can be almost impossible for some.
Exit Strategies is a new production by indie performer and theatre maker Mish Grigor in collaboration with Aphids co-director Lara Thoms and Eugenia Lim. It delves into the difficulty of exiting, by tracing the often banal yet agonising pathways – physical, emotional, or practical – one takes to leave.
The production raises the idea exits are also profoundly philosophical. What does it mean to exit? Is an exit the same as an arrival?
Grigor references the political dimension of the exit, having developed the script while attending an artist’s residency in the UK against a backdrop of relentless media coverage on the polarising debates around Brexit.
Conversely, exits are spaces of possibility. They are dark matter – a threshold inviting us to leap into the unknown. They are profoundly theatrical. A play is replete with exits. If it wasn’t, how would actors leave the theatre and return home?
In life, exits can be absurd, be opportunities for self reflection, or self-sabotage. They can be thrilling, funny, humiliating, and of course fatal.
The production uses green screen and projection – badly, but intentionally so.Unsplash, CC BY
Grigor exhausts all these variations in a 75-minute performance delivered as monologue. The production is deceptively simple. It is often understated in its delivery, yet incredibly rich in the way it casually weaves biographical narrative into larger concerns such as around colonialism and settler anxiety.
Despite these ruminations, the production is not obviously didactic or preachy. Its delivery plays at being casual while resolutely goading us with humour. Grigor drops familiar and cheesy references to 90s Australian television, politicians, cultural events, and – in more sobering moments – xenophobic and racist political developments.
Part of the pleasure in witnessing her repeated exit failures is that her performance is deliciously anti-heroic: this is no Iliad and Grigor is no Odysseus or Homer. Yet there is a wry allusion to long form poetry, which in performance translates as Grigor firing off instructions to the audience. She implores us to leave, to explore, invade, and conquer! It’s a sort of masculinist manifesto that goes wilfully off script.
We are told to imagine we are a child at Brisbane’s Expo 88. We are to take photos. Grigor instructs us to “print yourself out” and then “cut yourself out, just like you were there at Stonehendge”. She lists other famous sites, monuments, and curiosities we are to visit and by implication conquer, as though we are her.
The monologue feels autobiographical, confessional, all the while delivered in the imperative: “be a woman surviving late capitalism”.
The performance is peppered with visual gags executed in a floppy – almost deadpan – manner, which is stylistically antithetical to the heroic. Therein lies the humour of Exit Strategies as well as its feminist thesis: women artists (and feminist artists of every gender, race and class) have had no role to play in the sweeping narratives of dominant history. Moreover, this is not necessarily desirable. After all, who wants to feel at home among imperialists and those with a pathological need to dominate the earth and others?
In Exit Strategies there is no epic journey. Unlike the heroes of Greek tragedy Grigor can not unmoor herself from the parochial, the personal, the autobiographical, the inconsequential. We soon realise there is no clear redemptive arc (or exit) for this Australian artist. Nor is there a redemptive arc for us in the audience – especially those of us who are white settlers.
There is a quality of pastiche at play here, threaded into the production’s form as well as its content and aesthetic. We jump from image to image, place to place, from childhood experiences, to historical events, to personal anecdotes about nightmarish benders on cocaine, wine, ice, only to cycle back again.
Green screen is used – badly but deliberately – so Grigor can interact in real time with herself. An even larger scrim curtain is unfurled and she appears as enormous and superimposed upon images of the Colosseum, the Taj Mahal, Statue of Liberty, Phillip Island’s Big Koala, Queensland’s Big Banana. You get the joke: upsize or exit the building!
If making it as an artist in Australia means becoming a cutout virtual version of yourself, easily transposed into the phallocentric narratives of historical progress – however awkward and naive the effect – then perhaps it’s not worth it.
Grigor shows us how she is failing at exiting the personal to enter history, the place where heroes and artistic geniuses are made. But the failure is ultimately welcomed, it is messy, ambivalent, yet somehow fabulous and productive.
