Earth Hour - A global Movement

Toronto - Earth Hour 2008

In 2007 residents in the city of Sydney, Australia participated in Earth Hour. 2.2 million people and 2100 business participated, which lead to a 10.2% decrease in energy usage in the city of Sydney.

The original goal of Earth Hour was to inspire people to take action on climate change.

In 2008, 24 cities around the world participated in Earth Hour (8-9pm, March 29^th, 2008) and it was hoped that over 100 million people would participate. The goal to encourage people, communities and business to take simple steps needed to cut their emissions on an ongoing basis. Cities such as San Francisco, Vancouver, Tel Aviv, Bangkok, Dublin and Toronto participated.

Across Australia, all the capital cities participated, as well as smaller cities and communities. It was estimated that at least 5% of power consumption was reduced for the entire country during Earth Hour.

The goal of the organizers, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) is to create awareness. "Earth Hour is about awareness, and without awareness, there can be no action."

Next year it is hoped that 1 billion people across the globe will participate in Earth Hour. Between 2007 and 2008 WWF were able to go from 1 city and 2.2 million participants to 24 cities and an estimated 100 million participants through viral marketing. Drawing supporters through social-networking websites and word of mouth. It is hoped that same momentum can next year make Earth Hour a truly global event.

Melbourne - Earth Hour 2008

Earth Hour - Your chance to make a difference

8pm March 29th, 2008

Turn of your lights &
any powered devices
for 60 minutes

Visit Earthhour website for more details

Autumn in Melbourne

Officially it is fall here, but you would not have noticed it last weekend. Last Saturday the temperature was in the mid 20’s. On Sunday I went for a bike ride around the neighbourhood and looked down one street and you could see orange and brown leaves on the road. It looked like a typical street in a North American city during autumn but it was 20+ degrees.

But all that has changed as of Tuesday this week, rain has started failing and the temperature had dropped down to 19-20 degrees during mid-day. All Wednesday night and Thursday during the day it has been raining. Combine the rain with cooler temperatures of 9 – 14 degrees in the morning and evening and it feels rather cool in Melbourne. On the radio stations they are saying winter has come early.

For all my Canadian readers I am sure you would laugh at this. After the winter you have had this past season. But I find myself finding it rather cool. I have missed the past 3 winters (06, 07 and 08) in Canada. The last time I experienced massive amounts of snow was the winter of 1998-99. I remember 2005 as being rather cold in January/February.

I wonder how I will do if I were to face winter in Canada after not experiencing it for the past 3 years. I think I will be fine.

The difference here is that the swings in weather changes can vary. The fall season can vary between mid-range temperatures 12-19 degrees and high 20 – 25 degrees, all the way to May.

The biggest problem I have had with Melbourne weather is the rain. There has not been much of it. But what there has been has caused me to be on my 3rd umbrella. My first umbrella was a $4 cheapie, my second was a $15 advanced model and now I am on my third a $10 umbrella. This umbrella looks like it will last a bit longer than the other two. The rain and wind can tear apart your umbrella and I really miss my Isotoner umbrella with automatic open and close function.

Now that it is cooler, Melbourne looks very similar to Toronto during fall; people wearing various types of coats. It ranges from warm heavy coats to light material shells to provide an extra layer of protection against the cold weather and wind.

Unlike living in Toronto I do not have to look forward to snow and minus temperatures. Just cooler weather, which makes living in a non-insulated apartment harder to get out of bed in the mornings.

Melbourne Comedy Festival

Every year in Melbourne for the past 21 years, between the end of March to mid-April a massive Comedy Festival takes place for 3 and half weeks. It is the 3rd largest Comedy festival in the world. The Edinburgh Festival Fringe and Montreal's Just for Laughs Festival being the other two biggies.

All over the city any venue (hotel, bar, pub, café, restaurant, lounge, club, church, library, theatre, hall, gallery, football club, museum, cinema, town hall, arts centre and university) capable of hosting a show is used to show all the acts that come to Melbourne. In total there are 101 venues showing 291 acts; that range from stand-up to improve, theatre, singing and dancing. Also there are shows that cater to children.

The main aim of the Festival is to:

• showcase and celebrate the best of Australia's comic artists
• nurture and develop new comic performers and comedy works
• present the finest overseas comedians to Australian audiences

Last year Lauren and I attended one show. We did not find him very funny and I will not mention the comic. But he is hailed by critics and other comedians for his comedy.

