Cruwsible Spring 2015 Diversity edition

cr

ible

many poems

Love Guru

DIVERSITY FEST !

skuws

EMPLOYMENT LAW

Jarrod’s Health Corner

Gender Diversity

AUSTRALIA’S IMMIGRATION HISTORY

westie scum !

remember the bird IMAGE: CASSANDRA TAI

1

ISSUE 11 | SPRING 2015

WRITE FOR US Send us your stories, artwork, blurbs, photos, articles, reportage, rants, poems, fiction, recipes, good news, not good news and pet photos. crUWSible@uws.edu.au

EDITORS Ian Escandor, Lucy Borg, Fenella Henderson-Zuel, Mia Sanders, Jarrod Bradley, Murray Robertson

crUWSible.com.au facebook.com/crUWSible @crUWSible

cover art Cassandra Tai full version page 63

Advertising inquiries: crUWSible.com.au

crUWSible acknowledges the country and People of the Darug, Gandangarra and Tharawal Nations and acknowledges their ancestors who have been Traditional Owners of their country for thousands of years. crUWSible pays respect to their Elders past and present

crUWSible n. A melting pot of cultures, backgrounds and interests that make up the UWS student body, the fusion that is UWS - a molten mix of dynamic and interesting content.

CONTENTS 7

Save the Bird ISIS

14

R U OK ?

History of Immigration

21

64

Hilarious Employment Law Move Over Paris

74

40

Westies Rule How to Behave at the Ball

67

18

Navigating the World as an Ex-Mormon Pull-out Diversity Fest Program Guide

54

12

72

Skate with SkUWS Love Guru

79

editorial

#RememberTheBird

There’s no point denying it now. Finally, at 25 years of age, the University of Western Sydney has reached its rebellious phase. Like a teenager cutting their hair short, dying it blue and getting a tongue piercing, UWS is shedding its links with the past and preparing to emerge as a new entity.

Well, isn’t that wizard.

Gone is the name and the catchy acronym that rolled so easily off the tongue and inspired the creators of crUWSible to name a magazine with a pun they could be proud of. This behavior was criminal enough. But what really got people hot and bothered was the destruction of the most recognizable symbol of UWS – the blue bird.

Journalists questioned the change, cartoonists mocked it and students were incensed.

A call to arms was put out on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, which for many students was the first time they’d heard about the proposal. A ‘#SaveTheBird’ change.org petition begged the university to abandon the proposed rebranding and to ‘scrap the hideous proposed design for the University logo’, but the 5,000 signatures needed were not achieved.

For many, the proposal signified a change in values.

Since its conception the University of Western Sydney has been more than just a place of learning – it has been a beacon of opportunity. Accessible to all, it promised better lives for those in surrounding communities who had made their way through hardship and was symbolic of a changing Western Sydney. That’s what

The University of Western Sydney meant to people.

But what does Western Sydney University mean? It’s a relatively small yet significant change, the dropping of a simple two letter word changing an entire image.

Many have derided the similarities between the new red ‘shield’ logo and the Harvard University equivalent.

As much as we may admire the ambition, one of the greatest strengths of UWS is its individuality. We don’t have decades of history like Sydney Uni or a largerthan-life reputation like UTS. We’re the quiet achiever, the slow but steady uni offering chances to anyone and everyone. We’re the people’s uni.

However, the greatest blow the changing logo dealt was the loss of trust felt by students towards administrators.

It’s one thing to completely change the image of an establishment – it’s quite another to do it without consulting so many of those involved.

In my senior year of high school, the P&C Committee had a complete brain spasm and decided to change the uniform students had proudly worn for over 40 years.

Again, that was bad enough. What was worse was that they made us students feel like we mattered before everything crashing down. We were asked to vote on the change, twice. Each time students rushed towards each other demanding to know whether anyone had been crazy enough to vote ‘Yes’ to the change. Noone ever did. And yet, just a few short weeks later, there we all were trying on our excessively itchy and embarrassingly see-through new uniforms.

I’ll tell you now that decisions just don’t get made that quickly. It is virtually impossible to draft a proposal, pitch it to a board, make changes, receive feedback and rollout a change in a few weeks. Especially if that change involves actually manufacturing a hard copy of something. It just doesn’t happen. So how did they do it so fast? The answer is simple. They didn’t wait for student approval. When we did some digging, we found that the plans for the uniform change had been drafted three years earlier. The designs had been approved within six months and prototypes constructed within a year. By the time the second student survey was conducted, there were already warehouses full of new uniforms just waiting to be distributed to stores. We had been betrayed.

Now, UWS students are feeling the same pain. Students returning to campus for the spring semester were suddenly confronted with a garbled rumour, which many disregarded. Then suddenly there was a leaked, fuzzy image of simple red shield and a lecturer confirmed the fear: the bird was down. Students were outraged at not being consulted or seemingly even considered.

A hasty text message was sent by administrators to try to calm the storm by inviting students to ‘preview’ the brand changes at Werrington campus. But even when attempting to placate their audience the university failed – the message was only sent to those who had registered the mobile phone numbers previously, and not to all students via email. By the time everyone else found out, it was already too late.

Just like the uniforms at my high school, a new logo rollout cannot be planned and executed with any sort of speed. This change was pitched, planned and the implementation set in motion before the first returning students set foot on campus.

We couldn’t even attend the bird’s funeral.

So what do we do now? Well, we complain for a while.

Years even, go right ahead. I know I’ll still be whining about this years from now, and I’m one of the lucky ones who only has to live with it for a few more months.

For those who have a long way to go before they leave, I predict many garbled mix-ups and stubborn refusals before the new name can operate smoothly.

The name we may eventually forgive, but we’ll never forget the bird. We’ll never forgive the changes we have to make and we’ll never accept the Harvard-wannabe shield. Here at crUWSible we have our own selfish anger, as crUWSible’s days are also numbered. By August 31st, we will no longer be allowed to use ‘UWS’ in any official context and crWSUible just doesn’t work as well. Or at all, actually. So what do we call ourselves now? Well, that’s what we’re asking you. We’re fresh out of ideas (plus we’re just being stubborn). What do you think we should be called? Let us know your suggestions for the new name for our beloved student newspaper.

And never, ever, #ForgetTheBird.

Fenella Henderson-Zuel

EDITORIAL

UWS or WSU? The two camps. Red vs. Blue. Blanket fort vs. pillow fort.

Charmander vs. Squirtle (because who really cared about Bulbasaur).

Despite what your thoughts on the issue are, understand that this is not a debate about which name rolls off the tongue better this should be a debate about why we need to change the name and at what costs. Within this edition, there will be opinions on the name change and what that really means for us as students.

Besides the name change, it may be in your interests to note down in your diary the Bankstown Occupation panel (details inside), which will explore the history behind one of Sydney's largest student movements and will also shed light on how a system built on marketing and perception has shaped the way universities prioritise their budget (sound familiar?). In a time where neo-liberal ideals are shaping our universities, and corporations are controlling the media - the CrUWSible would like to thank the students who have spared what little time they have between assessments and Orange Is The New Black for contributing to the magazine. It is your time and effort that keeps this magazine ‘for the students and by the students’ ‌ because we would all hate to see the magazine written for the interests of the elite and by the elite - or else fucked up things might happen like 20 million dollars being invested into one big marketing scheme other than being invested into the wellbeing of the students.

Enjoy your set CrUWSible readings,

Ian Escandor

Save the Bird

By Anne Christine educational and social experiences of students. We want to open a dialogue for ALL UWS supporters to express their concerns.

A legacy and a future are at stake.

Just post its 25th year, our University stands a distinguished contender among venerable institutions across the country. Accessible, all-inclusive, and accomplished, UWS offers a unique community experience to staff and students alike. These three simple letters – UWS – stand for opportunity; a chance to be tutored by knowledgeable and respectable professors, to engage in social, educational and political dialogues that influence the future of our generation, and to represent, with pride, an establishment that nourishes the seeds of our potential so that we graduate prepared and motivated to face the challenges ahead.

From 10th August, we have been proudly and loudly sporting royal blue ribbons to show our devotion to UWS and that infamous bird, symbol of freedom to learn, achieve, and prosper! We would love you to join us in wearing a royal blue ribbon and spreading the word across the whole UWS community. If you wish to support by distributing ribbons on your campus, please let us know so that we can send them on to you.

We understand that not all Student Campus Councils feel strongly opposed to the upcoming changes; as comrades of the UWS community as it stands, we would greatly appreciate your help in raising awareness of the opportunity to support #SavetheBird by sharing our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages with your followers.

We, the UWS community, have been let down.

Kept in the dark while a plot was at hand to strip us of our collective identity. In the wake of recent announcements regarding the “rebranding” of our University, we fear for the future of the establishment we have come to call a second home.

#SavetheBird Sign the petition: www.change.org/p/university-ofwestern-sydney-don-t-rebrand-university-of-westernsydney

We propose an official union of all students who strive to #SavetheBird. Let’s make the University Board accountable for their decisions over the last few months; decisions that were made without consulting or informing students, past, present and future.

We want to know how an outlay of some 20 million dollars for the implementation of digital and physical rebranding across six campuses will add value to the

Join us on facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/ SavetheBird/1673556929543295 Join us on twitter: twitter.com/hashtag/ savethebird?src=hash

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rebrand controversy

By Beau Dunne Werrington South campus on the 30th July. The briefing unveiled the university’s new colours and logo, as well as examples of marketing material.

A plan to rebrand the University of Western Sydney is causing controversy among the university’s students and staff after incomplete details were leaked to the public by unknown sources. The university’s new branding was scheduled to be unveiled to the public on the 30th August, when thousands of people were expected to attend the university’s open day across its multiple campuses.

Mr Kourtis was optimistic that the reception of the new brand would be positive, once the full details are released. He said that the leaked details of the new brand were not in their context, and that the images were bad quality.

However, more than 2,300 people have signed a petition against the rebranding after concern was raised on social media about the details of the rebranding.

The majority of comments on the new branding were positive in the Q&A session after the briefing, although concern was raised regarding the cost of the rebranding.

The current political climate of uncertainty over higher education changes, as well as the threat of higher fees for students, has left some students wondering whether the money spent on the rebranding could be better spent elsewhere.

Michael Wright, from the Student Campus Council at Parramatta says that students have not been adequately consulted on the rebranding since the process began in 2013. Concern by Mr Wright over a lack of consultation was coupled by disappointment over a lack of attention given to calls by the Parramatta SCC to address issues they have raised with the university, including overcrowding issues with parking at the campus.

The apparent lack of consultation on this issue has reinforced the stereotype for some students, that the university is not listening to students and addressing their concerns. Perhaps if the university was serious about listening to students it would fight alongside them against the proposed higher education changes, or provide free parking at the campuses.

Mr Wright said that there has been a long tradition of the university not listening to students’ concerns, and that the lack of consultation on the rebranding was a reflection of that. He said that it is important for the university to listen to students because they are a key stakeholder in the university.

Mr Wright, from the Parramatta SCC, says that student representatives exist to do more than just hand out free food to students, and their role should be recognised by the university through greater consultation on projects like the rebranding.

Mr Angelo Kourtis, Vice President of People & Advancement, addressed a gathering of stakeholders on the university’s rebranding at a briefing held at the

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#savethebird Comments from Sydney Morning Herald and crUWSible

Jonathan Foye The new logo is ok, but why not go with the original plan and call it Chifley University?

Brendon McDonall In 2005 UWS squandered its highly respected Theatre Nepean and Bachelor of Dramatic Art (performance) - a course that has legendary status in its particular industry and has graduates such as Nicole Da Silva, Lee Jones, Yvonne Strahovski, David Wenham, Joel Edgerton and Don Hany working at an international level. It turned its multi-million dollar purpose-built performing arts hub into a ghost town of sports courts.

I am a very proud graduate of Theatre Nepean, but not UWS. The money they spent swapping two words and coming up with a Grade Two level logo would have kept that course, and many other specialist programs, running for years - and provided opportunities for countless Western Sydney-based artists, as well as those who travelled far just to attend an institute that had a reputation for excellence. Another example of this institution's distorted priorities. The loss of Theatre Nepean was a shock to the theatre, film and television industry - but the academics who presided over its demise did not have a clue as to its standing in its industry or its pedigree.

Richard A. Marschall, Ph.D. (genuine) Amazing how close (some would say IDENTICAL) the new big white W on a red field shield logo is to that of the University of Wisconsin (one of the top 20 or so universities in the world, and with genuinely independently accredited programs). Looks like 30 M$ was just wasted, or perhaps more if they try to defend their ill-considered decision.

Marco Tomasello UWS, University of Western Sydney, this is and has been the name of our university since its inception. Rebranding does not ensure you are at the forefront of change, or driving it. Change occurs when you are working with the students, from the ground up, to create a better university by improving the structure and foundations with regards to classes, courses, staff and facilities. You can’t buy change, you have to make it #savethebird Ezzie How can a university’s demand for greater funding retain any credibilty when millions are lavished on this indulgent whim of the executive? It reeks of cultural cringe by the very people who should be proud of what the blue bird means to people of Western Sydney.

Vice-Chancellor Professor Barney Glover We're looking outwards from our region as well as being very committed to it locally and it's in that context that Western Sydney University emerges, our new colour emerges, our new logo emerges. Hopefully we'll see that resonating in our region for many years to come.

We’re in a very competitive higher education system in this country and every Australian university is actively investing in the marketing of its product. We’re in a demand driven system.

We’re increasingly engaged globally and from that perspective we need to make sure our brand resonates with the international students that we’re trying to attract

Kieran Luken I’m kinda over all of the SRC groups crying that they weren’t consulted. According to the Penrith Student Campus Council’s facebook post on 02/08/2015, the SRC was asked for their opinion last year, but failed to offer anything. Their exact words were: “There were a couple of factors in it as last years (2014) SRC had been approached on it by the university and hadn’t done anything about it when they had the chance and didn’t discuss it leaving it to come through without real student consultation meaning it was too late for effective input on designs.” Given that something of this scale isn’t done over night, UWS (now WSU) is well within their rights to not ask again. They need to get the plans moving along, without the student input they had initially sought.

A Stakeholder Through the Heart Like the students, the staff were not consulted in any meaningful sense. There were meetings to profile the change but we didn’t get a say in whether it happened or in its particulars. The change is unfortunate and expensive and of questionable strategic value. So now we are Big W. 9

My Pessimism, My Optimism

By William Nguyen During my 3 years at UWS, this is the conclusion I have come to: UWS was a university established to cater to the poor, struggling and geographically disadvantaged. It was to give those who generally came from a working class background a chance at social mobility and to contribute to society other than becoming a working class cog. For those who did not have the advantage of being born into an educated middle class family, those who did not gain a decent education in public schools in the west, this was their chance to break the cycle.

Although UWS has the reputation of a last-resort university, where some artificial prestige of going to a more famous university somehow could rub off onto its students – who face the same prospects of prolonged unemployment upon graduation.

At UWS the teachers are passionate, encouraging and equally if not sharper than their peers at other universities.

Lecturers and tutors encourage contact and questions. The students support each other and voice their opinions or gain constructive criticism and most staff are there to help us succeed.

At other universities, the prestige is just too much at times. Lecturers are too busy for the individual; the tutor’s time is too valuable to assist the

struggling; students were competitive to get in, they continue to remain competitive, afraid of sharing their ideas as someone else might gain the competitive edge over them.

Darwinism at its best. What ever happened to the concept of ‘Two heads are better than one’?

But, despite all the goodwill and positive energy that was devoted to UWS to break the cycle of elitism in education… it has hurt us. UWS has let in many struggling and many stragglers. Those without the capability of gaining entry into a university are let in, to gain a degree to professionally represent being a product of study at UWS. Those without direction in life, an idea or path sign up and are warmly embraced. “Ps equals degrees” appears to be their motto. Teachers fear writing a report on why 50% should not pass as the allowable quota is usually 10%, so they artificially or intentionally lower the standards.

I know. Because I am also guilty.

How can someone graduate if they do not understand what they have studied? Maths. Many of us shudder at the sound and thought of it. I have completed its major, yet do not remember what I studied nor understand its application in real life.

How did my peers and I pass? How did my peers who never attended 10

the complex lectures pass? How did people without the motivation or ambition to attend uni, who facebook about it during lectures and tutorials, pass? Well, if the class exams and final exams are similar if not the same… how can a monkey not pass?

UWS. A place where passionate liberal lecturers pour their hearts, souls and energy into breaking the cycle of elitist education and classism, giving the underdog a chance – only to have a large number of the students drag it down while its directors brainstorm ways of getting more students to come in, regardless of their ability to cope, utilise what they have learnt or contribute to our reputation.

Instead of providing more units (or maintaining the units available in the handbook) or even giving legendary lecturers a raise, we bribe students to sign up. Quantity over quality.

I have come to realise, we need hardship to motivate us; we need ambition to drive us; and we need to be challenged to filter out those who will only drag down the name and reputation of UWS. Only then, can we truly continue on the path of giving the underdog a chance while maintaining our competitive edge.

But hey, the directors of UWS have solved the problem. They have changed the University’s name.

What a difference

a year

makes

By Bec Foley After taking a year of leave absence, this student returned to a radically different UWS and is pretty pissed off about it.

Not many students plan to get pregnant during the course of their study, but it happens. It happened to me, and at 36 years of age, hey, I was pretty happy about it. But it forced me to take a year off study and enjoy the new cray cray life of motherhood. One word of advice: Sleep. Enjoy it while you can.

My little squidgy bundle of joy arrived mid 2014 so I took off Autumn semester, and first semester this year.

I’m now back at UWS, or WSU, or whatever… and man, this place has changed.

On my first day back I did what I do every semester, I went to the uni to print out all of my Unit / Learning guides.

Ba bow Goodbye Allen Library! What the what? Where will I now print? Where did all the books go? And wait… if I want to just top up my printing credit, I have to catch the bus over to Kingwood campus? Whoa. Annoying.

“Ok, get over it, you can’t fight city hall,” I thought. Go to The Cottage, get a packet of chips and chill out.

Ba bow That’s closed too. It’s now a weird doss-house who’s mega-sized outdoor chess set has NEVER been used.

“Ok, ok. It’s harsh times for universities. You’ve heard the stories about how the government is tightening the purse strings to universities,” I pondered.

Yes. Poor ol’ UWS. It’s such hard times it needs to close this campus’ library and cafe for goodness sake!

And in such hard times, it’s even harder to find a spare $20 million to rebrand the Uni… But enough has been said about THAT topic.

So I went back to my car, feeling deflated. MY car, that was displaying a parking permit. My car that, strangely, had a SDRO parking fine gently tucked under the windscreen writer.

FFS What? I paid the $47 parking and am displaying a permit. Surely, this is the parking department’s error?

After calling Parking, who told me that even if I was in the right, it was now in the hands of those friendly folks at the SDRO. Yay! Being a full-time studying 11

mum, I SO have time to deal with that oh-so-understanding government department!

So I called Security, and they informed me that I was displaying an orange permit. Not a yellow one. And they’re the same price. But orange means I can park only after 5:30pm. So, yeah, it was my boo boo. But maybe, just maybe, instead of being such hardline, punitive authoritarians, they could have just looked up my rego, found my student number and discovered that I have been a student here for four years, and have always bought a yellow permit, and maybe, just maybe, I’d bought the wrong sticker. A nice friendly note on my windscreen would have been nice too: “Hey Bec, we’ve noticed you bought the wrong permit this year. Silly girl! Go back online, buy the yellow one, and get a refund on the orange one, you duffer.”

But no. It’s straight to a $106 fine.

Awesome. Thanks.

UWS, or WSU, or whatever you are, you feel like a massively huge meanie and I’m not sure I like you at the moment.

Bec Foley Final year journalism student Mother to Delilah SDRO harrasser

ISIS preys on the

disconnected,

vulnerable and sad

By Akansha Singh ISIS has garnered a reputation in the West as one of the most bloodthirsty organisations to ever threaten Australian soil. Yet again and again, youths are voluntarily leaving home to fight its cause. So what is luring Australian children away from home to face an almost certain death?

A bored teenage boy kills time after school playing a violent video game.

Across the world, fellow Australian teen Jake Bilardi straps a bomb onto his chest and kills himself and 17 others in a suicide mission lead by ISIS. It’s becoming clear that Australian youth are thirsting for something greater than the trappings of mundane life, yet some have become misguided enough to take the final, deadly, step.

“They’re fighting for something,” says Hassein Dia, president of the Australian Muslim Youth organisation.

“They have a goal: establishing a socalled ‘Islamic state’. Whereas here in Australia they’re outcasts at school, or maybe their families don’t pay too much attention to them, they’re socially awkward, they can’t express themselves adequately. So that’s why some of them may be drawn to groups such as ISIS.” ISIS’s steep rise since 2013 has seen the Middle East become subject to some of the worst and most widely publicised atrocities it has experienced in recent years. More than that however, their power has now extended past border lines and has begun to infiltrate the minds of the most vulnerable - the youth.

“The very expression home grown terrorist is very destabilising,” says Prof Michael Humphrey of the University of Sydney, who has written extensively on the relationship between Islam and the West. He describes the hopes many Muslim people feel upon migration to Australia, only to have them unfulfilled.

“We have people who not only feel they haven’t succeeded but they have actually become increasingly alienated,” he continues. “I don’t think it happens for a single reason but a combination of things, like what happens when people feel increasingly socially disconnected.”

This appears to have proven especially true with Australia’s youth. Recent months has seen Western media saturated with images of ISIS’s atrocities, yet also of images of young, Western-raised teenagers fighting for their cause.

“They’re completely drawn away from school, from their family,” explains Dia. “Some take drugs to deal with how they’re feeling. Some commit suicide, they just can’t handle it. And some decide to express themselves by going and joining groups such as ISIS.” “They’re given information which most of the time you could say is false, or over exaggerated information,” says Ali Mehanna, vice president of the Australian Muslim Youth organisation.

“It’s the same notion that most Westerners grow up with, with 12

democracy,” says Ali Safdari, the president of the Islamic Society at the University of Sydney. “When you grow up it’s just like second nature to you, you don’t think about it twice. The same thing goes, for some of these people at least.”

Sydney teenager Abdullah Elmir would have appeared as the perfect opportunity for recruitment to ISIS. A socially awkward teenager who failed to interact well with his peers, he left Sydney in June 2014 to go fight for the terrorist organisation.

“ISIS is trying to go away from the dark haired, Arab looking Muslims that are running this thing,” says Dia, who attended high school with Elmir. “They’re trying to show they’re multicultural, everyone’s accepted.

They have this blonde kid now, he’s got red cheeks, he looks Aussie, as their poster boy, holding a gun, threatening the Prime Minister.”

“It isn’t just Australians, or it isn’t just people from Sydney,” elaborates Humphrey. “It’s people from the UK, from Scotland, from Belgium, from Tunisia. In other words, there’s people from a lot different sources involved in this.

