Issue 90.5

JULY 202 2 90.5

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contents EDITORIAL...........................................................................................................7 SRC PRESIDENT’S REPORT.................................................................................8 STATE OF THE UNION........................................................................................10 VOX? POP!............................................................................................................12 LEFT RIGHT CENTRE..........................................................................................14 EDITORS’ PICKS..................................................................................................17 ECON-DIT.............................................................................................................18 SYSTEMATIC REVIEW.........................................................................................20 CLUB SPOTLIGHT................................................................................................22 ARTICLES & CREATIVE WRITING LETTER TO THE EDITORS..................................................................................23 LEGALISING CANNABIS.....................................................................................24 IN DEFENCE OF MODERATION.........................................................................26 LITTLE BITCH IN THE BIG CITY........................................................................28 EFFEUILLER LA MARGUERITE..........................................................................30 CONSTANTS.........................................................................................................31 7.31........................................................................................................................32 LABOR RANT........................................................................................................33 7 REASONS TO BE AN INTERN AS PART OF YOUR ARTS DEGREE.................34 THE SECOND DAY AT MY NEW JOB..................................................................36 BOYS WILL BE BOYS HELD ACCOUNTABLE.....................................................37 STUDY PLAYLIST.................................................................................................39 THE ON DIT CROSSWORD..................................................................................40 THE FREE.............................................................................................................41 WHICH MALE MANIPULATOR ALBUM ARE YOU?............................................42 MY STOLEN SHEEP..............................................................................................45 LORD OF THE RINGS NEEDS MORE SONGS.......................................................46 NO, BTS SHOULD NOT BE CALLED ACTIVISTS................................................48 ON DIT LOCAL SONG RECOMMENDATIONS....................................................50 A REVIEW OF ‘IT ENDED HOW IT BEGAN’.......................................................52 A RESPONSE TO THE LETTER TO THE EDITOR...............................................53 CROSSWORD SOLUTIONS..................................................................................54

editors

Grace Atta Habibah Jaghoori Chanel Trezise Jenny Surim Jung

design

Jenny Surim Jung

cover art

contributors & sub-editors

Ria Sharma

Jasper Roberts Maxim Buckley Claire Lynette Shoubridge Harriet Whittle Alexander Karpov Sienna Sulicich Ben Carr Sabrina Donato Sebastian Andrew Stephanie Komar Louise Campbell Brodie Manticos Marie-Louise Incoll Emily Miller Caitlin Battye Cameron Cook Connor Murphy

credits

We acknowledge and pay our respects to the Kaurna people and their elders past, present and future as the traditional custodians of the land on which the University of Adelaide stands. We acknowledge that their cultural and heritage beliefs are still as important to the living Kaurna people today.

EDI T

ORIAL Words by Habibah Jaghoori

I cannot believe we are over halfway through 2022 and over halfway through the On Dit editions. Where has the time gone? When I reflect on the journey so far, I feel immensely grateful for the privilege it has been to be your editor and student reporter. This year so far has taught me a lot, and I cannot say I am the same person I was at the start of the year. I’ve been able to look at certain things with fresh eyes, I’ve been able to open up to giving and receiving love and I’ve learnt to trust myself in ways I didn’t even know was possible. Behind the scenes of the beautiful magazines, you hold in your hands, is a lot of work between my team. I’ve had my highs and I’ve had my lows and I am so proud of how my team, and I have carried ourselves and each other through our lows. It takes maturity, humility and strength to CORRECTLY share a space which holds so much influence and I can see how far my team and I have come in this arena.

Whilst I write this editorial, I can’t help but also talk about the recent news that has been emerging around the world. Whether it be the tragic Buffalo and Texas shooting, riots in Sri Lanka, education attacks in Australia, another year of war and famine in Yemen and just so much more, it is clearer than ever that the current system is oppressive and does not hold up an ounce of justice. We live in an era where organised action and firm opposition is the only solution.

The overturning of Roe v Wade, the ongoing plight of the Palestinians at the hands of Israeli occupation, the disasters of climate change and our circus of a Labor government are all connected and products of one another. I don’t know what else is to come in the future, but what I do know is that it is the moral responsibility of student press editors to take a position. I am proud to say my position is to fight back until the last breath in my lungs. There is a reason why Martin Luther King has said, ‘An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.’

On a softer note, I write this on the 4th night of Dhul Hijja. If you know, you know. But if you don’t, I promise you there is divinity in the air. Anticipate and expect miracles. I do and I am. So, to my future self-reading this right now, I hope it is all beautiful. To whoever is reading this right now don’t be afraid to seek beauty. My friend Steph recently taught me that it is a disservice to yourself and others when you withhold your love for them. My other friend and soul sister Aza has actively demonstrated for me the intrinsic and innate relationship between your roots and your activism. I have grown and evolved a lot since starting Uni as a child in semester 2 of 2019. My internal revolution has given its fruit (and still has a lot to go) and I will forever remember everyone that has played a role in it.

‘In love with how it happened so far. Even the terrible things.’ – Yrsa Daley -Ward 7

SRC PRESIDENT’S PRESIDENT’S SRC REPORT REPORT

ANA OBRADOVIC | SRC PRESIDENT At the time of writing, Albanese’s ALP has secured at least 76 seats in the House of Representatives, winning a majority in the Lower House.

It’s great to see the backs of Morrison, Frydenberg and Kristina Kenneally, as well as the 6% primary vote drop for the LNP. This

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is a judgement on their agenda of ruling for the rich, racist treatment of refugees, extreme neglect regarding aged and health care reform, cuts to education funding and indifference on climate change.

Meanwhile Labor, who’ve agreed with the LNP on many of these

issues, have seen their primary vote sink to historic lows. They’ve won government, but mostly because they’re not as hated as the Liberals.

The conclusion taken by the party last election cycle – that they lost because they were too left wing and needed to shift rightwards – is refuted by the fact that their primary vote share was reduced on this more rightwing program, and many of their seats won off the back of Greens preferences.

It’s also worth noting that Western Australia’s 11% ALP swing in some seats is undeniably attributable to the state government’s prohealth, (though inconsistent) proworker stance.

The historic Greens vote is welcome.

It tells us that there are over a million voters in Australia seeking politics to the left of Labor. Their policies of taxation on the rich, adding dental to medicare, capping rents and wiping student debt are good class demands that must continue to be fought for now that Labor is in power.

But we should acknowledge that Adam Bandt’s pledge of “stability” for Albanese’s government is completely the wrong approach. To win anything we’ll need to fight, not conciliate with the most right-wing Labor government in years. This government has pledged to keep coal mines open as long as possible, opportunistically freed the Biloela family while maintaining the Liberal’s militarised Operation Sovereign Borders, and cut $95 billion in taxes for the wealthy.

The historic vote for Victorian Socialists (outpolling the far-right at over 5% primary votes in some electorates) is a breath of fresh air.

Victorian Socialists stood on an unapologetically pro-working class platform, championing a $30 minimum wage, nationalisation of aged care and fossil fuel companies, mass expansions of public housing, welcoming refugees, taxing the rich and support for union struggles. The strong vote bodes well for getting a socialist elected to parliament in the Victorian state elections.

The new federal government inherits a massive budget deficit alongside a cost of living crisis, ongoing pandemic and accelerating climate destruction.

We can expect the ALP to enforce sacrifices for the working class in the name of restabilising the Australian economy.

As such, it’s important that our unions make demands of those in power.

Your SRC has collaborated with climate activists to build the divestment campaign on campus. We’ve held stalls to build the World Refugee Day rally opposing boat turnbacks. We’ve organised historic actions to fight staff and course cuts. We’ve supported anti-fascist activism and organised a forum on understanding the new farright.

The rich have never had it better.

Our university posted profits of almost $200 million last year. Yet our education quality is plummeting and corporate interests shape what we get to learn.

So, we’re back on campus next semester with a fire in our bellies and we hope you’ll join us – because we know no one is coming to save us but us, and if you don’t fight, you lose.

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AUU PRESIDENT’S REPORT

OSCAR ZI SHAO ONG | AUU PRESIDENT Welcome back from the holidays!

I hope you had a well deserved break as your AUU team is busy preparing for the fantastic events we have in store for you in the coming semester! Also, welcome to our new students!

It’s tax time too! The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) provides TAX-HELP, a program run by trained volunteers to assist

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eligible students prepare basic tax returns. You can access this service from July until the end of October at our Student Care office. To make an appointment with a volunteer Tax Officer, email studentcare@adelaide.edu. au or phone 8313 5430.

Our Student Care team offers independent information, advocacy, support and referral across a range of academic,

administrative, welfare, behaviour and conduct issues. Our Education and Welfare Officers (EWO) are all highly qualified social workers, familiar with supporting students to understand and navigate both University systems and processes along with those of external agencies. We can help support the challenges of balancing life and study demands. This may include advice and practical support in the areas of welfare, financial, accommodation, legal and personal concerns. We can also provide referral and advocacy with external agencies e.g., Centrelink and SACAT.

We are still working hard to make sure our clubs get a better space too. Clubs were relocated to Hartley in 2019, while mature students were relocated too in early 2022.

Additional work was undertaken to make this lounge more inviting, this included: additional furniture, relocation of the computer pool, introduction of AUU vending machines and considerable signage to promote the space.

Further to that, Student Care also runs Breakfast Club between 8.30am and 10.30am, Tuesday to Friday during the Semester at Level 5, Union House. Come along to grab some fruits, yoghurt and muesli bar to help start your day! Also- cheesy toasties! Our staff will be available during that time too should you have any enquiries regarding our support services.

Questions/suggestions about the AUU/university? You are always welcome to email me or send me a message through social media!

Your club’s committee chair and I also attended meetings recently to talk about improvements of the safety and infrastructure of the university. Reconciliation is extremely important to us in the AUU, which is why we are excited to see the University has been working with Wirltu Yarlu to develop an art installation for Hub Central.

Facebook/WeChat ID: oscarong1997

I also listened to your concerns that the Architecture School requires refit and maintenance, it will now be looked into by the university as a matter of urgency.

