Though we don't have the paper arriving at our doorstep every morning, occasionally we will buy a newspaper to catch up with what's going on locally. The internet is obviously keeping us up to date with all things Canadian. In fact, I feel a bit of an addiction coming on with resprct to podcasts. I've recently been downloading the radio show Ideas from CBC. I absolutely love the show and one episode is enough air time to get me to the uni and back home again. However, it is also nice to pick up a paper, physically flip through the news of the day, and as Linton suggested to me the other day "eavesdrop" on another city, its people, and their way of life. And in many cases, it's an interesting life they lead, at least as portrayed by the city's dailies.
Australian newspapers, or rather, Melburnian newspapers are a bit odd for their size and the relative lack of news. The major papers seem to be The Age, The Australian, and the Herald Sun. The first two are rather thin and a really weird shape that make them hard to hold up for very long without your arms getting tired and would be very awkward to wrestle on the tram. The Herald Sun is similar to the Toronto Sun in shape and format and relative to the two others, has more news, more local entertainment info, and tonnes of sports coverage (which was particularly useful with the Olympics).
A stroll through today's headlines reveals a broad range of news as well as a sizable number things that are perhaps not quite so newsworthy. Here are several examples: Despite the medal haul in Beijing it seems in many ways the Aussie's are upset there weren't more medals or at least that the "Poms" (the Brits) beat them out. Even so, there is also a good deal of debate about whether they are spending too much on sport, so in that way they are having the reverse debate as in Canada. Equally important in all of this seems to be whether or not the star of the swim team, Stephanie Rice, might be romantically linked to Michael Phelps.
There is a large focus on the environment especially because of the decade long drought and the fact that freshwater reservoirs are at 33% of their capacity. Today some protesters attacked the state's minister for water in his car. Fish stocks and wind farms and orphaned baby whales are all making the news with great frequency. I think the water crisis in particular has thrust the environment into a higher profile than it currently is in Canada. I noticed that there are several members of the Green Party who hold elected office here. We also find the air quality to be noticeably worse with many more cars burning diesel. The price of gas is significantly higher than in Canada and car prices are also 10-20% higher. It was very interesting to note recently that abortions, as they are currently being provided in Canada, are not legal in Australia - though there is currently much debate on the issue.
On a significantly lighter note, page seven of today's Herald Sun has a couple of winning stories. In the first, the opening line states, "Downtrodden blokes are biting back and sending meat pie sales soaring." They love their pies and pasties (pronounced pahstee) here in Oz - which is okay by me! The second story is reporting on a survey that said a majority of men and women picked Kylie Minogue as the star they would most want to sit beside on a tram! So while there are important stories, there are actually many more stories that...are not. Like the very next page which has a story about a town of 600 people north of Melbourne that has no single women and the men who are desperate for some. The story includes a picture of 10 men from the town down at the local pub, staring eagerly into the camera with a beer in their hand. Ladies - who's interested? Perhaps today was a slow news day.
I must also report on the sports section in this sport crazy country. In today's paper the sports section was 12 pages long. One page for the returning Olympic athletes, one for rugby, one for soccer and NINE for Aussie rules!! From retirements, to scandals, to fines, to injuries, to playoffs, to firings, to trades, to scoring races - there is absolutely no footy ball left unturned. If you're not a footy fan in this city then I'm not sure what you do or watch on the weekend, with only five channels and at least four games on the telly!
All of this talk of news and media makes me curious about how we might have survived this trip even 20 short years ago. Little or no news from home, a periodic phone call, a random post card uttering "Wish you were here", might have been all we had to offer or receive. Would we have gone without the lifeline of the internet? Could we have survived without the ability to Skype our families in real time and for free? Indeed, would we have been as willing to chronicle all of these various blogged observations into a handwritten journal and then gathered friends and family around the fire to read select passages? I think, or at least hope that we would have and could have. After all, we didn't come all this way to read the news or download iTunes...And yet, the fact that I can eat my Vegemite sandwich watching the wild Kangaroos while listening to a podcast from the CBC is either complete and total sacrilege for the travel purists or a very cool example of how modern technology can allow us all to launch ourselves confidently out into strange and wondrous worlds safe in the knowledge that there can always be a little bit of home plugged into our left ear.
