Youth

Ten years ago, I drove cabs for a living. I’m pretty much done telling taxi stories, but there’s one I’ll share today, as it’s more or less in the spirit of Christmas.

It was the Friday before Christmas and I was working the area around Coogee/Maroubra on Sydney’s eastern suburbs beaches. It was a favourite spot to work as the fares were regular, and I stayed out of the city traffic.

So in the early evening, I pick up three young guys in South Coogee. They’re 18, maybe 19, and they get in the cab carrying brown paper bags filled with booze. They say “hey driver, can we drink this in here?”

Continue reading "Christmas tale: I got the bastards and I got ‘em good" »

The so-called Bali Boy is back in Australia. It is only a matter of time before he turns up on the idiot box for an exclusive tell-all interview, promoted by whatever ratings-hungry network shells out the cash, as a cautionary tale which no parent and no teenager can afford to miss.

It is of course a story which most Australian parents and teenagers can very much afford to miss. Most Australian parents and teenagers would not be so breathtakingly foolish as to land in a country renowned for executing the most minor of drug offenders, and immediately shell out the requisite rupiah for a bag of Balinese dope.

Outside of this majority there is a disturbingly large subculture in Australia which has been brought into focus by this case. It’s a subculture which has two notable features. The first is the extent to which cannabis use has been normalised, where it is barely regarded as a drug at all but as something which most people will smoke without consequence from a young age. So much so that we wind up with the spectacle of a 14-year-old boy standing before an Indonesian court revealing that he has become addicted to the drug, right under the nose of his parents.

Continue reading "A story most parents and teens can afford to miss" »

The last few weeks have seen the annual surge of stories talking about the dangers facing young adults celebrating the end of their compulsory schooling.

Most of the headlines have been taken up with reports on the tragic fatal electrocution of a young man in Bali. However, coming close behind have been a glut of current affairs pieces, garnished with a menacing techno soundtrack, detailing the many and varied ways Australia’s sons and daughters can either have their lives ruined or cut short during Schoolies.

Predictably, parents across the nation have made public their fear and reluctance to allow their offspring to go let off a little steam, far away from the stress that has been their constant companion for the last couple of years.

Continue reading "A teacher speaks: chalk schoolies up to experience" »

Tony Abbott’s claim this week that only the “right kids” should be encouraged to stay in school misunderstands the jobs market, the needs of business and is not in the best interests of our kids.

It‘s true that not all young people want or need to go to university and they shouldn’t have to. But gone are the days when young people could finish Year 10 and walk into a job or a trade without qualifications.

Our economy has changed and employers increasingly desire higher levels of education and deeper levels of understanding. Think about the skills required by today’s mechanics, electricians and plumbers. Technical, computer and environmental changes mean these sorts of trades have become more complex and require a higher level of vocational skills.

Continue reading "The kids are alright, Tony" »

On cue, the league of self-appointed moral guardians is dutifully doing the rounds, making a lot of noise about Schoolies and the imminent decay of Good Society it will precipitate. They make arbitrary claims about what constitutes “fun” and play upon the tired moral panics over young girls, binge drinking and indiscriminate sex.

Why, they ask, must school-leavers celebrate the end of mandatory education by congregating near beaches and getting plastered? And why hasn’t someone – presumably the government – put a stop to all this and offered some more wholesome, healthier alternative for kids to let off steam?

Well, there are plenty of alternatives, none of them popular. Schoolies is a naturally developing phenomenon and nobody is forced to participate. Year after year, thousands of friendship groups independently make the decision to head north, or south as the case may be, and enjoy being away from home, with lots of booze and lots of sex.

Continue reading "Schoolies? Hell YEAH" »

It says a lot about Australia’s binge-drinking culture that an event such as Schoolies Week - where drunken violence, date rape and death by misadventure is relatively commonplace – is regarded as a routine rite of passage for young people who in most cases aren’t even old enough to drink legally.

I still have about eight years up my sleeve but as a parent I am dreading the day when my son or, especially, daughter comes to me and says: “Dad, can I go to Schoolies?”

