Archive for December, 2004

No-So-Lean, Green, Fighting Machine.

by tealou on December 22, 2004 in Uncategorized with 1 Comment

I had an interview for a great position today. It was shit. And I am a complete loser. Let me tell you why.

I applied for a position with the WA Greens for the election. A part-time paid position, coordinating volunteers, coordinating how-to-votes, booth kits, etc. It is a great position, with flexibility and the chance to prove myself politically. I got to the top 3 candidates, and had my interview this afternoon.

I spent all morning preparing, reading my application over and over again, checking that I had the responses just right. I practised it in my head and even pictured the expression I should have on my face when I got there. I agonised over every little detail. I was prepared.

Then I got myself called into the interview. I had forgotten to turn my mobile phone off, so I asked them if I could. So I did. And, being a Motorola v600, it made a horrifically embarrassing noise when I turned it off. I then shook the hand of the panel members, smiled, did the usual la-di-da and sat down.

The chair squeaked underneath me. Not just a squeak but a scream of agony, saying “get your arse off here…I am used to vegans, not your fat meat eating arse!” A little embarrassed, I tried to shift into a position that didn’t feel like the chair was going to collapse underneath me. The more I moved, the louder it got.

From that moment on, everything I had rehearsed, accounted and prepared for was gone.

My body image being terrible at the best of times, assumed that it was my weight, and not just the problem of a simple squeaky chair. So I went bright red, got extremely nervous and stammered the whole way through the interview. Every time they asked me a question I stumbled, obsessing about the chair, and drifting off into “I wonder if…” land. Wondering, of course, what sort of impression I would make if the chair actually broke underneath me.

When asked to provide examples of how I would operate in a team environment, I was thinking about my massive arse collapsing to the ground and everyone getting a look at my knickers. When asked about my experience in political parties, I was wondering if the chair broke, whether I would land on chards of wood and have my ovaries stabbed out and whether the chairperson knew First Aid. When they asked me if I had any questions, I had to restrain from “Do I look fat in this?”

Tragic. With my copious body mass at the forefront of my mind, I forgot all of my strengths. I forgot how good I am at everything else. I couldn’t string one good sentence together for the whole interview.

I couldn’t bring myself to say one positive thing about myself because I had the thoughts of complete self hatred brought on by a squeaking chair. Which makes me wonder: do skinny people worry about squeaking chairs as much as bigger folks do? FOr us, it is the kiss of death. That self doubt about whether you, in all your heiffer-like glory, are the only person to make the chair squeak.

Anyway, because of the damn chair I am now unemployed again. I just know it.

EDIT: Quick update. Despite the above, I was ranked 2nd. Apparently it was a difficult decision to make as I was equally as good as the chosen candidate. Just different. Ah well. Maybe I should be a member more than 2 months and try again ;)

Unemployment at a 27 year low.

by tealou on December 9, 2004 in Uncategorized with 2 Comments

Sure. Right. Whatever you say John.

You have bullied the unemployed off benefits (and therefore out of the system). You have casualised the workforce. You have increased the number of part time employees. And you have dodgied up the figures, just like your friend Malcolm Fraser did in 1976.

If people work ONE HOUR a week, they are no longer considered unemployed in formal figures. So all those 50 year olds with no super that you have forced into menial jobs are not counted. All those people that are stuck with only 5 hours of work because their greedy boss hires casuals, not people, are not counted. And all the mothers who have been pushed back into the home because of your draconian policies, contract work and family unfriendly practices are not counted. And those that have plain given up on finding a job are not counted.

On the same day that your Aboriginal Affairs minister, Amanda Vanstone, has offered funding to Aboriginal communities as long as they have daily showers (yes, it’s true – I can’t believe it either), I can’t see how your self-congratulatory backslapping is anything to celebrate.

It’s a load of bollocks, John. Whilst you do have some redeeming qualities, and you have displayed a few of them over the last couple of weeks, stop trying to bullshit people. Stop pretending that you are anything but a racist, pro-business, divisive political machine.

Have another champagne, John. Keep celebrating. Eventually everyone will wake up.

The Moore factor…

by tealou on December 7, 2004 in Uncategorized with 1 Comment

I have been reading some post-US Election commentary on various sites that are blaming Michael Moore for the Democratic loss, and I am perplexed. The organisations that were celebrating Fahrenheit 9/11 earlier this year are now condemning it, saying that Michael Moore is now singlehandedly responsible for the election outcome. The Republicans are saying that their win shows that people hate Moore; the Democrats are saying they lost because they were associated with him.

But is it really that simple?

Throughout the campaign the Democrats (except for Wes Clark) made a point of distancing themselves from Moore. They tried to walk the tightrope between conservative and liberal America, without taking a real stand either way. Too afraid to alienate the military mothers, too afraid to alienate the Evangelicals, too afraid to alienate the left… and they lost. The odds weren’t great to begin with – it is wartime, and there was an incumbent President with a powerful religious base, which meant that it was already an outside shot. They had a candidate that was nice enough, but had the charisma of a tree stump.

I am seeing a similar fallout here in Australia, with the ALP scapegoating just about everything from Medicare Gold to the media to Mark Latham himself. There appears to be major disunity within the party (well, as reported by Murdoch…which is a whole other story), with questions about Mark Latham’s ability to lead the ALP to victory in 2007. Also the victim of a major scare campaign (re: interest rates) and a religious backlash similar to what we witnessed in the US meant that the ALP lost in a landslide.

People were speculating that Fahrenheit 9/11 would shift public opinion towards the Democrats, or the ALP/Greens in Australia. And, given the box office records that Fahrenheit broke, it seemed like a possibility. However, I think a major problem that analysts seem to have is that they tend to overestimate the actual impact that a movie like Fahrenheit would have.

Opinion polls just before the election indicated that people still trusted John Howard, despite him lying about ‘children overboard’ and misleading the public over the War in Iraq. Historically they have also shown that electoral success is more tied to the perceived values, image, and likeability of a leader than the actual issues of policy. Now, that is not to say that people don’t vote on issues – the Greens vote was quite significant, but overall, I think that political analysts have a tendency to emphasise politics over popularity.

And this is where Fahrenheit fits. I have spoken to a few friends and family who are intelligent, but all in all, are not particularly political. All of them went to see Fahrenheit 9/11. All of them were angry after the film. But none of them seemed to sustain their anger – instead throwing their hands up in the air, proclaiming “the world is fucked” and moving on with the day-to-day. And, as we know, it is the day-to-day issues, such as interest rates, as well as which leader they like, that hit home the hardest with them. Even though most of my friends and family voted Green, their reasons were more to do with the day-to-day issues, and Bob Brown’s stand against George Bush, than the War on Terror. And I think this is a more accurate reflection of the impact that Fahrenheit had on voters than many would have us believe.

Sure, the youth vote in America was up. But it was more as a result of organisations like Rock the Vote and moveon.org. Sure, people were angry, but with effective scare campaigns around the ol’ hip pocket, people soon forgot about the war. This is not to say that people are greedy, or that people are stupid. They just aren’t interested.

So yes, I think we political folk tend to assume that everyone is as interested in politics as we are – and as a result we tend to overstate the impact of films, celebrities, etc, when really, at the end of the day, all it is is an inability to engage. The Democrats need a charismatic leader whom people identify with. The ALP needs a leader for more than a year – to give the people a chance to love them. Don’t dump Latham. He has the qualities that make a great Labor leader. Don’t blame Moore. He’s just a filmmaker. Just accept the political realities and deal with them.