Oscar Zi Shao Ong AUU President oscarzishao.ong@adelaide.edu.au

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1. WHAT IS YOUR WINTER WARDROBE STAPLE? 2. WHAT NEW HOBBY/ ACTIVITY DO YOU WANT TO PICK UP THIS HOLIDAY?

? ?

X X O V VO

Brodie Javelin (he/him)

3rd Year | B. Arts/International Relations 1. I put on some warm trackies under my jeans. Game changer.

2. Not really new, but there are a ton of good gigs coming up around Adelaide over the coming weeks which I’d love to get out and see.

3. I’m not sure. I’ve been boycotting exams since my first year. Research essays 4 life.

4. Noam Chomsky & Ilan Pappès book “On Palestine”. Penguin paperbacks radical literature at an even radder price.

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Dalestair Kidd (they/them) 2nd Year | B. Media

1. My black and white Tim Burton-esque parasol umbrella.

2. I’d love to try Lyra/Aerial Hoop but I also want to play Elden Ring on the PS5.

3. Unsure. I’d personally like to see us move away from exams, but online and in-person exam formats do allow for different accessibility options and helps cater to our diverse student cohorts’ needs.

4. I bought tickets to Good Things Festival.

P PO OP P!!

Michael (he/him)

3. SHOULD WE BRING BACK ONLINE EXAMS UNIWIDE? 4. TELL US YOUR LATEST IMPULSE BUY - WHAT, WHY?

2-3rd Year | B. Philosophy, Politics & Economics

Samoda Silva (she/her)

1. Thick socks, trackies, warm jumper and the beanie my partner crocheted me.

1. My black Kathmandu puffer jacket!! It’s so basic but so so warm and versatile!!

2.tsundoku is a Japanese word that means you buy books with the intention of reading them but never get around to it, well that describes me to a T and I would like to change that these holidays.

2nd Year | B. Laws/Media

2. I would love to say animation or some extra Premiere Pro skills, but the honest answer is I need to learn how to drive these holidays (I know, it’s shameful).

3. That’s more for the medical professionals to determine, if they are however reimplemented, which I support if deemed necessary, protections against the invasiveness of ProctorU like software needs to be afforded to students as a matter of personal privacy.

3. Yes! I think it’s time that universities get with the times, especially when these changes are taking place everywhere else like at the SACE level.

4. I don’t have a recent impulse buy, but my worst one was a midcentury couch that I actually hate, which currently sits in my living room and taunts me.

4. I’m not a huge spender BUT I’ve had my eye on these good headphones and I’m gonna cave any minute now, I tell you.

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LRC 90.5

1. The United States keeps seeing horrific mass shootings, often racially charged. Debates around gun control continue to transpire after these tragedies. What is your parties position? Is gun control the answer or is it rightful that people have the right to be armed?

2. EU leaders have placed a 75% embargo on Russian oil imports and it is set to increase up to 90% by the end of 2022. Russian gas supplies have already been cut off from Bulgaria and Poland and energy firms in other European countries are being shut off. EU leaders have stated they will continue to send arms to Ukraine. How should EU countries and Russia maintain their relationship that inevitably impacts the global public?

3. The University of Melbourne student union recently passed a motion calling for their university to boycott and divest from Aparthied Israel and to support for the occupied Palestine but have had to rescind their democratic motion due to legal threats by the Zionist lobby. Why did it escalate to this and what should The University of Adelaide take away from it?

Socialist Alternative | ASHRAF ABDUL HALIM 1. Mass shootings have unfortunately become a mainstay in the lives of Americans.

We support actions that would reduce the power of weapons manufacturers and gun fundamentalists and keep people safe. Gun ownership should be held to the same standard of automobile ownership. There should be licensing and training. The fact that guns are a commodity that is kept from the health and safety regulations most other things have to go through is absurd. Things that are made exclusively to kill large amounts of people very quickly shouldn’t be made in the first place. There should be a prohibition of the manufacture of weapons like the AR-15.

But beyond these things, socialists want to see change at a much deeper level. We need to look at why so many mass shootings happen in a country like the United States. The recent massacre at Buffalo supermarket was perpetrated by a white-supremacist specifically targeting a black neighbourhood. These people have grown up in a country where their own police force regularly use guns to murder with impunity, and where their government glorifies the murder of thousands in places like Afghanistan and Iraq. We should not forget that the Pentagon played a role in this as well. After all, the powerful guns used in these mass shootings are merely domestic versions of the models requested by generals to inflict maximum casualties in war zones.

2. In whatever decisions get made between or by the EU and Russia, the interests of the poor and working class are barely an afterthought.

The sanctions and embargoes placed on Russia by and large harm the poor and working class in Russia, not Putin. They further exacerbate a crisis in the energy market that millions of workers are paying for around the world, and plunge people suffering a cost of living crisis into further financial insecurity. This crisis also points to the need to accelerate 14

production of renewable energy, not double down on fossil fuels in our own country.

3. It is incredibly alarming that we have a situation where a student union has been pressured by legal threats to back down and rescind a progressive, anti-apartheid stance.

There were pro-bono offers from lawyers to defend the union for its historical position, but union bureaucrats chose not to fight.

Student unions should be champions of the oppressed. UoA should understand this as a step backwards for UMSU and progressive student unionism in the country in general.

Greens Club | CAMERON COOK, FINN CAULFIELD 1. The Australian Greens support the National Firearms Agreement and strongly oppose tactics used by gun lobbies to weaken related gun control laws. As the Greens spokesperson for democracy, Senator Larissa Waters calls for an overhaul of political donation laws to ensure that political parties are not under the influence of gun lobbying groups. Firearm interest lobbying bodies have donated over $500,000 to political parties, including both Liberal and Labor. Even a single cent from such gun lobbying groups that attempt to mimic the tactics of the ever-powerful NRA in the United States is one cent too many.

We also condemn any form of militarisation of police forces, as people’s safety and a heavily armed police force cannot coexist.

For lack of a better term, there will always be an arms-race between citizens and the state.

The citizens will feel they need to upgrade their weaponry to ensure their freedom from the elites, and the elites themselves will, in turn, militarise their police forces.

The militarisation of police creates a neverending cycle of paranoia and will only ever result in the insecurity of citizens.

2. We know from countless historical examples, sanctions don’t harm the corporate oligarchs, nor do they motivate policy or regime change, instead, they destroy the lives of working people through collective punishment. The ever-escalating sanctions imposed by the west on the Russian federation only serve to exacerbate tensions, if the EU desires genuine conflict resolution, it must enter immediate negotiations, call for a ceasefire, end the provision of military aid in all forms, reduce rather than increase its sanctions, and begin the process of de-escalating tensions. The west must cast aside its ideas of maintaining “rules-based order” and instead focus on preventing further casualties, conflict and displacement of peoples. Many in the west feel obliged to levy sanctions in order to express condemnation of the current conflict, and ask “if not through sanctions, how can we take action?” But when we look at those who truly matter, the civilians and families who live in Ukraine and Russia, we recognize that the only action that will make a real difference is ending the conflict, not through the continuous export of weapons, and the increase in economic warfare.

3. Israel is an apartheid state. This is an established fact that has been well documented, with the label “apartheid” officially being levied by two of the largest and most respected NGO’s worldwide, instances of racial discrimination, violence and oppression being covered by countless news organizations as well as activist groups within Israel and occupied Palestine.

The Israeli government is currently under investigation by the UN’s ICERD for its breaches of international law in the establishment of apartheid. Attempts to dispute this are part of Israel’s long running tradition of targeting NGO’s and journalists who speak out against the Israeli crimes against Palestinians, with high profile cases such as the murder of Shereen Abu Akleh, and the bombing of Al Jazeera and Associated Press offices in Gaza. The rescinding of the University of Melbourne’s union motion is another example of the pressure supporters of apartheid Israel are willing to place on anyone who speaks out. We here at UofA should take this as a lesson not to bend to lobby groups of any form, least of all those who support racist colonial-settler states.

Labor Club| STEPH MADIGAN 1. When Australians surrendered half a million guns after Port Arthur, murders and suicides plummeted. All that stands in the way of this happening in the US is decades of conservative psy-ops and a Congress lodged firmly in the NRA’s back pocket.

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2. There’s no putting the genie back in the bottle. If this war teaches us anything it’s that living in a globalised world means that there are no “stringsfree” foreign policy decisions. The fact that nearly two billion people are facing poverty due to Russia’s grain blockade is unconscionable. As the African Union begs for food relief, western countries must revisit the duties we have towards humanity beyond our borders.

Taylor Westmacott | LIBERAL CLUB FAILED TO RESPOND

3. Standing against antisemitism is a bipartisan issue. It can and should exist alongside acknowledging that Israel has an ongoing history of human rights violations and we, as students in a wealthy country, are obligated to support the restoration of human dignity in Palestine. Clearly, Israel’s actions are not representative of the Jewish community in Australia. Student unions have a tough job of promoting student interests while remaining sensitive to the broader cultural context. Perhaps our energy could be better spent targeting businesses profiting from occupied Palestine including TripAdvisor and Airbnb.

Due to vested interests, I have chosen to only respond to the first question. I would like to thank the On Dit editorial team for accepting this decision.

Gun control is a sturdy answer to a symptom, not a cause. It can only be an analgesic.

I’m currently writing my dissertation on school-shootings and mass-violence, so I am conflicted to write anything beyond this. I would like to take this opportunity to recognise that an Australian man with an Australian life committed the Christchurch massacre.

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JENNY’S PICK: PHILOSOPHIZE THIS! - Stephen West

I started listening to this podcast in school because I was pretentious and sad. However, I will still recommend this podcast because I genuinely learned a lot. I developed an interest in philosophy which made me read more and gain some solid perspective on things that really matter. Stephen West explains everything in a way that’s easy to digest but also accurate and substantial. Male podcasters usually make me want to break shit but I can actually tolerate Stephen because he’s not one of those snooty, ‘I-take-myself-too-seriously’ sigma males. He’s really down to earth, funny and relatable.

