cacophony

muffled by bluestone

• Nook

A day for every occasion?

I’m sorry

There it is. It’s National Sorry Day tomorrow and I am truly sorry.

John Howard says he won’t say sorry to the Aboriginal people because it leaves the Federal Government open to legal action. Me? I think the removal of people from their families and subsequent neglect leaves governments open to legal action anyway. And so it should. If the courts believe that Aboriginal people deserve compensation, us taxpayers deserve to foot the bill - just like we do for Veterans’ healthcare.

I am not at fault for the stolen generations but I am responsible, as we all are, for the continued neglect of Aboriginal people.

Therefore, I’m sorry. And unapologetically so.

So sue me.

The macho men of Movember

Like all great ideas, Movember was born at the pub. A couple of years ago, two Melbourne blokes decided the humble moustache needed a revival. Soon, they paired their great idea with the Prostate Cancer Foundation and Movember was created.

The concept is simple: blokes start clean-shaven on November 1 and by the end of the month, have collected sponsorship money from amused family and friends. They take their earnings to gala parties where they dress up to show off their mos (The Porn Star, The Boonie, The Dali) and swap stories about unimpressed girlfriends.

And there are mos everywhere in Melbourne at the moment, especially in the trendsetter inner suburbs. It’s had an excellent pick up and it has street cred. And all these blokes are thinking about prostate cancer. Go fellas!

www.movember.com

It’s not easy being green

Feeling guilty about your enviornmental footprint? What if you could buy your way out of it?

Eco-agencies are springing up throughout Australia to get their cut of the new carbon-trading industry, which stands to make them millions of dollars in feel-good money. But does all this goodwill translate into real environmental benefit or just another boom industry?

The New South Wales Government has just started trading carbon credits. Melbourne Council is considering it. To qualify for these credits, which have a market value of about $80 each, C02 producers - energy companies - must prove they are reducing carbon emissions. The companies in turn are outsourcing the responsibility to emerging eco-entrepreneurs, who get the credits for planting trees on their behalf or giving their customers free energy-saving lightbulbs.

Seems like a perfect plan, right? Let these eco-pioneers offset the emissions for your car, your office, the reverse-cycle air-conditioner you leave on while you go to the shops; that loud stereo you couldn’t resist. Someone is taking care of it - and making money in the process - and you can sleep at night (at a climate-controlled 21 degrees) knowing you’ve done your bit.

But whether it is actually helping the environment is debatable.

Queensland Premier Peter Beattie says carbon trading is not a panacea and the answer is to invest in alternative energy sources, like his $300 million investment in “clean” coal.

He told the ABC last week: “Politicians are really good at saying `We are going to have a carbon trading regime and it will be bloody wonderful. We’ve fixed the problem and we can all go out and have a red wine’.”

“But without investing significantly in technology, and there has been a reluctance to do that … we are not solving the problem.”

In fact, it may be making the problem worse because it gives governments an “out” from biting the bullet and spending up big on things that we know will help the environment; like putting water back in the Murray or legislating for more sustainable farming practices.

Carbon trading strikes me a little bit like those “ethical purchase” stores, where you can buy No Sweat shoes or organic chocolate. You’re allowed to have a conscience but not so much as to reject the capitalist principles that these stores are still bound to.

But then I suppose I can’t talk. I don’t even know where my coffee shop gets its beans…

Singing to the world, a simple message to my girl

Call it curiosity, call it voyeurism, but I always read the public notices section of newspapers. It’s often a good source of stories and it’s a bit of a cultural barometer.

After a while, I begin to notice patterns in the notices and they make me wonder. The department store that keeps apologising for printing the wrong price in its catalogues - are they really mistakes? Why does this person want to change their name? How desperate would you have to be, to advertise for an Egg Donor in the newspaper? Why is it the only place people seem to publicly thank Saint Joan?

But by far, my favourite notices this year have come from a couple: J and P. Their notices are always short and to the point, something like: “P, Call on me tonight, after 12. - J” or “J, Ring me on Wednesday. I’ll be awake. Love P” I have no way of knowing who these people are or why they are communicating through the public notices. Is it an extramarital affair? Is one of them deaf? Or homeless? Did they meet through the newspaper somehow? They give nothing away, yet I feel like I know them.

I thought about putting in a notice once, asking them to get in touch with me so I could find out why, maybe write their story, but I decided against it.

I guess I like them just the way they are.