“The idea of a nation state is assimilation. Which means everybody is meant to become like us,” he continues.

Although feelings of not belonging are hardly a novel phenomenon experienced by teenagers as they approach adulthood, it is clear ISIS

offered a new purpose and direction in life which sparked enough determination in these youths to leave their old life behind.

“The trend is this emptiness in the people who live in the West,” says Safdari. “The idea of martyrdom and being able to die for the sake of something valuable is something even secular countries like Australia try to bring back. When an ideal like that, sacrificing your life to reach eternal happiness, is brought out in the forefront of campaigning, everyone is attracted.”

The modern world has also enabled ISIS’ success in remote brainwashing and recruitment. Social media and its ability to easily permeate the everyday life of teenagers and adults alike has meant its full utilisation by ISIS in its targeting of at-risk youths.

“Social media is probably the biggest weapon ISIS has. It’s not their guns, it’s not their tanks, it’s not their mines.

The biggest weapon they have is the social media,” says Mehanna.

The success of social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook is due to their ability to transcend physical borders and prejudices in unprecedented ways. For teenagers who have always felt like they didn’t belong, such as Jake Bilardi and Abdullah Elmir, the online world offered opportunities for forging relationships between social loners and the ability to share feelings of resentment that had been brewing since early adolescence.

“We live in a world in which global communication, whether it’s internet, social media, video, all kinds of instantaneous communication, means that people can now live as If they’re suffering and experiencing the same things that their friends and families are experiencing in another place,” says Humphrey.

Furthermore, the use of Islam by ISIS in an attempt to justify the atrocities it is committing, has raised vehement opposition from Muslims in Australia and around the world, Muslims who have faced discrimination and prejudice because of the misconceptions surrounding Islam and ISIS. “It will make things much worse, because what the government should do is try and familiarise themselves with these Muslim youth,” says Dia on the issue of cancelling citizenship for suspected terrorists. “They should be building bridges with these communities. The most vital, the most important information they get is from the Muslim community itself and from the own family of these kids.”

Mehanna stresses the importance of a healthy childhood in preventing youth radicalisation: “If you have a happy Muslim with a middle or upper class upbringing, they would not think twice about ISIS. But if you have someone who’s damaged, who doesn’t have a way, then ISIS becomes something that wins.”

“Our projects that we do are very much in line with Islam,” says Dia on 13

the Australian Muslim Youth. “For example we go and feed the homeless in the city, we hand out roses and bottles of water to just normal strangers in the city as just an act of kindness, with peaceful Islamic quotes on them. Now if, say, a young person who potentially wants to go and fight overseas comes and joins our project, they’ll see that this is what true Islam is. It’s not going and fighting, this is the real jihad you should be participating in.”

Youth radicalisation has proven a complex issue for which there is no easy solution at hand. Understanding the appeal of a radical terrorist organisation to children who have grown up closeted within the Australian lifestyle has proven the first, monumental step in learning how to prevent it.

“When you do random acts of kindness, you learn to love humans, you learn to understand fighting,” says Mehanna. “Everyone wants to fight, but I want to fight for this. Making my community happy.

“You have to find the solution that builds bridges, not breaks them.”

Akansha Singh – a journalism student at UNSW who nonetheless feels great affinity with the UWS community, the communities of Greater Western Sydney and who secretly wishes she went here.

By Deanne Stindl September 10th! An annual day on which we are encouraged to ask each other, R U OK? A day to connect with friends, family members or even someone you have just met, by starting the conversation and asking, R U OK?, in a meaningful way. Taking the time to engage with a person regularly has the potential to make a significant difference to someone who may be struggling. This is the driving force behind R U OK day. Founded by Australian Gavin Larkin in 2009, R U OK Day is a not-for-profit organisation that was created by Larkin after the death (from suicide) of his father in 2005.

R U OK Day has joined forces with experts in suicide prevention and mental health as well as collaboratively working with government departments, corporate leaders, teachers, universities, students and community groups.

Australians experiencing mental illness in their life time. Some 20% of Australians are affected each year.

networking and even friendship, and can protect us against the onset of mental ill health.

So what is mental health? What does it mean?

Mental ill health is as debilitating as physical ill health. The World Health Organisation has developed a burden of disease ranking, in which the degree of disability during an episode of mental illness can be compared to that caused by a physical illness:

The World Health Organisation defines mental health as "a state of well-being in which the individual realises their abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and can make a contribution to their community".

Mental health can enable one to fully enjoy and appreciate day-to-day life, other people and the surrounding environment. Mental health is how we think, feel and act, and how we choose to deal with stress or certain situations. Throughout the different stages of life mental health is fundamental.

The World Health Organisation states that over 800,000 people die from suicide every year; that’s one person every 40 seconds. However these deaths are preventable. R U OK DAY was created to increase awareness of suicide and how to prevent it.

Unfortunately, although it is common knowledge that mental health is a positive health attribute, we often position discussion of mental health as discussion of mental ill health.

This creates a barrier in help-seeking behaviour. Why do we attach a social stigma to mental health and relate it to ill health?

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare states that in Australia there are over 65,000 suicide attempts every year, with around 45% of

There is an underlying benefit from meaningful conversations on mental health. These benefits range from early identification, support,

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• The disability caused by moderate depression is similar to the impact of relapsing MS, severe asthma or chronic hep B. • The disability from severe post-traumatic stress disorder is comparable to the disability from paraplegia.

• The disability from severe schizophrenia is comparable to quadriplegia The AIHW reports the rate of suicide for young people has risen, accounting for 37% of deaths in young people aged under 24. This finding reinforces the need for new, innovative and engaging interventions targeting young people, potentially in a university environment, to promote help seeking behaviour.

With this in mind, the Mental Health and Wellbeing Promotions team of

Student Support Services is developing and currently trialling components of a Mental Health and Well-being Student Ambassador Program. Referencing evidence that peer-to-peer mental health promotion is a successful avenue in increasing awareness of mental health and wellbeing information, the program aims to deliver student-led promotions.

As one of the eight Mental Health and Wellbeing Ambassadors, we aim to utilise events like R U OK day to remove the stigma associated with mental ill health, and support those who need assistance. If even one person can benefit from this program, then we have achieved success.

On September 10, be primed to ask the question! Be willing to engage your friends, family, fellow students or staff members in a meaningful conversation! Be a mindful listener!

Be prepared to tell someone how you are! Be ready to use this day to begin regular conversations with people, on how they are.

Brendan Maher, the general manager of R U OK, said: “This most important thing you can do if you feel like you’re in a rut or feel the pressure of the load, is to reach out to a friend or family member, or take advantage of the range of support services at your university. Whether they’re personal

things or academic concerns, or a mixture of both, there’s a lot of help available at Australian universities. If you think a friend is struggling, take the time to ask them if they’re ok?

Even if they’re reluctant to talk at first, tell them you’re there to support them whenever they are ready.”

Acting head of counselling Mark Kearns said: “Mental health problems are common and young people at university can certainly be affected.

It can sometimes be hard for people to reach out if they are having problems, so having the confidence to ask someone R U OK, might create an opportunity for them to get some support and assistance. I would hope that people feel comfortable with asking this question 365 days per year.”

Remember, ‘‘a conversation could change a life! ’’ If you have any concerns about your mental health or wellbeing or the wellbeing of another student, please contact Student Support Services on 02 9852 5199. #changethestigma #NewWS #WellbeingWS

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To get involved in the promotion of Mental Health and Wellbeing events for students on campus, please contact Deanne Stindl at 16961236@student.uws.edu.au For more information on the Mental Health and Wellbeing Student Ambassador Program, please contact Rowena Saheb (Mental Health and Wellbeing Promotions Coordinator) at R.Saheb@uws.edu.au or Erin Rutherford (Mental Health and Wellbeing Promotions Support Officer) at E.Rutherford@uws.edu.au

R U OK has shared the following tips for starting the conversation: Ask in a relaxed way “how are you going” Listen without judgement Encourage people to think about one or two things that could be done to better manage the situation Follow up the conversation in a couple of weeks

The Falling Sun

by Ambrosia Absent AKA Oliver Karuna AKA Kevin Dao

His tears fell from the sky with the voracity that follows a dry spell, staining the parched lips of his forgotten land.

She had waited five years for this aroma of petrichor to emanate from the cracks that lined her imperfect earth.

The warmth could not simply dampen out her ardour for the cold sensation of rain.

With the tears, came the expression, in the forms of blossoming blueberry crops that once roamed the land vines tied together.

They once again thrived, unperturbed by the warmth addiction that killed their brethren, water molecule by water molecule.

It seemed with this outpour of emotion from clouded thoughts that there was going to be a better tomorrow.

A tomorrow filled with hope, no longer held down by the burden of what was kept inside for periods too long to recount.

But she was wrong.

He was no better than the sun that came before.

His blistered sorrow festered in the naĂŻve state of the land who longed for his presence.

Fields flooded and blueberries fled along with their caretakers.

For better or worse, everyone said opinions but there was no definitive answer.

365 days of rain, two dead dogs, one too many houses and half of her forestry later.

The land still had her cracks, hidden beneath the bandages and wraps to cover the burns of longing in the form of perforated pastures and forlorn farmhouses.

Water pockmarked the beauty that she once held.

Irony only dug deeper trenches that led to regret.

In such times, it seemed to be easier to relocate then rebuild.

So she stood alone, with no more agriculture to trample over her flaws and no more horticulture to sow open wounds shut.

Everyone was gone.

Only her past remained, forever ingrained into the soil in the forms that could only haunt her.

Nightmares created the only light she could see, followed by the thunderous roar of memories.

Every night there was more and more rain following those nightmares.

Forever reminding and teasing her of what she could no longer have.

The sun was afraid to return, he could not face the might of tears.

She could only weep along to the heckling of hummingbirds tune as her own tears busted the banks of the rivers that outlined her wrinkled wrong brain, coating the land with a layer of malodorous oil.

Soon the land would be under six feet of water all around, forever forgotten, an Atlantis in practice.

Or was that to be ?

For the moment she drowned with her past, boats sailed above anchoring hope in her fragmented landscape.

Raising hope, or covering the casket to which civilisation is built upon, she knew not of.

All she knew was she was helpless, at the mercy of the fish that came to pick on her façade.

All she wished for was for her wishes to have never come true, and that there be new life for her in the blue without you.

-

Begone

by Angelico D. Aputen

Heaven throws a weight on my shoulder.

Since then, my body grew weaker.

What can I do if they’re not welcoming?

They tell me, “you are flouting”.

Walk alone across an odd section, Drag my neglected feet with tension.

The wind sweeps the crust.

It left no dust and gave me trust.

I lie while the sky comes down, Unbolted my heart and I drown.

Adjacent I rise to the darkening horizon, Pulled my excited feet to my wagon.

Glance I with a stance towards dusk, Strive again but it’s no easy task.

Widened eyes say, “I’m a wanderer”.

Ironically, I begin to ponder.

No place to sleep on yet.

Rested myself in a wagon made me upset.

I drag myself to the river and shiver.

Anticipating to seeing something better.

Must I go back for I am needed?

But I have a face that’s been inflicted.

Conscience of mine begs me to return.

I’d burn if I do for they’d tell, “you never learn”.

Confused and my face is full of mud.

With bound tongue and words couldn’t bud.

My bloodied and hurt heart yellowed.

I speak thru my eyes in agony as it bellowed.

I should’ve listened but fell into deceit.

I speak of my nosy ears but now I fear it.

Why have I eavesdropped?

Wouldn’t it be better if I stopped?

A new life awaits me to crown it.

I fail for I’m too frail for it.

I am not yet free and ready.

Indeed, I will suffer under the Holy.

Or might I go and seek Him with grace?

Ask for guidance and save my face.

Leaving my wagon hoping my life to alter.

With embedded regrets, I’ll try not to falter.

My never-ending journey is silly.

Coming to stop finally.

Hard it is especially if you’re a newbie.

I only survive if I build a new me.

It is a choice, which still haunts me.

Through sleepless nights, I struggled to be.

Constant thoughts made me reveal and feel, That I am getting there because of my strong will.

Australian Immigration: boundless

plains to share

By Aldric Chua

Contemporary Australian society is one of the most culturally diverse nations on the planet.

However it did not have the most humble of beginnings. In 1901 the Australian government enacted the Immigration Restriction Act. This involved a dictation test which was given to any prospective migrant. The only problem was the test didn’t necessarily have to be given in English. For instance, a prospective Chinese migrant might be asked to complete the test in Italian. It was completely subjective and was designed that way to ensure that Australian society remained ‘white’ and specifically British.

In 1945 Arthur Calwell was appointed as Australia’s first Immigration Minister by Prime Minister Ben Chifley. A new precedent would be established when Chifley bypasses the Labor Caucus and gives Caldwell the permission to source immigrants from nations other than Britain.

Caldwell would source immigrants from war-torn Europe and from places such as Greece and Poland.

As a result, Australia took in more Holocaust survivors than any other nation apart from Israel.

Newly arrived immigrants were not accustomed to the different life. They were discriminated against and verbally abused but were happy to be free from the ravages of war-torn Europe. Robert Menzies becomes Prime Minister in 1949 and rather unexpectedly he continued with this radical program of non British immigration.

However this would not mean the end of White Australia, as it would continue under his successors.

The White Australia policy had bipartisan support and despite launching the ambitious immigration program of post-war Australia, Arthur Calwell (who is now Opposition Leader) remains an ardent supporter of White Australia. On Australia Day 1966 Prime Minister Robert Menzies resigns. His successor Harold Holt 18

heralds generational change and there is hope that reform will also result. Indeed the 1967 Constitutional Referendum seems to signal an intent to right the wrongs of the past by including Indigenous Australians in the Census. The Migration Act of 1966 paves the way for non-Asian immigration to Australia. Non-Asian immigration does increase from 746 in 1966 to 2696 in 1971. Unfortunately Holt dies whilst swimming in Portsea in 1967. Coincidentally, after leading the Labor Party to the third successive election defeat, Arthur Calwell reigns as ALP leader.

He is succeeded by his erudite deputy Gough Whitlam. Whitlam has a commanding presence at 6 foot 4 inches (1.94m) and is a suave performer on the television. His entire ministry heralds in a sweeping agenda which would transform Australian society forever. Whitlam’s Minister for Immigration Al Grassby famously declared on national television about White Australia “give me a shovel and I shall bury it”. Indeed the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 enshrines in legislation that it is unlawful to discriminate on the basis of race as well as protect individuals from acts of racial intimidation. It is used to this day. However, contrary to popular belief, it was not the Whitlam Labor government who would herald in non-Asian immigration to Australia.

April 30th 1975 signals the Fall of Saigon and the end of the Vietnam War. This resulted in thousands of Vietnamese refugees seeking to flee the communist forces. The first boat of refugees arrived in Darwin on Anzac Day 1976. Soon a small exodus turns into hundreds of boats.

Confronted with a humanitarian crisis, newly elected Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser ultimately makes the decision to accept 14,000 refugees in July 1979. Many more would come to call Australia their new home. Australia today benefits from a multicultural society, from the injection of cultural traditions to the sharing of food and music. In less than a century the fabric of Australian society has completely transformed and we are better for it.

WHERE ARE YOU FROM ?

By Jessica Maher Do you get asked where you’re from ?

I do. This is a question that I am asked nearly every day. I shouldn’t be hurt by it. But I am. And maybe I am too sensitive to this. When this question is asked by well-meaning strangers it makes me question where I belong, because it is abundantly obvious that I don’t belong here.

My response is I am Australian. I am 5th generation Australian on my father’s side. I was born here as were my parents. But my brown eyes, black hair and olive skin ensure that I don’t fit the traditional model of what an ‘Aussie’ is.

I have been called a terrorist at the shops. More than once I have been called a wog and told to go back to where I came from. And these are some of the nicer memories I have of growing up looking “different”.

My story is not unique. Most of my friends have encountered some type of discrimination, based on how they look, who they are, where they live.

But what if I told you that race is not a biological reality but a myth?

In the 1950’s the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation issued a statement asserting that all humans belong to the same species and that “race” is not a biological reality but a myth. This was a summary of the findings of an international panel of anthropologists, geneticists, sociologists, and psychologists.

IMAGES: Naomi purplewoods.wordpress.com

In Robert Sussman’s book, The Myth of Race: The Troubling Persistence of an Ideological Idea he states that we have been “taught very specific things that relate to race, such as

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intelligence, sexual behaviour, birth rates, infant care, work ethics and abilities, personal restraint, lifespan, law-abidingness, aggression, altruism, economic and business practices, family cohesion, and even brain size”.

We have this mythology ingrained in us, our differences ordered into a hierarchal structure. We are born into a world that sees in black and white, a world that is racist, unforgiving and cruel.

Although “Race is a real cultural, political and economic concept in society but it is not a biological concept,” racism is essentially a social construct. “Race is an idea, not a fact,” an idea which has persisted in society and has shaped our interactions with one another for over 500 years, an idea which has been constantly validated in our inexplicable and irrational fear of each other.

“Race is not inherent in our genetics, but rather a social construct developed over time, which continues to be a strong and ever present force in our country and in our lives” Racism is a huge problem in Australia.

Australia, like most developed countries has a race problem. Despite our lack of genetic differences we still fear, we still hate, we still kill.

We have learnt nothing from history.

After 500 years of this myth being perpetuated to create division amongst us, used a tool to further colonialism and nationalism, isn’t it about time that we start trying to address these issues instead of ignoring them ?

What makes us the same ?

What makes us different ?

I have even been told that I could use the staff toilets now that’s a perk!

By Margaret Amos I felt that I had to write an article for the special Diversity Fest edition of the crUWSible now that I have experienced three semesters at UWS (plus Summer School).

What makes us all the same?

Firstly, we are all at UWS trying to complete a degree! Most of us put many hours into reading, studying, drinking coffee, attending classes and lectures (or listening to them online).

I say most of us because I notice that half way through each semester more than half the class has dropped out.

Perseverance seems to be the key to success at University. Some seem to have it and others don’t.

Endurance appears to be another key to success at University. It’s as if we are athletes who are competing and striving for the end of the race. Our motivation may waiver but if we stick to it, we will achieve our goal!

It doesn’t matter which degree we are doing, our cultural background, age or gender, etc., what makes us the same is that we are all striving for the end result – completion of our degree.

Some of the people we meet along the way will help keep us motivated, and that is a good thing.

What makes us different?

Well I’m 48 years old and I feel very old at UWS and feel like I sometimes just don’t fit in. I’d love to join in the pool table competition and play table tennis but who’d ask me for a game?

I’ve never even had the opportunity to be in one of those booked rooms with others having a discussion, which seem like fun.

Yes there are other ‘old’ people at UWS but I could count them on one hand. People often confuse me for a teacher because of my age. I have even been told that I could use the staff toilets – now that’s a perk! The funny thing is that I work for a church organisation and I’m the youngest person there, so at UWS I feel old and at work I feel young. It’s weird because I don’t feel old (everybody over 40 will say that – wait till you get there). Unfortunately, our outward appearance is the first thing people judge us by.

Luckily our tutorials and lectures are filled with all sorts of people and when we are forced to talk to others (you know what I mean), I really do enjoy the interaction. I could have chosen to do an online degree and never faced anyone, but I chose to study at UWS

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to meet people and mingle. Advice that I’ve received from people who I’ve spoken to in my tutorials and lectures has always been helpful and appreciated and we’ve had lots of laughs too. I am certain that everyone has something to offer.

So listen up! We are the same because we attend the same campus, study, sleep, eat and breathe. But we are also different in many ways, and that’s okay because that’s what makes this journey interesting and worthwhile. My two teenage sons think I’m cool, lol, so please don’t judge someone by their outward appearance and don’t just interact with people who are the same age as you or from the same cultural background because you will really gain from socialising with people who are very different to what you are used to. The people you meet at UWS will encourage you, help you succeed and keep you going when it all seems too much. Yes I know, my essay skills need improving – that’s one of the reasons I’m here so don’t judge me. Just try and reach out to others, please : ) Margaret -Studying BA (Psych.)

Navigating

the World as an Ex-Mormon

By Gabrielle Lawson In May 2014 I made a significant change in my life. I became an ex-Mormon. For those of you who don’t know, a Mormon is a practising believer of the Mormon religion, more formally known as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. There’s a wide range of opinions and beliefs about this organisation. Some refer to it as a cult, the members see it as the “one true church”. As for me, I have a lot of mixed feelings and labels with which to describe this religion I used to follow.

For the most part, growing up, Mormonism gave me a safe shelter with strict rules of behaviour – no alcohol, drugs, sex, swearing, immodest clothing. This is what attracted my dad initially, he wanted his kids to avoid that whole scene (he too is now an ex-Mormon). To this day, I can see the effects that Mormonism has had on me and my image. People get shocked if I swear, act shocked when I drink alcohol, saying stuff like “you don’t look like you drink”. Even my extended family get shocked at stories of guys being too forward with me because the Mormon formula for dating is very conservative and traditional. I’m still seen as an innocent virgin and I’m okay with that image.

Upon my exit, I have had to reorganise and re-evaluate who I am as a person and what life means to me. I have had to to rebuild a moral compass that was not connected to the Mormon religion and its concept of right and wrong. Funnily enough, I do find myself going back to my Mormon roots when I justify and explain some of my decisions and the way I am as a person. The many years of living the Mormon lifestyle means that I can’t quite erase the influence that Mormonism has had on the way I see the world and the way I view myself.

During my transition, one of the most difficult things I had to deal with was the many options that were now available to me. Growing up within the walls of Mormonism, all the answers were provided as to who I was, why I was here on earth and where I was going after I died. The path to take in life was already set out and was drilled into me from my adolescence. Now, I didn’t have a distinctive way of life to follow, I could be anything I wanted to be and do anything I wanted to do and this concept of freedom was frightening to me.

I look back at my time as a Mormon as a bittersweet experience. Although I don’t agree with some of the doctrines and culture of this church, I do envy the people who choose to 21

practice Mormonism because it is quite a comforting cocoon. Ultimately, it just wasn’t for me. If you are a Mormon and you are reading this, please don’t be offended. I’m not trying to be condescending in any way.

I have come to understand and accept that for some people, Mormonism is exactly what they want in life. There was a time when I was so furious and angry at you and the religion that you practice. But to be fair, I think that most people feel that way soon after they abandon their religion.

Fast forward to this present day, I can’t say that my past as a Mormon hasn’t made me a better person because it has. As weird as it may sound, identifying now as an ex-Mormon, I wouldn’t change my Mormon past if I had the chance. It helped me to realise that social work was the degree that I wanted to study. It helped me to better understand people and why religion and a belief in God is important to them. I don’t want to put every Mormon into the same box and label them the same because I know that being members of the same religion doesn’t mean you are the same as the other member I once talked to or remember. If there is anything I have learned as I continue to navigate this world as an exMormon, it’s that you take the good with the bad and move on with your life.