CHANEL’S PICK: SRSLY WRONG -Aaron Moritz and Shawn Vulliez

Self-described as a ‘utopian leftist comedy podcast’, Srsly Wrong showcases entertaining leftist skits, occasional interviews and informative scenes. When I first began learning about leftist theory I found it incredibly daunting (I still do, and I still have so much to learn), however, Srsly Wrong made theory and leftist thought incredibly palpable and easy to understand. Further, the two hosts often break down hard to understand concepts or case studies like the French Revolution or the birth of May Day into digestible and interesting skits. I would really recommend this podcast to those who are interested in leftist thought and theory!

GRACE’S PICK: LEFT RIGHT OUT -Elfy Scott & Justine Landis-Hanley This is a podcast which fills a huge gap in current political reporting, and that is, by making political topics accessible and engaging to young people. The podcast started (and I began listening to it) in the few months leading up to this year’s Federal Election. The hosts bounce off each other smoothly, and take turns each episode in giving their listeners all the details on current political hot-topics. This includes ‘Which Party is best for Women?’, different climate change policies, the housing affordability issue, how voting works, and now that we’re post election, topics such as ‘What is the Uluru Statement?’ and the purpose of a federal ICAC. Also, episodes sit around the 30 minute mark - so very consumable!

HABIBAH’S PICK: LEFT BITCHES WHO ARE RIGHT - Anissa Naouai, Erica Marable, Amanda Getty and Ryan Wentz.

The funniest, most honest and incredibly insightful commentary and analysis of current events and politics one can find out there. Based in the belly of the beast, aka America, these hosts outdo themselves in their marxist/communist takes about todays world. Listen to it if you want to gain new talking points, consider different ideas and just relate.

ALSO, Ryan Wentz follows me on Twitter. :)

editors’ picks

podcast recommendations

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econ-dit Words by Jasper Roberts

On the 23rd of May 2022 Anthony Albanese was sworn in as the 31st Prime Minister of Australia. After countless weeks of riveting debate, we finally have a newly formed government. It was an election campaign full of surprises, slogans and statistics! Both sides made promises in an attempt to woo the people of Australia. Both parties had some policies and good ideas however one question that was either avoided or not asked at all was HOW these policies and promises were going to be delivered.

If we begin to dive into the Australian Labor Party’s 2022 federal campaign’s policies, it is quite hard to disagree with any of the principal ideas. A 24/7 nurse at every age care facility, doubling the Philanthropy (charity) contribution, a ‘Help to Buy’ scheme for first home buyers, and support for an increase in the minimum wage. They all seemed reasonable and ideas desired by many!

However, there is concern about how some of these policies will be achieved.

For example, there is currently a shortage of medical and nursing staff, yet the government has promised to put a nurse in every age care facility. Now as beneficial as it would be to analyse every issue today, the focus will be on the Labor Government’s response to inflation and rising cost of living.

The minimum wage is an extremely important and debated topic. Many people who are earning award rates are living below the poverty line. For the 3.2 million Australians in poverty and many others who are continuously struggling to provide for their families, Labor’s promise to increase the minimum wage 18

hopes to match the rising inflation of 5.1% and help these people battle the rising cost of living.

Anthony Albanese pledged to the people of Australia that “workers’ pay should not be allowed to go backwards”, and when asked if he supported a 5.1% rise in the minimum wage (suggested by the ACTU) his response was “absolutely”.

This was supported by the rest of the Labor party.

In contrast, when questioned, Scott Morrison stayed very neutral, proceeding to directly state his support in the minimum wage being “independently assessed” by the FWC (Fair Work Commission). Nevertheless, as the election campaign continued in rebuttal to Labor’s pledge, the Liberal party took a very textbook economic stand.

As the unemployment rate continues to decrease, supply will fall and wages (price) will increase. Furthermore, the Liberals began to question the consequences of directly raising wages, stating that Albanese shouldn’t be making these promises “without talking to [experts]” in the area.

Labor’s advocacy for a rise of 5.1% in the minimum wage has caused great concern for employer groups nation-wide who also “caution” the automatic increase in wage to match inflation. On the 10th of May NAB released their annual business survey that showed that labour costs growth had hit 3% in quarterly terms.

The chief executive of the CSBR Alexei Boyd reflected on similar data and warned that increasing the minimum wage by 5% will “break many small

A commentary on the minimum wage guarantee businesses”. She persistently outlined that as many businesses are still trying to recover to pre-pandemic levels, many award-reliant businesses will struggle to afford an increase in wages and many jobs will be lost. Additional ‘experts’ believe that high wages will continue to fuel inflation, leading to a steep rise in interest rates, deterring job creation and future growth.

believe that the current 2.5-3% annual wage rise coupled with the rise in superannuation guarantees that the government’s increase in low-andmedium-income tax offsets adds up to a total 4.3% rise in wage growth.

This outweighs the underlying rate of inflation by 0.6% and therefore AIG believe there is a sufficient level of wage growth.

In response to these concerns the ACTU called upon comments from the governor of the RBA Philip Lowe and the Treasury Secretary Dr. Steven Kennedy who both believe that wage rises should match inflation plus an extra 1% for productivity. This seemed logical as labour productivity had averaged 1% p.a. over the past decade. However, an ANU visiting scholar for Tax and Transfer Policy Steve Hamilton says that the inflationary pressure is a “once-off event”. He states that it is externally imposed from the Russian invasion of Ukraine which has caused an increase in the energy costs and pandemic related supply chain disruptions. In conjunction with this, other academics argue that the rising inflation had been a result of an overstatement or misallocation of government support and stimulus during the pandemic. They believed that there was poor oversight and unaccountable excessive spending in some sectors with some businesses doubling their usual annual earnings whilst other industries such as hospitality continued to suffer immensely. The underlying inflation rate excludes all volatile prices such as energy and food and many economists have recently highlighted how it is 3.7%.

Interestingly AIG (workers association)

The Labor government has increased the minimum wage to match the current inflation of 5.1%. Undoubtedly this will help to assist a large number of people working the minimum wage, however some still argue that this will create extra pressures on employers and increase inflation and the unemployment rate.

In Summary, a number of economists consider the current inflationary pressures are fuelled by external factors expected to dissipate in the near future.

Furthermore, the rise in superannuation guarantees and the government’s increase in low-and-medium-income tax offsets will directly and indirectly assist to raise wages. Thus, a number of economists are questioning if a minimum wage rise as high as 5.1% is completely necessary given the stimulatory factors already in play.

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Jill

SYSTEMIC REVIEW

WORDS BY MAXIM BUCKLEY I was originally going to “interview” myself since I have to submit my thesis in the next few months and am pretty flat chat. So I chose Jill. Jill and I have been working in the same lab together for just under a year and we’ve been sitting with our backs to each other for about 6 months, not that I don’t like looking at Jill, it’s just how the lab is laid out.

Jill completed her Bachelor of Science in Biomedical science where she majored in biochemistry, microbiology, and immunology. Surprisingly though, science wasn’t Jill’s first attempt at uni. “So, I started a double degree in Economics and International Studies, did two years and thought stuff it, I’m going travelling for a year”. It’s funny that Jill started in that degree because it’s the same degree I started when I first came to Adelaide Uni and somehow, we’ve both wound up in the same lab. After Jill’s year abroad she came back and started science and 20

seemingly has never looked back.

Jill is completing her PhD this year but, in what is turning into a consistent theme throughout this article, Jill didn’t start the process in a PhD. “So, you can either do honours, like you’re doing, get a good enough grade and then apply for a PhD scholarship.

That will take you four years and the honours year will likely cut some time off your life due to stress. Otherwise, you can start the process of in a master’s degree by research. These are two years in length, and you have the opportunity of going into them straight from undergrad, if you have the grades of course. You also have the opportunity to upgrade to a PhD after 18 months and be paid the stipend for the entire time”. When I was in undergrad I had never heard about this process, I wasn’t even really aware of the honours to PhD route. It seems that whenever I talk to a Faculty of Science student, they are all going for

a masters by research. Different worlds I suppose.

Since Jill is in the same lab as me, naturally she works on malaria parasites. Specifically, she works on Plasmodium falciparum, the strain that predominantly affects regions of Africa, and Plasmodium knowlesi, generally found in Southeast Asia. Jill also works on Plasmodium vivax, but only kind of.

“We currently haven’t found a way to stably culture vivax in the lab, but we still want to study it. Knowlesi has been adapted for lab culture so we use that as an analogue, and the way we do that is by forcing knowlesi to express vivax surface proteins”.

“I learnt to deal with negative data fairly early on. At first it feels really bad, you’ve dedicated all of your time to this one thing and when it doesn’t pan out it feels really bad! However, you quickly realise that A. you’re not the first scientist and you certainly won’t be the last scientist to experience failure, and B. you’re a cog in one great big machine. Your project may not work, but your supervisor has so many projects on the go at any one time that something will eventually work”.

Jill isn’t sure what’s next for her after her PhD. She knows for sure she wants to get a postdoctoral position, though she’s not sure where yet. For now, she’s just looking forward to heading over to America for a few months to hang out with her partner’s family.

In short, Jill is a gene jockey. She uses DNA from what we call wild type lines, pretty much they’re lines of parasites that haven’t been modified, amplify certain portions, move around some DNA base pairs, add a little bit here, take a little bit away there, and voila.

In all honesty, I don’t even fully understand what Jill does because we focus on different areas. I focus on microscopy; Jill focuses on gene editing. “In essence, we want to see what it does in a malaria parasite. If we knock down certain proteins and the parasite can no longer develop then we know there is a certain degree of essentiality to that protein, and possibly that could then be targeted by a drug or even a vaccine”.

Jill predominantly works on a group of proteins called merozoite surface proteins, or MSPs for short. There is a stack of these MSPs but essentially, they all help the parasite invade a red blood cell. The thought is that if one of these is essential to that process, if we target it then we can stop the parasite invading and break the cycle of replication. Unfortunately, science isn’t that easy.

