Are sportspeople heroes?

The news that Cadel Evans had won the Tour de France reached me via Facebook on Sunday afternoon. My initial reaction went along the lines of an unenthusiastic “oh cool” and I went on to pronounce his first name incorrectly. (Hint: it doesn’t rhyme with ladle). My knowledge of the Tour de France doesn’t go much further than these few words: bike race, France, Lance Armstrong and yellow jersey. 

I didn’t think further of Cadel’s win until this morning when I visited Mamamia and discovered this post. Journalist Mia Freedman appears on The Today Show every Monday morning to talk about “What’s Making News”, which this morning focused heavily on Cadel Evans. Mia stated that her own opinion is that while Cadel had done a great thing, she doesn’t understand why sports people are regarded as heroes in Australia. She stressed, while being completely respectful in her own opinions, that she would like to see people like doctors and scientists and firemen, who all save lives – to be celebrated as heroes. Mia received a large amount of negative response via Twitter, majority of it personal attack. 

I agree with Mia. I can understand, but don’t like, how this country worships sportspeople. I think it’s awesome that people have dreams which they strive to achieve – and often succeed – but should having an elite physical skill make you an instant hero? I’m not dismissing Cadel Evan’s achievement, because I do think it’s pretty great that he’s the first Australian to win the Tour de France and it is a big achievement. What I think is a tad ridiculous is that people are calling for a public holiday in celebration of his accomplishment. 

Of course Australians are proud. International athletes are perhaps the people who create the most national pride, however sad that is. I can’t deny the feeling I get while watching Cool Runnings and despite everything they’ve been through, the Jamaican bobsled team carry their crashed sled across the finish line. I feel so damn proud of them and I’m not even Jamaican! I can remember watching the Sydney 2000 Olympics, and even though I was only six years old, I thought Cathy Freeman and her 400m gold medal were pretty damn awesome. And I don’t even like sport. 

I’m not against sportspeople. And yes, some of them are heroes. What I don’t like is how difficult it is for other people to be recognised in the same way – even when they have an admirable skill and achieve great things. Why shouldn’t a front page headline boast of a doctor’s great achievement? Or a victim who has overcome hardship? I value saving lives far greater than scoring a goal or finishing a race. I’m happy for Australia to celebrate its sporting achievements. I just wish we could celebrate a lot more. 

A hero is defined as, “Someone of distinguished courage or ability, admired for their brave deeds and noble qualities.” One of my heroes is Sophie Scholl because she was exactly that: courageous, noble and honourable, even in the face of fear and great consequence. Do you think sportspeople fit that criteria?

Read more by Lauren 

Moving Out

Moving out of home is very much a rite of passage for most young adults. I certainly remember thinking so when I was in high school – independence, everything happening on your own watch, freedom, excitement and all the other wonderful things a teenager tends to associate with growing up – what more could you want? My girlfriends and I would talk excitedly about ‘moving out’, imagining warm, sunny apartments full of kitschy home wares (with plenty of space for dinner parties and dancing, of course). We seldom thought of the responsibilities and commitments that also go with living away from home, nor did we think there could be any major downsides to living independently. Moving away from home is a different experience for everyone; however, like most things in life, it is what you make of it.

As I can now attest, moving away from home is definitely exciting – how could moving ~230km away on a university adventure not be exciting?! Hobart is big, busy and the scenery is gorgeous (I’ve been waking to a snowy Mt. Wellington outside my bedroom window for the last two weeks). Packing, buying home wares, house hunting and then making the move made for a big, busy, exciting month or so and it was a great experience. The unit I live in is both warm and sunny and my bright red colander and collection of teapots tick the kitsch box nicely. I have plenty of time to myself – well, not totally to myself, I don’t live alone – and I am totally independent from my parents. 

All this being said, though, moving out of home is also a total paradigm shift. I’ve spent about six months in Hobart now and I’m still getting used to living 230km or so from everyone and everything I’ve been used to. Leaving my family, friends and hometown behind has proved to be quite difficult. Telephone calls and Facebook conversations are one thing, but actually being around the people I care about is what I have missed more than anything else. It has certainly made me appreciate the people in my life and the time I do have to spend with them. Then, of course, there’s the matter of money. I have become a master of both budgeting and bargain-hunting; funds are usually scarce with rent and bills to pay, food to buy and horribly overpriced textbooks to purchase. On the upside, this also means I have become very apt at cooking tasty meals on a low budget. I’ve also come to understand the value of money and I don’t ‘throw it around’ as I probably once did.

