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...