Showing posts with label Australia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Australia. Show all posts
Sunday, 28 June 2015
Yo, Australia, Keep Up!
I've talked before about stereotypes and how they inform our views of people and places and right now the stereotype that Australia is a laid back and friendly place is being kicked repetitively in the country-balls by our current government.
Canada has had marriage equality since 2005.
New Zealand recognised marriage equality in 2013.
Extra Catholic Ireland got their shit together in May of this year.
Now the United States, one of the most conservative western countries has ruled marriage equality is constitutional.
And Australia is sitting here with its thumb up its bum, 70% of the population all for it but our PM keeps muttering about tradition and how it's not what Australia wants and I can't get my head around it.
If you're worried about not getting voted in next election you shouldn't be worrying about how recognising marriage equality might see you booted out of power, you should worry about all the other things you've incompetently bungled have left the country wondering how the hell you got voted in in the first place.
So what the world has been learning about us in the last handful of years is that Australia is super laid back and friendly as long as you're white* and Christian**.
This isn't properly representative of us as a country but for some reason the rabid conservative minority has people in power convinced that they hold the sway or power.
I knew we wouldn't be super quick off the mark when it came to marriage equality because we handle change increeeeeeeedibly slowly*** but if you had told me that Ireland and the USA would get there first I would have taken your temperature.
Every time something went wrong in other countries there would be a tide of comments sweeping across social media that said 'That's it, I'm moving to Australia!'
These days a good portion of Australians have started eyeing off other countries in return.
For instance if Tony Abbott gets re-elected my Google search history is going to start filling up with queries like 'Is it possible to exorcise an entire continent?', 'How much land do you need to secede from your suck-ass country?' and 'What are the most common indicators of demonic interference in the election process?'.
Stop crapping up the environment, our economy and social progress and get yourself worked out, Australia.
We're looking like jerks in front of the other countries!
*Thanks, extra racist immigration policies that hark back to the White Australia Policy, yes this was a thing.
**Even though tonnes of Aussies aren't and even those who are don't attend a shit load of church these days.
***You notice how we're not a republic yet? Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeah. We even held a referendum on it and it went nowhere.
Sunday, 15 June 2014
Sedentary Society?
I was reading an article which says that Australians are becoming less and less likely to move interstate for school or work or anything really.
It was one of those things that was both surprising and unsurprising.
My family is one of the ones that has moved for work before.
I was born in Melbourne, my family relocated to Canberra before I was 1, stayed there until I was about 8 (long enough for my brother and sister to be be born in the same place), and then moved to Coffs Harbour. We stayed there long enough for me to finish primary school, then moved back to Victoria in time for me to start high school.
And there we stayed.
I got to complete high school in one place, my sister got to attend both primary school and high school in one place, while my brother finished primary school and then went through high school without another shift.
Each of the moves had been prompted by my father's job, when new positions or promotions became available.
There was a point when I was in high school where we might have moved to Tasmania but Dad either didn't apply for the position or didn't get it.
At the time I was glad because I was a stubborn teenager who wanted to stay with my friends.
Now I'm kinda wondering what life would have been like if we'd made that move as well.
The thing is my father had a job in the public service.Even before the advent of the internet they had a pretty good listing of jobs that was available internally so you knew what was available.
I assume you either interviewed locally and a report was passed on or you were interviewed by phone back when that was the only sensible option*.
And THAT is the point my brain got all hooked up on initially when I read the article.
'How the shit are you supposed to get a job in another state?' I thought.
'Are you going to bung along your resumes, then go on some kind of interview roadtrip?'
'What kind of employers are going to be comfortable hiring someone who isn't local?'
'What if you get there and you don't like the town?'
These are all thoughts that, as a person who has friends who interview for jobs in other countries and then bugger off overseas when they get them, I was a bit surprised to find myself having.
If they could do it back when all job postings were by newspaper and employment agency then obviously they can do it now, we just don't.
Maybe because there is a part of our brains that is still rattling along, unobserved by the conscious mind, still thinking this shit.
'How the shit are you supposed to get a job in another state?'
Search for jobs in your field online and apply for them, durr.
'Are you going to bung along your resumes, then go on some kind of interview roadtrip?'
Well what with these magical advances in technology, any employer willing to hire someone from out of state would be willing to interview you by ye olde phone or videoconference over Skype or Viber or another similar program.
'What kind of employers are going to be comfortable hiring someone who isn't local?'
Well some employers would be fine with it, others wouldn't.
A lot of government organisations, chain businesses, or big companies that have offices in more than one city would think of it as business as usual. If you have the qualifications and are willing to relocate, then you're a good candidate.
Some towns or cities that need more people from various trades, or more medical professionals and the like, hold information events to attract anyone qualified to do the work and willing to up stumps.
There are some employers who wouldn't consider it but they would for the most part be smaller businesses or in industries that have a certain kind of turn over.
You wouldn't expect to apply for a cafe job on the other side of the country and have the owner excited to Skype you for a casual position.