Bad Comedy

This year I have seen 2 acts, one horrible and one great. I won free tickets to see a preview of Sam Bowring for his stand-up gig More Irrelevant Bullshit. I didn’t find it very funny and at the end of the show found myself coma-like and needed to be re-awakened. It was Bullshit. Although to be fair there was a group of people who found him funny.

Good Comedy

That same night, 30 minutes later we saw a sketch and improv group. I was looking forward to seeing this group as they hail from the great city of Toronto. Their name is Toronto on Top and they were presenting a show called Toronto Goes Down!

Finally something funny, the sketches they did at times were gut-busting funny and had me laughing. They restored my faith in there being funny people at the Comedy Festival.

Toronto on Top feature 5 Canadians and 1 Australian, featuring 3 women and 3 men in their 20’s or 30’s. Their comedy is very broad and features pop-culture references to TV shows and Movies.After their one hour performance, they did about 15-20mins of improv which was also funny. I highly recommend seeing them.

Toronto On Top - www.torontoontop.com

Melbourne Comedy Festival - www.comedyfestival.com.au

Are Australians and Canadians similar ?

Over the course of my time here in Oz I have come across people who say to me “We are similar” or “Aussies are just like Canadians” when they find out that I am Canadian.

This is a hard question to answer and in trying to do so I have found it to be a very hard topic to write about. I feel I need a degree in Australian and Canadian - History, Sociology and Psychology.

On the surface it would seem like an easy question to answer. But when I dig deeper it is very hard.

The reason I find it so hard, is because I can answer both Yes and No to the question.

After much thinking about it, at this point in time I am only going to give you a simple answer, because it is to complex of a question.

YES we are similar or alike, because we are both westernized commonwealth countries.

What do you mean by similar ?

We both speak the language English – Similar, Yes

We are both Commonwealth Countries – Similar, Yes

We both have similar ideals on families, education and health – Similar, Yes

We live in a modern western country – Similar, Yes

Both countries have similar values in working hard, raising kids and the importance of education and buying a house.

So why No ?

What differentiates Canadians and Australians is the underlining culture of the people and the way of life.

We all have similar values/culture of modern western life but the underlining culture is very different between all us.

So if a visitor from Canada or Australia came to the others country and visited for a few weeks; people, life and society would be very similar to what they are used to. They would say “hey we are alike or similar” it’s not like going to a non-English speaking country like China or Russia.

It’s only by living and immersing oneself in a country; can you then start seeing the difference between 2 societies. It tends to be the manners, customs and culture of people.

In this respect I would say we are not similar. Australian’s are more similar to English and Kiwi’s than Canadians.

The Australian culture is more similar to these two nations, than it is to Canada. Examples of this are the pub culture, the sporting culture, schools, education, driving, language and slang.

Although it is relative easy for a Canadian to integrate in Australia or for an Australian to do the same in Canada. I am sure Australians and English would have more in common or similar experiences than a Canuck and an Aussie.

That is why I don’t think we are similar.

There are deeper issues why this is so, but it is currently beyond my interpretation. I will continue to investigate and research this and in the future will come back to this topic, maybe then I can explore the underlining issues of what makes us different.

British Television shows

Since coming to Oz I have watched more British television programs than I ever did in Canada.

That is mainly due to Australia’s national broadcaster – ABC. They air a variety of programs from the UK. Over the past year I have watched the following British programs:

Robin Hood | Life on Mars | Doctor Who | The Bill

Hyperdrive | Spaced | The Ghost Squad | Doc Martin

Of the above I have come to enjoy Spaced, Life on Mars and Doc Martin.

I will briefly describe the shows:

Spaced [1999 – 2001]

Spaced starred Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz) and Jessica Stevenson (now Hynes). It consisted of 2 series which aired 7 episodes per series.

It was a half-hour comedy that featured 2 young people Tim and Daisy, for convenience and money issues they lived together in a flat. 4 reoccurring characters were Tim’s best friend Mike and Daiy’s best friend Twist. The 2 other characters were people who lived in the same building as Tim and Daisy – Marsha the owner and landlord of the building. And Brian, a resident downstairs who was a brooding painter.

The show featured many pop-culture references to movies (Star Wars, The Matrix), Television (X-Files), video games and comic books. As well as use of recreational drugs and electronica music.

I found it funny and very amusing.

Life on Mars [2006 – 2007]

Features a character named Sam Tyler (John Simm) who awakens in 1973 after being hit by a car in 2006 and is in a coma. In 2006 Sam is Detective Chief Inspector in Greater Manchester police. In 1973 he is Detective Inspector working for the Manchester and Salford police department. During his time there he tries to figure a way back to 2006 while working in 1973 dealing with culture clashes and the difference between detective/police work in 1973 and 2006.

