OCTOBER ISSUE STUDENT PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
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EDITORIAL Speak up! Editor Lara Campbell
I want to be an English teacher not because I have a passionate love for essay writing (who does?) but because mastering the use of words is one of the most important skills that a person can possess. To speak with eloquence and clarity is a gift. To be heard is an even greater privilege. Words are important because words give life. Using the words “Let there be…” God created a universe. I recall the story of Moses freaking out in front of a burning bush about the fact that he didn’t have the right words to convince pharaoh to release the entire nation of Israel out of captivity. The wisest man who has ever lived said, “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute” (Proverbs 31:8). John calls Jesus in John 1 ‘The Word’. I think too often we forget the privilege, the responsibility and the power of our words. The next couple of days are a chance to use your words for good. The student-run Children Behind Bars campaign calls attention to an urgent issue – you can use your voice to advocate for children living in Australia’s detention centres (see page 8). The Student Presidential Q&A and Elections allow for the student body to elect a leader who will clearly communicate to the head honchos on your behalf (see pages 16-17) – this is an excellent time to flag your ideas, needs or concerns to the candidates. We are being called to “Speak up!” Don’t waste the opportunity
Graphic Designer Jorden Tually Assistant Editor Charlotte O’Neill Writing Contributors Lawson Hull Lara Steele Bianka Dyson Ellyse Brooks Emma Naden-Johns Cameron Fletcher Mark Singh Photo Contributors Everyone for tagging #avondalexp this year. Over 1500 Avondale Experiences tagged! Special Thanks Colin Chuang Nachos Gun Laws Ew! Mr Bean Laurina #dirtystreetpie Wikipedia No thanks ISIS Magpies Folding fitted sheets White-line fever Bachie Blake Hayfever
to use your words for good. Lara Campbell The Voice Editor The views and opinions expressed in The Voice are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of Avondale College of Higher Education.
13_ NEEDLES
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08_ BEHIND BARS:
President’s Piece
CHILDREN DESERVE BETTER 15_ ISSUES OF AN
OUTDOOR STUDENT 16_ Meet Bacon 17_ Meet Dayn
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#avondalexp Snapshots From Last Month
06_ The Bachelor{ette}
18_ While You Were Sleeping
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INSIDE
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CONTRIBUTOR CORNER Emma Naden-Johns Is at Avondale because she feels like she needed to uphold her family’s Adventist dynastic
PRESIDENT’S PIECE One of the greatest things about Facebook is the ability it gives us to keep in contact with those we value, despite the great distance that can spring up. After all, you make a lot of friends in the years here and not every one of them will be within driving distance after
Cameron Fletcher Decided to come to Avondale because he was “blinded by the Light” (Saul of Tarsus style).
College. I made many friends in Theology class, a lot of whom have graduated and begun work. One thing I’ve noticed though, is that where once they used to post about a variety of
Luke Bacon
experiences they’d had now it’s all to do with
Does not eat bacon. He is vegetarian.
their ministry. Sometimes I wonder if ministry robots replaced these vibrant people sometime after grad. But this highlights a deeper issue with which a
Dayn McKay
great many of us struggle. Too often we define
Believes that if you’re shorter than him you should vote for him.
ourselves by what we do, rather than who we are. We equate busyness with success and we let our identity be tied up in that which takes, takes, takes; instead of something that blesses
Lara Steele Nothing quite gets Lara excited like a dramatic episode of The Bachelor.
us and reminds us of the reason we exist. Take time out to remind yourself of what’s important. No one with the benefit of hindsight ever wished they’d busted themselves at the expense of the important things and people in
Ellyse Brooks Only vacuums when she is home alone so she can sing as loud as she wants.
their life.
Mitchell Strahan Student President
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VOX POP Jordan Duncan
Lionel Richie
Jess Murray
Sandra Bullock
Haley Forrester
Nicole Richie
Benji Carrasco
Cristiano Ronaldo
Josh Stothers
Chris Hemsworth
Maree Bagley
Brooke Davidson
Beyonce
Wes Hendricks
Violet from The Incredibles
Bruno Mars
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Who is your doppelg채nger?
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INTERVIEW_
THE BACHELOR{ETTE} Get to know some of Avondales most eligible bachelors/ bachelorettes!