It is a nightmarish scenario for parents. You want to strike a balance between making sure your kids are safe, but not wanting to keep them so swaddled in cotton wool that they become resentful and maladjusted introverts who miss the chance to socialise and have some fun at a landmark moment in their lives.

Continue reading "Schoolies? Yeah, pass" »

Very few vivid memories remain from the morning of April 1, 2005. I was 17.

The one that sticks the most was dad crying. Dad never cries. Farmers never cry.

It could have been 4am, it could have been 7am. I still don’t know. All I remember was it was dark and mum and dad were standing at my bedroom door in tears. Daryl was gone. My mate.

Continue reading "I’ll never forget the tears, the loss, the carnage" »

Dear Harvest Festival,

You have no idea how excited we were about you. What music fan wouldn’t be excited about a brand new musical festival, in the backyard of the Werribee mansion, with some of the best bands of the last 20 years? For weeks everyone was talking about your line up, but by the end of the night the only thing anyone was talking about was lining up.

We should have seen the warning signs early on, when one of our friends headed off to buy everyone a beer and then didn’t come back for two hours. It took her an hour to get the tokens to buy the beer the beer and then another hour to exchange the tickets for the actual drinks. Seriously, the Gillard government could not have created a system this bad. 

Obviously queues are a part of any public event, but your queues were not normal. All across Werribee Park, lines of people stretched out longer than a Led Zeppelin guitar solo. At one stage the crowd outside the bar was bigger than the entire crowd waiting to watch Mogwai, who were one of the headline acts.

Continue reading "The great Harvest line-up. And we don’t mean the music" »

Few Australians navigate their teen years without heaving their guts up after a massive drinking binge. With Schoolies Week almost upon us, the focus will no doubt turn to dangerous levels of alcohol consumption in youngsters. 

I hardly touch the stuff now but as a teenager, mainly to fit in with my friends, I smuggled cheap wine cask bladders into pubs and guzzled them.

The aftermath was never pretty, and luckily it didn’t take long for me to realise blacking out and throwing up were not much fun. I’ve basically been a teetotaller since my early 20s.

Continue reading "Don’t hop on the booze bus this summer" »

In an interview discussing his increasing philanthropy late last year, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg noted that “when you give everyone a voice and give people power, the system usually ends up in a really good place. So, what we view our role as, is giving people that power.”

Facebook, for Zuckerberg, has a role to play in power systems. It can be a political tool for leaders. And he’s right, but only conditionally; a number of other groups need to come to the party before we can consider social media a tool for good.

I spent a recent weekend helping Year 11 students understand what it means to be a leader, and I can safely say that I don’t share the pessimism about our future that the majority of headlines concerning ‘young Australians’ seems to show. But nor can I say in good conscience that the future is all roses.

Continue reading "We don’t expect much from youth so that’s what we get" »

At 16 I was a high school drop-out.

I finished Year 10 desperate to get out into the real world because I wanted to earn my way into independence. I paid for driving lessons out of my own pocket, had a stable job with a great career in sight, and couldn’t wait to get my driver’s licence so I could go out and explore the world.

By the time I hit 17, all I wanted to do was party with my friends and live life. Boys and my own sexuality weren’t important. Fast forward 10 years and girls at that age are nothing like my generation. It’s incredibly scary.

Continue reading "Sex industry not to blame for child sexualisation" »

It’s a harsh and twisted world if people truly think a young graffiti artist deserved to die. Ryan Smith was 17. He was stupid. He died trying to scale a bridge to spraypaint his tag on it. But he didn’t ‘deserve’ to die.

Radio talkback this morning moved swiftly from tokenistic sympathy for Smith to serious discussions of the ‘war on graffiti’. War? With kids as collateral?

Online, people said his death was ‘natural justice’, that he was an ‘idiot’ who ‘paid the consequences’, that he’s a contender for the Darwin Awards.

Continue reading "Is the writing on the wall for graffiti artists?" »

Walking into a room full of young Australian volunteers preparing for deployment is a great lesson in tempering preconceptions and avoiding stereotypes.  It’s easy to imagine all volunteers being of the same ilk; ultra-progressive, left wing, vegetarian…

I am joking of course, but I wouldn’t be surprised if readers were nodding in agreement as I said that.  I admit that I had that image firmly planted in my head as I walked in to my first major briefing session, wondering frantically if I would fit in with the group that was already there. 