All in all, I admit living away from home has turned out to be more difficult than I had imagined as a schoolgirl. It’s certainly not something to be taken lightly, nor would I recommend trying to live on your own before you’re really ready to. It isn’t something you can do by half. However, it has so far been a wonderful experience and a lot of fun; I’m now more or less used to living in the ‘real world’ and can spend less time worrying where the money might be going (which means there’s more time to study and sleep and enjoy life!). I feel very much like an independent adult… but I still love going home to a home-cooked meal and a hug from my parents.

Read more by Morgan

Sequels

I like sequels, especially when they are made from a film I really enjoy. Though to really enjoy a sequel you have to be a fairly dedicated fan. A not so casual fan of Saw would feel that they may have stretched the idea a little far. Sequels seem to work a fair bit of the time and I think it’s mainly because of the fan support. Reviews tend to ruin a movies reputation so that can always make a sequels return fall short of expectation. The review doesn’t always make a movie but then sometimes you wonder whether a series is just flogging a dead horse if it starts to flunk reviews. It’s a formula hard to get right so when should you stop before it all comes crashing down like a game of Jenga? 

If a sequel makes it to the movies then I feel that it has made well for itself. It avoided straight to DVD and probably has built itself a cult following. As an observation I think sequels have worked best through film adaptations of books and epic sagas. Harry Potter has done exceptionally well off its movies as each sequel was as strong as the last when it comes to story. Having a story laid out ahead makes sense for a sequel to be made on each book. Fast and the Furious wasn’t based on a book series and has scored fairly average reviews except for the fifth instalment which has done best according to IMDB. Whatever Fast and the Furious is doing its scraping along to show it has some ability to keep money rolling in. Sequels and their success fall down to the fans and Fast and the Furious must have a few.

There’s quite a swag of movies based on books by Stephen King. I liked the book Pet Sematary so I bought the DVD for the sake of it and it also came with Pet Sematary 2. The first movie was low budget and not the greatest, but as a fan of the book it was still ok. Pet Sematary 2 was never written as a book and therefore I haven’t bothered to watch it. There was no point to bringing it out, the first book had finished the story to its fullest capacity so another movie was just overkill. Sequels can be made for the sake of the first one working sort of ok and prequels are in the same boat. To end, sequels are like cake. Cake is good but if not baked properly can come off tasting burnt and overly done or just forgetting the flour which is a basic key ingredient. Then sometimes nobody feels like anymore cake.

Read more by Nick

Harry Potter is not over

I am going to state the obvious. The final Harry Potter movie was released last week. I’ve already seen it twice and I’m sure that majority of you have seen it, or if not, definitely know about it. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is my favourite book in the Potter series and one of my favourite books of all time too. The movie generally lived up to my expectations, but I’m not here to talk about Part 2 in detail. I think it was a good way to end the movies and similarly the release of Deathly Hallows in 2007 was a good way to end the books. But there’s something that is providing me with incredible annoyance surrounding the ‘end’ of the Harry Potter saga. What’s frustrating me is this talk I am hearing in conversations, on Facebook and all over the blogosphere – talk that Harry Potter is over.

I define something being ‘over’ when it no longer exists. Yes the filming of the movies has ceased, as has the writing of the books and we can no longer look forward to a new release in cinemas or bookstores. Nevertheless, this fact does not mean I am going to throw out my Harry Potter books and refuse to watch the movies. Video shops will not discard the DVD’s, libraries sure as hell won’t burn the books and fans are not going to give their costumes to Salvo’s. Harry Potter is not over. Yes the movies have all been released, but so have the books.  It has been four years tomorrow since Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was released. I don’t know how many times I’ve read it since. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was released when I was three years old and I didn’t even read it until I was nine.  The end of the books was not the end of Harry and the same goes for the movies.

Something isn’t over until we allow it to be. Literature written in the 1800’s still lives on today in a modern 21^st century because people still read and love the books. Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice was released in 1813 and the latest film adaption was released in 2005. That’s a story spanning for 192 years. That’s got to mean something. Personally I’m not a fan of either the book or film but the fact is that the story still lives on today because someone wants it to. The same can go for our beloved Harry. It’s been going for 14 years already, I’m sure we can make it another 178. And Harry Potter is far better than Pride and Prejudice in my opinion. 

It’s even too early to say that it’s the end of the Harry Potter era. We can’t say that until the Harry Potter series has actually dwindled in popularity, which it sure as hell hasn’t and won’t anytime soon.  One day that will happen and perhaps one day kids will read Harry Potter and feel how I feel when I read classic literature. Bored. But I think that’s a long way off. Books are timeless, as are the underlying themes of Harry Potter. The importance of love, loyalty and bravery, even in the face of confusion, hurt and danger are things we will need to be reminded of forever. 