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CLUB SPOTLIGHT CLUB SPOTLIGHT WRITER’S CLUB Answers by Claire Lynette Shoubridge

This month, the Adelaide University Writing Club is taking over the Featured section! We’re here to tell you about the club, answer all the questions you may have, and recruit writers for our upcoming campaign into uncharted literary territory! If you’re interested in writing, or just enjoy some down time with some fun folk, feel free to seek us out. Membership is easy and FREE

WHAT DOES THE WRITING CLUB ACTUALLY DO? The Club holds weekly meetings during the term, where we spend time writing original pieces, sharing our work, and receiving feedback from one another. We work on personal projects, novels, plays, poems, and all kinds of writing! We generate ideas for settings and plots, develop fictional characters, and contribute to bigger, collaborative projects, like the stage-play we’ve written for the Theatre Guild – keep an eye out for that soon! Writing Club sessions usually go for a couple of hours, and vary from week-to-week to suit everyone’s timetables, but there is no obligation to come each week or be there for all of it.

Just come whenever you want!

IS THIS A VALUABLE EXPERIENCE?

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WHO SHOULD JOIN? Have you written words and enjoyed it? Huzzah! You likely have the penchant for creative writing. Come give it a try. Everyone is welcome at the club, whether you are a current or former student of the University of Adelaide, or even if you’ve never been a student here!

WHY SHOULD I JOIN? It’s engaging and lots of fun!

Writing is a collaborative exercise. If you wrote something only for yourself, no one would read it. That works for diaries, but if you’re hoping to publish a novel or short story, you’ve got to talk to people! And who better to talk writing than WRITERS? Come along, show your stuff, get feedback, and read the work of other writers!

Personally, I’ve had an idea for a book circling in my head for years. Before I joined the club, I made a few attempts to get it rolling, but since I’ve never written a book before, I never knew where to start. Joining the Writing Club has put me in contact with people who have experience with writing. Talking about the writing process with them really helped to get my story started.

If you’re like me, with ideas a-plenty, but unsure of how to put them on paper, the Writing Club is a great place to start!

HOW DO I JOIN? It’s simple! All you have to do is knock on the secret door, answer 2 riddles, and complete a transcontinental challenge…nah, just kidding! Look us up on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/ groups/676485135739765/) and come along to the next Writing Club Session.

Easy as that!

LETTER TO THE EDITORS My dearest editors,

I would like to write to comment on the piece included in Issue 4 titled ‘Realism is a Road to ruin – A response to Felix Eldridge.

I found it incredibly unprofessional that the editors not only distributed the identity of an author for an article which was supposed to be anonymous but further proceeded with allowing a substantive criticism of a non-present article once Felix had pulled the original article.

It is my understanding that the original article was provided to On Dit in confidence. The fact that the identity of the author reached the respondents and the admission from On Dit in the article is incredibly unprofessional in my opinion.

It is of course reasonable to allow a right of response but when that response stretches into more than one page and becomes primarily an attack on a political opponent and secondarily, a platform of eschewing ideology, it seems a bit out of proportion. Felix’s name is dropped 10 times in reference to an article the reader has no access to. What On Dit has done is in the process of trying to show a balanced argument, is ensured an incredibly unbalanced attack is shown.

To allow the author of the original article be known and to open the floodgates to an article of personal attack, is very unbecoming of a serious magazine. I implore the editors of this dear student paper to adhere more strongly to the principles of confidentiality and fairness.

Yours truly, Blue Vest Enjoyer

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LEGALISING CANNABIS WHAT MIGHT IT LOOK LIKE? Words by Harriet Whittle

When going to vote last month, you might have noticed the Legalise Cannabis Party on your ballot papers.

A joke? Perhaps not. In record results, the minority party picked up 2-7% of votes for the Senate in each state and territory. It also won two seats on the Legislative Council in the 2021 WA State Election. These results reflect both an increase in cannabis consumption in Australia, as well as increased support from the public for the legalisation of its recreational use. The Greens also strongly support cannabis law reform. These parties propose models of legalisation in which cannabis is regulated like alcohol and tobacco, as it has been in Canada since 2018, with a strong interest in harm minimisationespecially for young people. There is growing support for such a model from academics, policy-makers and doctors.

The relationship between human beings and Cannabaceae has a rich and fascinating history. Humulus,or Hops, the plant used for centuries to flavour beer, is a member of the Cannabaceae family and therefore very closely related to the family’s more notorious and noso humble member: Cannabis sativa.

Paleobotanists have dated the early cultivation of the hemp plant by humans to about 6,500 years ago, in Central Asia. It was carried by nomadic peoples across the globe, serving multiple 24

purposes that it is still used for today: fibres for rope and clothes, food (from seeds and oil) and for the psychoactive or medicinal purposes of consumption.

Cannabis has ancient medicinal histories in India, Nepal, Mongolia, China, Afghanistan, Egypt and Turkey and as well as a cultural and spiritual significance across diverse regions. It appears in Ancient Rome and Greece too: with Herodotus writing of its use by the Scythian people in 4th century B.C. It was also reportedly used by Queen Victoria to combat her menstrual pain. In the mid-20th century, THC (or tetrahydrocannabinol, the psychoactive element of the plant) was isolated by two scientists in Israel, including Raphael Mechoulam, a Holocaust survivor from Bulgaria. CBD (or cannabidiol) was identified in 1940, and is highly popular for its medicinal qualities. These are just two of 113 cannabinoids, which when consumed interact with our cannabinoid receptors. These receptors form part of a complex endocannabinoid system in our bodies, which regulates multiple major physiological processes. This doesn’t mean that our bodies were designed to consume cannabis, rather that the plant contains organic compounds that interact directlywith these systems, explaining the multitude of effects and uses of the plant for medicines.

Cannabis is not a homogeneous species; it is grown in strains. Strains are bred

and selected for different purposes and climates. It is also an extremely hardy plant.

The name ‘weed’ comes from its ability to grow abundantly in the wild. There are literally hundreds of millions of feral cannabis plants growing in America alone, although these are often descendants of industrial hemp plants and contain negligible levels of THC. Until the 20th century, cannabis was relatively common, even in Australia. It was progressively demonised and prohibited beginning with The International Opium Convention of 1925 in Geneva, which placed cannabis in the same category as heroin. This demonisation culminated in Nixon’s war on drugs beginning in 1971.

The word ‘marijuana’ originates from the Spanish word ‘marihuana,’ and political and public perception of the substance has emphasised this to incite a racist narrative targeting Hispanic immigrants in the US. Furthermore, African-American communities have been disproportionately punished and attacked by law enforcement for cannabis use and possession. The dismantling of racist systems and narratives surrounding cannabis must be a principal focus of legalisation in the USA and across the globe.

In 2016, the Australian Government legalised the cultivation of cannabis strictly for medicinal and research purposes.

This allowed patients to access medicinal cannabis products from certified doctors.

These have been proven to help significantly with chronic pain, epilepsy, nausea and vomiting in chemotherapy patients- to name only a few uses. The 2019 National Drug Strategy Household Survey (NDSHS), undertaken by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, found around 2.7% of the Australian population uses medicinal cannabis. This is approximately 600,000 people- however only 3.9% of these users obtained their product through a legal prescription. This has raised concerns about the lack of access for patients in need, due to high expenses and regulatory grey areas.

There is increasing public discourse about the further liberalisation of cannabis laws in Australia. The NDSHS found that support for the legalisation of cannabis has doubled since 2007, and more Australians now

actively support legalisation (41%) than oppose it (37%). The recreational use and cultivation of cannabis at a federal level is illegal, however, laws and penalties differ in states. In South Australia, minor cannabis offences do not attract a criminal conviction, rather a fine. Cannabis is decriminalised in the ACT, meaning the possession or use of small amounts of the plant will not draw penalties.

Weed isn’t going away. The growth in users accessing the substance, both legally and illegally, has inevitably pushed public and political support for legalisation.

It is now legal in Canada, sold under a highly regulated retail model that aims to promote harm minimisation. Recreational cannabis has been progressively legalised in the US since 2012, beginning in Colorado and Washington. It is now legalised for recreational use in 19 states and 2 territories, and for medicinal use in a further 19 states. There seems to be a consensus around the function and goals of a model in Australia, with harm minimisation at its centre. A government or not-for-profit body that tightly regulates the quality, access and market price of legal cannabis products would mean safer recreational use, support to the already growing legal cannabis industry in Australia, and the squashing of the illicit market. In 1995, The Australian Institute of Criminology made recommendations for the decriminalisation of cannabis, arguing that minor cannabis offences unnecessarily disadvantage the future job, education and travel opportunities of young people. If cannabis is legalised in Australia, harm minimisation would ideally focus on restricting access to youths. The successful destruction of the illicit market would further restrict access for those at risk.

Ultimately, the legalisation of recreational cannabis would have a monumental impact on drug reform in Australia. Policy change and its effective implementation will rely on strong leadership in consultation with all interested parties, including politicians, medical practitioners, researchers, cannabis reform groups and law enforcement, as well as the wider Australian community.

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in in defence defence of of moderation moderation Words by Alexander Karpov My recent years in uni have been plagued with ardent and sometimes exhausting search for moderation.

And not simply in food, drinking, pleasures or habits, but more importantly in my beliefs and persuasions, in the way I think and judge the world around me. To simplify, I began to think more and say less, to observe more and judge less.

And while this may seem a dubious achievement in our age when we all have to react fast, whether online or in real life, I have noticed how these simple changes affect your perception of the world, how common-sense ideas that you held to be indubitable begin to fade in comparison to what introspection allows you to discover.

I guess the reader should expect me to say what this all rant is about.

Well, it’s politics, what else? And not simply your good old stupol with so much toxicity that I wonder how uni is still not closed down due to general health concerns. It’s politics in general, whether in Australia or the US, whether it’s the adherents of capitalism or the disciples of

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communism and whether it’s your rich dad advocating for neoliberalism and claiming how the poor never want to work or your good LGBTQ+ friend who never seems to stop raving about the oppression capitalism produces and the need to destroy the whole system. It seems that a very ancient idea of moderation enunciated by the Ancient Greeks and Buddhists alike has suddenly become extinct in our world of progress, knowledge and mass-scale happiness. Surely those Greek fellas missed the point when they said that too much of a good thing can be harmful (that’s for you, my dear capitalist friends).

Surely, they were simply not astute enough when they said that you can’t rid the world of evil with evil means (and that’s for you, my Communist stalwarts). And finally, surely, they were talking nonsense when they claimed that humans are essentially both bad and good and that the idea of progress is rather foolish and complacent (and that’s for both of you so it’s all fair and square).

