Skip to main content

Home/ International Comm & Culture 2009/ Group items tagged australia

Rss Feed Group items tagged

Filter: All | Bookmarks | Topics Simple Middle
fiona hou

Multiculturalism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 0 views

en.wikipedia.org/...Multiculturalism

Multiculturalism Eastern societies Western societies

shared by fiona hou on 14 Aug 09 - Cached
  • The term multiculturalism generally refers to the acceptance of various cultural divisions for the sake of diversity that applies to the demographic make-up of a specific place, usually at the scale of an organization such as a school, business, neighborhood, city or nation.
  • Australia The response to multiculturalism in Australia has been extremely varied, with a recent wave of criticism against it in the past decade. An anti-immigration party, the One Nation Party, was formed by Pauline Hanson in the late 1990s. The party enjoyed significant electoral success for a while, most notably in its home state of Queensland, but is now electorally marginalized. One Nation called for the abolition of multiculturalism on the grounds that it represented "a threat to the very basis of the Australian culture, identity and shared values", arguing that there was "no reason why migrant cultures should be maintained at the expense of our shared, national culture."[83] A Federal Government proposal in 2006 to introduce a compulsory citizenship test, which would assess English skills and knowledge of Australian values, sparked renewed debate over the future of multiculturalism in Australia. Andrew Robb, then Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, told a conference in November 2006 that some Australians worried the term "multicultural" had been transformed by interest groups into a philosophy that put "allegiances to original culture ahead of national loyalty, a philosophy which fosters separate development, a federation of ethnic cultures, not one community". He added: "A community of separate cultures fosters a rights mentality, rather than a responsibilities mentality. It is divisive. It works against quick and effective integration."[84] The Australian citizenship test commenced in October 2007 for all new citizens between the ages of 18 and 60.[85] In January 2007 the Howard Government removed the word "multicultural" from the name of t
  • The response to multiculturalism in Australia has been extremely varied, with a recent wave of criticism against it in the past decade. An anti-immigration party, the One Nation Party , was formed by Pauline Hanson in the late 1990s. The party enjoyed significant electoral success for a while, most notably in its home state of Queensland , but is now electorally marginalized. One Nation called for the abolition of multiculturalism on the grounds that it represented "a threat to the very basis of the Australian culture, identity and shared values", arguing that there was "no reason why migrant cultures should be maintained at the expense of our shared, national culture." [83] A Federal Government proposal in 2006 to introduce a compulsory citizenship test, which would assess English skills and knowledge of Australian values, sparked renewed debate over the future of multiculturalism in Australia. Andrew Robb , then Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, told a conference in November 2006 that some Australians worried the term "multicultural" had been transformed by interest groups into a philosophy that put "allegiances to original culture ahead of national loyalty, a philosophy which fosters separate development, a federation of ethnic cultures, not one community". He added: "A community of separate cultures fosters a rights mentality, rather than a responsibilities mentality. It is divisive. It works against quick and effective integration." [84] The Australian citizenship test commenced in October 2007 for all new citizens between the ages of 18 and 60. [85] In January 2007 the Howard Government removed the word "multicultural" from the name of t he Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, changing its name to the Department of Immigration and Citizenship.
Christoph Zed

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Australia-China tie 'challenging' - 0 views

news.bbc.co.uk/...8211025.stm

globalixation china politics economics power-play

shared by Christoph Zed on 20 Aug 09 - Cached
  • Australia is disturbed by China's detention of an Australian executive; China is angry that Australia allowed a Uighur leader, Rebiya Kadeer, to visit.
  • Australia sells huge amounts of natural resources to China and, despite hitches in the relationship, signed a new gas deal this week with PetroChina.
  • "China has significant interests in Australia. China's interests in Australia go to its long-term needs for its resource security," Mr Rudd said.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • Chinese media meanwhile, has called Australia "sino-phobic".
Rika Ninomiya