Even when Harry Potter and his adventures at Hogwarts are something of the past, something to be reminisced, it won’t be over. The story of Harry Potter will not die. I know that I will treasure my seven books forever. I will continue reading them into my adulthood and then read them to my kids. For me, Harry Potter will last forever. I’m not going to stop loving the story just because the final film has been released.  J.K Rowling couldn’t have said it more perfectly at the premiere of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. “No story lives unless someone wants to listen. The stories we love do live in us forever. Whether you come back by page or by the big screen, Hogwarts will always be there to welcome you home.”

Read more by Lauren

'It's not about the Blazer'

Moving to from primary high school is one of the biggest experiences of your life and six years ago, I made that journey.  
Like most new ventures in life there’s some aspects of high school that you don’t at first understand, such as how lockers actually work or why all the other grades don’t like Grade 7’s very much. And finally, what’s with Prefects?

Before Grade 7 I’d never really heard of the term Prefects until I went to school a few days before my first term would start. There was a group of 20 Grade 10 students sorting through all the books getting them ready for us Grade 7’s. These Grade 10’s as my mum informed me where Prefects and they were the appointed junior leaders of the school. I just thought they were suckers, fancy spending the last days of your holidays sorting through books!

As I progressed through high school I obviously started to learn more about who Prefects were and what they did. Towards the end of each year the hand made scrapbook like ‘Vote for Me’ posters would start to turn up around the school and assemblies would be held in which the candidates would pledge their case of why we should vote for them. The staff and students would all cast their vote on who should have a place on the Prefect Board for the next year, a decision that was announced at that years celebration service.

Now to be honest in my early years of high school I was bit confused as to what Prefects actually did. Sure they all said some very positive ideas in their speeches, and their responsibilities were outlined at the celebration assembly. But out on the playground, I didn’t really see much happening. A lot of what Prefects are asked to do is behind the scenes, but still I wasn’t seeing the fruit of the position. You see the problem is, when the elections for Prefect were held each year, only about three people who deserved to get in did. The rest might just have well entered themselves into a popularity contest, cause that’s the only reason they were. You know the people I’m talking about. They’re the “cool” kids with their collars up. So I found this quite annoying, cause the right people were hardly ever picked.

And sure the eight sports prefects didn’t have to be that bright, they just had to be sporty. But the others, I expected something from them. You see every year all the Prefect candidates would get up and say something like ‘It’s not about the blazer, I just want to help people, and make change.’ But guess what, it was about the blazer! Cause from then on, what really changed in the school? What changed in my life?

You see being a leader isn’t about being above other people, it’s about being below them. It’s about lifting people up and helping them reach their potential. It’s not about getting a fancy jacket and slacking off for the rest of the year, it’s about serving. Which means to put other people or the school before yourself. To seek change in them and not necessarily you. And some of the Prefects got this, they spent their time woking hard to create a better experience and they spent time talking to the nervous Grade 7’s. But unfortunately the majority didn’t.

So when it came to my time, when I was in Grade 10. I choose not to run for prefect and instead I went for the position of a Peer Support Leader. Peer Support Leaders were an initiative set up to help ease the new Grade 7’s into high school life. They would head off to Grade 7 camp with them and also hang out in class from time to time. And I really wanted to be a peer support leader. Not because of the badge or being able to nick off from school but because I wanted to make a difference, I wanted to help and I wanted to show the Grade 7’s how cool high school could be. It was a position in which I knew I could really try make a change in peoples lives. I’m not saying this to try and say that Peer Support Leaders are better than Prefects, cause trust me, there where a tonne of people that shouldn’t have been Peer Support Leaders that were. I’m saying this because leadership doesn’t rely on a specific position and it definitely doesn’t rely on a piece of old fashioned clothing.

You see being a Prefect doesn’t make you a greater leader, it’s what you do as Prefect that does.

And you don’t have to be a Prefect to make a difference and you don’t even have to be a Peer Support Leader. John C. Maxwell, a man who is considered to be one of the greatest authorities on leadership in the world says this, “Leadership is influence”. Whether you’re in a leadership position or just in the school yard, you have influence whether you like it or not.

The choice is, how are you going to use it?

So if you’re applying for a leadership position, maybe on the Prefect board or for Peer Support or even Government. Have a really good think about why it is you’re going for it. Do you really want to make a difference, or is it just about the blazer? 

Read more by Dylan

Why care about Politics?

When it was first suggested that I write a blog post arguing why the youth should care about politics, I have to admit I wondered. Why should they care about politics? I know when I was in high school that I didn't. When I came of voting age, it was exciting to vote exactly once before the thrill of this new responsibility wore off. When I got to university last year I flirted with a brief affection for the ideals of Karl Marx  (as many Arts students traditionally do), and to this day, my Facebook political views read along the lines of 'left-wing!' I figure that once I'm no longer a starving university student, have a career in teaching (if all goes to plan), hit middle-age with a reasonable salary and start feeling threatened by change, I may swing to the conservative right. And as I thought about this, I belatedly realised that that is why teenagers should care about politics. Whether you believe it's a good thing or not (“send 'em down the coal mines!”), our political system is one that enables the youth to enjoy their youth, before having to delve into that terrifying, unknown 'real world' of bureaucracy, bills, potentially shackled creativity, endless forms to sign and an abundance of soul-crushing white-collar jobs.

