A Kiwi, An Aussie and a Guitar walk into a bar.
On Monday the 28th May I’m going to Wellington, New Zealand.
At an undisclosed place and time in the following days I will be meeting Bret McKenzie for a cuppa. (I say undisclosed, but really I know exactly where and when, but you don’t.)
Bret and I will laugh and chat and he will say “Oh Howie, this is great just hanging out, here have a guitar signed by me and Jermaine”.
About 2 weeks ago I saw a link on twitter for an online charity auction to meet up with Bret.
I clicked the link and noticed the auction website (TradeMe) allowed bidders from NZ & Australia.
The current bid was $1510 NZD so I made a bid for $1520. with over a week til the auction ended I knew it wouldn’t last and was just a silly thing probably so I felt I was part of it.
After leading the bid for a few days I decided to tell Jenny that I may have bid on an Oxfam charity auction and that my bid was leading.
I think her response was something like “you idiot, you won’t win”.
Well I did. With a few extra bids placed in the last 5 minutes of the auction.
So I’m off to meet Bret.
I’m excited and a bit nervous too, I don’t want to be all shy and noobish, and don’t want it to be all awkward. Maybe he’ll give me a job.
I’m partly nervous because he is really funny, and I really really really like the stuff he does and that is a bit daunting, also people often say I’m funny, and see myself as a funny(ish) guy but nothing compared to him sheesh.
Yesterday the NZ Herald interviewed me and today they put it online.
you can read the article by clicking the picture.
Exciting.
facebook 
twitter 
email I guess he’s cute.
In case you somehow missed the video Oscar and I made for Mother’s Day, here it is again.
The 4th video in our little series of father son productions, this one has a Mothers Day theme for 2012
turd burger
On Friday after coming home from the lovely fair trade breakfast mentioned in the last post I logged in to internet banking to pay our rent.
As I was scrolling through I noticed two odd purchases. I love internet shopping and a lot of the stuff that Jenny and I have has been bought online and some times strange thingsd appear on my statements but then we realise it’s something we have bought and the place just has weird trading names. But this time there was two pending transactions from places I have never heard of. I did some googling to see if I could find out what they were. Turns out I have had some work done on my car in the USA at a place with car technicians, and I have also applied for a visa online through third party website that helps people apply for visas and passports, also in the US.
What kind of idiot uses stolen credit card details to pay for a passport / visa ?????
anyway I called my bank and they agreed that these transactions were probably not made by me, but as they are pending they couldn’t look into it deeper until the money has actually been withdrawn from my account. (Which can be up to 8 days after the card authoraisation).
The canceled my card so no further dodgy things can happen. But that is very sad. I’ve had the same card number since Visa Debit cards came into being. It’s my number and now it’s gone. Jerks.
Anyway with a canceled card it means I don’t have easy access to my account until the new one is sent in a few days. Which isn’t a big hassle as we still have Jenny’s account but actually it turns it it is friggen annoying.
Yesterday Jenny was having a day off so Oscar and I decided to get the train to Brooklyn and hang out down there for a while, have lunch, play in the park etc.
We went up to the station and I had enough cash for the ticket but that’s about it.
In Brooklyn we headed straight for the playground and Oscar and I played for a quite a while before needing some lunch.
First stop was the takeaway that we like the most. I ordered a burger each and some chips and a drink then when I produced my card the man said he couldn’t find his eftpos machine.
A little bemused I asked where the nearest ATM was and he directed me to the pub. Oscar and I headed off to the pub and low and behold there was the ATM. I put in the card for jenny’s account and the machine rejected it I tired again and again and again. I guess the ATM doesn’t like ANZ. We then went to the general store where the man said I could get cash out if I spent $10. I didn’t really want to do that so he suggested we try the post office.
I went to the post office and asked if I could withdraw some cash monies, the man then asked what type of card I wanted to use, I said ANZ to which he replied. Sorry ANZ doesn’t let you withdraw cash at the post office. Sp back to the general store we went while our burgers would have been well and truly cooked by now and OScar spent the whole time asking questions like “why didn’t the ATM work? Can we get some money now? Why can’t we get money at the post office? etc etc etc.
The man in the general store on our return made a new deal and said we could withdraw some cash for $1.50. So he got $1.50 and we went to pick up our luke warm burgers.