You may think that these appeals to

moderation, understanding and cautiousness in life and politics are, in the words one of the contributors to On Dit monthly issues, ‘a serious obstruction in the way of a better, safer, cleaner world.’ You may think that sometimes, just sometimes, a certain goal can justify any means, whatever the unknown implications.

You may think that the writings and works of some authors you read cannot be wrong, that we already know all that we ever would need to know and therefore the path seems clear. You may think that the old ways were the best, that the only way to solve our imminent problems is to revert to the past, that unlimited freedom cannot be a bad thing. I have enumerated all these perspectives to show that conservatism and radicalism are really two sides of the same medal – excess. When we are all being swayed from one extreme to another, it resembles what an alcoholic does when he tries to give up drinking. Instead of seeking moderation, he simply seeks a different object of addiction. That’s how former alcoholics frequently become heavy smokers or drug addicts.

And the same process is observed here, if you care to know. A young person, appalled by the horrors of capitalist exploitation, by the pictures of Asian children working till death in big capitalist factories owned by greedy, obsessive white males from AngloSaxon countries quickly decides that the way to end this injustice is by destroying all capitalists and their devotees and by creating the good old paradise on Earth. Now a different example. An impoverished youth, living in an Eastern Bloc country who has never seen genuine Adidas sneakers and who has only been able to eat mandarins or bananas twice a year decides that the only possible

way to happiness in this life is unlimited, unimpeded production and consumption of everything imaginable, from the most exotic and mind-blowing varieties of chocolate to the most exotic and mind-blowing varieties of dildos. And I can assure you that both of them, when their goals are attained, would remain just as unhappy (if not more) as they were before.

So, what’s the lesson? Well, I’m neither a teacher nor a preacher to give lessons or tell you what to do.

I strongly believe that only personal experience and mistakes can change what you believe in or what you do.

I wrote this article to say that you don’t have to choose only between extremes, whether in politics, life or people. I wrote it to say that you can go to church and pray and at the same time advocate for the rights of LGBTQ+ individuals. I wrote it to say that we can have a country where we support the unemployed and lowincome earners and simultaneously help our businesses grow. And finally, I wrote it to say that the authors of all those promises of extreme happiness and equality, prosperity and infinite progress, eternal love and joy are simply too afraid to admit that life is intrinsically complicated, that nothing is ever as it seems, and that moderation and restraint are often our only way to a truly happy and meaningful existence, devoid of the chimeras that we are bombarded with on a daily basis.

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little bitch in the big city.

Words by Sienna Sulicich

Moving to Adelaide was not fun. I knew close to no-one and spent most of my time at the start locked in my room wallowing in my own self-pity. The city is actually rather bleak and kind of ugly, not really the soul-inspiring stuff I was looking for. Although I never really enjoyed my home-town either. The bush is a strange place, full of conservative cowboys who want to knock you up by nineteen and hold you hostage, forcing you to make them banana bread and wash their lead-soaked socks for the rest of your life. Maybe it’s not all that bad, but I definitely didn’t feel like I fit in with my platform sneakers and candy-pink hair. I never realised how lucky I was growing up in the bush until I moved to the city, and then I finally missed it. I mourned my home-town like a widow; the smell, the culture, the familiar faces all washed away. Yeah there were drugs and thugs and drama, but it looked a bit maternal if you squinted hard enough and drank just the right amount of liquor to warm your heart.

My first day at university was confronting.

It’s not like I’d never seen a television before, I had just never seen that many in the one room before. At first I was in awe, thinking about how amazing it was that 28

we had access to all this technology. I didn’t even have to turn my head to look to the front, and every room had enough chairs and desks for each person and then some (my high school didn’t, sometimes people had to sit on the floor or on semibroken tables stuck together with ancient gum). The awe I initially felt quickly turned to anger when I started to meet people. Why were these kids so strange?

Why does it matter what high school I went to? Suburb? What the fuck is a suburb, I live in a house?

There were no private schools back home, just two high schools (which is actually a lot considering the population). Most kids ended up attending both schools anyway, because we didn’t have enough staff at either to hold senior classes like chemistry or software engineering. You would have to haul ass in-between schools or show up at ungodly hours before school started to take a class off-timetable. The teachers were pretty decent, there just weren’t enough of them. It was a weird mix of elderly teachers who taught my parents or first year university graduates sent out from the city with a pocket full of government cash to sweeten the deal.

If a teacher was sick, well, that was it. We had a couple substitutes for younger

years while seniors just made do (which usually resulted in my mouthy ass being forced to play teacher). There were no real SSO’s either – support staff to assist – so confident kids helped out instead. I graduated with about a dozen kids who were not fully literate. When seniors would do their final year exams, I remember going to their exams with them to read out the questions and scribe their answers down as they spoke them to me. They slipped through the cracks, and there were not enough of us who could help them all, every year. I could handle using a maths textbook from the 80’s that had hundreds of dicks in it, but I couldn’t handle seeing that.

So walking into a room full of televisions made me very pissed off (little did I know that pretty much most of the classrooms are like that). It’s not fair that I’m here and all those other kids back home are not – kids that will struggle to read their own children a bedtime story in the future.

My anger simmered, but I choked down my guilt and tried my best to make it through my first semester reasonably unscathed. Until I was in a philosophy class (which I absolutely loathed) and we were discussing the importance of education. A random dude said ‘well, yeah education is important but it’s pretty much equal across Australia so it doesn’t matter as much here’. I saw red.

I had to fight tooth and nail to get here, let alone the kids back home who had no chance whatsoever to go to university, and here we were discussing the politics of education in a room full of private school kids who’ve never really lived a day in their life? Maybe I was a bit harsh, and I still am, but fuck it breaks my heart every time to see such blatant ignorance.

So, I calmed my ass down and explained how the education system is where I was from. He said he didn’t believe me. I don’t know why he would think I would lie to him about something like that. I think maybe city kids are often trying to one-

up each other with first-world-problem sob stories to validate their interest in humanities (just a theory). I’ve snapped only a handful of times and each time I felt more and more alienated by the institution I so gleefully signed up for.

As a humanities and arts student, we do discuss a lot of serious issues in classes which are obviously very important.

Sometimes though, it just feels like a bunch of middle class, white city kids talking about other people’s problems; race, poverty, unionism, access to education, access to healthcare. Again, maybe I’m just cynical, but sitting in a room full of private school kids chanting about race relations and poverty, sucking each other off for being so caring and forward-thinking, feels fucking gross.

I’m not blaming the university, or the students – these issues need to be talked about, it just seems so unfruitful (you’re not starting a revolution Jessica, you’re preaching class consciousness and socialism to a room full of greenies).

You city folk ain’t all bad. There are some beautiful, genuine people I’ve met in Adelaide that manage to warm my cold, cynical soul (truly a hard task).

Just smile a bit more, or even say hello when you cross the street. Think about why you’re at university, what do you want to achieve? I’m not sure what I want to achieve, but I would love to help someone, who never thought they would make it here, feel a little less alone. I want to fight for something. Talking in white, academic circles is not enough.

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Effeuiller la Marguerite.

Words by Ben Carr One lightly lit lamppost, no thought was despite A man and his mongrel were no one tonight Those trusting companions revered for their sight Necessity nulled when this world’s lacking light That lightly lit lamppost which hovers above A bastion of safety, an olive branch dove But getting down to it, when push comes to shove What more is a lamppost than shadow’s first love And what more is darkness than shadow of all And what more is progress without wherewithal And what more is pride if a loss must befall Ah, that one brings things that I’d try not recall ~~~ Retracing his footsteps to where this did start An odd pile of petals torn down from his heart They’ve faded like pre-post-pop-pastoral art His yoke overborne; his oxeye torn apart But don’t get him wrong he’s been broken a while The eye that he tore is what’s left of the pile The world on his shoulders, well that’s just his style His shoes aren’t that bad if you just walk a mile But walking a mile, even that’s not his game He’s under this lamplight like nothing so lame It’s not like he came here in search of some fame Although I’m here watching, I don’t know his name But what’s in a name, either famous or nought Just knowing of someone’s not giving them thought Just wanting for something won’t make it then sought Just teaching yourself doesn’t make you self-taught ~~~ The dawn was the door to what day had in store He saw only darkness, the same as before But still, he reached down, to retrieve from the floor For what more’s a man than the petals he tore

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I’ve thought of you just once this year so far, I wish that I could stop. But, if I did, I’d only then remember you again.

The shock of reminiscence jars me more than the constancy of thought. So, I leave you in a single thought that cannot stop.

I put myself far down, where you can’t see the movements I make towards a future unattainable from such a depth. But, knowing this, I keep digging. Distracted.

That single thought pushed back against my skull.

The dark down here consumes me, as it should, all I’m left is consumable and worn.

The light above still bares your silhouette, and with that, the thought survives within me.

The rain, at last, falls down upon my back.

The darkness here complete without your light.

The thought that cannot stop has reached an end.

The emptiness reminds me what I’ve lost.

That single twitch of memory returns.

The thought that cannot stop begins again.

I’ve thought of you just twice this year so far, I wish that I could stop. But, when I do I only then remember you again.

Words by Ben Carr

Constants.

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There were once mornings his breath did not leave him. Escape him, fleeing in favour of some taught-skinned, solid-boned replacement. The supple man he is no longer. That man would not struggle to separate his skin from his linen sheets - crinkled, yellowed, worn. That man would lift his legs - swing! - as if to borrow the air’s buoyance. That man does not wake only with terror in his chest.

Saul is not that man. He remembers this every morning.

On the first attempt, he is reminded: this body is not your own. Because in a night he cannot place, someone has traded the parts of him he knew. Where are his ribs among the lead? Where are his ankles within the iron? The bed frame does not answer him, but his fingers reach for its wood - his sole confidant. He will show no one his pain. On the second attempt, he rises.

The carpet grants his first exhale. Into it he sinks - his body’s condition - or he will move no further. Not a grain in all its fibres disturbs this release, he ensures it. And how else to separate the days? Monday: vacuum. Tuesday: mop.