Winston Churchill once said that “democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others.” I think he was right. We complain about government as a matter of habit, but the beauty of democracy is that it enables us to do so! The reality is that a stable political system – an attribute that contemporary democracy possesses in spades – allows the youth to have some say in their lives and choice of ideology. We no longer live with the exploitative factory labour model of the industrial revolution that infuriated Marx. Children – in the first world at least – are no longer forced to slave in dangerous factories, sweatshops and mines. Instead, they go to school, learn about the world, have creativity and imagination fostered, and are taught, crucially, that they possess the power to change the world. And I fully believe they do. Though we have a tendency to glorify the past, the reality is that few of us would truly want to live during the religious warfare of the Crusades, the horror of the black death, the myriad of revolutions and wars that were near constant in eighteenth-century Europe, or the unparalleled wars and, later, the nearly world-ending paranoia of the twentieth century. All of those horrendous events have been stepping-stones to the present day – and the men and women who drove the West to the state of peace that it currently enjoys were all once youth, people who saw the folly of their forefathers and sought to change it for the better.

Youth should be a time of creativity, of imagination, of learning, of adventure, of relative physical freedom and unparalleled mental freedom. In Australia, we live with a political system that allows that. Elsewhere on the globe, youth are not so lucky. Perhaps the most horrific alternative can be seen in Sierra Leone. From 1991 to 2002, the rebel armies of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) forcibly, and regularly, recruited boys between the ages of 7 and 12 to serve as soldiers, while girls of the same age were forced into prostitution. The boys were often forced to murder their own parents as initiation into the RUF. Though the RUF has since been officially disbanded, their legacy endures; tens of thousands of youth who were either the perpetrators or victims of atrocities can never, ever reclaim their innocence. Those are youth who are the victims of, in grossly understated terms, an unstable political system. Of course, it has to be remembered that there are plenty of disadvantaged, abused and neglected children in our own society – but here, at least, there are organisations that stand by to help. The victims of civil wars and human atrocities in the third world have no government-backed help standing by. They have no support networks to speak of.

So then. Perhaps asking why the youth should care about politics is the wrong question. Perhaps we should be happy to conclude that the youth of today live in a world where they don't need to worry about politics - at least while they are still youth. When our society deems the time has come for the youth to pick up the weight of worldly responsibilities they are no longer truly youth, but young adults, and are equipped with the imagination and drive to see things that need improvement in society and can go about fixing them. Unlike the youth of Sierra Leone and countless other third-world countries, they are not political victims with no choice but to attempt to pick up the broken pieces of the world into which they were born.

Maybe you believe that the youth should care about more politics more than they do. A case certainly exists for that, and a healthy interest in politics is never a bad thing. But at the end of the day, I think if the youth have to worry about politics... that is when there is a problem.

Read more by Solomon

A Fathers Love

Young teenage girls spend their adolescent years watching chick flicks filled with stories about ordinary girls finding the boy of their dreams making their life 'complete'. Every girl secretly longs for the cute guy to come along to perfect their life, but I think this is a false identity placed into girls hearts. 

There's something about the term 'boyfriend' that draws girls towards it, maybe it's the fact that they have a guy to spend time with, hug and tell everything to. Too many girls 'fall in love' with guys they've just met and get caught up in the feeling of belonging to a guy and they end up getting hurt by the young boy who wasn't prepared to take it so seriously. But to me belonging doesn't need to come from your new boyfriend, it should come from family, the ones who are going to support you and love you through everything. This is where I think some girls are missing the male fatherly figure to look up to so they instead turn to close relationships with guys to make them feel wanted. 

It breaks my heart to see girls getting hurt over and over again when they have given everything to the boy that they thought was the one. Each time they pour themselves into these guys it leaves a little part of them behind and eventually when they meet the guy made for them they'll have nothing left to give.

The natural feeling of being intimate with someone often takes over the real morals of a good relationship and can make a girl feel on top of the world. The butterflies in your tummy you get when you hug a guy for the first time or the way your heart beats can be mistaken for love by young girls and it's very easy to get caught up in the good feeling. It's easy for a guy to hug a girl but not so easy to be a good boyfriend. That feeling of intimacy is hard to break, although hugging, holding hands and kissing can be pretty nice, real conversation and a good friendship with a guy is better. Although it may not feel like that, in the long term you'll have a better relationship and be able to talk about anything with each other. 