This, after all, was my first real encounter with the Australian Youth Ambassadors for Development (AYAD) Program, which places passionate young Australians (18-30) on short-term assignments in developing countries in Asia, the Pacific and Africa.

Continue reading "Lending a hand helps everybody" »

While the media last week fixated on the political “divide” in Australia, with vastly divergent views expressed on the carbon tax at the forums and some confrontations between people with passionate viewpoints, it’s worth remembering that every day of every week, Aussies are getting on with their lives and doing remarkable things.

It’s worth remembering that there is so much more that unites us as a nation than that which currently divides us.

All that is great about Australia was on display in a rain-soaked corner of Queensland last weekend.

Continue reading "Here’s to mateship, courage, endurance and sacrifice" »

It is an extraordinary moment. A stadium of 4,000 hormone-charged teenagers from all walks of life, sitting in absolute silence, engrossed by the scene playing out before them. No one has asked them to be quiet. It just happens when you’re watching strangers die in front of you.

We are at the 2011 Youth and Road Trauma forum, an event which is the brainchild of the extraordinary team at Sydney’s Westmead Hospital Trauma unit. Exhausted from years of dealing with pulverised youthful bodies due to motor vehicle crashes, the team’s director Dr Ken Harrison decided it’s time for a new tack.

Usually, 16 and 17 year-olds converge at the Acer Arena for rock concerts. This is different. The scene unfolding on the large arena floor is a re-creation of a fatal road crash involving teenagers. The ‘drivers’ and ‘passengers’ are young actors, but everyone else is an emergency professional playing their roles in such a matter-of-fact manner, it’s deeply disturbing to watch.

Continue reading "The road safety campaign that finally cuts through" »

The Baillieu Government’s rush to hastily imprison vulnerable youths fails to consider the cost of getting “tough” on crime and the real needs of the community.

The Age reported this week the building and maintenance of a new prison in Victoria will cost taxpayers more than $1.1 billion over 25 years, and according to a government insider, “isn’t value for money”.

And there were further reports today that there is a strong push from the Justice Department to build a new men’s prison which would become Victoria’s largest. But the debate shouldn’t just be about the nitty-gritty of construction contracts.

Continue reading "Zero tolerance equals zero progress" »

Early-onset or ‘precocious’ puberty is on the rise, thanks to increasing child obesity levels and possibly environmental hormones.

Now, scientists from the Conds Institute have pinpointed a trend towards early-onset middle age, and their hypothesis is that it could also have to do with obesity and sedentary lifestyles.

They warn that Australians in their 30s or early 40s may already be experiencing a range of symptoms including stray hair, inadvertent grunting, and increasing issues with bodily secretions.

Continue reading "Got ear hair? It could be a sign of something serious" »

Apparently one in four teenagers experiment with drugs.  Though you’ve got to wonder whether the real hellraisers are dutifully completing questionnaires or participating in whatever research it is from which these statistics are derived.

For young people involved in the advertising industry the figure increases from one in four to three in four. Of course that second figure is bollocks – or more precisely, I made it up and have no evidence for it. 

In any event, in the vast majority of cases, the one in four have their fun, push their boundaries and get away with it. Now they’re grown up: They’ve got mortgages, business cards, ABNS, golf clubs, lawnmowers, children.  And their bongs, pills or powders are safely consigned to the annals of history.

Continue reading "Will you tell your kids you experimented with drugs?" »

Lying about having epilepsy was when I hit rock bottom on the excuses spectrum.

But when faced with the perfectly reasonable question from a Canberra cabbie who had picked me up twice in a day, as to why a seemingly healthy 27 year old did not just drive himself, I blanked and then came up with: “well I have epilepsy you see, stops you driving.”

Firstly, apologies to any epileptics reading this for using your problem as an excuse to escape the embarrassment of not having my driver’s licence, as well as using possibly factually inaccurate information about epilepsy impeding your ability to drive (a friend with epilepsy just mentioned this once so I especially apologise to him).

Continue reading "All rage no road: stories of driver’s licence failure" »

If Dickens was alive he’d concede talent counts for little and intelligence for less in one’s bid to become famous in modern society.

