University, where free thought is discouraged.

One thing I've noticed about this university is that students are not encouraged to think freely about issues. As one teacher put it "everything you are going to think, has already been thought by someone else therefore everything must be referenced". It is an odd thought, but one that has been reinforced throughout my time at uni and not just in regards to referencing. The rebellious side of university life has gone. It is discouraged to be different. Change is now brought about by someone else, the student body only looks on. There are no campus groups promoting activism or even extra cirricular activities. You only come to uni to study, nothing more. How things change.

How do you see it?

I had a call from a one of my old work colleagues the other day. It was quite out of the blue but I was asked if I'd speak to someone from the Anti-discrimination commission about how he was treated at his last job. I said yes naively wondering what they were investigating. I was quite amazed to find out as you can imagine, that they were actually investigating a clam from this colleague regarding different treatment due to race. It was even more shocking as I thought he understood the real reason.

Before I go on though I should explain. This story is all about bush travel. My former colleague wanted to go out bush more than he did. It's true that among all the people in the office he got to go out the least, but did occasionally (very occasionally) get to go out. The reason that he wasn't allowed to go out as much as he would have liked was more to do with his attitude than race. The guy in question is quite black and white when it comes to doing his job. This is an asset is some ways but not in others. When someone goes out into the bush it is all about building a strong working relationship with the people out there. When he went out to a community I heard that he was very forceful and unmoving when it came to his job. Nothing happens quickly in the bush and you can't go out and treat them the same way as you would for the people in town, you have to work with them.

That's why when I spoke to the person from the anti-discrimination commission I told them exactly that. By old boss never in the 3 years I was out there showed any racism to him or anyone in the office. It was the bosses job to make that call whether it is a popular one or not. It was her job to make the call that was right and for the good of the whole program. I think she made the right call. That's why I could in no way shape or form support a claim of racism against my former boss. It just didn't happen.

I'm also amazed that my former colleague automatically jumped to the conclusion that it was because of his origins and not because of his conduct. Maybe he knew, maybe he didn't, maybe he knew the reason but didn't believe it could be true. I just don't know. Either way the claim of racism, in my opinion was not even remotely true.

Thanks Ipek!

I've just spoken to Ipek and I am now the proud owner of a Distinction in Microbiology. My grade was upgraded after I spoke to the teacher and pleaded my case. Apparently I was only 3 points short of a Distinction when my original mark of a Credit came out. Ipek (the micro teacher) had another look over my lab report and gave me an additional 3 points to scrape me in to a Distincion. Not bad! Of course, I only got 58 out of 100 for the final exam so that was a bit of a shocker, but up until then I was doing well.

Environmental Health Weekend

As part of my Environment and Health degree I have to take part in a weekend course observing various businesses and looking for environmental health issues. This weekend the course was run for the first time. Basically it involved heading around to certain manufacturing businesses and having a tour of the facility. We were based out at Imbil which is a little town about 75km from Mooloolaba and drove out there Friday afternoon. I had to skip my final lecture of the day, Health Promotion Foundations, but I wasn't too annoyed. I drove out to Imbil with a friend, and stopped at the Railway Hotel for a few drinks while we waited for the rest of the group to arrive. They were at the campsite setting up. There wasn't much to set up as everyone had cabins so we were surprised when they arrived about an hour later but not surprised that they too had stopped for a few drinks. Imbil is a nice little town on the Yabba Creek. Its your typical rural town. Nice and friendly. We had dinner at the pub (roast night!) before returning to the campsite. We had a capin that was quite spacious. After a few more drinks with some of the others in the group I climbed up into the top bunk and was fast asleep in no time.

The next day was a busy one. We first drove back down to Yandina to visit the Buderim Ginger Factory. We took a factory tour by one of the food safety engineers who showed us around the site and told us how their products were made and what went into them. After that we went back up through Malleny to Mary Cairncross Park were we went for a walk in the remnant rainforest. After that we had a tour of the Malleny Dairy. That was pretty interesting. We were given a talk on how their milk was produced and what they do with all the calves that are born. We were allowed to go into the dairy and see them milking the cows and goats and then shown how they process the milk (homogonisation and pasturisation) before loading it on trucks to be sent off to the shops. The best part was the taste testing. We tasted their milks, flavoured milks and yoghurts that they make on the farm.

When we arrived back at camp that night we all sat around the fire having a few beers while we listened one of the local animal management officers talk about the tracking, capture and problems of the feral vertabrate animals in the area.

The next day was probably the highlight of the weekend. We were given a talk by a man called Steve about the proposed Traveston Crossing Dam that the current Bligh government was trying so hard to push. After speaking to him and looking at the site myself it seems like a ridicculous proposal to build a dam there. Not only would they be destroying kilometres of endangered native riparian ecosystems, the site is all wrong for building a dam. The rock under the proposed dam is fractured. This would have to be filled drilled and filled with concreted. First however they would have to dig down 46 metres through sand to get to that rock. If it is build it the dam resivour would have an average depth of 5 metres and cover several small towns in the area. What's more is that the water source would not even be able to provide enough water and act as the back up to Brisbanes three main dams. The Wivenhoe system has a water suppy of about 4 years while if a dam was built in the Mary Valley it would be empty in a year and a half. Not much of a back up. I could of course go one about many other reasons why building a dam there is just stupid but I won't. All I can say though is that it was a facinating talk. I did some further research on some of the figures presented and found that even the governments own initial papers regarding the dam say that it is a poor choice. It now looks like it was just a political promise to the people of Brisbane to win an election. The government just needed to look like they were doing something about the water issues in South-East Queensland.