The 2nd and 3rd installments of the Baillieu Trilogy Stop Motion Films

As the Baillieu government in Victoria continues to violently rip cash out of absolutely everything that isn't bolted to the ground..including things that are bolted to the ground, I felt it only necessary to make some more stop motion films about Victoria's unpopular Premier.


"Ted Baillieu Visits Mildura #2"


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tK0Es_giAfE

and

"Ted Baillieu, Peter Crisp and Wendy Lovell talk about the Victorian State budget."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoLv93NRp2g&feature=youtu.be

Enjoyski. :-)

J

Politicking in Mildura and my latest stop motion "Ted Baillieu goes to Mildura"

The rural city I come from is unlike other in country Victoria. It comes with its fair share of socio-economic problems and it is these problems that usually overshadow any of the towns redeeming qualities.  It is also remote and feels more South Australian than Victorian. During my years in high school Mildura was named the teenage pregnancy capital of Victoria.  –Albeit by Today Tonight. (It was later confirmed by reliable sources though.) Finally our city, which has a bit of an inferiority complex was on the map, but for the wrong reasons. Like any other conservative rural city, our leaders pretended everything was fine and chose to be in denial about this issue.

This apathy shown by the community’s leaders is something that has always really incensed me. Adopting the ‘she’ll be right mate’ strategy to local leadership and politics has led to securing Mildura’s title as not only the teenage pregnancy capital, but the state leaders in a range of other unfortunate social problems. We became the obesity capital, a region of high unemployment, high levels of domestic violence and the lowest levels of educational attainment in the state, just to name a few.

An unwillingness from our local politicians to show any backbone and ‘name’ our problems and fight for state and federal funding for services to address the issues, along with funding for improved infrastructure such as the return of passenger rail and quality health services says quite a lot about these people who claim to represent the Mildura constituency.  It suggests that they simply don’t care about the community and / or that we should aim low.  It also exacerbates a problem the town has had for years; retaining young educated and visionary people. I grew up with some very smart people who have gone on to work in high profile arts careers, journalism, influential political jobs and other successful careers, but unfortunately not many of these careers have allowed these people to return to Mildura.

The brutal truth is, young people who are smart and driven enough to seek further education and meaningful careers are not the ones who opt to stay in or return to Mildura, thus increasing the gap in terms of Social Problems. I simply don’t think this is fair or in way good enough. I think Universities who claim to be invested in rural communities need to take some responsibility for this issue too, but that’s another story!

I am now four years into a Social Work degree and have been reflecting on my educational journey to this point.  I have realised that my passion is politics and without even knowing it, my upbringing in a town which many describe as “shit” (to put it bluntly) has actually been the catalyst for both my choice to start a Social Work degree and my interest in politics. Two things both underpinned - for me at least- by Social Justice and Human Rights.  Values I may not have possessed if I grew up in Toorak.

In terms of social working and politicking there are always disadvantaged and marginalised groups in any town or city who need representation and advocacy. However, what excites me about being involved with politics in the Mildura and Mallee electorates is strangely what I don’t like about Mildura.  Due to the abovementioned ineffective leadership, mainly at the hands of Member for Mallee John Forrest who has held the safest Federal seat for almost 20 years and also our state MP Peter Crisp, Mildura and the Mallee are now so far behind the eight ball that it in an obscure way it presents itself like a blank canvas for someone like me who possesses the passion and values that I do and wants to advocate for change.

We can visit places like Mildura (or Dubbo, Swan Hill, Wodonga, Kangaroo Flat et al) and screw up our noses at the ‘bogans’, but to me this is equally as offensive as judging Aboriginal people, gay and lesbian people, people with disabilities or migrant communities as we are assuming that these people are on an equitable playing field to people who live in Kooyong, Potts Point or Carlton, which is really not the case.  (This is not to say that I have not been guilty of said judgement in the past)

To me, marginalised groups, whether they are marginalised on the basis of sexuality, race or geographic location, such is the case of Mildura; don’t find themselves in this position for no reason.  They have all been let down by those who purport to represent them yet these people are concurrently expected to excel even though not been given the tools and infrastructure to do so. For example, if you grow up in a region where education is not embraced let alone widely offered, the incentive to achieve is often going to be minimal if not non-existent. It becomes the dominant discourse. Things like teenage pregnancy become normalised.

I am at a point where I feel that with the support of other like minded people such as my local ALP comrades we are in a place where we can reclaim regions like the Mallee and empower the community to move away from the conservative apathetic political platform which has historically done the city no favours. Not just for low and middle class white Australians who chose or have to live there, but for the growing refugee population, the emerging and non-represented gay community and also for our incredibly disempowered and large Indigenous community.