Thanks to the internet and TV today we’re breeding a generation of talentless twits who view fame as a right, not a privilege.

In the Dickensian era, society had great expectations of those who aspired to walk among the elite.

Continue reading "Generation fame: when a real job just isn’t enough" »

There was a single sentence in the news coverage of this weekend’s Byron Bay schoolies brawl which was buried at the bottom of the story, but could have been a story in its own right. “The schoolies congregated in the park because the lines to get into Byron’s four main pubs and clubs were 100m-plus long.”

The decision to get drunk and act like a jerk is a personal decision. But without excising personal responsibility from the debate, it is also worth examining the environment in which young people make the sort of choices which end up with them sleeping in their own spew in a park, sleeping with someone for the first time while bordering on comatose, sleeping in a police cell because they’ve punched someone for looking at them the wrong way.

It’s an environment which has been created by adults who have a massive commercial interest in Australia’s youth drinking culture.

Continue reading "Doling out drinks to the 100m long queue" »

I’m not sure what we called “body image” as an issue before it was called “body image.”

It’s certainly not a new thing. When I was a teenager it was everywhere, we just didn’t have a name for it, so I don’t think we thought of it as an “issue”, just part of being an adolescent.

Now it’s not just an issue, it’s the biggest issue, according to the latest Mission Australia national Survey of Young Australians. Asked to rank a whole list of issues of personal concern, 31.1 per cent of the 50,240 people aged 11 to 24 years named body image a “major concern”. In the 20-24-year-old cohort the figure was 40.3 per cent.

Continue reading "Which comes first, a problem or its definition" »

When people ask me where I am from I know I’m likely to receive one of two responses when I say Craigieburn. “Sorry, I don’t know where that is” seems to be the predominant one, in which case I begin naming the surrounding areas.

As I relay my list – Roxburgh Park, Greenvale, and Broadmeadows – I am usually confronted with increasingly bewildered expressions, and I realise that these people are unfamiliar with the northern suburbs.

The second response, which on occasion is prompted by my answer to the first, usually encompasses the words “gangs” or “violence”.

Continue reading "Bored youth breed violence in North Melbourne" »

A girl dressed like an idiot recently told me she refuses to buy new clothes.

Wearing an eye-gougingly disastrous mix of 70s era Bowie, 80s Cyndi Lauper and cargo pants, she told me she only shops at ``vintage boutiques’‘. But before you ask, her eyelids were not fused together until the age of 22.

She dresses that way because she’s ``anti-consumerism’‘. That’s right, our human kaleidoscope is an intellectual.

Continue reading "Gen Y and the art of sounding deceptively clever" »

On Monday, the series finale of Skins aired on SBS. The British television drama has both upset and pleased audiences for its often raw, truthful depiction of teenagers. Unlike many other teen dramas, Skins refuses to show holier-than-now youths, who resist drugs, sex and rock ‘n’ roll—in this case techno.  And while Skins’ characters indulge in activities that would make any parents squirm, it resists glorifying such behaviour.

Now in its fourth season, after gaining a new set of cast members in the third, the show is dealing with some even more confronting issues that are relevant to today’s youths. And just when Skins was doing everything right to get its youthful audience thinking about important subjects, it let us down in its final moments just to create some extra drama.

Last week, one of the characters, Freddie, was bashed to death by his girlfriend, Effy’s, psychologist. Effy had tried to kill herself and was taken to a rehabilitation centre. Her psychologist had become obsessed with her, his techniques made her worse than she was before, and finally his jealousy drove him to kill Freddie.

Continue reading "Skins take on mental health is on the skids" »

I voted for the first time this election. Willing to be a swinging voter in return for a competent government, I should have been the perfect target for a campaigning politician.

Yet the major parties do a better job at alienating youth than including us.

The incapacity to decipher anything politicians say or mean is alienating to youth who prefer a quick sound bite that is straight to the point. For voters of every age, accessing information more substantial than if the ‘real’ Julia or Tony is out today or who has better suited ears for Prime Ministership was hard this election.

After this weekend no one can doubt Australia’s frustration with such a shallow campaign.

