Will Your Government Stand Up For You?

Last night I tuned into the ABC to see John Howard be grilled by the Q&A audience. He looked relaxed and confident during Tony Jones' introduction, although I did notice his slight squirm when Tony mentioned the dreaded words Work Choices.  Not surprsing as I would assume this ludicris policy is one of his biggest regrets, and judging by his answers to the questions thrown at him, probably his only regret as he firmly stood by everything he did as PM.

During the program Mr Howard bullshitted the way he did back when he was leader of our country, but I couldn't help but notice that at least he appeared much more confident and less rehearsed in his convictions than Julia Gillard or even Kevin Rudd do today.

The highlight of the show for me came via a video question from fomer Guantanamo Bay resident David Hicks.

Mr Hicks put to Mr Howard

"Hi, I'm David Hicks. When you were Prime Minister you left me in Guantanamo Bay for five and half years. During that time I was detained without charge for a long time, I was denied a fair trial, I was tortured. Do you believe that I was treated humanely and that the Military Commission was a fair system ? Thank you."

The former PM then went into spin mode

"Isn't it a great country that allows this sort of exchange to occur,"  he responded.

He then went on to defend what his government did in relation to David Hicks' situation and went on to remind the viewers that Hicks pleaded guilty to serious charges and the Howard government played a role in brokering a deal to bring him back to Australia to serve the remainder of his sentence. He also reminded us that David Hicks trained with the Taliban and shouldn't be held as a national hero.

This spin that came out of Mr Howard's mouth allowed him to avoid the question 'Do you believe I was treated humanely...?'

The answer to the question I believe should have been 'No'.

Now I don't know anybody who would hold David Hicks up to be a hero. Far from it. The guy was an idiot who trained with the Taliban. I don't know anybody who likes him very much at all.

However, this doesn't excuse the fact that an Australian citizen was detained for 5 years without a trial with no intervention from our government. This doesn't hide the fact that part of the deal to bring him home meant that he had to plead guilty. This doesn't hide the fact that this deal was only brokered when the public pressure was on in an election year! The entire situation was handled in an awful way.

Mr Howard avoided the question at hand, a very important question I believe. All Australian citizens should have the comfort of knowing that their government will help them out in all situations.

While our former PM defends and stands by his actions I hope that future governments, whatever party may be in power, learns from the mistakes of the Howard government in this situation.

Mr Howard was right in saying that it's a great country that allows these exchanges, but shouldn't a great country that allows these freedoms stand up for it's people?

A Saint for Everybody

Last night Australia's first Saint, Mary Mackillop was canonised in Rome. Not being religious this was something that I hadn't paid too much attention to in the weeks leading up. Of course I had noticed the posters up all over North Sydney and the works going on at Gore Hill Cemetery, the site of Mary's original resting place, but the day really didn't have any significance for me until yesterday afternoon.

Walking past the Cemetery, an old man stopped to ask for directions to the entrance. This sweet old man had all his Sunday papers marking the event and he had a Mary Mackillop balloon which he had got from the celebrations at North Sydney at the Mary Mackillop church. While he was talking to us about Mary Mackillop I couldn't get over how happy he was. The joy in his voice as he spoke of our new Saint was so uplifting and made me realise that it didn't matter that I wasn't a catholoic or even religious. Yesterday was a great day for all Australians who just want to be better people and who want to bring happiness to others.

While Mary Mackillop was recognised formally for her miracles, I think the canonisation yesterday can still have meaning for those of us who don't necessarily believe. We can recognise that a woman was selfless in her pursuit to help others and she was a woman who is still bringing joy to people over 100 years after her death.

Regardless of your religious beliefs we should all strive to be just as half as giving as this woman was.

Has Channel V become the new XXX Channel?

God I'm glad I don't have young children. It must must a nightmare trying to shield them from inappropriate music videos that play constantly on Channel V.

I am by no means a prude. I'm quite happy for Beyonce, Gaga, Britney and the like to dance around in bikinis, underwear or even naked. I've got no problem with any of that.

What I dislike is the suggestive sexual simualtion that some of these pop singers have in their videos.

I was shocked when I saw Christina Aguilera's latest video. I had to question if I was watching soft core porn. Sure she's got a little clothing on but all the grinding and dry humping made me want to bring back up my lunch.

The latest one that made think 'What the?' was Katy Perry.

Poor Katy has been in a bit of trouble of late for appearing on Seasame Street wearing a low cut dress. I saw that video and  I couldn't see what the fuss was about. She was covered and let's be honest, the target audience there wasn't really thinking about Katy's boobs.

