Category: General news

The first ever Indian international Film Festival of Queensland was inaugurated today afternoon at QUT, with Councilor Andrew Wines, Deputy Chairman of the Brisbane Lifestyle Committee, cutting the elegantly decorated cake  amidst a gathering of delegates and Indian movie enthusiasts.

The five day festival is being organized by the Queensland University (QUT) in collaboration with the Queensland government and the Brisbane City Council.

Representing the Brisbane city council and the Queensland government, Councilor Andrew Wines highlighted the council’s commitment to film and India.

“The Indian International film festival of Queensland is important to strengthen the economic bonds between India and the Queensland government,” Councilor Wines said during his inaugural speech.

The festival will be screening a series of selectively chosen independent movies at QUT and Event Cinemas, Myer Centre Elizabeth street.

Chayan Sarkar, the founder and the artistic director of the event, said that the Queensland and Victorian audience are continuing to appreciate independent Indian movies that do not fare commercially well.

“The movies I’ve chosen for the festival are handpicked for their simplicity and meaningful content,” Mr Sarkar said.

” These movies are critically acclaimed films that are not mainstream, but have the capacity to be appreciated beyond India,” he added.

Anne Demy Geroe, an ex Brisbane film festival director, expressed the belief that film festivals such as these exposes of the audience and filmmakers to the wide variety of good quality cinema.

“Many festivals choose the latest films to attract more media attention, but Chayan has chosen good content rather than new content,” she said.

As a part of the ceremony, a young Indian dancer, Tanya Unni, showcased her talent in mohiniyattam, a south Indian dance style, and enthralled the audience by enacting an Indian mythological story through her dance.

After the inauguration, a short film called ‘Dancing in the Rain’ was screened at QUT and the Australian premier for the feature film ‘Manjunath’ was held at Event Cinemas.

‘Dancing in the Rain’ is a modest film which packed a subtle message that ‘the solution for every problem is hidden within the problem itself, all you need is a different outlook’.

Meanwhile ‘Manjunath’ is a true story about an individual’s fight against the oil mafia which continues to plague the country, while conveying that ‘fighting for a cause you truly believe in, is worth dying for’.

For more details about the festival, visit http://www.iiffoq.com/

Public Warning- Richard Kiely and various aliases, the latest being Darren O’Donoghue

This is a warning by the Commissioner of the QBCC to the public under section 20J(1)(h) of the Queensland Building and Construction Commission Act 1991

It is an updated version of warnings issued by the QBCC on 12 February and 7 April 2014.

The Queensland Building and Construction Commission (QBCC) has issued a warning about unlicensed individual Richard Kiel, who has been performing unlawful building work in Brisbane.

QBCC Commissioner, Steve Griffin, said Mr Kiely had been conducting the work in Mitchelton, Everton Park, Kallangur, Albany Creek, Aspley and Chermside.

“Anyone dealing with Mr Kiely should exercise extreme caution and seek legal advice before making any payments, to protect their interests,” Mr Griffin said.

He urged consumers, contractors and suppliers to be cautious in their dealings with Mr Kiely, who is also known as Darren O’Donoghue, Joseph Kiely, John Kiely, Cody Kiely, Darren Kiely, Shane Murphy and Richard Murphy.

Described as being of Irish descent with red hair and about 1.89m tall, he uses local signs and pamphlets dropped in letter boxes to advertise to carry out building work.

Mr Kiely does not hold QBCC licences and is therefore not able to carry out, or enter into contracts to carry out, building work, (including roof restorations such as ridge pointing, tiling and painting), concreting, boulder walls, pergola construction, paving and retaining walls, in Queensland at a value of more than $3,300.

The QBCC has received complaints about Mr Keily relating to unlicensed contracting, no written contracts, excessive deposits, incomplete work, defective work and taking deposits but not returning to complete the work.

Mr Griffin said Mr Kiely changes his mobile phone number on a regular basis so customers are unable to contact him about their complaints of defective and incomplete work.