Exit Strategies plays at Arts House until Sunday 17 November
Sri Lanka’s presidential election on Saturday comes at a critical time for the country. The government has been in turmoil since President Maithripala Sirisena sacked the prime minister last year and replaced him with former strongman Mahinda Rajapaksa, a move that sparked a three-month constitutional crisis. Then came the Easter bombings this year that killed over 250 people, including two Australians. Sirisena was accused in a parliamentary report of “actively undermining” national security and failing to prevent the attacks.
new energy into long-standing efforts to undermine the status and prosperity of the Muslim community.
Sirisena, who is not seeking re-election, has not fulfilled many of the election promises he made four years ago. He ran on issues of economic reform and achieving lasting peace on the island following its long-running civil war. But today, Sri Lanka is still very much a divided nation.
Mahinda Rajapaksa has been tipped as a possible prime minister in his brother’s government.M.A. Pushpa Kumara/EPA
However, among the Sinhalese majority, Gotabaya is a national hero for orchestrating the military defeat of the Tamil Tigers rebel group in 2009 and bringing an end to the 26-year-long armed conflict.
Gotabaya’s popularity increased significantly following the Easter Sunday terror attacks, thanks to his aggressive stance on terrorism and national security. He is viewed by many Sinhalese as a strongman similar to his brother, who can guarantee their safety and produce economic growth.
However, Gotabaya remains deeply unpopular among the Tamil and Muslim communities, as well as some Sinhalese critics.
The United Nations has accused Gotabaya’s military of committing numerous abuses in the final stages of the civil war, including torture, extrajudicial killings and repeated shelling in the no-fire zone.
Earlier this year, Gotabaya was sued in the US for authorising the extrajudicial killing of a prominent journalist and the torture of an ethnic Tamil. The lawsuit also includes allegations of rape, torture and brutal interrogations in army camps and police stations between 2008 and 2013.
Mahinda Rajapaksa has also repeatedly denied that his government was responsible for civilian deaths during the end of the war. If elected, Gotabaya said he would not honour an agreement the government made with the UN to investigate alleged war crimes.
According to some UN estimates, around 100,000 people were killed in the civil war, though a later UN report said 40,000 civilians may have been killed in the final months alone.
The UN has noted that only a proper investigation can lead to an accurate figure for the total number of deaths.
Supporters of Gotabaya Rajapaksa gather at an election rally in Jaffna.M.A. Pushpa Kumara/EPA
For nearly 1,000 days now, the Tamil families of those who disappeared at the end of the civil war have staged a protest to demand the government provide information about the whereabouts of their loved ones.
If Gotabaya wins the election, it will do little to ease the longstanding grievances of the island’s Tamil people, let alone the escalating tensions between the Sinhalese and Muslim community.
His main contender, Sajith Premadasa, is the son of another former president, Ranasinghe Premadasa (1989-93). He has been promising a social revolution that includes everything from eliminating poverty to universal health care to tax concessions for small- and medium-sized businesses.
Premadasa has also promised to ramp up national security, including through the appointment of Sarath Fonseka as the head of national security.
What does the election mean for Australia relations?
A Gotabaya presidency is unlikely to change the deepening relationship between Australia and Sri Lanka. Labor and Coalition governments have pursued better relations with both the Rajapaksa and Sirisena governments following the end of the war.
However, the cooperation between the two countries will become harder to justify if Gotabaya wins the election, given the allegations he faces of war crimes.
Recent years have seen a closer strategic alignment between the countries, given Sri Lanka’s pivotal position in the Indian Ocean and China’s increasing presence in the region.
If Australia wants to continue to position itself as a leader of democratic values, it needs to play a greater role in facilitating lasting peace in Sri Lanka.
There is an opportunity for Australia to challenge the next president of Sri Lanka to address the real concerns facing minority groups on the island, not least because they continue to seek safety and protection in Australia.
If you have kids, chances are you’ve worried about their presence on social media.
Who are they talking to? What are they posting? Are they being bullied? Do they spend too much time on it? Do they realise their friends’ lives aren’t as good as they look on Instagram?
We asked five experts if social media is damaging to children and teens.