It’s a very interesting show, its part cop drama and part mystery as Sam communicates and hears about his condition in 2006 through a television, radio and telephone.

Doc Martin [2004 – 200?]

Is about a successful London surgeon, Doctor Martin Ellingham (Martin Clunes) who quits being a surgeon and moves to the small sea-side town of Port Wen to become the town’s local doctor.

He’s not a very talkative individual and is very brash, straight-forward and to the point. Unlike the locals, who like to have a cup of tea, a biscuit, a chat and call him Doc Martin instead of Doctor Ellingham.

Over the course of the first season we are introduced to the town’s inhabitants who interact with the doctor – the pretty school teacher – Louisa, the Father and Son plumbers – Bert and Al, his sectary, the Policeman – Mark, his Aunty Joan and host of other minor character that make the town so lively.

The show has aired 3 series and a special. Currently a 4th series has been commissioned but not filmed yet.

Each episode has Doc Martin solving a problem or getting involved in the local’s problems. At times it is a very funny show, due to straight laced character of Doc Martin.

In Canada some of the shows (The Bill, Life on Mars) have aired on Showcase and possibly during my absence maybe some of the other shows have aired on Showcase or BBC Canada. If possibly I highly recommend watching the above 3 shows, it's great entertainment.

Binge Drinking in Oz

Fighting Binge Drinking

This past week the federal government announced $53 million in spending for a binge drinking prevention strategy to combat “the culture of binge drinking”.

$20 million of this will go towards TV, radio and internet advertising to “shock young people with the consequences of binge drinking.”

$14.4 million in grants-based programs will focus on trying to change the culture that leads young people to binge drinking, at the local level, working with sporting clubs and community groups.

$19.1 million for early intervention and diversion programs for people under 18.

What is Binge Drinking ?

Binge drinking is defined as having five or more standard drinks for a female or more than seven for a male in a single session or one after another.

According to a research paper released by the Australian National Council on Drugs: one in 10 people aged between 12 and 17 had drunk too much alcohol in the past week. It was most pronounced among 16 and 17-year-olds, with one in five over-indulging at least once a week.

Why is this such a problem in Australia ?

According to the ANCD paper binge drinking has become so entrenched with young people that is defines their generation.

It can be handed down to teenagers as a family tradition from older siblings or parents as a rite of passage.

The ANCD report found that more than 450,000 children lived in homes where adults binge drink.

Somehow, as smoking, sex and driving became subject to greater scrutiny and control, alcohol has remained relatively immune.

The cocktail of circumstances that comprises under-age alcohol abuse — lack of parental care or responsibility, availability of alcohol at social functions, insufficient awareness of the physical and psychological damage of binge drinking — is a lethal blend of the irresistible, unavoidable and just plain ignorance.

Changing these perceptions requires time and various forms of education.

The Outcomes

The main outcome that the Rudd government wants is to stop or at least decrease the number of teenagers and young adults binge drinkers.

The government is also looking at changes to advertising and labelling in alcohol products. As well as the codes of conduct for sporting clubs in relation to binge drinking and having their federal grants withdrawn.

Sports play a very important role in Australian society, severing the link between binge drinking and sports would be a massive win against binge drinking. But this is a mighty thing to overcome, so even little steps, like punitive measures would be welcomed.

The steps the government are taking are a step in the right direction, getting public awareness and educating people with programs and advertising. Only time will tell if it works. Otherwise the future for some of Australia’s young people doesn’t look too bright.

Womadelaide 2008 (Sounds of the Planet)

Last weekend Lauren and I headed to Adelaide to attend Womadelaide. It is a music festival featuring musicians and artists from around the world. We had a 2 day and 3 night pass. But because temperatures were ranging between 36-39 degrees during the day we did not attend during the day only the nights.

The hot weather also meant we could not explore the city of Adelaide. We were able to do a bit on Monday as Womadelaide had finished. We went to the beach on Monday afternoon to cool down and walked around the busy strip of Rundle Mall on Monday night. The one thing I will say about Adelaide is that the food I had was great. We ate out 3 times and I was satisfied with the quality and taste all 3 times.

What is Womadelaide ?

The World of Music, Arts & Dance (WOMAD + Adelaide = WOMADelaide).

WOMADelaide is a three-day day music, arts and dance festival held in Adelaide’s Botanic Park.

