Tomorrow is the Centenary of the Teachers Federation where I work; we’ve unearthed a tremendous amount of material from the past century. Here is an interview I edited recently of an interview with Beatrice Taylor; she began her teaching career in 1911. She talks about the early days of teaching and how the conditions evolved over time. My grandmother (also Beatrice) wanted to be a teacher. I rather imagined her when working through this recording.
Billy Bragg at NSWTF
Billy Bragg stopped by my work today to speak to our monthly council; I recorded some audio and video of him. He gave a very compelling speech about the importance of education in his life and for society. He also noted the importance of respect and civility online. You can listen to this and him singing a couple songs for us in the player below.
Passive Voice, Active Voice
I’m considering my voice—not my physical voice, but my ability to speak out to others and what means I have at hand to do so. I am, by nature, a quiet person and usually reluctant to speak or intervene. This might not readily change; I don’t think I’ll ever be the ‘in your face’ contender out on the frontline. But I do need to understand the bounds and abilities of my voice and use it wisely.
Last week I read several news articles relating to weapons, war, video games (playing at war) and the general glorification of violence as a social norm. I think we need to pause for consideration when a new battle simulation video game garners nearly $800 million in its first two days of sale in a time when there is such a need for the ending of wars and fostering peace. I know video games are the easy end of the spectrum to speak about, ‘oh, you know what happens when kids play those violent video games’. I’m not sure I do; but, regardless of what the games in themselves encourage in people’s minds, I do know that ‘actual war’ is increasingly engaged through the medium of a computer screen rather than in person. There are still troops on the ground facing real risk; but the movement is toward a sterile press the button and the figures on the screen are dead warfare. One of the other articles I read last week was about a new cruise missile in the US that can be launched from the States and basically target anything in the world within an hour. Soon, like an online multiplayer game, our wars may be fought by telecommuters at home in their socks.
Which brings me back to voice; I am, at this very moment, sitting at home in my socks. What havoc for peace might I bring from here? What is the balance of what I can and can’t do with these tools at hand? I don’t want that to sound like dithering as I am actually aware of what can be accomplished. It’s more a question of what is the next action and then the next. I know that, in the face of these conflicts we hear about abroad (and at home), that one voice may seem moot. But this is no reason or excuse not to speak (that’s been said over and again—one voice does make a difference when raised up in a chorus of others). I stood and spoke at Meeting on Sunday saying, It is neither weapons nor the glorification of violence that are evil’s most potent tools; war is best served by the apathy of those who do nothing to speak against it. That is the crux of it, if nothing else it is put upon me to speak what I may in the way open to me.
I interviewed John Michaelis, the editor of Quaker Voice on Wednesday at the Devonshire Street Meeting House here in Surry Hills. Quaker Voice will be (it’s still in the works) an online forum for ‘Quakers and likeminded people’ around the world to speak out and discern social issues where they are. It will be a conversation where that first person voice of real people on the ground is shared with others of concern (rather the opposite of digitally mediated warfare). I’ve just edited the interview with John and you can listen here:
New Soundcloud account
This is something I’ve been meaning to do for some time! I’ve set up a Soundcloud account to host my podcasts rather than just posting them directly on my weblog as .mp3 files. This will allow much easier linking and put them out in a more visible space. I’ve posted the first interview, a discussion with John Michaelis on the Online Australian Friend (OLAF).
Online Australian Friend Interview by quietamerican
Leah Samuelson Interview
Here is a twenty minute interview with mural artist Leah Samuelson from last Spring’s BuildaBridge Institute. We spoke about her teaching methodology and how she approaches a community about the process of mural making. Her work has brought her to ‘visionaries, personnel of biblical training institutions, schools, correctional facilities, slums, and palaces.’
Jim Borling Interview
I’m starting to post some podcasts from this year’s BuildaBridge Institute. Here is a ten minute interview with art therapist Jim Borling.
Women at a BIRDS community immunisation clinic
Interview with Paul Raja Rao
Katherine and I visited the Bharti Integrated Rural Development Society about six hours by car outside Hyderabad (unlike much of India, there is no train service) in rural Andhra Pradesh. BIRDS addresses a host of needs in the area from health to water management to micro-finance loans.
I interviewed Paul Raja Rao, the director of BIRDS, one night on the veranda of their organic farm (they are attempting to re-introduce organic agriculture into an area mostly given over to chemical based farming).
Interview with Katherine Welch
Here is a rough cut of my interview with Dr. Katherine Welch who I was travelling with in India (this is a 26 minute long-form cut of what will become 10 minute piece). She speaks concerning her work internationally on the health needs of trafficked or prostituted women and their children.
See more about Katherine’s organisation Global Health Promise
McIntosh at the Big Tent Festival
This is a lecture presented to a packed out audience (at the Big Tent Festival) by Alastair McIntosh on his new book Hell and High Water: Climate Change, Hope and the Human Condition. It’s published by Birlinn Press and can be ordered from their website or Amazon. I’m reading the book right now and will comment after finishing it; Alastair introduces the book and provides some context for the writing of it. It’s worth listening all the way through the end questions; his last comment is simultaneously inspirational and haunting.
Listen to the MP3 here—it’s about 40MB but should open in your browser.
Sorry for the slightly dodgy audio quality; I was tied into a PA system and the line feed was a bit overmodulated at times.
Several months ago, Alastair presented a similar lecture at the Centre for Human Ecology AGM; I recorded it and you can listen to the MP3 here.