Earlier this week I was part of a protest concerning the recent budget cuts to University education .

it started off in the near the Ligertwood building on the North Terrace campus of Adelaide University. We heard speeches from the representative from the Flinders University Socialist club, and then a representative from the Adelaide greens, and then a representative from the International Students Association, and then a representative from the University Teachers Union (I've forgotten the official Name) and then a few more speeches from various other people who were all equally annoyed at the cuts.

we then proceeded to march towards the Hub where we stayed for about 15 minutes chanting "Bullshit, Step off it, Our Education is Not For Profit!" Someone in the crowd of about 100 people suggested we kidnap the Vice Chancellor from their office, we then proceeded to march towards the Chancellor's office.

We managed to get get into the Chancellor's office through the back way and kept chanting until a few security guards with comically stern faces proceeded to eye us until we were forced to leave. (I'd never been to a real protest before this and I didn't know I was going to get the full experience) the protest then fizzled out as we marched into Rundle Mall. I stayed for a bit until people began to leave.

I think we made a difference.

I found this article just now,
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-08-16/crowe-asylum-seeker-campaign-strategies/4892374

it makes an interesting point. It talks about how the refugee lobby has apparently failed because people still favour offshore processing and politicians are unwilling to budge on the issue. This is because their political strategy has apparently failed.

the refugee lobby has focused on the treatment of refugees as a demand for compassion however their campaign needs to change to a focus on how the community will benefit from new arrivals. the article suggests an interesting ad campaign where famous refugees, such as: Ahn Do, Frank Lowy and Dr. Karl Krizelinicki are used on billboards next to the words "I am a refugee"

This campaign is genius.

Changing the method of convincing Australians that refugees don't need to be feared through emphasising how the community will benefit is a great idea.

I attend Adelaide University and have done so for some years now. I do a bachelor of Arts and Media because I find law boring and I don't have the stomach for health sciences. Recently an issue has arisen that has made me incredibly annoyed with the University and it concerns funding. Apparently the University will be removing all tutorials from Humanities courses and pretty much all of the teaching funding along with several courses. My particular degree is under the umbrella of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences and I think that tutorials are a requirement for active learning. Apparently the University is not a place of "learning" any more, it's a place of "experience". The school of Humanities (according to my lecturer) needs to be "Smarter" concerning it's courses. The money will be going to fund the sciences. 

There will be a protest at Adelaide University on the 20th of August, I'll be going. 

As a long term Gamer I have mixed feelings concerning the recent decisions to censor Saints Row 4, on one hand our censorship department is full of bullshit and on the other the game looked and sounded fairly terrible.

apparently the decision to edit the game was because the story point concerning alien drugs giving people super powers and for some reason this means that the game will provoke youngsters to buy spliffs and heroin.

why can't those people in charge of classification just realise that most gamers are adults or AT LEAST able to differentiate between the real world and the fictional story in a game, just because alien drugs give alien super powers in the game doesn't mean that they now have a reason to do drugs. Stop treating us all like children (you're embarrassing us in front of the global gaming community again).

I am a young,whiter than white, urban dwelling, mostly heterosexual man and I support  Marriage Equality. 

I hope that referendum comes soon, I know it won't though....the milky bar kid is too busy breaching international law (regarding refugees) to give Australian gays the re-assurance that their lifestyle is equal to the rest of ours. 

New Zealand is beating us again in social progressiveness, first giving women the vote and now Gay marriage. You promised that you'd support marriage equality milky bar kid, stop breaching international law and let gays marry. 

Some time ago I was watching Adam Hills Tonight and he started saying something fairly surprising, he said that Asylum Seekers should be treated with some compassion.

I agree.

Asylum seekers have been de-humanised, "Boat People" are still people and deserve to be treated in a humane way.

The riots at Nauru prove that the system with dealing with refugees is wrong. A little compassion directed at people who have suffered would be nice Kevin. You may be trying to stop people smuggling but there has to be an option that doesn't almost breach international law.

Please listen to Adam Hills.

Huh, I never thought that I would make a blog but I've been roped into this because of University, this will basically be a blog concerning my opinions on range of various issues.

I've never been all that political and I find that most people who are, kind of annoying.

It takes a kind of person with an optimism and desire to change the world for the better that I can't be bothered pretending to be.

But this blog will be a place for me to express my particular views on a number of issues that I find annoying (especially censorship in Australia which I find embarrassing) providing just another opinion.