I do, however see a problem with Katy's new video, "Teenage Dream". The target audience for that song and her video are young girls, pre and post teens who are very impressionable.

In one scene Katy takes a boy up to a bedroom at a party and he proceeds to throw her on the bed and take off her jeans leaving her in her underwear. Cut to the next scene where Katy is sitting on the end of her bed in her underwear. All impying that Katy has just had sex with this guy at the party.

Is that really what we want pre-teen girls to be thinking is the cool thing to do?

I question the thought process of these singers and their managers who very well know that alot of their audience are young impressionable girls. While alot of them go on and say that they don't ask to be role models the fact of the matter is that they are. When you decide you want to be a famous singer, actor or whatever you have to accept responsibility for being a role model to young impressionable people.

I guess with all these pop stars trying to out-do each other with the sexy and shock factor I shouldn't be surprised to see videos become more and more distasteful. I just wonder what it will be like in 10 years when I have a young child I have to try to shield from it.

Lost: Motivation. Have you seen it?

Hello?! Motivation? Where are you?

My motivation levels this week have been at a big fat zero.

A few weeks ago I was absolutely killing it with my exercise regime and today I realised that my run this afternoon was the first bit of exercise I have done in 6 days!

The funny thing is I enjoy exercising. I feel shitty if I don't get in some form of daily energy expenditure. So what's the problem?

I have a feeling that daylight savings has something to do with it. Losing an hour ruins me for at least a week usually. That coupled with the fact that we just had a long weekend, really makes me feel like just chilling out!

It appears that I'm not the only one. A scroll down of my facebook page shows alot of friends are also missing their motivation.

I guess we are at that time of year where we are all busting for a holiday. Although the year has flown by, it seems like my European White Christmas was a million years ago.

Hopefully today's run is a sign that my motivation is slowly making a comeback. I am in desperate need of it to return. I'd be interested In hearing any tips for tracking down my motivation and making it stick around

Broken Man

Last night as I watched Phil Gould interview Manly footballer Brett Stewart and his girlfriend Jamie Baker I had to hold back the tears for a young man who has lost almost 18 months of his life.

Exactly 2 years ago this weekend Stewart was an important part of the Premiership winning Manly team. He was a fantastic league player and was chosen to be the face of rugby league. It looked like Brett Stewart had the world at his feet.

All of that changed just 6 months later when a young girl accused him of sexual assault. He was immediately given a 4 match suspension by the NRL, no questions asked, and his name was in tatters.

For 18 months Stewart, with Baker by his side, had to fight to clear his name. On Wednesday he won that fight but last nights gripping interview on the Footy Show showed that it had not come without a price.

Stewart looked shattered and broken. His voice was timid and his words came out slowly, like he had not one ounce of confidence left in him.

The Brett Stewart case highlights the point that these days, especially if your a man - and a footballer at that, you are more likely to be guilty until proven innocent. Even the NRL didn't ask him for his side of the story and disgustingly, the NRL haven't contacted him to apologise.

The accuser in this case was a young girl that we don't know much about. From what can be released she suffers from a mental illness where her memory isn't in the best shape. From other details released it would appear that her family were the ones that pushed this to trial.

What this girl and her family have done is not only ruin the life of one man and his family, they have also perhaps made it harder for genuine victims of assault to come forward. There will be victims out there who will now think that they may not be believed because of this girl crying wolf.

I assume the motivation of this family was money and to take Stewart for everything, although if reports are true there is nothing left. To clear his name Stewart had to spend his life savings and last nights interview was a paid one to recoup some of his costs. It would be nice if the NRL stepped forward and provided some compensation for unfairly suspending him from his matches.

Next year Stewart will be injury free and his life will start to get back on track. I look forward to seeing him play some of the brilliant football he is known for. However if last nights demeanour is anything to go by he has a long way to go to build up his confidence and trust in people.

Hopefully the public put their full support behind him and help fix the broken man we saw on television.

BDO 2011 Line Up

The Big Day Out for me was once a tradition. The best festival with the best bands. A must do for the summer. These days though the tradition is broken and it doesn't look like being re-instated.

When I was 14 years old the BDO was coming back from a 2 year hiatus. The 1999 line up was more than a 14 year old girl could imagine. I begged and begged my mum to let me go. The headline acts in themselves were enough to make you want to pee your pants with excitement! Korn, Hole and Marilyn Manson. Then you had amazing local talent like The Living End, the Superjesus, Jebediah and Regurgitator. Powderfinger were also there and had only just released their most commercial album to that date 'Internationalist'. The band played at about 4pm if I remember correctly. I often laughed in years to come when they ended up headlining.