NZ undoes $1m whale case against Japan | The Australian - 0 views

www.theaustralian.news.com.au/...0,,23662989-16953,00.html

Japan Australia

shared by Rika Ninomiya on 14 Aug 09 - Cached
  • AUSTRALIA is likely to abandon its $1 million attempt to take Japan to the international court over whaling after New Zealand gave up its plans to use legal action to stop the annual cull.
  • using aircraft and ships to gather evidence against Japanese whalers in the Southern Ocean.
  • But the New Zealand Government has since discovered "significant difficulties" with taking Japan to the international court and has abandoned the tactic.
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • The hunt for evidence against Japan in its "scientific hunt" for whales became highly contentious when the crew of the environmental crusader ship Sea Shepherd was accused of piracy and violence after activists threw bottles of "acid" and boarded a Japanese whaling ship.
  • Tokyo wants to ensure Mr Rudd's first trip to Japan as Prime Minister is positive and concentrates on climate change and potential joint regional aid projects rather than whaling and the perceived snub in his failure to include Japan on last month's 17-day world trip, which included four days in China.
  • In December, Australia issued a demarche, or formal diplomatic protest, on behalf of numerous nations over Japan's plans to cull about 900 minke whales and 50 fin whales.
  • It is estimated that Australia's "evidence gathering" to form a case against Japanese whalers in an international court, which included the voyage of the Oceanic Viking and aerial surveillance, cost taxpayers more than $1 million. The Rudd Government has been "considering" the evidence for three months and has still not made a decision.
  • pro-Chinese to the point of being anti-Japanese.
  • "agree to disagree on whaling".
  • The Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister have signalled they want an end to the diplomatic row with Japan although they still vigorously oppose whaling.
  • Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Andrew Robb said yesterday Mr Rudd had to calm relations between Australian and Japan. Mr Robb said Mr Rudd's perceived "China bias" had caused concerns in Indonesia, Japan and India.
  • Mr Robb said the Prime Minister had sent a "gun boat" after Japanese whaling ships without picking up the phone to Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda.
  • Rika Ninomiya on 14 Aug 09
     
    Very very interesting article on the relationship between Japan and Australia. Especially, after reading an article I posted previously on Okasa and Melbourne being Sister Cities. Apparently Australian government is against whaling done by Japanese and trying to gather evidence, spending over $1million, to bring Japan to an international court. And the article also mentioned how Mr Rudd is seen as Pro-China but Anti-Japan, Indonesia and India, making these countries worry.
amy wu

India retreats from Australian study - 0 views

www.theage.com.au/...alian-study-20090730-e31k.html

foreign student safety Australia racism Indians

shared by amy wu on 27 Aug 09 - Cached
  • AUSTRALIA’S elite universities are set to pay a high price for the foreign student crisis, as middle-class Indian parents concerned for the safety of their children opt for universities in Britain, New Zealand and North America instead of Australia.
  • The agents have experienced falls of up to 50 per cent in inquiries by students wanting to study at Australia’s top tertiary institutions since the controversy began.
  • amy wu on 27 Aug 09
     
    AUSTRALIA'S elite universities are set to pay a high price for the foreign student crisis, as middle-class Indian parents concerned for the safety of their children opt for universities in Britain, New Zealand and North America instead of Australia.
fiona hou