Myressa Evans n. Mature, Majestic, Mystical, Mysterious and Merry. Describe your most awkward dating situation. I have never been on a date. What is your favourite pick-up line? You know what the temple veil and I have in common? We’re both ripped.
Who is your celebrity crush? Greg Inglis. No explanation needed. What’s the most unattractive thing a girl/guy could do. Be arrogant. Which do you prefer winter or summer? Summer. I hate the cold.
When and where was the last place you went skinny-dipping? Never done it. If you could be any cartoon character, who would you be? Olaf – because he likes summer. What’s the most attractive feature in a guy/girl? Eyes. Would you ever volunteer as a contestant on the reality TV show ‘The Bachelor’? No. Who do you think is the number one bachelor and bachelorette at College? Kirsten Hughes – she is the whole package. Beautiful, spiritual, sporty, sense of humor and low maintenance. Jordan Duncan – he’s easy going and loyal. And he’s got hectic cool hair! What are the three most important things you look for in a guy? Spiritual, fun-loving and spontaneous.
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Harrison Deanshaw
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n. You can’t discribe me.
Describe your most awkward dating situation? Going on a date with a mate’s mum and having him as a third wheel. What’s your favourite pick-up line? Do you want me to spot you while you do those squats? Who is your celebrity crush? Taylor Swift. Have you seen the music video for ‘Shake It Off’? Describe yourself in five words. Exotic. Gangsta. Pine Tree. Four. Five. What is the most unattractive thing a girl/ guy could do? Smoke. Which do you prefer: winter or summer? I like winter because I like to wear big hipster jumpers like Lawson Hull. Although I do like Summer. When and where was the last place you went skinny-dipping? Lawson and I went for a special trip to the gym last week...
If you could be any cartoon character, who would you be? Jayden Groves. What’s the most attractive feature in a guy/girl. A hipster mindset. Would you ever volunteer as a contestant on the reality TV show ‘The Bachelor’? Yes, I like breaking hearts... Who do you think is the number one bachelor and bachelorette at College? Jared Poland because he knows how to take care of turtles (visit him during open dorms). Jared also enjoys playing basketball games on the PS4, although he is yet to beat me. Also Brooke Davidson because she is just a lovely lady, a gun a shooting three-pointers and quite gangster. She’s also a great listener. What are the three most important things you look for in a girl? Independence, confidence and patience. Interviews by. Mark Singh (the Love Doctor)
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FEATURE_
BEHIND BARS: CHILDREN DESERVE BETTER Ellyse and Emma reveal the disturbing implications of the government’s refugee policies for asylum seeking children. by. Ellyse Brooks & Emma Naden-Johns
Her existence is contained between four concrete walls, her small frame encased in the claustrophobic cell. Each night she is awakened drenched in sweat, the trauma of the persecution and the escape still fresh in her dreams. Gradually, she stops playing with the others outside. She stops eating. The darkness grows thicker. She can’t go home – her country is governed by fear. This prison is her home indefinitely. In a short time she falls into a deep depression, contemplating suicide. And she is not yet ten years old. The Australian government is currently holding 789 children in secure immigration detention centers, both in on and offshore processing centres. The conditions in which these children live would be classified as illegal if an Australian child were to be kept in them. While many Australians support the government’s policy of ‘stopping the boats’ at all costs, many don’t know that our detention system costs at least $5.5 billion per year. The Government’s National Commission of Audit shows that the cost of bringing an asylum seeker to the mainland for a year in either community detention
(less than $100,000 per person per year) or bridging visas (less than $40,000) would be significantly cheaper than keeping them in a detention centre (about $450,000). Economics aside, God calls us to look after those who are poor, oppressed or outcast. The Bible is filled with numerous verses calling our attention to injustice: “Thus says the Lord: Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place” (Jeremiah 22:3, ESV). This is our call to action. The oppression of asylum seekers is plain to see when you visit a detention centre, as Jasmine Hunter did a few weeks back. At Villawood Detention Centre in Sydney, the majority of asylum seekers there are from Sri Lanka. In talking with two of the men, Jasmine discovered that they have lived in the detention centre for five years, without leaving once. One of these men was a victim of physical assault by Sri Lankan soldiers; this assault was the catalyst
9 Visitors to Villawood are left to guess what living conditions the residents are facing beyond the new walls of the visitation room. The horror realities of those detained at Villawood are not unique – mental illness, suicide, poor living conditions and poor treatment are not also faced in all detention centres. The fact that hundreds of children are living in similar conditions is alarming. And so we must take action. To take a stand against the harsh detainment of children, to raise awareness, and to provoke government action, students enrolled in the course Global Justice and
Advocacy are launching a campaign called ‘Behind Bars’, which will run on campus 22—25 October. It includes a student-made detention centre and the locking up of students overnight behind bars, with invitations extended to the larger community and local school groups to visit. There will also be two screenings of the documentary Mary Meets Mohammad, a documentary about a group of older women in Tasmania who knit beanies for asylum seekers in their community, getting to know them in the process and breaking down negative stigmas. Guest
speakers will also address the topic. Take the opportunity this week to be a voice for children who deserve better. As signatories of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the government needs to be held accountable to their international obligation to fulfill the rights of all children, especially those fleeing persecution. Please join us as we petition the government by sending letters and emails to our members for parliament to remind them of this obligation and to petition them to stop the detainment of children.
