Radio Australia Today Editorial
Archive for June, 2008
Water. How Can Something So Simple Become So Political?
30 June 2008
This morning we spoke with Elizabeth Royte, who has examined the bottled water industry.
And it is some industry! Over the last eighteen years it has grown from a 115 million dollar industry in the US to 11 Billion.
Is this a good thing? Is it just as good to be drinking from the tap. Elizabeth says, in the US at least, tap water is just as good as bottled water. Indeed my dentist says I should drink tap water as much as possible, because here in Australia our water is fluoridated (he says fluorine fights tooth decay, although there are plenty of fluoridation opponents who disagree).
In many countries that we broadcast to across the oceans, safe drinking water is an isssue, and often tourists and locals are urged by health authorities to drink bottled water.
Which brings us to a big issue: is there enough good water in the region? According to a guest from last week, Colin Chartres from the International Water Management Institute, too much water is being wasted. It takes one litre of water to grow one CALORIE of food, which means the average Australian consumes up to 3000 litres of water in their food alone. Heavy meat eaters consume even more since cattle, piggies and sheep have to graze for a long time before they get the chop.
Bottom line is: if you’re got good water, count yourself lucky, and please don’t abuse the privilege. There are plenty of people who are wasting it. And plenty more who need the stuff.
– Phil
A Political End, and a Beginning
26 June 2008
Today will be an important date in Australian political history.
It is the day that a political party effectively dies.
The Australian Democrats have been a third major force in politics here for 30 years, having had a continuous presence in the parliament since 1978. It was founded by a disgruntled former government minister, Don Chipp, who was upset that the politics of two major parties meant that there was no alternative for voters. So under the banner of Keeping the Bastards Honest, he formed the Democrats, and won instant success. At its peak, the Democrats held the balance of power in the Senate, which meant they had the final choice over whether legislation passed or not.
But the Democrats’ decision to pass the Goods and Services Tax a few years ago meant its political doom, and with the rise of the Greens as an alternative third force, the Democrats failed to attract the votes anymore. Today is the last day that Democrat senators will sit in parliament, their places to be taken by those Greens at the next sitting.
Whether this means the Greens are starting up as a major force across the world is yet to be seen. We’ll find out with more elections.
It’s hard to come back after having lost your influence so comprehensively, and few are prediucting the Democrats will have a big role in politics again. Whatever happens, it is time to remember the rocky 30 years of a party that I think many would agree, did keep the bastards honest.
– Phil
The Word is the Word
25 June 2008
A couple of weeks ago I had a brilliant idea. They don’t happen often, so I have to act on them when they do.
I thought that we should have a word of the day on the Breakfast Club.
It would be a difficult word, and we could ask our audience to give us a definition. The funniest definition (not necessarily the correct one) would win a prize.
Well I’ve got to tell you, the emails and SMSs have been going hot with people throwing us definitions, and some of them have been hilarious. Like when we put out the word: umbrage. One wag suggested ‘umbrage’ was a bridge you hid under in the rain (umbrella-bridge’. Get it?) He won the prize.
We do the word at 0030 GMT (0730 in Cambodia and Jakarta), and we reveal the real definition and the winning answer an hour later.
Our email address, by the way is breakfastclub@radioaustralia.net.au
So why not have a guess. You have nothing to lose, and a CD to win.
Good luck.
– Phil
Lifting a Finger to Save the Planet
20 June 2008
Climate Change is hitting home now.
A couple of days ago some researchers worked out that the rising sea levels caused by climate change will actually be 50% greater than previously thought. To people living in Arizona or Alice Springs, this may not be a huge concern, but it should be, because rising water levels will affect rivers and other waterways, and rising temperatures will make uncomfortably hort days stupidly hot in inland centres.
If you are not near a coast, please spare a thought for island communities arond the world. Kiribati and the Maldives are just two island nations that are threatened by rising water levels.
Did I say threatened? These nations could become swamped by the sea, and all because we chug along in our V8s, love central heating and like to fly to Florence for our holidays.
These poor people are unfairly bearing the punishment for the excesses of others.
Let’s do what we can. This is only a start, but on Saturday night (June 21) there’s a movement that started in the broadcasting industry to turn off your lights for one hour. That’s all. One hour.
It’s a matter of lifting a finger to a switch.
It doesn’t mean you have to sit in the dark. Go for a walk. Or snuggle up. Make it fun.
Even better, make it a regular thing. It was only a few decades ago that the people who advocated recycling were considered cranks. We know that in ten years we will all be conserving energy like crazy.
So let’s all do it. Lift that finger to climate change.
The Olympics Are Coming. Bring ‘em On.
19 June 2008
Olympic Games are strange things.
They are places where many thousands of people are stuck together in a small place, all for the glory of sport and the glory of watching sport.
I worked at the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984 as a (very) young and naive producer. After all the turmoil of the boycotts of the previous Games in Moscow, it was a relief that things were back to relative normal (although I seem to remember that the USSR did a tit-for-tat boycott).
I walked through the Olympic village only once, and it was with our swimming legend Dawn Fraser, who had been banned from participating in future Olympics after a flag stealing episode in Tokyo in 1964 (she didn’t do it by the way, she just refused to give the real thief up to authorities, and so took the rap herself). Anyway Dawnie and I were walking threough the compound and were met by a jubilant Australian swimming coach Lawrie Lawrence, who leapt about telling us that Australia had just won its first gold medal of the games. It was in the cycling. Dawn and I went (or should I say flew) to the post-event media conference, and saw the cyclists talking to Australia live after the historic win. We had tears in our eyes, The cyclist had tears in his eyes. Even the interviewer had tears in his eyes.
The rush, the feeling of well-being, was something I had rarely experienced. No political election, no job promotion, nothing, could emulate that feeling on that day.
That’s what the Olympics are about.
We’ll be there in Beijing by the way. Not the Breakfast Club as such, but we’ll have a team of reporters telling us what’s happening. We’ll bring you events, the conversies, the tears and the joy.
Can’t wait.
– Phil
