Author: DokterW

All I can say is that Oz Comic-Con 2014 in Brisbane was amazeballs! To be honest, it was the first time in my life I’ve ever been to a convention focused on comic books, sci-fi, fantasy and everything nerdy. Which now means I need to rethink my budget so I can factor in the expenses to visit the next one — where ever and whenever that will be, year after year.

To see all the cosplayers is really a great experience. The amount of time some have spent to look like their favourite characters is unfathomable — at least to me. When you’re not sure if they are the real deal or a very devoted fan, you know they’ve gone that extra mile to make their costume look absolutely awesome!

What attracts a lot of people isn’t just the cosplayers and the amazing merchandise you can buy there. It’s where you can have the chance to meet some of your favourite actors. Have them sign a photograph while you exchange a few words with them, maybe even have your photo taken with them. Then sit in at one of their panels where you might be lucky enough to ask them a question or two.

Earlier this week I had the amazing opportunity to speak with Chris Judge. An absolutely awesome experience. Talking with a famous actor that is able to show he is a very grounded person, and not that different from you and I, is amazing and inspiring.

Of course, it’s when they get on that stage, start answering questions from fans and interact with them, you truly see who they are as a person. Again, just amazing.

Chris Judge had two panels that were open for everyone, one on Saturday and one on Sunday. I ended up going to both. That’s how much I enjoyed hearing Chris Judge talk about is experience playing Teal’c in Stargate SG1 and all the crazy stuff he got up to on set.

His reputation for pulling pranks was so bad that he got blamed for anything that went wrong on set.

“If it rained I got blamed for it.”

He was also infamous for duct taping people to things around the set as prank. But what made the crowd roar with laughter was the stories about the farting contests they had on the Stargate SG1 set.

“[One time] I let one go [and] it was great. [We] had to stop shooting for 40 minutes.”

Chris Judge didn’t only tell stories about his antics on set. He also told about how much he appreciate his fans and that it’s thanks to their devotion to the show that made it so successful.

Then to see William Shatner later on stage was almost unfathomable, as he is an actor I’ve grown up with as a kid. Not only knowing him from Star Trek, but from The Twilight Zone and Boston Legal, to name a few.

Hearing him talk about how Star Trek has inspired so many people’s lives was really great. Especially how the moon landing in 1969 increased the ratings of Star Trek, which in turn sparked a greater interest in space exploration. Making us realise that TV shows don’t only entertain, but also educate and inspire us.

Which is especially what the Star Trek franchise has been best known for, dramatising what we humans are doing on this planet to each other. Juxtaposing things we should be able to be with out, such as racism.

To experience something like this, as in, being in the same room as someone you’ve only seen on TV is not part of my daily life. As far as I know, this might be the first and last time I ever get the chance to meet Chris Judge and William Shatner. Which is why I decided to grab the opportunity to say hi, in person, and get a signed photograph from them both.

Money well spent if you ask me. As I will now enjoy having the memorabilia to remind me having met these two amazing actors.

Too often the media focus only on the fame that surrounds these actors. What we forget, which they discussed in both their panels, and I’ve mentioned earlier, is how their shows have had a huge, personal impact on people’s lives — sometimes even politics. Which is something we need to keep in mind, that they sure earn a good living doing what they love, but they also touch a lot of hearts with what they do.

As mentioned, they don’t only entertain us, they also inspire us to become better persons.

Westender had the exclusive opportunity to speak with one of the Oz Comic-Con’s guests this morning, Christopher Judge, the actor who played Teal’c in the Stargate TV series.

Judge told us that he is really excited about meeting his Australian fans, as he finds them to be well mannered and amaze him with their enthusiasm with the Stargate franchise.

“The fans supported us for so long, that I really take it very personally being able to … shake hands, hug [them] and say ‘thank you’ to just as many fans as I can.”

Even though the show ended a few years ago Judge has noticed the popularity of Stargate continues to grow. Something he attributes to those who grew up watching Stargate as teens.

