On air, alone

I've decided to change this a little. It'll probably still be political, but I'm going to try to keep my promise to make this a bit of an online diary. So starting from yesterday...

The day started with me limping up to 3CR, the community radio station where I volunteer, doing the Monday morning breakfast show. For the second time, I was doing the show solo. I'd spent large portions of the weekend preparing for this. I'd done myself a meticulous running sheet, including a good mix of stories, writing the script, just generally doing all the things that my students never did . I emailed the running sheet to myself - and then the Internet was down at the station.

Oh, but wasn't I professional. I panicked for a mere two minutes - until I realised that the Internet really was down and there was nothing I could do. I had to make it up. Fortunately, it seems, none of the listeners would have realised the advance state of panic had I not informed them. Which seemed only fair.

News of the day, as far as I was concerned, was on the expansion of the 'intervention' in the Northern Territory. Which seems to be Aussie for 'coming in and stealing indigenous lands'. The new Labor minister, in time-honored tradition, issued some blah statement saying how we now can all see the advantages of 'income management'. I wrote her a sweet little letter today, asking if she can manage my partner's income, as I fear that he spends too much of this on alcohol... now I'm kicking myself. It would have been so much better if I'd mentioned he was an ethnic minority.... ah well.

Played a few Malaysian bands - Azmyl, Sei Hon and Az Samad as well as Shannon from Poland.

Other than writing to the right hon. Jenny Macklin, today's been spent working on my thesis... which I'm really quite enjoying. And meeting the interesting Nic Maclellan. I interviewed him on the trade agreements that the EU has recently signed with Fiji and Papua New Guinea, which appear to be prime examples of big developed bully-boys roughriding over developing nations in ways that are likely to increase poverty etc etc. So met up with him today to discuss issues Pacific - hope to have him on the Monday brekky more regularly...

Other than that, I am mildly depressed by the number of people that think that voting Opposition will make a difference in the next General Election. Ah well.... I suppose I should celebrate the optimism, but seriously... why? Evidence shows that the Opposition are exceedingly unlikely to break BN's monopoly. I've asked LKS realistically, what percentage of the VOTE does the Oppostion need, and he smiles and refuses to answer... Given the BN strongholds, the noose around the media, the money and the machinery... the smile of course fades...

Am also looking forward to reading James C Scott, Domination and the Arts of Resistance. Does anyone have copies of his earlier works? And have been reading critiques of Foucault, and the space for emancipation within his theories of power, which is good for my research....

Oh, and rode my bike for about half an hour without falling off!