FEAST OR FAMINE

Gunadoo fireworks company, Fireworks Australia, will be going green this year, as it prepares for the New Year's Eve celebrations in Canberra. Fireworks Australia not only offsets its carbon footprint by buying carbon credits, it will similarly offset the emissions from the firework displays. ''Fireworks are not high-carbon products, but everyone wants people to take responsibility for what they're doing so that's what we've done,' said a company representative. The pyrotechnicians behind the two fireworks shows in Canberra are promising quite a spectacle for the Civic Square festivities. The first fireworks display will start at 9 pm to cater to the younger families who might not be awake for the midnight show, both of which will be digitally choreographed to music. The first fireworks display will be a more family-friendly affair, featuring pop songs from artists like Pink, while the second will rock out to songs from bands like Foo Fighters ...

On December 31, 2009, we will have the second full moon in the same month - known as a blue moon. It happens every 41 months or sometimes more or sometimes less. So "once in a blue moon" actually means "once every two-and-a-half years" give or take. The next blue moons until 2020 are: 2012 on August 31 2015 on July 31 2018 on January 31 2020 on October 31

In Uganda, in Kitgum district, the children of the Kitgum Primary School welcomed me with a special dance, normally presented to royalty. Students dressed in cow hide and feathers, and the men drummed while the women blew whistles. This dance lasted about 20 minutes.

The mothers of Atanga Primary School students in Pader District, Uganda greeted me with songs and a welcome dance in October 2009. I was visiting their children, some of which had been removed from exploitative labor and enrolled in school for the first time. The students were working towards their end of year examinations, confident that they would pass because they had been to school "every day" and the "teachers were good." Previously, during the conflict in the region, most teachers were not trusted - they were either corrupt, asking students for money, or worse, expecting sexual favours for good exam results. The government, and time, have gradually implemented policies to reduce corruption and to train teachers on alternative forms of discipline instead of using the cane. Some schools had counsellors with psycho-social training to counsel students and teachers. Parents, especially mothers, were pleased with the different attitude of the teachers - p...

In the AusAID Papua New Guinea and Pacific Region Update held at the Australian National University on 8 December 2009, a discussion ensued about Tongan women and the obstacles still facing them. Tonga is typically a patriarchal society. However, girls are attending school and women are entering the workforce in increasing numbers. Nevertheless there are four fundamental socio-political and legal barriers that women face. (1) Prohibition on land ownership - the Tongan legal system denies women access to land ownership, including hereditary entitlement, tax allotment, and leasehold. The most common route to land ownership for women is to use land belonging to a male relative or to obtain a lease in a male relative's name. (2) Legal barriers - equal rights to inheritance, on divorce or during employment, are not available to Tongan women. There are no affirmative action laws, maternity laws or laws prohibiting sexual discrimination. Hence it is difficult for women to...

On 8 December 2009, the Australian National University's Crawford School of the College of Asia and the Pacific held a Papua New Guinea and the Pacific Region update conference in conjunction with AusAID (the Australian government's overseas aid program). Sharon Bessell, Senior Lecture in the Crawford School at the ANU presented a session entitled "Strengthening Fiji's education system: a view from key stakeholders." She was part of a qualititative study with children and youth in Fiji to determine their views and experiences of education. Two areas were highlighted: (1) corporal punishment; and (2) teachers' professionalism. The study aimed in June 2009 aimed to capture young people's views on education through a Children's Forum on Education in Suva. A recurrent theme was of corporal punishment being used as a routine strategy for classroom management. Children maintained that teachers used corporal punishment because they were not trained ...

The federal environment department of the Australian government propose to remove up to 617 "dangerous" trees from the grounds surrounding parliament house in Canberra. A decision will be made on December 17 regarding the removal of the trees. The department says that the trees need to be removed "for public safety reasons" due to dead branches or "immently dead trees" that may be prone to dropping branches. The spokesperson indicated that the trees would be removed and replaced within the next 12 to 18 months. Arborist Geoff Butler said that the reason for the government proposal to remove the trees was that "we've become a very litiginous society" and the goverment were mitigating any claim for injury or death. He said that the trees were dying due to the drought and severe lack of water. He said that watering the one million public trees in Canberra was not possible. However, the essence of the debate is not whether the tree...

Flinders Center for Science Education in the 21st Century director, Professor Martin Westwell, said science education has become "too narrow" and was "failing to excite students" at the Australian Association for Research in Education conference in Canberra yesterday. He maintained that current science and mathematics curricula narrows students' options for future courses and employment choices. This has led to a 20-year decline in the number of students studying science and mathematics across the globe. However, in Australia there has been a slight increase and the decline may be turning. Westwell thinks this may be due to recent courses in computer graphics and robotics. This will need to be tracked and monitored to ascertain with any certainty. Westwell advocates teaching university undergraduates a more inquiry-based model, but says that currently universities prefer "lots of content." I have a university mathematics degree and a Ma...

David Malouf, prominent Australian author, was in Canberra to bring back the classics. Not the classic novels though. In his lecture, Malouf spoke about his latest novel, Ransom, based on the aftermath of the Trojan War. He was invited to the Australian National University specifically to argue that university students still have much to gain by studying classical Greek and Roman cultures. Speaking at the launch of the new Bachelor of Classical Studies degree at the ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences, Malouf discussed the multidisciplinary approaches of the course and its links to studies in history, language, literature and archaeology.