'What if you get there and you don't like the town?'
I am very aware this is a question you ask yourself when you've never been in proper economic difficulty.
You've never had your back to the wall and been looking down the barrel of 'do I pay the rent or do I buy groceries?'
If there is work available locally and you're just a bit bored and looking for a change you may not be that thrilled about the idea of moving to a town/city/state you've never visited before and decide against the idea.
If the shit is heading for the fan and you've got a chance at this distant job I expect you take it and worry about whether your prospective new home has a bowling alley or a place of worship of your choice later.
There are people who move purely because they want to experience life in different places, to get more experience.
There are also people who move wherever they need to in order to support themselves and their families.
If you've got the luxury to be in the first category then good for you.
If you're in the second category you probably find this whole discussion a bit frivolous.
If you're partway between the two... good for you, you're probably very level-headed and making the best out of your opportunities.
This topic has been in the public eye recently with Prime Minister Abbott answering questions on the lack of work available for young Tasmanians and what this will mean with harsher welfare benefit criteria by saying “If people have to move for work, that’s not the worst outcome in the world … for hundreds and hundreds of years people have been moving in order to better their life,”.
At the time this comment was met with outrage which I joined in with in a vague sort of way, waving my fist at the car radio and muttering imprecations, but now I can see that most of that anger came from a possibly subconscious reaction of 'what if they don't want to?' or 'why should they have to?' the answers to which in previous generations would have been, respectively, 'tough titties' and 'because they want to eat'.
It's amazing that in a time of faster travel and easier communication in many ways we are becoming more rooted to our physical locations.
It's hard to believe it could be a fear of the unknown, seeing as so much more information is available to us these days, but are we coming less adventurous as a result?
Have we decided that being able to see things virtually rules out the old saying 'if you never ever go, you'll never ever know'?
Or maybe, like me, everyone is thinking of moving about as something they'll do 'later' but because we never apply any proper thought to it, later doesn't come and all of a sudden we'll be in that age bracket who are less inclined to move at all.
Whatever the reason it'll be interesting to see how trends develop in the future.
It was one of those things that was both surprising and unsurprising.
My family is one of the ones that has moved for work before.
I was born in Melbourne, my family relocated to Canberra before I was 1, stayed there until I was about 8 (long enough for my brother and sister to be be born in the same place), and then moved to Coffs Harbour. We stayed there long enough for me to finish primary school, then moved back to Victoria in time for me to start high school.
And there we stayed.
I got to complete high school in one place, my sister got to attend both primary school and high school in one place, while my brother finished primary school and then went through high school without another shift.
Each of the moves had been prompted by my father's job, when new positions or promotions became available.
There was a point when I was in high school where we might have moved to Tasmania but Dad either didn't apply for the position or didn't get it.
At the time I was glad because I was a stubborn teenager who wanted to stay with my friends.
Now I'm kinda wondering what life would have been like if we'd made that move as well.
The thing is my father had a job in the public service.Even before the advent of the internet they had a pretty good listing of jobs that was available internally so you knew what was available.
I assume you either interviewed locally and a report was passed on or you were interviewed by phone back when that was the only sensible option*.
And THAT is the point my brain got all hooked up on initially when I read the article.
'How the shit are you supposed to get a job in another state?' I thought.
'Are you going to bung along your resumes, then go on some kind of interview roadtrip?'
'What kind of employers are going to be comfortable hiring someone who isn't local?'
'What if you get there and you don't like the town?'
These are all thoughts that, as a person who has friends who interview for jobs in other countries and then bugger off overseas when they get them, I was a bit surprised to find myself having.
If they could do it back when all job postings were by newspaper and employment agency then obviously they can do it now, we just don't.
Maybe because there is a part of our brains that is still rattling along, unobserved by the conscious mind, still thinking this shit.
'How the shit are you supposed to get a job in another state?'
Search for jobs in your field online and apply for them, durr.
'Are you going to bung along your resumes, then go on some kind of interview roadtrip?'
Well what with these magical advances in technology, any employer willing to hire someone from out of state would be willing to interview you by ye olde phone or videoconference over Skype or Viber or another similar program.
'What kind of employers are going to be comfortable hiring someone who isn't local?'
Well some employers would be fine with it, others wouldn't.
A lot of government organisations, chain businesses, or big companies that have offices in more than one city would think of it as business as usual. If you have the qualifications and are willing to relocate, then you're a good candidate.
Some towns or cities that need more people from various trades, or more medical professionals and the like, hold information events to attract anyone qualified to do the work and willing to up stumps.
There are some employers who wouldn't consider it but they would for the most part be smaller businesses or in industries that have a certain kind of turn over.
You wouldn't expect to apply for a cafe job on the other side of the country and have the owner excited to Skype you for a casual position.
'What if you get there and you don't like the town?'
I am very aware this is a question you ask yourself when you've never been in proper economic difficulty.
You've never had your back to the wall and been looking down the barrel of 'do I pay the rent or do I buy groceries?'
