Backpacking through Europe or joining the army. Tough choice, hey kids?

Brendan Nelson, Australia's Federal Defence Minister recently suggested that school leavers should spend their gap year between high school and university in the army, rather than travelling overseas:

"The gap-year proposal makes our army, air force and navy life a highly desirable option for young people looking for an experience for that year," Dr Nelson said.

"Why should our young people be teaching rugby in the United Kingdom, or backpacking or working in pubs instead of taking up the chance to wear the Australian uniform for a year?"

There are so many things wrong with this suggestion I hardly know where to begin.

The most concerning part of it for me is how it devalues overseas travel experience and suggests it would be more valuable for young Australians to stay in the country and train to defend Australia.

Overseas travel experience is incredibly important for getting a sense of what it means to be an Australian (If there is such a thing- I think the 'Aussie values' debate shows how hard it is to pin this down). I do think there is a certain sense of reflection and perspective that only comes from spending time outside your country.

This is especially the case for a country like Australia, which is quite isolated. I think there is a danger of becoming quite insular and inward-looking here, as the current climate of fear surrounding Muslims and Asylum Seekers shows.

I think we should be encouraging our young people to see the world; to live in other countries; to become world citizens. If they decide to join the army after that, fine.

How can our eighteen year olds be expected to train to defend Australia without experiencing other cultures and getting a sense of what it is they're defending?

(Brendan Nelson, inexplicably, on a motorcycle:)





Realistically, Nelson's comments may have been an attempt to recruit more people to the army, airforce and navy rather than any real dismissal of overseas travel.

Still, the fallout has brought about even stronger claims, such as calls for conscription from a group of former soldiers.

Mitchell Benson of Woy Woy, wrote to The Age on October 17th, saying:

MILITARY service would produce discipline, self-belief, confidence, initiative, and teamwork, which are sorely missing these days. Wouldn't that be so much better than learning how to skol a stein at Oktoberfest?

I'm sure the army does produce teamwork, discipline and other skills. I'm not arguing against that. But there are also a variety of skills such as independence, tolerance of other cultures, and perspective that come from overseas travel, which shouldn't be devalued.

In response to Mitchell, yes, on my overseas travels I learnt to skol a stein at Oktoberfest. But I also visited a concentration camp in Austria. Partying was only one side of it.

Of course, there is the possibility of overseas travel within the army. As Noel Howard wrote to The Age on the same day:

AS DEFENCE Minister Nelson stated, school leavers need not go backpacking to see the world. Join an army and you'll see the sights of Afghanistan, Iraq, Darfur, North Korea, and the Gaza Strip, etc.

A blissful night of Karaoke at the dodgiest venue in the world: Charltons.

Last night I sang. In public. For the first time in a long time. It was great.

It was at Charltons, which is about the dodgiest pool hall/ karaoke venue you can find in our fair city.



To get there you have to go down a dirty alley that also contains a Club X, turn left, and go up three floors in a lift.* You then enter another world, with decor from at least twenty years ago. My boss informed me that twenty odd years ago, Charltons was the place to be. That's hard to imagine now.

But you know what? It's a great venue. Definitely of the so-bad-it's-good variety. It's cheap, it's dodgy, and it was the perfect after work venue for getting a bit trashed and having a good time. There are no pretensions at Charltons.

Gin and Tonics and Thai food on the company budget helped things along too.

Somehow I plucked up the courage to sing two songs all by myself- 'Killing Me Softly' by The Fugees and 'I Say A Little Prayer' by Dionne Warwick.

It was exhilarating. I'm kind of shy, but singing is different to talking. My workmates helped by cheering me on and singing along.

Back in high school I was a big time choir chick. We were quite good actually. We even won an interstate competition once. How Sister Act 2 of us. Except with less dancing. And more white people.

I really love to sing. I was a bit rusty, but I think I pulled it off.

Afterwards I got complemented, which is always nice. An older guy came up to me and said, "Your diction was impeccable, and you didn't drop a note". A couple of other guys said I did a good job, and bought me a couple of drinks.

One of them asked me if I'd like to go for coffee sometime. I declined the offer.

I guess I'm going to have to start saying yes sometime soon though. That's a scary thought.

...

I really like the Karaoke scene in Lost In Translation. That whole movie is so aesthetically appealing.



You know, I think that movie transported Scarlett Johansson from dorky sidekick in Ghost World to Hollywood It Girl in one spectacular butt-shot:




*If you're in Melbourne and would like to go up a lift to a more classy establishment, I highly recommend Madame Brussels. It's like, the anti-Charltons.

School shootings, the 'copycat effect' and gun control

Of the succession of school shootings that have occurred recently, the Amish school shooting where five young girls died was surely one of the most tragic.

For Loren Coleman, author of The Copycat Effect, the Amish shooting was one of a pattern of school shootings where the murderers had been influenced by the media coverage of past shootings. He argues that the media should be more responsible in the way they report these events. For instance, he thinks they should provide contact numbers for helplines alongside news reports, and that the media shouldn't sensationalise the events.

