The tasks for this tutorial are listed below. A link to where you can view my response to the task, or information about the task will be provided after the task requirements.
· Sign an e-petition.
I signed a petition calling on the Prime Minister to listen to the will of the Australian people and enact a Human Rights Act. You can sign this petition here.
· Respond to a professional blogger at a major news site.
I responded to a blog written by Janet Albrechtsen, who writes for The Australian, about literacy and the lack of skills teachers have to teach children to read. This article is actually a couple of years old, but you can view my comment here (once it has been approved).
· What is Barak Obama up to today?
What is Barak Obama up to today? Find out by reading his TWITTER!! Hehe.
You can also visit his official website which contains a blog outlining what Barak has been up to, including videos and news about his recent State of the Union address. One thing though, to get into the site, I had to input a valid email and post code. Australian postcodes are not valid, so what did I put in? The only US postcode I know – 90210! Ha ha! And then it redirected me to a page to donate funds.. I don’t think so, Barak! Luckily I am clever and changed the URL so I could skip that nonsense and get to the homepage!
· Find out who your local, state and federal representatives are.
Local Representative: Ian McKenzie
State Representative: Cameron Dick
Federal Representative: Kevin Rudd
· Look up the Queensland or Australian hansard to find the last time your local member spoke in parliament.
24 October 2010
· What do you think of the Australian Government's plans to censor the internet (the so-called "Clean Feed")???
I think the “Clean Feed” is a ridiculous idea. Its initial intentions of being a means to eradicate child porn were admirable, but it has hurricaned into something much bigger, extending the policy to include a wider range of content. Being a part of democracy means we should have access to free speech, right? Well how is restricting us giving us that opportunity?
And what is the point of blocking child pornography, when file sharing programs remain unblocked, allowing users to distribute as much child pornography as they like? It all seems a little redundant, doesn’t it?
To me, this is the result of an idea formed by a bunch of old-fashioned, cynical bigots who wish to impose their narrow-minded views/ways onto the rest of the country.
I think the “Clean Feed” is a ridiculous idea. Its initial intentions of being a means to eradicate child porn were admirable, but it has hurricaned into something much bigger, extending the policy to include a wider range of content. Being a part of democracy means we should have access to free speech, right? Well how is restricting us giving us that opportunity?
And what is the point of blocking child pornography, when file sharing programs remain unblocked, allowing users to distribute as much child pornography as they like? It all seems a little redundant, doesn’t it?
To me, this is the result of an idea formed by a bunch of old-fashioned, cynical bigots who wish to impose their narrow-minded views/ways onto the rest of the country.
· What place does censorship have in a democracy?
Censorship has no place in a democracy because it destroys one of the key factors that make a democracy so; that talk is possibly the important element of democratic activity. Therefore, in order to participate in a democracy, one must have access to free speech. If censorship occurs, then that freedom of speech is gone, as is our participation in a democratic society. Censorship and democracy, sounds like a bit of an oxymoron, doesn’t it?
No comments:
Post a Comment