Four out of five experts said yes
The four experts who ultimately found social media is damaging said so for its negative effects on mental health, disturbances to sleep, cyberbullying, comparing themselves with others, privacy concerns, and body image.
However, they also conceded it can have positive effects in connecting young people with others, and living without it might even be more ostracising.
The dissident voice said it’s not social media itself that’s damaging, but how it’s used.
Here are their detailed responses:
If you have a “yes or no” health question you’d like posed to Five Experts, email your suggestion to: alexandra.hansen@theconversation.edu.au
Karyn Healy is a researcher affiliated with the Parenting and Family Support Centre at The University of Queensland and a psychologist working with schools and families to address bullying. Karyn is co-author of a family intervention for children bullied at school. Karyn is a member of the Queensland Anti-Cyberbullying Committee, but not a spokesperson for this committee; this article presents only her own professional views.
As sure as night follows day, this week’s bushfires prompted inevitable debate about whether fire authorities should have carried out more hazard reduction burning, and whether opposition from conservationists prevented this.
There are two key points to remember when we consider these questions. First, the impact on human life and property – not the impact on the environment – is the number one concern in the minds of fire officials when deciding whether to conduct a controlled burn. Second, and perhaps more importantly, evidence shows increasing the frequency or area of controlled burns does not necessarily reduce the bushfire risk.
In fact, during extreme fire danger conditions, reduced fuel loads – such as those achieved through hazard reduction burning – do little to moderate bushfire behaviour.
Firefighters protecting homes near Woodford, NSW as a bushfire approaches.AAP
Officals under heat to cut fuel loads
Hazard reduction burning, also known as prescribed or controlled burning, is primarily used to prevent the spread of bushfires by reducing the build-up of flammable fuel loads such as leaf litter, grasses and shrubs.
Authorities routinely come under pressure to reduce bushfire fuel loads – especially in the wake of a bushfire crisis like the one seen on the east coast in recent days.
Media and mining magnate Kerry Stokes this week called for more controlled burning, saying this was a more pressing concern than climate change in dealing with bushfires.
And Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce reportedly lashed out at the Greens and others for purportedly opposing controlled burning and land clearing, claiming “there is all this bureaucracy that stands in the way of people keeping their place safe”.
The hazards of hazard reduction
Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce this week said ‘bureaucracy’ was getting in the way of rural landowners conducting hazard reduction on their properties.Lukas Coch/AAP
Bushfire hazard reduction is not as simple as dropping a match indiscriminately and standing back to watch the landscape burn. Fire agencies must assess the risks and manage the potential impacts. These assessments are made in the years and months prior to the burn, as well as on the day.
Fire authorities invest significant time prepring for a controlled burn program. They work with communities to develop a plan and a rigorous process guides how, where and when the burns will be undertaken.
Protecting human life and property from the effects of a burn is the first priority, and by far represents the greatest challenge. Other impacts are also assessed in the process. These include effects on the environment, Indigenous and European cultural assets and sporting events.
Despite extensive planning, over the past decade prescribed burns have escaped containment lines and destroyed houses, such as at Margaret River in Western Australia in 2013 and Lancefield, Victoria in 2015. To prevent a repeat of this, policies require burns only proceed when the weather is suitable not just on the day, but for three to five days afterwards. This has meant many burns do not go ahead or are delayed for years.
Smoke from fires can increase mortality and hospitalisation rates, and so the effect on human health is playing an increasing role in whether to burn or not. Viticulture concerns have also delayed burns because smoke can also destroy grapes used in wine production.
Thick smoke blankets Sydney Harbour in May 2019 after hazard reduction burns.AAP
Controlled burns may not slow bushfires
Even if we were to carry out more controlled burns, it does not necessarily follow that bushfire risk would be reduced.
Controlled burns do not remove all fuels from an area. And forests accumulate fuel at different rates – some return to their pre-burn fuel loads in as few as three years.
Our research has shown controlled burning was likely to have reduced the area later burnt by bushfires in only four of 30 regions examined in New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and the ACT.
Evidence from a range of studies demonstrates fuel loads can significantly modify fire behaviour under benign weather conditions. But reduced fuel loads do little for bushfire mitigation under extreme fire weather and in times of drought.
