meeting in the aisle

Why I am starting to love the idea of a hung parliament after all

First published at Oxfam - A Climate for Change

It was very strange to wake up after an election and find out the whole country was talking about me.

As a single 20-something lass with a decent job, renting in the inner-city, I’m never ear-marked for a tax break. I’m not about to have a baby, I don’t pay interest rates, I don’t do long commutes, or have a car. I’m the kind of voter politicians love to ignore.

Before this election, I was kind of ok with that, relatively happily fronting up at my polling booth to vote Labor – the party with the policies I felt most aligned to my ideas of the kind of country I want to live in – followed by getting down to the real fun of election day, deciding which election party to attend. But that was all before Federal Election 2010.

Suddenly I found myself looking at Labor’s policies and finding them wanting. Gone was climate change action and gone was a humane approach to asylum seekers – two of the main reasons I voted for Kevin07, along with saying sorry to Indigenous Australians.

In fact, in terms of policy, it looked like all the two major parties were doing was trying not to even announce any policies! As I waded through empty policy announcement after empty policy announcement, vague on detail, I felt frustrated.

In short, I felt like I didn’t really have a choice – the Liberal and Labor parties had somehow merged into one while I was off being ignored, and I didn’t like it.

“How had things gone so wrong?” I lamented on the phone to my Dad, who dutifully listened in from his apparently safe-Labor seat of Greenway. “They’ve lost their way,” he said to me, “They don’t stand for anything but power anymore.”

At the mention of power I had flashbacks of George Orwell’s Animal Farm and the oft-quoted statement that “Absolute power corrupts absolutely,” and sadly, it all started to make sense. From within this ‘lens’ I could hear the real meaning behind what Julia Gillard in her white pearls, and Tony Abbott in his G.I. Joe Action Man getup, were really saying.

So when it came time to vote on Saturday, I did what many other Australian’s chose to do as well – I voted for The Greens.

I voted for climate change action, I voted for the humane treatment of asylum seekers, and I voted for equal marriage rights for all loving couples.

And when I watched Adam Bandt take the stage to accept victory in the seat of Melbourne, you couldn’t wipe the smile off my face.

So yes, political commentators, when you’re talking about the disenfranchised Labor voter who found a new home in The Greens, you’re talking about me.

Three cheers for more diversity in the house, anyone?

Do you know what it takes to save a life? - Oxfam post

 My latest blog post for Oxfam’s A Climate for Change

Here’s the thing - I’m a sucker for a good election, a bit of political swashbuckling, a dance with democracy. I love casting my vote, that feeling of walking out of the polling booth, smiling broadly at the world and the kids selling cup cakes invariably coloured red, blue or green.

So it is with great dismay I admit my disappointment in the lack of policy substance this election campaign (let alone the gob-smackingly inadequate climate change policies) and did the next best thing I know to debating the nuts and bolts of politics - I bought a book.

Reader, let me introduce you to the Life You Can Save this election campaign.

It sounds a bit like dippy-hippy shite, I know. Of course I know, I’ve been known to exhibit the odd tell-tale signs of hippy-dippy shite behaviour myself (including wishing I had been among the mud-covered crowds at Woodstock, oh yeah…) But I really think I know that it is well within my means to save a life, thanks to Peter Singer’s book The Life You Can Save.

The brilliance of Peter Singer is his rational arguments which make you forget all the hippy-dippy shite associated with saving lives and poverty and aid and climate change, and pulls off the almost inconceivable - making you understand that it really is possible for you, let me repeat that for the chatterboxes up in the back corner - you, personally - to save a life.

It almost sounds too good to be true. Almost. But within the first couple of pages, Singer provides a few clues as to where he’s going to take you, and it starts to make sense (unlike anything our politicians are coming up with lately).