On his website he predicted that the 11th of October was a dangerous "hot window" for more school shootings. He was scarily close- on the 9th a thirteen year old boy would probably have killed classmates if his gun hadn't jammed.

What can be done? The media following Coleman's recommendations for covering these events could help, as could greater gun control.

Greater gun control is hard to achieve in America, however, as their constitution states that individuals have the right to bear arms.

Also, many conservatives such as Elisabeth Hasselbeck defend this right strongly, arguing that perhaps it would have been useful if the Amish schoolteachers had been able to defend themselves with guns(!):



If you don't have time to watch it, this clip shows Rosie O'Donnell and Elisabeth Hasselbeck on The View debating the issue- Rosie argues for more gun control; Elisabeth argues against it on the grounds that many people use guns to defend themselves.

Personally, I'm glad I live in a country that has comparatively strict gun controls in place. I think one of the best things John Howard has done while in power has been taking a strong stance on gun control following the Port Arthur Massacre, passing legislation that "included mandatory gun licenses and registration of all firearms, and a near-complete ban on all semi-automatic rifles and shotguns, and all pump-action shotguns."

I think this had made Australia a safer place.

On the other side, however, gun control alone that will not stop people harming others. Even the Amish culture has its problems. David E. Yoder's comprehensive Amish Abuse website outlines many cases of Amish physical and sexual abuse within the culture. An ex-Amish himself, David outlines the difficulties and frustrations he has with both the Amish and the 'English' as he tries to get justice for a family of children abused by their parents.

I wish that we could eradicate all the bad from the world. That may be an impossible task, but stricter gun control and a more responsible media would be a start.

Update:

I just received an email from Loren Coleman(!), male author of The Copycat Effect.

He notes that: "It is intriguing you should mention the Port Arthur Massacre. The Port Arthur mass shooting was a copycat of the Dunblane, Scotland school shooting."

He wrote a blog about this, "Knockin' On Heaven's Door", which can be found here.

Fashion tip of the week

Ladies, ladies, ladies.

Following a big night out with two lovely girlfriends where much dancing and observing (read: bitching about) what other people were wearing took place, this morning I feel compelled to issue the following advice to certain dedicated followers of fahion out there:

At least six of you were at the Cherry Bar last night, dressed in the exact same outfit, with only the smallest of variations between you. The outfit was this: flat shoes, leggings of various lengths, a printed dress and a waist-belt:



I didn't see any of you wearing a headband, but it wouldn't have surprised me.

I'm all for having fun with fashion. I love all the cute flats that are out at the moment. You've got to make the most of those rare instances when fashion and comfort combine.

But please, please, don't dress in the latest trends from head to toe.

If you must follow the trends, make them work for you. Find that which suits you, and own it. You don't have to blindly follow what Cosmopolitan tells you is cool.

And as for leggings, listen to the Fug girls. They were warning against the trend way back in October 2004:

Here's the thing. Leggings under a dress are never good. Cold legs? Meet tights. Or pants. Or, my personal choice, suffering.

It's not that I don't appreciate, you know, High Fashion. I have a subscription to W, for goodness sake. I just don't think that "edgy" absolutely has to equal "ugly."

I mean....leggings, people. Leggings. We can not go back to a time when it is okay to wear leggings out of the house. I don't even want to go back to time when it is okay to wear leggings inside the house. We decide that leggings under a dress is okay, and it's just one small, slippery step toward leggings on their own, and then leggings paired with a giant tee shirt. A giant tee shirt emblazoned with an iron-on of the Nelson twins. And then, the next thing you know, we're all in algebra class again, and no one wants that.

Fight the leggings, hipsters. Fight them. I know they are comfortable. I know that. But so are tights. And tights don't make you look like you've just escaped from the wardrobe wagon of Just One of the Guys. Please. Stay strong. Stay leggings free.

Words to live by.

Over it, moving on, nothing to see here...

Since you guys seemed to dig the little foray into my post-break-up melancholy, I thought I'd give you an update on the situation.

I'm getting there.

After allowing myself a month to be sad, I'm moving on. Because life is far too short to spend time wallowing over someone who doesn't want to be with you anyway. At least that's what I'm telling myself.

For helping me get through the month, I'd like to thank the good people at Arnotts for making these delicious biscuits:



I also felt a hell of a lot better after reading It's Called a Breakup Because It's Broken: The Smart Girl's Break-Up Buddy



This book made me realise that it's not necessarily all about you, and what you may or may not have done wrong, but rather that something in the relationship wasn't working. There's a lot of common sense advice in there that you sometimes can't see yourself when your emotions are getting in the way.

Regular exercise helps too, as does Swing Dancing, which I've gotten back into. I think I'm getting addicted to it. It's just so much fun.

Now that I'm feeling a bit more together, I'm looking at this experience as a way of thinking about what I really want out of life, and making the necessary changes to get there.

The next big challenge for me is to make it through the next few crucial weeks of uni. I'm trying to buckle down, but I'm sure I'll get around to checking all your blogs at some point. That's what work is for isn't it?