Fury over attacks to greet Brumby - 0 views

www.theage.com.au/...reet-brumby-20090916-froe.html

racist attack India Australia

shared by fiona hou on 17 Sep 09 - Cached
  • A TRIP to India next week to promote Melbourne as a safe city has turned into a monumental challenge for John Brumby after another racist attack that has attracted fresh headlines and anti-Australian fury across India.
  • Two Indian men and another two of Indian origin say they were racially taunted and told to ''go back to your country'' before being kicked and punched by attackers who were part of a large birthday celebration at Legends Entertainment Centre. The Indian Government increased pressure on Australia last night over the ''recurring attacks'' on its citizens. It called on authorities to ''take all necessary steps towards the safety and security of Indians''. Indian consular officials in Melbourne were also ordered to investigate.
  • One of the victims, Sukhdip Singh, 26, had been in Australia just one month. A relative said he had suffered head and facial injuries and wanted to return to India immediately. His uncle, Mukhtiar Singh, 45, also a victim, said Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard's recent assurance to India's Foreign Minister that Australia was safe for Indian students rang hollow. ''I used to say the same thing … now I would say Melbourne is worse than a Third-World country, violence-wise,'' Mr Singh told The Age. Recalling Saturday's incident, he said his nephew was taunted with verbal abuse and racial slurs in the bar before they were later set upon in the car park by about 20 people. ''I have lived here for 22 years,'' Mr Singh said. ''I've got my own business here, my own house, my kids have grown up here. Why should I go back? We all come from somewhere.''
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • headline on the front page of the Asian Age said: ''Oz mob of 70 attacks 3 Indians'', while The Times of India ran a timeline of attacks under the heading ''No end to hate?''. Mr Brumby said such incidents would make his mission to India all the more difficult. ''Some of the events of the last few months have damaged our brand and the Australian brand in India,'' he said. He said the Government was committed to fixing the problem, and raised the possibility of giving police more resources to deal with it.
  • Education for foreign students is Australia's third-biggest export earner, bringing in more than $16 billion a year.
glen donnar

China steps up film festival row - 0 views

www.theage.com.au/...estival-row-20090801-e58v.html

china nationalism international relations australia miff nation states protest

shared by glen donnar on 02 Aug 09 - Cached
  • A DIPLOMATIC row between Australia and China
  • with Australia’s ambassador called to a dressing-down by China’s Foreign Ministry.
  • Vice-Foreign Minister Zhang Zhijun told Mr Raby that Australia must ‘‘immediately correct its wrongdoings’’ and cancel Ms Kadeer’s visa
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • the documentary The 10 Conditions of Love, about Ms Kadeer
  • Ms Kadeer will take part in the screening of the documentary next Saturday.She will also meet members of Australia’s 2000-strong Uighur community.
  • Her involvement in the festival led to seven Chinese-language films — from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan — being withdrawn.
  • ‘‘This latest attack is just extraordinary,’’ the festival director said. ‘‘What’s happened is that this has become a question of Chinese nationalism where it has almost become people’s official duty to register a protest.’’
sayaka uchida

Indian student 'flees Australia' after fatal crash - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting ... - 0 views

www.abc.net.au/...2662508.htm

shared by sayaka uchida on 20 Aug 09 - Cached
  • Australia and India agreed to an extradition treaty in June last year, but the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, it is not yet in force.
  • "Once the extradition treaty enters into force, Indian authorities would be bound to uphold and process the extradition request, and to seek to lodge an arrest warrant within India to seek out and detain this individual."
  • "In 2008 in addition to the extradition treaty, Australia also concluded a mutual assistance treaty dealing with matters of criminal interest between the two countries, and since then of course we've had the terrorist events in Bombay and no doubt the Australian Federal Police have got interests in matters that are occurring in India,"
  • sayaka uchida on 20 Aug 09
     
    International co-operation in relation to law. We would have "world police coorperation" thingie in the future...or we have it already?
Tony Sullivan

Background Briefing - 5 July 2009 - Cairo, a divided city - 0 views

www.abc.net.au/...2613439.htm

globalisation Egypt

shared by Tony Sullivan on 05 Aug 09 - Cached
  • Cairo
  • Mr Berry: When you walk in the gate it's nice. It gives you the impression that maybe you have a place in Australia maybe, maybe it feels like you in Australia, maybe somebody else, OK, maybe in Saudi Arabia, or anywhere else in the world, maybe in Italy, maybe somebody has the same feeling like Oh, this looks somewhere in Rome, somewhere in Greece
    • Tony Sullivan
      Tony Sullivan on 05 Aug 09
       