We got our burgers, sat down and Oscar said “I don’t want a burger”
This post was written on Sunday intended to be a Sunday rant but we have had no friggen internet for 3 days!!!!!!
fair go
Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending a business networking breakfast hosted by Fairtrade Australia & NZ. As part of Fair Trade Fortnight (which is May 5 – 20).
It was at Customs House in Circular Quay which I have never been to before. It has the coolest 3D model of Sydney ever. You walk over it as it’s under the glass floor in the lobby.
Anyway it was a nice morning, There were people there representing major corporations like Woolworths and Cadbury, and there was me a little market stall holder.
It was a ‘stand up’ breakfast, which when I first read that I thought it was some kind of advocacy statement and we would eat breakfast standing up for the poor. Turns out they just didn’t have chairs.
The keynote speaker was Craig Foster, Former Soccaroo and SBS Commentator, sports analyst etc.
I’m not a huge fan of soccer, in fact I don’t really like it at all but I have loved Craig for many years. He has the best head of grey hair of anybody in the world. I have wanted grey hair forever, I think it’s the bomb. So potentially meeting my grey haired idol was pretty exciting.
Turns out I did meet him, and Grant who I with gladly brought up my grey hair drooling of Craig, which at first I was a little shocked by but Craig enjoyed it, He told me the grey hair was good but he worries about his grey eye brows.
It was great to hear about the growth of fair trade sales in Australia and the expansion of the range of products available.
One company that caught my eye at the breakfast was ‘Nudie Jeans Co‘. not all their range is fair trade, but they are on the way. All their stuff is organic already. Check them out. They have some stores in Aus.
Buy Fair Trade – Good Things Will Happen !!!!!
delayed r-ant
Oh crap, I forgot to do a post on Sunday. Poor B would have had nothing to read. I should not deprive my one reader of his weekly post.
On Sunday I returned home from my week away in WA. So yesterday was family day.
We decided to head to Bobbin Head. (if you are interested in what we did as a family then you can read the wife’s blog, I’m only going to talk about myself, which is a skill I picked up from Tom).
Oscar was happily playing in the playground whilst the wife and I sat on the outside of the fence enjoying the sun and occasionally losing sight of the boy.
Jenny for some reason thought it might be a good idea to enter the fenced land of children and interact with the son and maybe push him on the swing.
I remained on the rug and laid down for a little and much deserved nap.
My nap was interrupted by two sharp pricks behind my knee followed by a rather large amount of pain.I quickly sat up and flicked off the little prick that pricked me and rocked back and forth for a while in pain.
Having the eyes that I have I wasn’t exactly sure what attacked me but on closer inspection of the rug there was a bunch of MASSIVE ants with green heads. Turns out there is an ant called the Green head ant. You can read about this little monster here. Rhytidoponera metallica.
One thing it says in this wiki page is that the pain generally lasts from 5 minutes to two hours. IT’S BEEN A DAY AND A HALF and it still friggen hurts….a lot.
Also you can tell it’s a pretty hardcore Ant when you read it seems to have legally changed it’s surname to Metallica!
I’ve taken Phenergan and Telfast in the last 24 hours, and it still looks like this.
Jenny reckons I should see a doctor, settle down Jenny, I was bitten by an ant not an Alsatian…sheeesh. What am i some kind of pansy?
Yes.
pretty and stuff
Recorded a time lapse of the sunset here on Rottnest Island, from our balcony.
Somewhere rant
I started writing this post on the verandah but have since moved to an outside toilet, as that is where the internet signal is strongest, and the roof doesn’t leak in here.
A couple of years ago for Christmas, or fathers day or a birthday or something else significant I gave my father the present of ‘A holiday with your son”.
My Dad works hard in his little shop and needs a good break. So it was finally arranged, and thankfully convincing him that he needed to pay for his own present seemed to go down well.
I asked if it was ok to book everything as a surprise, and my parents thought that was a good idea and let me loose with their monies.
So after a few years of waiting my Dad and I are somewhere else on a holiday.
The only info I gave him was his train ticket from Armidale to our place, which he caught yesterday.
On arriving at our place Oscar handed him an envelope which revealed more details of his trip away. “Your holiday is to: Perth, Fremantle & Rottnest Island”
He seemed chuffed which is good because it was too bloody late to change anything.