Since the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2005, families in northern Uganda have been, and continue to be, highly mobile as they move from internally displaced camps back to their homelands. Therefore, tracking and monitoring student beneficiaries of child labour programs that remove children from exploitative labour and place them in relevant education programs has proved to be a challenge. The Livelihoods Education and Protection project funded by the United States Department of Labor implements a two-point strategy to track and monitor students: (1) regular follow-up of all beneficiaries (every six months); and (2) a verification process (every term). The follow-up process checks the progress of each student to ensure that they are receiving education, counseling and support. The verification process involves collecting the list of beneficiaries for each targeted school, then project staff or community mobilizers go class to class to conduct a roll call. Absent student...

In Tanzania on November 2, 2009, the high court sentenced four men to death by hanging for killing a 50-year-old albino man. The man's death was one of a spate of attacks on Tanzania's estimated 200,000 albinos in the past two years. The attacks have occurred in the remote north-west near Lake Victoria. Superstitions are said to have led to the attacks. Albinos, who lack pigment in their skin, eyes and hair, have pallid features and pink irises. Local witch-doctors believe that albinos bring luck in life and business. This has caused the spate of attacks, where people kill their victims and harvest their blood and body parts - hair, genitals and limbs - for potions. A Canadian human rights advocacy group urged the government for a swift decision and for justice for the deaths, as well as an education campaign to put an end to the killings. To date, there have been seven convictions leading to sentencing for murdering albinos.

The United States Department of Labor (USDOL) has devoted over $14.7 million since 1999 to combat child labor in Uganda. USDOL has also contributed over $27.5 million to regional projects in Africa which include Uganda. USDOL funded a $3.6 million 4-year ORACLE project implemented by IRC and AVSI, which ended in August 2007, and withdrew or prevented 5,657 children from exploitive labor in Northern Uganda. USDOL also funded the $3 million ILO-IPEC project, Combating and Preventing HIV/AIDS-induced Child Labor in Sub-Saharan Africa: Pilot Action in Uganda and Zambia, which ended in December 2008. In total across both countries, the project withdrew 2,642 children and prevented an additional 2,072 children from exploitive child labor through the provision of education, 2,942 of them from Uganda. USDOL funded the $14.5 million 4-year Combating Exploitive Child Labor through Education in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, and Ethiopia Together (KURET) project with additional funds by World V...

The United States Department of Labor (USDOL) is currently funding (2007-2011) a child labor project, Livelihoods, Education and Protection to Eliminate Child Labor (LEAP). The LEAP program strengthens existing school and youth clubs in five districts in northern Uganda to train them on child labor, child rights, and child protection issues, and motivate them through music, dance and drama (MDD). I had previously observed school clubs in September 2008 with disappointing results – students were not keen or motivated, they were under pressure from their parents to go straight home from school to help with housework, they were not overtly knowledgeable of child labor issues, were not strong or active in community advocacy and sensitization, and they believed that the clubs would disband after the program funding finished. The LEAP team have learned from these lessons and have re-invigorated the school clubs, to the point where students are keen, motivated, vocal on chi...

South Australia is facing its first ever November heatwave. November is typically springtime and the heat of summer commences from December to February in Australia. Yesterday record November temperatures were reached in most of the state. The hottest city was Ceduna reaching 47 degrees Celsisus, more than 20 degrees above the usual November temperatures. The capital of South Australia recorded 43 degrees. What constitutes a heatwave? It's a number of consecutive days over a high temperature (although the baseline varies). Adelaide has had 13 consecutive days over 33 C before, and 6 consecutive days over 40 C - both of these were in January. Adelaide's previous record heat wave for November was 115 years ago, with four consecutive days of temperatures over 35 C degrees. This year the new record is 13 consecutive days over 35 scorching degrees. Today the rain has arrived breaking the heatwave and bringing cooler temperatures (an estimated 27 degrees).

While undertaking a child labor assessment in Kitgum District, Uganda, the female principal of Palabek Secondary School, Mrs Otwana Severi, presented me with a letter of appreciation. "On behalf of the Board of Governors, the Parent Teacher Association, the teaching and non-teaching staff, the student's body and community of Palabek Secondary School on my behalf, I would like to sincerely express my gratitude and warm welcome to our region. Madam, your choice to pay such a remarkable visit to the school is not only your own interest and decision but it's God's blessing and grace which has propelled you to meet us at this particular moment. Your presence with us now has given us hope and courage despite the 20 years of insurgencies which has caused setbacks in all walks of life more especially psychological torture in which everybody has trauma due to the difficult situation he or she has undergone. Madam, northern Uganda, more especially this particular...

During my child labour assessment in northern Uganda in October, I interviewed girls removed from commercial sexual exploitation and placed in relevant education programs. The International Labour Organization (ILO) in Kampala, Uganda, conducted a study in conjunction with the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development in 2004, entitled "Report on the Sectoral Study of Child Labour and Commercial Sex Exploitation of Children in Uganda." The report estimated that 7,000 to 9,000 children in northern Uganda are involved in commercial sexual exploitation. The figure is likely to be an under-estimate, particularly as it was only undertaken in four districts, and there has not been a follow-up assessment. Of the children interviewed in the study, 91% were females and 9% were males. Almost half of those in the study were orphaned and 65% had either dropped out or never attended school. It also noted that many children were involved in less formal transactiona...