      Describes 'gated communities' for the affluent, being established in desert areas beyond the border of Cairo city.
  • Mr Berry: Golf, it's a very prestigious thing.
  • ...37 more annotations...
  • Not everyone back in Cairo is happy about the obsession with golf courses. Professor of Landscape and Architecture at Cairo University, Mohammad Refaat says they are a status symbol and the game doesn't come naturally to Egyptians
  • Mohammad Refaat: The first golf course that was created in these new developments was in Katameya Heights. It started - why is that? Because we started to have the Japanese in Egypt. The Japanese, they love golf, and we have several firms with Japanese managers, so it became a luxury to provide the service for them. But I believe that we're never going to be golfers as Egyptians, and I don't know, it's irritating now, because whenever you go, whenever you get a project, even in my private office, they say, 'Ah, the golf', and then we start doing the compound. The main idea of the golf from the owners' point of view is that to provide value for the people so that he can start to sell.
  • Mohammad Refaat: The thing is that I feel that we are Westernising ourselves. The thing is that due to the effect of the media, everybody wants to live in a Dallas, or in a Falconcrest or one of these things that we used to see when we're kids.
  • And they did not understand the Egyptian culture. If I speak about myself, I'd rather live in what we call the hara, or the alley, the old alley that we have, you know, when you have people all living in one street, of having all the services in the street, what we call the philosophy of the extended family. This is very, very Egyptian.
  • Anwar Sadat
  • opened up the country to the world, and very significantly, for the first time, all Egyptians could travel overseas.
  • Egyptians from all classes went abroad to get jobs in Gulf countries. They came back with money and with an appetite for things like shopping and luxury living. Some also brought back new ideas about Islam. It was more conservative and fundamentalist.
  • teachers, engineers, medical doctors, peasants, the large peasant migration
  • get passports, go and work in Jordan, in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, come back. Some of them also in Saudi Arabia perhaps never ever encountering women, right? And coming back with new notions of segregation, of headscarf, of Islamisation
  • Hagar Cohen: In Cairo today more and more women are segregated and wear the burqa, which is the full head and body cover. But everyone likes the shopping, and the new and glitzy malls are full of people in all kinds of dress
  • It can be uncomfortable now for women in western clothes, who don't wear scarves, because conservative men and women clearly show their distaste. This mix between consumerism and a very religious lifestyle is sometimes known as 'petro Islam'
  • Mona Abaza: They have different notions and variations of Islamic ideologies. There is a difference between a 16-year-old kid who is out of a family of 10 living in a slum, and a schoolteacher who lives long years in Saudi Arabia comes back, very much influenced by what I call the petro Islamic ideology, Saudi Arabian consumerists, very much into conservative accommodationist kind of religion, enjoying a shopping mall but at the same time dressing in Islamic code for instance. So marrying certain forms of consumer culture, but giving it a flavour that can look Egyptian, so that you convince yourself that you are different.
    • Tony Sullivan
      Tony Sullivan on 05 Aug 09
       