“I think a lot of people were in their teens have now their own children [whom they are] introducing to the show — which is fantastic.

“That was one of the things I loved about the show in the first place, that it was one of the few shows that families could get together and watch as a single unit.

“There still isn’t that many shows you can do that.”

The success of Stargate, from the start, can easily be attributed to the timing of it’s release Judge explains.

“When we started in 1997 there were kind of a vacuum, as far as sci-fi shows go. The Star Trek franchise was winding down, and this was before the big comic book and fantasy movie boom.

“And we had MacGyver (Richard Dean Anderson) — sci-fi plus MacGyver, we were going to get a few eyeballs.

“What sustained it, and grew it, was the team of characters and that you could tell that the characters really cared about each other.”

He adds that it was also the humour that made Stargate so unique.

“No matter how dire the circumstance, there was still a laugh to be had somewhere.”

Judge says that sci-fi is “a great form for allegory to a lot of stuff that is going on in the world today.”

“You can play out these different social and economic problems we are going through without hitting people over the head with it.

“You can either watch it as pure entertainment, or you can make those ties to what is going on [around us].

“People are looking to escape at night, not to be overwhelmed by doom-and-gloom type shows.”

When asking Judge what he enjoyed the most when playing Teal’c, he says it was because the character was so straightforward.

“There was no halfway.

“He had this kind of child-like innocence about him.

“Teal’c was the big tough-guy, but he had a huge heart. And I think a lot of fans could sense that.

“I’m especially proud how he resonated with kids.”

Judge also finds Teal’c’s moments of naiveté to be memorable.

“[Like] when he tried to express feelings to some of the other characters, and not quite know the correct verbiage.”

Not forgetting “when he was wearing these wild, silly shirts.” That is something Judge still laughs about today.

Judge makes a point that he admires smart sci-fi and its audience.

“What I love about sci-fi [is that] I truly believe that the sci-fi audience is the smartest of all the genre audiences.

“They can smell a rat — they can smell when you’re not truly invested in it.

“For sci-fi the bar is higher. That’s one of the great things about it I think.

“Good sci-fi will never pander to it’s audience, because it doesn’t have to.”

As a final note, “I hope everyone will come [to Oz Comic-Con] as I’m looking forward to meeting as many people as I can, but for those of you who can’t, I just really want to say thank you for these 17 odd years of support and love.”

What: Oz Comic-Con — www.ozcomiccon.com
When: Sept 6th — 7th, 2014 / 9 am to 6 pm
Where: Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre

Brisbane’s sizeable cycling community is being challenged to hop on their bikes and support the fifth annual Ride for Life Challenge on Sunday 12 October 2014.

Riders will also get the chance to rub shoulders with Tour de France great and Ride for Life ambassador, Robbie McEwen, who will be whizzing through the packs offering invaluable tips and tricks.

The Ride for Life Challenge this year will support Guide Dogs Queensland and the Children’s Hospital Foundation.

Registrations are open and limited to 1000, visit rideforlifechallenge.com.au for more information.

The $99 registration fee includes a charitable donation and a free 2014 Ride for Life jersey.

The ride includes full support – a police escort, a rest stop with refreshments, course Cycle Guides, first aid, mechanical support and support vehicles, a post-ride breakfast and an exclusive after-party at Byblos Bar + Restaurant.

Corporate groups, local teams and individuals are encouraged to register for the non- competitive social ride around Brisbane, and spectators are encouraged to attend to cheer on the riders.

Where: Starting and finishing at Hamilton’s Northshore Riverside Park
When: Sunday 12 October 2014

Red Bull Flying Bach returns to Australia and will be back in New South Wales and Victoria, and debuting in Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia in September and October.

Best explained as classical music meets urban dance moves. Breakdancing choreographed to Bach’s composition of the ‘Well-Tempered Calvier’, which dates back to 1722.

Watch the videos below to see what Red Bull Flying Bach is all about.