A burnt-out structure on a property devastated by bushfires at Coutts Crossing in Northern NSW, November 2019.Jason O’Brien/AAP
Looking to the future
Evidence is mounting of increased bushfire frequency and extent in both Australia and the US – a situation predicted to worsen under climate change. Changing weather patterns mean opportunities for controlled burning will likely diminish further. Coupled with expanding populations in high fire-risk areas, Australia’s fire agencies – among the best in the world – have a challenging time ahead.
In future, we must think beyond traditional approaches to fire management. Acknowledging the role of climate change in altering natural hazards and the impact they have on humans and the environment is the first step. Communities should also be at the centre of decisions, so they understand and act on the risks.
There’s a lot of uncertainty in a research career. Most funding – and most jobs – are doled out by the project, or in chunks of a few years at a time.
Recently, however, the situation has been made even worse by delays in announcements of government funding – delays that appear to be caused by government using announcements for political advantage.
How research funding works
The federal government is a major funder of basic research in Australia, issuing close to A$800 million in grants each year via the Australian Research Council (ARC).
There are a variety of grants for researchers at different stages of their career, and also grants for specific research projects.
Receiving a grant can be the difference between whether a project goes ahead or not, and – if you’re a researcher – whether you have a job or not.
Accordingly, researchers put a huge amount of effort into applying for grants. The process is highly competitive, and only around one in six grant applications is successful.
Independent experts at the ARC assess all applications and make funding recommendations to the federal education minister for approval.
Ministerial intervention
Most of the time, the minister follows the ARC’s advice. However, in 2018 the then minister, Simon Birmingham, intervened to block 11 humanities grants recommended by the ARC. Many commentators decried the intervention as political, saying it set a dangerous precedent.
The current education minister, Dan Tehan, said late last year that future ARC grants would be subject to a new “national interest” test, but also that he would be transparent if he chose to intervene in any funding decisions.
This year, however, the funding announcements themselves have become a political tool – creating even more uncertainty for researchers.
Announcements of particular grants that have in the past been made all at once – such as the large Centre of Excellence grants – have instead trickled out via media releases over weeks and months.
Earlier this week a leaked internal email from the University of Queensland stated that it understands “the embargo is lifted by local MPs in conjunction with the minister of education”, and that it is “waiting for its local MP” to make the awards public.
Larger announcements also look like they are being managed for political benefit. New research training centres at the University of Melbourne and Monash University were not announced by their respective local MPs (who are not members of the government), but instead by government MPs from nearby electorates.
The minister’s office has not responded to a request for comment.
What this means for researchers
Politics aside, the delay and uncertainty is bad news for researchers.
Applications for next year’s funding round have already opened, and researchers who were unsuccessful this year still don’t have any feedback on their applications. This feedback is often a crucial tool for improving an application to make it more likely to succeed.
Successful applicants will already know they are successful – but they can’t sign funding agreements with the ARC and actually get on with the research until all the grants have been announced. No one knows when that announcement will happen, and it could mean some researchers are left without income early next year.
It could also mean Australia loses out as the top talent takes positions overseas rather than waiting. The ARC says this will change in future, but that’s not much help for this year.
Tracking the ARC
This year, the best way to keep track of what’s going on at the ARC has been an anonymous Twitter account called @ARC_tracker. What began as an automated bot that regularly checked the ARC website for new announcements has become a important source of information and a focal point for researchers dissatisfied with the current process.
The account has kept track of announcements as they have trickled out, and shared reports from disgruntled researchers.
The unknown person who runs the account – who says they are a researcher at an Australian university – has also explained their concerns at greater length.
While the account has done a service to Australia’s research community, the fact that it needs to exist reflects very poorly on the lack of transparency and communication from the ARC and the minister’s office.
Where to from here?
This dire situation can be fixed with two simple changes to the process.
First, local politicians with no ministerial responsibility for the sector should not be involved in grant announcements. The money is budgeted for research, not regions, and funding decisions are made on the recommendation of an expert panel via a rigorous process. Ideally, the announcement would be made by the ARC itself to remove any perception of politicisation.