Continue reading "Shallow campaigns have alienated young voters" »

On Monday night I did something I wouldn’t normally do – no, I didn’t hold out on that late-night snack, nor did I grace the treadmill with my presence. But I did treat myself to a rare form of exercise for me; I gave my mind a short political run.

Thanks to the onslaught of social media, I would usually find myself sitting in front of a computer, whiling away time by catching up on the latest Facebook sagas. Yet this time, after a busy day, I settled on the couch and, after a bout of channel-surfing that would typically have stopped at an episode of CSI: Miami, I went that step further until I reached Q&A with Julia Gillard.

While I know this probably isn’t that much of a great deal to a lot of people, for me it was like a charcoal artist becoming lost in the world of paint. My brain is not one for politics, and I scrape by with at least the knowledge that Ms Gillard bats for the Labor party, and that Wayne Swan is her crony. Likewise, I am aware that Tony Abbott is running up to the crease, hoping to bowl her out on August 21 in the coming election. And I’m not going to pretend - apart from some others I can name here and there, and the fact that a worm can apparently determine which potential leader is gaining more popularity, that’s basically as far as my political horizon stretches.

Continue reading "A first-time voter tunes in to the election campaign" »

In less than two weeks time, while the majority of Australians flock to the polls and cast their ballots, young people across the country will sit in silence, stripped of their democratic rights by our cumbersome and anachronistic electoral system.

Last Friday, the High Court overturned the Howard government’s 2006 changes to the Electoral Act. The amendments had resulted in the electoral roll being closed a matter of hours after the writs were issued.

In an action brought by political advocacy group GetUp!, the court held these changes to be unconstitutional, thereby restoring the original seven day grace period in which individuals may place themselves on the roll.

As a consequence, an estimated 100,000 additional Australians, predominately youth, are now able to take part in this year’s election.

Continue reading "Young voters silenced as they fall through electoral cracks" »

Last weekend my heart sank as I watched the 60 minutes investigation into the horrific UK murder in 1993 of 2-year-old James Bulger.

The vicious murder of the toddler by Robert Thompson and Jon Venables is regarded as one of the most violent crimes of Britain’s modern history, particularly because the boys who committed it, were themselves only kids at 10 years of age. This story always leaves me deeply saddened and sickened to my stomach every time I hear about it – not just as a father, but as a human being. The fact that two young boys could be so calculated, violent and evil is hard to comprehend.

When you hear about terrible things like this, the last thing you expect is to discover is that they were carried out by children themselves. It’s terrifying. What’s equally hard to comprehend is the sentence they received – 8 years of detention and rehabilitation. Is that a suitable punishment?

Continue reading "Hard time may be the only deterrent for young offenders" »

One night recently on a suburban Melbourne train, several young teenagers—some reportedly as young as 13 or 14 years of age—terrorised a carriage full of innocent passengers who were returning from a day out at the football.

Purportedly this bunch of pimple-faced brats pelted rocks at the windows of the train and threatened the frightened passengers, including elderly people and young children. 

Meanwhile, on another suburban train, a young woman was smashed over the head with a bottle in an unprovoked attack by a group of hostile teenage girls, resulting in several stitches to her head. What is wrong with these kids?  And why should innocent people have to put up with this?

Continue reading "The law must step in where parents have failed" »

“If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.” - Abraham Maslow

I was driving through Sydney on Friday around midnight and found myself surrounded by cars filled with youngsters. I’ve never felt so conscious of my own space.

The drivers were like roosters standing over their nests: music pounding, windows down, making their presence felt.  I glanced over at one or two of the drivers, their glares were nothing short of threatening. It was a distasteful blend of “I’m out on the town with the boys” and “If you stare at me again I’ll have you.”

Continue reading "Everything rage: The spiral of anger in today’s youths" »

This is not meant to sound heartless. The emotions surrounding the latest shocking spate of P-plate deaths are obviously still raw. And as the families and friends of those who have died work through their grief, it is understandable that they will sometimes lash out and look for external forces to blame as they deal with their loss.

But if kids are going to keep killing themselves at this rate - and kill or injure other people as a result of their reckless or incompetent driving - the time has come to stop molly-coddling these young people and their deluded friends.

