Archive for May, 2007
Tuesday, May 29th, 2007
Arthur or Martha
I’ve closed comments on this post due to massive amounts of spam. If you have any more etymological information to add, please email me and I’ll be grateful. I was just reading an article on the Herald website about the government’s spending some $23 million on an advertising campaign about climate change and it included [...]
10 Comments » - Posted in Linguistics by jangari
Friday, May 25th, 2007
More blackmail from Brough
I awoke this morning to find that the old debate about the roles of indigenous language and English in Aboriginal Australia had crept back into the news. Except this time, the debate is getting considerably more polemic. Aboriginal Affairs Minister Mal Brough has called for aboriginal children to be forced to learn English. He proposes [...]
14 Comments » - Posted in Indigenous,Linguistics,Philosophy,Politics by jangari
Thursday, May 24th, 2007
Unreasonable conditions on funding
For the last few weeks the issue of the federal government’s plan to conditionally fund aboriginal housing has dominated the news (well, the news from the reputable and comprehensive ABC at least). Their plan (as far as the current situation in Alice Springs is concerned) appears to be this: The government has $60 million earmarked [...]
4 Comments » - Posted in Indigenous,Politics by jangari
Wednesday, May 23rd, 2007
Howard, A Whorfian?
I meant to write about this when it happened rather than over a week later, but it slipped my mind. It falls very neatly under one of the various foci of this blog, the language of politics, and therefore I should have pounced on it earlier. Anyway: The Howard government has just launched a new [...]
3 Comments » - Posted in Linguistics,Politics by jangari
Saturday, May 19th, 2007
I Hear the Rain
If I was even slightly superstitious, any mention of drought-breaking rainfall predictions I’d avoid like the plague. But in all honesty, it’s difficult not to get excited when you see articles like this, which go as far as to predict a La Niña effect to start later this year. I hope the Southern Oscillation Index [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Environment by jangari
Friday, May 18th, 2007
"Mister PM" and other parliamentary titles
While browsing a few of my more regular news websites, I came across this article on the BBC World News site, about Zimbabwe, Mugabe and Howard, who is being accused by Mugabe of financially supporting ‘terrorism’. Aside from any political discussions about the issue of terrorism, Zimbabwe and Mugabe (it’s tempting, but I may leave [...]
5 Comments » - Posted in Linguistics,Politics by jangari
Tuesday, May 15th, 2007
Pre-Colonial Writing?
Taken directly from Column 8 today (15/5): “Sir,” writes Timothy Sparks, of Cudal, which is always a promising start, “I grew up in Talgarra Place, Beacon Hill, and when the street sign was replaced with a nice new one, reading ‘Talgara Pl’, a neighbour reported this spelling error to Warringah Shire Council, only to be [...]
6 Comments » - Posted in Nothing in particular by jangari
Thursday, May 10th, 2007
The ‘Endowment Fund’ – A letter to the Herald
Posted to the Herald’s letters page on Thursday. ~ Thursday’s editorial on the budget and tertiary education overlooked a serious point. The estimated $304 million annual harvest will be divided up among the universities at the government’s discretion. Under past Ministers such as Nelson and Kemp, funding for tertiary programs have gradually moved from quality [...]
6 Comments » - Posted in Environment,Indigenous,Linguistics by jangari
Tuesday, May 8th, 2007
The Budget and Language (updated)
Tonight is Federal Budget night in Australia, and as expected “mums and dads” around the country will be better off (but not my mum and dad, I can assure you). There have also been leaks from Canberra that several other areas will enjoy increased funding in the coming financial year. One commentator this morning claimed [...]
11 Comments » - Posted in Environment,Indigenous,Linguistics,Politics by jangari
Friday, May 4th, 2007
McArthur River Bill Passes 17 to 5 (Updated)
There’s been a further development to the saga of Xstrata and the McArthur River, which I wrote about earlier in the week. I missed this when it came out last night, but Clare Martin’s legislation, which prevents traditional owners from launching legal action to stop Xstrata from diverting the river and basically digging the world’s [...]