After spending some time with a feverish Oscar and some dinner the two of us headed off to the Formule 1 motel at Mascot Airport. You can tell this trip is going to a posh with with a start in the upmarket Formule 1.
The train trip into the city was uneventful, the only thing that happened was me remembering the stuff I had forgotten to pack.
As established above this is one posh trip so we got off that train at Mascot instead of the Domestic Terminal as it would save us $10 each. (downside is the 1km walk dragging our suitcases). We dragged our suitcases through the bowels of Mascot and eventually popped up at the F1 in all it’s glory.
checking in it was revealed we had booked a roo with a double bed and a bunk, sounds fine but the bunk is for kids and only 4 foot long. Thankfully the man was kind enough to ‘upgrade’ us to a twin room. (Not actually sure the F1 is capable of an upgrade).
the room was as expected, we had a view of the carpark, no avenues for fresh air to enter the room and the bathroom was conveniently located in a cupboard beside the bed.
The blind on the window looked like it would be super cooper. I love pitch black rooms because as soon as light creeps in I generally wake up. This bling blocked out the light totally.Well until 2am, 3am and once more when it opened itself. And woke me up each time.
Oh yeah and the lady in the room next to us tripped the power on our whole floor when we where trying to watch Graham Norton…
The sleep was terrible, not just because of the self opening blind but because it was just terrible.
Around 6am we head down to the ‘buffet’ breakfast that had a choice of 3 different cereals, and bread. I had some toast, then managed to spill a full cup of orange juice all over the buffet table. The man at reception kindly donated a cloth, but a cloth could not contain the orange flood I had brought on. I used up a months supply of paper napkins to build a table levy, the levy held quite well and the clean up operation went smoothly. I poured myself another cup of orange juice and enjoyed it.
A bit before 7 we walked to the airport and checked in, went through security then boarded our plane.
Earlier in the week I logged in to our flight booking to choose our seats from their diagram of the plane. I picked what i thought would be super seats, close to the front, window etc.
they where near the front of the plane, but we had the only seat on the plane that didn’t have a window, the row in front had a window, the row behind had one, we had a figgen wall!.
So the normal joys of take off and landing where replaced with wallpaper.
There was an entertainment system which included a forward facing camera, but of course my screen didn’t work properly.
I have never watched an episode of Glee before, I thought I would see what the fuss is about. It was TERRIBLE!!! never again.
Once we got to Perth we grabbed a cab to the city with a taxi driver who had the gift of red lights, always a joy when you watch the meter ticking over.
We had some lunch then caught the train to Freo.
We made it to our accomidation, a hippy house in South Freo that is solar powered, tank water, outside funny etc. It’s pretty quirky and cool. nothing in the house matches. On arrival we discovered to major flaws. The first being the internet is not working, the second being no power points work.
The land lady came up and fixed the power and let us know the internet is strongest on the back verandah, which is where I intended to write this post but it’s raining and the roof leaks, so I moved to the outside dunny.
Cheese sandwiches for dinner and tunes playing in the background.
While things didn’t really all go to plan and this quirky house is bloody weird, we are having a good time so far.
time to flush and publish this post.
Idiot box Baptists
I watch very little television, and the television I do watch is mainly programs on the ABC or SBS.
In our little house we don’t pick up any of the commercial stations with our aerial and in the last few weeks we don’t pick up the ABC or SBS either.
My parents moved to the country a bit over 10 year ago, and when they come back to Sydney they are often overwhelmed by the pace and get frustrated by all the traffic and commotion. In fact even back in their little country town my Dad gets frustrated by the local ‘peak hour’ because he may have to wait at one of the two sets of traffic lights in town for over a minute. So he refuses to drive around town between 3:15pm and 4pm.
Why am I telling you that? Well it’s a little hard for me to admit to, but I quite like Australia’s Got Talent and I’m even getting in to The Voice. But they both frustrate the hell out of me too. As we have no TV reception I have to watch them online, normally the day after they have aired. That’s fine. The frustrating part is that I’m not used to ad breaks, and the even more frustrating part is that for some reason the online playback systems are only capable of playing one ad. So every time there is an ad break I get the same ad repeated 3 or 4 times before the show resumes. Then in most cases the playback fails and I have to watch the ads again while the video buffers or restarts. If you are going to bombard me with advertisements, put in some friggen variety, not just the same ad over and over and over.
