An Early Childhood Literacy Project in Alice Springs

As a community service project of the ‘Rotary Club of Alice Springs Mbantua’ I’m working on a project to link sponsors that cover the costs of the Kumon literacy program with early childhood aged Aboriginal recipients (and families) in Alice Springs.  Interviews for the first available scholarship will commence soon.

As this proceeds I am in the process of seeking more scholarship sponsors.  If you live in a capital city in Australia and know how to tap into capital relevant to improving literacy for Aboriginal people in a regional/remote part of our country then this could be your opportunity. 

For more information please visit www.earlychildhoodliteracy.wordpress.com

Marechal Rondon

Recently I read The River of Doubt about President Theodore Roosevelt’s journey on an unmapped river in South America, also called the Roosevelt-Rondon Scientific Expedition.  A friend lent me the book.  It is a fascinating account and coming from the desert the detailed explanations of the river, the amazon environment and its adaptive nature was intriguing given the stark contrast to my own environment.

My friend who lent it to me said that Marechal Rondon, the Brazilian Military Officer who led the journey with Roosevelt, was a remarkable figure so prominent in the history of South America.  In that region his name is recognised extensively.  The book gives account after account of Rondon’s philosophy and approach towards the indigenous peoples; how he refused to support confrontation despite being in the face of danger and hostility; how his practice was to leave food and goods as gifts; how his discipline and honour and strong sense of nationalism was highly regarded.  My friend asks why we don’t have similiar figures recognised by our own Australian history?  

Judging by our own account of history during the 1800s it seems Rondon’s philosophy and approach would have been quite a departure from accepted opinion.  His was progressive in the sense of accepting pluralism but different from many established opinions (such as responding to hostility with strength and force).  The fact that Rondon received such widespread recognition accounts to the fact that this position and philosophy was recognised as central to the development of general identity and recognition in South America.  My friends question opens up important thoughtlines!

Professor Greenfield and the internet

Previously I posted my response here to a fascinating debate concerning the internet and what it is doing to the human mind.  Professor Greenfield is an intriguing individual.  A few nights ago she was on Lateline again and gave another persuasive interview.  Of all the media and public debates I have observed recently this is by far one of the most interesting.

Letter to editor: 6 months on

A letter in today’s Centralian Advocate:

It has been about 6 months since I quit alcohol. As a young adult my main reason was to send the right message to others in my generation.

I can confidently say that my challenge has been well worth it.  I never drank regularly, a weekend wind-down was always on the cards, but as more than 4 standard drinks on any single occasion is considered a health risk I was in the camp of many in the odd occasion of over-consumption.  Quitting alcohol meant that I could talk about it more and its place in our community.

If alcohol is consumed responsibly then this can be a good thing, it can be a good way to wind down and socialise.

Alcohol becomes a problem when relationships are harmed; when the amount of money spent dips too much into disposable income; when violence or abuse no matter how benign is dished out; when it is seen as an out to whatever personal or social problems persist. For some people the response to any of these experiences is to have another drink.

The problem self-generates.  For some, alcohol is a pitiless addiction.  For too many in my generation and younger alcohol and its misuse is a social contagion.  We egg each other on and poke fun at the hapless incidents. 

Abstaining from alcohol is not a solution for everybody.  I set myself this challenge to see what it was like.  Because alcohol was a weekly ritual it was difficult at first. My mind relied on its calming effects after a long week and mentally I had to adjust. Because I am a busy person it was easier for me to quash boredom without it (having boredom and no purpose is a big issue for many in Alice Springs).

Exercise helped me, as did a healthy addiction to coffee.  What I realised from quitting is that there is so much to life and its abundance that other interests can easily replace alcohol, so long as a kind of semi-dependency caused by years of use is overcome.  Without the after-effects my mind and body is better without it.

To others in my generation I hope these messages resonate.

My experiences with media

Since my involvement with local government one of the most interesting experiences is media engagement. 

In a letter to the editor I submitted the words ‘As an urban Indigenous person’ and then proceeded to criticise the playing of the race card by a prominent Alice Springs person.  The newspaper changed the ‘as’ to ‘to’, completely changing the meaning and context of the letter.  My intention was to start where I’m coming and whilst I have no problem referring to my circumstances as ‘urban’ I certainly would not refer to others the same way because everyone has a different angle.  One word can change the whole context.    