Second, funding announcements for each round of grants should be made simultaneously on a date advertised when applications open. This would give researchers certainty about when they would know the outcome.
The Australian government has indicated that “diaspora communities” are crucial to Australia’s public diplomacy mission to promote the country abroad. It has also identified online and social media as essential “public diplomacy tools”.
But in terms of projecting an attractive image of Australia to potential tourists, students and investors in China, the task is not that simple.
As for the media, the ABC has attempted to connect with Chinese audiences by offering some of its online content in Mandarin. But the ABC’s coverage can still feel alienating to Chinese migrants. This stems from a feeling that much of its reporting conforms to a pre-determined narrative of the danger of China’s rising influence in the country.
The role of Chinese migrants in public diplomacy, meanwhile, is little understood.
Earlier this year, we conducted a survey of more than 800 Australia-based, Mandarin-speaking social media users as part of a study of Chinese-language digital and social media in Australia.
Our aim was to determine how Chinese migrants view both Australia and China, how news coverage of both countries shapes these views, and whether they feel they have a role to play in promoting either country.
We asked participants whether they have generally positive views about their experience of living or studying in Australia and how often they share these views with potential Chinese visitors or migrants to Australia.
Perhaps surprisingly, our survey respondents answered with a resounding “yes”, despite the alienation they sometimes feel from English-language media and a sense their allegiance to Australia is regularly being questioned.
When asked how often they share positive stories about Australia via Chinese social media platforms, 72% of respondents said they often or sometimes shared such information.
A similar level of pro-Australian sentiment was evident when participants were asked how often they share negative stories about Australia from the local Chinese media or English-language media. (For example, stories about the high cost of living, racism against Chinese or the boring lifestyle.) Nearly 77% said they rarely or never share such stories.
When asked with whom they share positive or negative stories about Australia, nearly two-thirds said “Chinese people living in China”, while 28% said Chinese immigrants living elsewhere in the world.
Interestingly, our survey participants’ willingness to promote Australia to Chinese people worldwide did not mean they had negative views about China. Nearly 80% said they would also be willing to promote China to Australians as a tourist destination or potential place for business opportunities.
Not overly pro-China on sensitive issues
This speaks to the ability of Chinese migrants to sustain dual loyalties to Australia and China, without much apparent conflict between the two.
Our respondents also showed a considerable degree of sophistication in their views on China–Australia relations and issues the Australian media typically present in a polarising manner. When asked whether they sided with China or Australia on these issues, we saw an interesting split.
For example, a significant number of participants said they sided with China in relation to disputes over Huawei (73%) and the South China Sea (79%). However, support for China was dramatically lower in relation to China’s influence in Australia (40%), trade disputes (38%) and, perhaps most surprisingly to many Australians, human rights (just 22%).
Even though they didn’t back China on these last four issues, participants didn’t give their unambiguous support to the Australian viewpoint, either. The number of respondents who chose “not sure” on these four issues ranged between 32% and 45%.
Human rights was the only issue where more respondents sided with the Australian viewpoint rather than China’s (46% compared to 22%).
Negative news on China leads to unhappiness
Similarly, when respondents were asked how they felt about negative news about China or the Chinese government in the Australian media, they expressed a range of opinions.
Respondents were nearly equally split on the fairness of such reporting, with 27% saying they felt the Western media portrayed China in an overly negative light and 22% saying they felt such reporting allowed them to know the truth about China.
The most popular response, however, was telling: 35% of participants said they felt unhappy because of the hostility of the Australian media to China, regardless of whether or not the reporting was truthful.
This suggests that while most Chinese-Australians are generally supportive of Australia, the mainstream media’s narrow focus on China’s influence seems to impact negatively on their happiness and overall feeling of connectedness with Australian society.
Overall, Chinese migrants in Australia are spreading a positive message about the country voluntarily. They do so without any support from the Australian government, and despite the often negative reporting about China in the Australian media and hyperbolic public aspersions cast on them.