The QBCC warns that the Queensland Home Warranty Insurance Scheme may not be available to all consumers if unlicensed contractors are engaged.

The QBCC urges homeowners to conduct research before engaging contractors, and to engage a licensed contractor even for small jobs.

If you are in doubt as to whether the entity you are contracting with is licensed or holds the correct licence to do the work, conduct an online licence search at www.qbcc.qld.gov.au or contact the QBCC on 1300 272 272.

Steve Griffin
Commissioner
Queensland Building and Construction Commission

“You’re disrespecting my staff and you’re disrespecting me. Get your stuff and f*** off back over the river where you came from.”

This was how the ‘no-dickheads’ policy was observed at one of West End’s favourite haunts. Bring your friends, enjoy a drink and love the music but leave your attitude on the northside.

Seven years ago Jodi found a small piece of West End that was crying out for love and attention. The former Coronation Hotel is a magnificent example of Brisbane’s colonial architecture from 1891. It was into this space that Jodi brought energy, love, hard work, perseverance and a passion for live music. The welcome mat was laid out in secret little spot on a street called Hope across from a working milk factory. Very West End.

Over the years The Joynt’s small venue hosted many of quirky performance and plenty of rising stars. Jodi’s support of musicians endeared her to many. For a time up-and-coming bands heard of this mystical place called The Joynt where punters were in your lap. If you played with heart and soul then all could have a rocking good time. The place had magic. Many shows felt as if the coolest 50 people in all of Brisbane had found the best venue and the best band for the first time.

Bertie Page and Lena Marlene charted the return of Brisbane’s cabaret from The Joynt. Incredible performers took to the stage, many for the first time, to ply their well-practiced, sometimes earnest, routines on expectant audiences. Bertie’s wit and verve was a perfect compliment to the sweaty rock bands –and she was more than a match for the odd stray yob.

One of my enduring pleasures is sitting out on the Montague Road side with a tallie, listening to the live sounds pouring off the stage while catching a glimpse of a train passing along the bridge between two factories.

That view, The Joynt and the woman that created it are irreplaceable. Thanks Jodi, we’ll see you around.

We all know that innovation is the one sustainable way to build business growth. Competing on price, exploiting staff or resources and cutting corners might gain you short term advantage, but inevitably lead to decline.

Associate Professor of Management at QUT Business School, Professor Paul Steffens, is the guest speaker at the SW Chamber breakfast next Thur 10th July. Head on down to the Robertson Gardens complex on Kessels Rd at 6:45am to hear Professor Steffens discuss methods for diffusing innovation through your organisation as part of a future proofing campaign.

Regulars beware, this is the second Thursday of the month, not the first.

Professor Steffens is also Deputy Director of  The Australian Centre for Entrepreneurship Research (ACE). His core areas of expertise are entrepreneurship and diffusion of innovations. Paul has been a lead investigator for research projects totalling more than AUD 1.5 million and has published over fifty academic publications, including journal articles in leading entrepreneurship, marketing and technology management journals.

Professor Steffens will be discussing entrepreneurship in today’s economy.

Opera Australia released soprano Tamar Iveri, whom were set to perform in its production of Otello, from her contract after homophobic comments were posted on her Facebook page.

Only a few days later Sydney Opera decided to cancel Uthman Badar’s talk, part of their Festival of Dangerous Ideas, titled “Honour killings are morally justified.”

Tamar Iveri blamed the Facebook comment on her deeply religious husband, an excuse that didn’t sit well with the twittersphere. But with Uthman Badar all it took was a title that was a bit too unsavoury for the hive mind to cast its judgement and have their demands enacted.

On the surface of both these events it’s easy to cheer and claim that democracy works. Not to mention that we’ve finally, within a weeks time, observed that slacktivism can actually do more than create awareness.

A few months ago I wrote about Earth Hour and slacktivism, how it without a doubt creates great awareness, but nothing more. We still debate about climate change and how to tackle it — without actually tackling it as aggressively as we should.