When I was first elected a local journalist asked me about what it meant to have two Aboriginal Alderman.  I repeated the lines (because he kept on seeking a different response) that ‘I was proud to be associated with a Council with Alderman from a diverse range of identities and industries’.  I didn’t want to be drawn into a race-based analysis.  The next day my words were printed along the lines of being ‘proud to be’ on a Council with two Aboriginal Alderman and how this would make a big difference (it may have, but I didn’t want to be drawn on it).  This was my first direct experience.

Following my election as Deputy Mayor I held a lengthy interview where I said a core focus would be to argue for recognition of Local Government in the constitution that evokes Statehood (the document that formalises a new State for the NT).  I said that the new constitution can protect the interests of regions, and Local Government, because of its geographic spread, was one way to do this.  I said that the efforts of Local Government for recognition in the ‘national’ constitution was not worth the time or effort.  The media report said my ambition was for recognition of Local Government in the ‘national’ constitution.

Another interviewer asked me about my family heritage.  I told him the links.  He wasn’t familiar with those family names so I explained other families (more familiar names) who also branched from the original person.  I said that those more familiar names are not my direct family and not to use them but that I told him these things so that he could see how everything is linked.  He used the family names I asked him not to. 

On a completely different topic the following is a Stateline interview, my first foray into tv journalism: 

MELINDA JAMES: They’ve been described as racist, unconstitutional and even wacky. Alice Springs Town Council has proposed eighty four new by-laws that have stirred up angry public debate. The by-laws cover a range of issues including a prohibition on people sleeping in the dry Todd River bed, drinking alcohol in public and demonstrating without a permit.

Alice Springs Deputy Mayor John Rawnsley says the aim of the by-laws is to improve the town. I spoke with him earlier today.

MELINDA JAMES: John Rawnsley, welcome to Stateline.

JOHN RAWNSLEY – Deputy Mayor, Alice Springs: Hi Melinda, how are you?

MELINDA JAMES: It’s fair to say that these proposed by-laws have caused quite a stir in Alice Springs, isn’t it?

JOHN RAWNSLEY: Oh look, it’s been twenty years since the by-laws have been revised. Recent changes to the local government act give local councils and shires more powers in relation to creating their own by-laws. This is a big project that were working on, previously we worked on by-laws in relation to trolleys and of course council’s got a lot of great initiatives such as the cash-for-cans scheme amongst one. But, you know, we encourage public discussion in relation to a wide range of issues and so we’ve taken the course of putting these draft by-laws out for public comment.

Memorable moments # 8

Seedless watermelon’s were not available at Coles so we purchased watermelon with seeds.  The kids were amazed as they hadn’t seen it before.  ‘What’s that…wwoaaaaah’ (with beady eyes) was the response. 

More memorable moments over the fold.

Op-ed: Alice Springs and alcohol policy

My first printed opinion piece was published in the NT News as a follow up to my commitment to quit alcohol for one year.  I was grateful for the opportunity.  The piece suggests three policy ideas concerning alcohol in Alice Springs.

Over the fold is a pdf version of my original submission and a scan of the News piece.

The following is my original submission:

As the first from the Generation Y (those born 1980-1995) to be elected to a municipal Council in the Territory I was honoured in March this year to be elected Deputy Mayor of Alice Springs. My generation lives within a specific set of circumstances and I am obliged to advocate reform with this in mind. In my new role my first decision was to quit alcohol for one year.

My main motivation is to set an example. If the National Health and Medical Research Council recommends no more than 4 standard drinks on any single occasion then excessive alcohol consumption in the Territory is commonplace. Too often we leave the task of finding solutions to policy makers without realising that it is also us who can build a social and cultural intolerance of alcohol misuse.

(continued over the fold)

Pluralism as a policy paradigm

In social policy there are no absolutes.  Broad labels such as self-determination, mutual responsibility, etc. describe broad policies subject to an integrated and complex web of forces, powers and circumstances.  Certain labels might be ideal in theory but in practice fall short.  Some may describe in a broad sense a set of policies but in fact lack the substance for an accurate description.  An unfortunate aspect of the political market is that such circumstances lead to a postering for position rather than an articulation of policies and how they can be improved.  By its very nature politics is continually at risk of becoming an equation between different interpretations and positions rather than a collective articulation of ways forward.

