what’s on my desk today?

It was a day for the Australian history books.  Victoria not only sweltered in unbelievable temperatures of between 40 – 47 degrees celcius (108F – 117F), they were also at the mercy of arson lit fires in several locations, and some that were the result of the heat.  Investigations are still going on to determine the causes of all.

No matter what caused what can only be described as close to armageddon as you want to be, it left a trail of heartbreak and broken lives behind.  Lives that are going to take a very long and a LOT of money to rebuild.  Aussie’s are a tough bunch, and we bounce back from most things, however some things take a little longer and rely on the helpful hand of our neighbours in our times of need.  The Australian public has done just that, it has dug deep during economic hard times & given what they can spare to people who have literally nothing now.  But we weren’t alone during this crisis, we had the hope & prayers of many of the International community that kept in touch over Twitter, FaceBook, MySpace and many other social networks.  Not only that, but many of them dug deep into their pockets too!  What a special place this world has become because of this ‘up close & personal’ contact we have established with each other all around the world.  We are all less alone now.

So what does the music community do best in these kind of circumstances?  They sing!  Not only did they sing… but they produced a double CD comprising of top Australian and International artists in only 5 days and generously donated their songs and royalties to help the appeal!!  Unbelievable!!  When the music community rocks…. it REALLY ROCKS!

BUSHFIRE AID – Artists For The Bushfire Appeal features 35 artists on 2 CDs such as Midnight Oil, Hoodoo Gurus, John Farnham, Delta Goodrem, Jessica Mauboy, John Butler Trio and Wes Carr, together with international artists such as Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel.

1953 gave cartoonists rich material to compare McCarthy-inspired censorship with the bonfires of 1933, now as we reach the end of the first decade of the new millennium, we are about to witness it all over again!

This copyright fueled intolerance targeted at ISP’s, Internet Cafe’s and the computer owner reaches into the bowels of entertainment history, back to the days when writers, actors, directors and many others were dragged from their homes and had their careers destroyed, because they were perceived as being associated with being Communist sympathizers. It surprises me that the same industry is condoning such practices now, when little over a decade ago they were still video taping movies & sharing them with friends, and taping music off the radio.

How soon we forget our industries history.

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Is the Labor government in Australia determined to perpetuate our xenophobic practices while still spending more time offshore than on the Australian mainland? The whole concept of the Internet is at risk in Australia with Labor’s Mandatory ISP Internet Blocking Plan and our politicians are warbling nothing but rhetoric and cheap political propaganda in their attempts to shackle us yet again!

Already Australia are among the bottom feeders of the Internet. Opportunities such as gaming & international trade are already slowed down because of inept technologies. While the world should be getting smaller, our powers that be are intent on shielding us from it. What are their concerns? That illegal practices that occur in other countries may not occur here? KNOCK KNOCK Mr Rudd! We were built from a penal colony and we seem to have survived OK!

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Life has been pretty chaotic at the moment.  Still looking for a house.  Still looking for a studio. Still working hard!

However… today I tripped over an excerpt from a locally published book & it reminded me of me.  So I wanted to share it….

Numbat has two hearts, one of stone and one of feather. His stone heart makes him strong and powerful while his feather heart makes him soft and gentle. When having more than one heart becomes troublesome, Numbat must choose which one to keep.

This is the message that countless United States citizens are sending across their country.  The entertainment & music industry, the sports fraternity, leaders of countries are asking for the US citizens to get out there & make a difference. Google has also been helping by pushing the message home through YouTube & 2008 US Voter Info.

“There’s a lot of buzz about turnout this year, but one in four Americans still aren’t registered to vote,” Google said on its website, citing US Census data.

Why?

The simple reason is, if you don’t take the effort to have a say in how your country is run, then you don’t deserve the privilege of complaining.  Yeah, yeah, don’t get up in arms about how little your vote counts, or how there is no one you want to vote for, or even your lack of faith in anything politically motivated.  These are lame ass excuses reserved for those that think it is better to sit back & whinge that it is to get out there and make a difference.  So what if the person you vote for doesn’t get in!  It’s already happened hasn’t it!

Al Gore never took his rightful place at the helm of the world’s most powerful country.  George Bush did.  All those people that voted for Gore got duped, and the voters could be thinking “why bother”.  You bother because we would have never known that Al Gore was the preferred choice.  We do now.  Now think about the outcome of that election if everyone had registered and voted.  How different would the last 8 years have been?  Think about it…. did you vote?

As much as I respect Al Gore & admire his work, I have no idea if he would have made a better president.  But if more people had voted, the US would have had a better indication to decide on after the Florida debacle.

Voting is compulsory in Australia where I hail from.  You don’t vote you get fined.  While some may find this a violations of our rights, I’ve never seen it as such.  As long as I vote I know that I have had my say.  Even a donkey vote (an invalid vote) is a ‘voice’.  For many years I voted “none of the above”.  The votes mean nothing in the grand scheme of things, but I had my say.  As the years went on I found candidates I wanted running my country (not the idiot now, but that’s another story!), so my votes were put to good use.

Voting isn’t hard.  It’s your voice.  It’s your country.  It’s your children.  It’s your family.  It’s your career & education.  IT’S YOUR OBLIGATION!

But as the video’s say…. REGISTER FIRST!  No point in taking the effort to go to vote & you haven’t registered.  It ends soon.  REGISTER NOW!