I'm not saying high school relationships are bad and that every girl is like this because that's not true. I'm saying that young relationships can feel really intense and you just have to be careful cause a lot of the time they don't work out and you don't want to be left feeling like your nothing because you gave it all away to a guy who wasn’t who you though he was. 

A father daughter relationship is so vital in a girl’s life as she is growing up, fathers were made for loving and protecting their little girls. My dad has showed me so much love in my life, he has shown me that I don't need a boyfriend to feel loved and special and cherished. He loves me and he tells me every day, he looks after me and makes sure I'm safe and I know that he'll never break my heart. 

My only hope is that every little girl will be given a father figure, although it may not be their real dad. I just hope that they will be shown they are so special and loved and that they don't need a boyfriend to know that.

Fence Sitter

Yes or No? It's one of the simplest questions that we can be asked and yet often it is the one we struggle most with. What is it about being absolute in our choices and opinion, giving a definitive one or the other response, that freaks us out? Can anything really be nailed down to such a simple answer or are there things that are just too complex to be right or wrong, true or false, agreed with or disagreed with?

Some of you may have tuned into 'Can of Worms' on TDT the other night and say what you will about the show, I personally like it. I like the fact that it forces sometimes uncomfortable conversation, asks hard hitting questions and enforces a no fence sitting policy. While some might think that enforcing either yes or no answers leads to division, I think in a lot of ways it encourages stronger character and mutual respect. If someone knows what they believe and can discuss their reasoning without coming off too arrogantly, then people can learn from one another better. 

I think in a lot of ways society has moved away from having an opinion. This may be because of political correctness, being afraid that someone will take offence, or that their opinion will be wrong, leading people to hide their view or even lie about it to avoid trouble. It is this attitude that has lead many Australians to take aim at current politicians, from all parties for trying to impress everyone instead of actually standing to their beliefs and leading. It's what leads people to click the 'Maybe' attending button on invitations just in case something better comes up. Our inability to make definitive decisions and have absolute opinions is dulling down our culture  and when I say absolute opinion  I don't mean that you become stubborn and unwilling to listen and perhaps change. Instead I mean that you need to know what you believe on an issue so that you can actively contribute to discussions and opportunities to share.

Having said all this I have to back track a little. While I think society would benefit from more people avoiding the fence sitter attitude, you have to think, surely there are some issues that are just too complex to have a yes or no answer to. Is it ok for a rape victim to get an abortion if they fall pregnant? Is it even ok to get an abortion at all? What if the child is going to be born with a deformity? Do you have opinions on these issues, or are they too complex and rely on too many variables to give an ultimate over arching yes or no answer to. Opinions are opinions, not facts and if people could learn to accept each others opinions more openly without taking offence and use that opportunity to respectively share their own opinions. I believe that people would be able to engage in thought-provoking conversation and form a mutual respect for one another. It's not about trying to convert someone over to your own beliefs. Instead, it's about deciding if there is something to learn from the other person, and if all parties enter a discussion with that attitude no one gets offended, thus allowing everyone to work on shaping their absolute opinion.

So in the next week or so try and actively make yourself pick a side. Avoid saying, 'I don't know', 'I'm not sure', 'whatever' and 'meh' and see what conversations you find yourself in. And who knows, you may even learn something or you might even teach someone something. Just remember respect is key.

So do you agree with this post? Let me know in the comments below, yes or no? And if you really like you can explain your reasoning.

Read more by Brayden

Bottled Water

I am going to present a situation to you. If this has happened to you, please leave your story in the comment section after you've read this post. Don't try to tell me through the screen, however, because I can't hear you and you very well may scare those around you if you start conversing with a monitor. Imagine you are going about your day, not doing a whole lot out of the ordinary. Maybe you’re chatting it up with a couple friends, or possibly checking out facebook and blog posts while pretending to do homework, what ever floats your boat really. At any rate, there may come a time in the day where you recognise a familiar sensation. Your tongue becomes dry, your saliva becomes sticky, and you get that bad taste in your mouth. You must be thirsty.

So what do you do? I’ll tell you what you do, your basic survival reflex brings you to find the nearest reasonable source of water. If you were to think about that nearest reasonable source right now you would probably be thinking of a store where you would buy water in a bottle, or ‘bottled water’ if you will. This does not seem out of the ordinary to you at all because you have been raised in a world where people buy bottled water, a world that markets a necessity for life.

You have been “informed” the powers-that-be (in America we would say “The Man”) that water in a bottle is the cleanest and healthiest water you can obtain. I happen to know, after a decent amount of research, that this is absolute folly.