If there is work available locally and you're just a bit bored and looking for a change you may not be that thrilled about the idea of moving to a town/city/state you've never visited before and decide against the idea.
If the shit is heading for the fan and you've got a chance at this distant job I expect you take it and worry about whether your prospective new home has a bowling alley or a place of worship of your choice later.
There are people who move purely because they want to experience life in different places, to get more experience.
There are also people who move wherever they need to in order to support themselves and their families.
If you've got the luxury to be in the first category then good for you.
If you're in the second category you probably find this whole discussion a bit frivolous.
If you're partway between the two... good for you, you're probably very level-headed and making the best out of your opportunities.
This topic has been in the public eye recently with Prime Minister Abbott answering questions on the lack of work available for young Tasmanians and what this will mean with harsher welfare benefit criteria by saying “If people have to move for work, that’s not the worst outcome in the world … for hundreds and hundreds of years people have been moving in order to better their life,”.
At the time this comment was met with outrage which I joined in with in a vague sort of way, waving my fist at the car radio and muttering imprecations, but now I can see that most of that anger came from a possibly subconscious reaction of 'what if they don't want to?' or 'why should they have to?' the answers to which in previous generations would have been, respectively, 'tough titties' and 'because they want to eat'.
It's amazing that in a time of faster travel and easier communication in many ways we are becoming more rooted to our physical locations.
It's hard to believe it could be a fear of the unknown, seeing as so much more information is available to us these days, but are we coming less adventurous as a result?
Have we decided that being able to see things virtually rules out the old saying 'if you never ever go, you'll never ever know'?
Or maybe, like me, everyone is thinking of moving about as something they'll do 'later' but because we never apply any proper thought to it, later doesn't come and all of a sudden we'll be in that age bracket who are less inclined to move at all.
Whatever the reason it'll be interesting to see how trends develop in the future.
Sunday, 17 February 2013
Logistics And The Confusion Of Solitude
I think it's the default for Australians that when you say 'travel' they think 'overseas'.
You say "I'm thinking of going travelling again" no-one is going to think you mean anywhere on our own continent.
We don't talk about it like that.
It isn't that Australia isn't freaking huge and that going from one side to the other isn't a pretty impressive undertaking but the language we use tend to downplay it a bit.
It might partly be because when we travel our own country there are a LOT of bits that most people skip unless they're feeling particularly intrepid and enjoy off-roading.
You go for a 10 hour drive in Europe and you will cross several countries, each with their own languages, sights to see, cuisines and places to stay.
You go for a 10 hour drive in Australia and unless you're going around the coast odds are you better have some spare tanks of fuel, a good supply of water, a tent, and possibly an EPIRB.
There are whole chunks of the country that are either too much trouble, too dangerous, or too barren to be of much interest to anyone except scientists and prospectors*.
But wide stretches of sun-baked desert aside, when I think 'I haven't been travelling for a while' what I mean is 'I haven't been overseas for a while'.
I do want to see more of my own country but it has never been a pressing thing.
It'd be a lot easier to do regularly than getting the money together to fly around the globe but it just doesn't pop up as an automatic option.
Unless you're heading to the coast or the slopes, people tend to be a little bit surprised if you say you're heading somewhere on the mainland without a particular reason.
You live in Melbourne and you're heading over to Perth?
You got family over there?
You don't?
There some kind of event you're attending?
There isn't? You're just interested?
And it isn't school/summer holidays?
Oh... OK, fair enough...?
I'm probably overplaying it a bit but if I told my family I was going on a month's trip in Europe by myself, hiring a car and tooling about a bit they'd wish me good luck, tell me to be careful and to bring them back some souvenirs.
If I told them I was going to take my car and go on a roadtrip up the coast by myself they'd be a bit baffled.
Travelling to another continent by yourself = makes perfect sense.
Travelling around our own own country by yourself = a bit odd?
It's something people are supposed to save up until they retire, buy a caravan and become a grey nomad.
The thing that kicked off this train of thought is my wanting to follow through on my camping obsession a bit more regularly and realising that if I actually want to get it done I'll probably have to do it by myself.
My friends and family all have jobs, financial commitments or restrictions, and/or children and pets to wrangle.
Getting them to come camping would involve a lot of forewarning and planning, could by necessity only take place during particular times of the year if I wanted certain people to be able to come and could end up with me banging my head against a wall because argh complicated!
I could probably arrange a few short trips with different people but anything longer would involve a bit of fiddling about.
Same with if I wanted to go and see a bit of Tasmania or Queensland.
People either might not have the money or the freedom to get away.
So if I don't want to hang around and put it off that means I have to look at whether I want to do it by myself.
And the answer to that is... kind of?
There are parts of the country I could quite happily go and see by myself.
Go and spend a week on the beach up on the sunshine coast, go on some nature walks in the rainforests and national parks in New South Wales and Queensland, go camping and checking out various towns in Tasmania.
But there are other parts of the country I'd like to see with other people, some of the cities and certain landmarks or areas.