      Also discussed in relation to Salafism, a quietist social current encouraged by Saudi Araba, in 'The fever under the surface', The Economist 25 July 2009, p11-12, part of a special report on the Middle East.
  • the gated communities inside. the more upmarket, the faster they're selling, and they have names like Beverley Hills, Hyde Park and Dreamland.
  • Another kind of cultural reference for all of this is old Egyptian movies from like the 1950s you know, black-and-white films, where the setting was very, very often the Pasha's villa, which always had a very grand staircase, and a very grand entrance. This is the sort of lifestyle that Egyptians haven't had access to since the 1950s because of the crowding and so on and so forth. So now it's sort of become a lifestyle option for wealthy Egyptians that wasn't really there. So you can now have your own Pasha's villa.
  • Hagar Cohen: Dina Hussanein says she isn't comfortable living in a place with a name like 'Beverly Hills'. Dina Hassanein: That's a very sad thing, because we have a remarkable history and civilisation and yet, you know, we can't think of any Arabic word of our own that we could use to name the places. So I can tell you, Beverly Hills Egypt is nothing like Beverly Hills California
  • Hagar Cohen: Dina Hassanein is a modern woman. She lives on her own, and has a fiancé who lives nearby. She is very beautiful and smartly dressed in Western clothes. She has a job which involves interaction with all sorts of people
  • Hagar Cohen: Dina Hassanein and other residents have to rely on Old Cairo for almost everything, including shops, restaurants, and health services. There are also no local street markets, little shops or stalls, or workshops. In some places, the rules even forbid them. Big supermarket chains can be found easily, but you have to drive to get to them
  • Said Sadek: And you have rulers who believe in gated communities. Mubarak himself, lives in Sharem el Sheik or Borg el Arab, isolated, always isolated. The ruling elite in Egypt are isolated. And so you can tell by this political orientation of the elite that this is what they want, an isolated community because they cannot meet the demands of the masses. There are 40% of Egyptians below poverty line, earning less than $2 a day. And so this abject poverty amidst people who have a lot of money, may drive people to be envious
  • Very poor quality housing found in slums and shanty towns is expanding in Cairo
  • r Cohen: What in terms of sewage and garbage services? Are they available? Manal Tibe: We are talking about no water, so don't talk about sewage and garbage
  • Hagar Cohen: Manal Tibe says that the government isn't doing anything to improve conditions in slums, but has been very generous to private developers of gated communities. The desert land is subsidised by the government as well as the price of fuel, electricity and water. And that makes expenses in gated communities very low.
  • Manal Tibe: More hatefulness from poor to rich people and also to the government. Now, poor people that they want revenge, and this is being interpreted in some crimes against rich people.
  • Hagar Cohen: Dina Hassanein is missing city life, but at the same time she says that she doesn't fit in there any more
  • Dina Hassanein: It's not that I don't want to live there, it's just that our realities are very different, the places that we go are very different. If I were to walk into a slum I might get torn apart. You can't just walk in wearing normal clothes like we do into a place like that. I can barely walk down the streets without getting harassed actually, because it's a much more conservative society, so it's just different, it's almost impossible for these worlds to intermingle.
  • Hagar Cohen: These two very different worlds are on display inside some of Cairo's shopping malls. Western music there is piped through just as it is in any Australian city. This shopping mall is in the suburb of Giza. It's one of the most exclusive ones in Cairo. There's a care there serving Caesar salads and cappuccinos. Just across the road is the Giza Zoo, which is a popular hanging out venue for poorer families
  • This shopping mall
  • It's only a few days before Christmas when we're here, and in this Muslim country, it's ironic that Christian carols are playing throughout the atrium. Mona Abaza: It's a mix of definitely well-to-do Egyptians, and lots of expatriates, foreigners coming. You can see the Christmas decoration. During Ramadan they make Ramadan decorations, tents and Islamic style, and in Christmas they put Christmas decorations
  • Mona Abaza: There is this idea that the old downtown city is now slowly being depopulated by its, let us say, middle class. It used to be a very important commercial centre. It is now losing out this significance, because the centres have been now little by little moving out. So the idea is to get out of the city, because as if it's the inside is rotten, and it's very interesting how the poor can easily look at the lifestyles of the rich. Now this is evidently a bit of a problem for the rich, so that is why they opted for the American Dream, which is getting out and walling off.
  • Mona Abaza: If you look at it just visually, the problem is slums. One can easily say that the view is that as if the whole of Cairo is consisting of slums. Now the past 20 years, the neo liberal ideology of the government is to try and handle the problem of slums, and the way they handle it is as if it's an evil, a cancer that has to be drastically eliminated, with violence, because they consider and they believe that in slums, that we have the breeding of terrorist ideology, Islamist, poverty, violence etc. Now all this is quite often very over-exaggerated. I mean it's a form of discriminating the poor, that's clear. But you have the issue also of the city now experiencing a new form of cleaning up geared towards of course the encouraging of tourism and sites of consumption. So the cityscape is taking place as a huge space for consumer culture and tourism
  • Hagar Cohen: The American University, where Professor Abaza lectures, has also moved out to the desert and is now based in a town called New Cairo. She says it's a bad move, because a whole generation of well-off young people will be isolated, away from historical Cairo or the old Egyptian culture
  • Mona Abaza: You might be astonished but my students, 18 years old, 19 years, have never for instance known anything about downtown, have never even gone to downtown.
  • You will find the American fast food and the Egyptian fast food, and Italian, Mexican. Upstairs there is a McDonald's and Kentucky
  • Towheid Wahab: There is a rule here in the University. There's no mosque, there's no church, there's no temple, there's no monastery. All the people here are equal to do their religion by their own
  • Max Roderbeck: There are good reasons why they want to move, because you get a nice amount of space, you can re-brand yourself with a new image of being something that looks very modern instead of something that's fitted into a shabby old neighbourhood. There's certainly a trend, I mean there are quite a lot of institutions that have moved out.
  • Max Roderbeck: The danger of Cairo being hollowed out is pretty real. And I mean, some of the things that a city needs to be vibrant, seem to be already been pulled out of the centre of Cairo. I've seen other places where downtown becomes either a hollow shell, or ends up just being a sort of transport hub, you know, a sort of junction of roads and things. And I think it's a very real danger with Cairo.
  • Hagar Cohen: Somehow, Cairo has always managed to function as a lively city, says Max Roderbeck, but this time around, things are different
  • These satellite towns were developed in this way because of the government's quick sale of the land to private hands. They wanted to make a return quickly, and big villas and golf courses were in demand. But they don't work as lively urban centres, says environmental architect, Abbas el Zafarany
  • Tony Sullivan on 05 Aug 09
     