In 1788 the First Fleet arrived in Australia. The history books would have you believe this to be a grand moment in our history, but to those who had already occupied this land, and had done so for some 40,000 years, it was the beginning of the end.

The New South Wales Government stated at the Vivid Festival in 2014 that it was the beginning of a “diverse cultural exchange”, yet this doesn’t quite add up with history.

Governor Lachlan Macquarie, whose tombstone in Scotland reads “Founding Father of Australia”, once infamously commanded his soldiers to hang Aboriginal people on site as a warning to any others who may be about.

Racism in Australia was nothing if not diverse, because at the time Irish convicts made up a not insignificant chunk of the population in New South Wales. Many of these people were sent on the prison ships to Terra Nullius for petty crimes such as theft in the aftermath of the famine. Throughout early colonial history the Irish weren’t the only non-Aboriginal people exploited by the Colonial powers. Chinese and South Sea Islanders were both exploited in indentured labour schemes which saw them working in conditions akin to slavery with high workplace fatality rates. Racism and exploitation in Australia is nothing new. Our country is racist by its very design, and inequality is entrenched in the system.

Perhaps this is best demonstrated by the birth of the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901, which is also the year that the infamous White Australia Policy was enacted. Racial discrimination was the law of the land up until 1973. Throughout this period Greeks, Italians as well as Jews fleeing fascism in Europe were thoroughly rejected by a Nation that since inception, was designed to be run, populated and controlled entirely by White Australians. This all looked likely to change when the

White Australia Policy was dismantled piece by piece by successive Governments.

The outlook for a racially inclusive Australia was on the up when Aboriginals got the vote, and Vietnamese refugees were actually welcomed with open arms. For the first time in two centuries it appeared that Australia was on the right track to celebrating the things that we have in common, rather than demonizing the things that are different. But it did not last. In the 90’s the One Nation party rose to prominence in Queensland on the back of anti-Asian hysteria.

It was dubbed the yellow peril and the Asian invasion, to name a few of the derogatory terms used, and after great progress in dismantling the racist barriers between human beings we fell back into old habits that continue to play out today.

These days One Nation is a fraction of what it once was, but it inspired other splinter movements such as Reclaim Australia, the movement to ban Halal accreditation and even the scapegoating around Sharia law used to further vilify and dehumanise Muslims.

In a bid to quell support for the One Nation party and other Nationalistic forces among his own support base, Prime Minister John Howard turned his back on the previous pro-refugee stance of the Liberal Party. He stopped the boats to win the votes, humanitarian obligations and even facts were cast aside. They concocted fanciful tales about refugees throwing their babies out of boats in a bid to build public support for one of the cruellest border regimes ever enacted by a modern Government.

Our history has created space for Nationalism to thrive, and Nationalism is the greatest enemy to diversity. It is the belief that people who, by virtue of random chance, are born within a certain area, who speak and look a certain way, are somehow superior to other people. It is divisive, and it excludes people who do not fit into the tiny box of what it means to be Australian.

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Diversity in the face of Inequality

By Benjamin Eorlingas

Today this legacy continues as Muslim women are having their hijabs forcefully removed in the streets, as Neo-Nazis abuse people in Lakemba and as hundreds rally against a religion and a people they do not understand. We see it play out with our Government as refugees are locked away in countries where their sexuality is actually a punishable offence under the law, or the way that Queer kids can be excluded from religious schools in New South Wales.

We even see it in the way the first people of this land continue to suffer from easily preventable disease, and have a life span 10 years below the national average.

Fortunately, what the Nationalists in the Liberal Party and in the erroneous movements like Reclaim Australia have feared most has come to pass. The so-called floodgates have opened and migrants now make up an integral part of our community. Narrow-minded people grip on to the past while we move to the future. They build movements which are glued together by hatred but struggle as they may, the future is coming and that future will belong to every person regardless of race, gender, sexuality, religion or creed. We will make amends for the atrocious history that plagues this land and we’ll drag the racists kicking and screaming to a world where everybody is valued for who they are, not attacked for who they’re not.

A better world is possible, but only if we put divisions aside and work together to create it.

FIVE LEVELS OF ADOPTING DIVERSITY

By Hasan Salloukh From what I have observed, there are different levels of adopting or adapting to diversity...

First, put up with it: There is a diverse range of people around us. They are different, so we wont get along or will cause problems if we interact. I will keep to myself, family, social circle and community. It's better not to be nosey.

"We dont know how this land operates. What if what they say is different to what they do? We will stick to what is safe."

Second, slight understanding: They suffered problems in their homeland or found a way to migrate and become residents, if not citizens of Australia.

Sometimes we'll interact. I dont think I can really become their friend or close with them. Their culture is just too different.

"I see them, they see me. We try each other's food but do not eat it regularly. We are forced to interact, but when the shift ends, so does our interaction."

Third, the standard level: We know the background of why people are here, we socialise with others and eat their food, we talk and inquire or share stories. Occasionally we will visit their cultural fairs to join them in festivities.

"I grew up with these folks, they're just like me. Only their genes are different. Their actions are done as humans, not entirely representative of their culture. Their parents are an exemption. Some things just cant be changed, even after living here for so long."

Fourth, intimate: It is like a second culture to us. We know our own culture, the one we were raised up in but we also know and understand theirs just as well. We'll navigate around their minefields as aptly as we navigate our cultural minefields.

We are also comfortable with dating a person from their background because we'll understand where they are coming from when reacting to certain situations.

"I appreciate what I have grown up in, which has shaped my perception of life. But I have studied and mingled with many people from a particular group and understand them, their problems and how their actions are shaped from their different upbringing."

Fifth, singularity: We understand how the world works. People are people, good and bad wherever they are. Shaped by their culture, history, economic circumstance and traits. We are all the same but simply need to ignore the superficial barriers and adapt to the environment we're in.

IMAGE: Naomi purplewoods.wordpress.com

"Life is shit everywhere, but happiness is what you make of it."

National Anthems

By Aldric Chuah National anthems have the ability to inspire and unite, to jubilate and invigorate. There are 200-plus countries of the world, 193 of which are members of the United Nations.

All of these nations have their own national anthems, but the countries of Spain, Bosnia, San Marino and Kosovo are unique in the sense that their national anthems contain no lyrics.

In the case of the latter it adopts the anthem of the European Union, the last movement of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony.

Until 1948 South Koreans sung to the tune of Auld Lang Syne until it was duly replaced with a new composition, but not before being beaten to the punch by its communist neighbour North Korea, which had written/ composed its own national anthem in 1947.

There are also cases when national anthems have changed, be it the lyrics or music. From 1943-1992 Afghanistan had three different anthems. Of course after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, newly independent nations either chose to compose an entirely new anthem or to simply use the one which was in place prior to WWII. Interestingly enough a new anthem was adopted after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 but it failed to resonate with the Russian people and President of Russia at the time, Vladimir Putin, sought to restore the previous anthem, albeit with different

lyrics. Sergey Mikhalkov was employed to write lyrics for the new anthem; apt given that he had written the previous Soviet anthem in 1943.

Austrian composer Joseph Haydn composed the music for the current national anthem of Germany in 1797. Lyrics were written by August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben in 1841. It was adopted as the official anthem in 1922. In 1933 Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany. Hitler decided to retain only the first stanza of the existing anthem. A co-anthem was created, Horst-Wessel-Lied. It espoused the virtues of the Nazi Party. It’s lyrics and music are banned in their entirety in contemporary Germany.

After the fall of Berlin in 1945 Germany divided into West and East Germany. In an attempt to secede itself from Nazi Germany, West Germany sought unsuccessfully to create a new anthem. Eventually Deutschlandlied was re-selected as the national anthem. East Germany, seeking to differentiate itself from its capitalist neighbour, coined a new anthem entitled Auferstanden aus Ruinen. It was used from 1949 to 1990. Today, reunified Germany uses only the third stanza of Deutschlandlied.

We now turn to the once arch nemesis of Germany; Britain. Adopted in 1745 24

God Save The Queen (or King) is the current national anthem of Great Britain.

Older readers will know of this, but until the 1970s the Australian national anthem was God Save The Queen the national anthem of Great Britain.

The current anthem of Advance Australia Fair became official in 1984.

God Save The Queen is played in Australia out of deference to a visiting royal. Our neighbour across the seas, New Zealand, has the anthem of God Defend New Zealand. Common practice is for the first verse to be sung in English and Māori. Much like Australia, God Save The Queen is only played on regal occasions.

The current anthem of the United States is The Star Spangled Banner.

Prior to its official recognition in 1931 several songs/hymns served as de facto anthems. One of these is My Country, 'Tis of Thee. Its lyrics differ greatly but perhaps paradoxically, share a melody with God Save The Queen. It is still played in contemporary America and was recently sung at President Obama’s inauguration in 2013. I still am contemplating the logic behind this !

Anthems have the ability to divide as well as unite. But regardless, they represent your country and all that it stands for. Be loud. Be proud and Advance Australia Fair.

From Australia to Austria:

Eurovision

Song Contest

turns 60

By Aldric Chuah

This year marks the 60th anniversary of the Eurovision Song Contest. For the first time Australia was permitted to compete in the contest. Our representative Guy Sebastian pulled an amazing performance - he was quite the guy ! This of course follows up from our guest appearance at last year’s Eurovision when Jessica Mauboy sang “A Sea of Flags”. I was so elated to see Guy up on stage because he showcased the pinnacle of Australian talent and showed the Europeans that we are always striving to punch well above our weight.

Since 1983 SBS has broadcast the wonders and delight of Eurovision to our television screens. We were joined by Sam Pang and Julia Zemiro in 2009. We have always responded with unbridled enthusiasm and unwavering support. Amongst the sea of Austrians and Brits there was our flag and the crowd of Aussies cheering Guy on.

From it’s humble beginnings in 1956 it now broadcasts to over 30 different countries including Australia.

It’s purpose was to reunite a wartorn Europe and to bring together countries in the midst of the Cold War. Unfortunately those in the Soviet Bloc were unable to partake but that didn’t stop them from creating their own contest; Intervision. Ironically the contest began life just as the Berlin Wall was erected in 1961.

The voting system was rather peculiar.

Private telephones were not common in the Eastern Bloc so viewers would be asked to turn on their lights if they liked the song and to switch them off when they did not. The sudden spike on the electrical network would then be recorded, and points assigned accordingly to the contestant. It ended life in 1980 but as of 2015 will once again be revived; no doubt with a more modern form of voting !

Notable here is that despite the fear and hostility of the Cold War/nuclear armageddon, here were ordinary citizens of the Eastern Bloc immersing themselves in a song contest. Despite the propaganda of the time, Soviets weren’t that different to their Western counterparts. They worried about their finances, career advancements.

They fell in love, they got sick. That a separate contest had to be created to rival Eurovision signified how much of an influence it had on people’s lives Eurovision was soft power against the Iron Curtain.

Today over 40 countries compete in the contest. Perhaps the most well known act to ever come out of Eurovision is ABBA. When ABBA arrived in Australia in 1977 the people went absolutely wild. Stadiums from Sydney to Adelaide were completely filled, with the additional crowd listening outside. Fernando released in

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1975 topped the Australian charts and stayed there for 14 weeks. It retains its status as the single spending the most weeks at no. 1.

Although not eligible to compete, Australians have competed in the contest before, albeit representing different countries. Oliver Newton John entered the contest in 1974 representing Great Britain but lost to ABBA’s “Waterloo”. Second time round Johnny Logan entered the contest in 1980 representing Ireland and won with “What’s Another Year”. He emulated his success again in 1987.

He retains the record as the only performer to have won the contest twice.

With Guy Sebastian Australia had another chance. Guy managed to clinch fifth place which is quite an impressive feat ! We are all proud that Guy was able to represent Australia and no doubt Guy had and amazing time on stage. There he was, blending in with both the flamboyant dance routines and the questionable dance routines.

To Guy we award you douze points !

Dear baby queer...…

IMAGE: Rakka

By Hunter Mauceri

Oppositely if you chose to be gay you may encounter “elitists” who will tell you they are better than you because they do not close off options based on biology.

If you thought you found the answer to avoiding conflict by not experiencing any sexual attraction you were sorely mistaken as people will not believe that is possible and may try to “convert” you.

At this current point in time there appears to be no win win situation.

Dear baby queer, now that you’ve finally made the right decision to be queer or trans or just other than “normal”, it is my pleasure to welcome you to my lovely world of rainbows.

Attached you’ll find your magical unicorn and glitter, enjoy!

Now down to business, due to the sudden increase in visibility of the magical unicorn population, we are going to have to ask you to refrain from displaying your unicorn in public.

It will make the cishet people jealous of our magical powers and we don’t want that to happen as they may decide to hold a coupe to steal our powers away.

If you have chosen to be trans, instead of or as well as queer, congratulations are in order as you have chosen to embark down a road of indeterminate difficulty and possible setbacks.

You have the option to change your name, get a haircut, buy a new wardrobe, go on hormones, bind/ tuck, a whole new world of possibilities have opened up to you enjoy.

One day there may be a big dark cloud above your head, it may already be there.

Either way I feel that I must inform you that this is sometimes a side effect of our magical powers.

Many of our magical brethren suffer the same affliction, but you do not have to battle it alone we do not want to lose another sibling to these dark evils.

If you are wondering about the decision you have made, it may be worth noting it can be hard, it can be difficult, it can be full of struggles every step of the way, but nothing good is ever easy.

Whilst sexuality and gender are fluid and can change, you’ve already made the hardest decision of all, being true to yourself, don’t follow the crowd, its ok to be different, and enjoy your brand new magical unicorn.

I am also sorry to inform you that there is sadly sometimes conflict within our magical community.

If you happened to have chosen to be bi or pansexual you might encounter “purists” who insist that since you can appear straight you aren’t truly queer.

Thank you and have fun The grand high queer 26

#NewWSunites: Celebrating Diversity and Demonstrating

Inclusion through the Ally Network

By Dr Tinashe Dune Imagine the worst thing you have ever done, something you would never tell anyone because you have heard and seen how others with the same secret have been treated, excluded or discriminated against.

Think of the way telling some else about that secret would make you feel. Now think about what would happen if people found out. What is your emotional response? What is your physical response?

“This is what it feels like for people who identify as sexually or gender diverse when deciding to tell others about themselves” we were told when I attended Ally training delivered by Equity and Diversity. The half day training, which will again be run this October, was aimed at educating and empowering University staff and students in supporting lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans*, intersex or queer/ questioning (LGBTIQ) people within our community. The Ally Network is a crucial University group as it not only celebrates but also demonstrates the importance of institutionalising the acceptance of diversity.

Starting with Diversity Fest on September 1st the Ally Network has a series of events aimed at highlighting the University’s commitment to diversity. First students and staff will notice a strong Ally presence throughout Diversity Fest in stalls

and around the University. During Mental Health & Wellbeing Week in October Allies will be hosting events to promote holistic health and the Allies availability to support any one who is in need. The Ally Network will also be running a half day training session on October 7th with lunch and refreshments provided for any staff or student interested in learning more about LGBTIQ inclusion and/ or becoming an Ally. And becoming an Ally is easy! You just need an open mind, an ability to listen without judgement and attend the training in October. Increasing the Ally population is integral to realising core University beliefs especially; 1) The primacy of the student experience; 2) Contributing to our region’s strength and future and; 3) A vibrant and inclusive intellectual community.

In order to live up to these beliefs the Ally Network, in collaboration with the Queer Collective, ran the first University float which appeared in the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade earlier this year.

The University’s presence at the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade is an action-based acknowledgement of the role institutions play in the social, political and cultural acceptance of sexual diversity and has a far reaching effect nationally and globally.

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The inaugural float in 2015, which included staff and students from across the University, was a great success. Following the Parade the University float received an avalanche of positive feedback on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Yammer. In addition to over 655 likes on Facebook many students expressed their pride in the University float on Facebook.

For instance, one student exclaimed: I was in the crowd and so pleased to see my University, where I study and work, represented in the parade. It was a very proud moment and so good to feel accepted in my workplace. Well done UWS Mardi Gras team!

Following this accomplishment the Ally Network will again prepare a float for Mardi Gras in March 2016. Towards this goal the Ally Network will be running a series of fundraising events at various campuses and is seeking to sign up marchers and assistance in developing the float.

If you are interested in supporting and/or participating in any of these events please contact Dr Tinashe Dune, co-Convenor of the Ally Network, via email t.dune@uws.edu. au to get more information and to sign-up. We are always looking for more Allies and Mardi Gras marchers.

Your participation and support will make the University’s capacity to support diversity #unlimited.

NON-BINARY IN A

GENDER BINARY WORLD

By Se’an Mooney My name is Se’an Mooney and I’m currently studying at UWSCollege. I’m genderqueer. I am not male or female, I identify as in-between. I would like to discuss some of the implications of being non-binary and the Trans community’s standing within wider society. The article might seem a bit complex, but I hope you enjoy and learn something new.

First of all let me explain. When someone is born they are assigned a gender, usually, in most cases, male or female. This is decided by the child’s genitals. So I was assigned male at birth. But as time went by, and I progressed into my teenage years, I started to realize that ‘male’ did not suite me and perhaps I should have been born anatomically female.

I was oppressed about my gender through high school. I only came out to a few people. I graduated from high school and did the HSC in 2014 and at the end of the year, I changed my gender identity on Facebook to androgynous and genderqueer. Why didn’t I just move over to the feminine gender? Well I don’t really feel male or female, so I just thought I might hang in the middle, a fence-sitter of gender you could say.

I do feel, however, that my non-binary identity is unrecognised by other people. You see there’s gender identity which is how you feel and how your mind works, but then there is also gender expression; this is how you look and dress, how you present yourself based on the social constructs of masculinity or femininity (or androgyny). I do wear makeup, but my gender expression is still quite masculine and much to my annoyance people just see me as a male person wearing makeup, rather than a transfeminine non-binary person. But you know what? I’m not really ready to wear what society calls ‘girl’s clothes’.

One of the other hard things about being non-binary is that most people think that there is only male and female and that someone’s gender is based on their genitals. But that’s not true.

There’s various gender identies out there; Agenda, Bigender, Pangender, Gender fluid……

And if we’re going to talk about biological sex, well that’s complicated as well. People who are born intersex exist as well you know. Biological sex is also about chromosomes and hormones. So seriously, think outside the underwear!

In order for a society to be diverse we need to be inclusive of various kinds of people and recognise and acknowledge their rights. For Trans and non-binary people there needs to be more awareness about us and we need to feel safe in public places such as public toilets. There also needs to be other options for gender on forms and medical professionals need to know our needs.

While researching and exploring nonbinary gender, I’ve learnt about various gender and sexual identies and my eyes have opened up to a wider world.

It’s sad to see that minority groups are still mistreated by more privileged groups. I think if we can work together we can decrease transphobia, sexism, racism and homophobia. It’s been done before.

Diversity me

Irish Catholic born and raised, but forget that.

I met my mate at a Dr Who event, where he wouldn’t shut up and I wondered if he was gay, and he really spoke so much, but that didn’t matter, because he seemed cool and liked the same thing as me, so I added him to my mental ‘friend’ list and left it at that.

By Jacob Moriarty

Then we went to another event, years later, when a girl with blue hair showed up and had him in her eye.

I said “go for it, there’s nothing to lose but gain.”

Then some years later, he’s chased her up, and he’s moving from WA to NSW, or at least wants to. “Come on over,” I say without a second thought, “I need someone to move out with too. New state, new house, new life, right?”

So we live together, and he’s gay, but it doesn’t mean he can’t love a woman, and he does, the blue-haired girl, who isn’t a girl in her mind, but is rather pangendered and chooses based on the randomness of the day. Her hair’s no longer blue, and he doesn’t talk so much as he used to, but we still watch Dr Who together and are great friends.

I’m just normal myself, but I feel blessed to live alongside such off-the-road people. I almost feel normal inside my own mind when I consider the problems I’m facing, and am daily reminded of the completely different range of problems any other human can face.

So “diversity” me. I’ve always thought a human being was a human first, and anything else second.

IMAGE: Andres Musta

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queerness and religion at UWS: the interviews

By Hunter Mauceri What’s your general thought about the queer community and religion? It seems like there is a general push towards atheism.

Have you had any bad experiences due to the amount of people with different religious beliefs or because you identify as queer?

Sol, pansexual, non-binary, Muslim: Yeah there are a lot of people who don't respect religion and oversimplify it as inherently negative. And I sort of understand because a lot of the queer community has had bad experiences with religious family or friends growing up. But I think that being religious and lgbtqia isn't a dichotomy, and a lot of people always ask me to "explain how I could be both pan and religious" in the hopes they could prove me wrong, which I think is ignorant. seem that there is a bit of a push in the atheist direction.

I personally see it as a result of persistent discrimination against LGBTQIA+ people by the predominant religions in the Western world, those being Christianity in all its forms, Islam and its derivatives, Judaism, and so forth.

Sol: Well yeah. I definitely experienced racism when I wore my headscarf. White people, when they don’t want to be nice to you but they don’t want to be called out on being mean to you, just end up ignoring you when you have the scarf on. But when I don’t have it on and I’m in a predominately white space like in the north shore it’s the other way around - I get stares and looks, from both older and younger people too, like girls looking me up and down in the shops or in the bathroom. I feel like when I’m wearing my scarf, my race is a lot more apparent and so, racism is also more apparent to people around me, which is why racist people choose to actively ignore me in order not to appear racist in public. But for just Asian people, which is what I look like without the scarf on, there’s a misconception that we don't experience as much racism anymore, so racists are more kind of blatant about it.

Alissa, bisexual, cisgender female, atheist: Personally,

Alexander: I have, yes.

Alexander, homosexual, male, agnostic: It does indeed

I was raised atheist, so that happened before I even realised I was queer. I think it can be an easy option for queers to be atheist as they don’t have to push any religious boundaries, feel unfaithful to their religion or question how their religion views queers. I feel like non-religious queers also look unfavourably at religious queers as they may have suffered from certain religious individuals or groups being homophobic.

Chris, gay, prefers the same sex, cisgender male, atheist:

As an atheist, I see the mix between religion and the queer community as problematic, because the ideologies between the two don’t correlate. And the values of many religions are not contemporary with the queer community of today. As much as religion wants to be inclusive with the generation of queer culture, their values which many religions teach do more harm than good to the mental wellbeing of the queer community. But putting my atheistic ideology aside, I do see why people choose to partake in the world of religion

Alissa: No, just funny looks for being queer and being over sexualised as a bisexual.

Chris: Only growing up in a Christian household. When my mum found out I was gay, she tried to get the pastor of her church to give me "guidance" (whatever that means), but I have shown her my side of the story and she has become a lot more supportive. I have met many different queer people who are religious, and I have learned to respect that.

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People who are educated about the world and its diversities are a lot less likely to hate

Chris: In a way it has been interesting because I find that being around people who are very well educated about the world and its diversities, are a lot less likely to hate. I find that people who are less educated about the world's diversities, have more fear of the unknown world of the queer community, and are thus more likely to defend themselves.