Then inside the shows they spend half the time recapping what I have just seen and then previewing what I’m about to see so that when the next thing comes on I have already seen most of it. Commercial television and Baptist sermons are quite similar I’m realising.
So if you want to write a Baptist sermon or create a high rating talent show follow these simple steps.
- Outline all the things that are about to happen
- Show / tell stories of the past
- Re cap the stories of the past
- Preview the main point or next segment
- Replay step 4, 3 times
- Re cap all the above
- Preview next time.
I don’t even know why I like the shows in the first place, they are dribble.
I wish my internet couldn’t pick up commercial TV websites.
And yes I am playing a bus driver simulator game while I wait for tonight’s episode of The Voice to go online.
Leave me alone.
brain cell out
I don’t want all my rants to be about parenting and children but it’s hard to escape ranting about them when there is so much material.
Remember in primary school whenever you hit your head someone would say something like “haha you just lost ten brain cells”. Well parenting is like a daily club to the head. It seems the longer you are a parent the more stupid the things you do are. Logic and reason are replaced by brain jelly.
A couple of days ago after breakfast the wife and I were discussing trampolines and how it might be a good idea to get one for the boy. He loves jumping on friends trampolines and we had recently moved the snail, bug, spider and slug infested sand pit to a hopefully more bug free part of the garden. So the poor bugs, slugs and spiders lost their home so it would be the right thing to do to provide them with a much bigger new home.
You would think at this point that maybe we would conduct some internet research and go and get one. Well we didn’t. It wasn’t until about 3:30pm that we decided to get a trampoline. Jenny set off to Target to see what they had, while the boy and I stayed home watching play school. Jenny rang up to say she was heading for Castle Hill as Toys r Us had a good one for half price. After a few more phone calls and Jenny going in and out of the store a couple of times we were owners of a flat packed trampoline.
Jenny got home around 4:30pm and Oscar eats dinner a bit after 5. The instructions indicated that assembly should take 1 hour.
Did we try to stick it to the instructions and get it done quicker???
No, for some reason at 5pm we decided to start construction.
We began by emptying the content of the box on to the front lawn. The instructions said to open it on a flat even surface.
Oscar then decided to ‘help’ by picking up random pieces and moving them to different parts of the lawn. We followed the first step and began clipping big long poles together. Then it was dinner time for the O man, so we sat him on the front steps with his dinner while we continued the build. We were past the point of no return but for no reason. There would be no time for Oscar to use it even if we finished it within the hour.
Somewhere between Oscar starting dinner and him finishing it became almost pitch black. I used to own flood lights but not these days, the best I could find was a 15 metre extension cord and a desk lamp. So I ran the cable from the lounge room out to the front lawn while Oscar went through my tool box in the dark distributing screw drivers around the front garden. To add to the chaos my extension cord is faulty so every now and then the little desk lamp would flash like a strobe light. Constructing something using long bits of hard metal, coupled with a 3 year old swinging screwdrivers was bound to end in tears, and it did. Oscar somehow manged to bonk himself on the head with one of the poles. So just before bed time we had an upset child, which always makes bed time just that little bit harder than it already is.
Oh and I forgot to mention just before bed time we also lost an important nut in the grass somewhere.
After the child was in bed we continued building the trampoline’s outer netting.
All but one of the long poles was bolted in to place when we realised we had missed a vital step. The vital step involved removing the top of the installed poles and inserting a piece we missed. Taking the tops off was mildly easy but putting them back on proved more difficult as it was a black top, secured by a black screw into a black hole in a black night. The desk lamp was useless.
We finished the trampoline at around 7:30.
We were flustered and tired. Why the hell did we do it?
We left for a week away the next morning so the poor kid only got an hour or two of jumping before we had to leave.
Stupid.
oppps you bwoke it.
I got another warning email today from my hosting about excessive CPU usage on the server for my site.
So I have disabled many WP plugins , installed a super cache thingy and switched themes for a bit. I’m waiting for a response from the tech support of my host, but it could be my server has been hacked or something.
The below is from everyone’s favourite Homestar Runner and Strong Bad.
OOPS! You bwoke it.
The requested URL was not found.
We’re sorry, you did something wrong.
Some possible reasons for this error are listed below:
- The page you have requested no longer exists.
- You have your head up your stupid, ugly butt.