The time has also come to stop offering the parents of reckless P-plate drivers nothing other than uncritical sympathy, as in many cases they too have played a role in allowing their children to behave in a way which endangered them and other people.

Continue reading "Time to stop mollycoddling prats with P-plates" »

The showbiz maxim about never working with children or animals was on full display tonight as our Prime Minister arrived for a chummy yarn with a nice bunch of kids only to endure a torrid pummeling about broken promises, weak leadership and political expediency.

In a display which put us journalists to shame, a roomful of young adults gave Kevin Rudd one of the toughest grillings of his prime ministership as he agreed to an hour-long solo appearance on the ABC’s Q&A at Old Parliament House, Canberra.

You could see the clutch slipping from the start as the first series of questions directly accused Rudd of being more talk than action. His body language was awkward and what he had probably envisaged as a friendly bit of to-and-fro banter looked as uncomfortable as an all-in press conference - only more so, as the kids were so civilised in their pursuit of the PM that he couldn’t cry foul over unfair treatment.

Continue reading "At the end of the day, the kids caned Kevin on Q&A" »

This is a message to the 80, 000 or so high school graduates who will later today log onto the UAC site and find out whether or not they received a place at an Australian university for 2010.

Whatever happens don’t panic. Especially if you have spent the entire Christmas break avoiding the questions of (well meaning) relatives asking what you want to do with the rest of your life.

It is absolutely 100 per cent OK if you (a) you don’t want to go to university or (b)fall into the 30, 000 or so people who will miss out on a place this year.

Continue reading "University, it’s not for everyone" »

There were only a few minutes left of the 1970s. Patrick and I were sharing a peaceful New Years Eve joint in a friend’s back yard at quiet Hervey Bay.

We were 21, two of the (then) little town’s bright and shiny minds, the world at our feet, the stars in our sights. Where would we be, we wondered, come the 21st century? What would we be like? Would we follow the generational pattern of wild youth becomes tame middle-aged man becomes conservative old man?

So we made a pact that night, Patrick and I. In fear of turning into our parents, we vowed that each of us, no matter where we were, would be stoned as the 21st century rolled in. But Patrick hesitated. He turned to me under the unnaturally bright stars and said, very seriously: “Does it have to be just grass?”

Continue reading "It looks like Patrick, it must the clouds in my eyes" »

Turn on the six o’clock news most days of the week and you’ll more than likely be bombarded with images of pain and despair.

It’s pretty easy to become desensitised in the journalism caper, but recently a 23-year-old quadriplegic served me a serious reality check.

Producing a talkback program comes with a healthy dose of climate change scepticism, asylum ranting and political debunking. 

Continue reading "A warning from a victim of carefree youth" »

The kid’s “parents” - his “parents” are his mum and her current boyfriend - don’t give a stuff. He hates school, and teachers are relieved when he truants. He will not likely complete the school certificate.

He’s never learnt to control his tongue, and his is the discourse of the gutter. He’s already been before the children’s court a couple of times, and is not scared by the police – in fact one of his highs is the foot chase after a bit of rock throwing.

His security and identity are found in his small group of mates. He can look forward to a life, to quote Hobbes, which is poor, brutish and nasty. Unfortunately for the tax payer, it will not be short.

Continue reading "Failing kids, failing the community" »

Cities have personalities, they have a tone to their collective voice, and my former home town of Adelaide has a voice which can generally be described as courteous, civil, thoughtful, prepared to make a point, but also willing to listen.

My adoptive town of the past decade often finds itself at the other end of the register. Sydney is often so boisterous as to be uncouth. It can be pig-headed, abusive and rude. In its political and social discourse, Sydney’s general modus operandi is to start with a full-blown argument and work your way backwards towards civility from there.

But in the NSW school holiday fortnight just gone, which we passed happily back in SA, there was a very different edge to Adelaide’s voice. The normally sedate city sounded depressingly like Sydney at its unthinking and aggressive worst as its leaders and citizens dealt with a genuinely terrifying spate of crimes linked to the so-called Gang of 49.