    The complexities of globalisation evident in Egypt's largest city and its surrounds
Rika Ninomiya

Taking a closer look at Indonesia | The Australian - 0 views

www.theaustralian.news.com.au/...0,,24434864-26063,00.html

Indonesia Film Australia

shared by Rika Ninomiya on 07 Aug 09 - Cached
    • Rika Ninomiya
      Rika Ninomiya on 07 Aug 09
       
      Indonesian Film Festival in Melbourne starts on 11 August and will ends on 20 August 2009. For more information visit http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=97320061286&ref=search Some of the films are really interesting and worth watching :)
  • WHAT do most Australians know about Indonesian art? What role do the arts play in the picture they present of contemporary Indonesia? Not much, perhaps.
  • We heard from a young Indonesian filmmaker about thriving, youthful film communities across Indonesia and among Indonesian students in Melbourne; we shared some of the songs, stories and images collected by an Australian artist from northern Australian and eastern Indonesian communities once linked by ocean trade; we saw gigantic puppets created by young earthquake survivors near Yogyakarta, performing a zany new version of the Ramayana legend under the inspired leadership of Ian Pidd and the Snuff Puppet group.
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • So why don’t Australians know more about Indonesian arts? Why don’t our arts and film festivals abound with Indonesian entries, and our television screens with Indonesian street murals and touring rock groups?
  • So what can be done? First, we need a big new initiative from the Australian Government that would attract attention in both countries. And perhaps we should establish one or more Australian-Indonesian cultural centres and arts spaces in Indonesian cities, to showcase existing arts exchanges and encourage others. Several European countries already maintain such centres: we’d need to do something distinctive and new.
  • Back in Australia, Indonesian arts aficionados could form a strategic network, sharing information about what’s on, lobbying festivals, arts promoters, the media and government bodies.
  • We can try to make sure that next time the rock band Dewa 19 visits, its songs about Islamic love and inclusiveness reach not only rapt Indonesian students and residents, but the thousands of Australians who need to hear the message.
  • Pressure should be put on SBS to show the film Opera Jawa, whose director, Garin Nugroho, has been described by Peter Sellars as a new Ingmar Bergman or Michelangelo Antonioni. We should also urge the big festivals to stage Je.jal.an (The Street ) by theatre group Garasi, in which violent, hilarious and moving interactions on a teeming city street graphically symbolise the confusion and creativity of contemporary Indonesia.
  • We need to keep spreading the word, while hopefully sustaining our spirits with more celebratory get-togethers in the same vein as Asialink’s Indonesia Calling.
  • Rika Ninomiya on 07 Aug 09
     
    Indonesian Film Festival in Melbourne starts on 11 August and will ends on 20 August 2009. For more information visit http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=97320061286&ref=search Some of the films are really interesting and worth watching :)
xinning ji