This is the issue with slacktivism. That it can easily create a lot of noise, but sometimes that is only what it creates. A week later that noise and anger disappears, as if it never happened, because that week (later) it might be something else to slacktivate against.

Even academics seem to not fully agree if it’s helpful or not. As it usually focuses too much on the awareness factor. If it creates a lot of awareness, then it’s good, right? Not really. Because at the end of the day what truly makes a difference is action coupled with awareness.

With Tamar Iveri’s case it’s difficult to argue against slacktivism and Opera Australia’s reaction. Her excuse is similar to the good old dog ate my homework.

It’s Uthman Badar’s cancelation by Sydney Opera that is a bit more unsettling. Succinctly summed up in a tweet by St James Ethics Centre Executive Director Dr Simon Longstaff, “The session to explore ‘honour killing’ has been cancelled. Alas, people read the session title – and no further. Just too dangerous.”

No doubt the title and topic is too dangerous, as it’s a cultural idea that is not applicable to, nor acceptable by, western culture.

Therein lies the issue. If it’s not applicable to, nor acceptable by, western culture, it should be condemned — silenced if you will.

With that said, this condemnation— silencing —does not exclusively happen to non-western ideas by westerners. We allow it to happen to western ideas too. But that is easier to mask. As the reaction is us against us— democracy at work —instead of something that is a bit more easier to spot, us against them.

Such as the failed War on Drugs. Governments still claim that the War on Drugs is successful. So when they manage to silence those who want change and have an open debate about drug laws it’s viewed as democracy at work and staying true to the status quo. But discussing if we should allow employees wear a hijab at work, that turns into a us against them situation. Where it’s suggested there is no need to discuss it, because wearing a hijab is not applicable to, nor acceptable by, western culture — demanding people to reject their own culture and heritage (luckily we in the west are becoming more accepting of the hijab).

Sometimes we need to hear those dangerous ideas to make sense of them. To understand where they are coming from. Why they exist and how they came to be. That of course doesn’t mean we have to accept them. In the same way the court of law works, where judge and jury needs to hear both sides before they make up their mind and decide on a ruling.

Not accepting an idea does not mean to completely reject it. As in the court of law, we should at least lend it our ears first, not prejudge it because we’ve already decided it’s not compatible with our bias.

Which I witnessed on Twitter yesterday. Slacktivists banding together for the sake of, banding together. Already making up their minds, that they do not want to hear what Uthman Badar has to say. Unwilling to hear what lies beneath the controversial title of his talk. Would he actually advocate for or against honour killing?

This is the core issue with liberalists and libertarians. They talk big about individual freedom and freedom of speech. But at the end of the day, it’s all about providing those liberties to those who act like and think like them. If you do not, you do not deserve the right to enjoy individual freedom, nor freedom of speech.

I do not condone honour killing, but I would lend Uthman Badar my ear. As the old saying goes, “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”

Featured photo by: Ally Aubry

The second “Global Day of Action” is happening throughout major cities around the world tomorrow, but not in Brisbane.

Thursday 26 June is UN International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking and UN International Day in Support of Victims of Torture.

It is also the day for the ‘Support. Don’t punish.’ campaign — A “Global Day of Action.”

On the “Global Day of Action” the ‘Support. Don’t punish.’ campaign will highlight how the War on Drugs negatively affect people who use drugs.

Below is a video of what the campaign accomplished last year.

“During 2012 to 2013, 7,037 Victorians had a recorded offence for cannabis possession,” says Australian Sex Party president Fiona Patten in a media release.

“There are 4,915 Victorians with a recorded offence for possessing an amphetamine-type stimulant, including the relatively harmless popular party drug, MDMA. The vast majority of these will be non-problematic pot smokers and party goers who shouldn’t be punished for using their drug of choice. And for those who do have a problem, the police should be the last people sent in to assist.”

Fore more info about Support. Don’t punish. Visit their website: http://supportdontpunish.org/day-of-action–2014/

If you do know about a Brisbane event, let us know below in a comment.