There are some things that you really want someone to be standing with you for, just so you can turn to them and say 'hey, look at that, isn't it amazing?'
There are other things you can enjoy quite easily by yourself.
There might be a bit of 'how you think things will go' vs 'reality', in that depending on what kind of person you are spending that amount of time by yourself could either be freeing or make you feel a bit anxious.
And the driving involved in a long roadtrip by yourself could either be meditative or brain-meltingly boring.
It's hard to say.
So I've got two tasks in front of me:
- having a proper think about which parts of my own country I want to explore; and
- explaining to people that I'm going on a trip by myself and no I've not gone crazy, got depressed, or decided to 'find myself'.
*Apparently this is becoming a thing again!
Wednesday, 18 April 2012
Whilst I'm On The Subject
You know what the percentage of gun owners in Australia is? It's about 5%
I know they're available but mostly what would be on the shelves would be rifles and shotguns, things suitable for hunting the selection of animals that our citizens are allowed to hunt.
As far as I'm aware we don't really have a large selection of handguns available and even if we did I think you'd have to really proved that you were in a profession where you needed it in order to get licensed and be allowed to purchase it.
If somebody asked you 'Why do you want to buy this gun?' and you said 'Self-defence' they'd blink at you and say 'You're shitting me right? Who are you? Bloody John Connor?' and they'd carefully jot your name down on the Whackos List because you're obviously paranoid and delusional and think that someone is hunting you down. Nutbar.
As a country we haven't needed guns much in our day to day.
Apart from hunting and our early adventures in genocide we haven't had to protect ourselves against many aggressors, haven't thrown off our colonial overlords (ie, the British) and as a result there are some mind-sets we just haven't developed.
A lot of self-defence/home-defence examples given when describing personal use of guns in the USA is in relation to home invasion and the like.
I don't know if America is just riddled with crime but honestly the idea of someone breaking into your house or threatening you on the street and you saving the day with your gun...
Well, in Australia it's just not something we think about that much.
Obviously home invasions occur but they're not regarded as that common outside of bad neighbourhoods, are seen as freak occurrences and don't often end in death.
Possibly because we don't have guns to point at each other, I don't know.
Articles like this one make for interesting thinking about how guns are the new 'speak softly and carry a big stick' and what that can mean for good and bad.
I had a bit of a google around to see if there were any gun ranges in Victoria that I could visit to have a proper go at shooting and see a few guns and therefore have at least some experience with which to back up the comments I've been making.
I know that at the moment my inexperience may cause some of my observations to come across as naive and possibly a little insulting to some people.
Heck I may even be wrong about the types of guns available and legal for purchase in my own country, I simply don't have the information yet.
In any case, the only ranges I could find were for sport shooting, either Olympic style pistols or clay pigeon ranges.
No easily found gun shops with ranges and no gun shops that seemed to be offering hand guns at all.
I'm curious, I would like to know more but I think I might have to leave the country to get any kind of hands on experience.
Assuming foreign nationals are allowed to handle firearms in firearm friendly countries.
I don't know that either!
I know they're available but mostly what would be on the shelves would be rifles and shotguns, things suitable for hunting the selection of animals that our citizens are allowed to hunt.
As far as I'm aware we don't really have a large selection of handguns available and even if we did I think you'd have to really proved that you were in a profession where you needed it in order to get licensed and be allowed to purchase it.
If somebody asked you 'Why do you want to buy this gun?' and you said 'Self-defence' they'd blink at you and say 'You're shitting me right? Who are you? Bloody John Connor?' and they'd carefully jot your name down on the Whackos List because you're obviously paranoid and delusional and think that someone is hunting you down. Nutbar.
As a country we haven't needed guns much in our day to day.
Apart from hunting and our early adventures in genocide we haven't had to protect ourselves against many aggressors, haven't thrown off our colonial overlords (ie, the British) and as a result there are some mind-sets we just haven't developed.
A lot of self-defence/home-defence examples given when describing personal use of guns in the USA is in relation to home invasion and the like.
I don't know if America is just riddled with crime but honestly the idea of someone breaking into your house or threatening you on the street and you saving the day with your gun...
Well, in Australia it's just not something we think about that much.
Obviously home invasions occur but they're not regarded as that common outside of bad neighbourhoods, are seen as freak occurrences and don't often end in death.
Possibly because we don't have guns to point at each other, I don't know.
Articles like this one make for interesting thinking about how guns are the new 'speak softly and carry a big stick' and what that can mean for good and bad.
I had a bit of a google around to see if there were any gun ranges in Victoria that I could visit to have a proper go at shooting and see a few guns and therefore have at least some experience with which to back up the comments I've been making.
I know that at the moment my inexperience may cause some of my observations to come across as naive and possibly a little insulting to some people.
Heck I may even be wrong about the types of guns available and legal for purchase in my own country, I simply don't have the information yet.
In any case, the only ranges I could find were for sport shooting, either Olympic style pistols or clay pigeon ranges.
No easily found gun shops with ranges and no gun shops that seemed to be offering hand guns at all.