Beijing bites back over Kadeer visa and iron ore prices | The Australian - 0 views

www.theaustralian.news.com.au/...0,24897,25944029-601,00.html

shared by xinning ji on 17 Aug 09 - Cached
  • We regret that the Chinese government has felt obliged to take these steps, since the government's position on the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region is clear
    • xinning ji
      xinning ji on 18 Aug 09
       
      I think what Chinese government insists is that XInjiang is part of CHina. Like Melbourne, it is part of Australia. if someone or a small group said independence of Melbourne, how would AUstralian government think? it is about a national sovereignty that cannot be changed.
  • anonymous on 19 Aug 09
     
    Can China achieve its aims by acting in this way? Is closing dialogue with Australia as 'punishment' going to solve anything? And does China except us to take their political pressure to restrict constitutional rights such as freedom of speech (such as in the Kadeer case)? Just some thoughts.
Christoph Zed

AppleInsider | Apple challenges new Woolworths logo - 0 views

www.appleinsider.com/...enges_new_woolworths_logo.html

apple woolworth branding globalisation markets logo

shared by Christoph Zed on 05 Oct 09 - Cached
  • Apple have begun a legal response against the largest supermarket chain in Australia over a logo the electronics company says is too similar to its own iconic trademark
  • The Australian company has steered clear of mentioning apples in relation to its new mark, claiming the stylized 'W' was been paired with "an abstract leaf symbol" to represent fresh food
  • similarity to that particular fruit
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • At first glance, the chance for confusion between a computer company and a food seller seems remote, but Woolworths' application asked for a blanket trademark extending even to electrical goods and technology.
  • Apple will make its case to IP Australia, the federal agency that governs trademarks in that country.
glen donnar

Hip-hop helps build bridge for city's newcomers - 0 views

www.theage.com.au/...s-newcomers-20090725-dww4.html

immigration australia communication program mentor intercultural

shared by glen donnar on 26 Jul 09 - Cached
  • A dynamic music program is helping migrants connect to their new home
  • His experiences as a migrant give him the perspective needed to work with other newcomers."There's a system, and many people get trapped in that system," he says. "They put you in a housing commission flat when you first arrive as a refugee
  • I was battling a lot of things, like racism and stuff, and hip-hop helped me understand a lot of things about the government, about what happened back in Africa — it gives me more self-confidence to be here. So if I face racism I don't take it personally, I think, 'Maybe I need to educate you about some stuff.' "
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • Both MCs have day jobs as youth workers and that can feed into the hip-hop workshops.
  • "You've got to understand how much the media affects young people, in so many ways," says Azmarino. "For example, the African community — what happened a few years ago in Kensington was all over Channel Seven, and it made them feel like they were a gang. That's like putting oil in the fire. They're teenagers and they're already feeling all those things, and then they were getting disrespected by the whole of Melbourne."
glen donnar

Chinese hack into film festival site - 0 views

www.theage.com.au/...stival-site-20090725-dwvx.html

communication international china australia film festival

shared by glen donnar on 25 Jul 09 - Cached
  • CHINESE hackers have attacked the Melbourne International Film Festival website in an intensifying campaign against the screening of a documentary about exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer.
  • The hackers replaced festival information with the Chinese flag and anti-Kadeer slogans
  • "It is obviously a concerted campaign to get us because we've refused to comply with the Chinese Government's demands."
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • Last week, three Chinese directors withdrew films, with two denying they were forced to do so by Chinese authorities. Director Tang Xiaobai, who withdrew her film Perfect Life after being phoned by the Chinese Foreign Ministry and the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, said it was her decision to boycott the festival."I do not want to see my film screened on the same platform as a film about Kadeer," Tang told the official English-language newspaper China Daily.
glen donnar

Branding Australian cities: pride of place or pointless PR? - Crikey - 0 views

www.crikey.com.au/...pride-of-place-or-pointless-pr

communication tourism brand australia week 11 crikey

shared by glen donnar on 25 Jul 09 - Cached
  • glen donnar on 25 Jul 09
     
    Big news in Melbourne today: Mayor Robert Doyle has spent $240,000 on a new logo for the city. But is it any good? We compare and contrast with other city brands from around this wide brown land.
xinning ji

