Week 8 tasks~

Sign an E-petition!

for the task sign an e-petition i first researched what they are and where they come from. An e-petition is a form of petition which emerged from normal petitions when the internet was created it is used online as a quicker form of petition that can be mass emailed in order to achieve greater feedback.

I choose to sing an e-petition which is trying to stop the cost of registration in Queensland from rising by 20%.

I discovered this e-petition after google searching e-petitions and then linking from the forum on... http://www.topix.com/forum/world/australia/TESO66PC1PMS9BPT4

I commented on Ben Groundwaters blog in the Travel section of the Sydney Morning Herald as travel is a topic which simply fascinates me, his blog was 'A little slice of somewhere else' and was on the idea of food & beverage being a major part of travel and a good substitute when travel is not quite achievable

To view my comments go to..

http://blogs.smh.com.au/travel/archives/2009/09/a_little_slice_of_somewhere_el.html

The local reprasentative for southport is Councillor Dawn Crichlow....

Division 6 extends westward from the east coast of the Gold Coast and includes the suburbs of Southport (part), Ashmore (part), Parkwood and Molendinar.

The state member is Peter lawlor & im a little bit unsure about who is considered our federal representative as Peter Lawlor also represents the area at a federal level. The last time Peter Lawlor spoke in Queensland parliment was on Thursday 17 September 2009. Lawlor spoke on the subject of personal Property Security Bills otherwise known as the Commonwealth powers bill This is the link to the pdf files containing the written recordings of what Lawlor said...http://parlinfo.parliament.qld.gov.au/isysquery/0361da54-70d3-45b1-9954-cbddac3c0dbd/27/doc/Peter%20Lawlor%20spk%20Southport%202009_09_17_61.pdf#xml=http://parlinfo.parliament.qld.gov.au/isysquery/0361da54-70d3-45b1-9954-cbddac3c0dbd/27/hilite/ To stalk Barrack Obama i checked out the super creepy and ultra obsessive site www.barackobama.com it didnt quite have a report on what had been happening with Barack today however it did inform me of what he had been up to lately going as far back as i would want to...the latest blog was by Christopher Hass whom had a report on Obama hosting doctors from all 50 states at the white house with a convention on Health reforms... What do i think of the Australian Government's plans to censor the internet? My personal thoughts on the censorship policy are that it is an unnecessary step to take as I feel that although the government believes such a resource like the internet should be filtered the material that there trying to filter is an everyday part of life and should not be regulated. What is considered harmful and inappropriate is a part of growing up and learning. As children find themselves more and more often confined to a luminous screen instead of out embracing the challenges of everyday life due to restrictions and limitations put in place by overzealous and constricting parents. In todays society children are restricted to such a level that when freedom is given to them they often do not know how to handle it which i think is a big part of some of todays youth's problems. To confine the internet so restrictively is just going to further more limit their freedom as although the material being filtered may have a short term negative impact it is a part of ones self evolvement to be able to acknowledge the material and determine right from wrong on your own. The internet as a whole will be slowed down by such a filter as well as the cost to the government of the implementation of such a program. These factors also contribute heavily to my disagreement with such a plan. The use of censorship in democracy allows political control over the masses by the government. Such a tool allows the regulation of ideals and policies to the masses enabling political control and influence over ones thoughts due to what one sees and does not see in the media. The same can be said directly through eDemocracy, a part of CyberPolitics. This is the internet integrating into politics which are not usually found on the internet. Censorship of such material is much the same online as it is in the real world. in order for democracy to be successful the implementation of such censorship must not be to strict.