Red Bull Flying Bach 2014 will be showing at QPAC in Brisbane September 24-26.

Westender’s Red Bull Flying Bach 2014 Contest Winners

Westender wants to congratulate the six lucky winners of this contest, thank you all for participating!

Winners have been notified by email.

More info about Red Bull Flying Bach 2014

Red Bull Flying Bach 2014 Australian tour dates:
• State Theatre, Sydney: 4 shows, 9-12 September
• Crown Theatre, Perth: 4 shows, 17-20 September
• QPAC, Brisbane: 3 shows, 24-26 September
• Arts Centre, Melbourne: 4 shows, 1-4 October
• Festival Theatre, Adelaide: 3 shows, 7-9 October

Ticket information:
Tickets are on sale now, prices starting from $89: www.redbullflyingbach.com

Social Media
Twitter: www.twitter.com/RedBullAU #FlyingBachAU #GivesYouWings
Instagram: www.instagram.com/RedBullAU #FlyingBachAU #GivesYouWings
Facebook: www.facebook.com/redbull

Israel withdrew all their soldiers from Gaza 5 August for a 72-hour ceasefire. Tomorrow we will find out if this ceasefire will last longer than 72 hours, or if IDF will re-enter Gaza for another onslaught.

This war is a bit of weird one
Firstly, the word conflict does not fully describe the situation in Gaza at the moment. Using the word conflict removes the idea of violence, unlike the word war. If you look at the number of people injured and killed (see below), conflict does not sound right. It is a good word if you want to be diplomatic, but if you want to be honest and descriptive, war is a better word for what has been going on between Gaza and Israel the last few weeks.

With that said, as a whole this is a conflict, but what has been going on the last few weeks can not be called anything else but a war. If you are still uneasy about using the word war, at least refer to it as an armed conflict to at least recognise that violence is present.

Secondly, this war has divided people around the world. Leaders from various countries have urged Israel to stop. Yet there has been no effective intervention enacted to prevent the killing of civilians. The idea of Responsibility to Protect (R2P) seems to have been ignored. Even when UN-operated schools in Gaza have been fired upon by IDF, all UN dared to do was to tell Israel that it was unacceptable.

An issue no-one wants to touch
The general conflict, to use the word more correctly, that has been going on for decades between Gaza and Israel is so sensitive that if you side with Gaza you will be labelled an anti-Semite and a Hamas supporter; and if you side with Israel you support genocide of Palestinians and hate Arabs.

A discourse that seems to only exist within the realm of, either you are against us or with us, on both sides.

Internationally it then becomes acceptable to only give vocal support — yet still risky. Enacting on the idea of R2P becomes too difficult for any country to handle due to the the contentious nature of the conflict, that you can only side with one or the other.

Which frankly hurts everyone, not only Palestinians and Israelis, but also the international community.

This is why UN and other nations have been only wagging their fingers during this war. Telling Israel enough is enough, and that killing civilians is a bit naughty. Like a parent telling their kid to stop behaving badly or else there will be consequences, without following through. It sounds like they are doing something, but in reality they just sit there on the sideline, doing nothing.

McDonald’s end wars
Journalist Thomas Friedman famously said, “no two countries that both had McDonald’s had fought a war against each other since each got its McDonald’s.” Known as the Golden Arches Theory of Conflict Prevention.

Maybe this is the— without a doubt a bit far-fetched —solution that will end the ongoing conflict between Gaza and Israel. That McDonald’s opens its first restaurant in Gaza.

I appreciate that this idea sounds somewhat silly, but to be honest, I do not see UN intervening to enact the idea of R2P. As the saying goes, extreme situations call for extreme measures. And I think we have reached a point where we need to try something to end this conflict, instead of doing nothing.

The 29 day war according to UNRWA
– 1,777 Palestinians killed.
– 9,370 injured.
– 270,000 Palestinians have been forced to seek refuge in 90 of the UN-operated schools in Gaza.
– 95 buildings operated by UN in Gaza have been attacked by IDF.
– The most recent attack on a UN-operated school, IDF was informed 33 times civilians had sought refuge there.
– 830,000 Palestinians are dependent on food rations from UN.