- The page you have requested has been moved.
- Your crappy computer is full of crap, crap, and more crap.
- The web site you are trying to reach no longer exists.
- Homestar is a stupid crap for brains webmaster.
I Hope to have it all fixed soon.
bad things come in three’s
In my almost a decade of youth work and youth educating, I always sunk a little inside when I knew there was a program involving kids in year 9 coming up.
Year 9 kids are no longer the runts of high school, they begin to feel power, and the need for acceptance by their peers is greater than ever. They are too cool for school, and spend all their time impressing and imposing. If you are a substitute teacher or some youth worker guy coming in to run a session, bring a helmet and a pack of panadol. Well I think 3 year olds are the toddler equivalent.
Sometimes the 3 year old son drives me batty.
Before kids turn 3 they are super cute and make funny noises. Eventually they start to pronounce words in their own cute way and mix match them to create funny cobbled together sentences like when Oscar tried to say the name of his toy Percy train he would say something that sounded very similar to ‘Bulls%&t’ and sentences like “Oh what I smell?”.
But when they turn three, suddenly their vocabulary and grasp of language is greater than that of an entire NRL team and their desire to justify and correct everything is stronger than a member of the Young Liberals.
Oscar loves telling me what to do, “Daddy we don’t do that” and “Daddy stop that you need to do it this way”. Some days it’s like I have two wives. (Jenny doesn’t call me daddy so there is a slight difference).
He is also extremely inquisitive and sometimes this can be a little awkward, especially when he combines his grasp of language, inquisitive nature and his desire to be bossy.
Yesterday the wife went out for the afternoon so the son and I headed to the local shopping centre to buy some new chopping boards. When we got to the centre I needed to wee so we headed for the toilets and I found an ‘accessible’ cubicle so Oscar didn’t use his inquisitiveness to comment on other men at the urinal and also so I could keep a better eye on him. He was adamant he did not need to wee so I asked him to go and stand to one side of the cubicle while I prepared to relieve myself. Which reminds me of another three year old quirk, they don’t talk quietly.
I unzipped my fly and Oscar moved a little closer, he has seen me naked many times so it’s not like I’m about to unveil a surprise package. I asked him to move back a bit which got a “Why”.
Eventually after explaining numerous times and ways why I did not want Oscars face in the firing line he stepped back and I was ready.
But then in his nice not so quite voice so the whole mens bathroom could hear – “you have a big doodle don’t you daddy”
This is a phrase that in a different context and without the word ‘daddy’ would probably be flattering or something, but from a 3 year old loudly in a cubicle in a public toilet I did not feel flattered. I tried to hush him a little and began the stream.
As I was mid flow I could see him slowly moving closer to me, very intrigued by my weeing. I fought off the stage fright and managed to almost finish precedings when he piped up again, this time using the bossy voice and tone, “Daddy you need to shake your doodle”.
I know he is just vocalising things that he himself is learning to do but the timing causes much grief for his poor father.
After the toileting experience was over we left the bathroom with me looking down and walking determinedly out the door avoiding any possibility of eye contact with absolutely anyone.
There was a brief flashback to the cute days when I told him we might look in the “King of Knives” shop for chopping boards and he said “Will the king be there?”
But it was a brief moment followed by several minutes of “But why isn’t the king there” “Where is the king” “But why is there no king” “will the king be there tomorrow” “But why is it called the name of the shop” “But where is the shop” …………………………………………….and on and on and on.
Whilst waiting for the man and lady behind the counter to process our purchase Oscar said “But why is it taking so long, daddy? It’s taking too long I want to go”
The man in the shop smiled at Oscar and he looked down at the floor.
Whilst walking home I got in trouble for walking on his side of the path, I got in trouble for pressing the crossing button twice, I got in trouble for having a sweaty hand. At one point Oscar was walking in the grass and dirt beside the path and I asked him to join me on the path. He said “Why” and this went on for a while, before he started telling me about dog poo and that rocks are like dog poo but you can step on rocks and that he can walk in the grass because there is no dog poo in the grass.
A simple trip to the shops is a saga on the parental brain, everything is questioned and everything needs answers and the answer again and again. I guess the difference between a 3 year old and a kid in year 9 is that the 3 year old is annoying and trying to understand the world where as a kid in year 9 is annoying and thinks they are the world.