I'm curious, I would like to know more but I think I might have to leave the country to get any kind of hands on experience.
Assuming foreign nationals are allowed to handle firearms in firearm friendly countries.
I don't know that either!
Monday, 16 April 2012
The Dilemma
When planning for the zombie apocalypse I consider all the usual things:
Not because I would have an issue dispatching zombies, self-preservation and terror-adrenaline will have me primed to do my best not to be eaten or infected.
Because I'm an Australian.
And I honestly have no idea how I would get my hands on a gun or what would do with it if I did.
Well, obviously point the bang bang end at whatever you need to shoot and pull the trigger but loading, maintenance, gun discipline...
Add that to the fact that I live in a country that isn't particularly big on guns, doesn't have a super huge range available openly to the general public, and that I would feel a bit like a nervous crackpot if I tried to purchase a gun and I'm in trouble.
I don't think the zombies will calmly wait for me to learn how to shoo before they attack, they're not known for their social niceties.
My relationship with the idea of firearms is a bit complicated.
On one hand I would really quite like to learn how to shoot, just as a technical exercise.
I think I might be good at it if given the chance.
For instance, I had the opportunity to fire a simulation F88 Austeyr at an actual Army base Weapon Training Simulation System facility (where active Service members qualify and renew qualifications on their weapons) and this was my grouping firing an official qualification serial.
This was the first time I have ever fired a gun that was not attached to a game system and which was built and weighted to ape reality, so I was understandably pretty stoked.
If you click on the picture to get the big version you can see the cluster size of my groupings, including the scribbled note down the bottom that my three-shot zero grouping had a spread of 62.4 or 64.2 mm*.
That and my awesome nerf gun story both have me convinced that if I had a proper crack at it, I could be a decent markswoman.
But on the other hand, the idea of actually owning and operating a gun in a pre-zombie world for any reason other than pure unadulterated pride in accuracy and precision makes me feel deeply uncomfortable.
If I could be guaranteed a clean kill shot, I might be OK with some types of hunting.
I'm an omnivore, I eats the meats, I'm aware of where it comes from and the part I play in that system so responsibly killing your own game as long as you're going to utilise it properly and aren't just into killing animals, is theoretically fine.
But the idea of wounding or causing suffering to an innocent animal that I would then have to run bawling after in an attempt to put it down mercifully gives me a major case of the sads.
And pointing a weapon at another human being?
I would have to be sure, DAMN sure that they actually meant me or somebody else unequivocal harm before I pulled that trigger because otherwise the guilt would consume me.
I feel guilty enough about boring, mundane everyday stuff like forgetting somebody's birthday, I'm not sure the bar graph goes high enough to show how bad I would feel about injuring or killing someone who didn't have to be impaired or killed.
I know gun enthusiasts say that guns themselves are just tools and that in the hands of responsible owners they are safe (or useful) and are not inherently evil and sure that's technically true.
I know I thoroughly enjoy Erin Palette's Monday Gunday posts and her passion for the technical side of gun ownership and operation.
The fact still seems to remain that unlike cars, gardening implements, cricket bats and other things that could at a pinch be turned into weapons against the living or the undead, guns were specifically designed to kill or injure.
It isn't a side effect or bonus feature, it's what they're designed for.
Just because you aren't using them for that and God/Gods/Flying Spaghetti Monster/Universe-willing never intend to use them for that purpose doesn't take away from the fact that's what they're designed to do.
So the idea of going out and purposefully purchasing something that could be used to quite easily kill someone... someone who wouldn't have a chance to get close enough to fight back or defend themselves... it doesn't sit quite right with me.
They seem to make it too easy to make a mistake or do something you'll regret.
At least with a knife you have to get close enough and have the intent fully lodged in your mind before you can do actual damage.
You have to mean it.
This discomfort and reluctance clashes pretty badly with the cultural conditioning that I've received at the hands of movies, books and other media that guns can be used to Save The Day.
Of course they're also usually being used to menace the day which makes them a neutral third party in the conflicts...
Just to mess with me, my brain has no problem with the idea of owning a fully functional set of Japanese ceremonial katanas.
Maybe because you couldn't have one on your person walking down the street.
Maybe because they're such a well-established historical item that I really do see them as predominantly decorative rather than immediately functional these days.
Maybe because they're pretty.
Maybe because you would need to train like hell to be proficient with them and to be guaranteed to hurt others rather than clumsily maim yourself.
The thing is, guns are pretty.
The antique ones are gorgeous examples of workmanship, craft and function.
The nicely designed modern ones are elegant with nice clean lines and smooth surfaces.
I like the look of them.
And yet my brain keeps coming back to 'But you don't want to kill anyone do you? DO YOU!?'
And I really don't.
At least not until they reanimate.
*By the time I got my printout I'd forgotten which one it was :-P
- How and where to establish a stronghold
- How to gather and protect loved ones
- How and when to form alliances with other survivors
- Identifying safe routes
- Establishing and caring for sustainable food supplies
- Provision of clean water
- How to source or simulate medicines and medical care
- Morale/mental health
- Weapons
Not because I would have an issue dispatching zombies, self-preservation and terror-adrenaline will have me primed to do my best not to be eaten or infected.