Wednesday: scour. Thursday: scrub. But on these Fridays, the excuses do not oblige him. Lifted brows, arched lips. Sure! The bleach splits your skin, not the years. The dust dulls your eyes, not the strain. But he knows: when the work stops, so will his breath. He fights the decay.

Butter on toast, a silent stomach; only a clear sink satiates him. But it is his proof. It is the last of all that needs him, his body, it cannot be neglected. Into the wilted bag he reaches - fur? Mould. Twenty-eight slices in a loaf, twelve eggs in a carton; numbers fewer than his own, and yet they defeat him. The blackened bread asks: where are the others? The rotten shells cry: why aren’t we gone?

Why aren’t we gone?

It is in his bones, his blood, but the sound pains him most: a mug clattering against its saucer. Hands that will not steady. Spilled coffee. If these were mine, they would listen. They would be still. But they are not, do not. To reach the counter, his sanctuary, takes more than he has. And so he allows himself to sit.

He allows himself another page: eight through thirteen. And on the twelfth: four men in the dirt, all parts of them one - bared teeth and damp hair and tired veins. Last night’s game. He allows himself the thought: Has he seen this? But the last time he called Now’s not a good time, Dad. I’ll call you tomorrow?

7:31. The morning ahead of him.

7:31

Words by Sabrina Donato

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Responding to the article ‘Labor deliberately

designed climate policies to skip over the crossbench’ by Mike Foley of The Sydney Morning Herald.

A few days before this was written, Energy Minister Chris Bowen came out and announced that he’d deliberately designed most of Labor’s climate policies to ensure that no new legislation was needed to implement them. Naturally, this is because Labor knows their climate policies fall far short of what the Greens, who hold the balance of power in the Senate would be willing to accept, and god forbid they’d have to go further.

Bowen went on to argue that they’d been given a ‘mandate’ by winning a majority government and therefore have the right to ignore the Greens and Teals and implement their own policies.

First off, I find this argument by Bowen simplistic and annoyingly wrong. Yes, Labor won a majority government. No one’s disputing that. But Bowen’s assumes that all of Labor’s voters are supporters of their climate policies. That being the entire 4,630,223 people who voted for them, not a single one supports more ambitious climate policies, such as those proposed by the Greens. That all Labor voters expect them to only implement Labor’s rather unambitious targets and not go a step further. Labor is not only ignoring what’s likely a significant proportion of their base, but they’re risking further alienating them and putting seats at risk. It also ignores that while Labor likely won the seats it did, mostly based on cost-of-living and other issues, there was a tremendous swing to the Greens and Independents on issues of climate. The crossbench doubled in size and bar one (Dai Le), and every new Independent elected at the 2022 election is there because communities desired stronger climate change action. Greens and Independents ran on targets explicitly more ambitious than Labor’s. How can Labor see this and not get the hint that the public wants more?

Before I go further, what are the policy differences?

Labor supports reaching net-zero emissions by 2050, 43% emissions cuts by 2030, and increased investment in renewables.. The Greens want net-zero by 2035 or earlier, 75% emissions cuts by 2030, and an immediate ban on new coal, oil, and gas projects. There is no uniform policy amongst the Teals but some have voiced support for 60% emissions reduction by 2030. A report by the non-profit Climate Analytics warns that Labor’s 2030 plans (which it promises to meet but refuses to legislate) are consistent with a rise in global warming by 2˚C. The IPCC has warned that reaching this level of warming would have

Words by Sebastian Andrew disastrous consequences for health and ecosystems globally, even in Australia. While 1.5˚C of warming still promises increased weather events and environmental damage, the IPCC states that even meeting this level is far more favourable than doing nothing which inevitably will lead to greater global warming..

Labor’s policies and refusal to go further isn’t just ignoring the public and a foolish electoral strategy; all arguments of electoral implications aside, it’s flying in the face of what scientific evidence is saying needs to be done for the survival of the planet, and us. Bowen dismissed criticism of this target and stated that 43% is consistent to reach 2050. Two points; sorry to tell you this, but these people don't know what they’re talking about. And it’s cute to mention 2050 as if this target hasn’t already been rubbished for falling far short of what’s necessary.

The last few years have highlighted the threat posed by climate change to Australia. And it’s hard to understand why off the back of record hot temperatures, devastating bushfires and once in a hundred-year floods (all events which are expected to get only worse) that Labor would see what’s happening, talk about a science-based approach towards climate change in the election, and to then take what those scientists have warned and promised to still undershoot.

It’s foolish for Labor to see the message that was sent with the election of the Teals, and the surge in support for the Greens – and the loss of one of their seats and near loss of another – and to shrug their shoulders and insist that the public is fully in support of their weak targets. To think that ‘soft Labor’ voters aren’t afraid to give their preferences to the Greens at the next election. Or that ‘soft Liberal’ voters concerned about the climate won’t skip right over them in favour of a Green or an Independent.

And it’s aggravating as someone who’s going to be growing up in a world with less biodiversity, intensely hot summers, water pressures (and I have it pretty well off! There’s many people across Australia who’ll be doing it far, far worse) to watch the Labor party whiff at these concerns.

Is there time for Labor to change course and embrace more ambitious, scientifically accurate targets? Yes. But do I think Labor will continue to marginalise those calling for more action and keep their middle of the road targets? Also yes.

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7 REASONS YOU SHOULD BE AN INTERN AS PART OF YOUR ARTS DEGREE You know the drill:. You’re at a party and you’ve stumbled

Words by Stephanie into a conversation with a stranger. They ask you what Komar you do. You tell them you study full time. They ask what

you’re studying. You tell them you’re doing an Arts degree. Bypassing the inevitable passion underpinning your choice of degree, they ask the dreaded question: “What will you do when you graduate?”

The value of studying arts is often overlooked. As a creative writing major my first lecture entailed the realisation that an arts degree probably wasn’t taking me to lucrative places. Statistically, the average fiction writer earns 31k a year and look, so far, it’s true.

I’ve not made any money from creative writing. But the value of studying arts is beyond a dollar figure. So, if you’re in the midst of some soul searching about why studying arts was a good idea, then buckle up. This article is for you.

1. As an Intern, you will be pushed in ways that are kinder than uni deadlines

For some, producing creative work under pressure is oxymoronic. When stressed, the brain diverts its creative juices to function in survival mode. Conversely, as an intern your deadlines are negotiable (and not all at the same time). You determine your own success. You will have the privilege of holding yourself accountable.

Nervous yet? You shouldn’t be. Claiming responsibility for the work you produce with real-life feedback is a liberating process! You will get to ride the highs of little wins and the quality of your work will benefit from the sweet, consistent flow of validation.

2. You’ll lean into your If you’ve never used CareerHub, put down this issue passions of On Dit right now and open your laptop. CareerHub

advertises internships, paid jobs, graduate roles and free employability courses all year round. Most internships will be unpaid but the variety is impressive. Narrow your search down and focus on your interests. There are loads of options in Aboriginal affairs, sustainability, local government and community development just to name a few. However, if choice overwhelms you, I can

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confirm KWY Aboriginal Corporation and Indigneous Education and Boarding Australia are fantastic options. Both organisations will cater to students of Arts, Marketing, International Relations and Media, and both are doing incredible work in the Indigenous sector.

3. You’ll learn the Hot tip: increase your social currency by telling your colleagues practicality of about your skill set. Once word spread that I was proficient at creativity copy editing, I was inundated with requests to proofread letters,

emails, articles and tendered grants. Suddenly, a degree in the arts presented an unforeseen practicality, improving my editing abilities and teaching me the value of transferrable skills that Arts degrees are notorious for.

4. Your role as an Generally, your mentor will have a predetermined direction for the intern will build on duration of your internship. However, most mentors will be willing your strengths to build on your strengths and interests because they know the

organisation will benefit from your best quality work! Use this to your advantage. Tell them what skills you want to develop and they will help you thrive.

5. Your colleagues will invest in your professional development

As an intern, you’ll be the fresh face everyone is interested in. If you’re an introvert and that sentence makes you nervous as hell, don’t worry. You’re not expected to be a professional or a social butterfly. Your colleagues will meet you where you’re at and will reminisce about their own uni days. Most will even advise you on your career aspirations. Don’t forget to connect with them on LinkedIn!

6. You will make Using your internship as an opportunity to network is the ultimate invaluable career uni hack. In my first internship, one of my colleagues had worked for connections the Department of Social Services for over thirty years. Establishing that connection meant that six months down the track, I had a mentor who excitedly assisted me with my application for the graduate program at the DSS. These connections are invaluable. When the graduate positions open, all external motivation helps because those applications can be monstrous.

7. It will take you Literally. My first internship with Indigenous Education and places Boarding Australia took me to Cairns for a week to assist in

organising a national event. My current internship with KWY has supported local newspapers publishing my articles which is far more rewarding than any assessment grade. Most mentors will encourage you to step outside of your comfort zone so make sure you’re ready to say “hell yeah” when the opportunities arise. Who knows, maybe you’ll be offered ongoing employment at the end of your contract.

Take A Leap of Every internship is what you make of it. Practical experience will be a segue for all those hours spent in your room, pumping out Faith assessments under the influence of red bull and noodles, into a career where you’ll dress respectably and communicate with others at normal hours of the day. Remember: lean into your interests. Say yes to all opportunities. Use your internship to build on your strengths.

Connect with your colleagues on LinkedIn. Watch yourself blossom like the little legend that you are.

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The Second Day of My New Job Words by Louis Campbell

The walk home felt like a walk through a catacomb, the trunks were wide pillars, and behind them lay killers.

Do I pick my teeth with a branch? Do I ask -? for a new Clothbound Classic -? every time my foot itches? Light quivers.

The night’s hand, covered in cloth, wipes the heat off my cheeks like it were some filths on a ratty tabletop.

Some brothers face covered in blood and slob. As the fist hit his face and his skull knocks about in his head.

Tears fly with zest.

Like oils which spray from an orange peel when pressed.

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BOYS WILL BE BOYS

It’s 2017.

State election posters plaster the street where we worked together in a camping store selling dreams of open spaces at a discount rate.

It’s a Saturday.

I am that drunk girl at the club.

Tell me, which word stands out more?

To be that girl invokes a memory, doesn’t it?

