Journalism can never be silent
"There can be no higher law in journalism than to tell the truth and shame the devil - remain detached from the great" - Walter Lippman
(Picture: Adam Pulford. Source: Via)
The common perception of young people is that they are naive, glued to technology, love to party and self-centred, but the new UN Youth Ambassador Adam Pulford begs to differ - he not only believes, but knows that young people are powerful and can make change when they put their mind to it.
“I’ve been lucky enough to be involved with some incredible organisations that work with young people to create change on a number of issues. Through my work with these organisations, I saw firsthand the power that young people have now to create the world in which they want to live,” said Adam.
Adam grew up in the Northern Territory, and started his advocacy career in the gap year he took after graduating from Kormilda College in Darwin. In his gap year, he started to volunteer with youth-led organisations, where he started to learn the power young people have in creating change.
In his role as the UN Youth Ambassador, he will tour Australia and talk with young Australians. His aim is to encourage young Australians to recognise that they have the power to change the world and to act to create this world, and he sees part of his role is to get young people enrolled and voting in the Federal Election on September the 14th.
“I want to ensure as many young Australians are enrolled to vote as possible - and that, on September 14th, they vote on the issues that they care about,” Adam said.
One issue that is important to Adam is youth advocacy. He has previously promoted youth advocacy by helping co-ordinate the South Australian leg of the 2010 Make Poverty History Roadtrip as well as co-ordinating the 2013 Roadtrip to End Poverty nationally.
Both Roadtrips championed the cause of foreign aid, and according to Adam, were perfect examples of youth advocacy.
“From what I’ve heard from politicians and their staffers - they were incredibly impressed with the young people involved in the Roadtrip. Having 1,000 young Australians volunteer a week of their life and their own resources to campaign on ending extreme poverty and heading to Canberra to meet with them directly was a huge display of power,” he remarked.
“I see advocating for an increase in foreign aid as a type of pragmatic idealism - young people being smart about working towards their vision of a world free from poverty,” Adam said.
“Working here in Australia and overseas is not mutually exclusive - we have the resources and the plans to do both at the same time. What we currently lack is the political will”
When asked about whether foreign aid was the one issue that would decide his vote in September, Adam insisted he still needed to think more about what the one issue would be as he was “passionate about a number of issues”, but that foreign aid would be one of them.
When his time as UN Youth Ambassador is up, Adam would love to continue to work with people, both young and old, to create change on the issues they are passionate about.
Today is World Press Freedom Day!
Too many journalists are paying with their lives for keeping society informed. Each week, on average, a journalist dies while doing his or her job. Yet, over the past 10 years, only 1 in 10 cases of crimes against journalists, media workers, and social media producers has led to a conviction. Freedom of expression is a human right. In today’s digital age, we must remember that this human right applies to all media. (via United Nations Facebook page)
The Daily Show’s very funny John Oliver interviews former Australian Prime Minister John Howard on his effective 1996 sweeping gun reforms, to counter gun lobbyist Philip Van Cleave’s claims (and unfathomable logic) that gun control does not, and will never work. Whoop-dee-fucking-doo!
Top Picture: Liberal’s billboard in Perth depicting the number of boats that have arrived during Labor’s government term. (source)
Bottom Picture: Paul MacKay decided to correct the picture of the billboard, saying that “since seeking asylum is not illegal, I’ve amended the new Coalition billboard to help Mr Abbott out.” (source)
Woodside, in a statement to the ASX this morning, said the company had determined that the concept doesn’t “meet the company’s commercial requirements for a positive final investment decision.”
The statement also said that Woodside would “recommend evaluation of other development concepts to commercialise the Browse resources, which could include floating technologies, a pipeline to existing LNG facilities in Pilbara or a smaller onshore option at the proposed Browse LNG Precinct near James Price Point.” Woodside’s statement on ASX can be seen here.
Woodside is to hold a press conference at 9am Perth Time.
EDIT: You can read a great interview with Geoffrey Cousins on ABC about the alternative method of extracting gas here.
Over the past few hours, newspapers have been running the AAP story that Woodside has reportedly decided to shelve the controversial LNG Hub at James Price Point, WA.
According to the reports:
“(Woodside) have decided not to proceed with some activities that they were going to undertake prior to FID (final investment decision),” she said.
“We don’t know whether this work is just being postponed or whether they already had enough information collected to make a decision - we don’t know what it really means.” (via)
Already in January, The Sunday Times reporter John Flint reported that the consortium would likely declare their interest for a floating option before the poll in March 9, even though a final decision about the project is due in June.
However, this is all speculation and even though Woodside has apparently told the Federal and WA State Government their decision, and rumours are floating around of a statement being made on the stock exchange tomorrow (April 12th) morning, the scrapping of the LNG hub at James Price Point remains speculation until Woodside confirms this.
History was made at the UN General Assembly on Tuesday!
Building on a process which began in the 1990s, countries passed a resolution adopting the Arms Trade Treaty which will create a uniform framework covering the international trade in conventional arms resulting in a level playing field for the global arms trade, bringing to it more accountability, openness and transparency, and making it harder for human rights abusers, criminals and arms traffickers to obtain weapons.
Vote count: 154 in favour, 3 against, and 23 abstentions.
Photo credit: Permanent Mission of Norway on Twitter (@NorwayUN)
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, in an interview with Charlie Rose aired on PBS stations Thursday evening.
(Mayor Bloomberg founded Bloomberg L.P., which operates —among other things — Bloomberg Television, where the program “Charlie Rose” is filmed)
Very cool presentation of the progress of global development.
Hans Rosling gives very illuminating, easy accessible statistical discussions on global development. This video is one of my favourites.
More than 10 million words are spoken in Parliament each year. Few of us have the time to wade through Hansard’s daily records, much less to track topics as they develop over months and years. And so parliamentary proceedings only filter into the national conversation as journalists’ copy, slogans, or short, raucous grabs of Question Time on the news.
One of the brightest promises of the internet is its power to distil vast amounts of data and reveal information previously obscured from the public. And we believe that Parliament, the crucible of power in Australia, could do with some revealing. (source)
This tool from The Global Mail (based on Open Australia Data) is a pretty cool for those interested in Australian politics! Suggest anyone who is interested to have a look at both Talking Heads and Party Lines.