Because I'm an Australian.
And I honestly have no idea how I would get my hands on a gun or what would do with it if I did.
Well, obviously point the bang bang end at whatever you need to shoot and pull the trigger but loading, maintenance, gun discipline...
Add that to the fact that I live in a country that isn't particularly big on guns, doesn't have a super huge range available openly to the general public, and that I would feel a bit like a nervous crackpot if I tried to purchase a gun and I'm in trouble.
I don't think the zombies will calmly wait for me to learn how to shoo before they attack, they're not known for their social niceties.
My relationship with the idea of firearms is a bit complicated.
On one hand I would really quite like to learn how to shoot, just as a technical exercise.
I think I might be good at it if given the chance.
For instance, I had the opportunity to fire a simulation F88 Austeyr at an actual Army base Weapon Training Simulation System facility (where active Service members qualify and renew qualifications on their weapons) and this was my grouping firing an official qualification serial.
This was the first time I have ever fired a gun that was not attached to a game system and which was built and weighted to ape reality, so I was understandably pretty stoked.
If you click on the picture to get the big version you can see the cluster size of my groupings, including the scribbled note down the bottom that my three-shot zero grouping had a spread of 62.4 or 64.2 mm*.
That and my awesome nerf gun story both have me convinced that if I had a proper crack at it, I could be a decent markswoman.
But on the other hand, the idea of actually owning and operating a gun in a pre-zombie world for any reason other than pure unadulterated pride in accuracy and precision makes me feel deeply uncomfortable.
If I could be guaranteed a clean kill shot, I might be OK with some types of hunting.
I'm an omnivore, I eats the meats, I'm aware of where it comes from and the part I play in that system so responsibly killing your own game as long as you're going to utilise it properly and aren't just into killing animals, is theoretically fine.
But the idea of wounding or causing suffering to an innocent animal that I would then have to run bawling after in an attempt to put it down mercifully gives me a major case of the sads.
And pointing a weapon at another human being?
I would have to be sure, DAMN sure that they actually meant me or somebody else unequivocal harm before I pulled that trigger because otherwise the guilt would consume me.
I feel guilty enough about boring, mundane everyday stuff like forgetting somebody's birthday, I'm not sure the bar graph goes high enough to show how bad I would feel about injuring or killing someone who didn't have to be impaired or killed.
I know gun enthusiasts say that guns themselves are just tools and that in the hands of responsible owners they are safe (or useful) and are not inherently evil and sure that's technically true.
I know I thoroughly enjoy Erin Palette's Monday Gunday posts and her passion for the technical side of gun ownership and operation.
The fact still seems to remain that unlike cars, gardening implements, cricket bats and other things that could at a pinch be turned into weapons against the living or the undead, guns were specifically designed to kill or injure.
It isn't a side effect or bonus feature, it's what they're designed for.
Just because you aren't using them for that and God/Gods/Flying Spaghetti Monster/Universe-willing never intend to use them for that purpose doesn't take away from the fact that's what they're designed to do.
So the idea of going out and purposefully purchasing something that could be used to quite easily kill someone... someone who wouldn't have a chance to get close enough to fight back or defend themselves... it doesn't sit quite right with me.
They seem to make it too easy to make a mistake or do something you'll regret.
At least with a knife you have to get close enough and have the intent fully lodged in your mind before you can do actual damage.
You have to mean it.
This discomfort and reluctance clashes pretty badly with the cultural conditioning that I've received at the hands of movies, books and other media that guns can be used to Save The Day.
Of course they're also usually being used to menace the day which makes them a neutral third party in the conflicts...
Just to mess with me, my brain has no problem with the idea of owning a fully functional set of Japanese ceremonial katanas.
Maybe because you couldn't have one on your person walking down the street.
Maybe because they're such a well-established historical item that I really do see them as predominantly decorative rather than immediately functional these days.
Maybe because they're pretty.
Maybe because you would need to train like hell to be proficient with them and to be guaranteed to hurt others rather than clumsily maim yourself.
The thing is, guns are pretty.
The antique ones are gorgeous examples of workmanship, craft and function.
The nicely designed modern ones are elegant with nice clean lines and smooth surfaces.
 |
| Image of Glocks found whilst trawling aforementioned Monday Gunday posts |
I like the look of them.
And yet my brain keeps coming back to 'But you don't want to kill anyone do you? DO YOU!?'
And I really don't.
At least not until they reanimate.
*By the time I got my printout I'd forgotten which one it was :-P
Thursday, 26 January 2012
Australia Day
Today someone I'm "friends" with on Facebook posted one of those lovely 'we grew here, you flew here' posters on their wall, apparently as part of their celebration of Australia Day.
That rankled. I hate stuff like that.
So I commented that I'd never thought of them as somebody who would be hostile to people trying to start a new life.