Let me take you back in time, before you born, before I was born, probably around the time your parents were adolescents. Back in those days, when someone thirsted for a beverage while enjoying a day of playing outside in the sun (they had to make do with what was outside because they had no video games to melt their brains), they too would search for the nearest source of water. They would not go to the nearest store to claim such a life essential however, oh goodness no, they would go INSIDE THEIR OWN HOME.

“Ridiculous” you might say. Well, you see back then every home contained a magical tool called a ‘faucet’ that would produce FREE WATER. That’s right, your parents had the ability to turn a nozzle and extinguish thirst for free. And that’s not all! When they would go outside, the magical water fairies that powered the faucet (or tap for those of you who are unfamiliar with the slang) followed them to another magical item of the era: The Hose. Hoses were everywhere back in the day. If you were thirsty and could not be bothered going inside all you had to do was crank up the hose and quench your thirst. You could even use your neighbour’s hose, nobody cared! There was none of this forking over hard earned cash for 600mL of two different atoms.

Now sit back kids because I’m about to drop a knowledge bomb. The tap is still in existence, the water is still the same, and the only thing that has changed in the water industry since your parents were kids are the fact that it started existing. As a matter of fact, the majority of the bottled water today is filtered tap water, and not even that thoroughly filtered. It has even been found in several cases that tap water is healthier for you. The reason bottled water exists is because the big soda companies wanted something to market when people started to figure out that the carbonated beverages the big wigs were selling them were extremely unhealthy.

I have a proposal for you today, join the growing resistance against the unnecessary bottled water. Instead of paying up to $3 in a convenience store try using the tap for once. Yes, the magical faucet STILL EXISTS. Shockingly enough, bottled water companies have gone out of their way to convince the people that the tap is less sanitary than the bottle; all it takes is an easy Google search to learn that this is more often than not, untrue (most bottled water brands are simply bottled tap water). So try reusing those bottles that you paid for. Tear off the label and write “Tap” on the side of the bottle to let others know of your defiance to “The Man.”

Viva la Agua

Read more by Jacob

2012

This post was sent in by one of our readers named Morgan. If you have a post that needs to be shared, send it in at info@hellonoise.com

I am told that the world is coming to an end. With the end of the year 2012, they say, comes the conclusion of life on Earth as we know it. Anyone looking at the world from the outside at the moment would probably agree: natural disasters run rampant across the globe; conflict and famine are apparent throughout North Africa and the Middle East; enormous debt is predicted to cripple the economies of Europe and North America; Chinese and North Korean military activities become more and more suspicious: all the while, the temperature rises and the human population grows exponentially. While some have resigned themselves to the fact that the end is nigh, there have also been many proposed solutions to the ultimate disaster: stop using fossil fuels and revert to living without modern technology, become vegetarian, confess your sins to an omniscient deity and find religious salvation; the list continues. With historical evidence, scientific speculation, media coverage and individual opinion, there are countless sides to this story. I would like to try and explain mine.

As appealing and exciting as the notion might be for some, I do not believe that the world will end on December 21^st, 2012. Why? There are plenty of reasons and I’ll start with the most simple. I don’t believe that human beings can predict the future. Especially not 5,125 years or so into the future, which is how long ago the Mesoamerican or Mayan calendar’s cycles began. Secondly, scholars maintain that the proposed date of the apocalypse was not particularly important to the Maya: surely, the end of the world would be important enough to note, unless the ancient Maya had terribly unusual priorities or something. Thirdly, as a believer in the science of climate change, I can’t pass off rising temperatures and a monstrous increase in natural disasters as a ‘sign of the times’ and nothing else. Our poor, old, old Earth has taken a fair beating with the takeover of mankind and I don’t really blame it for making a fuss!  As for war and military conspiracy, I am no expert. I believe that war and violence are awful, but I also understand that war has been around since mammoths and cave paintings and that not everything can be solved with a cup of tea (as nice as that would be). 

Whether it is ending or it isn’t, the world is the way it is today because of an almost infinite amount of factors. Although much of it is beyond the direct control of someone like me, I endeavour to do what I can to keep the peace and ‘save the planet’ in a small way. I recycle, shop at second-hand stores and wash my clothes in cold water, while trying my best to treat the people around me with the respect I’d like to be treated with myself … because, really, we only have one world in which to live.

In Their Shoes - Biz's Story

They say you don't truly know someone until you've walked a mile in their shoes but it isn't always possible to go through what someone else has experienced. 'In their shoes' is a new series of blog posts which shares those experiences. It's about looking at the lives of young people our own age and understanding where they've come from and what they've experienced.

This is the story of Bizunesh, a 19 year old girl who was born into poverty in Ethiopia and the journey she took coming to Australia.