If you’ve never been to a club, you have seen her, heard about her, maybe you know her.

Maybe it’s the word drunk that pushes images of sloppy, slippery, matted hair, clammy hands, smaller than you, though stronger than you thought No. The word of importance here is girl.

Old enough to buy a pair of fishnet stockings to feel covergirl sexy

adult in the eyes of the beholder augmented through the lens of vodka.

Do you know where this is going?

Of course you do. this story isn’t about me, It’s about your sister Aunty friend And the boy with the acne?

He’s your Uncle brother best mate but a Good-Guy It’s 2022.

State election posters plaster the streets I study on.

He’s in one of my classes.

My lecturer refers to him as guy in the yellow shirt, so that’s what I’ll call him Because guy who didn’t ask doesn’t feel just and Good-Guy from work who should have kept me safe but followed that night with abusive text messages

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Is just too much of a mouthful.

And guy who raped me just doesn’t want to come out of my mouth.

Guy in the yellow shirt has a lot to say.

What a surprise for a politics class.

I pull the face mask up to my nose and stay quiet, the yellow from his shirt burning me like a distant, dying star.

I leave the lecture to go home, stay quiet, and not let my boyfriend touch me.

I was that drunk girl at the club.

He was my colleague, Good-Guy friend of many years.

I was that drunk girl at the club.

But the only detail that I can remember is I was drunk I was drunk I was drunk

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LET’S LET’S WRITE WRITE A A PHILOSOPHY PHILOSOPHY ESSAY ESSAY YOU YOU TWAT TWAT 15 SONGS FROM THE DEPTHS OF MY NIHILISM *LISTEN IN ORDER*

YEH I FUCKIN’ DID IT LABRINTH

PASTA ANGIE MCMAHON

BASKET CASE GREEN DAY

SPACE ODDITY DAVID BOWIE

NO PLAN HOZIER

53.49 CHILDISH GAMBINO

ALL EYES ON ME BO BURNHAM

NO APOLOGIES NIRVANA

MARCELINE WILLOW

PUMP UP THE JAM TECHNOTRONIC

KEEP DRIVING HARRY STYLES

PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS KID CUDI, MGMT, RATATAT, STEVE AOKI

BLUE WORLD MAC MILLER

BLITZKRIEG BOP RAMONES

(IF) THE BOOK DOESN’T SELL RITT MOMNEY

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CROSSWORD ISSUE 6

down: 2. Level _____ is where the On Dit office is.

3. The name proposed as part of the AUU rebranding.

4. ‘My Stolen _____’, a creative writing piece in this issue.

7. The Zodiac sign for June 21 to July 22.

10. An organisation that underpays the (female) 2022 On Dit Editors.

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across : 1. The type of art featured in the On Dit 2022 logo.

5. The building the On Dit office is in.

6. A club recently denied registration with UofA’s student union.

8. A type of food mentioned in the ‘15 songs from the depths of my nihilism’ playlist in this issue.

9. The most stressful type of assessment.

11. How many On Dit editors are there?

12. What animal is on the front cover of Issue 2?

solution on page 55

THE FREE Grown up to believe Your soul, you do not need Decisions are made Your life is the trade Start to twist, stir, turn No longer conform Move to your own two feet Move to your own beat Now you're moving with the free In life you've got two choices You've got one, two voices The voice that's deep inside Past the ego and the pride Listen to what's said Use the heart that bled The fire that died Use the soul that cried The mind's other side The feelings that you hide Now you're feeling with the free The intention That's your mission Of the soul To help you grow Listen closely Who you will be Now you're talking with the free

Words by Marie-Louise Incoll

41

Your signs as male manipulator albums.

Words by Jenny Jung

I’ve come across my fair share of male manipulators in my lifetime. I’ve also spent many hours and years entertaining myself with astrology. So if you’ve ever wondered what font of male manipulator you are, I can confidently say I am the authority on this issue. (Before you get butthurt at the truth, I used my spotify as reference for this article).

CANCER | JUN 21-JUL 22 UNKNOWN PLEASURES, JOY DIVISION

We’re starting off with a classic - something selfvictimising and brooding to soundtrack Cancer season. You watched Control and villainized Ian Curtis’ wife for getting angry when Ian cheated on her. You suck at film photography.

LEO | JUL 23-AUG 22 THE SMITHS, THE SMITHS

The Smiths’ self-titled album is popular, well-loved and timeless - everything you aspire to be. But in reality, you are just like Morrissey - entitled, attention-seeking and annoying. You are most likely oblivious to your own cringe.

VIRGO | AUG 21-SEP 22 EITHER/OR, ELLIOTT SMITH

I bet a lot of people are concerned about you. You act like you are better than other people because you don’t ‘waste time’ on relationships, and play the devil’s advocate in your poli sci classes. But deep down, you know you’re lonely and tired.

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LIBRA | SEP 23-OCT 22 ANY APHEX TWIN ALBUM

Libras can be likened to Aphex Twin because they’re strange and complicated, but not necessarily all that great, yet people will pretend to like them because they think they’re cool, unbothered and edgy.

SCORPIO | OCT 23-NOV 21 DEATHCONSCIOUSNESS, HAVE A NICE LIFE

I actually like this album a lot, but I don’t know that many Scorpios. Based on my limited experience, Scorpios are intense and cool but cringe at the same time. You tend to lash out and embarrass yourself. I respect your ability to really hold onto grudges.

SAGITTARIUS | NOV 22-DEC 21 ANY CLAIRO ALBUM You don’t actually listen to songs that aren’t Bags or Pretty Girl, and you don’t respect Clairo as an artist - you pretend to like her to get women. In short, you’re ‘ran through’ and there is a high chance that if I meet you I won’t like you.

CAPRICORN | DEC 22-JAN 19 DRIVE (2011) OST

You genuinely believe in grindset. You probably only like girls who don’t have opinions or aspirations.

AQUARIUS | JAN 20-FEB 18 STRATOSPHERE, DUSTER

You grew up being called the gifted child, but now you just have unresolved attention issues and struggle to open up to others. You probably have mommy issues.

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PISCES | FEB 19-MAR 20 AMERICAN FOOTBALL, AMERICAN FOOTBALL

The god of all male manipulators. You share the sign with Machine Gun Kelly, who got his wife an engagement ring that will injure her if she tries to remove it. Like Cancers, they love playing victim. Cannot commit to save their lives.

ARIES | MAR 21-APR 20 AROUND THE FUR, DEFTONES

You think you’re a sex god, a rebel, maybe even an edgelord. Actually, you’re a little bit cringe. Aries men remind me of those bearded millennial men on Tiktok claiming to love to put their partner’s pleasure first and how good they are at it, but in reality last about 3 minutes and don’t realise that they’re faking it.

GEMINI | MAY 21-JUN 21 RACE, ALEX G

Playful, spontaneous and smart, but with a hefty dose of superiority complex - just like the discography of Alex G. Effortlessly cool, but oftentimes alienating.

TAURUS | APR 21-MAY20 BLOND, FRANK OCEAN

An easy listen, just like making friends with a Taurus. At first glance they’re sweet, down-to-earth and caring. But once you get to know them, you start to see their toxic sides. Taurus men buy their clothes from Universal Store. Stay away.

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MY STOLEN SHEEP Words by Emily Miller

I miss my sheep. He was taken from me a few weeks ago. He hasn’t yet returned. I don’t know if I’ll ever see him again. He was one of my closest friends, you know. We’d spend many hours every day sitting together.

Sometimes he’d roll around the grassy fields, playing with his sheepy friends, and I’d laugh as he’d bound around and fall over. Sometimes we would just lie together and ease into a peaceful doze. Sometimes we’d wander and see all his flock. Some would stop and bleat to say hello, others would merely run past in a flurry. Such silly things, sheep are. I’d lie on the soft ground and watch them wander, their wool like clouds in the sky.

But then there was an accident, and I realise now, he was stolen from me. It was a car accident I think. The details are blurry, but I’m sure there was a car. Blood stained the road, and a corpse was pulled from the scene.

Of course I still see the sheep. I have to. It’s not the same without him, though. They were oncoming lights, not clouds anymore. They were horns blaring, not gentle bleats.

Sleepless nights come and go, and I realise, we count our sheep to know all of them are safe. But some are stolen from us through vicious plot, selfishness, and accidents.

Mine was stolen that cloudy night when a car tore around a corner and collided with my own. The driver’s body had flown through his window to land on my window. His blank eyes stared at me through the cracking glass while I lay trapped in my own wreckage, and his blood spilled over the road.

It haunts me.

‘Talk to someone,’ they said. I did.

‘Try medication,’ they said. I did.

‘Just move on,’ they said. I couldn’t.

I would lay in my bed and count my sheep until I got to 99 and I remembered all over again that the 100th had been stolen from me. And I would never get him back.

45

THE

LORD OF THE

RINGS NEEDS MORE

SONGS

Words by Caitlin Battye (she/her)

Now, as all my friends can attest, to say I love Lord of the Rings would be a slight understatement. Those films and books have remained a classic over decades, and for good reason. They’re fantastic and perfect - for the most part.

There is, however, a glaring issue when it comes to the Peter Jackson film trilogy that, as the years have gone by, I have found increasingly difficult to overlook.

Of course, no one can fault the cinematography of the trilogy, or Howard Shore’s grand sweeping score, or the incredible set pieces and landscapes, or the acting that brought the characters to life. It would also be impossible to find any fault in the effects, especially in its genius usage of scale and forced perspective. Indeed, the only true fault that I find myself increasingly bothered with on

46

each of my rewatches is the tragic lack of all the great many songs and poems Tolkien penned in the books.

The inclusion of each of these songs would have helped better establish both the lore and the vibe of the trilogy, and would have added some sorely-needed additional time to what is, quite frankly, a disappointingly short runtime.

There are three main arguments I anticipate people raising at this point. The first being that the films have some songs, in snippets, here and there. And sure, Gandalf may murmur the words to the Roads Go Ever On and On, Aragorn may have his own emo moment and sing Beren and Luthien on his lonesome (in Elvish…so we don’t even get the emo lyrics because not even I’m a big enough nerd to be fluent in Sindarin!), and Pippin gets his sickass solo set to the tune of Denethor’s

tomato munching. But it isn’t enough! If anything, these brief instances should be an indication of the dire need for these scenes to be increased in length and quantity.

