I had the most amazing afternoon. One of those mind-blowing, surreal situations, that give you an entirely new perspective on society.
But first, a bit of background. I recently joined AIESEC Sydney, which, to put it simply, is a student leadership organisation (the largest of its kind). I'm helping organise an event for the "Koori Kitchen" project, which one of our members is running to give indigenous Australian kids from the Redfern area experience in cooking and education about nutrition and food. I'm interviewing some indigenous people from schools and Universities in Sydney to prepare for this event.
Today, I interviewed a woman from UTS about indigenous cultural issues, and how we can make the most of this project and provide the biggest impact to the kids. I expected the interview to last 30 minutes, an hour at most. Instead, we spoke for close to 2 hours about issues ranging from teaching styles, food habits, the Stolen Generation, to prevalent problems in the education system and racism and discrimination that pervades our society even today.
I and my colleague walked away from the interview dumb-struck. How is it that we weren't aware of these issues? Is the rest of Australian society in the same situation? I found discussing it so incredibly interesting, and so incredibly complex, and clearly there are a plethora of issues that do not get the focus deserved.
I also believe that this was the very first time I have sat down and had a conversation with an indigenous Australian in my (almost) 22 years. That is frightening.
Some interesting points from the interview:
- At one stage, there were over 700 different languages spoken by the different indigenous Australian peoples. A comparison was made in the difference between German and Chinese today.
- A survey performed in the Hunter Valley in the 1990s found that 82% of the indigenous Australian children there had hearing problems. This affects their ability to learn in a classroom setting greatly.
- Body language plays a large role in communication in indigenous culture. The woman I interviewed told a story of how her elders would often communicate without words, using body language and facial expressions.
- Australia ranks highly worldwide in the quality of its education (top 5, I believe), but the quality of education of indigenous Australian people is the lowest.
I'm still feeling buzzed from the interview. I have another two to do, and can't wait to learn more and pass it onto others!
… when the "First Female Private Space Explorer", Anousheh Ansari, currently on the International Space Station, posts to a blog and submits photos to Flickr for all the world to see.
I recently came across the WorldChanging blog, where contributors post information about how people and organisations are changing the world, bit by bit:
WorldChanging.com works from a simple premise: that the tools, models and ideas for building a better future lie all around us. That plenty of people are working on tools for change, but the fields in which they work remain unconnected. That the motive, means and opportunity for profound positive change are already present. That another world is not just possible, it's here. We only need to put the pieces together.
Some stand-out posts:
Classrooms of Opportunity - about leadership schools in Jordan and South Africa.
Park(ing) Day - a bunch of people converted street car parking spaces into parks for two hours at a time. (Photos)
An Interview With Inveneo - an interview with the COO of Inveneo, which provides low-cost, off-the-grid computers and internet connections to rural villages and disaster zones.
I've been looking for a piano piece I heard a couple of weeks ago, but have struggled to figure out the name because (1) I can't whistle in tune very well and (2) I find it hard to describe music. I heard this song on a TV ad (might have been Nescafe) and also in a profound movie called "Bangkok in the evening" from the 4th Bangkok Experimental Film Festival (BEFF) which I saw a couple of weeks ago.
I was looking through some iMixes on the iTunes Music Store and found it!
3 Gymnopédies: No. 1
Ah… that's made my day.
Have you ever had a moment where an idea just seems to click into place? An epiphany, if you will. I was chatting to a friend tonight and had one of those moments. My mind is racing, and I'm trying to jot down all of my thoughts into VoodooPad at the moment. My head is spinning and I feel like I have mental diarrhoea. I LOVE it.
Then it hits me. My honours thesis is due in 7 weeks, then I'm pissing off to Asia for 2 months. The soonest I can actually dedicate a decent amount of time to this endeavour is likely to be 4 months away.
… and then my heart sinks. Dammit.
I came across a presentation the other day that provides some statistics on the world population, if it was reduced to 100. It's really, really powerful stuff.
43 live without basic sanitation
If you have a fridge to put food in, a closet to put clothes in, a bed and a roof over your head, you are richer than 75% of the world's population.
I feel ashamed to be sitting my apartment, with a bed, bathroom, running water, new computer and fast internet connection.
So the question is, now what am I going to do about it?
View the presentation here.
… you're trying to write a 5000 word conference paper (due on Friday) and the results section is almost the word limit:
Yup. I'm screwed.
(Not to mention that I'm procrastinating by writing a blog post about how screwed I am for Friday. Oh, the irony.)
The Australian Financial Review Magazine has an article this month about Australia's creative industries, in which both my dad (Peter Higgs) and Mike Cannon-Brookes (from Atlassian) are interviewed. It's an interesting article, so go read it!
(Unfortunately, the AFR Mag requires you to register to view the articles, but there are 14-day trials available.)
I had the pleasure of seeing Ben Folds perform with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra tonight:
It was a bit different to the usual concerts, but I still really, really enjoyed it!
The highlight was the impromptu arrangement of Rock This Bitch as a tribute to the late Steve Irwin (a suggestion by an audience member). After hearing the request, he sat down and wrote for a few minutes and then told each section of the orchestra what they had to play, and went with it. Awesome.
(On another note, the entry for Rock This Bitch on Wikipedia was edited by an anonymous user to mention the concert less than an hour after it finished. Crazy!)