“I was born in a small communal village in Ethiopia. Our house was built from mud bricks with timber at each corner to endure the tropical rainfall during the wet season. I had a hard working father and a very skilled mother who made sure we grew up with good manners and values in life. I’m the second child in a family of six, three girls and one boy. During my early childhood I was happy and content with life. Until the age of six I spent most of my time helping my mother around the house. Like most children in the village, our only entertainment was through creating our own games as well as spending our spare time swimming in the muddy river.

Just before my 7th birthday, my beloved parents fell victim to malaria and died. It was the worst time of my life. I felt like I had no purpose in life without them, and all I wanted was to be buried with them in that dark hole that swallowed them.

The first year was full of struggles, family members deciding what to do with us. Eventually, my siblings and I joined grandma in her lonely hut. Looking after four grandchildren, after raising eight of her own was too hard for her so some of us were sent to live with my uncle. We were separated for almost two years from each other. In the first year my brother was relinquished for adoption by our uncle and he eventually came to live in Australia.

We had not heard from my brother for over two years. We thought we would never see him again but in 2001, we received a letter and some photos from him. Life was difficult with my uncle. He had a wife who was not happy with the addition of more children as they already had their own. Finally after many letters and telephoning, my brother came to visit us in 2002. It was the best thing that had happened to me.

During their visit, my brother’s adoptive parents asked us if we wanted to go to Australia and live with our brother. Our response was of course yes. Although we had no idea where Australia was, we were desperate for a better life, a life where we can be taken care of. The adoption process was draining and painful, but eventually we were reunited with our brother about seven years ago. Coming to Australia made me realise how hard life was back in Ethiopia. My attitude towards life has changed over the years. As a child, I had nothing but I didn’t complain as long as I had my parents. Life was such a struggle from day to day, but I was grateful for every simple thing I had, such as food, clothing and just being able to attend school. However, as I grew up, my desires have increased. After losing both of my parents, I struggled to focus on life. I felt as though that was the end of my life. However, being given a second chance by my adoptive parents has made me believe in myself again. I have learnt to go on with life without focusing too much on my past as it drags me down.

I believe people can misuse their wealth and opportunity. When I came to Australia, I was shocked by how much people had and yet they still complained about not having the latest things, the latest televisions, computers, computer games, phones, iPods and iPhones. This proves to me that the human desire is unlimited, the more we have, the more we want and the less happy our lives become. We are living in a society where people become obsessed with material things. Although I do get trapped into the desire of having modern materials from time to time, thinking about my past life helps me to focus on my education to the exclusion of material objects and achieve the best I can in my future.”

Liar Liar

Dolores Umbridge is perhaps one of the most irritating and annoying characters that has been brought to my attention. Although there is one little gem that can be gained from her fictional existence. We must not tell lies. But if we, unlike Harry Potter, do not have that message inscribed into the back of our hand; can we keep our lies in check?

I thought it would be interesting to count my lies as an experiment of sorts. I don’t consider myself a chronic liar but I indulge in the odd white lie here and there. Numerous times I tried to count how many times I lied in a day and failed miserably. I thought it would be easy thing to do, but a day would pass and I wouldn’t have counted any. The reason it was so difficult was that trying to count my lies made me more aware of lying and therefore stopped me from doing it. Good technique, that.

There are many different forms of lying. There’s good old exaggeration, which is not considered to really be lying. Exaggeration is an excellent form of making yourself or a situation sound a wee bit better or more dramatic. When used effectively it can do wonders, but when overused, no one will take your stories seriously. Many lie to get out of something. Whether that be a previous commitment, an assignment, a work shift – whatever. This is most commonly seen in a schooling situation when students coherently fib their way out of deadlines.

There’s protective lying – when someone asks us a question and we know that the answer would hurt them too much, so we alter the ‘truth’. The opposite of this is deceitful lying, when one intentionally makes up balderdash to cause someone grief. Then finally is the aforementioned white lie which is defined as a ‘lie with good intentions’. Similar to the protective lie, yet on a smaller scale, the white lie is used when perhaps you just don’t want someone to know the 100% true story. It is a lie which usually goes without consequence.

Far too much lying exists in this world. I’m not going to defend lying, but sometimes there’s not much else you can do. It can become quite the tricky situation when a friend has told you a secret. When another person questions you on the first friend’s secret, you have to lie in order to keep your friend’s trust. You don’t have to lie, but we all know that if someone says, “I can’t tell you that,” it just makes us want to know it more. Also, when one wishes to keep something personal private what else is there to do but lie?

I’m not justifying lying, I just think that sometimes it’s hard to distinguish between lies and secrets. I do think the world would be a better place if everyone just bloody told the truth but I also think everyone has a right to their own secrets. There is also the opposite end of the spectrum of too much honesty. I am guiltier of this rather than lying as I regularly forget to think about my words. But lying is a part of being human, so at times it’s going to be inevitable.