Now I’m off to the toilet while the boy sleeps.
The simple things when a parent of a 3 year old are sheer bliss, sweet peeing alone bliss.
Sunday Rant
Due to popular demand.. well myself and B. I’m going to try and write a witty post every Sunday probably complaining about something.
For 2 reasons.
- So I can pretend I have a Sunday column
- Because I’m naturally gifted in complaining.
Today is not Sunday, so get stuffed until then.
boom
My little old blog that gets almost no visitors it cranking at almost 100% of my allocated CPU usage for my server.
any advice my nerdy pals?
Time-lapse NZ
You have already read the post below, now watch the movie.
across the ditch day
For many many years Tom and I have talked about how fun it would be to go overseas for a day and watch a movie. Many years ago we drove to Melbourne just to watch a movie then came back again, and it was tops fun.
Well yesterday we spent a day in New Zealand and we even watched a movie.
The reason for the sudden decision to take the trip was the March Photo scavenger hunt.
Our journey began on Monday afternoon with a train trip to the airport, check-in, dinner and a Jetstar flight to Christchurch.
We arrived in Christchurch a bit after midnight. The NZ customs officials were a bit intrigued about our short visit and the fact we had come all the way to NZ to take a photo. They had a great time suggesting photos we should take, the manager even came over with a massive smile on his face, and suggested some things and also got excited and wished us luck.
We were promptly whisked away by the funniest kiwi I have met, our motel owner, and his yellow van. He was super excited about our reason for being in NZ and kept dropping the f-bomb in excitement and saying it was mint. On arrival at the motel he couldn’t be bothered checking us in so told us where our room was and what the internet password was and in we went.
We internetted, slept and then woke up around 10am NZ time and ate breakfast while Tom had a skype meeting.
Then it was exploring time. We headed for the city, took photos, ate lunch, took more photos, ate ice cream, took more photos, watched a movie, ate chocolate fish and went back to our motel.
For dinner we ordered roast dinners from a nearby food place that delivered our roasts in a box.
Did some internetting again then set the alarm for 3:45am to head back to the airport and home again.
I couldn’t sleep on the plane and had about 45 mins sleep before the 3:45am alarm so I’m pretty wasted. But it was worth it, some good frivolity.
It was also good to be a tourist in a city that is struggling to rebuild itself. I love Christchurch and would happily live there. This was my 3rd time there and it’s tops. There is a very eery feeling in the city, crumbled buildings and closed streets. Even the streets that are open for business are really quiet.
You should go there, help them keep rebuilding by being a happy tourist.
Promise
I’m going to write a blog post tomorrow.
You’re welcome.
Studio 22
Last night the lads and I went to see Andrew Denton’s new game show. It will be a good series and the episode we watched being taped was pretty damn Funny.
As Tom mentioned due to laminated signs we are not allowed to say what happens in the show but it’s a good one. I absolutely love watching television being made, the lights and cameras and the smell and feel of the studio, the headsets and curtains and staging and sets. It’s all awesome. It makes me miss the days when I studied TV production and had dreams of being a studio camera operator or something similar.
It also makes me wish I was funny and that I got to be a guest on panel shows and say silly things and maybe one day have my own late night show.
Last night as we watched the taping I even thought it would be an ace job to be the audience warm up guy.
I love television, not crap things like soap operas, big brother and the bolt report but cool things like Q&A, The Panel, Gruen, Chaser etc etc.
Maybe one day one or some or all of those dreams will come true but probably not.
Kony Island
Yesterday like most people on the internet in Australia I watched the Kony2012 video.
But I didn’t share it, I didn’t sign up to get a bracelet and a sticker and I didn’t like it.
Before they came up with the like button on Facebook, activism was a lot of work.
- Goat_thrower on twitter
Kony is a super messed up guy and LRA and similar tribes and groups have been ravaging Africa for decades, killing women and children, burning down villages, destroying crops, forcing young boys to join them and using young girls as sex object. their actions are horrendous, inhumane and from my comfortable western lounge room incomprehensible.
the Kony2012 video is really well made, it has sharp editing, emotional personal stories from not only victims of the LRA but also the personal journey of the film maker.
It’s an emotive film, and made to stir up emotion and get us acting, but is it the right emotion and is the method of acting the right thing for us to do?