Other people chimed in with their own surprise but I was still cranky.
So I wrote this and posted it on my own wall.
I don't like people who claim to speak for my country and then spray broad-spectrum hostile xenophobia.
I don't like anybody who chooses to define themselves by what they hate because then everything in their world is divided into the things they hate or don't hate, and what kind of way is that to live your life?
And above all, I don't like bullies.
And if you're swaggering around telling people that they need to meet your standards and do what you say and be exactly like you or they can piss off, that's exactly what you are - a bully.
The woman in question deleted her aggressive 'nobody has attacked me yet but I'm going to be defensive about my right to celebrate Australia Day anyway posts' and publicly apologised which was heartening because I don't want to think that she is really that kind of person*.
But the amount of people who then sprang up to bemoan the fact we have to apologise for loving our country or saying 'Happy Australia Day' - which nobody had said they did - or let the Muslims stop us celebrating Easter and Christmas or singing the national anthem in schools - which they haven't - was depressing.
Does anybody actually know anyone who has ever been told by an immigrant to stop doing what they're doing?
Have they ever had a person of another faith start screeching at them to stop celebrating Christmas?
Do you really this it's inappropriate for Aboriginal people to protest the celebration of Australia Day?
Can you really not understand why they might refer to it as Invasion Day and want any celebration of our shared nationhood to be acknowledged on a different day?
How can you say 'get over it' to a people whose society has been decimated and their culture irreparably damaged by the wholesale theft of their land?
The wonderful double-standard of telling new citizens to shut up and do what they're told and not try to change anything or try to steal the country from us and telling the original residents of our country to shut up and do what they're told and stop complaining about how we changed things and stole the country from them!
When I lived in Brunswick which has a large immigrant presence with a decent sized Muslim community, I was never treated with anything but respect or at the very worst disinterest.
Nobody there cared how I dressed or how I acted as long as I observed local laws and basic social rules of civility and I extended them the same courtesy.
I love my country.
I love living here.
But I really dislike stuff like this and always will.
*She may still believe in integration but at least she posted that she thinks that anyone willing to work to support themselves and their community is more than welcome as far as she's concerned. She's still obviously got issues but at least she'll engage with you on the topic.
That rankled. I hate stuff like that.
So I commented that I'd never thought of them as somebody who would be hostile to people trying to start a new life.
Other people chimed in with their own surprise but I was still cranky.
So I wrote this and posted it on my own wall.
If you've ever used the phrase 'go back to where you came from' and meant it, please de-friend me.
Being scared of different cultures and languages doesn't make you proudly Australian, it makes you a wuss and a whiner.
We may be the lucky country but that's the point. We live in safety and freedom because of luck. Luck of where we are, luck of what we have.
It isn't a right, we aren't entitled to it, we're just lucky to have it, and not wanting to share it is selfish and petty.
Nobody wants to take it away from you, they just want the same chances for themselves and their families.
People go on about how new Australians should integrate with 'us' but when you push them away and shout at them and reject them, how can they? And why would they want to?
We're not full but you are, and I'm sure you can guess what of.
I don't like people who claim to speak for my country and then spray broad-spectrum hostile xenophobia.
I don't like anybody who chooses to define themselves by what they hate because then everything in their world is divided into the things they hate or don't hate, and what kind of way is that to live your life?
And above all, I don't like bullies.
And if you're swaggering around telling people that they need to meet your standards and do what you say and be exactly like you or they can piss off, that's exactly what you are - a bully.
The woman in question deleted her aggressive 'nobody has attacked me yet but I'm going to be defensive about my right to celebrate Australia Day anyway posts' and publicly apologised which was heartening because I don't want to think that she is really that kind of person*.
But the amount of people who then sprang up to bemoan the fact we have to apologise for loving our country or saying 'Happy Australia Day' - which nobody had said they did - or let the Muslims stop us celebrating Easter and Christmas or singing the national anthem in schools - which they haven't - was depressing.
Does anybody actually know anyone who has ever been told by an immigrant to stop doing what they're doing?
Have they ever had a person of another faith start screeching at them to stop celebrating Christmas?
Do you really this it's inappropriate for Aboriginal people to protest the celebration of Australia Day?
Can you really not understand why they might refer to it as Invasion Day and want any celebration of our shared nationhood to be acknowledged on a different day?
How can you say 'get over it' to a people whose society has been decimated and their culture irreparably damaged by the wholesale theft of their land?
The wonderful double-standard of telling new citizens to shut up and do what they're told and not try to change anything or try to steal the country from us and telling the original residents of our country to shut up and do what they're told and stop complaining about how we changed things and stole the country from them!
When I lived in Brunswick which has a large immigrant presence with a decent sized Muslim community, I was never treated with anything but respect or at the very worst disinterest.
Nobody there cared how I dressed or how I acted as long as I observed local laws and basic social rules of civility and I extended them the same courtesy.
I love my country.
I love living here.
But I really dislike stuff like this and always will.