Lying is all around us. Do you lie? Which mould do you fit in? I sometimes wonder, while a simple white lie or exaggeration is seen as okay, every time we don’t tell the truth, does that make us a liar?


Read more by Lauren

Coffee vs. Tea

To get yourself prepared for this post, imagine that you’re on a ‘coffee date’, ‘coffee break’, at a ‘tea party’, or just simply having ‘afternoon tea’. Very good. Now I’m sure that many of you have been asked the question “Would you like a hot drink? Coffee? Tea?” before in your lives – but when you respond to it, what do you base your answer on? There are a number of factors to consider: flavour, time of day, health and diet, even your mood. 

I guess the first aspect many people consider would naturally be the flavour. You have the usual types of tea: white, black, oolong, and green. With coffee the variety is a little less, there’s instant coffee and then the more natural ‘coffee shop’ brewed type, which personally I favour. Coffee's stronger, richer flavour compared to teas lighter one is what does it for me. 

Like a lot of people, I prefer to wake up with a nice hot cup of Joe in the morning alongside my breakfast. And yes, coffee does help you wake up, with up to two times the amount of caffeine in it compared to some types of tea! There is 125–185 mg of caffeine per cup for coffee and 55 mg of caffeine per cup for tea. 

Around 2.3 billion cups of coffee are consumed every day – however, tea takes the prize for being the most consumed beverage in the world, beating coffee, chocolate, soft drinks and alcohol combined. Maybe this is also due to Tea’s health benefits: the lowering of cholesterol and blood pressure and it’s help in building the immune system. Nevertheless, coffee does improve your focus and energy levels. Another point goes coffee's way with it being, surprisingly, the second most (legally) traded commodity in the world! Shocking, isn’t it? Oil is the most traded commodity. Humans have a strange fascination with black liquids, don’t they? 

However, not all coffee and tea is consumed hot. In the United States, 80% of tea is consumed as iced tea. If you live in Australia then you would know that “It’s a Farmer’s Union Iced Coffee or it’s nothing”, and if you don’t drink it then you’re not a ‘real man’. 

In the end, tea has more varieties and better health benefits and is more of a social beverage, but to be the second most traded commodity in the world, coffee must be doing something right. For me personally, the choice is heavily swayed by my mood. I believe that it all comes down to your own personal preference and choice between the two – but with those high levels of caffeine, how can you not choose coffee!?

The Meaning of ‘x’

Many of us use x’s through Facebook, texting and other online chats but do any of us really know what they mean? 

Well, in the beginning someone somewhere decided that an x looked like a kiss and thought it’d be great to send xxx on the end of a letter to show their love. So it started out as a symbol of love and over the decades the x’s meaning has twisted. Still based around the same idea, but just not the same. X’s used to mean real kisses, like the kind your Grandma would send in your birthday card. But nowadays if your best friend chucked a few x’s on the end of a text the idea of real kisses doesn’t really come to mind. So, if they don’t represent real kisses anymore what are they?

From my point of view and understanding x’s and the amount you send someone is like a rating system: “How good is your friendship?” For example; between me and my friends whenever one of us starts texting a guy they’re interested in, the first question is, “How many x’s are you up to?” You can then kind of guess how much they like each other by how many x’s. It sounds pretty stupid now that I’m saying it but it’s become such an automatic assumption.

Unofficial stages of the ‘X’:
1. It usually starts out with a smiley face.
2. An x will be thrown in just to ‘test the waters’ and if you get an x back that’s a good sign. If not it’s kind of like the equivalent of rejection.
3. Every now and then someone will add an extra x and it will just keep going up and up and up. To give you an idea, my best friend is up to 35 xs and 4 hearts with her boyfriend. As you can see you can get very carried away.

Below are the contents of a Facebook group which outline the creators view on x’s.

The meaning of x's
x= friends
xx= close friends
xxx= i like you
xxxx= your cute
xxxxx= your hot
xxxxxx= i want you
xxxxxxx+ = i love you
no kisses = i hate you and i don’t like your existence.

It works pretty much the same with your friends as well, except mostly not with guys to guys cause as my brother says “that’d be gay”. I guess it’s just because girls are more open about their love for their friends. Not to say that guys aren’t, but the majority of them wouldn’t be comfortable sending x’s.

The use of x’s is pretty materialistic and from my point of view sometimes a cop out for showing your true feelings. Boxes of chocolates and bouquets of roses have now been replaced with an ‘I love you’ text and a page of x’s. If you truly love someone the amount of x’s shouldn’t need to represent your feelings. Use these magical things called words, they can tell you much more than an x can. Go against the norm and bring back the romance of a candle-lit dinner or a love letter in the mail. Share the love with something to remember.


Read more by Georgina