The 29 day war according to IDF
– 900 of the killed are combatants linked to Hamas or other terrorist organisations.
– IDF has targets 4,800 attacked.
– Hamas has launched over 3,000 rockets into Israel.
– 64 IDF soldiers have been killed, including 3 civilians.
– IDF dispute the number of civilian casualties reported by UNRWA, claiming it is much lower.

Rwanda Genocide all over again
The ongoing conflict between Gaza and Israel is akin to turn into a what happened in Rwanda 1994. Where the international community failed to properly enact R2P. Something we might witness again if nothing is done. The ball is in UN’s court, but unfortunately it is just lying there, untouched, hoping it will go away. Of course, by not going forward with R2P it becomes difficult to blame anyone for doing anything wrong. So by doing nothing, it is easy to pretend no-one will be at fault if the Gaza-Israel conflict escalates further than we have witnessed the last few weeks.

Sources: Aftenposten / UNRWA / The Times of Israel

Feature photo by: Asad Al Saftawy, via Farah Baker

The Stafford by-election swing of over 18% against the LNP conveyed a dramatic message.

The public has had enough of the extreme decisions of the Newman government. This brings sharper focus to Campbell Newman’s “cash for legislation” deal with North Stradbroke sand miner Sibelco.

Following the deal, the Newman government spread misinformation to the media over its November 2013 amendments to North Stradbroke Island sand mining legislation.

Mainstream media did not check facts

An absence of fact checking by the media led to false reports that sand mining had already been extended to 2035. In the public interest, these require correction, which some media outlets have begun to make.

If the Newman amendments are not repealed, the financial benefit to Sibelco, the privately owned Belgian mining company, could be $1.5 Billion by its own reckoning – see Stop mining Straddie. But contrary to media reporting, an extension of mining at the Enterprise sand mine to 2035 (or 2027, as Sibelco previously sought) is not scheduled to occur until 2019. This is because relevant mining leases do not expire until 31 December, 2019.

In a revised article titled “Clive Palmer, Jeff Seeney and Campbell Newman’s Straddie donation”, published by the online newspaper Independent Australia, highly respected barrister Stephen Keim SC recently agreed that Sibelco cannot apply to extend the time frame for sand mining until 2019.

Parliament can repeal the Newman amendments at any time before 2019. That is likely to occur without a change of government, if the native title owners win their High Court action for a declaration that the Newman amendments are invalid under the Australian constitution.

The Newman government has misled the media and the public into believing that sand mining has already been extended to 2035 to quell dissent from the many who want to see the Queensland icon protected. If people think the extension has already occurred, maybe they will think it’s a waste of time talking about repealing the Newman amendments?

The reality is that even if the native title challenge to the validity of the amendments fails, if the LNP is voted out before 2019, the Newman amendments can be repealed by a future parliament. No compensation would be payable to Sibelco. Section 6 of the North Stradbroke Island Protection and Sustainability Act specifically rules out compensation.

Caveat emptor

This would not be an unjust result. Sibelco purchased the mine in 2009 knowing that a key mining lease had expired in 2007 and had not been renewed. It was also aware that under the State’s expired lease laws there were legal obstacles to renewal of expired North Stradbroke mining leases. It also knew that there was significant opposition from indigenous owners, environment groups and others.

The Fraser Island Inquiry in 1976 concluded that sand mining causes “major, permanent and irreversible environmental harm.” The Federal government accepted the findings and ended sand mining on Fraser almost immediately. The Bjelke-Petersen government’s request for a two year transition was rejected.

Stradbroke’s future clearly depends upon its natural environment being protected. It is remarkable that Campbell Newman, with a straight face, can talk about a so called ‘transition’ away from mining of 22 years when 40 years ago Joh Bjelkie Petersen would have settled for 2 years for Fraser Island!