3 Sept – #Ferguson

What is the most helpful post (or Twitter hashtag) you read in all the coverage on Ferguson?

 

I don’t use twitter so I haven’t been following this story that closely.

Living overseas, it’s interesting how this story is portrayed in international media, and from what I’ve seen, it was run as a story about an innocent teenager who was innocently gunned down and murdered by the police. The police were portraying him as a ‘thug’, as well as other ultra-conservative media outlets, whereas other media outlets were calling those people out on it and calling shenanigans as a case of racial profiling / stereotyping.

Being an ‘outsider’ to this type of story, it’s hard to form an opinion about the situation, because we’re being presented with both sides of the story. This type of issue in terms of violence between police and African-Americans doesn’t really exist in out country – well, certainly not to the extent that it does in the United States. Instead, we just have a government more concerned with turning away political refugees and asylum seekers and sending them right back to where they were fleeing from, or locking them up in refugee centres. Well done, Australia.

Given that our media is soooo heavily influenced by American media, I try to avoid it as much as possible, because it’s usually only about 3 things:
– the most recent school shooting,
– whatever couch Kim Kardashian is currently impersonating, and
– every little thing that Obama does.

Okay, so maybe it’s not that bad, but it is pretty full on. Sometimes I feel like our supposed ‘local’ news is just relaying everything that happened in America, and then it’s interrupted with tomorrow’s local weather. This is why I try to avoid the news.

In terms of US media, I’m not going to deny that the black community is regularly portrayed as the violent criminals and the police are always doing the right thing – by gunning them down. But at the same time, the US police seem to have the same reputation as the Victorian police here used to: shoot first, ask questions later. I can’t help but feel as though the US cops are a bit too trigger happy and they get a bit power hungry from wearing the uniform, that mentality of “I AM the law, so I’m completely untouchable” and so they can then pretty much do anything regardless of whether it’s using excess force to subdue a suspect, through to shooting an innocent person, they don’t care because they’re in a uniform – and that makes it okay.

However, if the guy shoots a cop, he’s up for the death penalty…

Daily Prompt – Living Art

One day, your favorite piece of art — a famous painting or sculpture, the graffiti next door — comes to life. What happens next?

 

I would secretly love if all the cow sculptures from Cow Parade came to life, and went on a rampage eating humans.

Apr 7 – Public Scandal

Is there a particular public scandal that intrigued you? 

Public scandals are why I love the media, and also why I hate the media.

Most of the time the media take a story and slap on the term ‘scandal’ generally as a means to sell more papers, or attract more viewers to a news / current affairs show.

Australia has had more than it’s fair share of ‘scandals’, however none of them have really intrigued me. I was just looking over a list of ‘scandals’ and there are quite a few that grabbed my eye.

Firstly, I think that the most prominent one in Australia most recently was the Essendon Football Club drug scandal. Basically, the club was investigated for usage of prohibited supplements, which then blew up into a massive controversy and ending in the club being fined a record AU$2 million. As much as I can’t stand football (primarily because a) the sport is ridiculous and b) because it’s pretty much a religion in this country), I was quite surprised that this had even come to light. What surprised me the most was that there were all these people saying how shocked they were at just the concept that there could even be drugs in sport.

Are you fucking kidding me?

Drugs and sport go together like cake and buttercream frosting. It’s that simple. These people are either so completely ignorant as to what is going on in their own clubs, or they’re trying to cover it up.

The next major scandal at the moment has been the Craig Thomson Union Fund scandal. Basically the crux of this scandal was that this guy, Craig, used his Union credit card and spent a truck load of union-members’ money on all kinds of stuff that he shouldn’t have, including paying for prostitutes and escorts. I think what I was the most surprised by, was finding out that hookers accept credit-card payments… I just thought they were cash-only.

I guess it puts a whole new spin on the phrase ‘swipe your card’…

There was a massive overseas scandal on the usage of horsemeat in consumer foods. This was something that actually did concern me, because I couldn’t believe that people would even consider eating horsemeat – just the thought of it grosses me out. But humans are cannibals, and will eat all kinds of animals, regardless of how big or small they are. When this scandal broke in the media, we were buying meat from Aldi, which was one of the major stores involved, so we immediately stopped buying from there as a precaution, and sourced our meat directly from a butcher.

Also in overseas news, there was the whole phone-hacking ordeal with Rupert Murdoch sitting right at the very top of it all. I think that it was great for something like this to come to light; exposing the underhanded ways and lengths the media will go to in order to get juicy details for their next big story. It’s just disgusting, and ever since then, I’ve stopped engaging in numerous News Corp holdings… well, except Australian Good Taste and Donna Hay magazine… what can I say, food is my weakness.

I think the last major one that made me groan and rolls my eyes in sheer disbelief at the sheer ignorance of the case was that involving the cases of sexual abuse within the catholic church. For as long as I can remember, there’s always been constant commentary regarding priests and abuse of children, predominantly young boys. Priests had / still have a stigma attached to them as being paedophiles, and the church knows all about it, but covers it up etc etc. So imagine my lack of shock and surprise when this ‘scandal’ was brought up in the media. Parliamentary inquiries, Royal Commissions investigating numerous claims of abuse… it was as though this issue that society, in general, had been talking about for years and years was only NOW starting to actually be taken seriously enough to warrant proper investigations.

Are you kidding me?

And people are behaving as though this information is all so sudden and brand new, and so completely inconceivable. Which, in turn, makes me even sadder about people and society. How could you be so oblivious and ignorant of this?

Look, I can appreciate that many victims have been haunted and tormented by the memories of what happened to them, and I can appreciate that they may not necessarily want to come forward and put the spotlight on themselves for a multitude of reasons, but they also need to understand that unless people like them actually say something, nothing is going to change. Those within the church will still abuse their power and position; children are still going to be abused; nobody will say anything about it, and the cycle will just continue as it has for however many years.

And the worst part of it all, is that if a child dare say anything or speak out about it, then who knows what the consequences could / would be. Maybe the child would be labelled as being a liar, and a Son of Satan – and then barraged with passages from the Bible, and made to repent for sins that are not his.

Unfortunately, the cynic in me can’t help but assume that this kind of abuse will never stop. Priests will always be protected by the Church, and let’s face it, the Church is a law unto themselves. It’s unfortunate, but this is just another reason as to why I cannot stand religion, ESPECIALLY Catholicism / Christianity. I think that the Catholic Church is perhaps one of the most evil and underhanded organisations in the world.