At Uni, especially one as culturally, demographically, and psychographically diverse as UWS, there is that blossom of hope for the next generations of queer people. As an atheist, though, I do hope religion takes less and less a stance in my world, especially on the political podium.

What has your experience been with UWS in terms of diversity around queer/cishet people and different religions?

Sol: For queer people I think UWS is quite relaxed compared to other unis. Because there's so much racial diversity it sort of feels like incorporating respect for different genders and sexualities seemed easier, even though race and gender are different. I guess what I'm saying is the "diversity culture" that UWS has really helps.

Alexander: Well, most of my experience has been

As a clarification about my stance on religion, I would like to point out that so far I sound quite contradictory about my respect for religion and that I don’t wish to have religion impede in my world. When I say I have respect for religious people, I mean I don’t mind how they practice it. I don’t mind if they do it out in the open, because it’s sometimes quite enlightening to see. But it’s when they impede my world, where they promote their religion through flyers at the train stations, and through advertising; or through politics, by controlling my way of life, is when I don’t like it.

localised to the Penrith campus so my experience might be a tad limited. Most queer people that I have had the fortune of interacting with have tended to lean towards atheism, although there have been a few exceptions with queer identifying people on campus who also identify as religious. In terms of cishet people, I have seen an overwhelming amount of cishets who tend towards identifying themselves as Christian or Islamic, but even then Christianity is the definite majority. This, along with the presence of at least eight bible study groups on campus has not given me a very diverse picture of Penrith Campus at UWS.

I have my own reasons for being atheist, and if anyone wants to know them, I will tell them. And that is where religion and I differ, because as a gay man, I just want to do what I want to do. I would like to get married, maybe have children, and definitely fall in love. If I can respect religious people to do what they want, even if it means having outdoor congregations or their own picnic in the park day, then I am sure they can respect what I want to do, even if it means mild PDA's...

Alissa: I would say UWS is definitely very open to all

religions and even tries to accommodate various ones through prayer rooms and clubs. Obviously you can’t tell if someone is queer by looking at them, but I do feel that the queer community is strong at uni, through groups like the Queer Collective. However, heteronormativity is still a big issue I face, especially as a femme bisexual.

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Living in Harmony: Resourcing Culturally & Linguistically Diverse students

By Dawn Wade Did you know that 1 in 4 Australians were born overseas? That 45% of Australians are either born overseas or have a parent who was born overseas? In fact, around 7 million people have migrated to Australia since 1945. Australians identify with approximately 300 ancestries, including the traditional owners of the land, the Aboriginal and Torres Straits peoples. So when we say that Australia is a multicultural country , we are not exaggerating!

The Transcultural Support: Study Success website is aimed at first year students from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds transitioning into university study. It is also a useful website for any student wanting to find out ways of making friends, tips for a good first year, 10 practical things you can do to help you settle into your studies, adjusting to a new country and culture, and where to get help, with links to internal UWS resources as well as external resources such as Transcultural Mental Health and Refugee Council of Australia.

If you would like to know more about the website or the diverse composition of the UWS student population on each campus look at the www.uws.edu.au/livinginaustralia site and click on the campus map.

Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) students are not only international students, but all permanent residents of Australia who have been or whose family have been voluntary migrants, or people who have migrated on a Humanitarian visa after being a refugee. At UWS 35% of students speak a language other than English at home.

A refugee is a person who has left their home country as a result of persecution and violence, political unrest, war, or natural disasters, with no hope of returning to their home country. In 2012 there were 44 million refugees worldwide. Find out more at websites such as Amnesty International or Australian Human Rights Commission.

UWS Student Support Services recognise that we are not a monoculture. Culture is viewed as an asset, with respect for the multiple ways human beings determine how they choose to live. We celebrate Harmony Day every year on March 21, an initiative of the Department of Immigration and Citizenship, the 2015 catch phrase being ‘Living in Harmony’.

How do we as a university community continue to celebrate and respect cultural diversity outside of events

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such Harmony Day or Diversity Festival? How do we create a community where we are ‘Living in Harmony’?

A well-accepted idea is to take a personal stand against intellectual laziness that attributes negative attributes to another group of people based on such things as their race, sexuality, skin colour or religion. Start by widening your own experience of others – get to know people outside of your own ‘culture’ and learn how they think and feel. Start looking at difference as something to be explored and respected, not judged and feared. We can make a difference to the social and political environment, just as we can and do make a difference to the natural environment.

We can help make a newly migrated or international student feel welcomed and valued as part of the university community. Think outside the box.

Ask an international student home to meet the family or share a meal together. Sit next to the student who looks and sounds different to you and strike up a conversation.

If you are tempted to stereotype another person-all of them are just the same- think about it first. Racism or intolerance keeps us all separate when we could be united on so many

fronts. Remember, positive change is motivated by feelings of shared humanity, rather than geographical or racial identity. Just look at the phenomenon of http://movement. makepovertyhistory.com.au/ aiming to rid the world of poverty.

If you would like to add your contribution to the conversation on how UWS Student Support Services can support CALD students please email the Student Support Services Senior Research Officer, Transcultural Development Research Tobias Andreasson, at T.Andreasson@uws. edu.au

Culture is viewed as an asset with respect for the multiple ways human beings choose to live

Acknowledgement of their experiences

•

Acknowledgement of different learning styles

•

Acknowledgement of the value of their experiences to the university community

•

Assistance to achieve their potential including skill development, cultural adjustment, English language proficiency, computer literacy, information literacy etc

To understand what is expected of them and what they can expect of the university, and

•

Support in facing feelings of isolation and uncertainty in dealing with racism or indifference.

As a UWS counsellor I speak with students from CALD backgrounds or international students every day.

If this article has raised issues you would like to discuss in a confidential environment, please contact the Counselling Service on 9852 5199 to make a face-to-face or telephone appointment, or email a counsellor using eCounselling

The following list summarises what students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds need from a university community: •

•

IMAGE: John C Bullas ARTIST: daltonmghetti.com

Dawn Wade is a UWS counsellor at Bankstown campus. A clinical social worker, she has been a member of the UWS community for over 15 years, and a university counsellor for over 25 years. Dawn has been responsible for the development of the Transcultural Support : Study Success website for CALD students in collaboration with Student Support Services, International Student Support, and the support of the UWS Communications Unit. Dawn is a member of the UWS Transcultural Working groupan initiative of the UWS Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2012-2015.

Letter from a Racist Dear culturally and linguistically diverse people of UWS, It’s not you, it’s me… The most unsparingly utilised break-up excuse in the history of man, usually said in order to ease someone’s heartbreak or somehow make them feel better about the shit situation they’ve been subjected to. But sometimes the fact is, you really are the problem.

There was a time when I would have asserted adamantly that I was certainly not racist, that I loved everyone. I would have quoted a Christian scripture about how in Christ there is no racial discrimination.

I vividly remember year 4, when a new girl arrived at our country school who wore a hijab. It wasn’t long before the lunchtime game of “catch and kiss” became “catch Marwa and pull the scarf off her head”. I shudder at that now, but as bad as it sounds, we didn’t know we were doing wrong. As far as we were concerned, her head was just cold.

Apart from the minimal aboriginal students, we’d never experienced any other culture. It wasn’t talked about, and it certainly wasn’t taught. The only Asians in town were the old couple who cooked the sweet and sour pork and spring rolls at the local “Chinese” takeaway. Many a night we’d sit around the table laughing at racial jokes about all different cultures… The unemployed Aboriginals, the dishonest Jews, the unattractive Russians, the violent Afghanis. But I wasn’t racist. I knew they weren’t indicative of the entire race. I didn’t mean those things. It was just funny. I wasn’t racist.

I admit, it’s taken almost 2 years after moving from the country to the city to sit back and realise I’m a racist and I didn’t even know it. Almost 30 years of participating in the white majority culture that says that anyone who claims racial predjudice just has a “chip on their shoulder.” Geez, we let people in to in OUR country, and we said sorry to the stolen generation. What’s their problem?

Now, that ideation scares me. It scares me because I don’t even begin to understand what I don’t know, what I should have known, what I’m now beginning to know. I didn’t know I was racist because I didn’t have to see or engage in other cultures. They weren’t MY culture.

The fact that it’s taken me this long to wake up and see the vast Australian culture to which mine is merely one contributor of is a a sign of my white privilege. A culture that I’m both proud and ashamed to belong to.

The truth is, I’m enjoying getting to know more about your cultures… eating your exotic food (that extends way beyond the realms of sweet and sour pork)… going to your cultural festivals… admiring your perfectly woven saris… appreciating the many ways of wearing a hijab… being enlightened by your religious celebrations, getting glimpses of your heritage.

I’m sorry it took me so long to realise that white Australian culture is only a fragment of a whole history and experience to which I’ve never given much attention. Forgive me for being a complete racist, I’m still learning. I still don’t know how to understand all that I’m starting to see. All I know is that I’m becoming aware and participating in a humbling journey of change. My eyes are open.

It’s not you, it’s me… Except in this instance I’m not saying this as a poor excuse to make a potentially difficult situation more easy. I’m merely standing here in front of you, as one of you, acknowledging that I AM the problem, not you, or your race, or your heritage, or your culture. Seriously, it’s not you, it’s me.

Sincerely, An unintentional, accidental, racist privileged white girl.

The Deep End

is Where You Really

Learn

By William Nguyen Before leaving Australia, I was bored.

I hated Australia. I complained about the government, schools, education system, traffic, money problems and life in general. The world was so appealing and Australia was the shackle that bound me to the land I was born into. The chance came when I acquired my TESOL certification and set off.

I was an "English Expert" in China at age 19; that was my title, but what I did was purely hold conversations in each class and give everyone a chance to speak. When I first arrived, the massive highway in Beijing inspired my awe - the only highway I had ever known was the Hume Highway.

I was the very first foreigner that town had ever interacted with in their entire lives, possibly their ancestors included. They were fascinated with me like I was an alien. They did not understand how I could be of Asian appearance yet be born in Australia.

This was so cool. My head was cracked open.

I thought the Chinese would react the same way to the same things and situations as Australians, Americans, Europeans, etc. They did not. They did not even think like us. Their etiquette and culture was vastly different! It was Chinese. The law and government bodies there do not protect people like our legal system.

I went through culture shock when I could not receive help for the fraud my employer committed against me by refusing to pay my salary, simply because he could. I never appreciated Centrelink and Australia's legal system until then.

After coming back to Australia, the culture shock still had not left me. Australia was pretty amazing and China was horrible. It was after a while that I started to see the world no longer in black and white, but as good and bad on both sides. My head was being cleaved open. Yes, I was slow and it took living in a completely alien society for me to learn that. I started to understand the blind loyalty to parents and devotion to education among the Asians in Australia, not without further criticism. I could not appreciate Australia's clean air and our widespread social and environmental movements any more than I do now.

Upon teaching English in Vietnam at age 22, my mind was open to the possibilities of the world. Even on that trip, I learned the hard way about how humans in the bigger picture are conditioned into living, acting and interacting. I re-learnt that stereotypes exist for a reason, that hardship can motivate people to do many things, from working

hard to deceit to harbouring delusions of grandeur or even extreme laziness.

It made me wonder, think, brood, examine. What makes people so different in Vietnam and Australia?

I admit, I was not a bright individual.

But after living in two foreign, alien and culture-shocking countries, I opened my mind up to the world in a way that schools and books could not assist with. I had to be taken out of my comfort zone. I had to be thrown into the deep end of the pool. I believe I would never understand my units to the level I do now had I not undergone such a transformation.

In my old mentality, I am certain I would sing to the tune of "Ps equals degrees" rather than truly analyse the cost versus gains of my HECS debt and the piece of paper saying I have a degree. At the end of the day, I will face the challenge of prolonged unemployment if I cannot land in my studied industry. Should the worse case scenario occur, at least the time, effort and money spent was not to gain a piece of paper, but the understanding and appreciation of the knowledge that the lecturers and tutors devote their lives to. To have that is the purpose of going to university, not to get a piece of paper for employment.

Cheesy Love Poem

by Stevani Hirmiz

Transgress

Easy to write/hard to recite You're sitting among the crowd Ears tuned down

by Nikolai Lysewycz To the sound of my silly voice I'm reminded of brighter days Because when you went away The sun turned into rain I’d like to go outside.

Waves upon waves Of incomplete days It’s dark out.

My whole world had changed Luminescent leaves glisten, When you went away, trembling in the wind.

You took my heart with you..

A wild silhouette in the garden Isn't it funny what love can endure.. is bordered by yellow light; After what seems like a lifetime ’s'curious, the contrast.

I wish you were still mine I miss your eyes I’d like to go outside. and the way they'd shine When you looked into mine I tried once, or the way you'd smile But was led to another room. sent sparks through my spine Walls, doors, windows.

You got me up here after all this time reciting these lines Each window looks out: Just to show you we were destined for one another A wild silhouette in the garden.

We were meant for one another Curiouser and curiouser!

Isn't it funny how love can make us feel I once told you I’d like to go outside.

I had built a home in my heart for you And no matter what road you had chosen My feet would remain frozen On the floor hoping that you know You'd always have love waiting here when you need it the most I guess I'm still waiting for you to come home..

Isn't it funny how patient love is..

I know you had to make a painful choice Yet I'd give anything to hear your graceful voice I wish I could hear all the words you were too afraid to say and tell you everything's gonna be ok and maybe, just maybe we could have felt the sunshine's rays If it weren't for people judging with their eyes instead of their hearts If they knew I had loved you from the very start we'd be together forever Never apart Maybe in distance But never in heart I might have been sitting by your side Hands intertwined Listening to cheesy love poems just like mine

My Australia Where are you, world?

by Dina Codrina Capilnean

Did I fall in love with all the rest?

Because I never seem to impress I reach out to paint your untouched heart But the more I do, we fall apart There is no sanity no more When we’re not insulted at ‘whore’ When we would rather start a war Then save the ones that need it the most Only pretend, but keep your money at your door I can’t find love anymore no more We walk obliviously on earth Artists are ignored and no talent praised What have we come to, feeling no worth?

What have I done, no trust, I am amazed Could this be the world’s fault or simply My own definition of heart’s place?

There is no sanity no more When we’re not insulted at ‘whore’ When we would rather start a war Then save the ones that need it the most Only pretend, but keep your money at your door Perhaps I’m the only one Who realises what this world has become We shouldn’t be amazed at the goodness in people’s hearts It should be a natural form of human nature’s art I’ve lost myself in this world…

I don’t care who I am to you anymore Just let me live in my own world and peace While you all live in your stupidity There is no sanity no more When we’re not insulted at ‘whore’ When we would rather start a war Then save the ones that need it the most Only pretend, but keep your money at your door Keep pretending… I know your game behind closed doors

by Jemimah McMurray I grew up in Western Sydney.

Every summer the heat lay low over the basin, dry and stubborn, casting dizzy haze over the bitumen.

When I was a girl we’d come home from school dragging our legs, all five of us with our red tomato cheeks.

My brothers and I would turn the ceiling fan to full blast and lie like starfish on the on the lounge room floor.

We’d throw wet tea towels over our faces and sprawl barefoot, sticky iceblock stains around our mouths.

On afternoons like these we’d dig out our swimmers, load up our old Toyota van and drive down to the coast.

Soon the air would change - cool and inviting.

We’d slide our windows open as far as they could go until our eyes stung from the wind.

Isn’t it great to have free air conditioning!

Dad would always yell over the blast.

We’d all grin back with those squinty, gusty grins, hair flying madly about us.

40 minutes later we’d arrive in a bundle of arms and legs and sunscreen, with smears of white hiding behind our ears.

We’d run as fast as we could across the burning sand until it darkened under our feet and flooded our toes.

The boys would hurdle ahead into the water.

I was always the slowest to get in.

I’d tickle its cold hand and squeal and run away from the bubbling foam.

Dad would go out in front and call for us to come past the breakers.

He’d show us how to dive under the hurtling waves and how to spot the ones to bodysurf.

We’d cling on his back and he’d paddle us further out to where the water stilled.

Moored in timeless time we’d float forever on our backs over the swell.

Hours later mum would call us in, our wrinkled fingers like prunes and our pickled lips salty and shivering.

We’d find our towels on the beach, buy hot chips from the milkbar and chase away the hundred seagulls that materialised.

Dining under a watercolour sky we would watch the ocean turn washes of orange and pink as the sun set behind the ridge.

That was our thousand-star restaurant.

This is my Australia.

Belonging

by Sione Mapapalangi Let’s take the concept of belonging, We all know the struggle is for real The crave is stone-cold and inhumane It’s a whole other deal.

It’s on a whole other level As time ages to its core It creates that conflict of interest I know we’ve all been there before.

I know we all try to fit in, That we’d do anything to fit the mode, To be pretty enough to fit the trends Or thin enough to fit the clothes That are laid out all over magazines Screaming, “You need to look like me” But the funny thing is, Those people, they don’t look like that in reality.

It’s what society does to your mind “You’ll need this, this and this to get by” We’re all chasing the sublime, I’ll give you a few reasons why: We’re too scared to be ourselves, We’re too scared to be different.

And you can deny it all you want, But it’s embedded in our systems.

It’s an automatic reaction, Attention is like food to our ego, Hence the less of it we have, The more of us become incognito.

Self-esteem and all time low While self-conscience has raised the bars.

Paranoid of verbal attacks, fear of being emotionally scarred.

But I don’t blame you though, Coz in the simplest – this world is cruel.

It’ll eat you up and spit you out If you try and be the real you.

Let me lay it out clean Teenage suicide rates are peaking And we can sweep the truth under the rug Yet we all know the real reason, Coz the girl you called fat Is probably in the bathroom being bulimic Or the guy you said is too emotional Was probably a schizophrenic.

But let me guess, you didn’t mean it Or that wasn’t your intention; “I didn’t know she had a disorder”, “I didn’t know he suffered from depression”.

Excuse the explicit tone But we seem to think ignorance is bliss Humanity is deprived of the truth That’s how we ended up like this But let me tell you now The pen is mightier than the sword.

Coz while a wound will eventually heal, Words will hang heavier than they did before.

If we left judgement to God and were more wary of what we say, We’d be a little closer to a better world And tomorrow could be a brighter day.

So don’t you ever forget We all bleed the colour red.

Equality is the soul of liberty And belonging all starts in your head.

#DIVERSITYFEST

SRC President’s Report Jarrod Bradley is a third year medical student at UWS, obsessed with students’ rights and fighting for these as your SRC President in 2015 It’s been a tumultuous year for the SRC in 2015. We’ve seen students gain access to Opal Concessions, we’ve supported campaigns like Red Week, we’ve opened discussion channels with the Vice Chancellor Professor Barney Glover & Vice President (People & Advancement) Angelo Kourtis, and we’ve seen the student discussion and backlash to the rebranding of our beloved University of Western Sydney.

As President of the UWS SRC it has been so encouraging over the last few weeks to see students from all backgrounds unite behind our name and brand of UWS to defend against a university rebrand, and although this campaign may not stop the change, it has made a massive difference. People now understand and respect the love UWS students have for their university, and this

has further opened the channels for student feedback with the university. From here we can advocate early on changes and stay up-to-date as events arise, but more importantly for the SRC, it shows that we have a multitude of students passionate and capable of stepping up to run our Student Representative Council next year.

The SRC is looking to re-establish its prominence at UWS and become the champions of representation that our students deserve. So far this year we have been advocating for changes to welfare, parking, and other important issues. We believe that student education, facilities, and support should be the highest priorities of UWS, and we want these placed higher than “appearances.”

So, remember, if you’re passionate about student advocacy and positive changes for your university, elections for the SRC are coming up later this year. If you are interested please get in contact with my fellow Councillors or contact me directly.

Campbelltown Student Campus Council Report Born & raised in the area, Jarrod Bradley is the Campbelltown Student Campus Council Chair for 2015, making sure the students in Campbelltown have their voices heard inside and outside of UWS The CSCC has had a great few months, advocating for local campus changes whilst also supporting important causes, such as the Red Week campaign.

Red Week is an initiative of the Australian Medical Students Association (AMSA), raising awareness of sexual health amongst students. As the CSCC we teamed up with the medical students of UWS to bring this event to all Campbelltown students, featuring speakers from our local sexual health clinic, free food – which I’m sure you all enjoyed – and printed information made up by some medical students.

As the CSCC we are looking to continue to improve campus life for our students, so please come along to Diversity Fest to chat with us, stop by our office, or send us an email and let us know what we can do to help. OR leave a note in our feedback box in the student kitchen.

report from parramatta Student Campus Council

By Hannah Mograby The Parramatta SCC has had a really positive year so far. From our first meeting to the most recent one we’ve had, we’ve been discussing things we can do to benefit students on Parramatta campus. Many SCC’s have gone by the “free food” culture for the past couple of years – not that there’s anything wrong with that – but we wanted to make sure that, in our time at the SCC, we would work hard to make a difference.

Still not exactly sure who we are?

Well, you might have seen us handing out some donuts or pizza last semester while we try to awkwardly engage in enough conversation to get out some concerns or feedback from you. For the record, I never wanted to be like that person that yells “HEY CAN I ASK YOU A QUESTION?” at someone in a shopping centre to get them to buy some soap. I actually applied for a job like this and quickly decided to abort mission once they started training us. But I, as well as all 10 other members, genuinely wanted to hear students’ thoughts on their experience in Parramatta. Are you getting to campus and classes swiftly?

Is vUWS working as it should be? Are you happy with the food options on campus? Are you coping with studies?

Are lecturers and tutors being as helpful as they can be? Is everything really as is it should be?

These are some of the questions we want you to answer. You have every right to want to know how the university is utilizing your money, offer input to where things could improve and speak out on things that affect your experience and education.

Apart from hosting some of the beloved food events this session, the SCC is in the midst of putting together a campaign for better parking in Parramatta. In a few short weeks – or perhaps by the time you’ll be reading this – our campus will be flooded with flyers for a petition to improve parking. This has been one of our main goals for 2015 and, after being told several times that there was no point or that it was a lost cause, we decided that we couldn’t serve our time on the SCC without having at least tried.

We’re extremely determined to put these issues to the university whether they’ll respond or not. And if you’re wondering “well what if they don’t do anything about it?” the answer is: Then we’ll keep making noise until they do.

I have enjoyed every moment of the SCC and though I will sadly be resigning as Chair and member this month, I will really cherish all that I’ve learnt in my role as a student representative. This is all to do with ensuring I don’t put in a half-effort to my studies or the SCC while doing both as many student activists would

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tell you: We can sometimes let one or the other engulf our time without realising it. I joined the SCC in October 2014 and was re-elected in 2015 and as Chair.

My time on the SCC has taught me so many things that I’ll never forget: • •

•

•

Time-management is everything.

Literally everything.

Don’t let intimidation get in the way of saying what’s on your mind – without students there’d be no staff.

Don’t let someone convince you there’s a dead end when there’s really just a locked gate: Oh there’s no point bringing up something “cause someone else has and they didn’t get the answer they were looking for”?