An example of a convuluted term is ’self-determination’.  The opposite is seen as ‘mainstreaming’.  Both describe the tension between the way Aboriginal identity is integrated into the broader and more dominant parts of society and the way it is protected as a distinct and seperate position.  One train of thought, put to me recently by an Aboriginal person strong in traditional culture, is that Aboriginal people exercise self-determination through retaining their identity: language, relationships, etc, and nothing else.  I am told that ‘this is self-determination’, meaning not some formal policy construct.  Contrast this with the policy label of ’self-determination’ which was, in effect, the creation of thousands of corporate structures providing services exclusively accessed by Aboriginal people.  The two interpretations of ’self-determination’ are quite stark. 

Elected to Deputy Mayor position

Last night I was elected to Deputy Mayor of Alice Springs Town Council.  (Recently it’s been difficult to find the time to post).  Media release from Council attached.

astc-media-release_welcome_to_deputy_mayor_john_rawnsley

Screen culture and Prof Greenfield

Someone once said that there was once a time where a person could acquire all the knowledge of the world.  That is because the world at that stage was limited, confined to a certain number of relationships, views, interactions, known precedence.  At this stage of globalisation and human development there is an abundance of information. 

This interview on the 7:30 report about screen culture offers intriguing insight into the way technology is changing our behaviour and interactions.  As someone from the Generation Y I feel I can identify with this subject.  During my teenage years I played video games and on occasions for lengthy periods of time.  Even today sometimes when I dream the sensations of playing games occurs.  In dreams, though, I can usually understand the fact that I am dreaming of a role that is not a reality in the dream itself, as if whilst I sleep I understand that it is just a dream but that a further unreal experience adapted from a game is super-imposed.  Such experiences in my lifetime and the experiences shared by so many others conjures reasons why films such as the first Matrix was so popular.

Returning to the subject, when I consider the changes between generations and the vast differences in how we interact, how we analyse and absorb information, how we exchange ideas, knowledge and experiences and how we identify and relate to role models I find how different each generation is.  In some ways technology has simply replaced the old mediums that existed.  The blogging community might work collectively the same way as previous generations did, at least in terms of mobilising and shaping political and intellectual thought.

An Important Story

Excerpt from Alice Springs News…

By ERWIN CHLANDA

Mark Lockyer says he began drinking at age 12.
At 17 he moved out of Hidden Valley, where he had grown up, so that he wouldn’t remain an alcoholic.
“I didn’t want to die from drinking,” he says.
But his aunty, to whom he was very close, did.
His mother, now an invalid, remained in the squalid town camp, and so he maintained a connection with this source of much anti-social behaviour in Alice Springs.
As a kid he himself was an occasional player, roaming the town in gangs of six to a dozen kids, “from the camps, the bush and urban kids” – stealing hard liquor, “bottles of grog, rum, vodka” – and food from bottle shops and supermarkets.
Mark’s mother lives in an exceptionally neat house amongst the Hidden Valley mayhem.
It’s 3.30pm on Friday.
Most able-bodied adults in Alice are still at work, but across the road, in a freshly renovated house, painted in garish blue colours, the daily drinking party is getting into full swing.
There are about two dozen young men and women, many already under the weather.
The scene outside leaves little to the imagination about what the interior would look like, recently refurbished at taxpayers’ expense.
Says Mark: “There are already graffiti, smashed doors and windows.
“It’s almost back where it started, trashed.
“There are 15 to 20 people, beds, mattresses, beer cans all over the yard, 12 year old girls drinking and smoking dope.”

(continued here.)