Singapore: Multiculturalism or the melting pot? | geraldgiam.sg - 0 views

geraldgiam.sg/...ulticulturalism-or-melting-pot

shared by xinning ji on 10 Aug 09 - Cached
  • Multiculturalism can be defined as a demographic make-up of a country where various cultural divisions are accepted for the sake of diversity. A melting pot, on the other hand, is a society where all of the people blend together to form one basic cultural norm based on the dominant culture.
    • xinning ji
      xinning ji on 11 Aug 09
       
      we always define Multiculturalism as the country with diverse cultures , but it seems hard to achieve in many multicultural countries, like Singapore, Australia, America etc. I think reasons could relate to politics, one particular/dominant culture and social bias. they all bring imbalance and unequal norms that against the value of multiculture, and so that to strength one main culture and igore others.
glen donnar

Politics comes before lights and camera - Opinion - theage.com.au - 0 views

www.theage.com.au/...1248546628873.html

miff china australia international relations politics culture film nation states

shared by glen donnar on 02 Aug 09 - Cached
  • THE Melbourne International Film Festival has it all: dramas involving officials from foreign governments, larger than life characters sticking to matters of principles whatever the consequences and the struggles for liberation.
  • documentary about Rebiya Kadeer
  • subsequently three Chinese films were withdrawn.
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • Loach's
  • The role of political actors, and the nation state in particular, in the film industry is enormous.
  • the film appears as the product of an individual visionary. This view of filmmaking is about as realistic as the standard Hollywood happy ending. The reality is that films are rarely, if ever, the personal, unadulterated vision of a director. They are influenced or, depending on your point of view, compromised from the start by those who bankroll the films.
  • what gets far less attention is the extensive role played by political actors in the filmmaking process.
  • In some respects, the most surprising thing about these kerfuffles is not that they have happened, but that they don't happen more often. While most of us think of film festivals as cultural events, the truth is that they are also deeply political events.
  • most films would not be made were it not for generous state subsidies.
  • And in spite of nice-sounding claims about facilitating cultural dialogue, nation states don't fund films because they love a good story. They do so because film can be a highly effective means of spreading influence. Since they're footing the bill, it's understandable that they want a say in the content of the film and how it is positioned.
  • films and film festivals are the continuation of politics by other means. It shouldn't be imagined that this applies only to authoritarian states such as China or political organisations with clear political objectives. Nearly every Australian film is made with some public money, and so filmmakers are subject to similar, if far more sophisticated and subtle, forms of state influence.
  • China has miscalculated the extent of its reach and, in the process, provided both the Kadeer documentary and the film festival an avalanche of publicity. And Ken Loach, in remarkably poor political judgment, has effectively silenced himself by withdrawing his film.
glen donnar

Withdrawals lead to program rethink - Film - Entertainment - theage.com.au - 0 views

www.theage.com.au/...1248977192386.html

miff china protest international relations australia

shared by glen donnar on 02 Aug 09 - Cached
  • The screening of the documentary The 10 Conditions of Love, about exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer, has been the cause of controversy ever since the Chinese Government demanded that the film be withdrawn.
  • MIFF refused to withdraw The 10 Conditions of Love. In response, films from mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan were pulled from the festival, and the MIFF website was hacked.
  • including a short from leading director Jia Zhangke and a film produced by Wong Kar-wai’s Jet Tone company.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • The controversy brought a wave of local and international publicity. MIFF has been a fixture in the news pages and on the radio. The overseas coverage included mentions in The New Yorker, a live interview with CNN and coverage on the BBC. The attention, Mr Moore hopes, might have a flow-on effect, a reminder to people that this is an important festival. The festival had already become the subject of news stories when director Ken Loach withdrew his feature film, Looking for Eric, because of MIFF sponsorship by the Israeli Government.
1 - 20 of 35 Next ›
Showing 20▼ items per page