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Khodayar Amini, Australia and asylum seekers, one year on How federal and state governments consistently failed a refugee seeking assistance
Khodayar would often listen to Ahmad Zahir's songs as he lay on his bed in Sydney. In 'Man Nagoyam' Ahmad Zahir sings about being like a caged bird that wants to be free. In Afghanistan, from 1996 to 2001, all musical instruments and music making bar the frame duff drum and religious singing had been banned by the Taliban. Khodayar ran from the Taliban after most of his family were killed. He ran from death as most humans would, to a place of perceived safety as most humans would. But he ran to Australia where he would end up feeling more caged and more in danger.
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Scientology, R2-45s & my articles for 3rd Degree
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Fremantle fireworks frustrate freo businesses
A Fremantle businessman has found himself at the centre of a row over the Fremantle Australia Day fireworks after he claimed credit for reinstating the fireworks display to January 26 despite the City Council's original decision to cancel it and move celebrations to another date out of respect for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.
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The Safe Schools Rally, Perth, Australia
The Stand Up for Safe Schools rally was held on Monday 21 March in the Perth CBD. “Do you want me to cover it for you?” I asked a few outlets. “No, you can go but I don’t think we are planning anything on it.” Now for those who are not plugged into Australian politics here is the brief: We have a program called Safe Schools which teaches kids and staff not to bully LGBTQIA identifying students which then decreases the amount of mental health issues and youth suicide in the community. The Federal government is now discussing cutting this program’s funding and scaling it back and making changes to…
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Interview with Sarah Ross from Refugee Rights Action Network, Feb 2015
- Australian Women Writers Challenge, Book Reviews, Events, IPEd Con 2013, Journalism, News, Political journalism, Projects, Science journalism
Where have I been?
Recovering mostly. The conference is over. But the organisation part of it isn’t. There are accounts to be finalised and even now, still a lot of emails to answer. So let me digress to answer the most often asked question via email now: Conference proceedings will be posted on the website and you will all be emailed to be told when they get uploaded. But what else have I been up to? Well, I have had a particularly weird and busy time of it and a lot of it has involved writing. So without further ado, here is the list: I have reviewed: Amanda Curtin’s Elemental which will end up in…
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#ECUWAPolChat transcript: quizzing the Mt Lawley candidates
I was curator/livetweeter/Twitter wrangler for the recent #ecuwapolchat – an experiment by the political journalism students at Edith Cowan University on interviewing candidates for the upcoming WA State Election (9 March 2013) and on livetweeting. Three out of the five candidates for the Mt Lawley electorate came to speak to us on Monday 4 March 2013 and we livetweeted the discussion. This is the transcript of the event with added information and links. Hit the “Read Next Page” button and it will load the next page on this very page so you won’t have to open any other tabs or browser windows. If you like it share it or comment.…
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Scientology, R2-45s & my articles for 3rd Degree
It’s been a busy week. I have spent the last two weeks interviewing, researching and tracking down information on Scientology, suppressive persons and suppressive person declares (actual list here) and these little orders called R2-45s which basically refer to any Scientologist being able to shoot someone through the head with a .45 Colt Pistol for the sake of freeing that person’s soul or “thetan”. I have talked to Scientology representatives and breakaway members and to former members and people who protest against the Church of Scientology’s activities. The first two groups maintain that R2-45s are a joke despite it been listed as a means of dealing with people on some orders…
