Human Rights Day was 10 December and the Australian Human Rights Commission presented its awards in 10 categories, including those below. Great to see Ian Thorpe recognised, and also the excellent online news & issues resource The conversation and TV’s informative The project.
Human Rights Medal Winner 2012
Ian Thorpe
“Fighting for better services for Indigenous children in remote communities across Australia has delivered the prestigious Human Rights Medal for 2012 to Ian Thorpe OAM. For over a decade, Ian has worked as a passionate advocate for Indigenous people with his Fountain for Youth charity, which works with twenty-one remote communities in the Northern Territory.” He began this charity in 2000 when he was only 18 years old. He is also Co-Patron of Close the Gap campaign.
http://www.humanrights.gov.au/about/media/news/2012/131_12.html
Thorpe’s recent autobiography This is me: the autobiography reveals how he has coped with depression and would be a valuable addition to high school collections.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/nov/12/ian-thorpe-swimming-depression
Print and Online Media Award
Professor Sharon Pickering and The Conversation Academic Expert Panel on Asylum Seekers series – Series of 14 articles published in The Conversation between June and August 2012 (details below).
Saving lives at sea: The Conversation’s asylum seeker expert panel makes its findings and states what it believes to be a fair, humane and workable policy approach. Includes links to the award-winning articles – good authoritative resources for social science & “issues” courses: http://theconversation.edu.au/saving-lives-at-sea-the-asylum-seeker-expert-panel-reports-8601
Includes:
Asylum seekers & Aust: http://theconversation.edu.au/asylum-seekers-and-australia-the-evidence-8173
Infographic displaying global populations of refugees from 1975-2010. Using UNHCR data, every population the UNHCR has counted over 35 years is charted on this spinning globe, highlighting where refugees settled, and where they came from: http://theconversation.edu.au/infographic-global-refugee-populations-1975-2010-8443
Global refugee facts: http://theconversation.edu.au/refugee-populations-across-the-globe-the-facts-7557
All asylum seeker links: http://theconversation.edu.au/pages/asylum-seekers
Literature (non-fiction) Award
The people smuggler by Robin de Crespigny – Penguin Australia, May 2012.
“The story of one man’s epic struggle to find a safe place in the world. When Ali Al Jenabi flees Saddam Hussein’s torture chambers, he is forced to leave his family behind in Iraq. What follows is an incredible international odyssey through the shadow world of fake passports, crowded camps and illegal border crossings, living every day with excruciating uncertainty about what the next will bring….Eventually he must confront what he has been forced to become.” http://www.thepeoplesmuggler.com/
Television Award
Age of Uncertainty – The Project – Network Ten – Produced by Hamish MacDonald and Sam Clark – Screened over April and May 2012.
The Human Rights Day Oration was delivered by James Spigelman, Chairman of the ABC and former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of NSW: ‘Where do we draw the line between hate speech and free speech?’ (audio & transcript): http://www.humanrights.gov.au/about/media/news/2012/132_12.html
Some more resources ….useful for sociology, geography, popular culture…
Australia Street
If Australia was a street of 100 households, what would it look like and who would live there? What about employment, religion, education, births, deaths and marriages? All these stats and more are included in this animation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzAtaZg6ljo&feature=youtu.be
Aust. St explained: http://blog.mccrindle.com.au/_blog/The_McCrindle_Blog/post/Mark_McCrindle_explains_Australia_Street_VIDEO
Julia and the “mummy” bloggers
It was another morning tea this week for Julia Gillard and 25 the country’s most influential female bloggers, whose sites reach 2.5 million people (similar sites were important in the Obama campaign).
“Sites represented included:
Eden Riley (Sydney Writers’ Centre award Best Aust. Blog 2012); Mrs Woog (Woogsworld); Nicole Avery (tips for organising the chaos of family life); the writer of My Mummy Daze (juggling motherhood and a family business); the mother of four boys, one with special needs, who writes allconsuming .com.au; Fairfax’s EssentialBaby (largest online parenting site in Aust.); iVillage (Mia Freedman –Mamamia -has the local licence); Women’s Agenda (created by Crikey journalist Angela Priestley); Kidspot (News Ltd site that aims to simplify parenting and offer mothers a place to talk to each other); and the Fairfax site Daily Life.”
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/pm-cosies-up-to-mummy-bloggers-20121209-2b3gm.html
Eden Riley was crowned Australia’s Best Blogger at the 2012 Sydney Writers Centre Blog Awards. Her blog is called Edenland. She writes of spirit, redemption, addiction, and truth. Eden has been blogging for five years and has been named as a Voice of the Year at America’s largest social media conference for women, BlogHer. http://www.edenriley.com/
CNET: the 100 biggest tech stories of 2012
Everything you wanted to know but were afraid to ask….iPad mini, Windows 8, Apple maps, MakerBot, Instagram, Google Glass, Zuckerberg, Assange..…
CNET: the 10 best & most influential tech products of 2012
Galaxy S3 (best device); iPhone 5; Google Nexus 7; iPad Mini; Motorola Razr; Windows 8; Microsoft Surface; the MakerBot 3D Replicator (3D printer that prints whatever you design – toys, jewellery, models etc).
http://www.cnet.com/8301-33506_1-57557848-306/galaxy-s3-beats-iphone-5-for-best-device-of-2012/