Community Voice for Wollongong

Hold on.  Democracy in Wollongong.  Really.  Perhaps.  May as well get behind it!

There's Community Voice running in this local election in Wollongong, which will be Sept 3rd 2011.  A few of my favourite inspiring people are in the thick of it.  Including two of the most inspiring women I know.  Both of them always give me fresh perspectives and have real, real social vision, skills and force.

It really is a very rare experience for me to see the things I have been thinking would be a good idea for the region being suggested.  Renewable energy jobs rather than this amazingly tired business about carbon tax can only equal loss of jobs.  Campaigning for a one hour rail trip from Sydney to the Gong.  No Coal Seam Gas Mining.  A revived culture sector: they did it with Revive Newcastle.  A lot of my favourite artists are now in Newcastle and I'm kinda jealous of their network.  But you know what, that can happen here also.

The place of hope or at least a sense in achieving possibilities.  That great loss of hope for many when Obama fell of his pedestal ... reminds me that hope and fear, hope and disappointment are always twins.  And in the meantime, it's about working for what you want to see anyway.

I have been teaching a subject on Media and Communication and have been thinking about democracy and representation.  And how it matters, how I care about it.  

So I am letterboxing and womaning an election booth and into it.

Arab Spring, Media and Democracy Seminar Clip from UOW

Some important discussions happen at UOW.

Quote of the Day

" ... uncertainty is wondrous, and ... certainty, were it to be real, would be moral death.  If we were certain of the future, there would be no moral compulsion to do anything.  We would be free to indulge every passion and pursue every egoism, since all actions fall within the certainty that has been ordained.  If everything is uncertain, then the future is open to creativity, not merely human creativity but the creativity of all nature.  It is open to possibility and, therefore, a better world.  But we can only get there as we are ready to invest our moral energies in its achievement, and as we are ready to struggle with those who, under whatever guise and for whatever excuse, prefer an inegalitarian and undemocratic world."

 Sorry, for some reason I have no idea where this is from now.  If I find out I'll let y'all know.