My latest video speaks volumes of my want for Mildura to reject being a safe seat:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7jYccOBm5Y

Greetings again,
I notice my last link did NOT actually work.
Ichy the cat has a little habbit (now under the control of worming medication) of scooting across the carpet. Nice, get out the Capet Power ASAP.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cQO17zvyVU&feature=youtu.be

Ichy the cat makes his debut

Hello blog follower peoples,
Ichy the cat has been doing some scooting, which will all be revealled in this video.
Remember to get your cats wormed or else...well... this happens.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cQO17zvyVU&feature=youtu.be

Jodi Foster prepares for her new role as a bug, Jesus on the search for narcotics for his wind up lady friend and an annoying hipster....it's all in a days work at 'The Shoppe."




My new video and the 'Mind The Formica' YouTube channel can be found here.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udW_E7OyVPM

Enough with words at this stage. Here is the first and rather basic stop motion animation I have just done. More to come. 

Postcard from Castlemaine.

Firstly, apologies for being MIA in the Formica Minding blogosphere of late. It sure has been a busy few months.

It is currently about five thousand degrees outside (and people say climate change isn’t real!) and I have just moved into a house that is not located in the city or the metropolitan area at all.  Greetings from Castlemaine.

Apparently if one moves to Castlemaine as my partner and I have just done, we are living a cliché dream, which did worry me at first. Would I be coerced into fire twirling lessons and begin to dress in clothes made purely out of hemp? I then realised though that most of the negative commentary comes from people who are living in converted warehouse spaces in Fitzroy and comment that the area in which they live is “great because it hasn’t been gentrified yet.” Pffft and I’m the second coming of Jesus Christ!

Cliché or not cliché, what I can tell you is that I have no regrets so far about trading a life of smog, rude people and getting to know strangers on a packed tram intimately through no choice of your own, for stars and fresh air.

As the year gets into full swing and I begin to juggle study, work and other commitments which shall present themselves, I am sure the sense of total relaxation I feel at the moment will be tainted slightly, but I have a feeling that life in the country will enable me to say goodbye to the highly strung city version of myself and appreciate the little stuff around me without risking a heart attack.

Wish you were here,

Heart,

Jimi D 

Why Universities operating like big businesses ruined my romanticised image of what Uni would be like

Sometimes I wish I could go back in time, not even particularly that far back, to compare what attending University looked like, in comparison to what it is today.

I am the first one to admit, I have had nil interest in University life in the three years I have been a student. Socialist Alliance rallies, music festivals with deafening music and drinking to the point of spewing down a college corridor whilst partly naked and sporting a G-string on my head never rated highly. What could possibly be enjoyable about drinking on a couch at the Uni Bar, where all sorts of unsavoury body fluids could be easily identified by a blue light?

No, I’m just talking about the basic, boring actual content and quality of what is being taught and discussed in lecture theatres and tutorial rooms around the country.

Perhaps I had a completely romanticised view of what a tertiary education would be like, but I for one, cannot help but feel like a part of a giant corporate money making machine, whose primary objective is to ‘churn us through,’ rather than teach us how to think and encourage personal growth.

The course I am enrolled in was offered for the very firs time the year I began University. Instead of completing an arts degree then another degree or masters in the discipline of Social Work, I will graduate with a Bachelor and Masters all within 4 years and without actually having to really earn a place in my final year which I am set to embark on in a few months time.

As much as the title of my degree and masters will probably look quite nice on my resume, I cannot help but feel as though we are cheapening the meaning of a Masters and that any future employers expectations of me maybe far too high.  More importantly, I cannot help but feel I am a little sheep being churned through a system. ‘Bums on seats’ is how I see it.

The delivery of much of the program is mechanical and doesn’t teach people to think critically and analytically and also contains (at least to this point) zero in the way of politics and advocacy, which I would argue are very important components to the Social Work profession.  I see many young, compliant people undertaking my course and this worries me.

After recently attending a number of seminars at a rural campus of my University whilst completing a Field Placement in that same town, I was inspired to hear lecturers actually discussing the importance of advocating for political change in the region as a major component to Social Work.  Three years of university in Melbourne and political advocacy had never been mentioned? Strange.

With one year of University to go, I am finding the mechanics and conservatism of University quite stifling and wonder what the experience of other disciplines even generalist degrees like Arts must be like?  What sorts of Human Services employment will those who do not think analytically or critically end up in? I worry that the compliance taught by University will set many of my fellow students up for a career of compliance whereby systems (particularly government funded systems) will never change thereby letting down our clients- some of the most vulnerable people in our society.

Although I have no desire to revert back to the 60’s and smoke giant joints on the University grasslands whilst burning my non-existent bra, I really hope that our Universities can somehow balance the need to be viable businesses and still somehow teach students how to think and not what to think, once more.