Blog on action - 01-07-2008 12:02
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This is my blog to describe my action I have been undertaking... well much to my dismay it has been difficult to find the time. All of the other Incubators had this issue...but I did some more reading than I expected and found out some things I did not anticipate. I stumbled across a review of a book, one that was written by an ex-journo in Sydney. The premise of his book was content analysis, so a way of measuring content in newspapers. He found that is was so frequent for Muslims to be referred to as "people of Middle Eastern appearance". Even worse, he found that when it came to crimes, if the person was not of typical Anglo Saxon background, it was always mentioned that they were not white. This sort of research backs up my the need for my action. We say we are multicultural and proud, but are we? Scratch the surface and we are not perfect when it comes to this issue. My action was about researching and understanding other cultures, particularly that of Islam demoniation, as this seems to be the culture of most criticism. What I have found is very clear evidence that we are culturally inept, we prefer to judge, stereotype and simplify because we can, and because it's easier. I read some papers from Melbourne University's Centre for Islamic studies, including lectures and studies. I will describe more of what I found in my action reflection story..but basically what I read was fascinating, and not in a good way. An interesting thing I read was that Islam is seen as a simple religion, one that is followed the same by all Muslims across the world. This is so wrong, and I admit that I didn't know how diverse this religion is. Indeed it seems we all have things to learn.
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My time as an incubator! - 30-06-2008 10:28
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I was involved in the 6th Incubator run by ActNow, and what a great program it was. I think we go into these things not knowing anything, hoping for the best, but once you sign up to ActNow there really is no going back. I hope that the Incubator program has made me realise how small things grow into big things. Like that Paul Kelly song, "from little things big things grow". That was my random tangent I decided to go off on. But honestly the Incubator was a great way to get a group of like minded people together, and let them rant and rave about what they care about. It doesn't matter if you read the paper or care about the world around you, because we all have issues close to our hearts. Even tough boys are protective of their Italian heritages. Even "dumb" blondes care if someone calls them dumb. Because we all care, sometimes it's just easier not to. ActNow is a way to learn about the world you live in, and remember that there is no feeling like knowlegde and wisdom.
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