Well maybe you just need to word the question differently.

Teamwork, teamwork, teamwork

On that last point, enough about me.

We’ve got 10 amazing members in the Campus Council. So before I go, here’s a little bit about each of them: Nicole: Outspoken, reliable, caring – Nicole is that person you always want to give you their thoughts on something. Her feedback is always valuable which is why I always ask her for opinion on things when I see her because I know she thinks about things more straightforwardly than others.

Brendon : Creative, enthusiastic, approachable – Brendon is always coming up with ideas for events the SCC could host and considers the student appeal to it all. He’s constantly trying to think of what we could do that would be fun and different to any other SCC. Lucy: Original, perceptive, dedicated – Our student editor! Lucy is really passionate; you can tell she really cares about doing our best to benefit students. She’s always providing a different perspective to issues and how we can deal with them Tahani (Vice Chair): Rational, resourceful, selfless – Tahani is perhaps one of the most considerate people you could come across. She always knows exactly what to say and how to say it, which makes her role so important on the SCC. She thinks about everything logically and is constantly considering how we can make this campus better.

Anup: Understanding, kind, hardworking – Anup really listens to students’ complaints and always brings a different perspective to issues on campus. He has shown to be really passionate about making a positive difference to others, making him a really selfless person.

Michelle: Confident, energetic, optimistic – Michelle is a really positive person that has a lot of confidence with raising concerns and engaging with students at our events.

She’s very charismatic and is always ready to offer a helping hand.

Michael (Secretary): Focused, friendly, articulate – Being one of our newest members this year, Michael has already proven to be a very dedicated and well-spoken member in the SCC! He is constantly providing positive input at meetings on issues/events and demonstrates real passion in student activism when doing so.

Marija: Organised, intuitive, charismatic – Maria was previously our secretary, and only just recently resigned and we were absolutely crushed to see her go! She is one of the most organised people I’ve ever met and has an eye for detail in everything she does. She always thought of and executed plans to make student life a little better and continuously spoke up about issues students were facing. A very diligent member on our team, we hope she’s enjoying her time abroad!

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Abishek: Kind, soft-spoken, cooperative - Another one of our newest members in the SCC! Abi is a gentle member that is punctual and supportive. He is a considerate member that is always ready to listen to and communicate issues.

Alby: Calm, insightful, considerate – Alby is an awesome “O.G.” member in the SCC. He’s had a lot of experience in the SCC and always helps us understand things that have worked in the past and issues previous councils have faced. He’s always honest with his feedback and offers a unique angle of looking at things!

Can’t wait to see you all continue representing students this year! I am so happy and proud to have been able to work with such a dedicated team.

Good luck with it all!

Did you know there is a

Student Campus Council on each of the five main campuses at UWS?

Each of the five Student Campus Councils has up to 11 voting members, all current UWS students, who are based at that particular campus.

Six of these 11 positions are ‘General Member’ positions, filled by any current UWS student whose home campus is represented by that SCC. Any student can vote at election time for candidates for these positions.

Three of the SCC positions are “Identified” positions, consisting of one Residential student, one Postgraduate student and one International student. Only students who are from these respective categories can stand and vote for these positions.

Three SCC members sit on the Student Representative Council from each campus. The Chair of each SCC is automatically given a position on the SRC, plus two additional SCC members are voted to sit on the SRC.

The SRC comprises 15 voting members; 3 from each of the 5 SCCs. The SRC elects a President, Vice-President and Secretary from within its ranks.

Each SCC receives SSAF funding to run campaigns and to represent student issues on their campus

Something you’d like to change on campus?

Something you’d like to say about the student experience at UWS? Join others to make a difference on a local, regional, national, global level.

Become a student representative on your student campus council

STUDENT REP ELECTIONS for 2016 GET INVOLVED! CAMPAIGN! HAVE A VOICE!

Nominations open 7 to 25 September Voting opens 12 to 23 October 2015 Check your student emails in September uws.edu.au/studentvoice uws.edu.au/studentvoice

Student Representation & Participation

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wake up on campus! apply now for 2015 Stay on-campus at UWS Village and walk to your class in a matter of minutes!

Fully furnished apartments

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Student lounges and study areas

Make your online application today, visit:

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on-campus student accommodation email uws.village@clv.com.au

PODIATRY UniClinic at Campbelltown campus offers podiatry services to the general public at a reduced rate, including nail surgery, foot pressure analysis, diabetes assessment, orthoses, vascular/neurological/biomechanical/ gait assessments, and muscle rehabilitation. For students most of the services cost just $10.

Phone 4620 3700 and visit uws.edu.au/ uniclinic

Study & Life Skills Free workshops include academic writing workshops, library roving, maths, dealing with exam stress, mastering your memory, time management, planning, getting motivated, strategies for stress-free presentations.

Email mesh@uws.edu.au for maths workshops, hall@uws.edu.au for academic literacy workshops and counselling@uws.edu.au for life skills workshops

Student Welfare For assistance from other services, such as a counsellor or a government agency, UWS welfare officers can help you with info and advice about the right services to talk to in relation to accommodation, financial assistance including food vouchers Centrelink support, tax help, textbook vouchers, sexual health, bullying, advocacy on misconduct, review of grades and special consideration and budget meals.

Email welfareservice@uws.edu.au or visit uws.edu.au/askwelfare

Careers With CareerHub you may search for jobs, internships, work experience, overseas positions, book in to career expos and access career information and resume advice all in one place. This free service is available to all UWS students and recent graduates. Register with your current MyUWS Account.

Email careerhub.uws.edu.au

Family Planning NSW Mates@UWS Reproductive and sexual health experts on contraception, pregnancy options, STIs, sexuality and sexual function, menstruation, menopause, common gynaecological and vaginal problems, cervical screening, breast awareness and men’s health. Clinics in Ashfield, Fairfield, Penrith targeted to marginalised communities, people from culturally and linguistically diverse and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander backgrounds, refugees, people with disability, young people and same sex attracted people.

Visit fpnsw.org.au or call 1300 658 886

MATES@UWS is looking for volunteer mentors to help new students settle in and make their first session at UWS a positive one.

Being a ‘Mate’ not only gives you the opportunity to help new students with their transition but allows you to meet other students, connect with UWS staff, receive free goodies and most importantly, have lots of fun along the way.

Visit uws.edu.au/mates

Indigenous Students

Ever have unprotected sex? Get tested, it’s easy. Many Sexually Transmitted Infections have no obvious symptoms.

Sexual Health Clinics at Nepean Hospital in Kingswood and Blue Mountains Hospital in Katoomba offer FREE confidential testing and treatment. The Nepean Hospital Clinic also offers the ‘Men Out West’ Clinic with HIV testing in 10minutes. No Medicare card needed.

Visit nbmlhd.health.nsw.gov.au/ Sexual-Health or phone Nepean Sexual Health Clinic 4734 2507 or the Katoomba Sexual Health Clinic 4784 6550.

Badanami Centre provides support and encouragement for every Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander student enrolled at the University. Students can drop in to Badanami anytime to study or relax Badanami can put you in touch with a range of services across campuses, from study skills courses, careers advice, counselling and medical assistance all the way through to opportunities to study abroad 1800 032 923 or email badanami@uws. edu.au

SEXUAL HEALTH CLINIC

PASS: Peer-Assisted Disability Service Study Sessions

Work with other students to understand the content of your units and develop study strategies to help improve your academic performance. Each PASS group is run by a student facilitator who has studied the unit previously. PASS is free and voluntary.

Regular attendance of PASS will help improve your grades and make study more rewarding.

Visit uws.edu.au/pass

Chaplaincy The chaplaincy team offers a caring presence to all staff and students at UWS; encouraging spirituality, offering hospitality and creating community. We do this by embracing our diversity, encouraging conversation and respecting our similarities and differences. Chaplains come from a variety of spiritual traditions.

Email chaplaincy@uws.edu.au

A team of professionals to assist students with all types of disabilities including chronic illness, mental health conditions and learning disabilities by providing reasonable adjustments.

Reasonable adjustments, such as exam provisions, are steps taken to ensure all students have equal access to university.

Visit uws.edu.au/disability, call 9852 5199 or email disability@uws.edu.au

Counselling A team of qualified social workers and psychologists to help you with any issues affecting your study. If you’re not sure that university is for you, a counsellor may be able to offer advice and support or help you improve your study skills. Counselling is free, confidentail and can be carried out as e counselling if preferred.

9852 5199 or email counselling@uws. edu.au

Student legal:

Consumer Rights

Every time you buy goods or services, you are entering into a contract. This means you will have certain rights and responsibilities, as will the trader. Under the Australian Consumer Law (ACL), products you buy come with an automatic guarantee that they will do what they are supposed to do. Where this doesn’t happen, the ACL will be applied. The type of remedy will depend on your circumstances but may include a repair, replacement, refund or having the service performed again.

Acceptable quality takes into account what would normally be expected for the type of product and cost.

Guarantees on services Services must: • Be provided with acceptable care and skill or

technical knowledge and taking all necessary

steps to avoid loss and damage • Be fit for the purpose or give the results that you

and the business had agreed to • Be delivered within a reasonable time when

there is no agreed end date.

Who is a consumer?

A consumer can be a person or a business if: • They purchase goods or services that cost less than $40,000 • The goods or services cost more than $40,000, but were purchased for domestic, household or personal use or consumption, or • The goods are a commercial road vehicle or trailer used primarily to transport goods on public roads

Goods bought at Auction If you sell goods through an online auction website, you may have to abide by the consumer guarantees, as these websites do not act as an agent for the person selling the goods.

Consumer Guarantees – Am I Covered?

The consumer guarantees are intended to ensure you get the product you paid for and that it does what it’s meant to do. Consumer guarantees apply every time you buy goods and services. If the manufacturer doesn’t have an office in Australia, the importer will be responsible for meeting the manufacturer’s guarantees to you. If you receive goods or services as a gift, you have the same rights as the person who purchased them.

If you are buying at an online auction site at a fixed price, you are covered by the same consumer guarantees that apply to non-auction sales.

Consumer guarantees do NOT apply if you: • Misused a product in any way that caused the

problem • Got what you asked for but changed your mind

or saw it cheaper elsewhere • Knew of or were made aware of the faults before

you bought the product • Bought a one-off item from a private seller, for

example at a garage sale • Plan to re-sell or change the product so that you

can use it for your business.

If you buy goods or services from an overseas trader, the Australia Consumer Law may not apply and only offer you limited protection. From a practical view, it would also be difficult in getting a remedy from an overseasbased buyer. Always make sure you read the terms and conditions of the contract before you buy.

Online Shopping When you buy goods or services online from a business based in Australia, you are protected by the same Australian Consumer Law that applies to physical purchases.

Private Sellers Generally, the law does not apply when buying from private sellers.

Store return policies and ‘No Refund’ Signs Signs or cash register receipts that state ‘No Refunds’ are misleading as they give the impression that you have no rights even if there is a major problem. The following are examples of signs that are unlawful: • ‘No refund on sale items’

Guarantees on Products Products must be of acceptable quality, that is: • Safe, lasting, with no faults • Look acceptable • Do all the things someone would normally

expect them to do.

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•

•

Taking Action!

There are three steps you can take to try and fix the problem

‘Exchange or credit note only for return of sale items’ ‘No refunds after 30 days’

1. Contact the seller As soon as possible, contact the business to explain the problem and the outcome you want. In many cases a simple phone call or store visit can fix the problem. Put it in writing so that you have a record of your contact.

However signs that state ‘No refunds will be given if you have simply changed your mind’ are acceptable.

Second-Hand Goods The consumer guarantees apply whether the goods are new, seconds or second-hand. Depending on factors such as price and age, it may not be reasonable to expect a second-hand product to last as long as a brand new one.

2. Contact the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) or another third party The ACCC can give you information about your consumer rights and obligations and suggest possible courses of action you might take. It can also investigate and take action on behalf of affected consumers when a seller or manufacturer fails to meet obligations under the consumer guarantees.

Myth or Fact?

‘I don’t like it but I can always return it and get my money back’ Legally, refunds are only given in limited circumstances and you are not always entitled to a refund for change of mind. In some cases, the retailer may offer a return as a sign of good will.

3. Take legal Action Consider getting independent legal advice about what options are available and suit your circumstances. . You may be entitled to take your complaint to the small claims court or tribunal, or alternatively take private legal action.

‘They have to sell it to me at the lowest marked price’ Not necessarily. Legally, if an item is marked with two prices, the retailer should sell you the item at the lower price. In some cases, the retailer can withdraw the item from sale.

Some of this information is from Fair Trading and the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission Website.

‘I’ve changed my mind, but I can still get my deposit back’ This depends on the terms of the document you signed.

If you change your mind, the retailer may be entitled to keep part of your deposit for the time and expense that was given to your order. Traders will usually return your deposit out of good will.

By Roya Aran, Events Coordinator & Jayd Raffoul, Solicitor, Student Legal Services UWS Student Legal Service is a joint venture with Macquarie Legal Centre. The service is at the UWS Parramatta Community Justice Clinic, Parramatta Local Court.

‘I have to keep the original packaging for the product and return it to the supplier if something goes wrong’ You are not required to return the goods in the original packaging, however you do need to have proof of the transaction.

Student Legal Services provides legal advice to currently enrolled UWS students. The service is provided to UWS students through SSAF funds.

‘The item I bought doesn’t look the same as it did online!

Guess I can’t return it’ If you purchased the item from an Australian-based business, you have the same consumer rights as anyone else. The seller must guarantee the goods will match their description.

Disclaimer: The information is general. It does not constitute and should not be relied on as legal advice. For advice contact Student Legal Services on 8688 7875 or studentlegalservices@ uws.edu.au

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EXPLORE: WEST An exhibition of work

by Bachelor of Design (Visual Communication) students in the Rabbit Hole studio This exhibition features a diverse range of perspectives from young people in Western Sydney, contesting the one-dimensional ‘Westie’ stereotype.

Studies show that Western Sydney is considered by many people living outside of the region as a dangerous place populated with people who are coarse, uneducated, and culturally bereft. This is largely due to the ‘Westie’ label and other media representations that focus on negative images of the west, constructed and disseminated by people who have never even set foot in the area.

As insiders, fourth year design students working in the Rabbit Hole studio were asked to consider what they have to say about their home turf, and design a poster that encourages the viewer to explore different aspects of Western Sydney. uws.edu.au/rabbithole The full exhibition is showing at UWS Gallery, Werrington North Building AD, until October 9

RIGHT:

Lucy Commisso

Westie Scum is a play on the typical stereotype placed on the residents and students of Western Sydney.

Letters are made up of individuals from Western Sydney who have gone on to accomplish a multitude of achievements.

Within the poster you will find the name, place of birth/study and achievements of these individuals.

They are who make up the “Westie Scum” and it will be apparent that stereotype isn’t justified at all.

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Katelyn Ballardin

When I set out to research this assignment I googled ‘Westies’ and the first result was Wikipedia.

I followed the link and began to read.

“The west also has lower levels of professional employment, and has Sydney’s highest crime rates. [citation needed]” The square brackets with the words “citation needed” stood out.

When I considered what stereotypes surround the Western Suburbs, I thought that the term “citation needed” could apply to them as well.

Where are the credible sources behind the negative stereotypes surrounding the West? It seems like it’s time for some clarification.

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[ ] citation needed Westies The west has lower levels of professional employment, and has S ydney ’s highest crime rates. [citation needed] (source: Wikipedia)

Michaela Primiano This poster was designed to challenge the associated stigma attached to Western Sydney.

It was inspired by the world famous Australian song ‘I’ve been everywhere man’ written by Geoff Mack.

Similar to the song, this typographic poster proudly lists all the suburbs of the Greater Western area to mock the perception that the West is a place that nobody has heard of or even goes.

This concept is reinforced by the arrow and compass illustration to symbolize the idea of travelling and living in the West.