Based on our findings, it would behove the Australian government to try and find ways to harness this largely bottom-up, pro-Australian, word-of-mouth energy in the service of public diplomacy.
This is especially important now, given the dire state of diplomatic relations between our two countries.
For many parents whose teenage children are completing Year 12, this time of year means mixed emotions. Parents might feel proud, exhausted and excited. And as young people start heading to schoolies and leavers’ celebrations, many parents may also feel nervous — maybe a little freaked out.
Part of the appeal of schoolies celebrations, which start this weekend in some areas, is they give teenagers a chance to exert their independence and experiment with their identity as a young adult.
This is a normal part of growing up. But for some parents, this can create anxiety. And this anxiety can manifest in overly protective behaviours known as helicopter parenting.
These young people find it hard to make decisions and have poor time management. They might also avoid telling their parents things that might freak them out.
Good communication is the key to reducing parental angst and potential hovering. More importantly, it provides an opportunity to talk about high-risk situations. It also means a young person will feel they can contact their parents if they get into trouble.
So how can parents avoid freaking out and keep the channels of communication open? Think of going to schoolies as taking a flight.
Pre-flight safety briefing (tips for good communication)
1. When entering the aircraft, mind the generation gap
Young people are often scapegoated by the previous generation (think Gen Z and avocado toast). So don’t react to the media hype about the dangers of schoolies.
Last year there were concerns about an epidemic of nitrous oxide (laughing gas) at schoolies. However, these claims were unfounded.
Parents might roll-their-eyes at teenage behaviour in videos previous schoolies produce, such as the one below. However, from a school leaver’s perspective, these behaviours are a rite of passage.
Here’s what Ben and his mates really got up to at schoolies.
Most of these behaviours — such as developing group norms, hazing rituals, pranks and testing limits — are about young people developing their identity. And ultimately, most of these behaviours are relatively harmless.
Parents need to be well informed as to what schoolies is all about. Queensland Independent Schools has developed some good resources. If young people believe their parents know what they’re talking about, they’re more likely to listen.
2. Your life-jacket is under the seat
It is important to access objective information rather than media hype. While the media often focuses on illegal drug use, most young people do not use drugs at schoolies.
Parental discussions about reducing the risk from alcohol use and safe sex are not only likely to have the most impact on reducing harm, teens will also see them as more relevant.
3. Know your exits
Young people are sceptical of information about risky behaviours they think is exaggerated. Information about risky behaviours is likely to be perceived as more credible when it is balanced.
For example, when talking about drugs, teenagers will perceive information parents provide as more credible when positive, neutral and negative effects of the drug are all considered. A good source of balanced and credible drug information is Erowid, a drug education website run by a not-for-profit harm reduction organisation.
4. Brace position
Most young people take risks. Testing the boundaries is a normal part of growing up. What did you get up to as a young person?
Appropriate disclosure of the parent’s own risk taking behaviour creates an environment of trust. It also fosters the disclosure reciprocity norm. When somebody discloses something personal about themselves, we feel the desire to disclose something personal about ourself.
It is also important not to appear to know something when you don’t. This would be inauthentic. You gain more credibility by acknowledging when you don’t know something and are open to working together to finding out.
5. Fasten you seat belts
If you are authentic and are open to a balanced discussion, young people are more likely to disclose past behaviour or future intentions that might concern you.
Remember to stay calm. Discuss the potential consequences, both good and bad, in a matter-of-fact manner. Reacting negatively is likely to shut down the conversation.
6. Oxygen masks may drop
Some parents might be concerned about “peer pressure”. While your child can be trusted, can you trust their friends?
The likelihood of a young person succumbing to peer pressure is reduced when there is a good relationship with their parents. This is a chance to discuss creative “ways out” of risky situations.
The popular belief that young people value their friends’ beliefs more than their parents’ is not true. While young people are more likely to be influenced by peers on matters such as style and appearance, parents are still more likely to have an influence on issues such as morality.
Cleared for take-off
Experimenting and exerting independence provides young people with excellent opportunities for learning and self development.
Though some learning experiences can be costly, through good communication, the risk of harm can be minimised.