Just because a fancy film tells you something doesn’t mean it’s right. This film is circulating fast and people are watching it, feeling guilt then clicking share. job done.
I had some concerns watching the video, the first major concern came when the film make was interviewing young Jacob, the film make askes some prying questions about the death of Jacobs broth, the boy says that he won’t cope talking about this but instead of ending the interview the film maker pushes on and Jacob breaks down in tears and slumps his head. Jacob described seeing his brother slaughtered by the LRA, his head in his hands weeping as he recalls the moment the film make says “you’re ok, you’re ok” NO HE”S NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then Jason goes on to say that he doesn’t need to worry and that he’s going to fix the situation.
The whole continent of Africa is constantly hearing rich white people in their ear saying ‘It’s ok, I’ll fix you up”. But yet we just witnessed the biggest food crisis in the history of the world, Kids are dying ever day from diarrhea because of no access to safe water and families lay awake at night in agony becasue they can’t afford a mosquito net.
But we’ll make it right?
This whole Kony campaign by invisible Children is a comfortable campaign, it is reenforcing the notion that us rich people in the west know what’s best, it is reenforcing the idea that we can change the world from our lounge room without needing to change a thing in our lives. Clicking ‘like’ or ‘share’ means yo get to live in your own little protected world, and you feel good about doing something about an uncomfortable situation without having to be uncomfortable yourself. Putting up stickers and posters won’t create a movement to bring down Kony, it will create a movement talking about bringing down kony, it will create a movement talking about posters and stickers. If the world we live is going to change it means we need to change too, not put up a sticker we need to change our lifestyle.
Before you think this is the most empowering film you have ever seen, take time to think about it. Yes watch the film but then be smarter about your response, don’t just do what the video says because it told you to.
Check out these two articles (the first of which was banned by Facebook yesterday and no one could link to it.)
- Visible Children – We got trouble
- You don’t have my vote
- The war that isn’t what it seems
- Joseph Kony is not in Uganda (This one is a must read)
you don’t have to agree with my points or views but I encourage you to at least explore what you are ‘liking’ and ‘sharing’ before clicking.
Some further reading my buddy Matt Anslow has just written a post too and he is more smarter and stuff than me.Before they came up with the like button on Facebook, activism was a lot of work.
dollars and sense
This post is inspired by a twitter conversation I had yesterday with some ex colleagues who are attending a fundraising conference.
It’s no secret that Australian’s are fairly good at donating to charities, especially during a crisis or emergency appeal.
But we are also getting flaky? How can we be good at donating but also flaky??? Good question.
My understanding is that organisations are finding it harder and harder to get regular donations and that people are moving more towards donating spontaneously and doing lots of one offs. Which for organisations is concerning because it’s much harder to create and maintain budgets if your income is unpredictable and sporadic. Unfortunately I don’t see society moving back to the regular donations, I think the future is probably more in one off donations and especially seasonal and around emergencies.
The other problem with fundraising I see is that on the whole when people donate to something they assume a majority of the money will go to the project they a hoping to fund with their donation. They know a small portion will be spent on admin / PR etc but most organisations don’t tell you what percentage when making an individual donation, and if you want to find out you need to dive through long budget allocation documents. These documents are always available on websites but not as you are donating.
Some organisations in Aus have pretty terrible ratios in my opinion. And way too much money goes to admin type stuff instead of the projects themelves which is what people are donating for. I would like to see admin and project donations separated, and people given the choice to directly donate the admin work or directly donate to the projects without money being skimmed for one or the other.
I know it would be a fare bit of work , and I know admin cots can be pretty high but I reckon people would donate solely to the running of the organisation if they believed in it’s methods, and likewise I know people would love to donate to projects they are passionate about knowing the funds are all going to that.
I would like to see the choice left with the person donating (which bean counters would find scary).
Maybe using a simple method like this slider.
Of course you could say something like ‘It costs x amount to run our organisation and we would appreciate the use of some of your donation to be used for running costs, but please feel free to chose how much”.
I know this method is quite simple in a complex environment and that it could all be a load of bollocks but maybe it’s worth refining and exploring.
I’d sure appreciate it, and I think it would also help keep more accountability for organisations in how they spend their money.
I’m not a big fan of NGO’s spending big on advertising in the hope of a large amount of donations in return.
Sorry this post was so boring.
Let me add some class with this text bum ( , )