Following years line-ups were just as exciting and in later years when it started selling out in a few short hours the line up made your heart race in the hope you could snag tickets to see all these amazing bands in one place.

Year after year I was pumped at the announcement of the line-ups. I went to 10 BDOs and loved every single one of them. I have amazing memories from the bands, the people, the atmosphere. A trip to the Lilypad is an adventure in itself.

A few years ago the line up came out for the 2009 BDO and I was unimpressed. So unimpressed that I made the decision not to go. This is despite me once saying 'I'll always come no matter who is playing'. The day rolled around and I felt weird not being there. I felt sad that my tradition had been broken but I knew that it would be ok and next year I'd be back there at Olympic Park.

When the 2010 line up was about to be announced I felt excited again. There was a rumour the fabulous Mr David Bowie would be headlining. Instead when the announcement came we were given Muse.

Now don't get me wrong, I LOVE Muse, but they headlined just 3 years prior, so I was quite let down. Again I decided not to buy a ticket.

This year I was a little more wary of how the line up would look. I'd heard rumours of Soundgarden and Stone Temple Pilots. I didn't want to get my hopes up.

When the announcement was made I was very let down. Great bands, amazing bands! Tool, Rammstein and Iggy Pop are the headliners. But they've all done it before! I got the feeling that the BDO organisers were just giving us punters recycled goods. Why would I pay $150.00 to see bands I've already seen! When I was 14 I paid $70.00 to see one of the best, freshest line ups ever in Australia.

This will now be the 3rd BDO I've missed since I started going and I've come to the realisation that my tradition is over. Good bye BDO, it's been fun!

*Disclaimer: Should the 2012 line-up be an improvement my tradition may need to be re-instated

Me Running? A Complete 180!

If you had told me 6 months ago that I could run for almost 10km in under an hour I would have not only laughed at you but bet you $1000.00 that it was impossible.

So how the hell did I end up doing just that the other weekend?

What started off as a small personal challenge has turned into a normal part of my exercise routine.

It was hard, oh my God it was hard. I began running 5 minutes down the road with the stop watch and walking back. I slowly built up to also running the 5 minutes back.

As I started to gain confidence in running just for 10 short minutes I began to tell myself that I could run further. I slowly started running for longer and longer distances, setting myself routes I would try to complete. The challenge was to run as much of the route as possible before having to walk and next time try to beat it.

Over and over in my head I would remember what my former trainer Chris at Active Aussies would tell me. He had the confidence that I could run. He pushed me to run and sprint short distances. If he believed that I could do it then why shouldn't I?

I also took onboard advice I had read in Michelle Bridges 'Crunch Time' book. Michelle says not to stop. Even if you have to shuffle along slower than you would walk, do not stop. Stopping loses momentum and she is 100% right. Once I stopped to catch my breathe it was 100 times harder to start running again.

Motivation is hard when you're on your own. I needed some extra motivation (and still do).

I started by signing up to do the Bridge Run as part of the Sydney Running Festival. The course was an approximate 9-10km and was definitely much further than I would ever have imagined I could run.

Secondly I enlisted some running buddies. I got my boyfriend Aaron to sign up for the Bridge Run too and also began running a few afternoons a week with Lisa and Amanda from work. Having someone to go with you is the best motivation.  When one of you feels like piking out that day the other will drag them along.

And last but not least I downloaded the Map My Run app for my iphone. It tracks your GPS as you run so you can see the route and actual distance you have run. It's such a fantastic (and free) app to use.

With all this help I started getting into a regular pattern of going for a run 3-4 times a week. My area is very hilly and while the inclines really do suck, they are amazing for training for flat distance and I credit them with making my time as fast as it was.

Completing the Bridge Run last Sunday in 55:52 was one of my proudest moments. Especially considering I'm not a fast runner and my goal was 90 minutes! As an unco-ordinated ex-smoker with big boobs I honestly believed that it was not part of me to run. I proved myself wrong.

I've also proved that anybody can run. You just have to start small and not expect it to happen right away. Don't expect to be winning races. My pace is still very average but at least I'm running!

I've now set myself a goal to run 1000km in a year, just under 20km a week which is much more than I have been. It will be hard and certainly a challenge but I have complete faith that I will be able to reach that goal.