make it creative / novermber 2015
to flee his country. Now, he suffers from permanent brain damage and is separated from his Sri Lankan mother, with few opportunities to call home. His claim for protection hasn’t been processed and he remains in permanent political limbo with no prospect of release.
Get involved: Doco, Detainment & Donuts. Thurs 23rd Oct, 8.30 pm, College Hall Asylum Seeker Forum & refreshments. Friday 24th Oct, 3.45pm, Ladies Chapel
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PHOTOGRAPHY_
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- The beautiful sunset over shingles a few weeks ago.
11 the voice issue five / oct 2014 - What a cutie.
- Sand dune adventures over break!
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Twitter Fiction
It’s simple.
Write a story in 140 characters or less.
First prize $150 Second prize $80 Runner up $50 Pauly's Pizza Voucher
Entries close Wed. 29th of October!! Celebrity judging panel: Ian Meadows, Australian actor (Home & Away, The Pacific & The Moodys) Ash Ricardo, Australian Actress (Packed to the Rafters & Trickey Business)
Send entries to thevoice@avondale.edu.au Maximum two entries per person. Winner will be an Avondale student.
NEEDLES Cameron was going to get inked, but then God showed up… by. Cameron Fletcher
I was looking forward to feeling the needles shred my skin. My first booking was on the 9th of September at 2:30pm. I was going to get THE BATTLE IS THE LORD’S tattooed across my shoulders. Nice big clean letters. Black ink, nothing fancy. I edited the font in Illustrator, I told a few people about it. They were cool with it. But a few days before going in I got ridiculously sick. I had a fever, and was chugging cough syrup and antibiotics to keep the symptoms under control. So I called up Gav. “Gav, sorry I’m sick. I can’t come in on Tuesday, we’ll have to reschedule.” I flew to NZ for a week and when I returned I went to see Gav and booked another appointment on Friday the 19th of September at 1:30pm. I was excited. But as I drove home I remembered that I had a meeting in Sydney around the same time. So I called up Gav to reschedule. He booked me in again on the 24th. This time he called up on the day and cancelled.
So we made the fourth booking for the 26th at 9:30am. I was walking to my car the night before it was going to happen. Lights flared up behind me on the footpath. “Mr. Fletcher,” boomed a deep bass voice. It was the Avondale security guy - Scott Hill. “What have you been doing?” asked Scott. I casually mentioned the tattoo amongst other things. “God says don’t do it - you’ll regret it. Write it on your heart, not on your skin.” Far out. That was pretty straight to the point. So I went home and hesitantly looked up Leviticus 19:28 and the New Testament links. They were pretty straightforward too. I still wanted it. But I forced myself to make the fourth cancellation probably one of my wiser decisions in recent times. Maybe that’s one battle the Lord fought against me?
