Authors

The Problem With Travel

Later this year I’m travelling to South-East Asia for three months, and I feel gut-wrenchingly guilty about it. It’s not only because of the carbon emissions involved in flying, nor the chequered and problematic history of white people journeying through Asia over the centuries. Since long before Elizabeth Gilbert ate, prayed, and loved around the globe, people from one place have travelled to another place, returning with souvenirs, stories and “new” ideas. It’s tempting to view this dissemination as a holy form of multiculturalism that celebrates social, cultural, ethnic, and linguistic difference, but I think that this belies a much shadier truth: self-interest in all its forms is the bedrock of travel.

Student Poverty Levels High

Recent data from Universities Australia, the peak body for Australian tertiary institutions, revealed that one in seven students is regularly unable to afford food and other essentials, with Indigenous students and regional students experiencing the greatest hardship. An Indigenous student reported that financial strain while completing their studies was so extreme that they “don’t eat much anymore”.

Chris Dave & The Drumhedz @ 170 Russell

Chris Dave has been called one of the best drummers in the world today, and as the audience expectantly waits in a darkened basement on a chilly Melbourne evening, the anticipation is palpable.

Review: MUSC’s Plastic Shakespeare

Like peanut butter and chocolate, Shakespeare and Warhol, MUSC’s Plastic Shakespeare presents a continual pairing of elements that shouldn’t quite work together, but, nine times out of ten, they do, and it makes for beautiful, original theatre.

Review: Thank You for the Rain at the Transitions Film Festival

From its focus on the inequality between individuals to the broader inaction and disinterest of the world’s most privileged governments, Thank You for the Rain is compelling and inspirational, but somehow also left me with an overwhelming sense of despondency. It doesn’t give any answers, but is a timely and stunning film that tells an urgent story.