Deliberate Practice

Reading the Weekend Australian I recently stumbled across this fascinating article about ‘deliberate practice’, a concept exploring the acquisition of expert performance.  This Freakonomics blog post summarises:

This means that, your level of natural talent notwithstanding, excellence is accomplished mainly through the tenets of deliberate practice, which are roughly:

1. Focus on technique as opposed to outcome.
2. Set specific goals.
3. Get good, prompt feedback, and use it.

Dr K Anders Ericsson is the authorative figure for this work.  An extract here:

For appropriate challenging problems experts don’t just automatically extract patterns and retrieve their response directly from memory. Instead they select the relevant information and encode it in special representations in working memory that allow planning, evaluation and reasoning about alternative courses of action (Ericsson & Lehmann, 1996). Hence, the difference between experts and less skilled subjects is not merely a matter of the amount and complexity of the accumulated knowledge; it also reflects qualitative differences in the organization of knowledge and its representation (Chi, Glaser & Rees, 1982).  Experts’ knowledge is encoded around key domain-related concepts and solution procedures that allow rapid and reliable retrieval whenever stored information is relevant.  

Alice Springs, new media and the internet

If google’s blog search engine and wordpress.com tags are any indication there are only two other active blogs in Alice Springs – Jane Clark’s and Desert Mandala.  This is suprising considering the importance of regional policy reform in the national context (and of interest throughout the nation), although crikey.com.au and other forums carry irregular and unanimous contributions from this region.  However, there appears to be a number of blogs from Aboriginal communities in the north of the Territory.

Updated 5/11 - Alice Online is a site online for some time. 

Recently the local ABC significantly enhanced its content including blogs, photos, features and a range of functions, found here.  These local photos are excellent.

The Alice Springs News continues to display content online and there is limited coverage online with the Centralian Advocate. 

If there are any new Alice Springs (or Central Australian) blogs please let me know.

Alice Springs Innovative ideas forum

Recently the Alice Springs Town Council hosted an innovative ideas forum facilitated by Ted Egan.  I submitted the following ideas (the final one was in the top 4).  Surprisingly, the idea in relation to Slamball received more support than I expected and was spoken to by one participant (only a small number of participants were aware of what it is!).  Other ideas submitted to the forum included extreme sports generally and this idea can be linked into the Slamball proposal.

ideas-for-innovation-workshop_nov-081

Chess

Chess is a fascinating game.  Its a game of risk, calculation and battle.  The game has developed to a perfect form and it did so a very long time ago.  There are no tricks, no easy paths.  No shortcuts.

The concept of chess is often used to explain how the brain functions.  After many games certain patterns imprint in the mind.  Experts look at a board and can see instantly the options presented as if the sub-conscious mind recognises certain patterns without going through a conscious thought process.  Because these conscious thought processes take time the advantage of immediately recognising patterns leads in almost all cases to the correct move option.  As humans have weaknesses errors arise but errors are fewer in-between when memory and sub-conscious activity expands.  The rest comes down to innovation and it is this skill that attracts so many players.

The Todd River flowing

Last week the Todd River was at its brink.  This photo was taken at about 6pm when the Todd was at its strength.  I was on the footbridge at the side closest to East side.

A strong memory I have is walking across the footbridge at around 9pm, the sound of water running, the street lights dim with light reflecting across the water and the cool dry air.  The Flickr bar to the right has more photos.

an Obama election win

Barack Obama is at the cusp of an historic election win.

I first came across him at the Democratic Convention leading up to the previous election but didn’t take much notice.  Last year I visited the book store and found his Audacity of Hope.  It was an intriguing read and I posted here a piece about his approach to race politics.  This was a new and fresh direction and is, in my view, a topic seldom discussed yet entirely relevant to contemporary politics.  It presents a radical centre approach absent from any equivalent analysis from an Australian political perspective.

Shortly after reading Audacity I purchased Dreams from my Father.  Again I thought it was a fascinating account of his life and the detail and work of his Kenyan trip an important story. 

Later, I posted my observations of Noel Pearsons analysis of Obamas path. 

Whilst the work of a transformational President is yet to be seen the conditions for it are present.  I hope that the political and media environment in America will generate discussion in our own country on related issues, namely, identity politics and the integration of minority groups in national political decision-making processes.

Embedding regionalisation in the Statehood constitution

At the Full Council meeting on 28th October the following motion was passed unanimously:

That Council prepare a discussion paper for Statehood.

That the discussion paper examine, amongst other possibilities, recognition of Local Government including its powers and responsibilities and an equitable formula for the distribution of funds to be embedded in the constitution that evokes Statehood.