See that coffee? That week-saving glass of amber ale on a Friday night? The three concerts lined up over the next month? Therein lies the clue. No, it’s not rocket science. Chances are if you’re reading this, you are already aware of the imbalance of the world, the billion plus people who live in extreme poverty, and care about what can be done to redress this great imbalance of the world.

It’s one thing to know this, to agree with Peter Singer when he says:

“The evidence is overwhelming that the greenhouse gas emissions of the industrialised nations have harmed, and are continuing to harm, many of the world’s poorest people…If we accept that those who harm others must compensate them, we cannot deny that the industrialised nations owe compensation to many of the world’s poorest people. Giving them adequate aid to mitigate the consequences of climate change would be one way of paying that compensation.”

But it’s quite another to actually know what to do. Here’s the thing with Pete, he makes it really easy. There’s no “Great Big New Tax,” and no “moving forward”, in fact, there’s no cheap slogans at all.

It all comes down to five percent. A tiny 5% is all it takes.

Just by giving away 5% of your income per year - you can save a life.

So don’t let the inaction of the major parties let you down. When it comes to making a difference, the power really is in our hands*.

Lyrian

*I did warn you I was going to get all hippy-dippy shite on you…



Image from my personal photos: Children playing in Noakhali, Bangladesh, an area susceptible to floods and drought

A cool way to green-up your coffee habit: Oxfam Post

My latest blog post for Oxfam’s A Climate for Change

My name is Lyrian and I’m a caffeineaholic. I love it in my morning coffee. I look forward to it in my afternoon chocolate snack. I even confess *gasp* to seeking it out in the form of chemical-laden Coke Zero from time to time.

Considering the number of other nasty habits I could have, I confess to being comfortable with my caffeine cravings. But, being the kind of eco-conscious gal that I am, I got to thinking after this post on plastic bottles last week. Every morning I was throwing away disposable coffee cups, and it made me feel uncomfortable. I don’t buy bottled water if I can help it, but what about those throw-away coffee cups?

Lo and behold, once I’d thought about the problem, the solution was close at hand. Just down the road from my office I stumbled across this cool Keep Cup. I’ve used it every day for a week now, and feel a little bit of green love every time I hand it over to the barista. I can vouch for their usability too, they’re easy to clean, the right temperature to hold when full of frothy goodness, and the lid stays on tight.

You can also check out their research and the links to other websites they believe take a great position on environmental
issues.

Keep Cup include info on their website on what’s wrong with disposable cups, which overs things like the raw materials that go into making them, a lot can’t be recycled, and it can take over 50 years for a normal paper cup to break down. That’s ages!

So go on, buy a Keep Cup today, and hug the planet with your caffeine habit.

Stay warm and still love the planet this winter - Oxfam blog

My latest blog post at Oxfam’s A Climate for Change is up: Stay warm and still love the planet this winter, my three ideas.

My life as a fraud - when can you say you do more than care? Oxfam blog

My latest blog post for Oxfam is up

Read the rest

When does the sound of rain get the heart racing? - Oxfam post

Click through to read the whole post

Is ethical shopping an oxymoron?

My latest blog post at Oxfam is up - read the full post (and tell me what you think)

Room for the climate in the Australian budget? Oxfam, A Climate for Change

Read the rest of the post at A Climate for Change, is there enough money in the budget for climate change? Should there be more or less? What do you think?

The Making of a brand new world - Oxfam, A Climate for Change

In an exciting development, I am blogging for Oxfam about Climate Change, something I feel passionate about. Come and get involved in the conversation, I want to find out how we actually feel about climate change beyond what ‘the media’ (that behemoth) tells me we think.

In this world of Web 2.0 it occurs to me that we don’t need other people to tell us what we’re all thinking, when we can have that chat over coffee (i.e. social media) ourselves. Idealistic? Maybe. But here’s your chance to turn my idealism into realism. Have your say - what do you think about climate change? Is it real? Is it man-made? Should we act?

First published for Oxfam by A Climate for Change, 4 May, 2010

Visit A Climate for Change to comment and read the full post