*She may still believe in integration but at least she posted that she thinks that anyone willing to work to support themselves and their community is more than welcome as far as she's concerned. She's still obviously got issues but at least she'll engage with you on the topic.
Saturday, 10 September 2011
Out Of The Loop
I know some people talk a lot of smack about the internet and social media and how disconnected we're becoming due to overuse of both but in my experience that's bunkum.
I have never felt more connected to the rest of the world, more politically and socially aware and more empathetic than I do now.
I've been lucky in the online friends I've made in the various corners of the internet I've found myself, most of them creative and passionate about a range of things and willing to share that passion without condescending or ranting, all of them interesting, all of them friendly.
I've followed along with various protests, political uprisings, natural disasters, international disasters and historical events and I've felt as if they really have something to do with me.
Not in an egocentric way but in a give-a-damn-about-the-rest-of-the-world-and-the-rest-of-humanity way, either because I know someone personally who is being affected by what is going on or because reading blogs, tweets or retweets written by individuals really pushes home the fact that these things are happening to real people who you'd probably quite like if you ever met them.
This has all been very enlightening and great for my outlook and personal development but it has also highlighted how really horrendously bad my personal grasp of the Australian political system is.
I expect I know more about the American political system (thanks to Fear And Loathing On The Campaign Trail '72) than I can remember about Australian politics from my social science classes in high school.
Let me try to sum up what I can remember for you:
I mean, there are other things I know or am aware of but off the top of my head, that's it.
That isn't great.
When I rock up to vote I usually know enough about the various candidates and parties that I know who supports things I agree with or who is highly objectionable but I'm not the most informed of voters, I don't feel like I'm fully engaged with or aware of what's going on.
If a foreign friend asked me what the Governor-General was for or how governors of the different states and territories were selected, I would only be able to give very general and possibly misleading explanations*.
And because of that I just went to the library and checked out Australian Politics For Dummies.
I'm not beating about the bush, I'm starting from the most basic level I can without finding a book with pictures and anthropomorphised legislative scrolls.
Because at this stage of my life, this level of ignorance is just embarrassing.
*The Governor-General, as the Queen's representative in Australia, gives the official OK to any incoming Prime Ministers and signs legislation into law, I think that's it. Only once has a Governor-General actually bunted a Prime Minister out of power.
As for governors of states and territories... I have no idea.
I have never felt more connected to the rest of the world, more politically and socially aware and more empathetic than I do now.
I've been lucky in the online friends I've made in the various corners of the internet I've found myself, most of them creative and passionate about a range of things and willing to share that passion without condescending or ranting, all of them interesting, all of them friendly.
I've followed along with various protests, political uprisings, natural disasters, international disasters and historical events and I've felt as if they really have something to do with me.
Not in an egocentric way but in a give-a-damn-about-the-rest-of-the-world-and-the-rest-of-humanity way, either because I know someone personally who is being affected by what is going on or because reading blogs, tweets or retweets written by individuals really pushes home the fact that these things are happening to real people who you'd probably quite like if you ever met them.
This has all been very enlightening and great for my outlook and personal development but it has also highlighted how really horrendously bad my personal grasp of the Australian political system is.
I expect I know more about the American political system (thanks to Fear And Loathing On The Campaign Trail '72) than I can remember about Australian politics from my social science classes in high school.
Let me try to sum up what I can remember for you:
- We have an upper and a lower house, the senate and the house of representatives, one is red one is green, I cannot remember which is which on the colour or name or upper/lower count.
- Laws need to pass through both houses in order to be passed.
- When we vote in Federal elections we vote for the party we want in, rather than the person even though we know which person will get in based on our vote.
- In Australia people don't campaign for selection and then get endorsed by their party, whoever is leader of the party gets to be the head of government if their party is voted in. It's all decided in-party way before election time is called and isn't swapped before election unless the current leader is bombing out/useless, and is all done based on how good a job the person is doing in politics, how savvy they are and how they're doing with public opinion.
- I can't remember how state elections and government work in relation to federal elections and government, though I do remember the state voting process is different (a lot fewer boxes to number).
I mean, there are other things I know or am aware of but off the top of my head, that's it.
That isn't great.
When I rock up to vote I usually know enough about the various candidates and parties that I know who supports things I agree with or who is highly objectionable but I'm not the most informed of voters, I don't feel like I'm fully engaged with or aware of what's going on.
If a foreign friend asked me what the Governor-General was for or how governors of the different states and territories were selected, I would only be able to give very general and possibly misleading explanations*.
And because of that I just went to the library and checked out Australian Politics For Dummies.
I'm not beating about the bush, I'm starting from the most basic level I can without finding a book with pictures and anthropomorphised legislative scrolls.
Because at this stage of my life, this level of ignorance is just embarrassing.
*The Governor-General, as the Queen's representative in Australia, gives the official OK to any incoming Prime Ministers and signs legislation into law, I think that's it. Only once has a Governor-General actually bunted a Prime Minister out of power.
As for governors of states and territories... I have no idea.
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