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I’ve

I ve been to ABBOTSBURY MINCHINBURY SMITHFIELD SPRING FARM SPRINGWOOD ST BELL BELLA VISTA BERALA BERAMBING BERKSHIRE PARK BICKLEY VALE bOW BOWING HORSLEY PARK HOXTON PARK HUNTINGWOOD INGLEBURN JAMISONTOWN KATOOMBA KEARNS LAWSON LEETSVALE LEONAY LEPPINGTON LETHBRIDGE PARK LEUMEAH LEURA LIDCOMBE LINDEN LIVERPOOL LLANDILO LONDONDERRY LONG POINT LOWER PORTLAND LUDDENHAM LURNEA MARSDEN PARK MCGRATHS HILL KELLYVILLE KELLYVILLE RIDGE BARGO BASS HILL BAULKHAM HILLS KEMPS CREEK KENTHURST GRASMERE GREEN VALLEY GREENACRE GREENDALE GREENFIELD PARK GREGORY HILLS KENTLYN KINGS LANGLEY MOOREBANK MOUNT ANNAN MOUNT DRUITT MOUNT HUNTER MOUNT IRVINE MOUNT LEWIS MOUNT PRITCHARD MOUNT RIVERVIEW MOUNT TOMAH MOUNT VERNON MOUNT VICTORIA MOUNT WILSON MOWBRAY PARK MULGOA WILBERFORCE WILLMOT WILTON WINMALEE WAGOONA WANDERRA YELLOW ROCK YENNORA MULGRAVE NARELLAN NATTAI NELSON NEWINGTON NORTHMEAD MINTO HEIGHTS MOGO CREEK ROSEMEADOW ROSSMORE ROUSE HILL RUSE RYDALMERE SACKSVILLE NORTH SADLEIR SCHEYVILLE SCHOFIELDS SCOTTS HILl SEFTON SEVEN HILLS SHALVEY SHANES PARK SILVERDALE SILVERWATER SMEATON GRANGE OAKDALE OAKHURST OAKVILLE OATLANDS ORAN PARK ORANGEVILLE ORCHARD HILLS KURRAJONG LAKESLAND LALOR PARK LANSDOWNe LANSVALE LAPSTONE MEDLOW BATH OXLEY PARK PADSTOW PANANIA PARKLEA PARRAMATTa PEMULWUY PENDLE HILL PENNANT HILLS PENRITH PERRYS CROSSING PHEASANTS NEST PICNIC POINT MINCHINBURY MINTO HEIGHTS MOGO CREEK MOOREBANK MOUNT ANNAN CATHERINE FIELD CATTAI CAWDOR CECIL HILLS CHESTER HILL MOUNT DRUITT MOUNT HUNTER PICTON PITT TOWN PLEASURE POINT ACACIA GARDENS AGNES BANKS AIRDS AMBARVALE ANNANGROVE APPIN ARNDELL PARK ASHCROFT AUBURN AUSTRAL BADGERYS CREEK BANKSTOWN BEAUMONT HILLS HAZELBROOK HEBERSHAM HECKENBERG HINCHINBROOK HOBARTVILLE HOLROYD BELIMBLA PARL MIDDLETON GRANGE BIDWILL BILPIN BIRRONG BLACKETT BLACKHEATH BLACKTOWN BLAIRATHOL BLAIRMOUNT BLAXLAND BLAXLANDS RIDGE BLIGH PARK BLUE MOUNTAINS BONNYRIGG BOSSLEY PARK B MILLER MILPERRA PLUMPTON POTTS HILL PRAIRIEWOOD ST ANDREWS ST CLAIR ST HELENS ST JOHNS PARK ST MARYS STANHOPE GARDENS SUN VALLEY TAHMOOR TELOPEA THE OAKS THE PEAKS THE PONDS THE SLOPES THERESA PARK THIRLMERE TOONGABBIE TREGEAR VALLEY HEIGHTS VARROVILLE VILLAWOOD VINEYARD PRESTONS PROSPECT PUNCHBOWL PUTTY QUAKERS HILL BOWEN MOUNTAIN BOX HILL BRADBURY BRINGELLY BROWNLOW HILL BUCKETTY BULLABURRA BUNGARRIBEE BUSBY BUXTON CABRAMATTA CAMBRIDGE WENTWORTH FALLS WENTWORTH POINT WENTWORTHVILLE WEROMBI WERRINGTON WEST HOXTON CAMDEN CAMELLIA CAMPBELLTOWN CANLEY VALE CARLINGFORD CARNES HILL CARRAMAR ACACIA GARDENS AGNES BANKS AIRDS AMBARVALE ANNANGROVE APPIN ARNDELL PARK ASHCROFT AUBURN AUSTRAL BADGERYS CREEK BANKSTOWN BARGO BASS HILL BAULKHAM HILLS BEAUMONT HILLS BELIMBLA PARL MIDDLETON GRANGE MILLER MILPERRA MOUNT IRVINE MOUNT LEWIS MOUNT PRITCHARD MOUNT RIVERVIEW MOUNT TOMAH CARTWRIGHT CASTLE HILL CASTLEREAGH CASULA HORNINGSEA PARK WINSTON HILLS WISEMANS FERRY WOMERAH WOODBINE WOODCROFT WOODFORD WOODPARK RABY RAZORBACK REGENTS PARK REGENTVILLE REVESBY RICHMOND RIVERSTONE ROCKWOOD ROOTY HILL ROPES CROSSING ROSEHILL KINGS PARK KINGSWOOD KIRKHAM KURMOND MEGALONG VALLEY MELLONG CHIPPING NORTON CHULLORA CLAREMONT MEADOWS CLARENDON CLAYMORE CLYDE COBBITTY COLEBEE COLO COLYTON CONDELL PARK CORNWALLIS COURIDJAH CRANEBROOK CUMBERLAND REACH CURRANS HILL DEAN PARK DENHAM COURT DHARRUK DOONSIDE DOUGLAS PARK DUNDAS DURAL EAGLE VALE EAST HILLS EASTERN CREEK EASTWOOD EBENEZER EDENSOR PARK MACDONALD MACQUARIE FIELDS MALDON MARAYLYA MARAYONG MAROOTA EDMONDSON PARK ELDERSLIE ELIZABETH HILLS ELLIS LANE EMERTON EMU HEIGHTS EMU PLAINS EPPING ERMINGTON ERSKINE PARK ESCHOL PARK FAIRFIELD FAULCONBRIDGE FERNACES FREEMANS REACH GEORGES HALL GILEAD GIRRAWEEN GLEDSWOOD HILLS GLEN ALPINE GLENBROOK GLENDENNING GLENFIELD GLENHAVEN GLENMORE GLENORIE GLENWOOD GRANVILLE GREYSTANES GROSE WOLD HAMMONVILLE HARRINGTON PARK HARRIS PARK HASSALL GROVE HAWKESBURY HEIGHTS HOLSWORTHY HOMEBUSH MELROSE PARK MENANGLE MERRYLANDS ALBANS VOYAGER POINT WAKELEY WALLACIA WARRAGAMBA WARRIMOO WARWICK FARM WATTLE GROVE WEBBS CREEK WEDDERBURN WEST PENNANT HILLS WESTMEAD WETHERILL PARK WHALAN WHEENY CREEK YERRANDERIE ROSSMORE ROUSE HILL RUSE RYDALMERE SACKSVILLE NORTH SADLEIR SCHEYVILLE SCHOFIELDS SCOTTS HILl SEFTON SEVEN HILLS SHALVEY SHANES PARK SILVERDALE SILVERWATER SMEATON GRANGE OAKDALE OAKHURST OAKVILLE OATLANDS ORAN PARK ORANGEVILLE ORCHARD HILLS KURRAJONG LAKESLAND LALOR PARK LANSDOWNe LANSVALE LAPSTONE MEDLOW BATH OXLEY PARK PADSTOW PANANIA PARKLEA PARRAMATTa PEMULWUY PENDLE HILL PENNANT HILLS PENRITH PERRYS CROSSING PHEASANTS NEST PICNIC POINT MINCHINBURY MINTO HEIGHTS MOGO CREEK HORSLEY PARK HOXTON PARK HUNTINGWOOD INGLEBURN JAMISONTOWN KATOOMBA KEARNS LAWSON LEETSVALE LEONAY LEPPINGTON LETHBRIDGE PARK LEUMEAH LEURA LIDCOMBE LINDEN LIVERPOOL LLANDILO LONDONDERRY LONG POINT LOWER PORTLAND LUDDENHAM LURNEA MARSDEN PARK MCGRATHS HILL KELLYVILLE KELLYVILLE RIDGE BARGO BASS HILL BAULKHAM HILLS KEMPS CREEK KENTHURST GRASMERE GREEN VALLEY GREENACRE GREENDALE EASTWOOD EBENEZER EDENSOR PARK MACDONALD MACQUARIE FIELDS MALDON MARAYLYA MARAYONG MAROOTA EDMONDSON PARK ELDERSLIE ELIZABETH HILLS ELLIS LANE EMERTON EMU HEIGHTS EMU PLAINS EPPING ERMINGTON ERSKINE PARK ESCHOL PARK FAIRFIELD FAULCONBRIDGE HASSALL GROVE HAWKESBURY HEIGHTS HOLSWORTHY HOMEBUSH MELROSE PARK MENANGLE MERRYLANDS ALBANS VOYAGER POINT WAKELEY WALLACIA WARRAGAMBA WARRIMOO WARWICK FARM WATTLE GROVE WEBBS CREEK WEDDERBURN WEST PENNANT HILLS WESTMEAD WETHERILL PARK WHALAN WHEENY CREEK YERRANDERIE ROSSMORE ROUSE HILL RUSE RYDALMERE SACKSVILLE NORTH SADLEIR SCHEYVILLE SCHOFIELDS SCOTTS HILl SEFTON SEVEN HILLS ROSEMEADOW ROSSMORE ROUSE HILL RUSE RYDALMERE SACKSVILLE NORTH SADLEIR SCHEYVILLE SCHOFIELDS SCOTTS HILl SEFTON SEVEN HILLS SHALVEY SHANES PARK SILVERDALE SILVERWATER SMEATON GRANGE OAKDALE OAKHURST OAKVILLE OATLANDS ORAN PARK ORANGEVILLE ORCHARD HILLS KURRAJONG LAKESLAND LALOR PARK LANSDOWNe LANSVALE LAPSTONE MEDLOW BATH OXLEY PARK PADSTOW PANANIA PARKLEA PARRAMATTa PEMULWUY PENDLE HILL PENNANT HILLS PENRITH PERRYS CROSSING PHEASANTS NEST PICNIC POINT MINCHINBURY MINTO HEIGHTS MOGO CREEK MOOREBANK MOUNT ANNAN CATHERINE FIELD CATTAI CAWDOR CECIL HILLS CHESTER HILL MOUNT DRUITT MOUNT HUNTER PICTON PITT TOWN PLEASURE POINT ACACIA GARDENS AGNES BANKS AIRDS AMBARVALE ANNANGROVE APPIN ARNDELL PARK ASHCROFT AUBURN AUSTRAL BADGERYS CREEK BANKSTOWN BEAUMONT HILLS HAZELBROOK HEBERSHAM HECKENBERG HINCHINBROOK HOBARTVILLE HOLROYD BELIMBLA PARL MIDDLETON GRANGE BIDWILL BILPIN BIRRONG BLACKETT BLACKHEATH BLACKTOWN BLAIRATHOL BLAIRMOUNT BLAXLAND BLAXLANDS RIDGE BLIGH PARK BLUE MOUNTAINS BONNYRIGG BOSSLEY PARK B MILLER MILPERRA PLUMPTON POTTS HILL PRAIRIEWOOD ST ANDREWS ST CLAIR ST HELENS ST JOHNS PARK ST MARYS AUBURN AUSTRAL BADGERYS CREEK BANKSTOWN BEAUMONT HILLS HAZELBROOK HEBERSHAM HECKENBERG HINCHINBROOK HOBARTVILLE HOLROYD BELIMBLA PARL MIDDLETON GRANGE BIDWILL BILPIN BIRRONG BLACKETT BLACKHEATH BLACKTOWN BLAIRATHOL BLAIRMOUNT BLAXLAND BLAXLANDS RIDGE BLIGH PARK BLUE MOUNTAINS BONNYRIGG BOSSLEY PARK MILPERRA PLUMPTON POTTS HILL PRAIRIEWOOD ST ANDREWS ST CLAIR ST HELENS ST JOHNS PARK ST MARYS STANHOPE GARDENS SUN VALLEY TAHMOOR TELOPEA THE OAKS THE PEAKS THE PONDS THE SLOPES THERESA PARK THIRLMERE TOONGABBIE TREGEAR VALLEY HEIGHTS VARROVILLE VILLAWOOD VINEYARD PRESTONS PROSPECT PUNCHBOWL PUTTY QUAKERS HILL BOWEN MOUNTAIN BOX HILL BRADBURY BRINGELLY BROWNLOW HILL INGLEBURN JAMISONTOWN KATOOMBA KEARNS LAWSON LEETSVALE LEONAY LEPPINGTON LETHBRIDGE PARK LEUMEAH LEURA LIDCOMBE LINDEN LIVERPOOL LLANDILO LONDONDERRY LONG POINT LOWER PORTLAND LUDDENHAM LURNEA MARSDEN PARK MCGRATHS HILL KELLYVILLE KELLYVILLE RIDGE BARGO BASS HILL BAULKHAM HILLS KEMPS CREEK KENTHURST GRASMERE GREEN VALLEY GREENACRE GREENDALE EASTWOOD EBENEZER EDENSOR PARK MACDONALD MACQUARIE FIELDS MALDON MARAYLYA MARAYONG MAROOTA EDMONDSON PARK ELDERSLIE ELIZABETH HILLS ELLIS LANE EMERTON EMU HEIGHTS EMU PLAINS EPPING ERMINGTON ERSKINE PARK ESCHOL PARK FAIRFIELD FAULCONBRIDGE HASSALL GROVE HAWKESBURY HEIGHTS HOLSWORTHY HOMEBUSH MELROSE PARK MENANGLE MERRYLANDS ALBANS VOYAGER POINT WAKELEY WALLACIA WARRAGAMBA WARRIMOO WARWICK FARM WATTLE GROVE WEBBS CREEK WEDDERBURN WEST PENNANT HILLS WESTMEAD WETHERILL PARK WHALAN WHEENY CREEK YERRANDERIE ROSSMORE ROUSE HILL RUSE CABRAMATTA CAMBRIDGE WENTWORTH FALLS WENTWORTH POINT WENTWORTHVILLE WEROMBI WERRINGTON WEST HOXTON CAMDEN CAMELLIA CAMPBELLTOWN CANLEY VALE CARLINGFORD CARNES HILL CARRAMAR ACACIA GARDENS AGNES BANKS AIRDS AMBARVALE ANNANGROVE APPIN ARNDELL PARK ASHCROFT AUBURN AUSTRAL BADGERYS CREEK BANKSTOWN BARGO BASS HILL BAULKHAM HILLS BEAUMONT HILLS BELIMBLA PARL MIDDLETON GRANGE MILLER MILPERRA MOUNT IRVINE MOUNT LEWIS MOUNT PRITCHARD MOUNT RIVERVIEW MOUNT TOMAH CARTWRIGHT CASTLE HILL CASTLEREAGH CASULA HORNINGSEA PARK WINSTON HILLS WISEMANS FERRY WOMERAH WOODBINE WOODCROFT WOODFORD WOODPARK RABY RAZORBACK REGENTS PARK REGENTVILLE REVESBY RICHMOND RIVERSTONE ROCKWOOD ROOTY HILL ROPES CROSSING ROSEHILL KINGS PARK KINGSWOOD KIRKHAM KURMOND MEGALONG VALLEY MELLONG CHIPPING NORTON CHULLORA CLAREMONT MEADOWS CLARENDON CLAYMORE CLYDE COBBITTY COLEBEE COLO COLYTON CONDELL PARK CORNWALLIS COURIDJAH CRANEBROOK CUMBERLAND REACH CURRANS HILL DEAN PARK DENHAM COURT DHARRUK DOONSIDE DOUGLAS PARK DUNDAS DURAL EAGLE VALE EAST HILLS EASTERN CREEK EASTWOOD EBENEZER EDENSOR PARK MACDONALD MACQUARIE FIELDS MALDON MARAYLYA MARAYONG MAROOTA EDMONDSON PARK ELDERSLIE ELIZABETH HILLS ELLIS LANE EMERTON EMU HEIGHTS EMU PLAINS EPPING ERMINGTON ERSKINE PARK ESCHOL PARK FAIRFIELD FAULCONBRIDGE FERNACES FREEMANS REACH GEORGES HALL GILEAD GIRRAWEEN GLEDSWOOD HILLS GLEN ALPINE GLENBROOK GLENDENNING GLENFIELD GLENHAVEN GLENMORE GLENORIE GLENWOOD GRANVILLE GREYSTANES GROSE WOLD HAMMONVILLE HARRINGTON PARK HARRIS PARK HASSALL GROVE HAWKESBURY HEIGHTS HOLSWORTHY HOMEBUSH MELROSE PARK MENANGLE MERRYLANDS ALBANS VOYAGER POINT WAKELEY WALLACIA WARRAGAMBA WARRIMOO WARWICK FARM WATTLE GROVE WEBBS CREEK WEDDERBURN WEST PENNANT HILLS SPRING FARM SPRINGWOOD ST BELL BELLA VISTA BERALA BERAMBING BERKSHIRE PARK BICKLEY VALE bOW BOWING HORSLEY PARK HOXTON PARK HUNTINGWOOD INGLEBURN JAMISONTOWN KATOOMBA KEARNS LAWSON LEETSVALE LEONAY LEPPINGTON LETHBRIDGE PARK LEUMEAH LEURA LIDCOMBE LINDEN LIVERPOOL LLANDILO LONDONDERRY LONG POINT LOWER PORTLAND LUDDENHAM LURNEA MARSDEN PARK MCGRATHS HILL KELLYVILLE KELLYVILLE RIDGE BARGO BASS HILL BAULKHAM HILLS KEMPS CREEK KENTHURST GRASMERE GREEN VALLEY GREENACRE GREENDALE GREENFIELD PARK GREGORY HILLS KENTLYN KINGS LANGLEY MOOREBANK MOUNT ANNAN MOUNT DRUITT MOUNT HUNTER MOUNT IRVINE MOUNT LEWIS MOUNT PRITCHARD MOUNT RIVERVIEW MOUNT TOMAH MOUNT VERNON MOUNT VICTORIA MOUNT WILSON MOWBRAY PARK MULGOA WILBERFORCE WILLMOT WILTON WINMALEE WAGOONA WANDERRA YELLOW ROCK YENNORA MULGRAVE NARELLAN NATTAI NELSON NEWINGTON NORTHMEAD MINTO HEIGHTS MOGO CREEK ROSEMEADOW ROSSMORE ROUSE HILL RUSE RYDALMERE SACKSVILLE NORTH SADLEIR SCHEYVILLE SCHOFIELDS SCOTTS HILl SEFTON SEVEN HILLS SHALVEY SHANES PARK SILVERDALE SILVERWATER SMEATON GRANGE OAKDALE OAKHURST OAKVILLE OATLANDS ORAN PARK ORANGEVILLE EMERTON EMU HEIGHTS EMU PLAINS EPPING ERMINGTON ERSKINE PARK ESCHOL PARK FAIRFIELD FAULCONBRIDGE FERNACES FREEMANS REACH GEORGES HALL GILEAD GIRRAWEEN GLEDSWOOD HILLS GLEN ALPINE GLENBROOK GLENDENNING GLENFIELD GLENHAVEN GLENMORE GLENORIE GLENWOOD GRANVILLE GREYSTANES GROSE WOLD HAMMONVILLE HARRINGTON PARK HARRIS PARK HASSALL GROVE HAWKESBURY HEIGHTS HOLSWORTHY HOMEBUSH MELROSE PARK MENANGLE MERRYLANDS ALBANS VOYAGER POINT WAKELEY WALLACIA MOUNT TOMAH CARTWRIGHT CASTLE HILL CASTLEREAGH CASULA HORNINGSEA PARK WINSTON HILLS WISEMANS FERRY WOMERAH WOODBINE WOODCROFT WOODFORD WOODPARK RABY RAZORBACK REGENTS PARK REGENTVILLE REVESBY RICHMOND RIVERSTONE ROCKWOOD ROOTY HILL ROPES CROSSING ROSEHILL KINGS PARK KINGSWOOD KIRKHAM KURMOND MEGALONG VALLEY MELLONG CHIPPING NORTON CHULLORA CLAREMONT MEADOWS CLARENDON CLAYMORE CLYDE COBBITTY COLEBEE COLO COLYTON CONDELL PARK CORNWALLIS COURIDJAH CRANEBROOK CUMBERLAND REACH CURRANS HILL DEAN PARK DENHAM COURT DHARRUK DOONSIDE DOUGLAS PARK DUNDAS DURAL EAGLE VALE EAST HILLS EASTERN CREEK EASTWOOD EBENEZER EDENSOR PARK MACDONALD MACQUARIE FIELDS MALDON MARAYLYA MARAYONG MAROOTA EDMONDSON PARK ELDERSLIE ELIZABETH HILLS ELLIS LANE EMERTON EMU HEIGHTS EMU PLAINS EPPING ERMINGTON ERSKINE PARK ESCHOL PARK FAIRFIELD FAULCONBRIDGE FERNACES MENANGLE MERRYLANDS ALBANS VOYAGER POINT WAKELEY WALLACIA WARRAGAMBA WARRIMOO WARWICK FARM WATTLE GROVE WEBBS CREEK WEDDERBURN WEST PENNANT HILLS WESTMEAD WETHERILL PARK WHALAN WHEENY CREEK YERRANDERIE ROSSMORE ROUSE HILL RUSE CABRAMATTA CAMBRIDGE WENTWORTH FALLS WENTWORTH POINT WENTWORTHVILLE VOYAGER POINT WAKELEY WALLACIA WARRAGAMBA WARRIMOO WARWICK FARM WATTLE GROVE WEBBS CREEK WEDDERBURN WEST PENNANT HILLS WESTMEAD WETHERILL PARK WHALAN WHEENY CREEK YERRANDERIE ROSSMORE ROUSE HILL RUSE RYDALMERE SACKSVILLE NORTH SADLEIR SCHEYVILLE SCHOFIELDS SCOTTS HILl SEFTON SEVEN HILLS ROSEMEADOW ROSSMORE ROUSE HILL RUSE RYDALMERE SACKSVILLE NORTH SADLEIR SCHEYVILLE SCHOFIELDS SCOTTS HILl SEFTON SEVEN HILLS SHALVEY SHANES PARK SILVERDALE SILVERWATER SMEATON GRANGE OAKDALE OAKHURST OAKVILLE OATLANDS ORAN PARK ORANGEVILLE ORCHARD HILLS KURRAJONG LAKESLAND LALOR PARK LANSDOWNe LANSVALE LAPSTONE MEDLOW BATH OXLEY PARK PADSTOW PANANIA PARKLEA GREENACRE GREENDALE GREENFIELD PARK GREGORY HILLS KENTLYN KINGS LANGLEY MOOREBANK MOUNT ANNAN MOUNT DRUITT MOUNT HUNTER MOUNT IRVINE MOUNT LEWIS MOUNT PRITCHARD MOUNT RIVERVIEW MOUNT TOMAH MOUNT VERNON MOUNT VICTORIA MOUNT WILSON MOWBRAY PARK MULGOA WILBERFORCE WILLMOT WILTON WINMALEE WAGOONA WANDERRA YELLOW ROCK YENNORA MULGRAVE NARELLAN NATTAI NELSON NEWINGTON NORTHMEAD MINTO HEIGHTS MOGO CREEK ROSEMEADOW THE OAKS THE PEAKS THE PONDS THE SLOPES THERESA PARK THIRLMERE TOONGABBIE TREGEAR VALLEY HEIGHTS VARROVILLE VILLAWOOD VINEYARD PRESTONS PROSPECT PUNCHBOWL PUTTY QUAKERS HILL BOWEN MOUNTAIN BOX HILL BRADBURY BRINGELLY BROWNLOW HILL BUCKETTY BULLABURRA BUNGARRIBEE BUSBY BUXTON CABRAMATTA CAMBRIDGE WENTWORTH FALLS WENTWORTH POINT WENTWORTHVILLE WEROMBI WERRINGTON WEST HOXTON CAMDEN CAMELLIA CAMPBELLTOWN CANLEY VALE CARLINGFORD CARNES HILL CARRAMAR ACACIA GARDENS AGNES BANKS AIRDS DHARRUK DOONSIDE DOUGLAS PARK DUNDAS DURAL EAGLE VALE EAST HILLS EASTERN CREEK EASTWOOD EBENEZER EDENSOR PARK MACDONALD MACQUARIE FIELDS MALDON MARAYLYA MARAYONG MAROOTA EDMONDSON PARK ELDERSLIE ELIZABETH HILLS ELLIS LANE EMERTON EMU HEIGHTS EMU PLAINS EPPING ERMINGTON ERSKINE PARK ESCHOL PARK FAIRFIELD FAULCONBRIDGE FERNACES FREEMANS REACH GEORGES HALL GILEAD GIRRAWEEN GLEDSWOOD HILLS GLEN ALPINE GLENBROOK GLENDENNING CHESTER HILL MOUNT DRUITT MOUNT HUNTER PICTON PITT TOWN PLEASURE POINT ACACIA GARDENS AGNES BANKS AIRDS AMBARVALE ANNANGROVE APPIN ARNDELL PARK ASHCROFT AUBURN AUSTRAL BADGERYS CREEK BANKSTOWN BEAUMONT HILLS HAZELBROOK HEBERSHAM HECKENBERG HINCHINBROOK HOBARTVILLE HOLROYD BELIMBLA PARL MIDDLETON GRANGE BIDWILL BILPIN BIRRONG BLACKETT BLACKHEATH BLACKTOWN BLAIRATHOL BLAIRMOUNT BLAXLAND BLAXLANDS RIDGE BLIGH PARK BLUE MOUNTAINS BONNYRIGG BOSSLEY PARK MILLER MILPERRA PLUMPTON POTTS HILL PRAIRIEWOOD ST ANDREWS ST CLAIR ST HELENS ST JOHNS PARK ST MARYS STANHOPE GARDENS SUN VALLEY TAHMOOR TELOPEA THE OAKS THE PEAKS THE PONDS THE SLOPES THERESA PARK THIRLMERE TOONGABBIE TREGEAR VALLEY HEIGHTS VARROVILLE VILLAWOOD VINEYARD PRESTONS PROSPECT PUNCHBOWL PUTTY QUAKERS HILL BOWEN MOUNTAIN BOX HILL BRADBURY BRINGELLY BROWNLOW HILL BUCKETTY BULLABURRA BUNGARRIBEE BUSBY BUXTON COLEBEE COLO COLYTON CONDELL PARK CORNWALLIS COURIDJAH CRANEBROOK CUMBERLAND REACH CURRANS HILL DEAN PARK DENHAM COURT DHARRUK DOONSIDE DOUGLAS PARK DUNDAS DURAL EAGLE VALE EAST HILLS EASTERN CREEK EASTWOOD EBENEZER EDENSOR PARK MACDONALD MACQUARIE FIELDS MALDON MARAYLYA MARAYONG MAROOTA EDMONDSON PARK ELDERSLIE ELIZABETH HILLS ELLIS LANE EMERTON EMU HEIGHTS EMU PLAINS EPPING ERMINGTON ERSKINE PARK ESCHOL PARK FAIRFIELD FAULCONBRIDGE KURRAJONG LAKESLAND LALOR PARK LANSDOWNe LANSVALE LAPSTONE MEDLOW BATH OXLEY PARK PADSTOW PANANIA PARKLEA PARRAMATTa PEMULWUY PENDLE HILL PENNANT HILLS PENRITH PERRYS CROSSING PHEASANTS NEST PICNIC POINT MINCHINBURY MINTO HEIGHTS MOGO CREEK MOOREBANK MOUNT ANNAN CATHERINE FIELD CATTAI CAWDOR CECIL HILLS CHESTER HILL MOUNT DRUITT MOUNT HUNTER PICTON PITT TOWN PLEASURE POINT ACACIA GARDENS AGNES BANKS AIRDS AMBARVALE ANNANGROVE APPIN ARNDELL PARK KENTLYN KINGS LANGLEY MOOREBANK MOUNT ANNAN MOUNT DRUITT MOUNT HUNTER MOUNT IRVINE MOUNT LEWIS MOUNT PRITCHARD MOUNT RIVERVIEW MOUNT TOMAH MOUNT VERNON MOUNT VICTORIA MOUNT WILSON MOWBRAY PARK MULGOA WILBERFORCE WILLMOT MINCHINBURY SMITHFIELD SPRING FARM SPRINGWOOD ST BELL BELLA VISTA BERALA BERAMBING BERKSHIRE PARK BICKLEY VALE OW BOWING HORSLEY PARK HOXTON PARK HUNTINGWOOD INGLEBURN JAMISONTOWN KATOOMBA KEARNS LAWSON LEETSVALE LEONAY LEPPINGTON WHEENY CREEK YERRANDERIE ROSSMORE ROUSE HILL RUSE CABRAMATTA CAMBRIDGE WENTWORTH FALLS WENTWORTH POINT WENTWORTHVILLE SCHOFIELDS SCOTTS HILl SEFTON SEVEN HILLS SHALVEY SHANES PARK SILVERDALE SILVERWATER ROCKWOOD CASULA ACACIA GARDENS AGNES BANKS AIRDS AMBARVALE ANNANGROVE EMU PLAINS EPPING ERMINGTON ERSKINE PARK ESCHOL PARK FAIRFIELD

been

to the

West man.