New Australian Terms this week:
stack = wipe out Example; I had a wicked stack on my skateboard and cut my knee.
whingeing - whining - same definition, vastly different pronunciation
Australian newspapers, or rather, Melburnian newspapers are a bit odd for their size and the relative lack of news. The major papers seem to be The Age, The Australian, and the Herald Sun. The first two are rather thin and a really weird shape that make them hard to hold up for very long without your arms getting tired and would be very awkward to wrestle on the tram. The Herald Sun is similar to the Toronto Sun in shape and format and relative to the two others, has more news, more local entertainment info, and tonnes of sports coverage (which was particularly useful with the Olympics).
A stroll through today's headlines reveals a broad range of news as well as a sizable number things that are perhaps not quite so newsworthy. Here are several examples: Despite the medal haul in Beijing it seems in many ways the Aussie's are upset there weren't more medals or at least that the "Poms" (the Brits) beat them out. Even so, there is also a good deal of debate about whether they are spending too much on sport, so in that way they are having the reverse debate as in Canada. Equally important in all of this seems to be whether or not the star of the swim team, Stephanie Rice, might be romantically linked to Michael Phelps.
There is a large focus on the environment especially because of the decade long drought and the fact that freshwater reservoirs are at 33% of their capacity. Today some protesters attacked the state's minister for water in his car. Fish stocks and wind farms and orphaned baby whales are all making the news with great frequency. I think the water crisis in particular has thrust the environment into a higher profile than it currently is in Canada. I noticed that there are several members of the Green Party who hold elected office here. We also find the air quality to be noticeably worse with many more cars burning diesel. The price of gas is significantly higher than in Canada and car prices are also 10-20% higher. It was very interesting to note recently that abortions, as they are currently being provided in Canada, are not legal in Australia - though there is currently much debate on the issue.
On a significantly lighter note, page seven of today's Herald Sun has a couple of winning stories. In the first, the opening line states, "Downtrodden blokes are biting back and sending meat pie sales soaring." They love their pies and pasties (pronounced pahstee) here in Oz - which is okay by me! The second story is reporting on a survey that said a majority of men and women picked Kylie Minogue as the star they would most want to sit beside on a tram! So while there are important stories, there are actually many more stories that...are not. Like the very next page which has a story about a town of 600 people north of Melbourne that has no single women and the men who are desperate for some. The story includes a picture of 10 men from the town down at the local pub, staring eagerly into the camera with a beer in their hand. Ladies - who's interested? Perhaps today was a slow news day.
I must also report on the sports section in this sport crazy country. In today's paper the sports section was 12 pages long. One page for the returning Olympic athletes, one for rugby, one for soccer and NINE for Aussie rules!! From retirements, to scandals, to fines, to injuries, to playoffs, to firings, to trades, to scoring races - there is absolutely no footy ball left unturned. If you're not a footy fan in this city then I'm not sure what you do or watch on the weekend, with only five channels and at least four games on the telly!
All of this talk of news and media makes me curious about how we might have survived this trip even 20 short years ago. Little or no news from home, a periodic phone call, a random post card uttering "Wish you were here", might have been all we had to offer or receive. Would we have gone without the lifeline of the internet? Could we have survived without the ability to Skype our families in real time and for free? Indeed, would we have been as willing to chronicle all of these various blogged observations into a handwritten journal and then gathered friends and family around the fire to read select passages? I think, or at least hope that we would have and could have. After all, we didn't come all this way to read the news or download iTunes...And yet, the fact that I can eat my Vegemite sandwich watching the wild Kangaroos while listening to a podcast from the CBC is either complete and total sacrilege for the travel purists or a very cool example of how modern technology can allow us all to launch ourselves confidently out into strange and wondrous worlds safe in the knowledge that there can always be a little bit of home plugged into our left ear.
New Australian Terms this week:
stack = wipe out Example; I had a wicked stack on my skateboard and cut my knee.
whingeing - whining - same definition, vastly different pronunciation
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