In the end, parents need to trust they have instilled their values and common sense.
Much is made of the “next generation” of nuclear reactors in the debate over nuclear power in Australia. They are touted as safer than older reactors, and suitable for helping Australia move away from fossil fuels.
However, international projections predict nuclear power will stick around beyond 2040. It is forecast to reduce the carbon footprint of other nations, in many cases fuelled by our uranium.
To choose wisely on nuclear power options in future, we ought to stay engaged. Renewables in combination with hydro storage might fail to fully decarbonise the electricity sector, or much more electricity may be needed in future for desalination, emission-free manufacturing, or hydrogen fuel to deal with an escalating climate crisis. Nuclear power might be advantageous then.
What reactors will be available in future?
All recent commissions of nuclear power stations, such as the Korean APR-1400 reactors in the United Arab Emirates, or the Chinese Hualong One design, are large Generation III type light water reactors that produce gigawatts of electricity. Discouraged by investment blowouts and considerable delays in England and Finland, Australia is not likely to consider building Generation III reactors.
The company NuScale in particular promotes a new approach to nuclear power, based on smaller modular reactors that might eventually be prefabricated and shipped to site. Although promoted as “next generation”, this technology has been used in maritime applications for many years. It might be a good choice for Australian submarines.
NuScale has licensed its design in the United States and might be able to demonstrate the first such reactor in 2027 in a research laboratory in Idaho.
These small reactors each produce 60 megawatts of power and require a much smaller initial investment than traditional nuclear power stations. They are also safer, as the entire reactor vessel sits in a large pool of water, so no active cooling is needed once the reactor is switched off.
However the technical, operational and economic feasibility of making and maintaining modular reactors is completely untested.
Looking ahead: Generation IV reactors and thorium
If Australia decided to build a nuclear power station, it would take decades to complete. So we might also choose one of several other new reactor concepts, labelled Generation IV. Some of those designs are expected to become technology-ready after 2030.
Generation IV reactors can be divided into thermal reactors and fast breeders.
Thermal reactors
Thermal reactors are quite similar to conventional Generation III light water reactors.
However, some will use molten salts or helium gas as coolant instead of water, which makes makes hydrogen explosions – as occurred at Fukushima – impossible.
Some of these new reactor designs can operate at higher temperatures and over a larger temperature range without having to sustain the drastic pressures necessary in conventional designs. This improves effectiveness and safety.
Fast breeders
Fast breeder reactors require fuel that contains more fissile uranium, and they can also create plutonium. This plutonium might eventually support a sustainable nuclear fuel cycle. They also use the uranium fuel more efficiently, and generate less radioactive waste.
However, the enriched fuel and capacity to produce plutonium means that fast breeders are more closely linked to nuclear weapons. Fast reactors thus do not fit well with Australia’s international and strategic outlook.
Breeding fuel from thorium
An alternative to using conventional uranium fuel is thorium, which is far less useful for nuclear weapons. Thorium can be converted in a nuclear reactor to a different type of uranium fuel (U-233).
The idea of using this for nuclear power was raised as early as 1950, but development in the US largely ceased in the 1970s. Breeding fuel from thorium could in principle be sustained for thousands of years. Plenty of thorium is already available in mining tailings.
Thorium reactors have not been pursued because the conventional uranium fuel cycle is so well established. The separation of U-233 from the thorium has therefore not been demonstrated in a commercial setting.
India is working on establishing a thorium fuel cycle due to its lack of domestic uranium deposits, and China is developing a thorium research reactor.
Australia’s perspective
To choose wisely on nuclear power and the right technology in future, we can stay engaged by:
realising a much-needed national facility to store waste from our nuclear medicine
making our uranium exports competitive again
driving the navy’s submarines with nuclear power, and
possibly reconsidering the business case for a commercial spent fuel repository.
Australia has already joined the international Generation IV nuclear forum, a good first step to foster cooperation on nuclear technology research and stay in touch with reactor developments.
Australia could deepen such research involvement by, for example, developing engineering expertise on thermal Generation IV reactors here. Such forward-looking engagement with nuclear power might pave a structured way for the commercial use of nuclear power later, if it is indeed needed.