The phrase “less is more” could not be less applicable in this scenario.

The second argument I can imagine some smart-ass saying is that the Hobbit films included several songs so clearly what I’m asking for is the Lord of the Rings to be more like the Hobbit, to which my response is shut up and join me in purging those films from our collective memories.

We don’t talk about them.

The third argument is that there are many ‘people’ who, for some bizarre reason, skip over the songs in the books, so why bother adding them in the films unless you wanna give a crash course in fast-forwarding? The answer is simple. These individuals are pen-channas (Sindarin for “idiots”). The songs in the books are great, and add so much! There’s the meta element of a song about a Man and an Elf falling in love (although the song skips all the cool stuff about werewolves and lost hands that you get in the Silmarillion), sung by a Man in love with an Elf. Now THAT’S what I call meta! You also get 5 pages of a song about a half-elf who sails a boat through the sky - lore which actually does flesh out Elrond’s character so he seems less ‘protective dad’ over his 2,901 year old daughter. You also get a song about trees realising they should’ve respected women more, and I am of the firm belief that the only way to improve Boromir’s incredible cinematic death would be with the inclusion of a song about the wind being sad about this death.

It’s good shit, and adds to the

richness and depth of the world of Middle Earth.

The Lord of the Rings films desperately need more songs. The songs are the true heart of the books, through which so much knowledge and emotion is imparted to the audience. Even if some may be too weak of mind to appreciate the high IQ language of Tolkien’s songs, that need not necessarily spell out the end of the plea for more songs in the films. Indeed, the concept of increased songs in the Lord of the Rings films certainly has the potential to be a popular one. In a random survey of my friend group, my friend Annika stated that “they should’ve just made Lord of the Rings a jukebox musical”, insisting upon Saruman singing the 2013 smash hit ‘Timber’ by Pitbull ft.

Ke$ha as part of his attempts to bring down the mountain Caradhas upon the Fellowship. I, naturally, conceded to this artistic vision as a preferable manner of execution if we’re insisting on having Saruman be involved in Caradhas at all.

This sort of innovative approach is exactly what the fantasy genre needs to stay relevant. Peter Jackson, call me.

47

No, BTS should NOT be called activists Words by Cameron Cook The members of the South Korean K-pop group, BTS, are seen by many as not just musicians but also social justice activists. At first glance, this seems logical. The group has spoken at the United Nations several times, partnered with UNICEF to end violence, and recently gave an address at the White House to confront the uprise of anti-Asian hate in the United States. BTS fans would point to such instances and celebrate the group’s progressive social justice stance. Yes, I will applaud BTS for their work to elevate anti-racist discourse to the mainstream in the West. However, I will strongly argue that BTS should not and CAN NOT be called simply ‘activists’, but rather ‘activists when it is commercially appropriate’.

Within South Korea, discrimination is rife. Employers often advertise positions outlining conditions including but not limited to; gender, marital status, children, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. To even say that discrimination is an ‘open secret’ is laughable. No one tries to hide their discrimination - it is just ‘open’.

LGBTQ+ groups openly have not only their identities but their mere existence attacked and degraded by the powerful Christian elite.

48

Anti-LGTBQ+ discrimination is not on the decline in South Korea - on the contrary, it is becoming further solidified and institutionalised, with vocal homophobes being elected as mayors of the three most populous cities earlier this month. Feminist movements within the country are also constantly pushed back by conservatives, with the recently elected president running on a strong anti-feminist platform. Vocal antifeminists, primarily young men, are firm believers in the illusion of gender equality already existing in Korea. They believe feminists are attacking their identities by fighting for a ‘female supremacy’. Of course, when you look at the statistics, you will quickly realise how ridiculous such claims are. The truth is, South Korea consistently ranks last within the OECD for gender equality.

However, such discrimination in South Korea must not exist, right? I mean - BTS, the great ‘social justice activists’ themselves, don’t speak about such discrimination within their home country, so it must be a non-issue, correct? I mean, surely BTS would speak up if there were such horrendous discrimination actually occurring. The truth is,

though such discrimination does exist - BTS is just not the activist group that their fans and Western commentators like to frame them as.

BTS are vocal on social justice issues in the West because it suits them financially. The ongoing and widespread discrimination in South Korea faced by women, sexual minorities, and foreigners has not once been addressed by the group.

Small community groups in South Korea - mainly feminist and LGBTQ+ groups, have been long pushing for the introduction of a South Korean AntiDiscrimination Bill. BTS, the group that only earlier this month spoke to the anti-Asian discrimination in the United States, should, as social justice activists, speak to this issue - right? However, both BTS and its upper management know that fighting against discrimination within South Korea would be terrible for them financially. BTS fight for social justice in the West, where they will receive good reception and positive capital gains but are silent on important issues within South Korea. If BTS were serious about fighting discrimination, they would fight for minority groups regardless of any financial or character damage they may face. Until BTS addresses discrimination within South Korea, they should not be addressed as activists but rather by their true label - capitalists.

49

Adelaide’s music scene is diverse, noisy, quirky and well, some of it is really bloody good ASSHOLES WITCH SPIT

Words by Chanel Trezise I’ve made it one of my aims this year to go to more local gigs and listen to more local music. So I thought, heck, why not do some song reviews and recommendations to plug a few brilliant local bands.

Here are a few songs (and bands) I’d really recommend you listen to.

INSTAGRAM @ witch_spit_

Witch Spit is the resurgent Riot Grrrl, garage-rock, feminist-punk band of my dreams. The song Assholes ties together piercing riffs, loud, frantic drumming and angry vocals into the perfect commentary on misogynistic men.

I really loved this song and Witch Spit’s music as a whole. Assholes details the prevalent shitty, disgusting behaviour of men in local, punk music scenes with the perfect amount of badass punk, guitar and bitey melodies to really FACEBOOK say ‘fuck-you’ to misogynistic, Witch Spit well, Assholes.

DIVE MOLLY ROCKET

Molly Rocket orchestrates a beautiful melody of chaotic 90s noise and indie rock. Songs like DIVE are fast-paced, upbeat, catchy and so incredibly fun. I can picture myself dancing along to this song at a gig, or grooving along to it home alone with my headphones in. I love the way the drums and bass coordinate and compliment the lead singer’s beautiful, soft voice. This song, and Molly Rocket’s music as a whole really had a way of wrapping around me and making me smile.

INSTAGRAM FACEBOOK @ mollyrocket_adl Molly Rocket

REAL LIFE CITY FEET

Goodness, I loved this song City Feet! It gave me the best, coming-of-age, indie Australianrock vibes. When I heard this song I felt like I was frantically riding a bike home from school, confused but excited as I realised the world isn’t the place I thought it was. I loved the noise of the guitars and drums, the soft and breathy vocals, and the exciting, reeling feeling leading up to and during the chorus. This song and City Feet’s sound are incredibly fun, it makes me feel as though the world isn’t as bad as it is.

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Larsen is the perfectly crafted combination of noisy grungepunk rock and alt-goodness. I am in awe of Eating Me Alive’s hard, echoey riffs, rhythmic drums and intoxicating vocals which express such heartfelt lyrics. The guitars play front and centre and add such a powerful element to the chorus! Larsen have really outdone themselves with the production quality on this track. me smile.

FACEBOOK Larsen

RELEASE SYCAMORE

INSTAGRAM @ theband sycamore FACEBOOK SYCAMORE

AN UNFORTUNATE TALE OF TWO LOVERS AND AN INSATIABLE TASTE FOR POISON WOLF & CHAIN

INSTAGRAM @ wolfandchainband

INSTAGRAM @ larsen.music

SYCAMORE soothing, rhythmic melodies and soft vocals dance with you in their song Release.

I love SYCAMORE’s sound, they remind me of a softer, sweeter and less surfer-esque Ocean Alley.

Release is a calming yet emotional journey, filled with the ups and downs of smooth guitar riffs, echoing vocals and fantastically warm drumming. SYCAMORE’s sound is so incredibly peaceful, however deeply complex and emotional, what a fantastic band!

Wolf & Chain’s theatrical, horrorthemed punk rock and lyrics are incredible. An Unfortunate Tale of Two Lovers is no exception to this; the song excitingly guides the listener through its intoxicating bass, awesome drums and striking vocals to tell the tale alluded to in the title. Similarto many Wolf & Chain songs, An Unfortunate Tale of Two Lovers crafts a magical story through likewise magical music.

On Dit’s local song recommendations!

EATING ME ALIVE LARSEN

FACEBOOK Wolf & Chain 51

A Review of the prose piece It Ended How It Began written by Grace Atta.

Words by Connor Murphy

Published in the University of Adelaide’s May edition of On Dit, Grace Atta’s It Ended How It Began describes the heaving ebb of creation and destruction, and features the theme of circularity. The piece echoes the nostalgic voice of a person who seeks out the grandeur of the little moments and an appreciation of what once was. A song, a dance, friendship, and romance all reach finality, but that they happened, is enough to fill one’s heart.

Atta’s prose is reminiscent of the philosophical phenomena described by Friedrich Nietzsche in The Birth of Tragedy which he titles ‘Eternal Return’: a doctrine which frames human existence as a continuous cycle of reoccurring events. The circularity of the events portrayed in the subdued eloquence of Atta’s writing evokes a sense of sentimentality. It is in the revelation, that it isn’t the beginning or end which matters, but the “space in-between” which grants life and these moments meaning.

The paradox of Atta’s piece is that it begins as something totally inconsequential, a thought, and ends with a revelation that means everything. The beauty of it lies not in the subtle pessimism of an end, but the celebration of existence. I felt my heart shatter before Atta pieced it back together in her undying optimism of these moments. And once mended upon reading her work, each chamber was bound by gold; her lyricism became kintsugi, and within the space between lay something beautiful.

52

A RESPONSE TO THE LETTER TO THE EDITORS I swim in a sea of Labor tears and I am happy about it.

- Habibah Jaghoori

53

CROSSWORD SOLUTION

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