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FEATURE_
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ISSUES OF AN OUTDOOR STUDENT Going from an indoor student to outdoor student has definitely shown Lara how easy the indoors have it. Here’s just a glimpse of the issues outdoors have to deal with… by. Lara Steele
Getting to class in the morning No jumping out of bed, grabbing your laptop and stumbling to class for us. For outdoors our morning routine includes driving ALL the way to college, going through that dumb boom gate (where someone is always bound to have forgotten their card and hold up the traffic), then over Mt Everest* to get into the carpark, and once we finally park our car then there is the huge walk from the carpark to our lectures. I’ve given up on trying to fit breakfast into that routine. Class cancellation 8am class, you already know the effort it takes outdoor students to get to class, so an early class for us is ten times as bad. So to turn up at 8am class to find out via a note on the door that CLASS HAS BEEN CANCELLED! ARE YOU KIDDING LECTURER? What am I supposed to do now? For indoors it’s fine, they can just turn around and walk back to their bed, but outdoors… hello library. Bean bag time? Clothing choices So it’s a sunny warm morning, you’re sitting in class. You wore shorts and a t’shirt, you’re ready for a summer day. Nek minit it’s raining (cause it’s Cooranbong and it always rains), freezing winds and puddles everywhere. Class
finishes and all you want to do is throw on all the clothes you can to warm your little heart but you can’t. Your wardrobe is forever away, there’s no way your going back there. So you sit around and freeze your bum off while you watch all the indoors rush back to dorms and put on their warm clothes. Getting trapped in dorms I’m a social person. I enjoy a little visit into dorms every now and then. However, I can’t just waltz into dorms - I don’t have special card privileges to do that. If outdoors want to visit indoors we endure the painful wait outside the entrance in the freezing cold (because we wore shorts and a t’shirt) until someone lets us in. And then it happens inside too. You can’t push the door from inside like every other normal locked door - you’re trapped. At least when you’re locked inside it’s warm. So there you have it, the issues of an outdoor student. They’re real. All for the sake of having money in our banks. #expensivedormlife
*That ridiculous speed bump
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FEATURE_
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Being an outdoor student, unless you play an instrument, sing, or actively try to participate in College activities you can easily slip between the cracks. I would like to see a Pulse and a 7:28 run purely by outdoor students. This not only gives them the opportunity to be involved, but a chance for the wider community to get to know each other. Late payment fees are a pain and are often not well communicated. By setting up a reminder email a week prior to the due date, and an application process for an extension, if needed, would help reduce this burden. Ever wondered what your dorm fees actually go to? I think it is essential for students to know what they are paying for and where it goes. By working together on these issues we could see more positive changes occuring on campus. If you like these brief examples of ideas I have, or have some of your own, then vote Bacon for 2015 and come talk to me how 2015 can be your best year at Avondale!
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ARTICLE_
WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING Charlotte’s dream pet is a rabbit called Peter and hates long toenails. by. Charlotte O’Neill
Missing Kim North Korean dictator Kim Jung-Un has resurfaced, after weeks of being presumed missing. The leader’s absence sparked rumours of ill health and even a potential coup. Six weeks after his disappearance, photos have emerged of Kim sporting a cane leaving the world to speculate where he could have disappeared to. 4,555 The number of lives taken by the Ebola outbreak originating from Africa. The deaths have occurred largely in Africa and include one American. The total number of reported cases sits at around 10,000. However the World Health Organisation calls this an underestimate and warn the disease could reach 20,000 by November if efforts to stop the outbreak are ineffective.
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“A giant of his time.” Current Prime Minister Abbott describing former Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam after his recent death, aged 98. Whitlam led Australia through turbulent years from 1972-1975, before his dismissal by governor-general John Kerr following a constitutional crisis.
“I think it would be a little irresponsible of an Australian government to order Australian personnel into this dangerous situation if we didn’t have effective risk mitigation strategies in place and at the moment there is no way of doing that.” PM Abbott has declared that Australians will not be sent to Ebola-affected Africa until there is a guarantee that the infected will receive treatment from one of Australia’s political allies. Abbott’s reluctance is a response to allied nations lack of commitment to providing proper care.
“She became a wall in front of terrorism” 18-year-old Wahija Batool, female Pakistani student speaks about Malala Yousafzai. At 20, Malala Yousafzai has become the youngest person to win a Nobel Peace Prize, receiving global attention - celebrated in the West and widely criticised in Pakistan. Malala remains a voice for the uneducated in the fight for women’s education in Pakistan. Her strong advocacy made her a target for Taliban gunman when she survived a shotting by the terrorist group in 2012. She has since created model schools and advocated widely for women’s educational rights.
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