Its aim is to create a friendly ambience and message of cultural discovery and understanding through music.

Here is my summary of the music artists we saw:

Friday March 7, 2008

The John Butler Trio (Australia)
The John Butler Trio features John Butler on guitar, Shannon Birchall on bass and Michael Barker on drums. It’s a combination of rock, folk/roots and blues. The John Butler Trio put on a great live show, but I was not wowed by them.

Club de Balanco (Brazil) – is a nine member band, mixing jazz, rock and soul with an irresistible samba beat. We only listed to about 20mins but again I was not impressed or I didn’t feel I was listening to something new or exciting.

Soul Jazz Sound System (UK) – features 2 DJs, DJs Pete Reilly and Stuart Baker with MC Oxman. The DJ’s play all types of dance music - hip-hop, reggae etc. with MC Oxman singing along or MCing. We only saw about 20mins of this act and again I was not impressed.

Mavis Staples (USA)
Mavis is a soul and gospel legend, originally singing with her family in the group The Staples Singers from the early 50’s as child in churches to touring with her father and sisters as the Staple Singers in the 60’s and 70’s. Her career has spanned 40 years and from the early 1970’s has been releasing solo albums.

She sang some classic soul/rock songs along with her own songs. She had a good band and backup singers, one of which is her older sister. But again I felt it was standard soul/motown music and was not impressed.

Saturday March 8, 2008

Sarah Blasko (Australia)
She sings songs accompanied with music that is subdued yet powerful. She tends to be accompanied by a piano or a chamber ensemble including double bass, cello, violin, french horn, flute, piano and percussion. Her music is low-key, the type of music you listen to on a quite Sunday afternoon with a group of friends while eating cheese and drinking wine. It’s sombre and about real-life.

She is a very good singer but not my cup of tea.

Cesaria Evora Band (Cape Verde)

Cesaria Evora nicknamed the barefoot diva, for performing in bare feet in support of the disadvantaged women and children of her country, Cesária Évora is a truly legendary singer. Her soulful, evocative songs are in a style known as morna - sung in Creole Portuguese and related to Portuguese fado and Brazilian modinha. Since recording her first hit album in 1988, Evora has had a stellar international performing career.

Unfortunately Cesaria suffered a minor stroke earlier in the week and she was not able to perform. But her band was already in Adelaide, they decided to play two instrumental performances on her behalf.

Her 10-piece band, which were fronted by two men playing a Clarinet and a Violin were fantastic. The music makes you want to get up and dance. It makes you feel happy, want to smile and move your body.

This was the first act or group that I really enjoyed and it got better as the night went on.

Nicodemus (USA)
New York City DJ Nickodemus, is famed for founding the turntables on the Hudson parties, has a unique hip hop flavour, incorporating breaky beats and brisk grooves with live congas and bongos. His Endangered Species album embraces World, folk, funk, jazz, hip hop and dance music, all laced with messages of peace and love.

Nicodemus plays dance music from all around the world. We listened to him for over 1 hour while lying on grass on a towel. The music is wonderful, incorporating dance music from USA, UK, India and the Middle East. As we lied on the ground listening, we could feel our personal space decrease as more and more people (young adults) kept coming over to listen and dance to the beats being created by Nicodemus.

It was a surreal experience listening to such fun dance music, especially the Middle Eastern music. It was truly a once in a life time experience. But after an hour we decided to move on and listen to the Idan Raichel Project.

Idan Raichel Project (Isarael)

Since emerging in 2002, this eclectic ensemble has offered a powerful message of love and tolerance within its blend of Ethiopian and Middle Eastern musical influences. Keyboardist/composer Idan Raichel recorded with more than 70 singers and musicians, but performs with a seven-piece band and singers from Ethiopia, South America, South Africa and different parts of Israel.

When I first started listening to this group I while lying down on the grass. And as I was listening, I started feeling more vibrant in my energy. It was about 11:15pm and I was stating to get tired, but after about 30mins of listening I was up and looking at the band and watching the singers and feeling very good about myself. Although I could not understand the language, the music and the way the singers sung, moved and danced you could not help feeling uplifted and happy in a subdued reflecting way. The music resonated through your body, uplifting you.

It is probably the best live performance I have ever seen. That’s saying something for a performance not in English.

At the end of this night I felt I experienced some truly wonderful and uplifting music.

Sunday March 9, 2008

All-Star Gala (Various Artists)
We were about 10mins late and were able to sneak into the side near the front. Up on stage were various people and groups. One of the groups was the Joji Hirota trio, which is a percussion band using traditional drums from Japan. There is a woman in the group and she was having fun. She was all smiles and at one time lost one of her drum sticks and had to quickly retrieve it from the ground.