I ve walked the suburbs bare man

i ve breathed the mountain air man

i Live in the west

of travel i ve had my share man

RIGHT: Kristine Guadana

theloop.com.au/kristineguadana

Where we are one Poem by David Alice

In the beginning there was light then rain and now through the clouds of grey and desolate haze a rainbow of fertility: embryo of what society needs in order to be diverse; Red passion lines this great sky as the orange and yellow golden sun of hope shines in fields of green grass, sprouts and leaves whose thirst is quenched by the tears of old clouds; running into a calm ocean blue which reflects the indigo of the tempest sky hollering convictions and demands over the gardens of soft violet petals.

The colours all plead for mercy and mercy is what they shall be given.

But, please!

Please! Please!

Give mercy in return.

Give what is given to you and do not, please! Do not, hide in shadows the colours of my garment; of crimson passion and merlot pain; colours to be understood only by the kindness of strangers who see beyond them, and into the darkness of what we call the soul: our home our humble abode where we are many, where we are one.

Cassandra Tai

Visually presenting the frustrations that affect people living in the West, each word within the triangles has been used to label the West in a negative context.

The concept behind the poster was to design a character in the motion of pulling a sheet over these derogatory labels, presenting a dynamic visual. The focus for the concept was the Westie pride captured through gesture and colour.

Other elements, such as gender and race weren’t a main focus.

As such, I have kept the character’s gender anonymous and not tied to a specific culture, as there are a variety of cultures living in the West.

The colour scheme uses a minimal palette of bright orange and yellow, which symbolically represents intellect, positivity, pride and creativity.

The vibrancy of each colour powerfully balances and contrasts the stark and rigidness of the triangles and typography.

The various greys and black allows the vibrant colours to stand out.

The word Enough! is stylised as a hand-written type to reflect a personal and free expression to combat the negative stereotypes.

62

Pardon me ! four hundred years of

etiquette

By Sarah Casha I would like to begin by thanking you kindly for reading my article. If you would be so kind as to read on, I will endeavour to enlighten you on the intricacies of why manners are so important to us all, and indeed to our way of life. As many an etiquette guide would suggest, when you enter someone’s home for a special occasion, you exchange the usual pleasantries.

But what are these elusive gestures of appreciation? Well, they are just that.

When we are invited to a function, the host or hostess has been kind enough to consider our company important to them. When an invitation is accepted, it is manners to prepare a dish to take to the gathering, and then help out when we can at the gathering. By the end of the night, not only does the host feel appreciated, but you feel good about yourself for your show of appreciation.

once were. One simply needs to watch a period film like Pride and Prejudice, to note the almost formulaic manner in which men like Mr Darcy would remove their hat in the presence of a woman, and members of both genders would bow to each other as a respectful greeting. The ways in which we show respect to each other may have changed form over the years, but respect is no less valued. It is apparent that manners have been ingrained into today’s young adults as much as they were in the previous generation, and their importance upheld.

According to Jeremy Dean’s 2010 study, undertaken with 69 people, 66 per cent of those who received gratitude from someone would help them again while a mere 32 per cent of those who received no thanks from them would provide further assistance.

A selection of young adults were asked the following questions: Do you think manners are important?

When it comes to manners, what in your opinion, is the most important thing you should definitely do to show your manners?

Where do you feel your manners come from?

Have you ever had an experience where someone has shown really bad manners that you were appalled by?

Have you ever had an experience where someone has demonstrated fantastic manners?

It is important to remember that good manners do not simply begin and end at the dinner table. They relate to how we communicate with others in society, in our family, or in other relationships.

However, in today’s society, rules of etiquette are not as clear cut as they

The very fact that they responded to my questions was, in itself, an exhibition of their exquisite manners, and their answers were quite encouraging.

One young lady, Olivia Maurice, said “manners are important in order to communicate politely with others, and

to gain and maintain respect and relationships.”

Her experience of a gentleman opening a door for her at school, and his insistence that she go through first, indicate the respect being shown by young people, through their manners. Her experience of a peer calling her an idiot for her taste in music, on the other hand, highlights the rudeness that some people choose to convey.

A young man by the name of Dylan Calabrese said ‘‘manners are incredibly important to interactions within society. They maintain a level of respect of others’ opinions and viewpoints.”

He also stated that his manners have been influenced by his parents, other relatives, and peers.

The answers shared by Olivia and Dylan are reflective of the responses of their peers, and hopefully of most others around their age as well. Their appreciation of manners highlights how very important they are.

When we need to be able to show our appreciation, be considerate, show respect, and foster and maintain relationships; manners are the key to our ability to do this. Without manners, we would literally be at a loss for words in these circumstances, and we certainly wouldn’t be very good company.

Thank you for reading on...

18th Century Manners

20th Century Manners

Whether at a private or public function, guests will be introduced to each other.

Don’t be a show-off when you are out in society.

A polite man will ask a single woman to dance.

If a member of society is your senior, you will lift your hat, should you pass them on the street.

When greeting someone new, tilt your head slightly to one side, or give a small, subtle wave.

Violence, aggravation, threats, swearing and unruliness brought about by the consumption of drugs and alcohol will simply not be tolerated.

Do not communicate with members of another class; you will be able to differentiate them by their manner of speaking, and by the way they carry themselves in society.

(Lovers and Liars)

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As much as possible, don’t try to foster conversation between different social classes.

If you are hosting an evening, ensure that all guests are welcomed, and try to make sure that everyone feels comfortable.

If a guest offers entertainment at a function you are hosting, and you are preoccupied at the time, ensure that you ask them to perform again later, so that they feel appreciated.

If you are a gentleman, do not push in front of a lady when entering a room, and if there are women in a room you are entering, be sure to take off your hat.

If you are a lady, always appear neat and organised when unexpected guests arrive at your home.

Young ladies should simply put up with their brother’s teasing, and maintain an interest in sport and literature outside of school.

Young men should always appear confident, and always offer a chair to a lady at dinner.

zz 19th Century Manners Having good manners is getting a little bit more complicated because industrialisation means that you can talk to people from other classes.

Proper use of language is highly important in demonstrating you have good manners.

When on the train, do not talk too loudly, because you may interrupt someone who is reading.

Never read over somebody’s shoulder.

Chaperones should accompany young ladies to most functions, although a hostess may take up this role at a private celebration.

(Sterling, 2014)

21st Century Manners Saying ‘please’ and ‘thank you’, as well as opening a door for somebody, are manners which remain highly important.

If you find yourself running late, make an apology to the person you were to be meeting, whether over the phone or otherwise, and endeavour to be there less than 20 minutes after the original meeting time.

Make sure that you express yourself properly, so that the meaning of your words is clear to the person you are talking to.

Show everybody respect through your words and actions.

Do not use slang words or refer to an object as something it is not.

Be true to yourself in all that you do.

Have respect for yourself through the way that you present yourself.

Do not use gestures when talking to someone, simply make use of the words at your disposal.

(Okrent, 2013)

Think about the needs of those around you, rather than just satisfying your own needs.

(Barnett, 2013)

How can You afford a house

in Sydney ?

By Nelofar Nawabi Will we ever be able to afford a house? House prices in Sydney have skyrocketed over the past few years and first-time home buyers have become unnerved. This means we will now have to save a substantially larger deposit. Saving money is not easy and requires planning and sacrifices. Unfortunately, Australia is an expensive country to live in and one of the reasons why house prices have significantly increased recently is due to lack of housing land.

no one would be buying it. The starting point for first home buyers is to get a good job that pays good money”.

“If the economy turns and affects the property market and you have over extended, chances are you will go bust,’’ he added.

Opposition leader Bill Shorten mocked the Treasurer’s comments. “What planet is Joe Hockey living on?”

Shorten asked. “How are Australians supposed to find the ‘good jobs that pay more’ when unemployment is at its highest levels in more than a decade under his government?”

While having a car is a convenient way of getting around, there are other alternatives such as a bus or a train.

Basically, if you want to be able to afford a house and establish a strong financial future, start saving as soon as you have an income.

Kevin Conolly MP, Member for Riverstone, said: “The most important thing that a state government can do to make housing more affordable is to increase the supply of housing land and new dwellings”.

Working in the corporate finance field, Ali Sultani, said: “I think people need to start saving while they are at school. The income growth relative to the cost of living is the issue.

Median price of housing in Sydney for an average house would be around 500k. A deposit of 10% is 50k and the average wage is 60k”.

Figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) show that the capital city residential property price index rose +3.4% in Sydney in the December quarter 2014. But living in the digital age, we are avid consumers of online shopping. The proliferation of cheap clothing has made shopping endless.

Journalist Karina Barrymore reported in the The Herald Sun that almost $270 billion was spent last year on internet sales.

The ABS reported in 2011 that Australian households spend 50% of their income on housing, food and transport. Since then, living expenses have significantly increased.

Treasurer Joe Hockey recently said: “If housing were unaffordable in Sydney,

Finance commentator David Koch said it’s a “cost of lifestyle” problem for young people, where there are higher priorities than saving for a home deposit.

Marko Djurisic, a Sales Manager at First National Real Estate said: “They should be saving because ultimately you would like to be comfortable enough to put down 20% or 30% deposit to reduce your mortgage repayments, to allow for cost-ofliving and expenses, instead of 5 or 10% as this brings extra costs to the table such as mortgage insurance and higher mortgage repayments”.

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Nelofar Nawabi

The Reserve Bank of Australia has described the current investor-led surge in house prices as "unbalanced" with Reserve Bank Governor Glenn Stevens describing Sydney's property market as "crazy".

A recent Reserve Bank of Australia submission to Parliament identifies negative gearing as a feature of the tax system, alongside concessions on capital gains tax, that promotes debt-fuelled property speculation.

Negative gearing allows landlords to deduct losses against other types of income and capital gains tax allows a 50 per cent discount on capital gains.

Treasurer Joe Hockey has ruled out changes to negative gearing.

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Employment law sometimes hilarious, but mostly alarming

By Peter Hughes

In the last issue of crUWSible, UWS Student Legal published some very good advice about what to expect in the workforce and it took me back to a past life when, as administration manager of a trade and industrial association, I had the job of writing a weekly industrial relations newsletter for our members. To do this I kept up with what was happening in the Industrial Relations Commission and Fair Work Australia. This made interesting and sometimes hilarious reading.

An employment contract and its attendant obligations can be written or oral, but oral agreements cannot always be safely relied upon in the event of dispute, as both parties will inevitably have differing recollections and interpretations of what was said.

(The film producer Sam Goldwyn used to say that a verbal agreement isn’t worth the paper it’s written on.) Therefore it’s always best to get a written agreement. Even this, however, can’t cover all the rights and duties of employers and employees, as common-law principles of contract come into play and by definition are not usually found in any written document.

Both employers and employees have a common-law duty of care towards each other. At the very least employers must provide a safe and secure working environment (in practice this is usually covered by occupational health and safety laws); and employees must act

conscientiously and without damage to their employers’ business. It is this requirement that I found occupied much of the courts’ time and caused so much heartache to those who failed to observe it.

One of the earliest case I came across was an employee who published her vigorous assessment of her boss’ character on Facebook. She appealed against her subsequent dismissal, saying the posting could only have been read by her Facebook friends.

The judge, however, pointed out that Facebook is a public forum and in any case her opinion had been relayed by a Facebook friend (!) to someone else, who tipped off the boss. Whether or not the posting had been widely circulated on Facebook the judge held to be immaterial: the employee had exposed her employer’s business to risk of loss or damage; she had failed in her contractual duty of care towards her employer; and that was enough to get her the sack, to put it brutally.

In one extraordinary case a tram conductor was dismissed for forcibly ejecting an abusive and threatening passenger. On appeal, the Conciliation Commissioner reversed the dismissal, holding that the conductor, who was very young, had been severely provoked and would be unlikely to offend again. The conductor could have been charged with assault, but that is another matter: the point here is that he genuinely believed he was acting in his employer’s interest.

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Employment law may be influenced by changing social attitudes. I remember when the boss’ shouting at junior employees was par for the course, and heaven help you if you answered back. Now swearing and abuse by anybody is tolerated less and less at work; and blasphemy calculated to cause offence to a person’s religious beliefs is probably in the same category. The one act that will almost certainly result in instant dismissal is using the office computer to access pornography. In one case the employee appealed against his dismissal on the ground that a warning against use of office equipment for pornographic purposes had not been included in his employment contract.

The judge rejected that, observing that sufficient social conventions exist for him to be aware that what he was doing was quite wrong.

So, is staying in a job like walking on eggshells? Not really, but you have to work hard and honestly to keep it.

Minor transgressions and mishaps are bound to occur from time to time and will not incur anything more than a ticking-off and “don’t do it again”. In most cases ordinary good manners will get you through. The saddest cases are those where a judge has held that an employee has been unfairly dismissed, but reinstating employment was pointless because they behaved so badly when dismissed.

Remember the so-called Golden Rule: do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Layla tov motek

by Deborah Warren Lydia took her sons into their bedroom and the bed they shared, to settle them for the night. She climbed onto the lumpy double mattress that sunk in the middle, and pulled her two little boys up with her; the three of them nestled like a clutch of eggs. She stroked their hair and hummed softly. “Sing it Mama,” said one. So, she began, ‘Layla tov motek’ (good night sweet heart). Her mother had sung the old Jewish lullaby to her when she was a child in another faraway place; in another faraway time. “Latte Mama”, said one of the twins, and gently pulled at her night dress.

A smile warmed her lips as she sang softly and freed her breast for him to suckle. The child’s small smooth hands cupped her bosom stimulating the warm flow of milk. As one child drank and the other nuzzled close, she kissed their heads and whispered, “…my special boys.”

From the kitchen, Gino Capelli heard the muffled sound of his wife’s singing filter through paper thin walls and mumbled an Italian curse, “managia”. He clumsily tipped what was left of his beer into a glass and banged the empty bottle down on the laminex table top, almost shattering it.

He drained the contents with a single gulp, wiped the back of his hand across his mouth and bellowed from where he sat, “Enough Lydia; enough!” How much more should he be expected to tolerate? Stumbling as he got to his feet he staggered toward the bedroom door, his eyes red and bulging from alcohol and derision. He was trapped. His marriage was a cage from which there was no escape.

Lydia voice hung in the air as the door burst open to see her husband steadying himself with both hands on the door frame. “Luidi la bocca, woman” (shut your mouth) he slurred in broken English. Saliva frothed at the corners of his twisted mouth and his jowls hung like a man decades older. Every muscle tensed with fear as Lydia pulled her boys close to disguise that her night dress was open but when Gino saw the dribble of milk on his boy’s chin he erupted into a rage. “I tought I tella you ta stop”! He bellowed with spit spraying as he swayed. “esa never gonna growa to be a man wid a tit in ‘is mout.” He grabbed her arm and dragged her from the bed, leaving the young boys cowering.

Lydia had no other family of her own, only an abusive husband and her twin boys. If given one wish, she would have chosen to keep her boys with her, in this bed forever.

She would have been quite happy just pull the covers over them all, never to emerge. When she cuddled in bed with her sons she remembered similar times with her

Mother when she was a child. Lydia struggled to keep alive the memory of her Mother’s face but had no trouble remembering the sound of her voice as she sang Layla Tov motek. Her other’s lilting voice took on a magical quality when she sang the Hebrew words of the lullaby. Lydia loved the sound of the Hebrew language and because she only heard it spoken in that time of dreams, she associated the words to be like those of a spell that fairies might speak in the shadows of the forest floor. Her fragmented childhood memories were all that remained. Hitler’s hatred had left Lydia alone like so many others of her faith.

Even though some time had passed since the end of WWII, Europe was full of people looking for opportunities abroad. America, Canada and Australia offered that promise. Brothers, Gino and Luigi Capelli, were young men who saw no future in their village and looked for a chance to escape the old and make a new lives for themselves. Both were well muscled and fearless and willing to take on any job that would put money in their pockets and food in their bellies. They had heard of work being offered to tradesmen and labourers in Australia, and immediately made application. Within days of receiving notice of their acceptance, they had bought their passage on the first available ship leaving for Sydney, arriving on a crisp winter’s day at the end of May, 1955. With a crush of paper in Luigi’s hand, providing directions to the station, and Gino’s three words of English, they wasted no time getting a train to Cooma, to work on the Snowy River Scheme in southern New South Wales.

Lydia was one of many young European women employed as cooks at ‘The Scheme’. To keep the migrant workforce happy, management had made sure that the foods of as many cultures as possible was served when the whistle sounded for meal time. While she wasn’t formally trained, it was accepted at the time, that all women could cook – most particularly Italian women. Lydia was no more than an adequate cook however she was young, beautiful and Italian. To a young buck like Gino, she possessed all the attributes sufficient to steal his heart and one day bare his children. Their courtship was not hurried and Luigi made the perfect chaperone – so much so that it felt perfectly normal for them all to live together after the wedding.

There was much rejoicing when Lydia announced that there were expecting a baby. Gino and Luigi toasted each other, Lydia, Italy, the Queen and every other person they could think of, such was their elation. When Lydia gave

Paint birth to twins it was as if she had produced a son for both men. When the midwife announced the birth of the twins both men immediately set off to wet the babies’ heads at the Cooma Hotel, however while the men drank Lydia haemorrhaged and was taken to theatre for an emergency hysterectomy. Gino returned some hours later ruddy and smelling of liquor, to find his wife ashen and delirious as she recovered from the anaesthetic. As she slowly regained consciousness she mumbled words from her childhood, foreign words; words that opened the locked past she had kept scrupulously hidden all her married life. Initially Gino thought she was simply mumbling incoherently, but it soon became apparent what was really happening. She was a Jew. She had lied to him. His face was purple with rage and the sinews in his neck stood up like ropes as his anger consumed him. He shook her by the shoulders, shouting at her in a whisper. “Whata you saying? What is dis shit you saying? You filthy bitch. You curse my family, you bitch.”

One of the nurses saw him and concerned, made her way toward them from the nurse’s station. What could he do now? He saw the nurse approaching and checked himself.

The damage was done. He flung her back onto the mattress and left the room. His marriage was a lie; she was a filthy Jew… now she would pay. “Uciderai Jesu” (Jesus murderer) he spat over his shoulder as he left the room.

Two days after the birth of the twins Luigi was killed in a work accident.

For the first time in the life of the two brothers they were separated. From that day he was never to be the same. Gino blamed Lydia for Luigi’s death and berated her for cursing his family. She felt his fists and suffered his endless insults as his anger raged unfettered; after all she was the root of all his evils. In the space of a week his world had been turned upside down and his only source of respite came from the contents of a bottle.

Gino’s drinking soon brought about his dismissal from ‘The Scheme’ and with that, they had to leave the company house. He wanted to get as far away from the mountains as he could. He bundled Lydia, the babies and their few meagre belongings into his Chev and drove north. They stopped just south of Nowra, outside a fibro shack with a ‘To Let’ sign driven into the unforgiving earth of the highway frontage. Here, on the outskirts of town was their future as fringe dwellers in the ‘White Australia’ of 1965, in a community where they didn’t belong –outside of ‘The Scheme’ there was nowhere to belong.

by Deborah Warren Country town. Nowhere.

Still and endless quiet.

Cicadas. Galahs. Nothing.

All farm sheep and wheat.

Families fused,all joined by blood – trunk to tail like elephants.

All look the same. Talk the same talk, walk the same walk.

All eyes are blue – all sandy haired.

To paint this place, only tones – tones of one colour, watery and pale.

Let me out. Let the air I breath not smell only of earth.

Give me curling wafts of exotic smells, the alluring seduction of Norton Street or King.

Sydney. City. Where people are awake.

From everywhere – flowers grown from different seeds.

Fill my ears with the symphony of thousand different instruments.

Horns blast from multicoloured cars.

Rhythm, tympanic - a live and beating heart.

Straight, gay, lesbian, a trans in heels too high to walk, tattooed, pierced – be who you like.

Faces that are brown, black, yellow, pink – no one looks the same.

Hair high, Mohawk, frizz.

Eyes bright and seeing all that's unexpected, things that seem unreal.

Surprise me, shock me, show me.

Let me see the world.

Fill my canvas with every colour.

Thick and smeared and daubed.

Media internship IN India better than “life changing”

By Curtis Mayfield M-H I was sitting in a sushi restaurant with my friend Jackie when I got the call telling me that I was going to India to work as intern for a newspaper.

As I swallowed the rest of the delicious raw fish wrapped in rice and seaweed my thoughts already began to wander.

The person on the other end of the phone was giving me the run down of things I needed to know and do before I left. My mind went blank as I pretended to listen. Who the hell would want to send me over to India?!

Well, it turns out that UWS did and I am really grateful for that because the time spent as an intern (especially one overseas) is one of the greatest things anyone can experience.

Now I’ll try to avoid hitting all the cliché buzzwords that are associated with travel like “life-changing”, “amazing”, “culturally enriching”, “wanderlust” because even though these words do apply, they aren’t the complete make up of the time spent away.

New Delhi is where I was sent to work for a newspaper called the Indian Express. Their office is located in the industrial area of the city. This means that no tourists go there. This also means as a westerner you’ll stand out

a little. This ALSO means that nobody really gives a crap that you’re there since their business or lifestyle doesn’t revolve around tourism. This is a good thing. Though the people at the newspaper gave lots of craps about me and were very kind and helpful.

This internship gave me the chance to experience a different side of travel.

While the spiritually enlightened tourists with blonde dreads roamed around the city wearing baggy pants looking for the closest hash dealer, I was working. This might sound like I’m complaining, but it’s far from it.

Avoiding the unwashed hippies of the world is my main aim as a traveller/ tourist so working with a great bunch of Indian journalists and sub-editors are what dreams are made of in this situation.

Mundane tasks like catching the train, proof reading a story or even ordering tea is transformed into an exciting adventure if it’s done overseas. Jumping into a packed train to travel 15 minutes to work is a Kodak moment. Reading over a very talented journalist’s work is educational. While ordering tea is just plain old delicious.

I would have to say that my time overseas was life changing (damn 70

buzzword) but not for the regular reasons. Though I did try new foods and see some cool places, overall nothing boundary-pushing was attempted. I didn’t want to have the ordinary Facebook snap shot moments of me playing soccer with some local kids or an Instagram photo of whatever dish was put in front of me.

Instead of having my attention focused on a screen I wanted to see what was in front of me. Most of the time what was in front of me was some sweet food and a really interesting person telling me something I didn’t already know.

If any of you lovely UWS students get the chance to apply for an internship overseas (particularly journalism students) then get on it. Sure the application process is a little boring but if you’re lucky enough to get to the interview stage you’ll see that the board that decides if they’re going to throw you on a plane is made up of friendly professionals who want to provide experiences to students. Just remember to pack sunscreen.

Visit uws.edu.au/goglobal

Anxiety Abroad

By Sinead Simpkins On the 19th March, I packed my life for five months in a suitcase and a backpack and flew to Tokyo for exchange. I counted down to this day for over several months and there was no turning back. I was really going.

I have general anxiety disorder and going to a place like Tokyo would typically make my anxiety worse.

But I personally think that going on exchange made me deal with it better.