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Fran Gale, Senior Lecturer, Social Work and Community Welfare, School of Social Science and Psychology, Western Sydney University
Children are too rarely asked their perspectives on public spaces. Traditionally, adults make choices for children, particularly about how they live and play.
In yet-to-be-published research* on behalf of a local council, we asked 75 children aged 7-12 from ten primary schools in a disadvantaged area of Sydney to map what they value in their local area. Using iPads, children pinned images of their choices to specific locations on a digital map of the local government area. Some of their choices may surprise you.
Places children selected revealed the importance to them of sharing decision-making power. Placing a drawing of his local supermarket on the map, a nine-year-old boy explained his choice of “grocery shopping” because he could “spend time with mum and help decide what goes in our trolley”.
The children typically mapped places of leisure, such as parks, swimming pools and community centres, used outside school time when adults usually have most authority over children. Here children had more autonomy to be decision-makers and exercise agency. Mapping his local park, a ten-year-old boy commented:
I can do what I want here, and there are lots of different playthings to choose from.
Some children chose to map their school, seeing it as a pathway for change; they could imagine alternative futures with greater choices. An 11-year-old boy observed:
School will help me get a good job.
Others selected their school for the opportunities it offered them now. An eight-year-old girl, pressing sparkles around the clock on her drawing of her school before positioning it on the map, explained that there are:
…lots of good things you can do at school. Read stories, have lots of space and a big play area.
Some children chose their school, where there are ‘lots of good things you can do’.Children’s digital map
Children’s choices also exposed the significance of places that promoted belonging and where they could make connections with others. A ten-year-old girl, mapping her local nature reserve, said:
There is lots of space to play and I can make new friends there.
Similarly, an 11-year-old girl explained the importance of her community centre:
It’s special because I have friends there.
Countering a dominant story about belonging and identity that gives little recognition to original Indigenous land ownership in Australia, a ten-year-old Aboriginal girl used the map to draw an Aboriginal flag onto her local park. She observed:
This is our land and I have fun here with my family.
One girl chose her local park and drew an Aboriginal flag to show it’s ‘our land’.Children’s digital map
Her claim on her local park is arguably not only about her own and her family’s belonging and identity but could also be read as referring to a broader body of Aboriginal people.
By mapping their territory, children expressed their culture and sense of community through images, text and stories, recounting their valuable experiences and developing an alternative account of the public space.
Children experiencing disadvantage can be most reliant on what their urban environment offers. We were especially keen to unearth their viewpoints.
We found many of these children advocated for their families, not only themselves. Being able to access civic amenities free or at minimal cost was significant for their capacity to make choices and have spaces to connect with others.
A 12-year-old girl observed:
For us to do things as a family, they have to be free.
And a nine-year-old boy said:
We (speaking of his family) can do it if it’s free and we can go places if they are free.
A desire to take risks and explore
Children are increasingly watched and kept safe by adults. Many children mapped places where they represented themselves as risk-takers and explorers. They frequently connected their choices with mastering skills.
Urban spaces along with bushland were repeatedly selected. These areas were, for some, bound up with “risk”, adventure and imagination. A ten-year-old boy mapping a nature reserve explained:
That’s where I ride my motorbike. You get to see cows and pigs and horses and I’ve seen a crocodile in the dam.
Listing all the things she valued on her drawing of her local pool, a nine-year-old girl wrote:
Has deep end and slide, good swimming teacher, try to swim butterfly to improve.
Her choices illustrated the children’s desire to experience their competency and capacity in environments where there are elements of risk.
Why digital mapping? Why not just ask children?
Children are a digital generation. Given the unequal power between adults and children, digital mapping helped us minimise adult intrusion, inviting children to present their spatial narratives.
The digital map gives children an opportunity to add their viewpoints to community planning rather than just reinforcing adult views. As local councils and planning authorities engage more with children to plan urban space, the perspectives of all children, including disadvantaged children, need to be heard.
*The data will be published in 2020. People interested in learning more about the research may contact the authors directly.