Continue reading "Crimewave turns our most genteel city into a moshpit" »

This is not a League v Union v AFL v Soccer rant. This is about whether we can agree that sport is important. If we agree it is important, then surely we can work together to do it better.

Sport can be part of a coordinated strategy to get a number of results - we need healthier kids, we need people to think binge drinking isn’t acceptable, we need people to want to solve conflict without violence.  We need more kids to dream, big.

The ugly argument about what is better - thugby league, yawnion, gayfl or wogball - is as sophomoric as those phrases are offensive.

Continue reading "The power of sport" »

The silent epidemic - bullying - is being confronted with screams for help. Incidents of cyber bullying, workplace bullying and violence are being reported like never before.

The emerging pattern of teenage suicides, evidently linked to cyber bullying, marks a new-age epidemic that must be stopped.

In 2003, Melbourne medical experts described bullying as the silent epidemic. But now, it’s loud and clear how bullying is impacting on our generation living in cyberspace. And it’s not just in cyberspace where bullying is rife. It’s in the playground, the workplace and on the streets.

Continue reading "Screams for help - the silent bullying epidemic" »

Hollywood Director Michael Mann probably never dreamed he would grow up and inspire movie-goers around the world to knock over a few banks with their mates.

But seriously, I’m positive anyone who’s seen the latest Mann spectacular, Public Enemies, walked away thinking how cool they’d look robbing a bank with a band of Johnny Depp looking outlaws.

In its first weekend at Aussie cinemas Public Enemies pulled in $3,151,046, knocking the latest wand-swishing Harry Potter installment from its number one spot.

Continue reading "Public enemies. We’re creating them" »

Recently, a private boys’ school in Queensland took the progressive step of incorporating emotional intelligence into its syllabus. Bravo. 

In Western society, we have for too long adopted a blinkered approach towards education, focusing heavily on the development of cognitive skills, such as writing, reading and counting, and not those associated with a child’s emotional development.

Research and early childhood literature has shown that children who possess well-developed emotional and mental skills, have a greater likelihood of being successful later on in life. 

Continue reading "Putting self-esteem on the school syllabus" »

Lawrie Sawle is the most unrecognised contributor to the Australian cricket supremacy of the last two decades.

A West Australian school teacher and administrator, Sawle became Australian cricket’s chairman of selectors in late 1984. Earlier that year the Sydney Cricket Ground Test played host to the retirements of the three giants of the national team, Greg Chappell, Dennis Lillee and Rod Marsh.

Soon Australia was being beaten by everyone. The captain resigned in tears. A majority of the first Test team chosen by Sawle’s selection panel had already signed secret agreements to rat on Australian cricket and tour apartheid South Africa.

Continue reading "Australian cricket doomed if we don’t back the young" »

Gen Y may garner more column inches than Sarah Palin, the GFC, and Madonna’s immobile forehead combined but they are the generation we love to hate the most, (myself included and I was unfortunately born smack bang in the middle of Y-dom), so I’m starting to wonder why our media landscape is bereft of any aggressive, arrogant scribes south of 30?

It’s not that I think we have anything particularly interesting or even fleetingly insightful or intelligent to offer on politics, popular culture or Paul Keating, but each generation before us has thrown up someone to wildly wave the banner of youth while trying not to choke on their own vomit.

Our papers are missing a trying-very-hard-to-be-controversial-and-on-the-edge ‘Youth’ columnist, chock full of the insouciance, arrogance and ignorance that comes from being part of a generation that can barely remember a time when casting a vote didn’t involve SMS. What they need is a Hip Young Thing, someone who can knock out a few wry paragraphs about blow jobs and recreational drug use, making a name for themselves with their frequent use of the word ‘f**k’ and poor grammar and syntax.

Continue reading "Wanted: youngster to write about drugs and blow jobs" »

It’s a shame to dredge up more dreck about this drongo but it seems the fallout from the Matty Johns saga has at last done the rounds.

We’re in the middle of a sexual etiquette renaissance.

HR seminars at businesses across the country are in overdrive, Sex-Ed classes at schools have ramped up just to remind everyone: “Hey guys BTW it’s not cool to sexually assault people… Cheers Thanks.”

Continue reading "Cover your humps in lycra to keep the boys at bay" »