Word-whore. I write 'em. I talk 'em. Information, politics, media, and the cybers. I drink. I use bad words. All publication is a political act. All communication is propaganda. All art is pornography. All business is personal. All hail Eris! Vive les poissons rouges sauvages!
While writing about the Citizenship Test, I realised they’d forgotten to ask an important question about our national symbols. See if you know the answer. If you’re reading this in an RSS reader, go to the website to vote.
[poll id=”11″]
Last week’s results: Sadly for the Snarky Platypus, “I really want to see a remake of Flashdance” received only one vote. The clear winner was “A bit more to the left, and with a bit more velocity.”
Did anyone understand that poll?
Another week, another big-spending government TV “information campaign”. This one’s for the new Citizenship Test — and gosh, that just happens to be a Coalition-specific policy and it just happens to be running when we’re not in an election campaign, honestly.
And last night immigration minister Kevin Andrews was seen on TV with a bunch of potential citizens — all of whom, by some happy coincidence, had reasonable English and were not particularly unphotogenic. But he was still defending the test.
This TV advert is little more than dog whistle political propaganda. That’s clear for two reasons. First, look closely at the script (below). And second, if you wanted to reach the people most directly affected, mass TV advertising is far from cost-effective.
Here’s a nice little out-of-touch conversation, between three private schoolboys on a Sydney North Shore train.
Schoolboy 1: I feel sorry for the suckers in state schools.
Schoolboy 2: Their parents have no idea.
Schoolboy 3: How do they expect their kids to become captains of industry?
This was overhead by Sydney Morning Herald reader John, from Umina Beach (not published online). Three things strike me:
A piece of stencil art spotted in Wellington, New Zealand. Is this being too cruel to NZ Prime Minister Helen Clark?
Via Alextremist and joemax. I’ve posted other stencil art too.
Most politicians, and especially Ministers, have no clue about teh Internets. An article from The Guardian explains why, at least in relation to former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair.
As prime minister, Tony Blair was shielded from the bewildering speed of technological change. Everything was done for him. So in 10 years he never learned how to send a text message. Finally he did. [Alastair] Campbell [Blair’s director of communications] reported: “I have had two from him. The first was the single word ‘are’. The second read: ‘this is amazing you can do words and everything’.”
Thanks to Memex 1.1 for the pointer.
Here’s an idea. If inthemix.com.au could organize a Flash Rave at Sydney Town Hall yesterday with hundreds of people, it should be possible to organize a Flash Chant of “Howard, time to go!” during the AFL Grand Final this afternoon.
Here’s how:
The crowd for Geelong versus Port Power will presumably have a working-class bias. Everyone will be hyped up for The Big Day anyway. It shouldn’t be too hard to make this happen.
I’ve just created flashchant.com so it’s easier to spread the word, too.
Update: The website has been online less than 2 hours and already it’s received 600 unique visitors. Scary.