Tokyo is the capital of Japan and is home to 13.35 million people. To put that into perspective, Sydney has just over 4 million residents. Sharing a home with that many people in a confined space like Tokyo, made me appreciate a home where I don’t have to deal with trains being 150% over capacity or being in a big crowd. But needless to say, this exchange taught me a lot more than how to deal with a big population in a small area like Tokyo. I learned five things while on exchange.

Expect the unexpected I know it’s a cliché but I think it is true.

While exchange should be the time of your life (or a period in your life), it should not be perfect every single day.

There are days when it will be average or days where it could be better. It is life, just in another country.

Embrace the culture and be open to new ideas Every exchange student will go through a period of culture shock or home sickness. But on exchange, you have an opportunity to communicate with the locals and other exchange students in your host country. Use it to full advantage. My best memories are mingling with the Japanese students, going to areas of Tokyo that tourists don’t see or exchanging cultural differences in class. In some of my classes we had students from Canada, UK, USA, Switzerland, China, South Korea and even Nepal.

Everyone had a different idea or culture to bring.

Go outside your comfort zone At my time at Meiji University, I wanted to make more friends. I tried cheerleading and lifesaving. Back at home I only played hockey and I grew up far away from any beaches.

If you ever plan to go on exchange, test yourself. Do something that you wouldn’t do in Australia or wouldn’t have the opportunity to do at home.

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You will surprise yourself Live your life in the moment, not in the past. It is great to keep in contact with family and friends. My mum and I only Skyped once a week and we talked about what I experienced in the week gone by. I suggest doing this with your family and friends because there is nothing worse than going on exchange and missing home for the duration of your exchange. You will most likely miss some amazing experiences. Live your life in the present; you will most likely not get this opportunity again.

Have fun Whether you are on a short program, a semester or one year exchange, have fun. The best experiences I had in my semester exchange were having fun with friends. Once I get back, my second family will be all over the world including Japan. My memories and my time here will always be cherished and I will never trade my experience for anything in the world.

Visit uws.edu.au/goglobal

Move over Paris, China here I come !

By Nelofar Nawabi There’s something special about Hong Kong and China that makes me want to visit again.

Even though these destinations weren’t my choice, I was excited because it was my first trip overseas.

I travelled with 12 of my cohorts at UWS and group leader Dr David Cubby on a photojournalism study tour.

Never in a million years would I have thought that the first country I would travel to would be Hong Kong. I’ve always dreamed about going to Paris because my Dad’s family lives there.

Well, now that I have officially been overseas, I feel a satisfied sense of completeness.

As soon as the plane touched down onto the grounds of Hong Kong, I looked out my window and saw the clouds were grey and ominous.

About half an hour later we arrived at Hong Kong Baptist University – NTT International House.

The food was the biggest hardship I faced because I don’t eat Asian food.

I’ve never had it before in my life and I don’t eat food I’m unfamiliar with.

Every restaurant we’d go to we were treated like royalty, dashing waiters rushing to our attendance, plate after plate arriving at our table. It was like a marathon of food.

While I was excited about this trip, I didn’t think I would be starving myself to death. It was hard watching everyone sitting around the table eating, steam from the food on their faces. I felt my stomach sucking up against my spine. It was like I was in a different world surrounded by strange noises. Yet I was not at all tempted to try the food because I was afraid of disliking it. I didn’t eat much during our time in Hong Kong.

Occasionally I had fried rice at a few of the restaurants.

Hong Kong is a contemporary and vibrant city. I never thought I would say this, but I had such an amazing time. I was worried that I would be homesick, but I was so busy having fun I hardly thought about home.

After staying in Hong Kong for a week, our next destination was Shenzhen in Mainland China.

I was keen for our one-week trip at Shenzhen because we had tour guides to show us around and help us with communication. After about an hour of being in Shenzhen, I felt a major culture shock. I knew things were going to be different. China is a huge and bewildering country. I started tearing up. I missed my home food so much and my real life. I spent many nights crying in my hotel room, munching on chips. I’d call my mum 72

and cry on the phone, wanting to hug her so bad. But I learned to live with the cultural differences and to enjoy travelling.

We visited a number of villages in Shenzhen where older couples were sitting outside and where you’re more likely to be woken by a rooster than morning traffic. Life was still blissfully simple here. Driving around the villages in our mini bus, we saw farmers using carts to do farm work.

These people were poor and had to be resourceful to survive. Kids played outside instead of on iPads. The people were so humble and content with the little they had. Each village had so much history. It really made me appreciate life more.

The highlight of my China trip was when we went to a village one night called Heping. I sat by the edge of a pool and dipped my feet into 40-degree water and felt like I was in heaven. With the weather being icy cold, it was just perfect to be in the simmering hot water.

The one thing I loved about my trip was the people. They were all so kind, friendly and welcoming. Whenever we’d want to take a picture of them, they would be thrilled. The kids were just absolutely beautiful and clever.

One day I will come here again.

Why work overseas ?

From January to February this year, I went to Oxford on a short term visa as a research fellow for PRIME Research.

After my fellowship, I was offered a job as a Junior Project Manager. I flew home, graduated from UWS with First Class Honours in April (yay), worked as a research assistant for a few months back home while I sorted out my visa, paperwork etc, and flew back to the UK to start my full time position in Oxford.

Along with the amazing opportunity for my career, I can go to Denmark on the weekends. I’m not saying that it was easy. I believe that you need to work super hard in order to have things finally pay off. And it feels like they are starting to finally pay off for me. These are my top five things I have learned (so far) from working in PR abroad:

By Jess Turner Many people choose to move overseas to enhance their careers once they have finished university.

The two-year working holiday gap visa exists for a reason right? Even when things are tough, it is always a good choice to work overseas for a period of time after you finish university. I have embraced all the opportunities presented to me to move overseas and work in the public relations research industry.

You become more adaptable.

There is no doubt that relocating to another country, whether it’s for two months or twenty years, is a challenge.

Making the most of opportunities to work and experience ‘real life’ in a new place strengthens your ability to adapt. You will find that homesickness will come in waves (happened for me a little around Australia Day the first time that I was over here, I’ll have to admit). However, the more you move, keep busy and challenge yourself, the easier it will be to adjust (and then you probably won’t want to leave).

You become more resourceful and a better problem solver Working abroad strengthens your independence, resourcefulness and problem-solving skills. Overcoming obstacles can make you better at weighing up difficulties, analysing issues and ultimately encourages you to become more decisive (great skills in the public relations industry, but applicable to any industry). All of these skills are great on your resume, but are also great for you as a person.

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You will still have late nights in the office Yeah, I know this is the bad part. Going to TESCO (supermarket) at 10pm to buy dinner because you are still running recodes for your gigantic data set (yay media analysis), might seem bad but it makes you feel part of your team and gives you that sense of ‘real’ about the place you are in.

You need to be motivated to travel when you have time off work So you are working 5 days a week (and those late nights) and by the time the weekend rolls around all you want to do is crawl up in a ball and sleep (after office drinks on Friday night of course).

My advice: don’t. Get up at 3am. Go to Paris. Go on a massive long bus tour around England. Buy souvenirs.

Fly somewhere new for the weekend.

Spend a day getting lost where you are staying. Go to the touristy spots that all of your colleagues and friends tell you about but they haven’t been to, because they can go ‘anytime’. My next trip (planned with annual leave) is to Milan for a week to visit some of my relatives, then two weeks after I get back I’m going to Copenhagen in Denmark for the weekend and am currently planning my trip to Iceland to see the Northern Lights. Never a dull moment in Europe.

You will make worldwide friends This is an important one and I am going to draw upon an amazing word that you probably all know and love; networking. Yeah, we all have to do it, but it is what makes working in this industry so exciting. You never know when you might need to call upon one of your international colleagues for some help, or advice or even a contact. We live in a time where we have the opportunity to do whatever we really want with our lives, so don’t let anyone ever hold you back. Say yes to opportunities and make the best of the time that you are given.

Visit uws.edu.au/globalmobility

IMAGE: Surreal Life

ask

QUAI

Q and A by Naomi Hastings When did you start skating?

I started skating when I was in year 5, about 11 – 12 years old.

What’s your favourite thing about skating?

My favourite thing about skateboarding is the feeling you get when you accomplish a trick you’ve been trying hard at, making heaps of new friends for a lifetime and how much exercise you get from skateboarding.

Where do you like to skate?

I love to skate parks in general, particularly tranny parks. I haven’t explored all of them but the ones I had good times at were definitely Macquarie Fields, Waterloo and the Blue Mountains. But I can never go wrong with Granville skatepark – where I first learnt to skate properly.

Which skaters inspire you?

The skaters that inspire me most and make me want to skate more would be Grant Taylor, Danny Way, P-Rod and Nyjah Houston. They make it look so good.

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why Skate Any advice for anyone just beginning to skate?

My advice for anyone out there beginning is don’t be afraid to get hurt. But most of all, don’t expect that you’re going to get hurt, always stay committed to what you love doing. If you want to make it, you can never go wrong with time and persistence.

Find UWS skaters, skUWS, on facebook

IMAGE: Daniel Agius

Elijah says

Stay in school unless...

Q and A by Naomi Hastings When did you start skating?

I started skating (again) when I was 18 !

What’s your favourite thing about skating?

It has to be just the stoke level it gives me and it’s always magnified by ten thousand when you’re with some buddies skating! It’s just so much fun!!

Where do you like to skate?

That is a hard one. I would have to say Melbourne, but realistically, anywhere with people. Even a poop-as car park.

Which skaters inspire you?

Well.. my best mate, Dave, firstly and then my mate Jai. Whoever I’m with skating, once we get talking about what we’re trying to learn and we start getting close to it, I get super pumped.

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Any advice for new skaters?

Don’t do drugs, and stay in school unless you’re under 12 and can come to Parra and feeb or back smith the rail!

Then drop out and skate your butt off and go pro !!

Find UWS skaters, skUWS, on facebook

Why walk 1000 miles to fall at your

down

girl’s door?

By Paul Kleynjan Two young Scotsmen once proclaimed they would walk 500 miles, then 500 more, just to be men who’ll walk 1000 miles to fall down at your door. Why? Catch a plane, arrive in good health and kiss your girl without the risk of heart failure. I’ve been teaching people to sing for seven years now and have been forced many a time to puzzle over the truth in song lyrics. Are they really telling the truth?

Are their claims perhaps a little too strong?

Bill Withers once sang there ain’t no sunshine when she’s gone. I’m sorry Bill, but I think you’re wrong. Her proximity to you has no bearing on the movement of the Earth around the Sun. Even if she leaves at night, I’m pretty sure the sun will still come up in the morning. It’s not warm when she’s away. What if she is away in summer? What if you fill your room with heaters in winter?

I’d say it goes beyond warm at that point Billy. I guess you could always invite Katy Perry for a hug, she has Sun-kissed skin that is so hot it’ll melt your Popsicle. Of course, if she is being truthful, you may find yourself suffering from a ghastly first or second degree burn.

These assertions in music have been around for a long time, each generation suffering from unrealistic expectations. In his youth, Michael Jackson once sang A,B,C, it’s easy as 1,2,3 and yet it is very rare to find someone who is comfortable doing algebra. Children would rush

to school, excited to learn algebra under the assurance that it was but a simple exercise. It may have been easy for you, Micky, I don’t find it difficult myself, but surely the greater population disagree. I think you’ll find one is a number and one is a letter.

But it isn’t just the king of pop dispensing unobtainable truths. Can you imagine the extreme volume of deaths amongst the youth population when the legendary Beatles proclaimed all you need is love?

Thousands of people giving up food, shelter, sleep and clothing because they thought love was the only true need in society. People were off their heads! And we all live in a yellow submarine? No, I’m sorry, we don’t!

Dean Martin sang everybody loves somebody sometime; I think maybe they don’t. Mental as anything asked if you leave me, can I come too? No, it defeats the purpose. Tears for Fears declared everybody wants to rule the world; I don’t think they do. I certainly don’t, what a nightmare. Mariah Carey: I can’t live if living is without you. I’m pretty sure you can Mariah.

You’ve been in a few relationships now, and you seemed to have survived each one. Even Meatloaf claimed he would do anything for love, but I won’t do that. Well then you won’t do anything for love buddy. He also claims Two out of three ain’t bad. Is that true? I personally think it’s a raw deal. You get his want and need, but not his love! I wonder if Meatloaf got 66% in a Bachelor of Music. Was a credit just good enough?

Of course, you would think today’s generation would have learnt from their predecessors, but this could not be further from the truth. Pharrell Williams had a major hit as he told us that because he is happy, we should clap along like a room without a roof… umm… rooms can’t clap, even the ones that have a roof. Besides, if a room doesn’t have a roof and it rains, I’m sure he wouldn’t be too happy.

But then again, how can we expect much from a guy who thinks he is a hot air balloon that can go to space?

Even Adele has a fire starting in her heart. No Adele, you don’t. You’d be dead. Go to a doctor, it might just be heart burn. Unless her aggressor really has her heart inside his hand.

In that case she was dating a serial killer, has been chopped to bits, and is singing to us from beyond the grave.

Now, I know what you’re thinking; “Paul, I think you’re being a bit pedantic, they’re just song lyrics.” In reply I must say, firstly you should commend me on my ability to read your mind, and secondly, play a few of your favourite songs and really listen to the words. Whether it’s Meghan Trainer putting all the right junk in all the right places (she obviously is a keen recycler) or Alicia Keys finding a girl that’s on fire (and singing about it rather than helping), I think you’ll find that we’ve been given unrealistic goals by the lyrical songbirds of music. How can these cryptic crooners get away with it? Well, because without them, music would be just plain boring.

Manning Bar, June 6…

Inside the University of Sydney’s Hogwarts-esque grounds is an unassuming venue that hosts everything from uni student piss-ups to New York City rappers. On this chilly Saturday night the latter occurred when total weirdo and lyrical gymnast R.A. The Rugged Man took over Manning Bar for a few terrifying and entertaining hours. R.A. is not your typical rapper, well not by today’s standards. He’s in his 40s, has a demeanor that can be likened to both 1980s Eddie Murphy and that ranting hobo you see in every major city. “By the time this show is finished we have to tear this building down!” was among the several encouragements of destruction throughout the night. On his face is a bizarrely shaped beard that is perfectly manicured and almost resembles devil horns.

Sporting a thick gold rope chain, a Rambo shirt and his distinguishable New York accent, R.A. The Rugged Man began his onslaught of bangers and crowd movers.

Starting off with the appropriately titled ‘People’s Champ’ the show was in full force already. No warm up to this circus show folks, though there was plenty of crowd participation. For ‘Definition Of A Rap Flow (Albee 3000)’ it was requested that two genuine break

By Curtis Mayfield M-H

dancers accompany The Rugged Man on stage to provide some backup moves. Of course the two people who volunteered who too drunk and lacked any skill to actually fulfill this request so the rapper took it upon himself to kick these two posers off the stage and carry out the moves himself. He is clearly a true b-boy. When the speakers temporarily shut down the show was not stopped and verses were spat acapella. It was at this point R.A. boastfully proclaimed that he would be “better than your favourite rapper in the 2020s, 2030s and 2040s!”

With this kind of work ethic he may just be right about that.

Even though the New York MC jumped over the technical hurdles with ease and grace it was his stand-in DJ who let the show falter. Wrong tracks were played, songs were stopped for no obvious reason and the crowd began to turn on this blundering Disc Jockey. Lucky for him R.A. defended these gaffes by saying that the two had only met 20 minutes before the show and no rehearsal between them had happened. Despite this encouragement the DJ still managed to fuck up immensely throughout. As they say, the show must go on.

Ripping through crowd pleasing tracks like the corporate dissing ‘Every Record Label Sucks Dick’ and major banger ‘The Dangerous Three’ the show kept on rolling nicely. It wasn’t until the spirit raising ‘HollaLoo-Yuh’ came on that shit really began to hit

the fan. R.A. politely informed the audience that phones were about to get smashed and punches were going to get thrown. It was also at this point that a young lady at the front of the crowd took on this warning and placed her handbag on the stage to avoid any damage. What that person didn’t realise was that R.A. was about to invite the whole dance floor onto the stage. The deal for entry was to stage dive into the now 15-person crowd. Here’s hoping a liability lawsuit wasn’t brought against anyone. From the smile on this rugged man’s face, it seemed like he didn’t care either way. To top things off he said to the girl who placed her bag safely away to “fuck that dude up little girl” referring the to guy who stage dived into her.

Once the mayhem halted for the time being the sentimental ‘Still Get Through The Day’ had the crowd calmly listening to R.A.’s tragic story about lost family members. Soon after that the energy he had been demanding from the crowd the entire night was once again requested as ‘Shoot Me In The Head’ took this Sydney crowd out into the night. As the promoter’s pleading for R.A. to stop performing since it was past the venue’s curfew was ignored it was nice to see an international act give a local audience way more than was expected. True MC indeed.

r.a.

rugged man

Jarrod’s Health Corner Hey again! I’m Jarrod and I’ve just overcome the milestone of being “50% a doctor” (unless I fail this year), which I believe makes me 100% qualified to give out medical advice. My family members always call me “Dr Jarrod” – except my brother, but we don’t count him. So I’m qualified enough to give out serious medical advice!

Dear Jarrod, I’ve been trying to get into medicine for the past 3 years. It’s my dream to help people and gain prestige & pride in being a doctor. Somehow every time I sit the UMAT and GAMSAT I fail miserably. What should I do?

Sincerely, Dr Wannabe Hey Mr Wannabe, My advice is – stop trying! Get out before you’re sucked in! Go travel Africa helping people, do a regular degree that doesn’t require you to be at the hospital at strange hours and on the weekends, and enjoy your life!

Love, Jarrod P.S. I could be a really good tradie by now.

To Jarrod, I’ve been struggling over the last few years to reduce my weight. I was wondering if you had any medical tips and tricks that could help me get to my goal.

Thanks, Sobese Hey Sobese, I’ve seen a lot of people struggle with their weight over the years, including family members, friends, and patients, and one thing I say to them always is; eat the opposite of my diet.

This basically means, cut out all McDonald’s and KFC (my primary food sources) and keep yourself well hydrated (which is difficult to do running around the hospital).

Once you’ve got these two things in order you’ll be on your way to being many times more healthy than myself!

Good luck!

Love, Jarrod

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Dear Jarrod, Over the past few days I have not been feeling well at all. I’ve been vomiting up blood, passing black bowel motions, coughing up a lot of phlegm, and I’ve ad severe chest & abdominal pain. Can you give me some advice on what to do?

Sincerely, Both Ends Hey Both Ends, YOU NEED TO SEE A REAL DOCTOR! Love, Jarrod

Born & raised in Campbelltown, Jarrod Bradley is a third year medical student working at Campbelltown Hospital. A man of many hats, Jarrod is the SRC President, CSCC Chair, and an Editor of the amazing CrUWSible in 2015. Jarrod enjoys long walks on the beach, romantic dinners, and hearing about your strange illnesses.

Send your issues to Jarrod’s Health Corner at crUWSible@uws.edu.au

Hey Love Guru My grandmother is probably going to die soon. This is the first family death I have experienced and grandma is my favourite. I am not coping.

Death is sure to come. Everyone must experience their first family death sooner or later. The first thing to tell yourself is that you are not alone. You are not being misunderstood for feeling the way you feel. Seeing you have been able to know your grandmother this long, consider yourself lucky and be glad because there are many that weren’t able to meet their grandparents, and sometimes, their parents, at all. Instead of fretting, continue being the person that would make your grandmother proud. Smile when you are around her.

We can’t control life and death, but we have some control over whether to be happy or sad. So don’t let trials of death take your happiness away with it. This is just a hard fact you need to accept and the first time will always be the hardest.

Your Dad in The Stars Your star sign describes more than just you. It also reveals a lot about your father!

ARIES: Your father is head-on and may have anger issues. You tell him you’re attending a party tomorrow and he quickly snaps that you can’t because you have work - before you even have the chance to tell him the party is in the evening.

TAURUS: Your father has an eye for saving money and being resourceful. He was the one to yell at you for wasting water and gas showering too long.

GEMINI: Your father loves talking and has many friends. He is easy going, yet may not know when to rest. He is interested in many things but quickly loses interest. One day he is taking Latin dance classes and the next he is starting a charity.

the Love

Guru

by Jesse Neo

Hi Jesse My friend has a small STI, nothing you can die from. Should she tell her partner? It could really ruin the romance.

STI has a dark element to it. Relationships are not only about romance, but also trust and sex - and issues come when these two entities do not properly align, such as hiding an STI from a partner. If your friend cares about her partner, the partner would have been the first to know. This would give the partner a cue to get tested and enable the relationship to undergo a revaluation. Fearing the romance being ruined is not the problem. It is the relationship.

CANCER: Your father was the nurturing one and often spoiled you. You are very connected to him. He taught you unforgettable lessons and was the one you ran to. He still has a place in your heart.

LEO: Your father has a high social status.

He stands out in social activities and in his workplace. He is determined. This may sometime cause anger issues.

VIRGO: Your father is structured, clean and analytical. He is wise and in touch with the physical world. Dinner must be at the same time every night. Staying up too late has always been a no-no. He told you to put others first and offer help without being asked.

LIBRA: Your father is calm and balanced.

He loves working with others and may be interested in arts. He is not interested in physical activities but he is not fat and ugly.

SCORPIO: Your father cannot keep still and is very intense. He could also have secrets, however he is committed to his family. He has a sharp mind and high level of intelligence.

SAGITTARIUS: Your father is outgoing, outspoken and loves to go anywhere given

Dear Guru Jez, my little sister has always done everything I do, but now that I’m at uni, some of the things I ``do’’ are not what Jez should be doing. I’m for freedom (so is our mum) but you shouldn’t grow up too fast. Am I too concerned about things I can’t control ?

If what you are doing is appropriate, you wouldn’t be worried about your younger sibling copying you. Doing the right thing has no age limit. Instead of seeing yourself as the older one, see yourself as a role model and imagine your little sister is your daughter. Are you doing something you wouldn’t want your daughter to do? Is there something your mother is doing that she does not want you to do?

opportunity. He could be prone to gossip but can be wise and philosophical. You get first place in one of your units and he is already telling his friends you are making your way to PhD. CAPRICORN: Your father is about working and never giving up. Work during the holidays, the weekends, on his birthday.

Others may see him as cold. You know he has a soft side and is shy. He is wise and sets a great example.

AQUARIUS: Your father is skilled. It could be working with computers, machines or food, or skilled in singing and dancing.

He is very creative and can sometimes shock people with his wacky creations.

Printer stopped working? He’ll fix it using a toothbrush and some sandpapers.

PISCES: Your father is likely to be quiet and sensitive. He is interested in arts or spirituality. In the worst case scenario, he could be victim to certain issues such as addictions and crimes. He can be very emotional and hide away when threatened. If life gets hectic, he’s not afraid to cry.

JESSE NEO

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