We also saw another percussion group from Africa – Farfina. They were quite spectacular as well.

Another group that played during the performance was the Victor Valdes and the Real Mexican Mariachi; a combination of Mexican and Australian musicians. Another group which got the crowd jumping and clapping their hands.

At the end all the groups and musicians came on stage and sang a song together all playing the same music with a variety of instruments. Quite a feat to pull off, but it was great.

As everyone left the stage, Farina and Joji Hiroato trio stayed on the stage and performed an impromptu set together. The heart pounding Japanese drums and the fast paced African drums together sounded magnificent and had the whole crowd clapping and jumping with adrenalin.

Black Grace (New Zealand)
Black Grace is New Zealand's leading contemporary dance company. The robust athleticism of Neil Ieremia's dynamic choreographic vision has won wide acclaim in North America, Mexico and Japan.

For a change of pace we decided to watch a dance program, which got rave reviews the night before. The dance featured is based on the Samoan principles of its choreographer Neil Ieremia. He uses his past and the past of his people and the country of New Zealand to create exciting and memorable dance sequences. It was most enjoyable and I am glad I saw it.

Singer Sharon Jones and The Dap-Kings (USA)
Singer Sharon Jones has earned the title of America's Queen of Soul since collaborating in the late-1990s with Bosco Mann and the Dap-Kings - star-studded house band of the Daptone Records label and icons of New York's Deep Funk scene.

The performance was full of energy by singer Sharon Jones and groovy music of the Dap-Kings. Sharon can sing and dance, thanks to her African and Native American heritage. Yet despite the quality of the music performed by the Dap-Kings and the upbeat nature of the music and singer Jones; I was not satisfied or felt fulfilled as with other performance that night or from Saturday night.

Wrapup
Despite the hot weather, which stopped us from attending the day-time shows, I am happy I went to Womadelaide and had a good time. I wish I could have caught more acts but maybe it was a good thing as I rested during the day-time which made the journey to Adelaide feel very relaxing.

Womadeliade is a very well run festival with a great assortment of music. It was a festival that was attended by a range of people. Families with infant children to families with teenagers to young adults like Lauren and me to older folks from the 40-70 range. There was also a range of tasty gourmet foods from all around the world that could be consumed from 12pm to 12am.

Music is a universal language; the only language the human race has that can transcend language and all the other differences we have as humans - race, religion and gender. Music’s ability to communicate happiness or sadness is a very powerful tool in bringing people together regardless of who they are.

Water conservation in Oz

Australia has been a country in drought for the past 10 years. To reduce water consumption, states in Australia have been on water restrictions. The state of Victoria is on Stage 3a water restrictions. This means households can water their gardens twice a week on designated days. No washing of cars using water from taps. But you can use tap water to wash your mirrors and windows and use recycled or grey water to wash your car.

Education has been the main impetus to get the public to conserve water and it is working. Water usage is down in Melbourne 9% during the same period last year. The entire state of Victoria has lowered it was usage 30% over the past year. The current dam levels in Melbourne are at 35.4%, compared to 34.1% at the same time last year.

Things people are doing include shorter showers of 4-5 minutes and showering with a bucket to collect falling water. Using water from the shower or washing machine to refill toilet water, washing machine and using the water for gardens and lawns.

Also efficiency has increased for items like toilets. Most houses and public facilities have dual flush toilets. A half flush for liquid and a full flush for solid material. I have also seen no flush for men urinals in public facilities.

Water recycling is also a big part of water conversation. But at this stage in Victoria, the water is only used for market gardeners, industry, sporting grounds, nurseries and housing developments. About 22.5% of Melbourne’s water waste is recycled.

Each state is different with how tough their restrictions are. In South Australia, where Adelaide is located, residents can only water gardens one day each week. But only with drippers, buckets or a hand-held hose with a trigger nozzle. South Australia is currently in an autumn heat wave, with temperatures in the mid to high 30’s. There have been calls to ease the restrictions, but they cannot spare the extra water. Whereas in Sydney the dams are at about 67% and there is talks of easing the restrictions.

I have been told 10 years ago the dams were full across the country. The blame for it is climate change. Now Australia has to use water saving techniques to conserve water. It may be something that will hit other countries and continents over the coming years as climate change affects other parts of the world as well. Water may very well become as important as oil. We need water to drink, cook and clean with.