That this paper, if necessary, utilise funding allocated in this years budget for further analysis of population figures and mobility with a view of ascertaining an accurate formula.

That this paper consider the unique position of regions within the Territory.

That Council give impetus to the Mayor to consult with Local Government across the Territory,
particularly the regions, with a view of seeking support for the principles embodied in the paper.

Moved: John Rawnsley
Seconded: Jane Clark

This motion calls on Council to actively contribute to the direction of Statehood by promoting the
principle of regionalisation. The aim is to embed this interest in the document that evokes
Statehood.

Regionalisation holds two aspects.

More over the fold.

A flat out special purpose vehicle

As a person with a general interest in economics but not a detailed understanding of its complexity and depth I was interested to observe the Tony Jones interview of economist WIll Hutton, located here.

An excerpt:

TONY JONES: Yes, well, you’ve written the most complete account that I’ve seen of how it went bust in the first place; how this credit derivative market developed and why so many financial managers put their trust in us. Tell us how it all started.

WILL HUTTON: Well, how long have you got? I think everyone watching will probably understand the idea of a bond, you know, you issue a bond, a company or Government issues a bond and you make 1,000 pounds in profits and you’ll pay a small fraction of those profits to servicing the bond.

Fine, we all understand that. It’s a very established principle. Securitisation did something different.

It said okay, let’s take part of your profit stream, it could be interest from payments on a port facility you own, it could be a football stadium, it could be some mortgage payments you’re receiving from some tenants.

Let’s take all those and let’s hypothecate them, to what was called in the jargon a special purpose vehicle, and then let’s flog it to investors all around the world.

And to give them some guarantee that this very risky piece of paper is worth the paper it’s written on, let’s take out an insurance contract called a credit default.

But it was more than a credit default, it was called a credit default swap because you would swap the insurance policy to another buyer if you chose.

Now what makes this so interesting is that if for any reason any of those mortgage payments don’t come in like you’re expecting; if the traffic in the port facility goes down a bit, if the revenues from that football stadium just contract a bit, suddenly, wow, there’s less money coming in to pay the interest on that bond.

And you start to … and the value of it starts to fall, and then you want to collect on the insurance policy but you’ve swapped the insurance policy to somebody else and they may in turn have swapped it to somebody else and somebody else and somebody else.

So nobody in the system knows what the value of these securities actually are really, where the losses are going to pop up and suddenly, over the last two, three, four weeks, the entire world system has just frozen in fear.

And people only … and banks will lend to each other just for the night or they’ll borrow from a Central Bank.

And you can’t lend working capital to a business or a 25-year mortgage if you, the bank, are just borrowing off the Central Bank or borrowing off another bank overnight you just can’t do it.
So credit has just stopped in its tracks and if something hadn’t happened, we would have confronted a worldwide meltdown, a worldwide depression.

An overview of media reports of economists suggests somewhere between a mild recession to a deep recession in the United States with permeating effects throughout the world.  Australia appears much safer to cope with this than many other countries.  Consistency across media does not always produce an accurate result.  The complexity of the issue, the lack of information and the lack of oversight and regulation is concerning.

The Kumon method

My son has been attending the local Kumon centre for some months now.  It costs us $200Aus per month, money worth its value.  With our children we’ve always considered additional teaching materials over and above schooling and Kumon provides that opening. 

The Kumon method is proven.  Key facets are repetition and consistency.  Each day he receives a booklet, maths and english.  He is challenged to finish each within ten minutes and with near 100% accuracy.  At five years old, and with many months of daily practice, he is at a level where he can complete each booklet by himself.  Each page is at a level that he is comfortable with – kumon aims to provide material at an individual level free from the competitive edge of peers.  The challenge is gradual, a new word or number sequence here and there.  Most of the time he is repeating answers he has already learned and by doing so builds confidence. 

The best part for me is that it is structured.  Goals are set daily.  If I consider a learning method where I demand results and if I over-impose this method without positive engagement then the ultimate result is failure, because ultimately he disengages.  Because Kumon is repetitious and within the scope of my childs capabilities it automatically attracts his will to achieve.  The Kumon method allows my son to take ownership not only in the results, but also progress.